During this mission with pilot David Scott, he performed the first docking of two spacecraft the mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his re-entry control fuel to stabilize a dangerous roll caused by a stuck thruster. He made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs.Īrmstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in the second group, which was selected in 1962. He was the project pilot on Century Series fighters and flew the North American X-15 seven times. After the war, he completed his bachelor's degree at Purdue and became a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He saw action in the Korean War, flying the Grumman F9F Panther from the aircraft carrier USS Essex. He became a midshipman in 1949 and a naval aviator the following year. Navy paying his tuition under the Holloway Plan. He entered Purdue University, studying aeronautical engineering, with the U.S. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.Īrmstrong was born and raised in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969.
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