The American astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died on Aug. 25, 2012. He was 82 years old. In this photo from 1969, Armstrong poses at the Lunar Landing Research Facility, busy in the final months of preparation before the Apollo 11 launch.
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Before Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon, he was a U.S. Navy officer, an engineer, and a test pilot for experimental aircraft, such as the speedy X-15 rocket plane.
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Most of the images you see of the Apollo 11 lunar landing are of Armstrong's colleague Buzz Aldrin, since Armstrong took most of the photos himself. This is a photo of Armstrong, taken by Aldrin, while Armstrong was busy with the lunar module.
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This photo was taken on July 16, 1969, as the three astronauts of Apollo 11 -- Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins -- made their way from Kennedy Space Center's Manned Spacecraft Operations Building to the spacecraft for liftoff.
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Neil Armstrong took this photo of the Apollo 11 lunar module known as "Eagle," while he and Aldrin wandered through the dusty landscape of the moon and performed various experiments. You can see some of their experimental equipment in the foreground.
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Armstrong got the experience he would one day need for the space program by working as a test pilot for experimental military airplanes.
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This is Armstrong, back inside the Lunar Module, at the conclusion of the Apollo 11 moon walk. We can imagine it probably felt good to take that helmet off.
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Apollo 11 came down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969. After the astronauts returned safely to Earth, they had to spend time in quarantine aboard a ship called the USS Hornet. Here, then-President Richard Nixon congratulates the astronauts on their successful mission.
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Here, President Jimmy Carter presents Neil Armstrong with the first ever Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
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Though a great astronaut is now gone from the Earth, his footprints may remain clear on the windless, uninhabited moon for hundreds or even thousands of years.
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