Neil Armstrong was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon. He was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, in 1930. He studied aeronautical engineering at Purdue University and the University of Southern California.
Armstrong joined the U.S. Navy in 1949 and served as a fighter pilot during the Korean War. After the war, he worked as a test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). In 1962, he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut.
Armstrong's first spaceflight was on Gemini 8 in 1966. He and his co-pilot, David Scott, performed the first successful docking of two spacecraft in orbit. In 1969, Armstrong was the commander of Apollo 11, the first mission to land on the Moon.
On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. They spent about two and a half hours on the lunar surface, collecting samples and conducting experiments. Armstrong's first words on the Moon were, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
After Apollo 11, Armstrong retired from NASA and became a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati. He died in 2012 at the age of 82.
Armstrong was a brilliant engineer and a skilled pilot. He was also a humble and courageous man. His achievement of walking on the Moon is one of the greatest feats in human history.
