141-551: One Giant Leap can refer to: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind", the first words of Neil Armstrong on the Moon One Giant Leap , a 2019 book about the Apollo program 1 Giant Leap , British electronic music duo 1 Giant Leap , their first album Episode 3 of the first season of the drama series Heroes Topics referred to by
282-736: A launch vehicle (carrier rocket). On a sub-orbital spaceflight , a space vehicle enters space and then returns to the surface without having gained sufficient energy or velocity to make a full Earth orbit . For orbital spaceflights , spacecraft enter closed orbits around the Earth or around other celestial bodies . Spacecraft used for human spaceflight carry people on board as crew or passengers from start or on orbit ( space stations ) only, whereas those used for robotic space missions operate either autonomously or telerobotically . Robotic spacecraft used to support scientific research are space probes . Robotic spacecraft that remain in orbit around
423-637: A rocket-powered aircraft was on August 15, 1957, in the Bell X-1 B, to an altitude of 11.4 miles (18.3 km). On landing, the poorly designed nose landing gear failed, as had happened on about a dozen previous flights of the Bell X-1B. He flew the North American X-15 seven times, including the first flight with the Q-ball system, the first flight of the number 3 X-15 airframe, and
564-537: A $ 678 raise in pay to $ 21,653 a year (equivalent to $ 203,338 in 2023), making him NASA's highest-paid astronaut. In Armstrong's final assignment in the Gemini program, he was the back-up Command Pilot for Gemini 11 . Having trained for two flights, Armstrong was quite knowledgeable about the systems and took on a teaching role for the rookie backup pilot, William Anders . The launch was on September 12, 1966, with Conrad and Gordon on board, who successfully completed
705-474: A 10-second pause, Duke acknowledged the landing with, "We copy you down, Eagle ." Armstrong confirmed the landing to Mission Control and the world with the words, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Aldrin and Armstrong celebrated with a brisk handshake and pat on the back. They then returned to the checklist of contingency tasks, should an emergency liftoff become necessary. After Armstrong confirmed touch down, Duke re-acknowledged, adding
846-599: A 15.2 metres (50 ft) CanadaArm1 , an upgraded version of which is used on the International Space Station . The heat shield (or Thermal Protection System ) of the orbiter, used to protect it from extreme levels of heat during atmospheric reentry and the cold of space, was made up of different materials depending on weight and how much heating a particular area on the shuttle would receive during reentry, which ranged from over 2,900 °F (1,600 °C) to under 700 °F (370 °C). The orbiter
987-674: A Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering in January 1955. In 1970, he completed his Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). He would eventually be awarded honorary doctorates by several universities. Armstrong met Janet Elizabeth Shearon, who was majoring in home economics , at a party hosted by Alpha Chi Omega. According to
1128-540: A T-33, was to evaluate Smith Ranch Dry Lake in Nevada for use as an emergency landing site for the X-15. In his autobiography, Yeager wrote that he knew the lake bed was unsuitable for landings after recent rains, but Armstrong insisted on flying out anyway. As they attempted a touch-and-go , the wheels became stuck and they had to wait for rescue. As Armstrong told the story, Yeager never tried to talk him out of it and they made
1269-563: A blunt shape, do not usually contain much more fuel than needed, and they do not possess wings unlike spaceplanes . They are the simplest form of recoverable spacecraft, and so the most commonly used. The first such capsule was the Vostok capsule built by the Soviet Union, that carried the first person in space, Yuri Gagarin . Other examples include the Soyuz and Orion capsules, built by
1410-475: A comment about the flight crew's relief: "Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot." During the landing, Armstrong's heart rate ranged from 100 to 150 beats per minute. The flight plan called for a crew rest period before leaving the module, but Armstrong asked for this to be moved to earlier in the evening, Houston time . When he and Aldrin were ready to go outside, Eagle
1551-639: A couple of Pipers , which were kept at nearby Aretz Airport in Lafayette, Indiana . Flying the Aeronca to Wapakoneta in 1954, he damaged it in a rough landing in a farmer's field, and it had to be hauled back to Lafayette on a trailer. He was a baritone player in the Purdue All-American Marching Band . Ten years later he was made an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi national band honorary fraternity. Armstrong graduated with
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#17327733544621692-675: A descendant of Clan Armstrong . He had a younger sister, June, and a younger brother, Dean. His father was an auditor for the Ohio state government , and the family moved around the state repeatedly, living in 16 towns over the next 14 years. Armstrong's love for flying grew during this time, having started at the age of two when his father took him to the Cleveland Air Races . When he was five or six, he experienced his first airplane flight in Warren, Ohio , when he and his father took
1833-533: A fact she regretted later in life. The couple had three children. In June 1961, their daughter Karen was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma , a malignant tumor of the middle part of her brain stem . X-ray treatment slowed its growth, but her health deteriorated to the point where she could no longer walk or talk. She died of pneumonia , related to her weakened health, on January 28, 1962, aged two. Following his graduation from Purdue, Armstrong became an experimental research test pilot. He applied at
1974-417: A first successful landing on the east side of the lake. Then Yeager told him to try again, this time a bit slower. On the second landing, they became stuck, provoking Yeager to fits of laughter. On May 21, 1962, Armstrong was involved in the "Nellis Affair". He was sent in an F-104 to inspect Delamar Dry Lake in southern Nevada, again for emergency landings. He misjudged his altitude and did not realize that
2115-488: A flight simulator expert with whom Armstrong had worked closely at Edwards, saw the late arrival of the application and slipped it into the pile before anyone noticed. At Brooks Air Force Base at the end of June, Armstrong underwent a medical exam that many of the applicants described as painful and at times seemingly pointless. NASA's Director of Flight Crew Operations, Deke Slayton , called Armstrong on September 13, 1962, and asked whether he would be interested in joining
2256-484: A good education without going all the way to Cambridge, Massachusetts . His college tuition was paid for under the Holloway Plan . Successful applicants committed to two years of study, followed by two years of flight training and one year of service as an aviator in the U.S. Navy , then completion of the final two years of their bachelor's degree . Armstrong did not take courses in naval science, nor did he join
2397-554: A liftoff thrust of 2,800,000 pounds-force (12 MN), which soon increased to 3,300,000 pounds-force (15 MN) per booster, and were fueled by a combination of PBAN and APCP , the Space Shuttle Orbiter , with 3 RS-25 engines that used a liquid oxygen / liquid hydrogen propellant combination, and the bright orange throwaway Space Shuttle external tank from which the RS-25 engines sourced their fuel. The orbiter
2538-415: A meeting with Slayton. The first thing Slayton said was, "The guys who are going to fly the first lunar missions are the guys in this room." According to Cernan, only Armstrong showed no reaction to the statement. To Armstrong it came as no surprise—the room was full of veterans of Project Gemini, the only people who could fly the lunar missions. Slayton talked about the planned missions and named Armstrong to
