Neil Armstrong's Role In United States History

Neil Armstrong plays an important role within the United States history. Armstrong was the first man to step foot onto the moon. He also helped create many different types of aircrafts that helped modernize aircrafts today. Armstrong was a well known engineer in his day, and without him things in the world maybe different. Although people knew Neil Armstrong for taking the first steps on the moon, he also played a large role in the development of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration otherwise known as NASA.

Armstrong was born into a low class family on August 5, 1930. Armstrong’s parents, Stephen and Viola Armstrong, they had three children together. His younger brother was named Dean and his older sister name was June.

They would describe the guidance systems, engine values, computers, and other important things that need to be explained to Armstrong. He would travel over the country for the meetings, but he flew himself everywhere he went (Byers, 2004). Armstrong would travel anywhere to Cape Canaveral, Florida to St. Louis, Missouri to Johnsville, or to Pennsylvania (Byers, 2004). Armstrong’s co-astronauts had to have great respect for him because flying to briefings and taking care of all the astronaut business was a lot of work.

Armstrong was finally assigned to his first mission in 1965. He was a backup commander for the mission Gemini 5. Armstrong was going to stay on the ground during the mission, but still be involved in the mission. It was very unlikely he would have full control of the mission, but he had to prepare as if he was going. Armstrong’s first assigned mission turned out to be a great

Armstrong had a lot of knowledge he could spread to others, including the younger generations. Therefore, he became a professor at the University of Cincinnati for nine years.

Armstrong bought a farm with a one-hundred year old house for him and his wife to settle. After retiring as a teacher, he took on many different things; like becoming a chairman of the Presidential Advisory committee for the Peace Corps, joined the national commission on space, and he became the vice president of the commission to investigate the challenger exploding (Byers, 2004). Through all this Armstrong remained humble and stuck to his upbringing. Armstrong passed away on August 25th in 2012. Armstrong died due to complications from a cardiovascular procedure, that took place on August 7th (Stone, 2012). Armstrong had an urgent four vessel coronary artery bypass graft surgery (Stone, 2012). Armstrong was 82 years old when he passed away. The world will always remember the great things Armstrong contributed to