143 Facts About Neil Armstrong

Neil Alden Armstrong was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who, in 1969, became the first person to walk on the Moon.

Neil Armstrong was a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.

Neil Armstrong entered Purdue University, studying aeronautical engineering, with the US Navy paying his tuition under the Holloway Plan.

Neil Armstrong became a midshipman in 1949 and a naval aviator the following year.

Neil Armstrong was the project pilot on Century Series fighters and flew the North American X-15 seven times.

Neil Armstrong was a participant in the US Air Force's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs.

Neil Armstrong made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space.

Neil Armstrong served on the Apollo 13 accident investigation and on the Rogers Commission, which investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

In 2012, Neil Armstrong died because of complications resulting from coronary bypass surgery, at the age of 82.

Neil Armstrong was born near Wapakoneta, Ohio, on August 5,1930, the son of Viola Louise and Stephen Koenig Neil Armstrong.

Neil Armstrong was of German, English, Scots-Irish, and Scottish descent.

Neil Armstrong's father was an auditor for the Ohio state government, and the family moved around the state repeatedly, living in 16 towns over the next 14 years.

The family's last move was in 1944 and took them back to Wapakoneta, where Neil Armstrong attended Blume High School and took flying lessons at the Wapakoneta airfield.

Neil Armstrong was an active Boy Scout and earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

At age 17, in 1947, Neil Armstrong began studying aeronautical engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana; he was the second person in his family to attend college.

Neil Armstrong was accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but he resolved to go to Purdue after watching a football game between the Purdue Boilermakers and the Ohio State Buckeyes at the Ohio Stadium in 1945 in which quarterback Bob DeMoss led the Boilermakers to a sound victory over the highly regarded Buckeyes.

Neil Armstrong did not take courses in naval science, nor did he join the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps.

Neil Armstrong was assigned to Fleet Aircraft Service Squadron7 at NAS San Diego.

Neil Armstrong was flying 500 feet above the ground when he hit it.

Neil Armstrong flew the plane back to friendly territory, but because of the loss of the aileron, ejection was his only safe option.

Neil Armstrong intended to eject over water and await rescue by Navy helicopters, but his parachute was blown back over land.

Neil Armstrong received the Air Medal for 20 combat missions, two gold stars for the next 40, the Korean Service Medal and Engagement Star, the National Defense Service Medal, and the United Nations Korea Medal.

Neil Armstrong was released from active duty on August 23,1952, but remained in the reserve, and was promoted to lieutenant on May 9,1953.

Neil Armstrong remained in the reserve for eight years before resigning his commission on October 21,1960.

Neil Armstrong's previously earned good but not outstanding grades now improved, lifting his final Grade Point Average to a respectable but not outstanding 4.8 out of 6.0.

Neil Armstrong pledged the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and lived in its fraternity house.

Neil Armstrong wrote and co-directed two musicals as part of the all-student revue.

Neil Armstrong was chairman of the Purdue Aero Flying Club, and flew the club's aircraft, an Aeronca and a couple of Pipers, which were kept at nearby Aretz Airport in Lafayette, Indiana.

Neil Armstrong graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering in January 1955.

Neil Armstrong met Janet Elizabeth Shearon, who was majoring in home economics, at a party hosted by Alpha Chi Omega.

Neil Armstrong died of pneumonia, related to her weakened health, on January 28,1962, aged two.

Neil Armstrong applied at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base.

NACA had no open positions, and forwarded his application to the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, where Neil Armstrong made his first test flight on March 1,1955.

On his first day, Neil Armstrong was tasked with piloting chase planes during releases of experimental aircraft from modified bombers.

Neil Armstrong flew the modified bombers, and on one of these missions had his first flight incident at Edwards.

Neil Armstrong sat in the right-hand co-pilot seat while pilot in command, Stan Butchart sat in the left-hand pilot seat flying the B-29.

Butchart and Neil Armstrong were forced to shut down the damaged number-three engine, along with the number-one engine, because of the torque it created.

Neil Armstrong served as project pilot on Century Series fighters, including the North American F-100 Super Sabre A and C variants, the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo, the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, the Republic F-105 Thunderchief and the Convair F-106 Delta Dart.

