Neil Armstrong
1930 – 2012 American astronaut, test pilot, aeronautical engineer
American astronaut who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969.
- Affiliations
- NASA, US Navy
Neil Armstrong was a Navy combat pilot and test pilot before joining NASA's astronaut corps. He commanded Gemini 8, carrying out the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit and surviving a dangerous spin. As commander of Apollo 11 in July 1969, he piloted the lunar module to a manual landing with seconds of fuel to spare and stepped onto the surface as the first human to walk on the Moon, watched by an estimated 600 million people. A private and modest man, he largely withdrew from public life afterward and taught engineering.
Connections
- associate of John Glenn — Fellow American astronaut of the early space program.
- associate of John Glenn — Fellow astronaut of the era.
In the timeline
- 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing mentioned
- 1969 Apollo 11 lands on the Moon first person to walk on the Moon