Neil Armstrong (above) was the first man to walk the moon. He was 39 years old when he did it. The mission was called Apollo 11 and the ship was called the Lunar Module Eagle. The Eagle had only seconds of gas left when they landed. Luckily, they landed in time to re-fuel with the back-up.
Armstrong was born August 5th, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He got his pilots' license when he was 16, in 1946. He walked on the moon and planted the U.S.A. flag on the surface of it on July 20th, 1969. To some people, it was the most important thing in history. Everyone at NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) worked very hard to keep the astronauts on the Eagle alive that day. When the landing was successful, the whole controls room erupted into cheers that echoed through the whole building.
Everyone watching the old-time television that day smiled and gaped. They couldn't believe it, since it had never been done before. It also served great affect on U.S.A. Everyone all over the world saw it happen, and all were very surprised. Especially because the only other thing we'd done to prove ourselves a worthy country was when we caused the Allies to win World War II in 1945. We'd dropped a homemade atomic bomb on the the cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Before that, Italy and then Germany had surrendered. The Allies won after the attack on Japan.
NASA hopes to accomplish even better things than this in the future that change the world's view of the United States of America. They already sent a small spacecraft called Juno to Jupiter. They've done many things, and everyone's sure that they are no where near done yet. I bet in a few years time, we'll be able to reach Neptune in a spacecraft with a crew that doesn't need to be humans. NASA have already accomplished making robot crew members. They need a little bit of updating, but soon, they'll be ready to go out and send us things we've never seen before. It will be the event of a lifetime, and I'm sure no one I know would miss it for anything at all (except maybe for their family and friends).
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