Neil Alden Armstrong

http://www.all-keyboard.com/,http://www.laptopfan-shop.com/,http://www.laptop-fan-shop.com/ Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was an officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the Korean War. HP Pavilion DV6 Battery After the war, he earned his bachelor's degree at Purdue University and served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for AeronauticsHigh-Speed Flight Station, now known as the Dryden Flight Research Center, where he logged over 900 flights. He later completed graduate studies at the University of Southern California. HP Pavilion DV6-1000ET Battery A participant in the U.S. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs, Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962. He made his first space flight, as command pilot of Gemini 8, in 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. On this mission, he performed the first docking of two spacecraft, with pilot David Scott. HP Pavilion DV6-1001TX Battery Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing, in July 1969. On this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent two and a half hours exploring, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the Command Module. HP Pavilion DV6-1001XX Battery Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded thePresidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon; in 1978, President Jimmy Carter presented Armstrong theCongressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978; he and his former crewmates received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. HP Pavilion DV6-1002TX Battery Armstrong died in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 25, 2012, at the age of 82, after complications from coronary artery bypass surgery. Neil Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, in Wapakoneta, Ohio, to Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise Engel. HP Pavilion DV6-1003TX Battery He was of Scottish and German ancestry and had two younger siblings, June and Dean. Stephen Armstrong worked as anauditor^[4] for the Ohio state government; the family moved around the state repeatedly after Armstrong's birth, living in 20 towns. Neil's love for flying grew during this time, having gotten off to an early start when his father took his two-year-old son to the Cleveland Air Races. HP Pavilion DV6-1004TX Battery When he was five, he experienced his first airplane flight in Warren, Ohio on July 20, 1936 when he and his father took a ride in a Ford Trimotor, also known as the "Tin Goose".^[5] His father's last move was in 1944, back to Neil's birthplace, Wapakoneta, in Auglaize County. Armstrong attended Blume High School and took flying lessons at the county airport. HP Pavilion DV6-1005EA Battery He earned his flight certificate at age 15, before he had a driver's license. Armstrong was active in the Boy Scouts and earned the rank ofEagle Scout. As an adult, he was recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with its Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo Award.^[6] On July 18, 1969, while flying towards the Moon inside the Columbia, HP Pavilion DV6-1005EZ Battery Armstrong greeted the Scouts: "I'd like to say hello to all my fellow Scouts and Scouters at Farragut State Park in Idaho having a National Jamboree there this week; and Apollo 11 would like to send them best wishes". Houston replied: "Thank you, Apollo 11. I'm sure that, if they didn't hear that, they'll get the word through the news. Certainly appreciate that."^[7] HP Pavilion DV6-1005TX Battery Among the very few personal items that Neil Armstrong carried with him to the Moon and back was a World Scout Badge.In 1947, at age 17, Armstrong began studying aeronautical engineering at Purdue University. He was the second person in his family to attend college. He was also accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). HP Pavilion DV6-1006TX Battery The only engineer he knew (who had attended MIT) dissuaded him from attending, telling Armstrong that it was not necessary to go all the way to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a good education.^[9] His college tuition was paid for under the Holloway Plan: successful applicants committed to two years of study, followed by three years of service in the U.S. Navy, HP Pavilion DV6-1007TX Battery then completion of the final two years of the degree. At Purdue, he earned average marks in his subjects, with a GPA that rose and fell during eight semesters. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree inAeronautical Engineering in 1955, and a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1970. HP Pavilion DV6-1008TX Battery Armstrong was later awarded honorary doctorates by several universities. Armstrong's call-up from the Navy arrived on January 26, 1949, requiring him to report to Naval Air Station Pensacola for flight training at age 18. This lasted almost 18 months, during which he qualified for carrier landing aboard the USS Cabot and USS Wright. HP Pavilion DV6-1009EL Battery On August 16, 1950, two weeks after his 20th birthday, Armstrong was informed by letter that he was a fully qualified Naval Aviator.^[11] His first assignment was to Fleet Aircraft Service Squadron 7 at NAS San Diego (now known as NAS North Island). Two months later he was assigned to Fighter Squadron 51 (VF-51), an all-jet squadron, HP Pavilion DV6-1009TX Battery and made his first flight in a jet, an F9F-2B Panther, on January 5, 1951. In June, he made his first jet carrier landing on the USS Essex and was promoted the same week from Midshipman to Ensign. By the end of the month, the Essex had set sail with VF-51 aboard, bound for Korea, where they would act as ground-attack aircraft.^[12] HP Pavilion DV6-1010EA Battery Armstrong first saw action in the Korean War on August 29, 1951, as an escort for a photo reconnaissance plane over Songjin.^[13] Five days later on September 3rd, he flew armed reconnaissance over the primary transportation and storage facilities south of the village of Majon-ni, west of Wonsan. HP Pavilion DV6-1010ED Battery While making a low bombing run at about 350 mph (560 km/h), Armstrong's F9F Panther was hit by anti-aircraft fire. While trying to regain control, he collided with a pole at a height of about 20 feet (6 m), which sliced off about three feet (1 m) of the Panther's right wing.^[14] Armstrong flew the plane back to friendly territory, but due to the loss of the aileron, ejection was his only safe option. HP Pavilion DV6-1010ET Battery He planned to eject over water and await rescue by Navy helicopters, and therefore flew to an airfield near Pohang, but his ejection seat was blown back over land.^[15] A jeep driven by a roommate from flight school picked Armstrong up; it is unknown what happened to the wreckage of No. 125122 F9F-2.^[16] Armstrong flew 78 missions over Korea for a total of 121 hours in the air, most of which were in January 1952. HP Pavilion DV6-1010TX Battery He received the Air Medal for 20 combat missions, a Gold Star for the next 20, and the Korean Service Medal and Engagement Star.^[17] Armstrong left the Navy at age 22 on August 23, 1952, and became a Lieutenant, Junior Grade, in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He remained in the reserve for eight years, then resigned his commission on October 21, 1960.^[18] HP Pavilion DV6-1011TX Battery As a research pilot, Armstrong served as project pilot on the F-100 Super Sabre A and C variants, F-101 Voodoo, and the Lockheed F-104A Starfighter. He also flew the Bell X-1B, Bell X-5, North American X-15, F-105 Thunderchief, F-106 Delta Dart, B-47 Stratojet, KC-135 Stratotanker, and was one of eight elite pilots involved in the paraglider research vehicle program (Paresev). HP Pavilion DV6-1012TX Battery After his service with the Navy, Armstrong returned to Purdue, where his best grades came in the four semesters following his return from Korea. His final GPA was 4.8 out of 6.0.^[19] He pledged the Phi Delta Theta fraternity^[20] after his return and he wrote and co-directed its musical as part of the all-student revue; he was also a member of Kappa Kappa Psi^[21] National Honorary Band Fraternity and a baritone player in the Purdue All-American Marching Band. HP Pavilion DV6-1013EA Battery Armstrong graduated in 1955 with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering.^[18] After returning to Purdue, he met Janet Elizabeth Shearon, who was majoring in home economics. According to the couple, there was no real courtship, and neither could remember the exact circumstances of their engagement, HP Pavilion DV6-1013TX Battery except that it occurred while Armstrong was working at the NACA's Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory. They were married on January 28, 1956, at the Congregational Church in Wilmette, Illinois. When he moved to Edwards Air Force Base, he lived in the bachelor quarters of the base, while Janet lived in the Westwood district of Los Angeles. HP Pavilion DV6-1016EZ Battery After one semester, they moved into a house in Antelope Valley. Janet never finished her degree, a fact she regretted later in life.^[22] The couple had three children together: Eric, Karen, and Mark.In June 1961, daughter Karen was diagnosed with a malignant tumor of the middle part of herbrain stem; HP Pavilion DV6-1018EL Battery X-ray treatment slowed its growth, but her health deteriorated to the point where she could no longer walk or talk. Two-year-old Karen died ofpneumonia, related to her weakened health, on January 28, 1962.^[24] Armstrong later completed his master of science degree in aeronautical engineering at the University of Southern California. HP Pavilion DV6-1020EC Battery Following his graduation from Purdue, Armstrong decided to become an experimental research test pilot. He applied at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base; although they had no open positions, they did forward his application to the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, where Armstrong began working at Lewis Field in March 1955. HP Pavilion DV6-1020ED Battery Armstrong's stint at Cleveland lasted a couple of months, and by July 1955, he returned to Edwards AFB for his new job.