This Day, That Year – August 5

This day in history we feature Neil Armstrong. An American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon, was born on this day in 1930.

Trivia – Neil Armstrong

Armstrong was born and raised in Wapakoneta, Ohio. A graduate of Purdue University, he studied aeronautical engineering. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. He was the project pilot on Century Series fighters and flew the North American X-15 seven times. Neil was also a participant in the U.S. Air Force’s Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs.

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Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in the second group, which was selected in 1962. He made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8, becoming NASA’s first civilian astronaut to fly in space. 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. On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) pilot Buzz Aldrin became the first people to land on the Moon. He served on the Apollo 13 accident investigation and on the Rogers Commission, which investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. In 2012, Armstrong died due to complications resulting from coronary bypass surgery, at the age of 82.

Source – Wikipedia

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