Facts about Neil Armstrong
- 08
Circling the Moon 13 times during the Apollo 11 mission, Michael Collins orbited alone in the Command Module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface below.
- 07
Armstrong's right hand was injured in a 1962 X-15 accident when the aircraft's wing struck a launch pole, causing him to eject and suffer a fractured wrist that healed before his NASA astronaut selection.
- 06
Throughout his life, Neil Armstrong donated his personal Apollo 11 memorabilia and artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution rather than selling them, valuing historical preservation over financial gain.
- 05
On July 20, 1969, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the Moon, spending 2 hours and 31 minutes conducting experiments and collecting 47.5 pounds of lunar samples.
- 04
After leaving NASA in 1971, Neil Armstrong taught aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati for 10 years before retiring from public professional life.
- 03
Armstrong's test piloting career included flying the X-15 rocket plane to 207,500 feet in 1962, reaching the edge of space before his astronaut selection.
- 02
In 1970, Neil Armstrong turned down a lucrative offer to appear in a commercial endorsing a breakfast cereal, citing his preference for privacy after the Apollo 11 mission.
- 01
During his 1962 Gemini 8 mission, astronaut Neil Armstrong performed the first crewed docking of two spacecraft in orbit around Earth.