Neil Alden Armstrong, American astronaut, the first man to walk on the moon, was born on August 5, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio, USA. In 1947 he graduated from the High School in Wapakoneta. While studying in high school, he trained at the city aviation school WFS.
In 1947 he entered the University of Purdue (Purdue University), where he began to conduct research in the field of aeronautical engineering. In 1949, Neal had to interrupt his studies - he was drafted into the US Navy. In 1950, Neil Armstrong became a Navy pilot and was sent to Korea.
From 1950-1952, he participated in the Korean War, in which he made 78 sorties in the Grumman F9F Panther fighter and was shot down once. Received the Air Operations Medal and two Gold Star medals.
In 1952 he returned to Purdue University, from which he successfully graduated in 1955 with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering.
In 1955, Armstrong began working at the LA Propulsion Laboratory. Lewis (Flight Propulsion Laboratory). And a year later, in 1956, he went to work at the NASA-owned High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base (Edwards AFB) in California (now the Dryden Flight Research Center, Dryden Flight Research Center). He took part in the testing of experimental and experimental aircraft F-100A and F-100C, F-101, F-104A, X-1B, X-5, F-105, F-106, B-47, KC-135.
In June 1958, he was selected for training as an astronaut as part of the Air Force Command's MISS (Man In Space Soonest) program. However, after all the work on the first manned flight was given to NASA in August 1958, the program was curtailed.
In October 1958, he was included in a group of pilots who were preparing to fly on an experimental Kh-15 rocket aircraft. Between November 30, 1960 and July 26, 1962, Armstrong flew a total of seven X-15 flights. The highest altitude he was able to reach was 63,246 m, and this happened during his sixth flight on April 20, 1962.
In April 1960, Armstrong was included in a secret group of seven astronauts for the X-20 Dyna-Soar military program. He was engaged in the development of X-20 landing operations on specially equipped F-102A and F5D simulator aircraft. However, in the summer of 1962, seeing the futility of this program and hoping to continue his astronaut career at NASA, he left the X-20 pilot group.
In September 1962, he was enrolled in the second set of NASA astronauts, having passed the selection of 250 candidates. Passed training for flights under the Gemini and Apollo programs.
On March 16-17, 1966, as commander of Gemini 8, Neil Armstrong made his first flight into space. Due to the abort of the flight, most of the tasks planned for Gemini 8 remained unfulfilled, but the main goal - the first docking with the Agena unmanned rocket - was achieved. The flight duration was 10 hours 41 minutes 26 seconds.
On June 16, 1969, as commander of Apollo 11, he began his second, history-making space flight. On July 20, 1969 (July 21 at 3:56 CET), Neil Armstrong jumped off the last stage of the lunar lander in front of millions of television viewers watching the moon landing live. "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," he said. "This is a small step for a man, a big leap for mankind." Armstrong spent 2 hours and 21 minutes outside the spacecraft.
He returned to Earth on July 24, 1969. The duration of the flight was 8 days 3 hours 18 minutes 35 seconds.
From 1969-1971, after flying to the Moon, Armstrong worked as Deputy Chief of Aeronautics at NASA.
In 1970, he received a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California. From August 1971 to 1979 he worked as a professor of mechanics at the University of Cincinnati (University of Cincinnati).
In August 1974, Armstrong retired from NASA and went into private business. From 1980‑1982 he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cardwell International, Ltd in Lebanon, Ohio. From 1982-1992 he was Chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation, Inc., in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the same time, from 1981 to 1999, Armstrong served on the board of directors of Eaton Corp.
In 1986, he became deputy chairman of the commission investigating the causes of the Challenger shuttle disaster.
In 2000, Armstrong was elected chairman of the board of directors of EDO Corp, a major manufacturer of electronics and instruments for the aerospace and defense industries.
Since 2005, he has been a member of the NASA Advisory Board.
Armstrong's vast array of awards include the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
He was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. In 2009, Armstrong was awarded the US Congressional Gold Medal.
August 25, 2012 by Neil Armstrong. The cause of death was complications that arose after the coronary arteries of the heart.
The astronaut has been married twice. Children (from first marriage): sons Eric (Eric) and Mark (Mark), daughter Karen (Karen).
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Want to get to know a person better? Ask him about the moon landing. His answer will allow you to immediately determine whether it is worth continuing to communicate with him, hiring or signing a long-term contract.
