American astronaut Neil Armstrong, command pilot for the Gemini 5 backup crew, prepares to close the hatch on the Gemini Static Article 5 spacecraft, during water egress training in the Gulf of Mexico.
Commander Neil Armstrong (right) and pilot David R. Scott prepares to board the Gemini-Titan 8. Gemini VIII successfully launched at 11:41 a.m. EST. The mission conducted the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit and landed safely back on Earth after an emergency abort.
Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, wearing an Extravehicular Mobility Unit, participates in a simulation of deploying and using lunar tools on the surface of the moon during a training exercise in Building.
Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander of the Apollo 11 prime crew, studies rock sample during a geological field trip to the Quitman Mountains area near the Fort Quitman ruins.
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Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, wearing an Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), participates in lunar surface simulation training in Building 9, Manned Spacecraft Center.
The Apollo 11 crew leaves Kennedy Space Center's Manned Spacecraft Operations Building during the pre-launch countdown. Mission commander Neil Armstrong, command module pilot Michael Collins, and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin prepare to ride the special transport van to Launch Complex 39A where their spacecraft awaited them.
An artist's impression of Commander Neil Armstrong walking on the surface of the Moon during NASA's Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. He is descending from the Lunar Module the 'Eagle', with the Earth visible far above him. Drawn by an artist at the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation.
American astronaut Neil Armstrong, commander of the Apollo 11 lunar mission, in training in the Apollo Lunar Module Mission Simulator at the Kennedy Space Center's Flight Crew Training Building.
American astronaut (and future politician) Neil Armstrong, in an apron and hat labeled 'Chef' smiles as he uses oven mitts to uphold up a pair of pizzas in his kitchen.
The December 1969 Cover Of National Geographic Depicts The Famous Photograph Of Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Taken By Neil Armstrong On The Surface Of The Moon.
Screen capture shows American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (born Edwin E. Aldrin Jr) set up an American flag on the surface of the moon during NASA's Apollo 11 lunar mission.
American astronaut (and future politician) Neil Armstrong watches as his wife Jan (nee Shearon) plays with the couple's 10-year old son Mark in the living room of their home.
From left to right, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin Jnr, the crew of the lunar module Apollo 11 at the Kennedy Space Centre.
From left: Astronauts Pete Conrad and Buzz Aldrin, James Lovell's mother, Blanche, Barbara Lovell (chin in hand), Neil Armstrong (standing), Jeffrey, Marilyn and Susan Lovell, all watching TV at the Lovell home during the Apollo 13 crisis.
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Amanda Wright Lane (L), great grandniece of Orville and Wilbur Wright speaks with Astronaut Neil Armstrong, first human to walk on the Moon, and his wife Carol (C) after opening ceremonies at the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
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President George W. Bush welcomes Apollo 11 Astronauts Michael Collins, left, Neil Armstrong, center, and Buzz Aldrin to the Oval Office. The astronauts visited the White House to mark the 35th anniversary of the successful Apollo 11 mission of landing on the moon, walking along its surface and safely returning home.
Grammy Award-winning producer Quincy Jones presented a platinum copy of 'Fly Me to the Moon' to Senator John Glenn and Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong during NASA's 50th-anniversary gala, a song he originally produced and performed with Frank Sinatra.
President Barack Obama poses with Apollo 11 crew on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing; Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and Neil Armstrong.
Apollo 11 astronauts, from left, Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin stand during a recognition ceremony at the U.S House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology tribute to the Apollo 11 astronauts at the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill.
Enlargements of the New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal being on display in the Capitol Rotunda. The smaller, actual-size medals were awarded to astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and John Glenn.
Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong speaks to Congress at a ceremony that honored fellow astronauts John Glenn, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Each received a Congressional Gold Medals during the ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.
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Neil Armstrong’s second wife, Carol Armstrong (2nd-R), and son, Rick Armstrong, attend a memorial service for astronaut Neil Armstrong at the National Cathedral.
Astronauts David R. Scott (left), Pilot; and, Neil A. Armstrong (right), Command Pilot, pose with a model of the Gemini Spacecraft after being selected at the crew for the Gemini 8 mission.
pace Center, Houston: Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, in training for the projected Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, is being suited up for the first full dress rehearsal of activities he is to perform during the projected moon landing.
Neil Alden Armstrong was an American astronaut, engineer, and the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.
Background
Neil Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, near Wapakoneta, Ohio, the eldest of three children of Stephen and Viola Engel Armstrong. Airplanes drew his interest from the age of six, when he took his first flight, and on his 16th birthday he was issued a pilot's license. A serious pilot even at this age, Armstrong built a small wind tunnel in the basement of his home and performed experiments on the model planes he had made.