2679-416: A no-radio approach. The loss of hydraulic fluid caused the tailhook to release, and upon landing, he caught the arresting wire attached to an anchor chain, and dragged the chain along the runway. It took thirty minutes to clear the runway and rig another arresting cable. Armstrong telephoned Edwards and asked for someone to collect him. Milt Thompson was sent in an F-104B, the only two-seater available, but
2820-477: A plane Thompson had never flown. With great difficulty, Thompson made it to Nellis, where a strong crosswind caused a hard landing and the left main tire suffered a blowout. The runway was again closed to clear it, and Bill Dana was sent to Nellis in a T-33, but he almost landed long. The Nellis base operations office then decided that to avoid any further problems, it would be best to find the three NASA pilots ground transport back to Edwards. In June 1958, Armstrong
2961-571: A planetary body are artificial satellites . To date, only a handful of interstellar probes , such as Pioneer 10 and 11 , Voyager 1 and 2 , and New Horizons , are on trajectories that leave the Solar System . Orbital spacecraft may be recoverable or not. Most are not. Recoverable spacecraft may be subdivided by a method of reentry to Earth into non-winged space capsules and winged spaceplanes . Recoverable spacecraft may be reusable (can be launched again or several times, like
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#17327733544623102-525: A pole, which sliced off 2 feet (0.61 m) of the Panther's right wing. Further perversions of the story by different authors added that he was only 20 feet (6.1 m) from the ground and that 3 feet (0.91 m) of his wing was sheared off. Armstrong flew the plane back to friendly territory, but because of the loss of the aileron , ejection was his only safe option. He intended to eject over water and await rescue by Navy helicopters, but his parachute
3243-562: A proposed two-man spacecraft. This time, selection was open to qualified civilian test pilots. Armstrong visited the Seattle World's Fair in May 1962 and attended a conference there on space exploration that was co-sponsored by NASA. After he returned from Seattle on June 4, he applied to become an astronaut. His application arrived about a week past the June 1, 1962, deadline, but Dick Day,
3384-417: A rendezvous with Intelsat-901 on 25 February 2020. It will remain with the satellite until 2025 before the satellite is moved to a final graveyard orbit and the vehicle does a rendezvous with another satellite. The other one launched on an Ariane 5 rocket on 15 August 2020. A spacecraft astrionics system comprises different subsystems, depending on the mission profile. Spacecraft subsystems are mounted in
3525-604: A ride in a Ford Trimotor (also known as the "Tin Goose"). The family's last move was in 1944 and took them back to Wapakoneta, where Armstrong attended Blume High School and took flying lessons at the Wapakoneta airfield. He earned a student flight certificate on his 16th birthday, then soloed in August, all before he had a driver's license. He was an active Boy Scout and earned the rank of Eagle Scout . As an adult, he
3666-678: A spacecraft of their own, the CST-100 , commonly referred to as Starliner , but a crewed flight is yet to occur. China developed, but did not fly Shuguang , and is currently using Shenzhou (its first crewed mission was in 2003). Except for the Space Shuttle and the Buran spaceplane of the Soviet Union, the latter of which only ever had one uncrewed test flight, all of the recoverable crewed orbital spacecraft were space capsules . The International Space Station , crewed since November 2000,
3807-652: Is a joint venture between Russia, the United States, Canada and several other countries. Uncrewed spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input; they may be remote controlled , remote guided or even autonomous , meaning they have a pre-programmed list of operations, which they will execute unless otherwise instructed. Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to lower cost and lower risk factors. In addition, some planetary destinations such as Venus or
3948-443: Is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder ; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth . Communications satellites are used for television , telephone , radio , internet , and military applications. Many communications satellites are in geostationary orbit 22,300 miles (35,900 km) above
4089-614: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who, in 1969, became the first person to walk on the Moon . He was also a naval aviator , test pilot , and university professor. Armstrong was born and raised in Wapakoneta, Ohio . He entered Purdue University , studying aeronautical engineering , with
4230-526: Is the height required by the international organization Fédération Aéronautique Internationale to count as a spaceflight. This altitude is called the Kármán line . In particular, in the 1940s there were several test launches of the V-2 rocket , some of which reached altitudes well over 100 km. As of 2016, only three nations have flown crewed spacecraft: USSR/Russia, USA, and China. The first crewed spacecraft
4371-626: Is to be replaced by expendable rockets such as the Space Launch System and ULA 's Vulcan rocket, as well as the commercial launch vehicles. Scaled Composites ' SpaceShipOne was a reusable suborbital spaceplane that carried pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie on consecutive flights in 2004 to win the Ansari X Prize . The Spaceship Company built a successor SpaceShipTwo . A fleet of SpaceShipTwos operated by Virgin Galactic
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4512-809: The Air Medal for 20 combat missions, two gold stars for the next 40, the Korean Service Medal and Engagement Star, the National Defense Service Medal , and the United Nations Korea Medal . Armstrong's regular commission was terminated on February 25, 1952, and he became an ensign in the United States Navy Reserve . On completion of his combat tour with Essex , he was assigned to a transport squadron, VR-32, in May 1952. He
4653-738: The Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1979, and with his former crewmates received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. After he resigned from NASA in 1971, Armstrong taught in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati until 1979. He served on the Apollo 13 accident investigation and on
4794-650: The Convair F-106 Delta Dart . He also flew the Douglas DC-3 , Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star , North American F-86 Sabre , McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II , Douglas F5D-1 Skylancer , Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Boeing B-47 Stratojet and Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker , and was one of eight elite pilots involved in the Parasev paraglider research vehicle program. Over his career, he flew more than 200 different models of aircraft. His first flight in
4935-549: The Deep Space Network . A space telescope or space observatory is a telescope in outer space used to observe astronomical objects. Space telescopes avoid the filtering and distortion of electromagnetic radiation which they observe, and avoid light pollution which ground-based observatories encounter. They are divided into two types: satellites which map the entire sky ( astronomical survey ), and satellites which focus on selected astronomical objects or parts of
5076-409: The International Space Station and Tiangong space station. Some spacecrafts can operate as both a crewed and uncrewed spacecraft. For example, the Buran spaceplane could operate autonomously but also had manual controls, though it never flew with crew onboard. Other dual crewed/uncrewed spacecrafts include: SpaceX Dragon 2 , Dream Chaser , and Tianzhou . A communications satellite
