Armstrong and Gagarin

Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American(Y.G.- Russian) astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon(Y.G.-1st in space). He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot(Y.G.-test pilot), and university professor. Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was an officer(Y.G.-too) in the U.S. Navy and served in the Korean War. After the war, he earned his bachelor's degree at Purdue University and served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station, where he logged over 900 flights. He later completed graduate studies at the University of Southern California.

A participant in the U.S. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs, Armstrong joined theNASA Astronaut Corps in 1962(Y.G.- flew in 12th april 1961). He made his first space flight as command pilot of Gemini 8(Y.G.-Vostok-1) in March 1966(Y.G.-in1961), becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space(Y.G.- opened the doors to space travels). He performed the first docking of two spacecraft, with pilot David Scott.^[1] This mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his re-entry control fuel to stop a dangerous spin caused by a stuck thruster, in the first in-flight space emergency.

Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as commander of Apollo 11, the first manned Moon landing mission in July 1969. Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent two and a half hours(Y.G.-108min in space) outside the spacecraft, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the Command/Service Module. Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded(Y.G.- was congratulated by Nikita Khruschev) the Presidential Medal of Freedom(Y.G.-National hero) by President Richard Nixon. President Jimmy Carter presented Armstrong the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978(Y.G.-Hero of Soviet Union). Armstrong and his former crewmates received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.