A reluctant American hero

Neil Armstrong 1930-2012
Found pic @Sidney Morning Herald

Neil Armstrong, US astronaut, the first man on the Moon, died last August 25, aged 82. A statement from his family says he died from complications from heart surgery he had earlier that month. He set foot on the Moon on 20 July 1969, famously describing the event as 'one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind'. US President Barack Obama said Armstrong was 'among the greatest of American heroes - not just of his time, but of all time'. Last November he received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest US civilian award. He was the commander of the Apollo 11 spacecraft. More than 500 million TV viewers around the world watched its touchdown on the lunar surface. Armstrong and fellow astronaut Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on the moon, collecting samples, conducting experiments and taking photographs, while Michael Collins, the third astronaut, remained alone in the mothership Columbia. 'The sights were simply magnificent, beyond any visual experience that I had ever been exposed to,' Armstrong once said. Apollo 11 was Armstrong's last space mission. In 1971, he left the US space agency Nasa to teach aerospace engineering. 

Born in 1930 and raised in Ohio, Armstrong took his first flight aged six with his father and formed a lifelong passion for flying. He flew Navy fighter jets during the Korean War in the 1950s, and joined the US space programme in 1962. Correspondents say Armstrong remained modest and never allowed himself to be caught up in the glamour of space exploration. 'I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer,' he said in February 2000, in a rare public appearance. In a statement, his family praised him as a 'reluctant American hero' who had 'served his nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut.' The statement did not say where Armstrong died. 

In, bbb.co.uk/news 

(abridged and adapted)

Image Credits NASA

You might  like to take a look at this photo gallery on Apollo 11 and its crewmen HERE.

You might also like to read these 9 facts about Space Exploration in the early 1970's.