5217-440: The International Space Station : Russian Progress , American SpaceX Dragon 2 and Cygnus . Chinese Tianzhou is used to supply Tiangong space station . Space probes are robotic spacecraft that are sent to explore deep space, or astronomical bodies other than Earth. They are distinguished from landers by the fact that they work in open space, not on planetary surfaces or in planetary atmospheres. Being robotic eliminates
5358-545: The Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969, at 13:32:00 UTC (09:32:00 EDT local time). Armstrong's wife Janet and two sons watched from a yacht moored on the Banana River . During the launch, Armstrong's heart rate peaked at 110 beats per minute. He found the first stage the loudest, much noisier than the Gemini 8 Titan II launch. The Apollo command module was relatively roomy compared with
5499-545: The Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston. The mission was generally successful, despite a problem with the fuel cells that prevented a rendezvous. Cooper and Conrad practiced a "phantom rendezvous", carrying out the maneuver without a target. The crews for Gemini 8 were assigned on September 20, 1965. Under the normal rotation system, the backup crew for one mission became the prime crew for
5640-567: The NASA Astronaut Corps as part of what the press dubbed "the New Nine "; without hesitation, Armstrong said yes. The selections were kept secret until three days later, although newspaper reports had circulated since earlier that year that he would be selected as the "first civilian astronaut". Armstrong was one of two civilian pilots selected for this group; the other was Elliot See , another former naval aviator. NASA selected
5781-808: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base. NACA had no open positions, and forwarded his application to the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland , where Armstrong made his first test flight on March 1, 1955. Armstrong's stint at Cleveland lasted only a couple of months before a position at the High-Speed Flight Station became available, and he reported for work there on July 11, 1955. On his first day, Armstrong
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5922-766: The Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps . Armstrong's call-up from the Navy arrived on January 26, 1949, requiring him to report to Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida for flight training with class 5-49. After passing the medical examinations, he became a midshipman on February 24, 1949. Flight training was conducted in a North American SNJ trainer , in which he soloed on September 9, 1949. On March 2, 1950, he made his first aircraft carrier landing on USS Cabot , an achievement he considered comparable to his first solo flight. He
6063-542: The Rogers Commission , which investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster . In 2012, Armstrong died because of complications resulting from coronary bypass surgery , at the age of 82. Armstrong was born near Wapakoneta, Ohio , on August 5, 1930, the son of Viola Louise (née Engel) and Stephen Koenig Armstrong. He was of German, English, Scots-Irish, and Scottish descent. He is
6204-850: The SpaceX Dragon and the Space Shuttle orbiters ) or expendable (like the Soyuz ). In recent years, more space agencies are tending towards reusable spacecraft. Humanity has achieved space flight, but only a few nations have the technology for orbital launches : Russia ( Roscosmos ), the United States ( NASA ), the member states of the European Space Agency , Japan ( JAXA ), China ( CNSA ), India ( ISRO ), Taiwan ( TSA ), Israel ( ISA ), Iran ( ISA ), and North Korea ( NADA ). In addition, several private companies have developed or are developing
6345-658: The U.S. Navy paying his tuition under the Holloway Plan . He became a midshipman in 1949 and a naval aviator the following year. He saw action in the Korean War , flying the Grumman F9F Panther from the aircraft carrier USS Essex . After the war, he completed his bachelor's degree at Purdue and became a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He
6486-836: The Voskhod , Soyuz , flown uncrewed as Zond/L1 , L3 , TKS , and the Salyut and Mir crewed space stations . Other American crewed spacecraft include the Gemini spacecraft , the Apollo spacecraft including the Apollo Lunar Module , the Skylab space station, the Space Shuttle with undetached European Spacelab and private US Spacehab space stations-modules, and the SpaceX Crew Dragon configuration of their Dragon 2 . US company Boeing also developed and flown
6627-667: The dissolution of the USSR , prevented any further flights of Buran. The Space Shuttle was subsequently modified to allow for autonomous re-entry in case of necessity. Per the Vision for Space Exploration , the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011 mainly due to its old age and high cost of program reaching over a billion dollars per flight. The Shuttle's human transport role is to be replaced by SpaceX 's SpaceX Dragon 2 and Boeing 's CST-100 Starliner . Dragon 2's first crewed flight occurred on May 30, 2020. The Shuttle's heavy cargo transport role
6768-528: The equator , so that the satellite appears stationary at the same point in the sky; therefore the satellite dish antennas of ground stations can be aimed permanently at that spot and do not have to move to track the satellite. Others form satellite constellations in low Earth orbit , where antennas on the ground have to follow the position of the satellites and switch between satellites frequently. The high frequency radio waves used for telecommunications links travel by line of sight and so are obstructed by
6909-482: The "a" was inaudible due to the limitations of communications technology of the time. Ford and James R. Hansen , Armstrong's authorized biographer, presented these findings to Armstrong and NASA representatives, who conducted their own analysis. Armstrong found Ford's analysis "persuasive." Linguists David Beaver and Mark Liberman wrote of their skepticism of Ford's claims on the blog Language Log . A 2016 peer-reviewed study again concluded Armstrong had included
7050-862: The American Orbiting Astronomical Observatory , OAO-2 launched in 1968, and the Soviet Orion 1 ultraviolet telescope aboard space station Salyut 1 in 1971. Space telescopes avoid the filtering and distortion ( scintillation ) of electromagnetic radiation which they observe, and avoid light pollution which ground-based observatories encounter. The best-known examples are Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope . Cargo spacecraft are designed to carry cargo , possibly to support space stations ' operation by transporting food, propellant and other supplies. Automated cargo spacecraft have been used since 1978 and have serviced Salyut 6 , Salyut 7 , Mir ,
7191-535: The B-29 could not land with the Skyrocket attached to its belly. Armstrong and Butchart brought the aircraft into a nose-down attitude to increase speed, then launched the Skyrocket. At the instant of launch, the number-four engine propeller disintegrated. Pieces of it damaged the number-three engine and hit the number-two engine. Butchart and Armstrong were forced to shut down the damaged number-three engine, along with
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#17327733544627332-474: The CEO of SpaceX, estimated in a tweet that 8 launches would be needed to completely refuel a Starship in low Earth orbit , extrapolating this from Starship's payload to orbit and how much fuel a fully fueled Starship contains. To land on bodies without an atmosphere, such as the Moon, Starship will fire its engines and thrusters to slow down. The Mission Extension Vehicle is a robotic spacecraft designed to prolong
