Neil Armstrong Facts For Kids – Neil Armstrong Biography – All About Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong is an important person in the history of mankind being “The first man on the moon”. We have gathered a complete set of Neil Armstrong Facts For Kids that will help you in learning all about Neil Armstrong. You are going to get all the Neil Armstrong information you need on this page. You are going to learn who he was, his full name, nationality, height, childhood, education, where he lived, his school, college, career, space missions, religion, family, his spacecraft, landing on the moon, his walk on the moon, his speech, death, contributions, achievements and many other interesting facts about Neil Armstrong. This Neil Armstrong biography is best for school kids.

Neil Armstrong Facts For Kids

1. Who Is Neil Armstrong

• Neil Armstrong was a famous American astronaut and aeronautical engineer.
• He was the first human being who walked on the Moon’s surface.
• Besides this, he was also a test pilot, a naval aviator in the United States Navy, and a university professor.

2. Neil Armstrong Full Name

• The full name of Neil Armstrong was “Neil Alden Armstrong”.

3. Neil Armstrong Nationality

• Neil Armstrong was of American nationality.

4. How Tall Was Neil Armstrong

• Neil Armstrong was 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) tall.

5. When Was Neil Armstrong Born – Neil Armstrong Date Of Birth

• Neil Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930.

6. Neil Armstrong Childhood

• Neil Armstrong spent his childhood in the Ohio state of the USA.
• His father was an auditor for the state government of Ohio due to which his family moved repeatedly all around the state.
• At the age of 2 years, his father took him to the Clevelander Air Races that drew a strong love for flying within him.
• At the age of five or six, he took a ride in the American three-engined aircraft Ford Trimotor along with his father in Warren (Ohio), which was his first experience of airplane flight.
• He attended Blume High School and also started taking flying lessons at the grassy Wapakoneta airfield only at the age of 14.
• On his sixteenth birthday, he obtained a student flight certificate, and then in August, he took his first solo flight.
• He was also an active member of the Boy Scouts where he earned the Eagle Scout rank.
• At a very young age, he was also interested in outer space and was greatly fascinated by the views of stars and the Moon.

7. Where Is Neil Armstrong From – Neil Armstrong Hometown – Neil Armstrong Country

• Neil Armstrong was from the Wapakoneta city of the Ohio state of USA.

8. Where Did Neil Armstrong Live

• Neil Armstrong lived in Ohio.

Neil Armstrong House

• At an early age, Neil Armstrong lived at different locations all around the Ohio state due to his father’s job.
• After marrying Janet in 1956, they lived in California at several different locations.
• He also lived for a short time in the Clear Lake region of El Lago, Houston, Texas, when he was getting training for the Moon voyage.
• After returning from Moon, he moved along with his family to Bethesda, Maryland.
• Neil Armstrong and his wife Janet also bought a farm in Lebanon, Ohio, in 1971.
• After his second marriage with Carol Knight in 1994, Neil Armstrong and his wife lived in Indian Hill, Ohio, until his death.

9. Neil Armstrong Education

• Neil Armstrong obtained his initial education at Blume High School.
• He got his bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in aerospace engineering while a master’s degree from the University of Southern California in aeronautical engineering.
• He also held honorary doctorate degrees from many universities.

10. Where Did Neil Armstrong Go To School – Neil Armstrong School – What School Did Neil Armstrong Go To

• Neil Armstrong attended Blume High School located in Wapakoneta, a city in the Ohio state of USA.

11. Neil Armstrong Boy Scouts

• Neil Armstrong was active in the Boy Scouts while growing up.
• In 1941, he was moved to Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and at that time he was just 11 years old.
• The Upper Sandusky had no scout troop when Neil Armstrong moved there and the Troop 25 was formed after the Attack of Pearl Harbor in that year.
• He remained a member of Troop 25 for about 3 years.
• Due to his father’s job, his family moved continuously and he also changed troops when his family moved from one place to another.
• At the age of 14, he joined Troop 14 and it was that troop where he earned the rank of an Eagle Scout in 1947, at the age of only 17.
• In 1970, he was awarded the Silver Buffalo Award in Boy Scouts.

12. Where Did Neil Armstrong Go To College – Neil Armstrong College

• Neil Armstrong attended college, which became Purdue University in 1969 located in West Lafayette, Indiana.
• He enrolled in the college in 1947 at the age of 17 years and started studying aeronautical engineering.
• In his family, he was the second person enrolled in college.
• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also accepted him, however, his uncle who was a past student of MIT persuaded him to not attend.
• The tuition fees of his College had been paid under the Holloway Plan by the United States Navy.
• After his two years of study in college, he attained flight training for two years and served for another year as an aviator in the U.S Navy.
• After that, he completed his bachelor’s degree in the next two years in 1955.

