Neil Armstrong, the first human to step on the moon, passed away on August 25, 2012 at the age of 82. After having traveled so far, Armstrong died in the same state where he was born, Ohio.
Armstrong accomplished one of the great feats of the twentieth century with Apollo 11 landing on the moon. The mission also included Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.
Choice for Apollo 11 and Famous Words
Although it was not revealed at the time, NASA chose Armstrong for the honor of being the one to take the first human step on the moon that July 20, 1969 because his stoic and ego-less personality would make him a good heroic representative for NASA.
Armstrong later explained that his famous words that accompanied his step off the ladder onto the moon’s surface at 10:56:15 p.m. Eastern time came to him only after he and Aldrin had landed on the moon. To this day there is still some debate about whether he misspoke or whether the transmission omitted a key word.
What the world heard, and what was conveyed by reporters at the time, was, “That’s one small step for man, One giant leap for mankind.” Because “man” can also mean “mankind,” the correct quote would have been “one small step for [a] man.” Subsequent studies of the transmission seem to reveal that the reporters were right that the “a” was missing. Armstrong later explained that he wished history would remember the quote with the “a” in parenthesis.
After Apollo 11
For someone with such an achievement, Armstrong lived mostly out of the public eye after the moon landing. After working at NASA for a few more years, he joined the engineering faculty at the University of Cincinnati, later resigning in 1979 to pursue a career in business.
Armstrong did not say much publicly about his thoughts about the historic trip to the moon. He believed he should not get so much attention when his trip to the moon was such a team effort.
But in this BBC interview from 1970, Armstrong talks about the view from space and from the moon, describing the “deep black” sky.
It this day of modern celebrity where so many people are famous for just being famous, it is amazing that someone with such an accomplishment could walk down the street in his later years without anyone recognizing him or approaching him. Well, unless he happened to be walking down the street next to a Kardashian.
RIP Commander Armstrong.
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