7473-401: The Gemini spacecraft. None of the Apollo 11 crew suffered space sickness , as some members of previous crews had. Armstrong was especially glad about this, as he had been prone to motion sickness as a child and could experience nausea after long periods of aerobatics . Apollo 11's objective was to land safely on the Moon, rather than to touch down at a precise location. Three minutes into
7614-534: The Georgetown Inn, where they each found messages to phone the MSC. During these calls, they learned of the deaths of Gus Grissom , Ed White and Roger Chaffee in the fire. Armstrong and the group spent the rest of the night drinking scotch and discussing what had happened. On April 5, 1967, the same day the Apollo 1 investigation released its final report, Armstrong and 17 other astronauts gathered for
7755-544: The LLRV began rolling . He ejected safely before the vehicle struck the ground and burst into flames. Later analysis suggested that if he had ejected half a second later, his parachute would not have opened in time. His only injury was from biting his tongue. The LLRV was completely destroyed. Even though he was nearly killed, Armstrong maintained that without the LLRV and LLTV, the lunar landings would not have been successful, as they gave commanders essential experience in piloting
7896-475: The LM on its descent, NASA commissioned Bell Aircraft to build two Lunar Landing Research Vehicles (LLRV), later augmented with three Lunar Landing Training Vehicles (LLTV). Nicknamed the "Flying Bedsteads", they simulated the Moon's one-sixth gravity using a turbofan engine to support five-sixths of the craft's weight. On May 6, 1968, 100 feet (30 m) above the ground, Armstrong's controls started to degrade and
8037-541: The MH-96 control system when he flew to a height of over 207,000 feet (63 km) (the highest he flew before Gemini 8 ). He held up the aircraft nose during its descent to demonstrate the MH-96's g-limiting performance, and the X-15 ballooned back up to around 140,000 feet (43 km). He flew past the landing field at Mach 3 at over 100,000 feet (30 km) in altitude, and ended up 40 miles (64 km) south of Edwards. After sufficient descent, he turned back toward
8178-487: The Moon is unclear. Armstrong prepared his famous epigram on his own. In a post-flight press conference, he said that he chose the words "just prior to leaving the LM." In a 1983 interview in Esquire magazine, he explained to George Plimpton : "I always knew there was a good chance of being able to return to Earth, but I thought the chances of a successful touch down on the moon surface were about even money—fifty–fifty ... Most people don't realize how difficult
8319-421: The Moon, Mars, and potentially beyond. It is intended to enable long duration interplanetary flights for a crew of up to 100 people. It will also be capable of point-to-point transport on Earth, enabling travel to anywhere in the world in less than an hour. Furthermore, the spacecraft will be used to refuel other Starship vehicles to allow them to reach higher orbits to and other space destinations. Elon Musk ,
8460-493: The Moon. According to Armstrong's 2005 biography, Slayton told him that although the planned crew was Commander Armstrong, Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin, and Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, he was offering Armstrong the chance to replace Aldrin with Jim Lovell. After thinking it over for a day, Armstrong told Slayton he would stick with Aldrin, as he had no difficulty working with him and thought Lovell deserved his own command. Replacing Aldrin with Lovell would have made Lovell
8601-403: The Navy, Armstrong returned to Purdue. His previously earned good but not outstanding grades now improved, lifting his final Grade Point Average (GPA) to a respectable but not outstanding 4.8 out of 6.0. He pledged the Phi Delta Theta fraternity , and lived in its fraternity house. He wrote and co-directed two musicals as part of the all-student revue. The first was a version of Snow White and
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#17327733544628742-426: The OAMS. Mission rules dictated that once this system was turned on, the spacecraft had to reenter at the next possible opportunity. It was later thought that damaged wiring caused one of the thrusters to stick in the on position. A few people in the Astronaut Office, including Walter Cunningham , felt that Armstrong and Scott "had botched their first mission". There was speculation that Armstrong could have salvaged
8883-423: The Seven Dwarfs , co-directed with his girlfriend Joanne Alford from the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, with songs from the 1937 Walt Disney film , including " Someday My Prince Will Come "; the second was titled The Land of Egelloc ("college" spelled backward), with music from Gilbert and Sullivan but new lyrics. Armstrong was chairman of the Purdue Aero Flying Club, and flew the club's aircraft, an Aeronca and
9024-439: The Solar System , these are Voyager 1 , Voyager 2 , Pioneer 10 , Pioneer 11 , and New Horizons . The identical Voyager probes , weighing 721.9 kilograms (1,592 lb), were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a rare alignment of Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus and Neptune that would allow a spacecraft to visit all four planets in one mission, and get to each destination faster by using gravity assist . In fact,
9165-447: The Soviet Union and NASA , respectively. Spaceplanes are spacecraft that are built in the shape of, and function as, airplanes . The first example of such was the North American X-15 spaceplane, which conducted two crewed flights which reached an altitude of over 100 kilometres (62 mi) in the 1960s. This first reusable spacecraft was air-launched on a suborbital trajectory on July 19, 1963. The first reusable orbital spaceplane
9306-443: The Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the Space Age . Apart from its value as a technological first, Sputnik 1 also helped to identify the upper atmospheric layer 's density, by measuring the satellite's orbital changes. It also provided data on radio -signal distribution in the ionosphere . Pressurized nitrogen in the satellite's false body provided the first opportunity for meteoroid detection. Sputnik 1
9447-422: The Sun as of August 2023. NASA provides real time data of their distances and data from the probe’s cosmic ray detectors. Because of the probe’s declining power output and degradation of the RTGs over time, NASA has had to shut down certain instruments to conserve power. The probes may still have some scientific instruments on until the mid-2020s or perhaps the 2030s. After 2036, they will both be out of range of
9588-406: The alarms were not a concern; the 1202 and 1201 alarms were caused by executive overflows in the lunar module guidance computer . In 2007, Aldrin said the overflows were caused by his own counter-checklist choice of leaving the docking radar on during the landing process, causing the computer to process unnecessary radar data. When it did not have enough time to execute all tasks, the computer dropped
9729-502: The article. NASA's transcript continues to show the "a" in parentheses. Spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed to fly and operate in outer space . Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications , Earth observation , meteorology , navigation , space colonization , planetary exploration , and transportation of humans and cargo . All spacecraft except single-stage-to-orbit vehicles cannot get into space on their own, and require
9870-410: The back of a Boeing 747 SCA and gliding to deadstick landings at Edwards AFB, California . The first Space Shuttle to fly into space was Columbia , followed by Challenger , Discovery , Atlantis , and Endeavour . Endeavour was built to replace Challenger when it was lost in January 1986. Columbia broke up during reentry in February 2003. The first autonomous reusable spaceplane