Education
Armstrong entered Purdue University in 1947 with a U. S. Navy scholarship. After two years of study he was called to active duty with the Navy and won his jet wings at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. At 20 he was the youngest pilot in his squadron. He flew 78 combat missions during the Korean War and won three Air Medals.
Armstrong returned to Purdue and completed a degree in aeronautical engineering in 1955.
In 1970 he earned a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.
He accepted a job with the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in Cleveland, Ohio. Shortly afterward, Armstrong transferred to the NACA High Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Here he became a skilled test pilot and flew the early models of such jet aircraft as the F-100, F-101, F-102, F-104, F-5D, and B-47. He also flew a B-29 "drop plane, " from which various types of rocket-propelled planes were launched. More important for his later role, he became a pilot of the X-1B rocket plane, an earlier version of which had been the first plane to break the sound barrier.
Armstrong was selected as one of the first three pilots of NACA for the X-15 rocket plane, and he made seven flights in this prototype spacecraft. Once he set a record altitude of 207, 500 feet and a speed of 3, 989 miles per hour. Armstrong received an invitation from the American space-flight program, but he demonstrated little enthusiasm for becoming an astronaut. His real love was piloting. Largely because of his experience with the X-15, he was selected as a pilot of the Dynasoar, an experimental craft that could leave the atmosphere, orbit earth, reenter the atmosphere, and land like a conventional airplane.
In 1962, however, sensing that the days of the projected Dynasoar were numbered (it was canceled in 1963), Armstrong decided to become an astronaut and applied for selection and training. In September 1962 he became America's first civilian astronaut and moved to Houston, Texas, to begin training. Armstrong's attitude toward his job, at least prior to his first space mission, was summed up in a statement to a reporter in 1965: "I rule out the possibility of agreeing to go up if I thought I might not come back, unless it were technically indispensable. Dying in space or on the moon is not technically indispensable and consequently if I had to choose between death while testing a jet and death on the moon, I'd choose death while testing a jet. "
Armstrong's first flight assignment as an astronaut was as backup, or alternate, command pilot for Gordon Cooper of the Gemini 5 mission. Armstrong continued his specialized training on the Gemini spacecraft and was selected as the command pilot for the Gemini 8 mission. With copilot David Scott he was launched from Cape Kennedy (now Cape Canaveral), Florida, on March 16, 1966. The Gemini 8 achieved orbit and docked as planned with the Agena vehicle, but shortly afterward the vehicle went out of control. Armstrong detached his craft from the Agena, corrected the malfunction, and brought the Gemini down in the Pacific Ocean only 1. 1 nautical miles from the planned landing point. His cool and professional conduct made a strong impression on the officials of the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. Armstrong continued his intensive training on the Gemini spacecraft and was selected as the backup command pilot for the Gemini 11 mission, which was flown, however, by astronauts Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon.
As the training for the Apollo program got under way, it was obvious that Armstrong rated high among those being considered for the important role of being the first American on the moon. He undertook his training program with the same cool, analytical, and almost detached approach that had always marked his attitude to flying.
During a routine training flight on the lunar landing research vehicle, a training device that permits astronauts to maneuver a craft in a flight environment similar to that in landing on the moon, Armstrong's craft went out of control. He ejected himself and landed by parachute only yards away from the training vehicle, which had crashed in flames. With his usual imperturbability he walked away and calmly made his report. Again, his behavior and attitude were noted by those who were evaluating candidates for the first crew to the moon.
In January 1969 Armstrong was selected as commander for Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission. On July 16 at 9:32 A. M. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), Armstrong, together with astronauts Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, aboard the Saturn 5 space booster.
Apollo 11 passed into the gravitational influence of the moon on July 18 and circled the moon twice. Armstrong and Aldrin entered the lunar module, named the Eagle, which then disconnected from the command and service module. As they descended toward the lunar surface, their computer became overloaded, but under continuous instructions from the mission control center at Houston, Armstrong continued the gradual touchdown. Suddenly a boulder field loomed in front of him. He quickly switched to manual control and guided the Eagle over it to a smooth landing with only 10 seconds of fuel left. At 4:17:40 P. M. EDT on July 20, a major portion of the earth population was listening to Armstrong's transmission, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed. " At 10:56 P. M. he set foot on the moon, saying, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. " (Later, he stated that he had intended to say, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. ")
Armstrong and Aldrin spent nearly two and a half hours walking on the moon. Armstrong reported: "The surface is fine and powdery. I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the soles and sides of my boots. I only go in a fraction of an inch, may be an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots. " The astronauts deployed various scientific instruments on the moon's surface, including a seismograph and solar-wind particle collector, and collected rock and soil samples. They also left a mission patch and medals commemorating American and Russian space explorers who had died in the line of duty, along with a plaque reading, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. We came in peace for all mankind. "
Armstrong and Aldrin returned to the Eagle and launched themselves to rendezvous with Collins, who had been orbiting in the Columbia spacecraft. On July 24 Columbia returned to earth. It splashed down at 12:50 P. M. EDT some 950 miles southwest of Hawaii and only 2. 7 miles from its aiming point. After 18 days of quarantine to control any lunar microorganisms, Armstrong and the others traveled around the world for parades and speeches.
