NEIL ARMSTRONG'S BIRTHDAY

On this day in 1930, Neil Armstrong was born. He was an American astronaut, and the first person to ever walk on the Moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot and a University Professor. Before becoming an astronaut, Neil Armstrong was an officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the Korean War during the 1950’s. When the war had ended, he earned his bachelor’s degree and became a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (which then became NASA), where he logged over 900 flights. Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962, and made his first space flight, as command pilot of Gemini 8, becoming NASA’s first civilian astronaut to fly in space. His second and last space flight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing in July 1969. During this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent two and a half hours exploring.