10011-420: The backup crew for Apollo 9 , which at that stage was planned as a medium Earth orbit test of the combined lunar module and command and service module . The crew was officially assigned on November 20, 1967. For crewmates, Armstrong was assigned Lovell and Aldrin, from Gemini 12. After design and manufacturing delays of the lunar module (LM), Apollo 8 and 9 swapped prime and backup crews. Based on
10152-430: The backup crew of Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan , while Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin moved up from the backup crew of Gemini 10 to become the backup for Gemini 9, and would eventually fly Gemini 12 . Gemini 8 launched on March 16, 1966. It was the most complex mission yet, with a rendezvous and docking with an uncrewed Agena target vehicle , and the planned second American spacewalk ( EVA ) by Scott. The mission
10293-720: The couple, there was no real courtship, and neither could remember the exact circumstances of their engagement. They were married on January 28, 1956, at the Congregational Church in Wilmette, Illinois . When he moved to Edwards Air Force Base , he lived in the bachelor quarters of the base, while Janet lived in the Westwood district of Los Angeles. After one semester, they moved into a house in Antelope Valley , near Edwards AFB. Janet did not finish her degree,
10434-514: The curve of the Earth. The purpose of communications satellites is to relay the signal around the curve of the Earth allowing communication between widely separated geographical points. Communications satellites use a wide range of radio and microwave frequencies . To avoid signal interference, international organizations have regulations for which frequency ranges or "bands" certain organizations are allowed to use. This allocation of bands minimizes
10575-480: The different orbiters had differing weights and thus payloads, with Columbia being the heaviest orbiter, Challenger being lighter than Columbia but still heavier than the other three. The orbiter structure was mostly composed of aluminium alloy. The orbiter had seven seats for crew members, though on STS-61-A the launch took place with 8 crew onboard. The orbiters had 4.6 metres (15 ft) wide by 18 metres (59 ft) long payload bays and also were equipped with
10716-617: The exploits of the Brazilian-born aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont . On January 27, 1967—the day of the Apollo 1 fire —Armstrong was in Washington, D.C., with Cooper, Gordon, Lovell and Scott Carpenter for the signing of the United Nations Outer Space Treaty . The astronauts chatted with the assembled dignitaries until 18:45, when Carpenter went to the airport, and the others returned to
10857-523: The first docking of two spacecraft ; the mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his re-entry control fuel to stabilize a dangerous roll caused by a stuck thruster. During training for Armstrong's second and last spaceflight as commander of Apollo 11 , he had to eject from the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle moments before a crash. On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) pilot Buzz Aldrin became
10998-463: The first American civilian in space. ( Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union had become the first civilian—and first woman—nearly three years earlier aboard Vostok 6 when it launched on June 16, 1963. ) Armstrong would also be the last of his group to fly in space, as See died in a T-38 crash on February 28, 1966, that also took the life of crewmate Charles Bassett . They were replaced by
11139-534: The first flight of the MH-96 adaptive flight control system. He became an employee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) when it was established on October 1, 1958, absorbing NACA. Armstrong was involved in several incidents that went down in Edwards folklore or were chronicled in the memoirs of colleagues. During his sixth X-15 flight on April 20, 1962, Armstrong was testing
11280-596: The first people to land on the Moon , and the next day they spent two and a half hours outside the Lunar Module Eagle spacecraft while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the Apollo Command Module Columbia . When Armstrong first stepped onto the lunar surface, he famously said: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." It was broadcast live to an estimated 530 million viewers worldwide. Apollo 11
11421-406: The first person on the Moon, in part because NASA management saw him as a person who did not have a large ego. A press conference on April 14, 1969, gave the design of the LM cabin as the reason for Armstrong's being first; the hatch opened inwards and to the right, making it difficult for the LM pilot, on the right-hand side, to exit first. At the time of their meeting, the four men did not know about
11562-410: The general spacecraft categories. This is a list of these spacecraft. Starship is a spacecraft and second stage under development by American aerospace company SpaceX . Stacked atop its booster, Super Heavy , it composes the identically named Starship super heavy-lift space vehicle . The spacecraft is designed to transport both crew and cargo to a variety of destinations, including Earth orbit,
11703-497: The ground, the docked spacecraft began to roll, and Armstrong attempted to correct this with the Gemini's Orbit Attitude and Maneuvering System (OAMS). Following the earlier advice of Mission Control, they undocked, but the roll increased dramatically until they were turning about once per second, indicating a problem with Gemini's attitude control . Armstrong engaged the Reentry Control System (RCS) and turned off
11844-526: The hatch consideration. The first knowledge of the meeting outside the small group came when Kraft wrote his book. Methods of circumventing this difficulty existed, but it is not known if these were considered at the time. Slayton added, "Secondly, just on a pure protocol basis, I figured the commander ought to be the first guy out ... I changed it as soon as I found they had the time line that showed that. Bob Gilruth approved my decision." A Saturn V rocket launched Apollo 11 from Launch Complex 39A at
11985-444: The landing area, and landed. It was the longest X-15 flight in both flight time and length of the ground track. Fellow astronaut Michael Collins wrote that of the X-15 pilots Armstrong "had been considered one of the weaker stick-and-rudder men, but the very best when it came to understanding the machine's design and how it operated". Many of the test pilots at Edwards praised Armstrong's engineering ability. Milt Thompson said he
12126-399: The landing gear had not fully extended. As he touched down, the landing gear began to retract; Armstrong applied full power to abort the landing, but the ventral fin and landing gear door struck the ground, damaging the radio and releasing hydraulic fluid . Without radio communication, Armstrong flew south to Nellis Air Force Base , past the control tower, and waggled his wings, the signal for
12267-486: The left-hand pilot seat flying the B-29. As they climbed to 30,000 feet (9 km), the number-four engine stopped and the propeller began windmilling (rotating freely) in the airstream. Hitting the switch that would stop the propeller's spinning, Butchart watched it slow, then resume spinning even faster than the others; if it spun too fast, it would break apart. Their aircraft needed to hold an airspeed of 210 mph (338 km/h) to launch its Skyrocket payload, and
12408-426: The life on another spacecraft. It works by docking to its target spacecraft, then correcting its orientation or orbit. This also allows it to rescue a satellite which is in the wrong orbit by using its own fuel to move its target to the correct orbit. The project is currently managed by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. As of 2023, 2 have been launched. The first launched on a Proton rocket on 9 October 2019, and did
