Neil Armstrong

Neil A. Armstrong (born August 5, 1930) is an American test pilot and astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon.

Amstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio and served in the Korean War as a jet fighter pilot, then became a civilian test pilot for NASA and piloted the X-15 rocket plane. Armstrong was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 1962.

He commanded Gemini 8, which achieved the first docking of two orbiting spacecraft, in 1966. He served as commander of the backup crew for the Apollo 8 lunar orbital mission in 1968.

In 1969, Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission.

He narrowly escaped death during training in a crash of the lunar landing training vehicle (LLTV). During the actual mission, he took manual controlled of the Lunar Module (LM) Eagle and piloted it away from a rocky area to a safe landing. His first words from the Moon were, "Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed." Several hours later he climbed out of the LM and became the first person to walk on the Moon, with the words,

"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."

(hear original audio [1] (http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo-11/sounds/a11step.wav) - .wav 260 kb)

After retirement from NASA he taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati[?]. He served on the Presidential commission which investigated the Challenger accident.

See also explorers.

External links

• NASA webpage on Apollo 11 mission (http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a11/a11)
• Mini biography (http://www.floridatoday.com/space/explore/stories/1999b/071899b.htm)