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Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. He was an astronaut who had previously flown on the Gemini program. Armstrong was born in 1930 and became an Eagle Scout before studying aeronautical engineering at Purdue University. He served in the Navy during the Korean War and returned to Purdue to finish his degree. After the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong became a professor at the University of Cincinnati and participated in the investigation of the Challenger disaster. He remarried in 1994 after divorcing his first wife, Janet Shearon.
On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong uttered the famous words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” as he set foot on the soil of the moon, the first man to stand or walk on the moon . These words, and the Apollo 11 moon landing, are perhaps among the most memorable of the 20th century. Many people who witnessed the first moon landing in 1920 comment that it is one of the most impressive memories in the history of their lives. Armstrong was the quintessential astronaut; sometimes overshadowing those other NASA astronauts who bravely risked their lives and sometimes lost them in the space race to the moon. Notably, some tend to forget that Buzz Aldrin also walked on the moon with Armstrong during that historic mission.
Neil Armstrong’s road to the moon began inauspiciously enough with his birth in 1930. Like Jim Lovell and many others who would serve in NASA’s program, Armstrong was an avid explorer, earning him the rank of Eagle Scout. This was more difficult for Armstrong to accomplish, since his father and his family moved repeatedly to his birth state of Ohio (his father was an Ohio government official). The Armstrong family’s latest move, back to his hometown of Wapakoneta, at least allowed Armstrong to finish high school, where he displayed a strong aptitude for the sciences. This led him to study first at Purdue University, where he earned a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering.
Money problems meant college continuation would have to be put on hold for Neil Armstrong. He was able to attend Purdue under the Holloway Plan, which gave full tuition for two years and then required three years of military service before the scholarship recipients could complete their four-year degrees. In 1949, Neil Armstrong was called up to serve in the Navy, and did so as a pilot, taking part in the Korean War and logging numerous flights. He officially left his military service in 1960, but returned to Purdue in the mid-1950s to finish his college degree, where he met and married his first wife, Janet Shearon. The couple had three children together, but lost their daughter Karen when she was three.
Armstrong officially became an astronaut in 1962. His first missions were with the Gemini program, and he was on both Gemini 8 and Gemini 11 flights. These earlier flights would be far eclipsed by the Apollo 11 mission, with Armstrong as commander. Armstrong has stated in interviews since the flight that he was only 50% sure that the flight would also land on the moon, and admits to having some fears and difficulties during space travel. After the successful Apollo 11 mission, he declared his intention to never fly into space again. He went on to serve briefly at NASA but left in 1971 to pursue a career as a professor at the University of Cincinnati.
Neil Armstrong’s career has been diverse. He participated in the investigation into the 1985 Challenger shuttle disaster and served as a spokesperson on many occasions. He has also served on or headed boards of directors for a variety of companies and in 1979 became an official spokesperson for Chrysler. He has expressed disinterest in a political career although he has been approached by both Democrats and Republicans about running for a variety of positions. Armstrong and Shearon divorced in 1994, and Neil Armstrong remarried Carol Held Knight, shortly after his divorce was finalized.
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