Thursday 30 August 2012

Facts about astronaut Neil Armstrong

Facts about Astronaut Neil Armstrong

1. It is said that his passion for flying began when he was just two years old when he was taken by his father to the National Air Races, which was held in Cleveland, Ohio. 
2. This interest deep
ened further when ate age six he experienced his first ride on an airplane in a Ford Tri-Motor, in Warren, Ohio.
3. Neil Armstrong started taking lessons in flying at an airport located to the north of Wapakoneta when he was 15 years old in an Aeronca Champion airplane. In order to pay for the lessons, he worked at a number of jobs at the airport as well as the town.
4. It was on his 16th birthday that Armstrong became a licensed pilot, which he got before he had graduated and before he had even received his automobile driver's license.
5. While he was studying for his aeronautical engineering, the Korean War broke out, in 1950, in which he served, flying 78 combat missions. His plane was shot down once and he was also awarded 3 Air Medals.
6. Later, he became a skillful test pilot, flying right to the atmosphere's edge, 207,500 feet, or 63,198 meters, at 4,000 miles per hour, in the famous experimental rocket powered aircraft, X-15.
7. Neil Armstrong went on his first mission into space on the 16th of March 1966, in the spacecraft Gemini 8, as the command pilot. He docked the Gemini 8 successfully with an Agena target craft that was in orbit already. Although the docking was smooth enough, while the spacecraft orbited together, they started to roll and pitch.
8. Armstrong grew up in Ohio with a strong interest in flight and earned his pilot's license while still a boy.
9. After flying combat missions during the Korean War, he became a test pilot and joined NASA's astronaut program in 1962.
10. As he stepped on the moon's dusty surface, Armstrong said: ""That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
11. Asked about his experience on the moon, he told CBS: "It's an interesting place to be. I recommend it."
12. A crater on the moon is named for Armstrong. It is located about 30 miles from the site of the landing.
13. Armstrong took a NASA desk job after the Apollo 11 mission, becoming the deputy associate administrator for aeronautics in the office of advanced research and technology.
14. A year later he became a professor of engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
15. In 2005, Armstrong was upset to learn that his barber had sold clippings of his hair to a collector for $3,000.
16. The man who bought the hair refused to return it, saying he was adding it to his collection of locks from Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon, Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein and others.
17. Despite his taciturn nature, Armstrong once appeared in a television commercial for the U.S. automaker Chrysler. He said he made the ad because of Chrysler's engineering history and his desire to help the company out of financial troubles.






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