12549-496: The lower-priority ones, triggering the alarms. Aldrin said he decided to leave the radar on in case an abort was necessary when re-docking with the Apollo command module; he did not realize it would cause the processing overflows. When Armstrong noticed they were heading toward a landing area that seemed unsafe, he took manual control of the LM and attempted to find a safer area. This took longer than expected, and longer than most simulations had taken. For this reason, Mission Control
12690-568: The lunar descent, Armstrong noted that craters were passing about two seconds too early, which meant the Lunar Module Eagle would probably touch down several miles (kilometres) beyond the planned landing zone. As the Eagle ' s landing radar acquired the surface, several computer error alarms sounded. The first was a code 1202 alarm, and even with their extensive training, neither Armstrong nor Aldrin knew what this code meant. They promptly received word from CAPCOM Charles Duke in Houston that
12831-466: The lunar landing craft. In addition to the LLRV training, NASA began lunar landing simulator training after Apollo 10 was completed. Aldrin and Armstrong trained for a variety of scenarios that could develop during a real lunar landing. They also received briefings from geologists at NASA. After Armstrong served as backup commander for Apollo 8, Slayton offered him the post of commander of Apollo 11 on December 23, 1968, as Apollo 8 orbited
12972-471: The lunar module pilot, unofficially the lowest ranked member, and Armstrong could not justify placing Lovell, the commander of Gemini 12, in the number 3 position of the crew. The crew of Apollo 11 was assigned on January 9, 1969, as Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin, with Lovell, Anders, and Fred Haise as the backup crew. According to Chris Kraft , a March 1969 meeting among Slayton, George Low, Bob Gilruth , and Kraft determined that Armstrong would be
13113-529: The mission if he had turned on only one of the two RCS rings, saving the other for mission objectives. These criticisms were unfounded; no malfunction procedures had been written, and it was possible to turn on only both RCS rings, not one or the other. Gene Kranz wrote, "The crew reacted as they were trained, and they reacted wrong because we trained them wrong." The mission planners and controllers had failed to realize that when two spacecraft were docked, they must be considered one spacecraft. Kranz considered this
13254-541: The mission objectives, while Armstrong served as a capsule communicator (CAPCOM). Following the flight, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Armstrong and his wife to take part in a 24-day goodwill tour of South America. Also on the tour, which took in 11 countries and 14 major cities, were Dick Gordon, George Low , their wives, and other government officials. In Paraguay, Armstrong greeted dignitaries in their local language, Guarani ; in Brazil he talked about
13395-399: The mission was. So it didn't seem to me there was much point in thinking of something to say if we'd have to abort landing." In 2012, his brother Dean Armstrong said that Neil showed him a draft of the line months before the launch. Historian Andrew Chaikin , who interviewed Armstrong in 1988 for his book A Man on the Moon , disputed that Armstrong claimed to have conceived the line during
13536-651: The mission's most important lesson. Armstrong was depressed that the mission was cut short, canceling most mission objectives and robbing Scott of his EVA. The Agena was later reused as a docking target by Gemini 10. Armstrong and Scott received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal , and the Air Force awarded Scott the Distinguished Flying Cross as well. Scott was promoted to lieutenant colonel , and Armstrong received
13677-422: The mission. Recordings of Armstrong's transmission do not provide evidence for the indefinite article "a" before "man", though NASA and Armstrong insisted for years that static obscured it. Armstrong stated he would never make such a mistake, but after repeated listenings to recordings, he eventually conceded he must have dropped the "a". He later said he "would hope that history would grant me leeway for dropping
13818-697: The need for expensive, heavy life support systems (the Apollo crewed Moon landings required the use of the Saturn V rocket that cost over a billion dollars per launch, adjusted for inflation) and so allows for lighter, less expensive rockets. Space probes have visited every planet in the Solar System and Pluto , and the Parker Solar Probe has an orbit that, at its closest point, is in the Sun's chromosphere . There are five space probes that are escaping
13959-414: The normal crew rotation, Armstrong would command Apollo 11, with one change: Collins on the Apollo 8 crew began experiencing trouble with his legs. Doctors diagnosed the problem as a bony growth between his fifth and sixth vertebrae, requiring surgery. Lovell took his place on the Apollo 8 crew, and, when Collins recovered, he joined Armstrong's crew. To give the astronauts practice piloting
14100-734: The number-one engine, because of the torque it created. They made a slow, circling descent from 30,000 ft (9 km) using only the number-two engine, and landed safely. Armstrong served as project pilot on Century Series fighters, including the North American F-100 Super Sabre A and C variants, the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo , the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter , the Republic F-105 Thunderchief and
14241-559: The reason why some pilot-engineers got into trouble: Their flying skills did not come naturally. Armstrong made seven flights in the X-15 between November 30, 1960, and July 26, 1962. He reached a top speed of Mach 5.74 (3,989 mph, 6,420 km/h) in the X-15-1, and left the Flight Research Center with a total of 2,400 flying hours. On April 24, 1962, Armstrong flew for the only time with Yeager. Their job, flying
14382-471: The risk of signal interference. Cargo or resupply spacecraft are robotic spacecraft that are designed specifically to carry cargo , possibly to support space stations ' operation by transporting food, propellant and other supplies. Automated cargo spacecraft have been used since 1978 and have serviced Salyut 6 , Salyut 7 , Mir , the International Space Station and Tiangong space station. As of 2023, three different cargo spacecraft are used to supply
14523-519: The rocket that launched the probes (the Titan IIIE ) could not even send the probes to the orbit of Saturn , yet Voyager 1 is travelling at roughly 17 km/s (11 mi/s) and Voyager 2 moves at about 15 km/s (9.3 mi/s) kilometres per second as of 2023. In 2012, Voyager 1 exited the heliosphere, followed by Voyager 2 in 2018. Voyager 1 actually launched 16 days after Voyager 2 but it reached Jupiter sooner because Voyager 2
14664-425: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title One Giant Leap . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=One_Giant_Leap&oldid=1200750275 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
14805-503: The same way as a spaceship, as they coexist with numerous micro-organisms, and these micro-organisms are also hard to contain within a spaceship or spacesuit. Multiple space probes were sent to study Moon, the planets, the Sun, multiple small Solar System bodies (comets and asteroids). Special class of uncrewed spacecraft is space telescopes , a telescope in outer space used to observe astronomical objects. The first operational telescopes were
14946-565: The second group that, compared with the Mercury Seven astronauts, were younger, and had more impressive academic credentials. Collins wrote that Armstrong was by far the most experienced test pilot in the Astronaut Corps. On February 8, 1965, Armstrong and Elliot See were picked as the backup crew for Gemini 5 , with Armstrong as commander, supporting the prime crew of Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad . The mission's purpose