Neil Armstrong flew the Douglas DC-3, Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, North American F-86 Sabre, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, Douglas F5D-1 Skylancer, Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Boeing B-47 Stratojet and Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, and was one of eight elite pilots involved in the Paresev paraglider research vehicle program.

Neil Armstrong flew the North American X-15 seven times, including the first flight with the Q-ball system, the first flight of the number3 X-15 airframe, and the first flight of the MH-96 adaptive flight control system.

Neil Armstrong became an employee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration when it was established on October 1,1958, absorbing NACA.

Neil Armstrong was involved in several incidents that went down in Edwards folklore or were chronicled in the memoirs of colleagues.

Neil Armstrong held up the aircraft nose during its descent to demonstrate the MH-96's g-limiting performance, and the X-15 ballooned back up to around 140,000 feet.

Neil Armstrong flew past the landing field at Mach3 at over 100,000 feet in altitude, and ended up 40 miles south of Edwards.

Fellow astronaut Michael Collins wrote that of the X-15 pilots Neil Armstrong "had been considered one of the weaker stick-and-rudder men, but the very best when it came to understanding the machine's design and how it operated".

Bill Dana said Neil Armstrong "had a mind that absorbed things like a sponge".

Neil Armstrong made seven flights in the X-15 between November 30,1960, and July 26,1962.

On May 21,1962, Neil Armstrong was involved in the "Nellis Affair".

Neil Armstrong misjudged his altitude and did not realize that the landing gear had not fully extended.

Neil Armstrong telephoned Edwards and asked for someone to collect him.

In June 1958, Neil Armstrong was selected for the US Air Force's Man in Space Soonest program, but the Advanced Research Projects Agency canceled its funding on August 1,1958, and on November 5,1958, it was superseded by Project Mercury, a civilian project run by NASA.

Neil Armstrong visited the Seattle World's Fair in May 1962 and attended a conference there on space exploration that was co-sponsored by NASA.

Neil Armstrong was one of two civilian pilots selected for this group; the other was Elliot See, another former naval aviator.

Collins wrote that Neil Armstrong was by far the most experienced test pilot in the Astronaut Corps.

Neil Armstrong engaged the Reentry Control System and turned off the OAMS.

Neil Armstrong was depressed that the mission was cut short, canceling most mission objectives and robbing Scott of his EVA.

Scott was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and Neil Armstrong received a $678 raise in pay to $21,653 a year, making him NASA's highest-paid astronaut.

The launch was on September 12,1966, with Conrad and Gordon on board, who successfully completed the mission objectives, while Neil Armstrong served as a capsule communicator.

In Paraguay, Neil Armstrong greeted dignitaries in their local language, Guarani; in Brazil he talked about the exploits of the Brazilian-born aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont.

For crewmates, Neil Armstrong was assigned Lovell and Aldrin, from Gemini 12.

On May 6,1968,100 feet above the ground, Neil Armstrong's controls started to degrade and the LLRV began rolling.

Neil Armstrong ejected safely before the vehicle struck the ground and burst into flames.

Aldrin and Neil Armstrong trained for a variety of scenarios that could develop during a real lunar landing.

Neil Armstrong found the first stage the loudest, much noisier than the Gemini8 Titan II launch.

Neil Armstrong was especially glad about this, as he had been prone to motion sickness as a child and could experience nausea after long periods of aerobatics.

Three minutes into the lunar descent, Neil Armstrong noted that craters were passing about two seconds too early, which meant the Lunar Module Eagle would probably touch down several miles beyond the planned landing zone.

When Neil Armstrong noticed they were heading toward a landing area that seemed unsafe, he took manual control of the LM and attempted to find a safer area.

On landing, Aldrin and Neil Armstrong believed they had 40seconds of fuel left, including the 20seconds' worth which had to be saved in the event of an abort.

The flight plan called for a crew rest period before leaving the module, but Neil Armstrong asked for this to be moved to earlier in the evening, Houston time.

When he and Aldrin were ready to go outside, Eagle was depressurized, the hatch was opened, and Neil Armstrong made his way down the ladder.

At the bottom of the ladder, while standing on a Lunar Module landing pad, Neil Armstrong said, "I'm going to step off the LM now".