Apollo 11 was Armstrong's final space mission. He joined Nasa's Office of Advanced Research and Technology, where he served as deputy associate administrator for aeronautics. One of his main priorities in this position was to further research into controlling high-performance aircraft by computer.
A private man, Armstrong rejected most opportunities to profit from his fame. He left NASA in 1971 and moved his family back to Ohio to accept a position at the University of Cincinnati. There he spent seven years engaged in teaching and research as a professor of aerospace engineering. He took special interest in the application of space technology to such challenges as improving medical devices and providing data on the environment. A private man, Armstrong rejected most opportunities to profit from his fame. He left NASA in 1971 and moved his family back to Ohio to accept a position at the University of Cincinnati. There he spent seven years engaged in teaching and research as a professor of aerospace engineering. He took special interest in the application of space technology to such challenges as improving medical devices and providing data on the environment.
A member of the board of directors of Gates Learjet Corporation, in 1979 he piloted that company's new business jet to five world-altitude and time-to-climb records for that class of aircraft. Other boards Armstrong served on included those of USCX Corporation and United Airlines. In between his business ventures and such hobbies as fishing and sail-planing, he also chaired the board of trustees of the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History.
Armstrong did accept two further government appointments. In 1984 he was named to the National Commission on Space, which two years later completed a report outlining an ambitious future for American space programs. Also in 1986, Armstrong was named deputy chair of the Rogers Commission to investigate the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. The commission's work resulted in major changes in NASA's management structure and safety practices.
From 1980 to 1982, Armstrong was chair of the board of Cardwell International. He accepted a similar post with Computing Technologies for Aviation (CTA) in 1982. CTA, which was based in Charlottesville, Virginia, provided software for flight scheduling and support activities, allowing corporate jet operators to maximize the efficient use of their aircraft. Armstrong stepped down as head of CTA in 1993. He later presided over the board of AIL Systems, Inc., an electronic systems company headquartered in Deer Park, New York.
In May 1997 Armstrong was named a director at Ohio National Financial Services Inc. , a Cincinnati-based provider of diversified financial services. At that time, he also served on the boards of Cinergy Corp. and Cincinnati Milacron Inc. He maintained his residence at a farm near Lebanon, Ohio, and made occasional public appearances in nearby Wapakoneta, his boyhood home and the site of the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum.
On November 18, 2010, at age 80, Armstrong said in a speech during the Science & Technology Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, that he would offer his services as commander on a mission to Mars if he were asked.
Armstrong died in Cincinnati, Ohio on August 25, 2012, at the age of 82, after complications from coronary artery bypass surgery.
Achievements
Politics
He described his political leanings as favoring states' rights and opposing the United States acting as the "world's policeman".
Views
The press often asked Armstrong for his views on the future of spaceflight. In 2005, Armstrong said that a manned mission to Mars will be easier than the lunar challenge of the 1960s: "I suspect that even though the various questions are difficult and many, they are not as difficult and many as those we faced when we started the Apollo [space program] in 1961. " In 2010, he made a rare public criticism of the decision to cancel the Ares 1 launch vehicle and the Constellation Moon landing program.
Quotations:
"I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges"
"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
"Pilots take no special joy in walking: pilots like flying."
"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."
Membership
Armstrong was a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, the American Astronautical Society, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Personality
Armstrong is generally referred to as a "reluctant" American hero. John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, recalled Armstrong's legendary humility. "He didn't feel that he should be out huckstering himself," the former Ohio senator told CNN. "He was a humble person, and that's the way he remained after his lunar flight, as well as before."
Connections
Armstrong married his first wife Janet Shearon on January 28, 1956. Their first son Eric was born in 1957, followed by daughter, Karen, in 1959. Karen died of a brain tumor in January 1962, and the couple's second son Mark was born in 1963. Armstrong's first wife, Janet, divorced him in 1994, after 38 years of marriage. He had met his second wife, Carol Held Knight in 1992 at a golf tournament, where they were seated together at the breakfast table. She said little to Armstrong, but two weeks later she received a call from him asking what she was doing—she replied she was cutting down a cherry tree; 35 minutes later Armstrong was at her house to help out. They were married on June 12, 1994, in Ohio, and then had a second ceremony, at San Ysidro Ranch, in California.