American astronaut
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External Websites
- The MY HERO Project - Neil Armstrong
- New Mexico Museum of Space History - Neil A. Armstrong
- NASA - Neil A. Armstrong
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum - Remembering Neil Armstrong
- Space.com - Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon
- National Aviation Hall of Fame - Biography of Neil Alden Armstrong
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- Neil Armstrong - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
- Neil Armstrong - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
Also known as: Neil Alden Armstrong
Written and fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: •Article History
Quick Facts
- In full:
- Neil Alden Armstrong
- Born:
- August 5, 1930, Wapakoneta, Ohio, U.S.
- Died:
- August 25, 2012, Cincinnati, Ohio (aged 82)
- Also Known As:
- Neil Alden Armstrong
- Awards And Honors:
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (1969)
- Role In:
- Korean War
- Apollo 11
See all related content
Top Questions
Why is Neil Armstrong famous?
Why is Neil Armstrong famous?
Neil Armstrong is famous for being the first person to set foot on the Moon. He was a part of the Apollo 11 spaceflight alongside Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Apollo 11’s success in 1969 opened a new era of space exploration.
What was Neil Armstrong’s childhood like?
What was Neil Armstrong’s childhood like?
Neil Armstrong grew up in Wapakoneta, Ohio, as the eldest of three children. At age six he flew on an airplane for the first time, an experience that ignited in him a passion for aviation. He earned his pilot’s license on his 16th birthday and became a naval air cadet the following year.
How did Neil Armstrong get involved with NASA?
How did Neil Armstrong get involved with NASA?
After earning a degree in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University in 1955, Neil Armstrong became a civilian research pilot for what would later become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He flew more than 2,450 hours before joining the space program in 1962.
What happened on Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 mission?
What happened on Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 mission?
On July 20, 1969, some 600 million television viewers watched the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar soil and said, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” He and crewmate Buzz Aldrin departed after over 21 hours of scientific tests and sample collection on the Moon.
What did Neil Armstrong do after Apollo 11?
What did Neil Armstrong do after Apollo 11?
After their successful Apollo 11 mission in 1969, Neil Armstrong and his crewmates toured over 20 countries to celebrate a new era of space exploration. Armstrong received the Presidential Medal of Freedom that year. He resigned from NASA in 1971 and immersed himself in various academic and professional pursuits for the rest of his life.
Neil Armstrong (born August 5, 1930, Wapakoneta, Ohio, U.S.—died August 25, 2012, Cincinnati, Ohio) was a U.S. astronaut, and the first person to set foot on the Moon.
Early life and career
Neil Armstrong was the eldest of three children born to Viola Louise Engel and Stephen Koenig Armstrong, a state auditor. Neil’s passion for aviation and flight was kindled when he took his first airplane ride at age 6. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America and earned the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank attainable. He became a licensed pilot on his 16th birthday and a naval air cadet in 1947. His studies in aeronautical engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, were interrupted in 1950 by his service in the Korean War, during which he was shot down once and was awarded three Air Medals. He completed his degree in 1955 and immediately became a civilian research pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), later the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He flew more than 1,100 hours, testing various supersonic fighters as well as the X-15 rocket plane.
In 1962 Armstrong joined the space program with its second group of astronauts. On March 16, 1966, Armstrong, as command pilot of Gemini 8, and David R. Scott rendezvoused with an unmanned Agena rocket and completed the first manual space docking maneuver. After the docking, a rocket thruster malfunction sent the spacecraft into an uncontrolled spin and forced them to separate from the Agena. Armstrong then regained control of the Gemini craft and made an emergency splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Britannica QuizFamous Astronauts and CosmonautsMoon landing
On July 16, 1969, Armstrong, along with Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins, blasted off in the Apollo 11 vehicle toward the Moon (see Apollo program). Four days later, at 4:17 pm U.S. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), the Eagle lunar landing module, guided manually by Armstrong, touched down on a plain near the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility (Mare Tranquillitatis). At 10:56 pm EDT on July 20, 1969, Armstrong stepped from the Eagle onto the Moon’s dusty surface with the words, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” (In the excitement of the moment, Armstrong skipped the “a” in the statement that he had prepared.) Armstrong and Aldrin left the module for more than two hours and deployed scientific instruments, collected surface samples, and took numerous photographs.
On July 21, after 21 hours and 36 minutes on the Moon, they lifted off to rendezvous with Collins and begin the voyage back to Earth. After splashdown in the Pacific at 12:51 pm EDT on July 24, the three astronauts spent 18 days in quarantine to guard against possible contamination by lunar microbes. During the days that followed, and during a tour of 21 nations, they were hailed for their part in the opening of a new era in human exploration of the universe.
Timeline of the Apollo program
Between 1968 and 1972, 24 Apollo astronauts visited the Moon, and 12 of them walked on its surface. Scroll through the timeline of the Apollo missions that led the United States to land the first humans on the Moon, and see how Armstrong fits into this storied history.
Later career
Armstrong resigned from NASA in 1971. After Apollo 11 he shied away from being a public figure and confined himself to academic and professional endeavors. From 1971 to 1979 he was professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio). After 1979 Armstrong served as chairman or director for a number of companies, among them Computing Technologies for Aviation from 1982 to 1992 and AIL Systems (later EDO Corporation), a maker of electronic equipment for the military, from 1977 until his retirement in 2002. He also served on the National Commission on Space (NCOS), a panel charged with setting goals for the space program, and on the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, the group appointed in 1986 to analyze the safety failures in the Challenger disaster. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Mindy Johnston.