15087-451: The ship at the end of July. On August 29, 1951, Armstrong saw action in the Korean War as an escort for a photo reconnaissance plane over Songjin . Five days later, on September 3, he flew armed reconnaissance over the primary transportation and storage facilities south of the village of Majon-ni, west of Wonsan . According to Armstrong, he was making a low bombing run at 350 mph (560 km/h) when 6 feet (1.8 m) of his wing
15228-504: The shuttle was a rather dangerous system, with fragile heat shielding tiles, some being so fragile that one could easily scrape it off by hand, often having been damaged in many flights. After 30 years in service from 1981 to 2011 and 135 flights, the shuttle was retired from service due to the cost of maintaining the shuttles, and the 3 remaining orbiters (the other two were destroyed in accidents) were prepared to be displayed in museums. Some spacecraft do not fit particularly well into any of
15369-583: The sky and beyond. Space telescopes are distinct from Earth imaging satellites , which point toward Earth for satellite imaging , applied for weather analysis , espionage , and other types of information gathering . A lander is a type of spacecraft that makes a soft landing on the surface of an astronomical body other than Earth . Some landers, such as Philae and the Apollo Lunar Module , land entirely by using their fuel supply, however many landers (and landings of spacecraft on Earth ) use aerobraking , especially for more distant destinations. This involves
15510-415: The spacecraft using a fuel burn to change its trajectory so it will pass through a planet (or a moon's) atmosphere. Drag caused by the spacecraft hitting the atmosphere enables it to slow down without using fuel, however this generates very high temperatures and so adds a requirement for a heat shield of some sort. Space capsules are a type of spacecraft that can return from space at least once. They have
15651-465: The surface of the Moon occurred several seconds after 20:17:40 UTC on July 20, 1969. One of three 67-inch (170 cm) probes attached to three of the LM's four legs made contact with the surface, a panel light in the LM illuminated, and Aldrin called out, "Contact light." Armstrong shut the engine off and said, "Shutdown." As the LM settled onto the surface, Aldrin said, "Okay, engine stop"; then they both called out some post-landing checklist items. After
15792-400: The syllable and understand that it was certainly intended, even if it was not said—although it might actually have been". There have since been claims and counter-claims about whether acoustic analysis of the recording reveals the presence of the missing "a"; Peter Shann Ford , an Australian computer programmer, conducted a digital audio analysis and claims that Armstrong did say "a man", but
15933-587: The technology for orbital launches independently from government agencies. The most prominent examples of such companies are SpaceX and Blue Origin . A German V-2 became the first spacecraft when it reached an altitude of 189 km in June 1944 in Peenemünde , Germany. Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite . It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit (LEO) by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments; while
16074-505: The third mission after, but Slayton designated David Scott as the pilot of Gemini 8. Scott was the first member of the third group of astronauts , who was selected on October 18, 1963, to receive a prime crew assignment. See was designated to command Gemini 9 . Henceforth, each Gemini mission was commanded by a member of Armstrong's group, with a member of Scott's group as the pilot. Conrad would be Armstrong's backup this time, and Richard F. Gordon Jr. his pilot. Armstrong became
16215-420: The vicinity of Jupiter are too hostile for human survival. Outer planets such as Saturn , Uranus , and Neptune are too distant to reach with current crewed spaceflight technology, so telerobotic probes are the only way to explore them. Telerobotics also allows exploration of regions that are vulnerable to contamination by Earth micro-organisms since spacecraft can be sterilized. Humans can not be sterilized in
16356-503: Was Vostok 1 , which carried Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961, and completed a full Earth orbit. There were five other crewed missions which used a Vostok spacecraft . The second crewed spacecraft was named Freedom 7 , and it performed a sub-orbital spaceflight in 1961 carrying American astronaut Alan Shepard to an altitude of just over 187 kilometers (116 mi). There were five other crewed missions using Mercury spacecraft . Other Soviet crewed spacecraft include
16497-410: Was "the most technically capable of the early X-15 pilots". Bill Dana said Armstrong "had a mind that absorbed things like a sponge". Those who flew for the Air Force tended to have a different opinion, especially people like Chuck Yeager and Pete Knight , who did not have engineering degrees. Knight said that pilot-engineers flew in a way that was "more mechanical than it is flying", and gave this as
16638-550: Was a major U.S. victory in the Space Race , by fulfilling a national goal proposed in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy "of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" before the end of the decade. Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon and received the 1969 Collier Trophy . President Jimmy Carter presented him with
16779-612: Was a spaceplane that was launched at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre and landed mainly at the Shuttle Landing Facility , which is part of Kennedy Space Centre. A second launch site, Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 6 in California , was revamped so it could be used to launch the shuttles, but it was never used. The launch system could lift about 29 tonnes (64,000 lb) into an eastward Low Earth Orbit . Each orbiter weighed roughly 78 tonnes (172,000 lb), however
16920-561: Was assigned to VF-51 , an all-jet squadron, becoming its youngest officer, and made his first flight in a jet, a Grumman F9F Panther , on January 5, 1951. He was promoted to ensign on June 5, 1951, and made his first jet carrier landing on USS Essex two days later. On June 28, 1951, Essex had set sail for Korea, with VF-51 aboard to act as ground-attack aircraft . VF-51 flew ahead to Naval Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii, where it conducted fighter-bomber training before rejoining
17061-524: Was blown back over land. A jeep driven by a roommate from flight school picked him up; it is unknown what happened to the wreckage of his aircraft, F9F-2 BuNo 125122 . In all, Armstrong flew 78 missions over Korea for a total of 121 hours in the air, a third of them in January 1952, with the final mission on March 5, 1952. Of 492 U.S. Navy personnel killed in the Korean War, 27 of them were from Essex on this war cruise. Armstrong received
17202-519: Was chosen as part of the pilot consultant group for the X-20 Dyna-Soar , a military space plane under development by Boeing for the U.S. Air Force, and on March 15, 1962, he was selected by the U.S. Air Force as one of seven pilot-engineers who would fly the X-20 when it got off the design board. In April 1962, NASA sought applications for the second group of NASA astronauts for Project Gemini ,
17343-536: Was concerned that the LM was running low on fuel. On landing, Aldrin and Armstrong believed they had 40 seconds of fuel left, including the 20 seconds' worth which had to be saved in the event of an abort. During training, Armstrong had, on several occasions, landed with fewer than 15 seconds of fuel; he was also confident the LM could survive a fall of up to 50 feet (15 m). Post-mission analysis showed that at touchdown there were 45 to 50 seconds of propellant burn time left. The landing on
