Neil Armstrong, born on August 5, 1930, and died on August 25th, 2012 in Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States.  He was an American astronaut and the first person to set foot on the Moon. Neil’s passion for aviation and flight was kindled when he took his first airplane ride at age 6. He became a licensed pilot on his 16th birthday and a naval air cadet in 1947.

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). In 1962 Armstrong joined the space program with its second group of astronauts.  On March 16, 1966, Armstrong, as command pilot of Gemini 8, and David R. Scott rendezvoused with an unmanned Agena rocket and completed the first manual space docking maneuver. After the docking, a rocket thruster malfunction sent the spacecraft into an uncontrolled spin and forced them to separate from the Agena. Armstrong then regained control of the Gemini craft and made an emergency splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

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.  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.

Beyond his role as an astronaut, Armstrong maintained a humble and private life. He chose to step away from the public eye after his lunar mission and focused on his work as an educator and advocate for scientific research and space exploration. Neil Armstrong’s legacy as the first person to walk on the Moon continues to inspire generations, reminding us of the incredible heights humanity can reach when driven by curiosity, determination, and a thirst for knowledge about the universe around us.