The point here, in fact, is not the Americans and the attitude towards them ... Although no, this is also the case. Let's admit that now in Russian society the attitude towards America is negative, many are not satisfied with their foreign policy, technological superiority, sanctions. But today's attitude of a person to someone or something is in no way able to influence the events of the past. And here is the first characteristic of a person: is his subjective view and preferences capable of influencing an adequate perception of reality? Do you need such a friend, partner or colleague who builds his own little world in his imagination, where he can live comfortably? Yes, we all live in such worlds, but some still try not to break away from reality.
Landing on the moon is a most complicated technical operation that required the efforts of tens of thousands of highly qualified professionals. This is a colossal innovation and risk. And all the details of this mission are detailed in millions of pages of published documents, scientific publications, photos and video. To understand the details of the flight to the moon and return back, not only and not so much engineering and space competence is required, but the desire to find out how it was. How did they land and take off? Where is the lunar soil now and who is studying it? What footprints are left on the moon and how to see them? Can cosmic radiation harm people in flight?.. All questions have answers. But if a person continues to ask them, expecting or demanding answers from you, then this is also his characteristic: he is not ready to seek new knowledge, is incapable or lazy in finding answers to questions that interest him, and he is quite satisfied with the first version of the answer that came across, if he just likes or fits his beliefs. When a space engineer asks such questions, it is simply an admission of his incompetence, and, unfortunately, such questions are now working at Roscosmos enterprises. Fortunately, they are few.
The lunar conspiracy is a big lie, a big fear and a big venality. It will take thousands of people involved in faking the various stages of the mission. After all, it’s not enough to make a movie, you still need to hide a hundred-meter rocket somewhere after launch, assemble a model of a landing ship, dig it out, and then rip kilometers of the “lunar” surface without a trace. Well, it's Americans, everyone knows how they know how to make movies, love money and are able to tell tales about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction or the nobility of Syrian terrorists. But after all, the lunar conspiracy requires the involvement of a much larger circle of people from other countries. What about the specialists who ensured the flights of Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz, built the H1 superrocket, and taxied the Lunokhods on the Moon? They had no doubts about the validity of the landing, and tell how they closely followed the American lunar program. So are they idiots or liars? Were they deceived by a Hollywood craft that schoolchildren with photoshop are now exposing, or for some reason did they get involved in the biggest lie in the history of mankind? What about European, Soviet and Russian, Japanese and Indian scientists who studied the lunar soil, launched satellites to the Moon and did not see any signs of a fake? Did they sell out or were they intimidated so that they agreed to lie and sacrifice all their scientific authority?
Or maybe everything is simpler: there was a real landing, our specialists congratulated the competitors on a worthy victory, and cosmonauts, astronauts and scientists from all over the world continued to study space and the Moon together? And only a believer in a conspiracy is ready to admit that the most worthy representatives of humanity are corrupt and / or cowardly liars. What, then, does he think of those around him in everyday life, including you?
The flight to the Moon is the most outstanding achievement of Mankind. The unattainable pinnacle of science and technology of the entire civilization of the Earth. Without Mendeleev, the fuel would not have flared up, without Kepler, the orbit would not have been laid, without Pythagoras, the drawing of the ship and rocket would not have appeared. This is our victory too. Although the Americans left traces in the dust, but without the flights of Gagarin and Leonov, there would have been no steps of Armstrong and Cernan. It was a race, and it is impossible if someone is running alone. This is one of those achievements that is possible only thanks to bold decisions, high concentration of strength and will, faith in a person’s ability to create the impossible and make dreams come true. Denying or even doubting the landing on the moon is a voluntary rejection of all these qualities. Ask the doubters of the lunar program what they think about the construction of the pyramids. I guarantee with a 95% chance that these people will tell you about aliens or the Atlantean civilization or whatever, instead of admitting that a simple Egyptian in a reed bandage with a copper pick in his hands was capable of such an incredible construction. This is not a matter of technology, it is a matter of attitude, because each of us looks at others through the prism of ourselves. Am I capable of great things? It means that others are the same: both the peasant of the Old Kingdom, and the engineer of the USA. So who would you like to be friends with and work with, someone who doesn't believe in themselves and others, or someone who is ready for great things?
From 1968 to 1972, the US sent a number of people to the moon. Twelve of them walked along it. Since then, no one has returned to the moon. Over the years, much of what these people did while they were there has either become of no interest to the public or is simply ignored. Most people know that Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon, and that's enough.
