Neil Armstrong | Biography, Education, Moon Landing, & Facts
Top Questions
Why is Neil Armstrong famous?
Neil Armstrong is famous for being the first person to set foot on the Moon. He was a part of the Apollo 11 spaceflight alongside Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Apollo 11’s success in 1969 opened a new era of space exploration.
What was Neil Armstrong’s childhood like?
Neil Armstrong grew up in Wapakoneta, Ohio, as the eldest of three children. At age six he flew on an airplane for the first time, an experience that ignited in him a passion for aviation. He earned his pilot’s license on his 16th birthday and became a naval air cadet the following year.
How did Neil Armstrong get involved with NASA?
After earning a degree in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University in 1955, Neil Armstrong became a civilian research pilot for what would later become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He flew more than 2,450 hours before joining the space program in 1962.
What happened on Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 mission?
On July 20, 1969, some 600 million television viewers watched the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar soil and said, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” He and crewmate Buzz Aldrin departed after over 21 hours of scientific tests and sample collection on the Moon.
What did Neil Armstrong do after Apollo 11?
After their successful Apollo 11 mission in 1969, Neil Armstrong and his crewmates toured over 20 countries to celebrate a new era of space exploration. Armstrong received the Presidential Medal of Freedom that year. He resigned from NASA in 1971 and immersed himself in various academic and professional pursuits for the rest of his life.
Neil Armstrong, in full Neil Alden Armstrong, (born August 5, 1930, Wapakoneta, Ohio, U.S.—died August 25, 2012, Cincinnati, Ohio), U.S. astronaut, the first person to set foot on the Moon.
Later career
Armstrong resigned from NASA in 1971. After Apollo 11 he shied away from being a public figure and confined himself to academic and professional endeavours. From 1971 to 1979 he was professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio). After 1979 Armstrong served as chairman or director for a number of companies, among them Computing Technologies for Aviation from 1982 to 1992 and AIL Systems (later EDO Corporation), a maker of electronic equipment for the military, from 1977 until his retirement in 2002. He also served on the National Commission on Space (NCOS), a panel charged with setting goals for the space program, and on the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, the group appointed in 1986 to analyze the safety failures in the Challenger disaster. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.
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This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn
