Neil Armstrong Research Paper

Life of the legendary Neil Armstrong
What was your childhood dream? Did you wish to be a princess or prince? Or did you dream of becoming a big time rock star? At one point in a person's life, they dream of the inevitable. Finding out that they are incapable of reaching those dreams, they then face reality and continue on to do something that they love. Although several people go through this stage and grow out of it within time, one man's childhood dream stuck with him, and by doing so, he made an ample contribution to the world. Neil Armstrong was soon to make his mark in the history books. Armstrong was born on August 30, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio to Stephen and Viola Louise (Contemporary Authors Online). At the
There, he received his B.S. degree in aeronautical engineering in 1955 at the age of twenty-five. Right out of college, he joined the Cleveland National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which he later in the year, transferred to the NACA base in California. There, he became the first civilian to enter the astronaut training program. During his training at the NACA, he tested over 200 different types of aircrafts including helicopters, jets, and rockets (Encarta.msn.com). Neil flew more than 1,100 hours within his time spent at the NACA ("Neil Armstrong: Learning to Fly). While he was attending college at Purdue, Neil met his first wife, Janet Sheardon. Neil married Janet Sheardon on January of the year 1965. A year after their wedding the couple had their first child, their son Eric was born. Two years after Eric, their daughter Karen came along, but died three years later due to a massive brain tumor (Contemporary Authors Online). At the age of twenty-eight, a year before Karen was born; Armstrong signed on as a research pilot for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which had only been established earlier that year (Fleming,
July 20, 1969 at 10:56 pm Eastern time, Neil Armstrong stepped off of the rocket and onto the moon's surface. Putting his left foot first, America listened as he spoke the famous word: "That's one small step for a man...One large leap for mankind." Twenty minutes after Armstrong, Aldrin joined him (Fleming). Spending over twenty hours, the two of them collected several soil samples and took several photographs of their surroundings and findings. Shortly before leaving the moon's surface, they planted an American flag and left souvenirs from previous missions behind (Baxter, Roberta. "Neil Armstrong: Learning to Fly"). Early into the next morning they returned to their rocket and took a brief nap. After their nap, Armstrong and Alden fired back up into orbit and returned to the Columbia (Fleming Thomas). July 24, they plummeted back to earth and into the Pacific Ocean. Once home, Armstrong and the others received the Presidential Medal of Freedom personally from President