Neil Armstrong profile: ‘Nerdy engineer’ averted disaster and kept his cool demeanour

NEIL Armstrong was born in Ohio, flew as a fighter pilot and test pilot in the US navy and was recruited by Nasa in 1962 as a member of the “New Nine,” the second group of elite astronauts destined to fly in space.

His debut venture beyond the final frontier was aboard the Gemini 8 mission in 1966, which performed the first rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft and but risked disaster when the vehicle tumbled into a violent roll – a drama that was resolved by the cool demeanour and acute engineering know-how that was Mr Armstrong’s hallmark.

He exhibited the same qualities as he brought Eagle in for touchdown on the Moon three years later, with just 30 seconds worth of fuel to spare. “The Eagle has landed,” he declared calmly, as one in six of the Earth’s population who witnessed the first broadcast from the Moon heaved a collective sigh of relief.

“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” he announced.

He left Nasa in 1971, became a professor at the University of Cincinnati for eight years and retired in 1979. Unlike Mr Aldrin, who relished his celebrity status, Mr Armstrong worked quietly behind the scenes in both corporate and educational roles.

He largely shunned the limelight, expressing the view that he was just “a nerdy engineer” but had in recent years appeared before Congress and issued public statements making clear his distaste for President Obama’s future plans for Nasa, which included dropping plans 
to return man to 
the Moon by 
2020.