Recordings of Neil Armstrong's transmission do not provide evidence for the indefinite article "a" before "man", though NASA and Neil Armstrong insisted for years that static obscured it.

Neil Armstrong stated he would never make such a mistake, but after repeated listenings to recordings, he eventually conceded he must have dropped the "a".

When Neil Armstrong made his proclamation, Voice of America was rebroadcast live by the BBC and many other stations worldwide.

Neil Armstrong unveiled a plaque commemorating the flight, and with Aldrin, planted the flag of the United States.

Neil Armstrong spoke for about a minute, after which Armstrong responded for about thirty seconds.

In May 1970, Neil Armstrong traveled to the Soviet Union to present a talk at the 13th annual conference of the International Committee on Space Research; after arriving in Leningrad from Poland, he traveled to Moscow where he met Premier Alexei Kosygin.

Neil Armstrong was the first westerner to see the supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 and was given a tour of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, which he described as "a bit Victorian in nature".

Shortly after Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong stated that he did not plan to fly in space again.

Neil Armstrong was appointed Deputy Associate Administrator for Aeronautics for the Office of Advanced Research and Technology at ARPA, served in the position for a year, then resigned from it and NASA in 1971.

Neil Armstrong accepted a teaching position in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, having chosen Cincinnati over other universities, including his alma mater Purdue, because Cincinnati had a small aerospace department, and said he hoped the faculty there would not be annoyed that he came straight into a professorship with only a USC master's degree.

Neil Armstrong began his master's degree while stationed at Edwards years before, and completed it after Apollo 11 by presenting a report on various aspects of Apollo, instead of a thesis on the simulation of hypersonic flight.

Neil Armstrong took a heavy teaching load, taught core classes, and created two graduate-level classes: aircraft design and experimental flight mechanics.

Neil Armstrong was considered a good teacher, and a tough grader.

Neil Armstrong did not want to be a part of the faculty collective bargaining group, so he decided to teach half-time.

In 1970, after an explosion aboard Apollo 13 aborted its lunar landing, Neil Armstrong was part of Edgar Cortright's investigation of the mission.

Neil Armstrong determined that a 28-volt thermostat switch in an oxygen tank, which was supposed to have been replaced with a 65-volt version, led to the explosion.

Many NASA managers, including Neil Armstrong, opposed the recommendation, since only the thermostat switch had caused the problem.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan asked Neil Armstrong to join the Rogers Commission investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Neil Armstrong was made vice chairman of the commission and held private interviews with contacts he had developed over the years to help determine the cause of the disaster.

Neil Armstrong helped limit the committee's recommendations to nine, believing that if there were too many, NASA would not act on them.

Neil Armstrong was appointed to a fourteen-member commission by President Reagan to develop a plan for American civilian spaceflight in the 21st century.

The commission was chaired by former NASA administrator Dr Thomas O Paine, with whom Neil Armstrong had worked during the Apollo program.

Neil Armstrong thought they had a strong engineering division, and they were in financial difficulty.

Neil Armstrong later acted as a spokesman for other American companies, including General Time Corporation and the Bankers Association of America.

Neil Armstrong acted as a spokesman for only American companies.

The first company board Neil Armstrong joined was Gates Learjet, chairing their technical committee.

Neil Armstrong flew their new and experimental jets and even set a climb and altitude record for business jets.

Neil Armstrong served on the board of Taft Broadcasting, based in Cincinnati.

Neil Armstrong joined the board of solid rocket booster Thiokol in 1989, after previously serving on the Rogers Commission which found that the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed due to a defect in the Thiokol-manufactured solid rocket boosters.

When Neil Armstrong left the University of Cincinnati, he became the chairman of Cardwell International Ltd.

Neil Armstrong served on additional aerospace boards, first United Airlines in 1978, and later Eaton Corporation in 1980.

Neil Armstrong was asked to chair the board of directors for a subsidiary of Eaton, AIL Systems.

Neil Armstrong chaired the board through the company's 2000 merger with EDO Corporation, until his retirement in 2002.

Neil Armstrong did not inform the media of the trip, preferring to keep it private.

Neil Armstrong kept a low profile later in his life, leading to the belief that he was a recluse.

Neil Armstrong was a humble person, and that's the way he remained after his lunar flight, as well as before.

