Neil Armstrong

Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American

astronaut

and

aeronautical engineer

, and the first human being to walk on the Moon. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.

Armstrong was born and raised in Wapakoneta, Ohio. A graduate of Purdue University, he studied aeronautical engineering; his college tuition was paid for by the U.S. Navy under the Holloway Plan. He became a midshipman in 1949 and a naval aviator the following year. He saw action in the

Korean War

, flying the

Grumman F9F Panther

from the aircraft carrier . In September 1951, while making a low bombing run, Armstrong's aircraft was damaged when it collided with an anti-aircraft cable, strung across a valley, which cut off a large portion of one wing. Armstrong was forced to bail out. After the war, he completed his bachelor's degree at Purdue and became a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base in

California

. He was the project pilot on Century Series fighters and flew the

North American X-15

seven times. He was also a participant in the U.S. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar

human spaceflight

programs.

Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in the second group, which was selected in 1962. He made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming

NASA

's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. During this mission with pilot

David Scott

, he performed the first docking of two

spacecraft

; the mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his re-entry control fuel to stabilize a dangerous roll caused by a stuck thruster. During training for Armstrong's second and last spaceflight as commander of

Apollo 11

, he had to eject from the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle moments before a crash. On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) pilot

Buzz Aldrin

became the first people to

land on the Moon

, and the next day they spent two and a half hours outside the Lunar Module ''Eagle'' spacecraft while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the Apollo Command Module ''Columbia''. When Armstrong first stepped onto the lunar surface, he famously said: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." It was broadcast live to an estimated 530 million viewers worldwide. Apollo 11 effectively proved US victory in the Space Race, by fulfilling a national goal proposed in 1961 by President

John F. Kennedy

"of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" before the end of the decade. Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded the

Presidential Medal of Freedom

by President

Richard Nixon

and received the 1969 Collier Trophy. President

Jimmy Carter

presented him with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1979, and with his former crewmates received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.

After he resigned from NASA in 1971, Armstrong taught in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati until 1979. He served on the Apollo 13 accident investigation and on the Rogers Commission, which investigated the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster. In 2012, Armstrong died due to complications resulting from coronary bypass surgery, at the age of 82.

Early life

Armstrong was born near Wapakoneta, Ohio, on August 5, 1930, the son of Viola Louise (née Engel) and Stephen Koenig Armstrong. He was of German, Scots-Irish, and Scottish descent. He had a younger sister, June, and a younger brother, Dean. His father was an auditor for the Ohio state government, and the family moved around the state repeatedly, living in 16 towns over the next 14 years. Armstrong's love for flying grew during this time, having started at the age of two when his father took him to the Cleveland Air Races. When he was five or six, he experienced his first airplane flight in Warren, Ohio, when he and his father took a ride in a

Ford Trimotor

(also known as the "Tin Goose").

The family's last move was in 1944 and took them back to Wapakoneta, where Armstrong attended Blume High School and took flying lessons at the Wapakoneta airfield. He earned a student flight certificate on his 16th birthday, then soloed in August, all before he had a driver's license. He was an active Boy Scout and earned the rank of Eagle Scout. As an adult, he was recognized by the Scouts with their Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo Award. While flying toward the Moon on July 18, 1969, he sent his regards to attendees at the National Scout jamboree in

Idaho

. Among the few personal items that he carried with him to the Moon and back was a World Scout Badge.

At age 17, in 1947, Armstrong began studying

aeronautical engineering

at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He was the second person in his family to attend college. He was also accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but he resolved to go to Purdue after watching a

football

game between the Purdue Boilermakers and the Ohio State Buckeyes

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