13. Neil Armstrong Korean War

• During the Korean War, which was fought between South Korea and North Korea from June 1950 to July 1953, Neil Armstrong was serving as a pilot in the U.S Navy.
• On June 5, 1951, he was promoted to the ensign rank and made his initial jet carrier landing on the aircraft carrier ship of the United States Navy named USS Essex (CV-9).
• USS Essex set a voyage for Korea on June 28, 1951, along with VF-51, Fighter Squadron 51 jet assigned to Neil Armstrong on November 27, 1950.
• In September 1951, he was flying the Grumman F9F Panther from the USS Essex and was going to make a low bombing run when a sudden anti-aircraft fire hit him and he was forced to eject.
• He flew 78 combat missions and spent a total of 121 hours in the air during that conflict.
• For the 20 combat missions, he got the Air Medal, while 2 gold stars for the next 40 missions.
• He also received the Korean Service Medal and Engagement Star, the United Nations Korea Medal, and the National Defence Service Medal.

14. Neil Armstrong Career – Neil Armstrong Jobs

• Neil Armstrong did various jobs throughout his life.
• He was an astronaut, a naval officer, a rocket scientist, a test pilot, an aviator in the United States Navy, and a university professor.
• From an early age, he was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he earned the highest rank of Eagle Scout only at the age of 17.
• He got a flight certificate at the age of 16 and in 1947, he became a naval air cadet.
• He started graduation at Purdue University in aeronautical engineering, however, he had not completed his degree due to his service as a naval aviator in the Korean War.
• After the completion of his degree in 1955, he became a civilian research pilot at National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), an agency that was later superseded by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
• In 1962, Neil Armstrong was selected in the second group of the NASA Astronaut Corps and became the first non-military astronaut of America.
• In 1966, he was selected as the commander of the Gemini 8 mission of NASA, which was his first space flight.
• In 1969, he was selected as the commander of the Apollo 11 mission of NASA and on 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong and his companion Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon surface.
• In 1971, he resigned from NASA and served as a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, till 1979.
• After 1979, he served as a director or chairman of several companies including the Computing Technologies for Aviation (from 1982 to 1992) and the AIL Systems (which later became EDO Corporation) until 2002 when he retired.

15. Why Did Neil Armstrong Became An Astronaut

• Neil Armstrong became an astronaut because of his strong passion for flying and astronomy.

16. When Did Neil Armstrong Join Nasa

• Neil Armstrong joined NASA in 1962.

17. Neil Armstrong Space Missions

• Neil Armstrong went on two space missions:

Gemini 8

• This space mission was launched in 1966 and was the 6th crewed spaceflight in the Gemini program of NASA.
• In this mission, the docking of two spacecraft in orbit was managed for the first time, however, due to the failure of the critical in-space system of a U.S spacecraft, the lives of the astronauts became endangered and an immediate halt of the mission was necessary.
• So all the crew members safely returned to the earth.

Apollo 11

• Apollo 11 was a spaceflight mission that landed the first humans on the surface of the Moon.
• Neil Armstrong was the commander of this mission, Buzz Aldrin was the lunar module pilot, and Michael Collins was the command module pilot.
• They landed a spacecraft named “Apollo Lunar Module Eagle” on the Moon surface.

18. Neil Armstrong Religion

• Neil Armstrong’s family was devoutly religious, however, according to Armstrong, his family did not force their religious beliefs on him.
• In the late 1950s, Neil Armstrong decided to lead a troop of Boy Scouts for which he applied at a local Methodist church.
• In the portion of religious affiliation at the paperwork, Neil Armstrong described himself as a “Deist”.
• In 1980, it was claimed that Neil Armstrong was converted to Islam after hearing “Azan” (Muslims call for prayer) during his walk on the Moon surface.
• However, this claim was denied by the State Department of USA in 1983 through a proclamation that Neil Armstrong “has not converted to Islam”.

19. Neil Armstrong Family

• Neil Armstrong was the son of Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise nee Engel.
• He had two siblings, a younger sister June, and a younger brother Dean.
• His first marriage with Janet Shearon last for 38 years and they divorced in 1994.
• He married a second time with Carol Held Knight on June 12, 1994.  
• He had three children, two sons Mark Armstrong and Eric Armstrong, and a daughter Karen Armstrong who died at an early age.

20. Neil Armstrong Parents

• 

  Stephen Koenig Armstrong was the father of Neil Armstrong who was born in 1907 and had the job of an auditor for the government of the U.S state of Ohio.
• His mother Viola Louise nee Engel was also born in 1907.
• Both parents of Neil Armstrong died in 1990.

21. Neil Armstrong Siblings

• Neil Armstrong had two siblings, a younger brother Dean and a younger sister, June.

22. Neil Armstrong Wife – Neil Armstrong Spouse

• The first wife of Neil Armstrong Janet Shearon.
• They married in 1956 and had three children.
• Their marriage lasted for 38 years.