Thanks to the popular movie, many of us are familiar with the Apollo 13 mission, which miraculously returned to Earth after an onboard explosion. Still there are tons more interesting facts about what these people did and said during their historical journeys. We have compiled a list of such facts for you.
One of the most popular photographs of the first moon landing shows Buzz Aldrin standing next to an American flag. However, this flag had a very unfortunate fate, as it fell a few hours later when Neil Armstrong returned to the command module. After Aldrin pressed the rocket launch button, he looked out the window and saw how the nozzle explosion swept everything away, including the infamous flag.
Remarkably, the other flags still on the Moon, placed there by successive astronauts, and which were placed far enough away from the rocket, all turned white. For forty years, unfiltered sunlight and radiation have completely burned out the red and blue colors.
Unauthorized psychic experiments
During the Apollo 14 mission, unbeknownst to the Houston authorities (and even the crew members), Edgar D. Mitchell performed several unscheduled extrasensory perception experiments. During the first hours of his sleep time on the way to the moon and back, Mitchell focused on the symbols that are commonly used in psychic trials. Together with a group of doctors in Florida, he arranged the sessions in advance, hoping to figure out if thoughts could be transmitted thousands of kilometers into space. The results were zero, to put it mildly.
Apparently, Mitchell and his partners on Earth were out of sync. In any case, the results were published in the 1971 issue of The Journal of Parapsychology, for no reason.
When we think of astronauts, the stern and strong-willed men who participated in the beginning of the space program, we would never imagine them sobbing and wiping away tears if not for Alan Shepard. Truly, this is one of the most underrated American astronauts. Not only was he one of the first Americans in space, but at the age of 47, he became the oldest person to ever walk on the moon. After resigning from the space program a few years earlier due to an inner ear disorder, Shepard vowed to fight the affliction and return to the game. In early 1971, he was part of the Apollo 14 mission.
By the way, this is the same astronaut who on the Moon made the longest throw in history (“for miles and miles”). However, few people know that this very astronaut could not restrain his emotions when he took his first steps on the lunar surface. Alan Shepard cried while standing on the moon. Although what is there such a thing - in the end, he could not wipe his tears in any way.
Lunar communion
Astronauts have been warned by NASA bosses that since virtually the entire world will be listening, they should not participate in any religious ordinances while traveling to the moon. Since they represent the whole of humanity, why offend members of other faiths? However, Buzz Aldrin considered the occasion too important to let slip by.
Thus, after the landing was completed and everyone was waiting for the historic steps, Aldrin turned on the radio and asked everyone who was listening to find a way to mark this moment in history and thank everyone they saw fit. For him, this meant opening a small flask of wine and taking out the loaves of bread he had brought with him. After reciting a passage from the Gospel, he ate bread and drank wine, becoming the first and so far the only person to honor the Christian ritual of communion on the moon. Neil Armstrong watched his partner with respect but indifference.
First words
Neil Armstrong's famous words when he took the first step on the moon are (according to the official story): "It's one small step for a man, but a giant leap for all mankind." Of course, these words have become the subject of endless debate, plus many argue that he misspoke and said not “for a man”, but “for a man”, which slightly underestimates the significance of his words.
In fact, the first words that were spoken on the surface of the moon while still inside the ship are usually understood as the first words after a safe landing, namely: “Houston, here is the base of tranquility. The eagle has landed. However, there was so much technical jargon exchanged between the astronauts before and after these words that it's actually hard to tell which words were first spoken on the Moon.
To complicate matters further, Armstrong's landing was so soft that no one could be completely sure what he said immediately after landing. Decryptions come down to three possible options. Aldrin could indicate that the contact light had turned on by saying "contact light". Armstrong could then instruct Aldrin to turn off the trigger motor with the words "switch off". Aldrin turned off the engine and said "ok, stop the engine." None of these phrases were significant, so it is perhaps better to take Armstrong's message to mission control in Houston as a starting point.
What does the moon smell like?
Astronauts visiting the moon were surprised by its pungent smell. Of course, they didn't feel it until they got back to the lunar module and took off their suits. The smallest powder was everywhere, on the hands and on the faces of the astronauts. Some have tasted moon dust. But the first contact of lunar dust with oxygen in four billion years gave rise to a very specific smell.
Most astronauts described it as the smell of spent gunpowder, which they were familiar with from their military service. Why did he smell like that? Unknown. Chemically, the moon and gunpowder are not similar at all, so there are various theories as to why this happened. The first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, said that the moon smelled like wet ashes in a fireplace.
