Neil Armstrong got his pilot’s license at 16, before he could legally drive a car. He flew Navy jets in the Korean War, then became a test pilot, flying experimental aircraft to the edge of space. NASA picked him as an astronaut in 1962.
On 16 July 1969, Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins blasted off toward the Moon on Apollo 11. Four days later, Armstrong steered the small lunar lander down through a field of boulders, with the computer panicking and fuel almost out. He landed with seconds to spare and radioed, “The Eagle has landed.”
A few hours later he stepped off the ladder, his boots sinking slightly into the powdery surface, and said one of the most famous sentences in history: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” He and Aldrin spent more than two hours bouncing around the lunar surface in one-sixth Earth gravity.