23. Neil Armstrong Divorce

• Neil Armstrong and his first wife Janet Shearon divorced in 1994.

Janet Shearon Armstrong Death

• Janet Shearon Armstrong died on June 21, 2018.
• She was 84 years old and was suffering from lung cancer.

24. Neil Armstrong Second Wife

• The second wife of Neil Armstrong was Carol Held Knight.
• They met in 1992 at a golf tournament.
• They married on June 12, 1994, in Ohio and lived in Indian Hill Ohio.

25. How Many Children Did Neil Armstrong Have – Neil Armstrong Children – Neil Armstrong Kids

• Neil Armstrong has 3 children, two sons, and a daughter.
• However, the daughter is not alive and died when she was a toddler.

26. Neil Armstrong Daughter

• Neil Armstrong had a daughter named Karen Armstrong.
• She was born on April 13, 1959, and died when she was a toddler.

How Did Neil Armstrong’s Daughter Die

• Neil Armstrong’s daughter, Karen Armstrong was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in her brain in June 1961.
• She was given X-ray treatment that slowed down tumor growth but she had not survived and died on January 28, 1962.

27. Neil Armstrong Sons

• There are two sons of Neil Armstrong.
• The elder one is Eric Armstrong who was born in 1957 and is currently 62 years old.
• Mark Armstrong is younger and was born in 1963.

28. What Is Neil Armstrong Famous For – Why Is Neil Armstrong Famous

• Neil Armstrong is famous for being the first human being who landed on the Moon’s surface.

29. When Did Neil Armstrong Go To Space

• Neil Armstrong went to space for the first time on March 16, 1966, in the Gemini 8 spaceflight mission of NASA.
• He then went to the Moon on July 20, 1969, on NASA’s Apollo 11 spaceflight mission.

30. What Did Neil Armstrong Discover

• When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were preparing for the departure from the Moon surface, they discovered that they had broken the ignition switch of the lift-off engine in their heavy spacesuits.
• So they activated the launch sequence by utilizing a pen part through which they pushed the circuit breaker inside.

31. Neil Armstrong Spacecraft – Neil Armstrong Apollo 11

• The Apollo 11 mission utilized the Apollo spacecraft that was composed of two principal parts:
  • The Command and Service Module (CSM)
  • The Lunar Module Eagle
• The Command and Service Module (CMS) worked as a mothership, which transported the crew of three astronauts (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins) and the second part of the Apollo spacecraft, the Lunar Module Eagle, to the lunar orbit and also returned them to the earth.
• The Lunar Module Eagle part of the Apollo spacecraft descended a crew of two astronauts (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin) on the Moon surface and then ascended them back to the lunar orbit and carried them to the Command and Service Module.
• Michael Collins was the pilot of the Command and Service Module (CSM) who remained alone in the lunar orbit for 28 hours (when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended on the Moon surface) and served as a communication link and also photographed the Moon surface.
• After the completion of the mission, the Lunar Module was discarded as it was designed for outer space and was incapable (aerodynamically and structurally) to fly in the atmosphere of the Earth.

32. Why Did Neil Armstrong Go To The Moon

• Neil Armstrong went to the Moon because he and his two companions, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, were chosen by NASA out of a group of 29 astronauts as the official crew of the Apollo 11 mission.

33. Was Neil Armstrong The First Man On The Moon

• Yes, Neil Armstrong was the first man to land and walked on the Moon.
• His companion Buzz Aldrin was the second man on the Moon, who joined him after 19 minutes of his first step on the Moon.

34. Picture Of Neil Armstrong On The Moon

35. When Did Neil Armstrong Land On The Moon

• The Lunar Module of the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the Moon’s surface on July 20, 1969, at 12:17 UTC.
• After six hours of their landing, Neil Armstrong took his first step on the Moon surface on July 21 at 02:56:15 UTC, while Buzz Aldrin joined him after 19 minutes.

36. Neil Armstrong Moon Landing

• On July 20, 1969, the Lunar Module landing on the Moon surface occurred at 20:17:40 UTC.
• The Lunar Module had four legs, out of which three legs were connected with 170 cm (67 inches) long probes.
• One of the three probes made contact with the Moon surface during the landing.
• When a panel light illuminated in the Lunar Module, Aldrin called out “Contact light”.
• At that time, Armstrong shut off the engine and said “Shut down”.
• When the Lunar Module settled into the Moon surface, Aldrin spoke: “Okay, engine stop”.
• After that, they both called some required post-landing statements.
• Then after a pause of 10 seconds, the landing of the Lunar Module was acknowledged by the Duke with the words, “We copy you down, Eagle”.
• Neil Armstrong then declared the landing to the Mission Control and the World by speaking the words, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed”.
• The pulse rate of Neil Armstrong during the landing had been ranged from 100 to 150 beats/minute.