Records or prestige
Of course, "-11" can be called the "highlight of the program", and in general this is a very expressive moment in space exploration by mankind. However, the dress rehearsal for this mission, Apollo 10, set several records that have yet to be broken. In addition to the cool names (Command Module Charlie Brown and Lunar Module Snoopy), the three men who flew on the mission went down in history as the people who traveled further from home than anyone else. Eugene Cernan, Thomas Stafford, and John Young traveled more than 408,950 kilometers from Houston when they reached the far side of the moon.
Due to the timing of their mission, the Moon was particularly far from the Earth, and the planet's rotation flipped Houston to the opposite side of the Earth. Even though the crew of Apollo 13 was technically further from the Earth's surface, Apollo 13 traveled a gigantic distance from its launch point. After setting this record, the team set another one - they picked up a speed of 39,897 kilometers per hour, returning home. At the moment, this is the maximum speed at which a person has ever moved.
Lunar Module Pilots
Astronaut Pete Conrad was a man who expanded horizons. As commander of Apollo 12, the second manned flight to the Moon, he waited until his module was on the dark side of the Moon and out of radio signals, and then did the unthinkable: on the way from the surface of the Moon to the lunar module, he allowed his pilot to fly, " hold the helm." Thus, he, as it were, showed that "lunar module pilot" is not just a name.
The job of the lunar module pilot (like many others) was to ensure that the commander received all the information needed to fly under his command. He could only fly the lunar module if the commander couldn't fly for certain reasons that never happened. As they drifted on the dark side of the moon, Conrad turned to the pilot, Alan Bean, and said, "You can steer this transport for a minute." Surprised but pleased, Bean was happy to take control, if only for a little while.
Priceless sculpture
David Scott, commander of Apollo 15, wanted to pay tribute to the many people who . Before starting his mission, he asked the Belgian artist Paul von Hooydonk to create a small statue that could honor all the astronauts - American and Russian - who died in pursuit of the dream of all mankind. The sculpture looked like a human, but did not represent race, gender, or nationality. There was no commercial profit from the goodwill gesture, just a tribute to the memory of all the astronauts who died in the line of duty.
The artist agreed, and on August 1, 1971, the crew of Apollo 15 left a finger-sized figurine atop Mons Hadley next to a plaque bearing the names of 14 famous cosmonauts who had died (in fact, two more Soviet cosmonauts had died by this point, but the USSR not reported yet). A few years later, the artist decided to "raise" some money by selling signed copies of the sculpture, but Scott convinced him that this was a violation of the agreement. Perhaps someday a small statue will be in the lunar museum on the surface of the moon.
scientist on the moon
As the Apollo program was canceled due to budget cuts, NASA came under more and more pressure from the scientific community to send a real scientist to the moon while they could. Up to this point, NASA had only sent its own test pilots trained as astronauts. But they took only an abbreviated course in geology and, of course, could not replace those who devoted their whole lives to the study of rocks.
What did Neil Armstrong eat on the moon?
We have already learned that when the rocket took off, the American flag fixed on the Moon fell due to the explosion of the nozzle. We also learned that the first words of a man on the moon sounded different than is commonly believed. But do you know what kind of food the astronauts tried during the first landing on the surface of our satellite?
It is believed that the first dish Neil Armstrong tasted on the moon was a baked turkey. Of course, it was not at all like a Thanksgiving dish, but was in liquid form. But the second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, tasted bread and wine. The fact is that he was an elder in the church and decided to conduct the Christian rite of the Eucharist.
With that in mind, NASA began hiring scientists and training them in astronautics, right down to how to fly a plane. These guys had no chance, but when it became known that Apollo 17 would be the last mission to the moon, Harrison Schmitt, a Harvard geologist, was called. He had completed the intensive training required to qualify as an astronaut and was ready to go.
Needless to say, sending a geologist to the moon is like sending a military historian during the Great Patriotic War. Schmitt spent three days poking around on the moon and even brought back some interesting specimens. Other scientists went into space later, but Schmitt remained one of those who walked on the moon.
By the way, this nuance was played up in the recent blockbuster "Watchmen" - I saw the director's cut with subtitles the other day, great thing! A small quote from "Battle for the Moon":
On July 21, 1969, at 2:57 GMT, 109 hours and 24 minutes after launch from the earth's surface, Neil Armstrong said, "That one small step for man is one giant leap for mankind."
