He reached for the Moon, now he is with the stars!
Sad new about Neil Armstrong, he was a great guy, didn't want to rule the world, just be a normal person who inspired the young.
I am proud to have witnessed the first Moon Landing in 1969, something never to forget, I heard him say those words "One small step..." as I watched on television at 3.00am in the morning with Patrick Moore and James Burke.
The next generation find it hard to comprehend that a man walked on the Moon. Children now think that travelling to the Moon is like catching a bus with their IPads and vitual computer worlds. In 1969 this was real! They have missed so much...Neil Armstrong tried hard to make things real again!
"Neil Armstrong was a self-described "nerdy engineer" who became a
global hero when he became the first person to set foot on the moon.
His first words upon stepping on the lunar surface have since been etched in
history: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."
An estimated 450 million people watched the grainy black and white broadcast
that showed Armstrong, clad in a white space suit, climb down the lunar module's
ladder onto the Moon's desolate surface.
Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon on July
20, 1969.
As commander, it was also Armstrong who notified mission control that the
module had made a successful landing. "Houston, Tranquility base here. The Eagle
has landed."
He and fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking
on the lunar surface, collecting samples, conducting experiments and taking
photographs.
"The sights were simply magnificent, beyond any visual experience that I have
ever been exposed to," Armstrong once said.
The third astronaut on the mission, Michael Collins, circled the moon in the
mother ship Columbia 60 miles overhead while Armstrong and Aldrin went to the
moon's surface.
Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio on August 5, 1930, Armstrong had an early
fascination with aircraft and worked at a nearby airport when he was a
teenager.
He took flying lessons at the age of 15 and received his pilot's license on
his 16th birthday.
A US Navy aviator, he flew 78 missions in the Korean War.
He studied Aeronautical Engineering at Purdue University in Indiana, and
later earned a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering at the
University of Southern California.
In 1955, he became a test pilot at the High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards
Air Force Base in California, where he flew about 50 different types of
aircraft.
Seven years later, Armstrong was selected by the National Air and Space
Administration to train as an astronaut in Houston, Texas.
After retiring from NASA in 1971, Armstrong taught aerospace engineering at
the University of Cincinnati for nearly a decade and served on the boards of
several companies, including Lear Jet, United Airlines and Marathon Oil.
Armstrong married Carol Knight in 1999, and the couple lived in Indian Hill,
a Cincinnati suburb. He had two adult sons from a previous marriage.
Despite his worldwide fame, the lunar pioneer shied away from the limelight.
After learning his autographs were being sold at exorbitant prices, he stopped
signing memorabilia.
"I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer," he
said during one of his rare public appearances in February 2000.
"And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my
profession."
However, he stepped back into the cameras in 2010 to voice his "substantial
reservations" about President Barack Obama's space policy that shifted attention
away from a return to the moon, with an emphasis on private companies developing
spaceships.
Along with more than two dozen Apollo-era veterans, he signed a letter
calling the plan a "misguided proposal that forces Nasa out of human space
operations for the foreseeable future".
Armstrong underwent cardiac bypass surgery, earlier this month after doctors
found blockages in his coronary arteries.
He died following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures, his
family said in a statement. He was 82."