^[26] On his first day at Edwards, Armstrong was tasked his first assignments, which were to pilot chase planes during releases of experimental aircraft from modified bombers. HP Pavilion DV6-1020EI Battery He also flew the modified bombers, and on one of these missions had his first flight incident at Edwards. On March 22, 1956, Armstrong was in a Boeing B-29 Superfortress,^[27] which was to air-drop a Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket. He sat in the right-hand pilot seat while the left-hand seat commander, Stan Butchart, flew the B-29.^[28] HP Pavilion DV6-1020EJ Battery As they ascended to 30,000 feet (9.1 km), the number-four engine stopped and the propeller began windmilling (rotating freely) in the airstream. Hitting the switch that would stop the propeller's spinning, Butchart found the propeller slowed but then started spinning again, this time even faster than the other engines; if it spun too fast, it would break apart. HP Pavilion DV6-1020EK Battery Their aircraft needed to hold an airspeed of 210 mph (338 km/h) to launch its Skyrocket payload, and the B-29 could not land with the Skyrocket still attached to its belly. Armstrong and Butchart brought the aircraft into a nose-down alignment to increase speed, then launched the Skyrocket. At the instant of launch, the number-four engine propeller disintegrated. HP Pavilion DV6-1020EL Battery Pieces of it damaged the number-three engine and hit the number-two engine. Butchart and Armstrong were forced to shut down the number-three engine, due to damage, and the number-one engine, due to the torque it created. They made a slow, circling descent from 30,000 ft (9,000 m) using only the number-two engine, and landed safely.^[29] HP Pavilion DV6-1020EQ Battery Armstrong's first flight in a rocket plane was on August 15, 1957, in the Bell X-1B, to an altitude of 11.4 miles (18.3 km). The nose landing gear broke on landing, which had happened on about a dozen previous flights of the Bell X-1B due to the aircraft's design.^[30] He later flew the North American X-15 seven times; his penultimate flight reached an altitude of 207,500 feet (63.2 km). HP Pavilion DV6-1020ET Battery Armstrong was involved in several incidents that went down in Edwards folklore and/or were chronicled in the memoirs of colleagues. The first occurred during his sixth X-15 flight on April 20, 1962, while Armstrong tested a self-adjusting control system. He flew to a height of over 207,000 feet (63 km), HP Pavilion DV6-1022EL Battery (the highest he flew before Gemini 8), but the aircraft nose was held up up too long during descent and the X-15 bounced off the atmosphere back up to 140,000 feet (43 km). At that altitude, the air is so thin that aerodynamic surfaces have almost no effect. He flew past the landing field at Mach 3 (2,000 mph (3,200 km/h)) at over 100,000 feet (30 km) in altitude, HP Pavilion DV6-1023EF Battery and ended up 40 miles (64 km) south of Edwards (legend has it that he flew as far as the Rose Bowl in Pasadena). After sufficient descent, he turned back toward the landing area, and barely managed to land without striking Joshua trees at the south end. It was the longest X-15 flight in both time and distance from the ground track.^[31] HP Pavilion DV6-1023EM Battery Four days later, Armstrong was involved in a second incident, when he flew for the only time with Chuck Yeager. Their job, flying a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, was to evaluate Smith Ranch Dry Lake for use as an emergency landing site for the X-15. In his autobiography, Yeager wrote that he knew the lake bed was unsuitable for landings after recent rains, but Armstrong insisted on flying out anyway. HP Pavilion DV6-1025EF Battery As they attempted a touch-and-go, the wheels became stuck and they had to wait for rescue. Armstrong tells a different version of events, where Yeager never tried to talk him out of it and they made a first successful landing on the east side of the lake. Then Yeager told him to try again, this time a bit slower. On the second landing, they became stuck and according to Armstrong, Yeager was in fits of laughter. HP Pavilion DV6-1025EI Battery Many of the test pilots at Edwards praised Armstrong's engineering ability. Milt Thompson said he was "the most technically capable of the early X-15 pilots." Bill Dana said Armstrong "had a mind that absorbed things like a sponge." Those who flew for the Air Force tended to have a different opinion, especially people like Yeager and Pete Knight, who did not have engineering degrees. HP Pavilion DV6-1025EZ Battery Knight said that pilot-engineers flew in a way that was "more mechanical than it is flying," and gave this as the reason why some pilot-engineers got into trouble: their flying skills did not come naturally.