17484-419: Was depressurized, the hatch was opened, and Armstrong made his way down the ladder. At the bottom of the ladder, while standing on a Lunar Module landing pad, Armstrong said, "I'm going to step off the LM now". He turned and set his left boot on the lunar surface at 02:56 UTC July 21, 1969, then said, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." The exact time of Armstrong's first step on
17625-457: Was due to expensive refurbishment costs and the external tank being expended. Once a landing had occurred, the SRBs and many parts of the orbiter had to be disassembled for inspection, which was long and arduous. Furthermore, the RS-25 engines had to be replaced every few flights. Each of the heat shielding tiles had to go in one specific area on the orbiter, increasing complexity more. Adding to this,
17766-687: Was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No.1/5 , at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR (now at the Baikonur Cosmodrome ). The satellite travelled at 29,000 kilometres per hour (18,000 mph), taking 96.2 minutes to complete an orbit, and emitted radio signals at 20.005 and 40.002 MHz While Sputnik 1 was the first spacecraft to orbit the Earth, other human-made objects had previously reached an altitude of 100 km, which
17907-606: Was manually operated, though an autonomous landing system was added while the shuttle was still on service. It had an in orbit maneouvreing system known as the Orbital Manoeuvring System, which used the hypergolic propellants monomethylhydrazine (MMH) and dinitrogen tetroxide , which was used for orbital insertion, changes to orbits and the deorbit burn. Though the shuttle’s goals were to drastically decrease launch costs, it did not do so, ending up being much more expensive than similar expendable launchers. This
18048-439: Was planned to begin reusable private spaceflight carrying paying passengers in 2014, but was delayed after the crash of VSS Enterprise . The Space Shuttle is a retired reusable Low Earth Orbital launch system. It consisted of two reusable Solid Rocket Boosters that landed by parachute, were recovered at sea, and were the most powerful rocket motors ever made until they were superseded by those of NASA’s SLS rocket, with
18189-543: Was planned to last 75 hours and 55 orbits. After the Agena lifted off at 10:00:00 EST , the Titan II rocket carrying Armstrong and Scott ignited at 11:41:02 EST, putting them into an orbit from which they chased the Agena. They achieved the first-ever docking between two spacecraft. Contact with the crew was intermittent due to the lack of tracking stations covering their entire orbits. While out of contact with
18330-689: Was recognized by the Scouts with their Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo Award . While flying toward the Moon on July 18, 1969, he sent his regards to attendees at the National Scout jamboree in Idaho. Among the few personal items that he carried with him to the Moon and back was a World Scout Badge. At age 17, in 1947, Armstrong began studying aeronautical engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana ; he
18471-509: Was released from active duty on August 23, 1952, but remained in the reserve, and was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) on May 9, 1953. As a reservist, he continued to fly, first with VF-724 at Naval Air Station Glenview in Illinois, and then, after moving to California, with VF-773 at Naval Air Station Los Alamitos . He remained in the reserve for eight years before resigning his commission on October 21, 1960. After his service with
18612-586: Was selected for the U.S. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest program, but the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) canceled its funding on August 1, 1958, and on November 5, 1958, it was superseded by Project Mercury , a civilian project run by NASA. As a NASA civilian test pilot, Armstrong was ineligible to become one of its astronauts at this time, as selection was restricted to military test pilots. In November 1960, he
18753-403: Was taking a longer route that allowed it to visit Uranus and Neptune, whereas Voyager 1 did not visit Uranus or Neptune, instead choosing to fly past Saturn’s satellite Titan . As of August 2023, Voyager 1 has passed 160 astronomical units , which means it is over 160 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. This makes it the farthest spacecraft from the Sun. Voyager 2 is 134 AU away from
18894-407: Was tasked with piloting chase planes during releases of experimental aircraft from modified bombers. He also flew the modified bombers, and on one of these missions had his first flight incident at Edwards. On March 22, 1956, he was in a Boeing B-29 Superfortress , which was to air-drop a Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket . He sat in the right-hand co-pilot seat while pilot in command, Stan Butchart sat in
19035-530: Was the Buran -class shuttle , launched by the USSR on November 15, 1988, although it made only one flight and this was uncrewed. This spaceplane was designed for a crew and strongly resembled the U.S. Space Shuttle, although its drop-off boosters used liquid propellants and its main engines were located at the base of what would be the external tank in the American Shuttle. Lack of funding, complicated by
19176-578: Was the Space Shuttle orbiter . The first orbiter to fly in space, the Space Shuttle Columbia , was launched by the USA on the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin 's flight, on April 12, 1981. During the Shuttle era, six orbiters were built, all of which have flown in the atmosphere and five of which have flown in space. Enterprise was used only for approach and landing tests, launching from
19317-570: Was the project pilot on Century Series fighters and flew the North American X-15 seven times. He was also a participant in the U.S. Air Force 's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs. Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in the second group , which was selected in 1962. He made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA 's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. During this mission with pilot David Scott , he performed
19458-811: Was the second person in his family to attend college. Armstrong was also accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but he resolved to go to Purdue after watching a football game between the Purdue Boilermakers and the Ohio State Buckeyes at the Ohio Stadium in 1945 in which quarterback Bob DeMoss led the Boilermakers to a sound victory over the highly regarded Buckeyes. An uncle who attended MIT had also advised him that he could receive
19599-615: Was then sent to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas for training on the Grumman F8F Bearcat , culminating in a carrier landing on USS Wright . On August 16, 1950, Armstrong was informed by letter that he was a fully qualified naval aviator . His mother and sister attended his graduation ceremony on August 23, 1950. Armstrong was assigned to Fleet Aircraft Service Squadron 7 (FASRON 7) at NAS San Diego (now known as NAS North Island). On November 27, 1950, he
19740-408: Was to practice space rendezvous and to develop procedures and equipment for a seven-day flight, all of which would be required for a mission to the Moon. With two other flights ( Gemini 3 and Gemini 4 ) in preparation, six crews were competing for simulator time, so Gemini 5 was postponed. It finally lifted off on August 21. Armstrong and See watched the launch at Cape Kennedy , then flew to
19881-441: Was torn off after it collided with a cable that was strung across the hills as a booby trap. He was flying 500 feet (150 m) above the ground when he hit it. While there was heavy anti-aircraft fire in the area, none hit Armstrong's aircraft. An initial report to the commanding officer of Essex said that Armstrong's F9F Panther was hit by anti-aircraft fire . The report indicated he was trying to regain control and collided with
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