Watch: Who was Neil Armstrong?
Hey there. I鈥檓 Neil Armstrong.
These are my buddies Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.
We鈥檙e descending at 17,500 miles per hour, temperatures of 3000 degrees surround this tiny metal capsule and to my rear is the terrifying vacuum of space.
So, why are we up here?
Well, there are two real powerful countries on Earth doing all they can to look better than the other.
The Soviet Union put the first person into space, so President Kennedy of the United States of America set a challenge.
We will go to the Moon! Not because it is easy but because it is hard.
A trip to the Moon means flying, and boy was I good at flying.
So the US government asked if I wanted to become an astronaut.
After seven years the guys on NASA鈥檚 Apollo mission were ready to shoot me to the Moon.
The force of take off was intense.
But when we made it out into space we became weightless.
Now there was nothing holding us back.
After four days travelling, we were close.
Michael stayed in orbit while Buzz and I approached the Moon in our lander, 鈥楨agle鈥.
Our computer was leading us into a crater full of rocks.
I quickly took control.
With just 30 seconds until we ran out of fuel, I found a smooth landing site鈥 touch down.
That鈥檚 one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth.
Boy, is it worth taking care of.
This is mission control, we have you on our screen.
Welcome home Apollo 11. Hope you brought us a present.
Err鈥 We got Moon rocks!
How did Neil Armstrong become an astronaut?
Neil Armstrong fell in love with flying when his father took him for a ride in an aeroplane when he was six-years-old. As a boy, he loved to read about flying and built model planes. Neil got his pilot鈥檚 licence when he was just 16, before he could even drive a car.
Before he became an astronaut, Neil flew fighter planes for the navy and later tested rocket-powered planes. It was a very dangerous job, but Neil proved calm under pressure. This got him noticed by NASA and Neil was chosen as the Commander of the first mission to land on the Moon.
On the 20 July 1969, he became the first person to walk on the Moon. When Neil returned, he retired from being an astronaut, but he never stopped being interested in flying. He later became a professor and taught all about his passion for aircraft and flying. Neil Armstrong died on 25 August 2012.
Mission to the Moon
On July 16 1969, after a breakfast of steak and eggs, Neil Armstrong and his crew mates, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, blasted off on their mission to land on the Moon.
Their Saturn V rocket was the most powerful machine ever built. It was 110 metres tall and had as much power as a nuclear bomb.
After launch, it took four days to travel over 200,000 miles to the Moon. When they arrived, Neil's job was to fly the lunar module called Eagle and land it safely. It was incredibly risky; however, with just seconds of fuel left, Neil reported back 鈥渢he Eagle has landed鈥.
Neil and Buzz then opened the hatch and climbed out. Back on Earth, more than half a billion people watched on television, waiting to hear what Neil would say:
鈥淭hat鈥檚 one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
Neil and Buzz spent nearly three hours walking on the Moon. They conducted important scientific experiments, collected samples and took photographs.
When it was time for them to return, Neil and Buzz left the surface to rejoin Michael who had been orbiting the Moon in a separate module. All three then made the journey back to Earth, before safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. Mission complete!
Watch: First steps on the Moon
Watch some of the highlights from Neil Armstrong's mission to the Moon (Credit: NASA).
Activity: Quiz 鈥 Neil Armstrong
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