^[33] A few weeks later on May 21, 1962, Armstrong was involved in what Edwards' folklore called the "Nellis Affair." HP Pavilion DV6-1027EF Battery He was sent in aLockheed F-104 Starfighter to inspect Delamar Dry Lake in southern Nevada, again for emergency landings. He misjudged his altitude, and also did not realize that the landing gear had not fully extended. As he touched down, the landing gear began to retract; Armstrong applied full power to abort the landing, HP Pavilion DV6-1030CA Battery but the ventral fin and landing gear door struck the ground, damaging the radio and releasing hydraulic fluid. Without radio communication, Armstrong flew south to Nellis Air Force Base, past the control tower, and waggled his wings, the signal for a no-radio approach. The loss of hydraulic fluid caused the tail-hook to release, and upon landing, he caught the arresting wire attached to an anchor chain, and dragged the chain along the runway. HP Pavilion DV6-1030EC Battery It took thirty minutes to clear the runway and rig an arresting cable and Armstrong telephoned Edwards and asked for someone to collect him. Milt Thompson was sent in an F-104B, the only two-seater available, but a plane Thompson had never flown. With great difficulty, Thompson made it to Nellis, but a strong crosswind caused a hard landing and the left main tire suffered a blowout. HP Pavilion DV6-1030ED Battery The runway was again closed to clear it, and Bill Dana was sent to Nellis in a T-33 Shooting Star, but he almost landed long—and the Nellis base operations office decided that to avoid any further problems, it would be best to find the three NASA pilots ground transport back to Edwards. Armstrong made seven flights in the X-15 from November 1960 to July 1962. HP Pavilion DV6-1030EF Battery He reached a top altitude of 207,500 feet (63.2 km) in the X-15-3, and a top speed of Mach 5.74 (3,989 mph (6,420 km/h)) in the X-15-1; he left the Dryden Flight Research Center with a total of 2,400 flying hours.^[36] Over his career, he flew more than 200 different models of aircraft. There was no defining moment in Armstrong's decision to become an astronaut^. HP Pavilion DV6-1030EM Battery In 1958, he was selected for the U.S. Air Force's Man In Space Soonest program. In November 1960, Armstrong was chosen as part of the pilot consultant group for the X-20 Dyna-Soar, a military space plane under development by Boeing for the U.S. Air Force, and on March 15, 1962, he was selected by the U.S. Air Force as one of seven pilot-engineers who would fly the space plane when it got off the design board. HP Pavilion DV6-1030EO Battery In the months after the announcement that applications were being sought for the second group of NASA astronauts, Armstrong became more and more excited about the prospects of both the Apollo program and of investigating a new aeronautical environment. Armstrong's astronaut application arrived about a week past the June 1, 1962, deadline. HP Pavilion DV6-1030EQ Battery Luckily Dick Day, with whom Armstrong had worked closely at Edwards, saw the late arrival of the application and slipped it into the pile before anyone noticed.^[38] At Brooks City-Base at the end of June, Armstrong underwent a medical exam that many of the applicants described as painful and at times seemingly pointless.HP Pavilion DV6-1030US Battery Deke Slayton called Armstrong on September 13, 1962, and asked whether he would be interested in joining the NASA Astronaut Corps as part of what the press dubbed "the New Nine"; without hesitation, Armstrong said yes. The selections were kept secret until three days later, although newspaper reports had been circulating since earlier that year that he would be selected as the "first civilian astronaut." ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1038CA Battery} Armstrong was one of two civilian pilots selected for the second group; the other was Elliot See, also a former naval aviator.^[41] See was scheduled to command Gemini 9, but died in a T-38 crash in 1966 that also took the life of crewmate Charles Bassett. Armstrong was the first American civilian in space, but the first civilian was Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union, nearly three years earlier. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1040EB Battery} A textile worker and amateur parachutist, she was aboard Vostok 6 when it launched on June 16, 1963. The crew assignments for Gemini 8 were announced on September 20, 1965, with Armstrong as Command Pilot and David Scott as Pilot. Scott was the first member of the third group of astronauts to receive a prime crew assignment. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1040ED Battery} The mission launched on March 16, 1966; it was to be the most complex yet, with a rendezvous and docking with the unmanned Agena target vehicle, the second American extra-vehicular activity (EVA) by Scott. In total, the mission was planned to last 75 hours and 55 orbits. After the Agena lifted off at 10 a.m. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1040EI Battery} EST, the Titan II carrying Armstrong and Scott ignited at 11:41:02 am EST, putting them into an orbit from where they would chase the Agena. The rendezvous and first-ever docking between two spacecraft was successfully completed after 6.5 hours in orbit.Contact with the crew was intermittent due to the lack of tracking stations covering their entire orbits. