Around 600 million people sat glued to their TV sets in the night from July 20 to July 21, 1969 as a man in a white space suit left the first ever human footprint on the moon’s surface. That man was Neil Armstrong, and he and his colleague Buzz Aldrin spent about two and a half hours exploring the lunar landscape around the landing site.

Armstrong, who had German and Scottish-Irish roots, discovered his passion for flying at an early age. But he wanted to go even higher and NASA accepted him for astronaut training in 1962. In 1966, as chief pilot of "Gemini 8," he succeeded in docking with an unmanned spacecraft in orbit - the first ever rendezvous in space. Then three years later, he led the "Apollo 11" moon mission, steering the small "Eagle" lunar module in its final approach by hand and stepping out of the hatch ahead of Buzz Aldrin.

Even in old age, he was still passionate about space travel. When he was asked if he would fly to the moon again, Armstrong said he didn’t think he’d get another chance but wouldn't say he wasn't available. Neil Armstrong, a taciturn and shy man with nerves of steel, died in Cincinnati, Ohio on 25 August 2012.

 

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