HEROES OF SPACE
NEIL ARMSTRONG
Armstrong’s legacy as the first human on the Moon will forever be remembered
Born on his grandparents’ farm near Wapakoneta, Ohio, on 5 August 1930, Neil Alden Armstrong developed an early interest in flying. He had his student pilot’s licence at the age of 16, before he’d even passed his automobile driver’s test. He received a scholarship from the US Navy after high school and studied aeronautical engineering at Purdue University, Indiana. Armstrong was later called up for active duty in the Korean War, flying 78 combat missions from 1950. In 1952 he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the successor of which would become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He transferred to NASA’s Flight Research Center in California in the mid-1950s, piloting several experimental aircraft, including the 6,437 kilometre (4,000 mile) per hour X-15 rocket jet. In total he flew over 200 different types of aircraft.