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Neil Armstrong (1930–2012)
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Launius, Roger D. |
| Copyright Year | 2012 |
| Abstract | Neil Armstrong accepted that he would always be remembered as the first human to set foot on the Moon, which he did as commander of the Apollo 11 mission on 20 July 1969. But that was not all that defined him. Armstrong was proud of his naval service: flying combat missions in the Korean War and testing high-performance aircraft. He was a committed educator and a quiet but thoughtful force in delineating US aerospace policy. Armstrong died aged 82 on 25 August 2012, from complications of heart-bypass surgery. He was born on 5 August 1930 on his grandparents’ farm near Wapakoneta, Ohio. His parents took him to air races as a boy and he fell in love with the prospect of flying. Armstrong took his first plane ride in a Ford Tri-Motor at the age of 6, and by 16 he had earned his student pilot’s licence; all before he could drive a car or had a high-school diploma. After high school, Armstrong went to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, to study aeronautical engineering. His scholarship from the US Navy required him to serve a tour of active duty after two years of education. He became an aviator, and in 1950 was sent to Korea, where he engaged in raids of North Korean railway bridges, targets that have been immortalized in the James Michener novel The Bridges at Toko-Ri. In 1952, Armstrong returned to Purdue to finish his bachelor’s degree and then joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which became NASA in 1958. As an engineer and research pilot he worked at NACA’s Lewis Research Center near Cleveland, Ohio, and then at the High Speed Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Armstrong flew pioneering aircraft, including the X-15 rocket plane that set speed and altitude records in the early 1960s. Over the years, he took the controls of more than 200 models of jet, rocket, glider and helicopter. Armstrong transferred to astronaut status in 1962, and was one of nine members of the second class to be chosen for spaceflight. (The first class, the Mercury Seven, was picked in 1959.) His experience was invaluable during his first mission in March 1966, in Gemini VIII, when he and David Scott docked their capsule in orbit around Earth to an Agena spacecraft, the first such rendezvous in space. Soon after, the joined vehicles began tumbling uncontrollably. |
| Starting Page | 368 |
| Ending Page | 368 |
| Page Count | 1 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1038/489368a |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/24979/201220SH.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1 |
| PubMed reference number | 22996544 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1038/489368a |
| Journal | Medline |
| Volume Number | 489 |
| Journal | Nature |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Biography |
