Neil Armstrong

NEIL ARMSTRONG

Neil Armstrong was born on the 5th August of 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio, USA. His full name is Neil Alden Armstrong. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University and a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California. He holds honorary doctorates from a number of universities.

Neil Armstrong was interested in aviation from a young age. At 15 he worked in various jobs in order to pay for his flying lessons. At 16 he got his student pilot's license before he was legally old enough to drive a car and before he graduated from Blume High School in Wapakoneta in 1947.

Immediately after high school, Neil Armstrong received a scholarship from the U.S. Navy. He enrolled at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana and began his studies of aeronautical engineering, but in 1949 the Navy called him to active duty.

In 1950 he was sent to Korea and served as a naval pilot during the Korean War. He flew 78 combat missions from USS Essex in a Grumman F9F-2 Panther. He received three medals: the Air Medal and two Gold Stars for his military service during the Korean War.

After the war, he left the Navy and returned to Purdue in 1952 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering.

In 1955 Neil Armstrong joined NASA as a research pilot at the NACA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. From 1960 to 1962 he was a pilot involved in the X-20 Dyna-Soar orbital glider program.

In 1962 while serving as a test pilot, Neil Armstrong was selected by NASA to join the second group of NASA's astronaut trainees (one of nine NASA astronauts). He moved to El Lago, Texas, near Houston's Manned Spacecraft Center to begin his astronaut training and underwent 4 years of intensive training for the Apollo program. His first assignment was as backup command pilot for the Gemini 5 mission in 1965.

In 1966, Neil Armstrong was assigned as command pilot for the Gemini 8. Gemini 8 mission was launched on March 16, 1966 and achieved the first docking of two orbiting spacecraft.

He was the backup command pilot for the Gemini 11 mission in 1966 and the commander of the backup crew for the Apollo 8 lunar orbital mission in 1968 using Apollo Spacecraft.In 1968, Neil Armstrong was chosen to be a member of the Apollo 11 mission, the first manned lunar landing. The Apollo 11 crews were: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin.

Apollo 11 was launched on July 16, 1969 from Cape Kennedy, Florida by a Saturn V rocket. Four days later it went into orbit around the Moon. The lunar module Eagle separated from the Command Module with Armstrong and Aldrin aboard and descended to the surface of the Moon. Michael Collins remained in the Command Module in orbit.

During the moon landing, Armstrong took manual control of the Lunar Module Eagle and piloted it away from a rocky area and made a safe landing on the moon. His first words from the Moon were: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed".

Neil Armstrong was the first who walked on the moon on July 20, 1969. His first words after stepping on the moon were, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind". This event was televised to

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