![]() ![]() Many people suspected the higher ups chose Armstrong due to his likable persona. The White House wanted the commander to be a civilian, and NASA leaders picked Armstrong both as the commander and the first one to step out of the lunar module and onto the moon dust. He continued to serve on crews for space flights until November 1967 when he was selected to command the Apollo 11 on a lunar mission. He flew his first mission as backup crew in 1965. He Flew Many, Many MissionsĪrmstrong was selected for NASA Astronaut Corps in September 1962, but he wasn’t considered NASA’s top guy. Armstrong initially hesitated, but he and his wife wanted to leave California after losing Karen. In 1962, NASA started a new project and invited civilian pilots to apply. When NASA first convened Project Mercury to pursue human space flight, Armstrong was ineligible because he was a civilian, not a military pilot. ![]() Soon after his daughter’s death, Armstrong decided to apply to a new NASA space project. Their group of friends met for cocktails, and Armstrong broke down after seeing a friend’s young daughter in her green party dress. One friend from Purdue recalled he returned to Indiana for the school’s homecoming events. Friends and co-workers remembered he aged quickly during this time and kept quiet about his loss. She had a tumor on her brain stem and later died of complications from the illness. He was a Private PersonĪrmstrong’s second child, Karen, died at the age of three in 1962. Whenever he flew over their house, Armstrong would tip the plane wings to say “hello” to his wife and young son below. They moved to California where Armstrong took a job at Edwards Air Force Base. The couple wed in 1956, and Armstrong began working as a test pilot after graduation. It appears he paid too much attention to the musical, and he received a C that term in psychology for engineers, a C in aircraft vibrations and a D in electrical engineering.Īrmstrong also met his first wife, Janet, at Purdue University where she was studying home economics. Armstrong twice wrote and directed his fraternity’s musical, including a version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. For the school’s Varsity Varieties, each fraternity had to present a short musical review. While finishing his bachelor’s in aeronautical engineering, Armstrong also joined a fraternity and had a bit of fun. The driver was a friend from flight school. To his surprise, an American military vehicle soon rumbled by and picked him up. He ejected over the water, but the winds dragged his parachute back toward land. Armstrong flew his plane toward the ocean and away from enemy territory. The wire ripped six feet off his right-wing. His plane hit a wire the North Koreans had strung up to damage low-flying planes. While serving in the Korean War in 1951, Armstrong was flying low at 500 feet and 350 miles per hour. Navy before returning to campus to finish his final two years. The program had him attend his first two years at Purdue, then leave for two years of flight training and one year of aviator service with the U.S. After graduating high school in Ohio in 1948, he attended Purdue University and had his tuition paid for by the Holloway Plan. But it took him decades of flying to gain the needed experience to safely navigate the spacecraft.Īrmstrong first received his pilot’s license at age 16. Many people remember Armstrong as the calm commander who landed Apollo 11 on the moon in 1969.
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