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1040EJ Battery} Out of contact with the ground, the docked spacecraft began to roll, and Armstrong attempted to correct this with the Orbital Attitude and Maneuvering System (OAMS) of the Gemini spacecraft. Following the earlier advice of Mission Control, they undocked, but found that the roll increased dramatically to the point where they were turning about once per second, which meant the problem was in their Gemini's attitude control. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1040EK Battery} Armstrong decided the only course of action was to engage the Reentry Control System (RCS) and turn off the OAMS. Mission rules dictated that once this system was turned on, the spacecraft would have to reenter at the next possible opportunity. It was later thought that damaged wiring made one of the thrusters become stuck in the on position. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1040EL Battery} Throughout the astronaut office there were a few people, most notably Walter Cunningham, who publicly stated that Armstrong and Scott had ignored the malfunction procedures for such an incident, and that Armstrong could have salvaged the mission if he had turned on only one of the two RCS rings, saving the other for mission objectives. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1040EV Battery} These criticisms were unfounded; no malfunction procedures were written and it was possible to turn on only both RCS rings, not just one or the other. Gene Kranzwrote, "the crew reacted as they were trained, and they reacted wrong because we trained them wrong." The mission planners and controllers had failed to realize that when two spacecraft are docked together, they must be considered to be one spacecraft. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1040EZ Battery} Armstrong himself was depressed^[47] that the mission had been cut short, canceling most mission objectives and robbing Scott of his EVA. The last assignment for Armstrong in the Gemini program was as the back-up Command Pilot for Gemini 11, announced two days after the landing of Gemini 8. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1042EL Battery} Having trained for two flights, Armstrong was quite knowledgeable about the systems and was more in a teaching role^[48] for the rookie backup Pilot, William Anders. The launch was on September 12, 1966,^[49] with Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon on board, who successfully completed the mission objectives, while Armstrong served as CAPCOM. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1044EL Battery} Following the flight, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Armstrong and his wife to take part in a 24-day goodwill tour of South America.^[50] Also on the tour, which took in 11 countries and 14 major cities, were Dick Gordon, George Low, their wives, and other government officials. In Paraguay, Armstrong impressed dignitaries by greeting them in their local language, Guarani; ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1045EE Battery} in Brazil he talked about the exploits of the Brazilian-born Alberto Santos-Dumont, who was regarded as having beaten the Wright brothers with the first flying machine with his 14-bis. On January 27, 1967, the date of the Apollo 1 fire, Armstrong was in Washington, D.C., with Gordon Cooper, Dick Gordon, ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1045EI Battery} Jim Lovell and Scott Carpenter for the signing of the United Nations Outer Space Treaty. The astronauts chatted with the assembled dignitaries until 6:45 p.m. when Carpenter went to the airport, and the others returned to the Georgetown Inn, where they each found messages to phone the Manned Spacecraft Center. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1045EO Battery} During these telephone calls, they learned of the deaths of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Armstrong and the group spent the rest of the night drinking scotch and discussing what had happened.On April 5, 1967, the same day the Apollo 1 investigation released its report on the fire, Armstrong assembled with 17 other astronauts for a meeting with Deke Slayton. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1045EZ Battery} The first thing Slayton said was, "The guys who are going to fly the first lunar missions are the guys in this room."^[54] According to Eugene Cernan, Armstrong showed no reaction to the statement. To Armstrong it came as no surprise—the room was full of veterans of Project Gemini, the only people who could fly the lunar missions. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1046EL Battery} Slayton talked about the planned missions and named Armstrong to the backup crew for Apollo 9, which at that stage was planned to be amedium Earth orbit test of the Lunar Module-Command/Service Module combination. After design and manufacturing delays in the Lunar Module (LM), Apollo 9 andApollo 8 swapped crews. ^{HP Pavilion DV6-1050EF Battery}