NOTE: Because a preponderance of hooks on the suggestions page are biographies or are U.S. related, it is usually appropriate to have several hooks on biographies or U.S. topics in any given update, but never more than half of either. Further information is available at WP:DYKSG#J. Thanks.

Tips on assembling sets are at Wikipedia:Did you know/Preparation areas.

Michael Collins

• ... that Michael Collins (pictured) was the first person to perform two spacewalks?
• ... that the 1957 launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, led to a period of public anxiety in United States and accelerated the Space Race?
• ... that Félicette, the first cat in space, had electrodes surgically implanted in her brain to assess her neurological activity?
• ... that Mae Jemison (pictured), the first black woman in space, worked at a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand while in medical school and was a medical officer for the Peace Corps before becoming an astronaut?
• ... that ...
• ... that pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth, ejected from his descending spacecraft at about 7,000 metres (23,000 ft)?
• ... that David Scott's performance under pressure during Gemini 8, the first mission to achieve a docking in space, led to his selection for the Apollo program?
• ... that two Russian tortoises on Zond 5 were among the first Earthlings to flythat flew around the Moon and returned safely to Earth on Zond 5?