#Nasa careers dc series

When he was five or six, he experienced his first airplane flight in Warren, Ohio, when he and his father took a ride in a Ford Trimotor (also known as the 'Tin Goose'). Armstrong's love for flying grew during this time, having started at the age of two when his father took him to the Cleveland Air Races. His father was an auditor for the Ohio state government, and the family moved around the state repeatedly, living in 16 towns over the next 14 years. He had a younger sister, June, and a younger brother, Dean. He was of German, Scots-Irish, and Scottish descent. In 2012, Armstrong died due to complications resulting from coronary bypass surgery, at the age of 82.Īrmstrong was born near Wapakoneta, Ohio, on August 5, 1930, the son of Viola Louise (née Engel) and Stephen Koenig Armstrong. He served on the Apollo 13 accident investigation and on the Rogers Commission, which investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. President Jimmy Carter presented him with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1979, and with his former crewmates received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.Īfter he resigned from NASA in 1971, Armstrong taught in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati until 1979. Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon and received the 1969 Collier Trophy. Kennedy 'of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth' before the end of the decade. Apollo 11 was a major US victory in the Space Race, by fulfilling a national goal proposed in 1961 by President John F. When Armstrong first stepped onto the lunar surface, he famously said: 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.' It was broadcast live to an estimated 530 million viewers worldwide. On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) pilot Buzz Aldrin became the first people to land on the Moon, and the next day they spent two and a half hours outside the Lunar Module Eagle spacecraft while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the Apollo Command Module Columbia. During training for Armstrong's second and last spaceflight as commander of Apollo 11, he had to eject from the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle moments before a crash.

During this mission with pilot David Scott, he performed the first docking of two spacecraft the mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his re-entry control fuel to stabilize a dangerous roll caused by a stuck thruster. He made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs.Īrmstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in the second group, which was selected in 1962.

#Nasa careers dc series

He was the project pilot on Century Series fighters and flew the North American X-15 seven times. After the war, he completed his bachelor's degree at Purdue and became a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He saw action in the Korean War, flying the Grumman F9F Panther from the aircraft carrier USS Essex. He became a midshipman in 1949 and a naval aviator the following year. Navy paying his tuition under the Holloway Plan.

He entered Purdue University, studying aeronautical engineering, with the U.S. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.Īrmstrong was born and raised in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who in 1969 became the first person to walk on the Moon.