Plan: Ali, Muhammad

Armstrong, Neil

Neil Armstrong was very interested in flying when he was a young man. He was awarded his pilot's licence at the age of 16, even before he had learnt to drive a car. The following year he became a naval air cadet, and went on to fly in the Korean War. Later in the 1950s, he became a test pilot for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) before joining the US space programme in 1962. His first mission in space, on Gemini 8 in 1966, ended earlier than expected when he had to make an emergency landing in the Pacific Ocean.

In July 1969 Armstrong joined fellow astronauts Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin and Michael Collins on the Apollo 11 mission. They took four days to reach the Moon. On 20 July Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon. As he stepped off the ‘Eagle’ (the lunar landing module), he said, ‘That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.’