First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong

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In all, Armstrong flew 78 missions over Korea for a total of 121 hours in the air, a third of them in January 1952, with the final mission on March 5, 1952. Of 492 U.S. Navy personnel killed in the Korean War, 27 of them were from Essex on this war cruise. 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. [31] Neil walked a distance of about 60 metres on the surface of the moon —that’s roughly the length of 11 Asian elephants! Apollo 11 – Day 3, part 2: Entering Eagle – Transcript". NASA. April 11, 2010 . Retrieved February 14, 2022. I'd like to say hello to all my fellow Scouts and Scouters at Farragut State Park in Idaho having a National Jamboree there this week; and Apollo 11 would like to send them best wishes". Capsule communicator Charles Duke replied: "Thank you, Apollo 11. I'm sure that, if they didn't hear that, they'll get the word through the news. Certainly appreciate that.

When Neil was a child growing up in rural America, he loved to learn all about aeroplanes and space. He got his student pilot’s licence when he was just 16 — before he even learned to drive a car! Helping out at a difficult time, Armstrong served as vice chairman of the Presidential Commission on the space shuttle Challenger accident in 1986. The commission investigated the explosion of the Challenger on January 28, 1986, which took the lives of its crew, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. After Armstrong retired from NASA in 1971, he acted as a spokesman for several businesses. The first company to successfully approach him was Chrysler, for whom he appeared in advertising starting in January 1979. Armstrong thought they had a strong engineering division, and they were in financial difficulty. He later acted as a spokesman for other American companies, including General Time Corporation and the Bankers Association of America. [179] He acted as a spokesman for only American companies. [180] Gemini-XI". NASA (Kennedy Space Center). August 25, 2000. Archived from the original on February 1, 2012 . Retrieved July 24, 2010.Johnston, John; Amrhein, Saundra; Thompson, Richelle (July 18, 1999). "Neil Armstrong, Reluctant Hero". The Cincinnati Enquirer . Retrieved March 4, 2018. Baese-Berk, M. M.; Dilley, L. C.; Schmidt, S.; Morrill, T. H.; Pitt, M. A. (2016). "Revisiting Neil Armstrong's Moon-Landing Quote: Implications for Speech Perception, Function Word Reduction, and Acoustic Ambiguity". PLOS ONE. 11 (9): 1–11. Bibcode: 2016PLoSO..1155975B. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155975. PMC 5014323. PMID 27603209. Beaver, David. "Armstrong's abbreviated article: the smoking gun?". Language Log. University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on November 8, 2017 . Retrieved February 28, 2018. Armstrong's authorized biography, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, was published in 2005. For many years, he turned down biography offers from authors such as Stephen Ambrose and James A. Michener but agreed to work with James R. Hansen after reading one of Hansen's other biographies. [272] He recalled his initial concerns about the Apollo 11 mission, when he had believed there was only a 50% chance of landing on the Moon. "I was elated, ecstatic and extremely surprised that we were successful". [273] A film adaptation of the book, starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Damien Chazelle, was released in October 2018. [274] Armstrong, Neil (July 16, 1999). "[Press conference with Neil Armstrong]". NASA History Division . Retrieved August 13, 2023.