Interestingly, this first phrase of a man on the moon has long been the subject of heated debate. In the original, it sounds like this: “That"s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", but it would be more correct to write and say: "That"s one small step for a man", however, the article "a" on the record transmitted from "Apollo 11" is not audible. What does it change? Just the meaning of the message. Due to the vagaries of English grammar, it actually came out that Armstrong said "One small step for mankind, one giant leap for mankind", since in the spoken phrase the words "for man" instead of "for a man" mean "for the human race" rather than for "man" (in the sense, "for me, Armstrong").
The Americans started talking about this mistake of the first man on the moon immediately after the flight. Over time, it turned into one of the so-called "urban legends", the meaning of which boils down to the following: "Do you know that poor Neal was so worried that he inadvertently made a grammatical mistake?"
Armstrong himself always assured that he said everything correctly, and the ill-fated article "a" was probably drowned out by statistical interference during radio transmission.
Australian programmer Peter Shann Ford became interested in this old story. He took a recording of Armstrong's phrase, processed it using a special program and found a clear trace of the pronounced "a" - thus, the astronaut was proven right, which greatly pleased the latter.
However, there are people who are sure that the first phrase that Neil Armstrong uttered when he set foot on the moon was not a small speech about the “first step”, but a cryptic wish: “Good luck to you, Mr. Kampinski!” (English: "Good luck, Mr. Kumpinski!"). Proponents of this "urban legend" claim that as a child, young Neil accidentally overheard a quarrel between his neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Kampinski. And allegedly, Mrs. Kampinski, in the heat of the moment, shouted at her husband: “I hate you, freak! I'll take it in your mouth only if the neighbor boy takes a walk on the moon!
The legend looks more than doubtful, because, firstly, it is too literary; secondly, it is known that Armstrong, even compared to other NASA astronauts, was always more balanced and laconic, and therefore carefully monitored what he said and how; thirdly, those who like to retell this legend cannot agree on what the name of Armstrong's neighbor was - Kampinski, Gorski, Gurski, Brown, or even Marriot? ..
Sincerely,
Anton Pervushin
"That"s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind ' said Armstrong, but he assured that he actually said: “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind ”, - just the features of the connection, they say, distorted the sound. In Russian translation, both of these phrases sound the same: "This is one small step for a person, but a giant leap for humanity." However, there is an elusive stylistic nuance here, which greatly upset the leaders of NASA, and indeed all the opponents of the Soviet Union in the then Cold War (and only illiteracy or deliberate inattention of the Soviet authorities can explain the fact that they did not then shout to the whole world about this "clause" ).
«
Aman"- this is a" person, just a person, no matter what, but of course, rather John than Ivan, because the Americans were the first to set foot on the moon. A "man” without the indefinite article “a” - this is not just a person, but a representative of the entire human race, and therefore the priority of the United States in the lunar breakthrough was not indicated in the historical phrase.For a long time, Armstrong claimed that he uttered this phrase spontaneously, but then, of course, it turned out that everything was a little different - it was invented by NASA long before the too significant Apollo 11 lunar mission.
Neil suddenly said: "I know you'll like it, but see for yourself," and filed a piece of paper with two lines about the first small step - the indefinite article "a" before the word "man" was not there.
And now, three months after Neil Armstrong's death, his younger brother Dean, in an interview with the BBC, said that Neil decided to do without the indefinite article even before the flight.
Dean Armstrong said that that day, shortly before the launch, they, as always, played their favorite game "Risk" (a game of "conquest of the world", a kind of "monopoly"), started talking about the future of the flight and that it say, stepping on the moon. There were many suggestions, from Shakespearean to biblical phrases. And Neil suddenly said: “I know you will like it, but see for yourself,” and handed him a piece of paper with two lines about the first small step - the indefinite article “a” before the word “
man" there was no.In July 1969, Neil Armstrong (like Gagarin, a first-class military pilot) did what none of his team could do - in unexpectedly difficult conditions, he turned off the computer that could not cope with the situation and managed to manually land his device on the moon. He was a great man in his own way, but he did not want to be a great man of one event, and subsequently quickly said goodbye to NASA, returned to his native state of Ohio, taught aeronautics at the university, flew his own plane, avoided interviews and announced his flight to the moon : "I was just doing my job." Most likely, he was against communist Russia, but did not want to make a difference between the two in this great step, and therefore deliberately omitted the indefinite article "a", which was so important for the Cold War era. Perhaps, however, there are other explanations for his act.