Neil Armstrong
First Man On The Moon
Growing up
Neil Alden Armstrong was born on August 5,1930 in Wapakoneta,Ohio. He had one brother and one sister. He was the oldest out of all of them. His love for flying started at a young age when his father took him to a airshow. From then on he wanted to be a pilot. On his sixteenth birthday he got his first pilot's license. He went to Indiana's Purdue University for collage and earned bachelors degree in aerospace engineering. While he was in collage he was called for active duty with the Navy and later won his jet pilot wings at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. At twenty he flew sevendy-eight combat missions during the Korean War.Then he came back to collage and finished the degree he had already started. Later he earned a masters degree at the University of Southern California.
His aeronautical career
Shortly after he transferred to NACA High Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Bace in California, he became a very skilled pilot and flew early models of aircraft. He was selected as one of the three NACA pilots to fly in the X-15 rocket-engine plane. He made seven flights in that plane. He once set a record of altitude of 207,500 feet and a speed of 3,989 miles per hour. He received an invatation from NASA's American Space-flight program, but he showed little enthusiasm for becoming a astronaut. His real love was flying planes, because of the X-15.
Becoming a astronaut
In 1962 he decided to become an astronaut and applied for the NASA selection. In September 1962 he became america's first nonmilitary astronaut. His first flight assignment as an astronaut was as a backup for Gordon Cooper of the Gemini 5 mission. He continued training on the Gemini space craft and was selected for the Gemini 8 mission. With his copilot David Scott they were launched from the Cape Kennedy, Florida on March 16th, 1966.
Gemini 8
Neil Armstrong's first trip in space was aboard the Gemini 8. He was the command pilot. The Gemini 8 achieved its orbit and docked as planned, with another orbiting vehicle, but shortly afterwards it went out of control. Neil Armstrong detached his craft, corrected the problem, and brought the Gemini 8 down in the Pacific Ocean.
Apollo 11
In January 1969, Neil Armstrong was selected as the commander for the Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission. On July 16 at 9:32 a.m. EDT, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin lifted of from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Apollo 11 passed a gravitational influence{A pull of gravity} of the moon on July 18 and circled the moon twice. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin entered a lunar module named the "Eagle", which then disconnected from a larger command module named "Columbia". As they descended toward the lunar surface, their computer became overloaded, but while under instructions from the Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, he managed to land the module. At 10:56 p.m EDT he set foot on the moon. The astronauts set up various scientific instruments on the surface and left behind a plague reading "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. We came in peace for all mankind." On July 24, Columbia returned to Earth.
After Apollo 11
After the Apollo 11 Neil Armstrong retired from NASA. In 1971, after Neil left NASA, he joined the staff at the University of Cincinnati as a professor in aerospace engineering. He taught until 1979. He later became a businessman. But , he still stayed In groups that studied space. He died on August 25,2012, he was 82.