Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrongwas an American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was an officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the Korean War. After the war, he earned his bachelor's degree at Purdue University and served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for AeronauticsHigh-Speed Flight Station, where he logged over 900 flights. He later...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAstronaut
Date of Birth5 August 1930
CityAuglaize County, OH
CountryUnited States of America
The [Moon] surface is fine and powdery. I can kick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine sandy particles.
Fear is not an unknown emotion to us.
It's a strange, eerie sensation to fly a lunar landing trajectory not difficult, but somewhat complex and unforgiving.
The view of the moon that we've been having recently is really spectacular. It fills about three-quarters of the hatch window, and of course we can see the entire circumference even though part of it is in complete shadow and part of it is in earthshine. It's a view worth the price of the trip.
Opportunities will be available to you that you cannot imagine.
Ever since I was a little boy, I dreamed I would do something important in aviation.
I think if there was anything I learned from our skipper was that it's not how you look; it's how you perform.
Now and then I miss the excitement about being in the cockpit of an airplane and doing new things.
Yeah, I wasn't chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn't planned by anyone.
There are places to go beyond belief,
Space has not changed but technology has, in many cases, improved dramatically. A good example is digital technology where today's cell phones are far more powerful than the computers on the Apollo Command Module and Lunar Module that we used to navigate to the moon and operate all the spacecraft control systems.
Start at the end and work back.
It's a brilliant surface in that sunlight. The horizon seems quite close to you because the curvature is so much more pronounced than here on earth. It's an interesting place to be. I recommend it.
I am comfortable with my level of public discourse.