37. Neil Armstrong First Step On The Moon

• Neil Armstrong took the first step on the surface of the Moon on July 21 at 02:56:15 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
• After taking his first step, Neil Armstrong spoke the words (which is now his famous quote); “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind”.

38. Neil Armstrong Walking On The Moon – When Did Neil Armstrong Walk On The Moon

• Neil Armstrong and his companion Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon’s surface on July 21, 1969.
• He went on a walk of 59 meters (65 yards) away on the East side of the Lunar Module.
• The region, as far as he had walked, was about 4 meters deep and 30 meters wide and is now known as the East Crater.
• On the mission, it was the greatest distance traveled away from the Lunar Module (LM).

39. How Long Did Neil Armstrong Walk On The Moon

• Neil Armstrong walked 59 meters (65 yards) away in the east from the Lunar Module.

41. How Long Did Neil Armstrong Stay On The Moon

• The total time the Lunar Module stayed on the Moon surface was 21 hours and 37 minutes.
• The time Neil Armstrong spent on the Moon surface outside the Lunar Module (the extravehicular activity or EVA) was 2 hours 31 minutes and 40 seconds.

42. What Did Neil Armstrong Do On The Moon

• Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin collected 21.5 kg (47.5 pounds) dust materials from the Moon surface and bring them back to the Earth for examining.

44. How Old Is Neil Armstrong – Neil Armstrong Age – How Old Was Neil Armstrong When He Died

• Neil Armstrong’s age was 82 years when he died.

45. When Did Neil Armstrong Die – Neil Armstrong Date Of Death

• Neil Armstrong died on August 25, 2012.

46. How Did Neil Armstrong Die

• Neil Armstrong died due to complications resulting from cardiac surgery.

47. Where Did Neil Armstrong Die

• Neil Armstrong died in Cincinnati city, Ohio, United States.

48. Neil Armstrong Cause Of Death – What Did Neil Armstrong Die Of

• Neil Armstrong had Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) (a disease that involved reduced blood flow to heart muscles due to the buildup of fatty plaque in heart arteries).
• On August 7, 2012, he underwent bypass surgery to replace his blocked coronary arteries.
• He was recovering well but developed some complications in the hospital due to which he died on August 25, 2012.

49. Neil Armstrong Book – Neil Armstrong Biography Book

• There are nearly 20 books on the life of Neil Armstrong written by different authors.
• There are also some books about the Moon voyage of Neil Armstrong, in which Neil Armstrong is himself the author or co-author. That is:
  • First on the Moon (1970 book)
  • First on the Moon: A Voyage with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins [and] Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr
  • First on the Moon: The Astronauts’ Own Story
  • The First Lunar Landing: As Told by the Astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins in a Post-Flight Press Conference

50. Neil Armstrong Muslim

• In 1980, it was claimed in a hoax story (in some Muslim countries especially in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Egypt) that Neil Armstrong was converted to Islam after hearing “Azan” (Muslims call for prayer) on the Moon surface.
• However, the State Department of USA responded to this issue in 1983 and sent messages to the embassies and consulates in Muslim countries that Neil Armstrong “has not converted to Islam”.

51. Neil Armstrong Contributions

• There are many contributions of Neil Armstrong in the American navy and the space exploration missions of NASA.
• However, his main contribution is his voyage to Moon as a commander of the Apollo 11 crew.

52. Neil Armstrong Awards – Neil Armstrong Achievements

• Neil Armstrong got many awards, some of which are;

53. How Did Neil Armstrong Changed The World

• Neil Armstrong changed the world by becoming the first person in human history who successfully landed and walked on the Moon’s surface.

54. Neil Armstrong Quote – Neil Armstrong Famous Quote

• The famous quote of Neil Armstrong is the words he spoke after taking the first step on the Moon surface. That is;

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

55. Fun Facts About Neil Armstrong

• Neil Armstrong led the greatest achievement in human history of being the first human being to walk on the Moon’s surface.
• He got a flight certificate at the age of 16 all before he had a license for driving.
• In 2017, the bag of Neil Armstrong in which he collected dust materials from the Moon surface for NASA, was sold at the price of $1.8 million.
• After returning from the Moon, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Aldrin had spent three weeks in quarantine to check that they had not picked up any strange viruses from the space.
• Neil Armstrong applied late for the second group of NASA’s Project Gemini, however, one of his friends saw the application and before anyone noticed, he quietly slipped it into the pile.
• The Apollo spacecraft through which Neil Armstrong and the other two crew members landed on the Moon surface and returned to the earth was expendable (single-use).
• During the landing of the Lunar Module on the Moon surface, the heart rate of Neil Armstrong ranged from 100 to 150 beats per minute.
• The event of the Neil Armstrong proclamation from the Moon was worldwide viewed by approximately 530 million people. At that time, the world’s population was about 3.6 billion.