Astronaut Neil Armstrong Death

By placing the foot on the moon lives in front of hundreds of millions of viewers amazed, Neil Armstrong, died at age 82, became 20 July 1969 the first man to set foot on an alien world.

This modest man was instantly became a global hero, an icon of the Space Odyssey.

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”: his first words are immortal now in the history books. He then said little in public, fleeing microphones and cameras, and lived for decades in a remote farm in Ohio (north).

His legendary quote has also long been debated. The audio recording of the time, inefficient, suggest that it had omitted an article before the word man ("a" man, in English). Neil Armstrong has always claimed to have delivered a well-constructed sentence. And in 2006, a computer Australian gave reason for finding the missing word with sophisticated software. The definite article was preferred in the French translation.

As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, it was he who informed the control center in Houston, Texas (south) of the landing of the lunar module (LEM) driven by Buzz Aldrin: "Houston, here the basis of tranquility. The Eagle has landed. "

Then he made the leap on the lunar surface. Joined twenty minutes later by Aldrin. The two pioneers exploring places for two hours. They collect 21 kilos of rocks, taking pictures and planting an American flag.
The honor of making the first steps on the moon would have had to return to LEM pilot, Buzz Aldrin.
According to James Hansen, author of a biography of Neil Armstrong, NASA would have preferred the commander of Apollo 11, saying while he was better able to bear the burden of celebrity.


The trip to the Moon was the last space adventure of Neil Armstrong. An adventure that marked forever.
The commander had retired from the U.S. space agency in 1971 to become professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio until 1979.

Former astronaut was subsequently served on the Board of Directors of numerous companies including Lear Jet and United Airlines. He even appeared in a commercial for the automaker Chrysler.
His admirers are legion and sometimes fetish. In 2005, he discovered that his barber had sold her hair to a collector for $ 3,000...

Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio August 5, 1930, the young Armstrong had been fascinated since childhood by aircraft. He took flying lessons at age 15 and received his pilot's license a year later.

Later, he became naval aviator and makes 78 missions during the Korean War.

Armstrong also studying aeronautical engineering at Purdue University (Indiana, North) and obtained a Masters in the same discipline at the University of Southern California.

In 1955, he became a test pilot and flying on 50 different types of aircraft.

Seven years later, he was selected by NASA to become an astronaut.

In September 1966, he was on a flight with David Scott on Gemini 8 mission. The ship docks with another unmanned vehicle, carrying the first docking of two orbital space modules.

Then he comes the Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong entry in history.

A few years ago, it was not back on his legendary "there was no dust when you gave a kick."

Modest, he continued: "We have not done a very good job, especially me, not as good as I would have liked to collect rock samples (...) I thought, since we did no time to do it, that it was best to simply collect all the different kinds of possible samples as quickly as possible, throw them in the bag, return to the ship, and close up shop.”

In 2009, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins took the opportunity of one of their rare appearances common public at the Museum of Air and Space in Washington to advocate for future missions to Mars, the red planet.