Biography of Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong was born on August 5th, 1930 in Ohio. Armstrong developed an
interest in flying at an early age. His father began taking him to the Cleveland Air Races
at the age of two. When he was six years old, he took his first plane ride in a Ford
Tri-Motor, a "Tin Goose," at the age of 6. From then on, he was fascinated by aviation. In
high school, Armstrong took flying lessons at the Wapakoneta airfield. He got his solo
flight license before he even got his driver’s license!
In 1947, at the age of seventeen, Armstrong entered Purdue University in
Indiana. He was the second person in his family to go to college. He began studies in
aeronautical engineering. However, his studies were interrupted in 1949 when the
United States Navy called him to active duty. Armstrong became a Navy pilot and was
sent to Korea in 1950, near the start of the Korean War. In Korea, he flew 78 combat
missions in Navy Panther jets. In 1952, Armstrong returned to Purdue. He earned a
bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering there in 1955. Around this time, he met
Janet Elizabeth Shearon, who he married in 1956. Together, they had three children,
although their only daughter, Karen, sadly died at the age of two.
Following graduation, Armstrong became an experimental research test pilot at
the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station
at Edwards Air Force Base. In 1957, he flew a rocket-powered aircraft, the Bell X-1B,
for the first time. In 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
was founded, absorbing NACA. At NASA, he became one of the first civilian astronauts
in the NASA Astronaut Corps. He made his first space flight in 1966 on Gemini 8 with
David R. Scott.
By 1969, NASA was finally ready for their greatest adventure yet: putting a man
on the moon. On July 16, 1969, a Saturn V rocket launched Apollo 11 into outer space
with Armstrong inside. On July 20, the crew safely landed the Apollo 11 lunar module
Eagle on the moon. Upon taking his first steps he said, “That’s one small step for a man,
one giant leap for mankind.” Armstrong is most famous for being the first person to
walk on the moon.
Armstrong resigned from the United States astronaut program in 1970. After
his career as an astronaut, he became a professor of aerospace engineering at the
University of Cincinnati and served as chairman of the board of Computing
Technologies for Aviation, a company that develops software for flight scheduling.
Armstrong died on August 25, 2012 at the age of eighty-two. He is remembered by his
family and friends as a humble man who was proud to serve his nation. They state,
“While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and
hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to
make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to
selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves.”
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