American astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon, died yesterday August 25, 2012 at the age of 82.
Portrait of Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing mission. (Photo taken July 1, 1969 NASA)
Neil Alden Armstrong, born August 5, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio, was an American astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor and United States Naval Aviator. He was the first person to walk on the Moon. Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was a United States Navy officer and had served in the Korean War. After the war, he served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics High-Speed Flight Station, now known as the Dryden Flight Research Center, where he logged over 900 flights. He graduated from Purdue University and the University of Southern California. Armstrong was a participant in the U.S. Air Force’s Man In Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs, he joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962. His first spaceflight was the NASA Gemini 8 mission in 1966, for which he was the command pilot, becoming one of the first U.S. civilians in space. On this mission, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft with pilot David Scott. Armstrong’s second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969. On this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent two and half hours exploring, while Michael Collins remained in orbit in the Command Module. Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon along with Collins and Aldrin, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. Armstrong died on August 25, 2012, in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the age of 82 due to complications from blocked coronary arteries.
Neil Armstrong standing next to the North American X-15 rocket powered airplane after landing it on a dry lakebed. April 20, 1962 (Photo – NASA)
More on Apollo 11 lunar landing here.
