Neil Armstrong

In the early 19th century, space voyage was not a thought on a scientist’s mind, let alone equipment for use to get us there. Growing up I always wondered what it would take to be an astronaut and get a change to fly into outer space and be amongst one of the greatest people to embark the outer abyss. Bravery and courage is a couple of words that distinguish these human beings that do the extraordinary. Ron Garan once said, “I lay on my back, surprised at how calm and focused I felt, strapped to four and a half million pounds of explosives.” Imagine being that tiny living organism on a space shuttle with all the power at your fingertips. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is responsible for civilian space program funded

Born on August 5, 1930, in Wapakoneta, Ohio, Neil Armstrong is a name that all have remembered. After his naval aviation career from 1942 to 1952, he then joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1952. Neil Armstrong was a “Rocket Scientist,” by flying over 200 different models of aircraft, which did include helicopters, gliders, rockets, and jets. He commanded Gemini 8, which launched in 1966, performing the first successful docking of two space vehicles in space.(NASA, 2012) On May 5, 1961, Apollo 11 did in fact perform a crewed lunar landing. Neil Armstrong was the first man to take the first steps on the moon and return to Earth. Other notable astronauts include Valentina Tereshkova, who was the first woman to go into space in 1963. She flew Vostok 6 and orbited Earth 48 times while spending three days in space. Alan B. Shepard did make a 15-minute suborbital flight that reached an altitude of 115 miles and commanded Apollo 14 for landing at the lunar

On 1979, Rockwell converted the test craft to an actual spacecraft. On some of the earlier missions, the Challenger did launch a satellite that would relay signals to let astronauts stay in touch with controllers back home. Another memorable moment took place in April 1984, a mission that would be the very first repair of a satellite. Challenger had already done nine missions before the day that tragedy struck. The Challenger crew included Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Elison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe. On January 28, 1986, the crews have been training up for this mission for months. It was a cold morning in Florida. Engineers were informing NASA that it could have been too cold for the shuttle to launch. The engineers advised NASA to launch the next day for the temperatures were going to be warmer and the conditions were going to be ideal. The reason for the advice to launch another day because shuttle parts are meant to launch in more temperatures that are moderate. NASA did not want to take the advice for the start of the mission. The engineers cautioned NASA one more time, and NASA then cautioned back at the workers about their careers. After that, workers wanted to keep their career so they did not continue the fight for the delay of STS-51L