Neil Armstrong's Speech

“That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind!” said Neil Armstrong as he was the very first person in history to walk on the moon. Now I know what your thinking, what a huge monumental moment for not only NASA (National, Aeronautics and, Space, Administration), but for the United States itself. These might be some amazing, mind blowing things that you might not have known about the famous Neil Armstrong. And most importantly how he went from small town Ohio boy, to world famous astronaut. Neil Armstrong’s story begins on August 5th 1930. He was a great kid, all he wanted to do was fly and in 1936, his dream came true. He had his very first airplane ride. His family loved him very much. His mother said,”a pleasure for us to

So Neil went to Purdue University on a Navy Scholarship. But in 1950 the Korean war started. So Neil had to put a hold on college and be deployed to Korea as a Navy pilot. He flew around 78 missions in the Navy. On on specific mission Armstrong was flying a Panther Jet (Fighter Jet) making a low bombing run in a hilly area. Then, his plane was hit by enemy gunfire and he lost control. Soon a wing was sheared off, but luckily with many years of flying lessons Neil took control and flew back to friendly territory. After the exiting event he found that he had a broken tailbone, but other than that, he was unhurt. He then later returned to college to receive his

Competing against The Soviet Union, President Kennedy was fixed on landing a man on the moon before 1970. A team of seven men were chosen to be the first group of astronauts. These people included, Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Donald Slayton, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra, and Alan Shepard. NASA soon wanted to bring more people into the space program. They wanted test pilots with an engineering background. Neil was perfect. He was younger than 35 years of age, he was under six feet tall ( So they could fit easily inside a small space capsule), and a highly skilled pilot. On September 17 1963 nine men were chosen, Neil was one of them. The Armstrongs moved to EL Lago, Texas near the space center. Also in 1963 they had another son named Mark. The astronauts had to be put through many years or training, but in the end it was all worth it. Neil and the other eight recruits were placed in the Jungle of Panama, to simulate that the spacecraft could land anywhere in the world. And if it landed away from NASA or the U.S. they would need to know how to survive until the government finds them. Sometimes the training would last 12 or more hours a day. Then in 1966 he put training to the test and Neil was the was the pilot of Gemini 8. Nasa was designing a to in one spacecraft for the moon. Their mission, was to reunite with a larger craft before returning to Earth. The mission was not a success, and instead of finishing, NASA insisted