Michael Collins said in his book Carrying the Fire that when Neil Armstrong moved to a dairy farm to become a college professor, it was like he "retreated to his castle and pulled up the drawbridge".

Andrew Chaikin says in A Man on the Moon that Neil Armstrong kept a low profile but was not a recluse, citing his participation in interviews, advertisements for Chrysler, and hosting a cable television series.

Neil Armstrong guarded the use of his name, image, and famous quote.

Neil Armstrong sued Hallmark Cards in 1994, when they used his name, and a recording of the "one small step" quote, in a Christmas ornament without his permission.

The lawsuit was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum, which Neil Armstrong donated to Purdue.

Neil Armstrong was approached by groups from both the Democratic and Republican parties but declined the offers.

Neil Armstrong supported states' rights and opposed the US acting as the "world's policeman".

When Neil Armstrong applied at a local Methodist church to lead a Boy Scout troop in the late 1950s, he gave his religious affiliation as "deist".

Neil Armstrong's mother later said that his religious views caused her grief and distress in later life, as she was a Christian.

Indonesian singer Suhaemi wrote a song called "Gema Suara Adzan di Bulan" which described Neil Armstrong's supposed conversion, and the song was widely discussed by Jakarta news outlets in 1983.

In March 1983, the US State Department responded by issuing a message to embassies and consulates in Muslim countries saying that Neil Armstrong had not converted to Islam.

In 1972, Neil Armstrong visited the Scottish town of Langholm, the traditional seat of Clan Neil Armstrong.

Neil Armstrong was made the first freeman of the burgh, and happily declared the town his home.

Neil Armstrong enjoyed gliders and before the Moon flight had earned a gold badge with two diamonds from the International Gliding Commission.

Neil Armstrong continued to fly engineless aircraft well into his 70s.

Neil Armstrong collected the severed tip, packed it in ice, and had surgeons reattach it at a nearby hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.

Neil Armstrong met his second wife, Carol Held Knight, at a golf tournament in 1992, when they were seated together at breakfast.

Neil Armstrong said little to Armstrong, but he called her two weeks later to ask what she was doing.

Neil Armstrong replied that she was cutting down a cherry tree, and he arrived at her house 35 minutes later to help.

In May 2005, Neil Armstrong became involved in a legal dispute with Mark Sizemore, his barber of 20years.

Neil Armstrong threatened legal action against Sizemore unless he returned the hair or donated the proceeds to a charity of Neil Armstrong's choosing.

Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.

Neil Armstrong then called on Conrad to solve the problem, which he did, and the mission proceeded.

Mindful that Neil Armstrong would have objected to a state funeral, his family opted to have a private funeral in Cincinnati.

When Neil Armstrong appeared to be recovering from his bypass surgery, nurses removed the wires connected to his temporary pacemaker.

Neil Armstrong began to bleed internally and his blood pressure dropped.

The hospital, fearing the bad publicity that would result from being accused of negligently causing the death of a revered figure such as Neil Armstrong, agreed to pay as long as the family never spoke about the suit or the settlement.

Neil Armstrong reportedly felt that her husband would have been opposed to taking legal action.

Neil Armstrong was elected as member into the National Academy of Engineering in 1978 for contributions to aerospace engineering, scientific knowledge, and exploration of the universe as an experimental test pilot and astronaut.

Neil Armstrong was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2001.

Neil Armstrong was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor, the International Space Hall of Fame, National Aviation Hall of Fame, and the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame.

In 2019, the College of Engineering at Purdue University celebrated the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's walk on the Moon by launching the Neil Armstrong Distinguished Visiting Fellows Program, which brings highly accomplished scholars and practitioners to the college to catalyze collaborations with faculty and students.

In July 2018, Neil Armstrong's sons put his collection of memorabilia up for sale, including his Boy Scout cap, and various flags and medals flown on his space missions.

Two fragments of wood from the propeller and four pieces of fabric from the wing of the 1903 Wright Flyer that Neil Armstrong took to the Moon fetched between $112,500 and $275,000 each.

The planetarium at Altoona Area High School in Altoona, Pennsylvania is named after Neil Armstrong and is home to a Space Race museum.

Neil Armstrong was named the class exemplar for the Class of 2019 at the US Air Force Academy.