His life in sentence fragments
Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, USA in 1930. Served in the Korean War as a jet fighter pilot. Became a civilian test pilot for NASA and piloted the X-15? rocket plane. Selected by NASA as an astronaut in 1962. Commanded the Gemini 8 mission, which achieved the first docking of two orbiting spacecraft, in 1966. Served as commander of the backup crew for the Apollo 8 lunar orbital mission in 1968. Commanded the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission in 1969. Narrowly escaped death during training in a crash of the lunar landing training vehicle (LLTV). Took manual controlled of the Lunar Module (LM) "Eagle" and piloted it away from a rocky area to a safe landing. His first words from the Moon were, "Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed." Several hours later he climbed out of the LM and became the first man to walk on the Moon with the words, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." After retirement from NASA he taught engineering at [Cincinnati University]?. Served on the Presidential commission which investigated the Challenger? accident.
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