You might want to know these amazing Neil Armstrong facts for kids that includes his personal achievements, awards, initial career, and his remarks after coming from a historic journey.
Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on moon. It was the historical day of July 20, 1969 when Neil stepped out of the lunar module and walked on the moon and marked his words in the history of mankind, “One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind.” He was only 38 at that time.
Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930 in Wapakonita, Ohio. It was the result of several years of persistent efforts that continued in good times and bad times, or may be the outcome of a bitter competition from the feared rivals. It had to happen that day.
Neil Armstrong Facts For Kids
Armstrong was always willing to fly as high as one could dream of. Finally his dream came true when, after completing his degree from Purdue, he decided to join the then National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) which later became National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Eventually, he lived up to his inspiration but the journey did not stop.
Prominent among his achievements were those of initial flight hours which he had experienced while conducting 50 types of aircrafts. Armstrong while logging 2,450 hours also attained a speed of Mach 5.74 (4,000 mph) together with an altitude measuring at 63,198 meters (207,500 ft). He flew in the X-15 aircraft.
Technically, Armstrong was an engineer and he had a craze to become a pilot. Many non-engineering pilots condemned his flying technique by marking that Armstrong’s flying technique was too technical to do the job.
Some of his critics were Pete Knight and Chuck Yeager. They believed that flying is not all about moving sound in a mechanical manner rather it’s what you feel. One could hardly get this feeling while an engineer is flying.
It goes without saying that Armstrong was no less competent as compared to other non-engineer pilots but he was also involved in few ariel accidents.
Armstrong began studying aeronautical engineering in 1947 Purdue University while he was on Navy scholarship.
Neil Armstrong was married to Janet Shearon on January 1956. Janet initially gave birth to a son and a daughter whose names were Eric and Karen respectively. Karen however passed away because of incurable brain tumor. She died on January 1962. In the following year, the couple soon added another son to their family whose name was Mark.
In 1963, Armstrong was the first American civilian to fly in space. Earlier in 1957, he was picked for the MISS (Man In Space Soonest) mission.
On March 16 1966, Armstrong was sent on Gemini 8 mission. In the mission, Neil served as a Command Pilot and the crew was supposed to finish the first ever docking with the other unmanned Agena spacecraft. However, they couldn’t complete the ‘extra-vernacular activity’ even though they managed to dock with the craft after 6.5 hours. This had never taken place in the history before that the two vehicles successfully docked in space.
Armstrong was also deemed to be the only person to communicate directly with the astronauts on mission. He served as a CAPCOM for Gemini 11.
He served as the commander of the back-up crew of the Apollo program (Apollo 8).
Neil Armstrong was never going to set a first foot on the moon in fact one of his colleagues Buzz Aldrin was deemed to do this job in the start. However, the positions of astronauts in the module became complicated and Aldrin could only reach the hatch by crawling over Armstrong. So the plan was changed and finally it was decided that Armstrong would be the one to step out of module (upon landing) and make history.
People gave three astronauts a warm welcome when they returned to earth on July 24, 1969. Crowds all over the streets of New York were anxiously waiting to see this historic moment of their famous heroes. Consequently, Armstrong won many awards such as the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and a Medal of Freedom.
Armstrong underwent severe blocked coronary arteries as a result of which he had to go through bypass surgery on August 7, 2012. However he couldn’t held any longer and he passed away on August 25, 2012 in Ohio when the surgery caused several complications. On the eve of his death, White House pronounced Armstrong as ‘one of the greatest American heroes of all time’.
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