Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, whose footstep and words will reverberate throughout the centuries, has died:
Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, has died, his family said Saturday. He was 82.
“We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures,” his family said in a statement obtained by CNN affiliate WKRC.
Armstrong underwent heart surgery this month.
He and fellow astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins blasted off in Apollo 11 on a nearly 250,000-mile journey to the moon that went down in the history books.
It took them four days to reach their destination.
The world watched and waited as the lunar module “Eagle” separated from the command module and began its descent.
Then came the words from Armstrong: “Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.”
About six and a half hours later at 10:56 p.m. ET on July 20, 1969, Armstrong, at age 38, became the first person to set foot on the moon.
He uttered the now-famous phrase: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
After his historic mission, Armstrong worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), coordinating and managing the administration’s research and technology work.
In 1971, Armstrong resigned from NASA and taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati for nearly a decade.
Many Americans get a knot in their stomach when they think of some of the more traumatic moments in American history when they could recall exactly where they were when these events occured: Pearl Harbor, the JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination, 9/11.
But to those who were alive the day Armstrong set foot on the moon, remembering that moment brings a sense of joy, wonderment and pride, not just for the U.S. but for what man — symbolized by brave people like Armstrong — achieved.
One loss with Armstrong’s death; one huge gift of his life to all mankind.
In 2007 60 Minutes did this rare interview with the notoriously private Armstrong:
The launch in 1969 as covered by CBS News:
And his famous step:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.