On the Moon

Neil Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, on Aug. 5, 1930.

Armstrong was a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952. He served in the Korean War. Well before he made spaceflight history, Armstrong got a bachelor of science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University in 1955.

In 1962, Armstrong was selected by NASA to become an astronaut. His first space flight was in 1966 as commander of Gemini 8. That mission was the first time two spacecraft docked in space. He is best known as being the first man to step on the moon.

Apollo 11 was launched on July 16, 1969, and began orbiting the moon three days later. On July 20, Armstrong and his co-pilot, astronaut Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, took off from Apollo 11 in a small landing craft called Eagle. A third astronaut, Michael Collins, remained in the main ship, orbiting the moon until they returned.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon. He and Aldrin walked around for three hours. They did experiments. They picked up bits of moon dirt and rocks. They put a U.S. flag on the moon. They also left a sign on the moon.

From 1971 to 1979, he was Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. From 1982 to 1992, Armstrong was chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation, Inc. in Charlottesville, VA. He died on Aug. 25, 2012, of complications from heart surgery.