Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon and a giant of human exploration, has died. He was 82.
His family said Armstrong died after complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.
Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969, and was the first astronaut to exit the spacecraft. He was followed to the lunar surface by
Buzz Aldrin.
"That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong said.
The successful landing - and subsequent return to Earth - capped a hotly contested space race between the United States and the U.S.S.R. during the height of the Cold War, and vindicated President
John F. Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon.
"As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind's first small step on a world beyond our own," NASA administrator
Charles Bolden said in a prepared statement. "Besides being one of America's greatest explorers, Neil carried himself with a grace and humility that was an example to us all. When President Kennedy challenged the nation to send a human to the moon, Neil Armstrong accepted without reservation."
Armstrong was never quite comfortable with all the fame, he described himself as a "nerdy engineer," but to the end of his life he remained a champion for human spaceflight, appearing before Congress to testify in favor of NASA's keeping a robust manned program.
"He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits," his family said in a statement. "While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves."
Armstrong was the face of what is arguably America's top technological triumph, but for those who knew him in the spaceflight community, he quietly led by setting a good example.
"Neil Armstrong was one of the greatest human beings I have ever known," said Chris Kraft, NASA's first flight director. "He was a great American, a great astronaut, a great teacher, a great pilot and one of my closest friends. We grew up together at the NACA/NASA and were always working toward a better future for aeronautical engineering and space.""
Armstrong's death on Saturday caught much of the spaceflight community by surprise.
"The passing of Neil Armstrong has shocked all of us at the
Johnson Space Center," said former astronaut
Mike Coats, who directs the center. "The whole world knew Neil as the first man to step foot on the Moon, but to us he was a co-worker, a friend, and an outstanding spokesman for the Human Space Program. His quiet confidence and ability to perform under pressure set an example for all subsequent astronauts. Our role model will be missed."Armstrong was born Aug. 5, 1930, on a farm near Wapakoneta in western Ohio. He took his first airplane ride at age 6 and developed a fascination with aviation that prompted him to build model airplanes and conduct experiments in a homemade wind tunnel.
As a boy, he worked at a pharmacy and took flying lessons. He was licensed to fly at 16, before he got his driver's license.
Armstrong enrolled in
Purdue University to study aeronautical engineering but was called to duty with the
U.S. Navy in 1949 and flew 78 combat missions in Korea.
After the war, Armstrong finished his degree from Purdue and later earned a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the
University of Southern California. He became a test pilot with what evolved into the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, flying more than 200 kinds of aircraft from gliders to jets.
He was accepted into NASA's second astronaut class in 1962 - the first, including Glenn, was chosen in 1959 - and commanded the Gemini 8 mission in 1966. After the first space docking, he brought the capsule back in an emergency landing in the Pacific Ocean when a wildly firing thruster kicked it out of orbit.
Armstrong was backup commander for the historic Apollo 8 mission at Christmas time in 1968. In that flight, Commander
Frank Borman, and
Jim Lovell and
Bill Anders circled the moon 10 times, and paving the way for the lunar landing seven months later.
Aldrin said he and Armstrong were not prone to free exchanges of sentiment.
"But there was that moment on the moon, a brief moment, in which we sort of looked at each other and slapped each other on the shoulder ... and said, 'We made it. Good show,' or something like that," Aldrin said.
An estimated 600 million people - a fifth of the world's population - watched and listened to the landing, the largest audience for any single event in history.
Parents huddled with their children in front of the family television, mesmerized by what they were witnessing. Farmers abandoned their nightly milking duties, and motorists pulled off the highway and checked into motels just to see the moonwalk.
Television-less campers in California ran to their cars to catch the word on the radio. Boy Scouts at a camp in Michigan watched on a generator-powered television supplied by a parent.
Afterward, people walked out of their homes and gazed at the moon, in awe of what they had just seen. Others peeked through telescopes in hopes of spotting the astronauts.
In Wapakoneta, media and souvenir frenzy was swirling around the home of Armstrong's parents.
"You couldn't see the house for the news media," recalled
John Zwez, former manager of the
Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum. "People were pulling grass out of their front yard."
Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were given ticker tape parades in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and later made a 22-nation world tour. A homecoming in Wapakoneta drew 50,000 people to the city of 9,000.
In 1970, Armstrong was appointed deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA but left the following year to teach aerospace engineering at the
University of Cincinnati.
He remained there until 1979 and during that time bought a 310-acre farm near Lebanon, where he raised cattle and corn. He stayed out of public view, accepting few requests for interviews or speeches.
"He didn't give interviews, but he wasn't a strange person or hard to talk to," said
Ron Huston, a colleague at the University of Cincinnati. "He just didn't like being a novelty."
Those who knew him said he enjoyed golfing with friends, was active in the local YMCA and frequently ate lunch at the same restaurant in Lebanon.
In 2000, when he agreed to announce the top 20 engineering achievements of the 20th century as voted by the
National Academy of Engineering, Armstrong said there was one disappointment relating to his moonwalk.
"I can honestly say - and it's a big surprise to me - that I have never had a dream about being on the moon," he said.
The first man to walk on the moon has died.
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