Neil Armstrong was born in a town called Wapakoneta, Ohio. He was an Eagle Scout, and he was interested in flying. Very interested. He was so interested, in fact, that he got his student pilot’s license before he got his driver’s license.

After college, Armstrong flew planes for the Navy (that’s right, the Navy has planes, too…lots of them), and then he became a test pilot. (Test pilots, by the way, try out new airplanes to see how the planes perform.) In 1962, Armstrong applied to become an American astronaut, and he was accepted. He flew in space several times before his biggest mission of all: Apollo 11.

In 1969, Armstrong and two other astronauts blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Their space ship took them to an orbit around the moon. Then, Armstrong and his co-pilot, Buzz Aldren, climbed into a smaller landing craft called the Eagle. Armstrong took the controls and guided the Eagle safely to the moon’s surface.

Neil Armstrong was the first man out of the cabin, and when he stepped foot on the moon, he said, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” And he was right!

Fun Facts About the Moon

Fun Fact: On average, the Moon is about 239,000 miles from Earth.

Fun Fact: The oceans’ tides are mostly caused by the Moon, although the Sun also has some effect on the tides.

Fun Fact: The Moon orbits around the Earth every 27.3 days.

Fun Fact: The tallest mountain on the moon is named Mons Huygens. It’s about half as tall as Mt. Everest, which is the tallest mountain on Earth.

Fun Fact: The same side of the Moon is always facing Earth, so there’s almost half of the Moon that we can never see (unless we take a space ship to the far side of the Moon!).

Fun Fact: Because the Moon is much smaller than the earth, gravity is less there. So, if you weighed 100 pounds on Earth, you’d only weigh 17 pounds on the Moon. Think how high you could jump!

Astronaut Quotes

“I guess we all like to be recognized, not for one piece of fireworks, but for the sum total of our daily work.”
Neil Armstrong

“Even in elementary school, I was interested in space.”
Sally Ride

“The happiest people are the ones who make the most of their God-given talents.”
John Glenn

“I still say, ‘shoot for the moon; you might get there.”
Buzz Aldrin (He did get there)

“Reach for the stars.”
Christa McAuliffe

“I touch the future, I teach.”
Christa McAuliffe