In June 1958, Armstrong was selected for the U.S. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest program, but the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) canceled its funding on August 1, 1958, and on November 5, 1958, it was superseded by Project Mercury, a civilian project run by NASA. As a NASA civilian test pilot, Armstrong was ineligible to become one of its astronauts at this time, as selection was restricted to military test pilots. [61] [62] In November 1960, he was chosen as part of the pilot consultant group for the X-20 Dyna-Soar, a military space plane under development by Boeing for the U.S. Air Force, and on March 15, 1962, he was selected by the U.S. Air Force as one of seven pilot-engineers who would fly the X-20 when it got off the design board. [63] [64] Activity: Ask the children to write a newspaper article about Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon. Can they view an actual newspaper from 21 July 1969, detailing the Moon landing? (These can be found online). Ask pupils to imagine they are taking the first steps on the Moon and write a descriptive piece about what they can see, hear and what they can feel through their space suit. Armstrong and his first wife, Janet, separated in 1990 and divorced in 1994 after 38 years of marriage. [211] [212] He met his second wife, Carol Held Knight, at a golf tournament in 1992, when they were seated together at breakfast. She said little to Armstrong, but he called her two weeks later to ask what she was doing. She replied that she was cutting down a cherry tree, and he arrived at her house 35 minutes later to help. They were married in Ohio on June 12, 1994, and had a second ceremony at San Ysidro Ranch in California. They lived in Indian Hill, Ohio. [213] [214] Through his marriage to Carol, he was the father-in-law of future New York Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen. Project Apollo: Astronaut Biographies". NASA. Archived from the original on April 28, 2011 . Retrieved May 12, 2011.Jones, Eric M. "One Small Step, time 109:24:23". Apollo 11 Surface Journal. NASA. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013 . Retrieved December 18, 2012. Jones, Eric M. (November 1, 2005). "Apollo 11 Crew Information". Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal. NASA. Archived from the original on August 28, 2007 . Retrieved August 28, 2007. The book describes Armstrong's early life as pleasant and broadly conventional. As a young man, he became increasingly fascinated by aircraft and flying, and earned his pilot's licence before learning to drive an automobile. Armstrong's father is quoted as saying his son "never had a girl" and "didn't need a car" but simply "had... to get out to that airport." [1] [2] Gray, Richard (December 30, 2012). "Neil Armstrong's family reveal origins of 'one small step' line". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015 . Retrieved July 24, 2015. At 10:56 p.m., as Armstrong stepped off the ladder and planted his foot on the moon’s powdery surface, he spoke his famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and meant to be "that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

After the tour Armstrong took part in Bob Hope's 1969 USO show, primarily to Vietnam. [166] In May 1970, 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. 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". [167] At the end of the day, he was surprised to view a delayed video of the launch of Soyuz 9 as it had not occurred to Armstrong that the mission was taking place, even though Valentina Tereshkova had been his host and her husband, Andriyan Nikolayev, was on board. [168] Life after Apollo Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, presenting a badge to Neil Armstrong, Star City, Soviet Union, June 1970 Teaching President Obama's Statement on Neil Armstrong's Death". The Wall Street Journal. August 25, 2012. Archived from the original on August 29, 2012 . Retrieved August 26, 2012. On August 29, 1951, Armstrong saw action in the Korean War as an escort for a photo reconnaissance plane over Songjin. [27] Five days later, on September 3, he flew armed reconnaissance over the primary transportation and storage facilities south of the village of Majon-ni, west of Wonsan. According to Armstrong, he was making a low bombing run at 350mph (560km/h) when 6 feet (1.8m) of his wing was torn off after it collided with a cable that was strung across the hills as a booby trap. He was flying 500 feet (150m) above the ground when he hit it. While there was heavy anti-aircraft fire in the area, none hit Armstrong's aircraft. [28] An initial report to the commanding officer of Essex said that Armstrong's F9F Panther was hit by anti-aircraft fire. The report indicated he was trying to regain control and collided with a pole, which sliced off 2 feet (0.61m) of the Panther's right wing. Further perversions of the story by different authors added that he was only 20 feet (6.1m) from the ground and that 3 feet (0.91m) of his wing was sheared off. [29] F9F-2 Panthers over Korea, with Armstrong piloting S-116 (left) Armstrong married Janet Shearon on January 28, 1956. The couple soon added to their family. Son Eric arrived in 1957, followed by daughter Karen in 1959. Sadly, Karen died of complications related to an inoperable brain tumor in January 1962. The following year, the Armstrongs welcomed their third child, son Mark.Creech, Gray (July 15, 2004). "From the Mojave to the Moon: Neil Armstrong's Early NASA Years". NASA. Archived from the original on June 30, 2011 . Retrieved May 17, 2011. Purdue mourns alumnus Neil Armstrong". Purdue University. August 25, 2012. Archived from the original on December 16, 2017 . Retrieved April 2, 2018.