Who is Neil Alden Armstrong?

Heroes are often the stuff of firsts—to navigate around the world, to fly across the Atlantic, to climb Mt. Everest and dozens more. Certainly any individual with the courage to land on the moon with what could be described, at best, as very tentative technology and planning, has to be one of our heroes.

The wonder of Neil Armstrong is the complete lack of ego and ambition beyond his desire to be part of the NASA mission and program. Whether active or retired, he accepted the admiration of millions with the humility of a child. His right kind of stuff can hardly be underestimated, and his superior intellectual ability helped NASA with an ambitious and politically sensitive mission to the moon.

How does history understand this seemingly aloof man? Gently, kindly and with a great deal of affection and appreciation, the nation has chosen to honor a truly modest hero who seemingly does not wish to be honored or lauded.

What made him Neil Armstrong?

Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, and the phrase he uttered when he first stepped foot on the surface of Tranquility Base has become part of the English folklore. What many people do not know is that Armstrong, unlike most of his fellow astronauts, was a civilian and not part of the military.

Armstrong is from America’s heartland, born on August 5,1930, in his home at Wapakoneta, Ohio. His father was an Ohio government employee and the family moved frequently during Armstrong’s childhood. Popular history has Armstrong taking his first plane ride at age six, where he reportedly fell in love with aviation. By the time he was 15, he was saving his money to take flying lessons and progressed rapidly in a number of aircraft to get his pilot’s license.

Armstrong attended Purdue University. His education was funded by a national program that required him to commit to 3 years of military service after 2 years of academic study, then finishing the final 2 years after his release from active duty. He was called up to naval service in 1949 and, after jet training, began flying combat missions in the Korean War. During one mission, his plane was badly mauled by anti-aircraft fire. He was forced to eject and, as luck would have it, was picked up by a roommate from flight school.

“After flying 78 missions in Korea and receiving several commendations, he left the Navy in 1952 and returned to Purdue University to complete his degree in aeronautical engineering.”

He met his first wife, Janet Elizabeth Shearon, after he returned to Purdue. The two married in 1956. Armstrong, who had been applying repeatedly to be a test pilot and research pilot, was finally accepted and was stationed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He and Janet settled into the area and, during this period, the couple had three children, one of whom died at an early age from brain cancer.

In 1957, Armstrong made his first flight in a rocket plane, thought at the time to be the natural transition to real spacecraft. He would end up flying the Bell X-1B and the North American X-15. He had the usual mishaps for a test pilot, but managed to walk away from all of them. Most of his fellow test pilots valued his engineering ability and one said that “he had a mind that absorbed things like a sponge.” Other old-guard pilots, such as Chuck Yeager, thought that the engineers approached flying too mechanically and that they got into trouble because they did not have a real feel for flying.

As Armstrong was coming to the end of his test pilot career, the United States was caught up in the race with the USSR to be the first to land a man on the moon and return safely. The Mercury program was already sending up astronauts in solo flights and NASA was now planning the next phase with two astronauts flying on Gemini flights.

Armstrong would later say he had no moment of revelation that he wanted to be an astronaut. When word came out that NASA was accepting applications for the Gemini astronauts, his interest increased and he applied for what was called the new nine. He was accepted into the program as a civilian and spent his first 2 years as an astronaut on the ground undergoing extensive, grueling physical and mental training. During this time, Armstrong used his engineering background to improve the NASA flight simulators, developing techniques and software that are still being used.

Armstrong was named command pilot for Gemini 8, with David Scott as pilot. The flight was the most ambitious ever attempted and would involve the Gemini spacecraft docking with an unmanned Agena Target Vehicle (a crucial maneuver necessary for the missions to the moon). The spacecraft successfully docked with the Agena, but soon afterwards both ships started rocking uncontrollably. The roll increased after NASA directed the vehicles to undock and, if left unchecked, would have caused the astronauts to black out. The crew used the reentry control system to stop the roll, but that caused the ship to return earlier than planned, canceling other activities, including a spacewalk for Scott.

Astronaut opinion was divided on whether Armstrong had made mistakes that caused the near disaster, but NASA later admitted that errors in planning and training were behind the problems.

By now Gemini was almost over and the Apollo program was starting. Following orbital flights of the three-person Apollo spacecraft and two trips to the moon (one to test the Lunar Excursion Module in space), NASA was ready to attempt a landing with Apollo 11. Armstrong was made commander of the spacecraft, and, after deciding Armstrong had a more matter-of-fact personality, NASA named him to be the first man to walk on the moon. Apollo 11 blasted off on July 17, 1969, with Armstrong, lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin and command module pilot Michael Armstrong.

Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20. A few hours after landing, Armstrong descended the LEM ladder to the lunar surface and said, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Radio static masked the “a” from the first part of the statement, although Armstrong admitted later he sometimes omitted syllables when he spoke. He said he had come up with the statement only while waiting to leave the LEM for the moon.

After his triumphant return, Armstrong announced he would not fly in space anymore. He resigned from NASA and accepted an engineering teaching position at the University of Cincinnati. He avoided exploiting his achievements and generally kept a very low profile, repeatedly refusing any efforts to get him into politics. His frequent absences had taken a toll on his marriage, and wife his divorced him in 1989- He married Carol Held Knight in 1994. He continues to teach and consult with NASA.

The Legacy of the Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong was the perfect man in the perfect place at the perfect time. His no-nonsense approach to life and his work stood in stark contrast to the drama of walking on the moon and made the event even more exciting. He will go down in history, along with people like Charles Lindbergh, as a man who defined an era.

Still, that same style led to a certain distancing between Armstrong and the American people, helped along by his perceptions of the misuse of his name and of his statement when he landed on the moon.

No matter what, Armstrong summed up what Meriwether Lewis called undaunted courage in traveling on an incredibly dangerous mission with the whole world watching. He reportedly is looking forward to the United States returning to the moon and eventually landing people on Mars.

Courtesy

There have been dozens of documentaries and fictional films involving the Apollo program and the first moon landing. One of the better ones is Apollo 11: Men on the Moon, from Spacecraft Films, 2003. NASA also has extensive information on Armstrong and his Gemini and Apollo missions at www.nasa.gov.

Armstrong’s authorized biography is First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, Simon and Schuster, 2005. Other books on Armstrong include First on the Moon, William Konecky Associates, 2002; One Giant Leap: The Story of Neil Armstrong, Houghton Mifflin, 2001; and One Giant Leap: Neil Armstrong’s Stellar American Journey, Forge Books, 2004.