Neil Armstrong
August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012
Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who, as commander of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, became the first person to walk on the Moon. He was a naval aviator who flew in the Korean War and later became a test pilot, flying the X-15 seven times. He joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962 and made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space.
Biography
Neil Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, in 1930. He flew combat missions as a US Navy pilot in the Korean War, then became a test pilot, flying the X-15 rocket plane.
Selected as an astronaut in 1962, he commanded Gemini 8 in 1966, which performed the first docking of two spacecraft. As commander of Apollo 11, he became the first person to walk on the Moon on 20 July 1969, saying 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind'.
He left NASA in 1971 to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati, served on the inquiry into the Challenger disaster, and avoided publicity. He died in 2012.
