
During training for Armstrong's second and last spaceflight as commander of Apollo 11, he had to eject from the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle moments before a crash. During this mission with pilot David Scott, he performed the first docking of two spacecraft the mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his re-entry control fuel to stabilize a dangerous roll caused by a stuck thruster. He made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space.

Air Force's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs.Īrmstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in the second group, which was selected in 1962.
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He was the project pilot on Century Series fighters and flew the North American X-15 seven times. After the war, he completed his bachelor's degree at Purdue and became a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base in California. In September 1951, while making a low bombing run, Armstrong's aircraft was damaged when it collided with an anti-aircraft cable, strung across a valley, which cut off a large portion of one wing. He saw action in the Korean War, flying the Grumman F9F Panther from the aircraft carrier USS Essex. He became a midshipman in 1949 and a naval aviator the following year. A graduate of Purdue University, he studied aeronautical engineering his college tuition was paid for by the U.S. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.Īrmstrong was born and raised in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut, an aeronautical engineer, and the first person to walk on the Moon.
