NEIL ARMSTRONG: WHEN, IN July 1969, Neil Armstrong, who has died aged 82, made his celebrated "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" by becoming the first human being to walk on the moon, he was indeed the "reluctant hero" of his family's apt description.
As the commander of the US Apollo 11 spacecraft, in which he was accompanied by Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, the pilot of the Eagle lunar landing module, and Michael Collins, pilot of the Columbia command module, he became the first man on the moon because he had arrived at the head of the queue of about 20 highly experienced and motivated astronauts.
They had been taking it in turns to conduct the 22 manned spaceflights needed to learn the techniques for travelling to the Earth’s nearest neighbour – an objective he pursued with great seriousness.
Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, Armstrong had acquired his student pilot’s licence by the age of 16. In 1947, he went to Purdue University on a navy scholarship to study aeronautical engineering, but two years later the Korean War intervened and he flew 78 combat missions. Eventually he completed his BSc at Purdue and an MSc in aerospace engineering at the University of Southern California.
In 1955 he went to Cleveland, Ohio, as a civilian research pilot at the Lewis Research Centre of what became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), and later that year to Edwards Air Force Base in California.
When Nasa embarked on its second astronaut training programme in 1962, he was one of nine test pilots chosen. President John F Kennedy’s end-of-the-decade target for a manned moon landing was a constant goal for Nasa, and early in 1969 it emerged that the Apollo 11 crew would be attempting the first such expedition.
While Armstrong would be in command, Aldrin would be the first to step on the moon; Armstrong would follow the naval tradition of being the last to leave the ship. So it came as a shock when, a few weeks ahead of the launch, it was announced that Armstrong would be first out.
Aldrin fretted and raised it internally, but Armstrong steadfastly refused to discuss it. Nasa said the change was merely because it was physically easier for Armstrong to exit the lunar lander first, but later it emerged that top Nasa officials had suddenly realised that the first man on the moon would become immortal in the public’s eyes.
The grave Armstrong, they realised, was much more suited to the role than Aldrin, a brilliant and outspoken mathematician, always liable to challenge and disagree with authority.
Apollo 11 took off on July 16th, and four days later the Eagle descended on to a plain near the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquillity. About 6½ hours later, Armstrong stepped off the ladder of the lunar module, the first human being to set foot on the moon. After 20 minutes Aldrin joined him to address hundreds of millions of television viewers all over the world and to collect rocks. An interesting consequence is that we do not have a single clear photograph of Armstrong on the lunar surface. Aldrin was scheduled in the flight plan to take the historic picture of the first man on the moon standing beside the lunar module and its plaque reading: “We came in peace for all mankind.”
When the time came, Armstrong duly took up his position, and held out the camera for Aldrin to take it. Aldrin, busy collecting lunar samples and setting out scientific equipment on the surface, replied: “No, you keep it,” and carried on. Nothing intentional, he said later, just the way it happened.
So the surface pictures we have are all of Aldrin taken by Armstrong, the most famous of them being the one in which Armstrong is reflected in Aldrin’s facepiece. Armstrong, following military tradition, never complained.
The three astronauts were naturally in demand for tours around the world, and once that excitement had died down, Armstrong became deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at the Nasa headquarters office of advanced research and technology in Washington until 1971, when he resigned, put off by the prospect of continuing in the organisation with a desk job.
He was professor of aeronautical engineering at the University of Cincinnati for the next eight years, and for two decades after that acted as director of a variety of corporations.
He served on the National Commission on Space, a presidential body examining the prospects for taking the space programme further, in 1985-86, and in 1986 was also vice-chairman of the committee investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. During the early 1990s he presented a documentary series for television entitled First Flights.
Though conscious that he had enjoyed a figurehead role for a project that had involved thousands of people, Armstrong was always gracious about celebrating achievements in space to date. In February this year he spoke at an event at Ohio State University to mark the 50th anniversary of the orbiting of the Earth by the first American to do so, John Glenn.
He is survived by his second wife, Carol, and by two sons from his first marriage, which ended in divorce.
Neil Alden Armstrong: born August 5th, 1930; died August 25th, 2012