Neil Alden Armstrong: Life, Achievements, And Legacy

Introduction

In August 5th, 1930 Neil Armstrong was born and with an uneventful childhood, but then he would soon grow up to be one of the 12 people to walk on the moon most importantly the first person to set foot on the moon and fly more than 200 different types of aircraft including jets, gliders, helicopters and spacecraft. 

With so many achievements accomplished dreams come to life and a legacy long-lived there is no doubt in any one's mind that Neil Armstrong was one of the most influential and inspiring people to have lived which was saddening to everyone when he had passed away on August 25th, 2012. 

Early Life

Neil Armstrong was born on August 5th, 1930, close to Wapakoneta, Ohio. His father, Stephen Koenig Armstrong and his mother, Viola Louise née Engel. He had a younger brother and sister, Dean and June. Their father whose job was an auditor for the Ohio state government, made the family move around the state repeatedly, this meant for the next fourteen years they had to sixteen towns around the Ohio state. This is when Armstrong's love for planes and flying grew during this time, which started early when his father took him at the age of two to the Cleveland Air Races. 

When he was fifteen years, he started taking flight lessons at an airport just north of Wapakoneta, but to earn the money for his lessons Armstrong worked various jobs in town and at the airport, which eventually paid off because at the age of sixteen he got his pilot’s license. That’s before he graduated and before he got his driver’s license. 

Armstrong enrolled at Purdue University when he was offered a scholarship from the U.S. Navy. At Purdue, he studied aeronautical engineering and when he had graduated from university he was on active duty and he was sent to Korea during the 1950s where he became an aviator and flew 78 missions on the USS Essex. 

After he left the navy Armstrong joined the NACA or the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics where for about two decades he worked as an engineer, pilot and eventually an astronaut. The NACA eventually changed turned into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and in March 1966 flew on Gemini eight which marked the beginning of the Apollo missions. 

Major Achievements

On March 16th, 1966 Neil Armstrong and David Scott launched Gemini eight to dock with the Agena as a test run for the docking the would do on the Apollo missions, and that David Scott would complete the 2nd American EVA or Extravehicular Activity. But was cut short after the craft started to spin uncontrollably due to a problem with the craft’s reaction wheel which caused David Scott to pass out but fortunately, the problem was solved before Armstrong passed out. 

On January 16th, 1967 Apollo 1 was on the launch pad when all of a sudden an exposed wire sparked and because the command pod was filled with a hundred percent oxygen the sparks quickly ignited into flames killing astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee and changed the public’s opinion towards the Apollo program. (wikipedia.org)

Between the fire at 1967 to 1969, NASA conducted missions Apollo 8 and 9 as test flight before Apollo 11 which would land on the moon, and on July 16th, 1969 at Kennedy Space Center the Saturn V rocket carrying the crew of Apollo 11 which included Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot or CMP Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot or LMP Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. 

After 4 days in space, Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon with only 40 seconds of delta-v left in the descent stage. When the contact light turned on both astronauts were relieved and Armstrong said the words “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” And after they both finished their checklists Armstrong went out and set the steps on the moon and his most famous quote “That’s one step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” 

Later Life and Legacy

After Armstrong returned to Earth, he worked at NASA until 1971 when he resigned and then he worked as a university professor at the University of Cincinnati where he worked there from 1971 to 1979. In 1979 he retired as a professor and from 1982 to 1992 he was the chairman of Computer Technologies for Aviation. 

Neil Armstrong will always be remembered as an important person in human history. In 1985 he went to the north and was dumbfounded because he thought it looked like the surface of the moon. In 1990, he separated with his first on wife, but in 1992 he met his first wife at a golf tournament. “When they were seated together at breakfast. She said little to Armstrong, but two weeks later he called her to ask what she was doing. She replied that she was cutting down a cherry tree, and 35 minutes later Armstrong was at her house to help.” 

Unfortunately, his life came to an end at the age of 82 years old on August 25th, 2012, he inspired so many people around and did the impossible and lived the fullest of lives anyone can live.

Conclusion

Neil Armstrong will be one of the most remembered people and has probably inspired more people than he could ever imagine. He is only one of the few people that cooperated with space, this is space, it doesn’t cooperate, at any moment everything is going to go south on you.

Bibliography

• ABC News. “Apollo 11 Flight Director Returns to Restored 'Houston'.” WFTS, 19 July 2019, www.abcactionnews.com/news/apollo/50-years-later-apollo-11-flight-director-returns-to-restored-houston.
• “Apollo 11.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Jan. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11.
• “Astronaut Biographies.” NASA, NASA, history.nasa.gov/ap11-35ann/astrobios.html#Armstrong.
• Commons, NASA on The. “Apollo 11 Launched Via Saturn V Rocket.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 16 July 2019, www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons/4858567248.
• History.com Editors. “Neil Armstrong.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 4 Sept. 2018, www.history.com/topics/space-exploration/neil-armstrong.
• “NACA Overview.” NASA, NASA, history.nasa.gov/naca/overview.html.
• “Neil Armstrong.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Jan. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong.
• Purdue Marketing & Media, and Purdue University. “Purdue Remembers Neil Armstrong.” Purdue Signature, www.purdue.edu/armstrong/.
• Sands, Kelly. “From Pilot to First on the Moon: Armstrong's Start in Cleveland.” NASA, NASA, 17 July 2019, www.nasa.gov/feature/glenn/2019/from-pilot-to-first-on-the-moon-armstrong-s-start-in-cleveland.