A tribute to Neil Armstrong

Moving to the California desert, he worked as a test pilot through the late '50s, taking up dozens of experimental jets, in cluding the sleek X15.

In '61, JFK boldly chal lenged the nation to put a man on the Moon before 1970. At the time, America had sent one man into space for one 15minute upand down flight.

Making Kennedy's goal a reality would use up all but fivemonths of the '60s, cost tens of billions of dollars, and take the lives of three Apollo 1 astronauts who died in a '67 fire.

Success came in a carefully planned procession of technical achievements. First, the Mercury program of the early '60s, which got NASA into space; then Gemini in the mid'60s, which taught NASA how to work and maneuver in space: Finnaly come

Apollo, which aimed directly at the Moon. In '62, with Project Mercury expanding, studious, cleancut Neil Armstrong became America's first civilian as Atronaut.

Four years later he commanded the nearcata strophic Gemini 8 mission, an ambitious flight cut short when an errant thruster sent the capsule careening out of orbit.

Just before passing out, Armstrongmanaged to stabilize the tumbling craft, displaying the cool, methodical poise he'd display again while training for the Moon shot, dramatically ejecting from an uncontrollable test vehicle an instant before it exploded.

For the historic Apollo 11 mission, Neil, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins lifted off in July of '69 and cruised Moonward for 100 hours.

As with Gemini 8, Neil again took control at the flight's most critical stage, manually steering the spidery lunar lander above looming boulders and find ing a safe place to land with under 20 seconds of fuel left.

Eager to get outside, the excited astronauts skipped a scheduled fourhour nap and climbed into the 185pound suits that would insulate them from the 200degree difference between sunlight and shade on the Moon. When Neil touched the surface, he uttered one of history's most famous sentences: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" (debated later as possibly a mistake, with "a" needed before "man" - Neil him self admitted it didn't come out exactly right.

He was on the sur face alone for 20 minutes before Buzz joined him. The Moon, Neil declared, had "a stark beauty all itsown"; Buzz described it as "magnificent desolation." For the next 140 minutes they inspected their craft, took a call from President Nixon, set up an American flag and scientific experiments, gathered 50 pounds of rocks, and took photos.

After a fitful night's sleep they blasted off, reunited with Collins, and four days later parachuted into the Pacific 11 miles from the U.S.S. Hornet. The next three weeks were spent in quarantine (The Andromeda Strain, a recent best seller, had alerted everyone to the possibility of space con tamination), followed by a stream of parades, awards, and global praise.

Commander of the most breathtaking, ennobling and coolest technological accomplishment in history, Neil Armstrong was the world's hero.

Two years after his Apollo 11 triumph, Neil retired from NASA to teach at the University of Cincinnati for the rest of the '70s. Through the '80s and '90s he worked in the private sector for different corporations and tried to stay out of the spotlight.

Neil was a married man from his test pilot days right up to '89, when he and his wife divorced after 33 years together. He remarried in the early '90s and has two sons (a young daugh ter died in '62 of a brain tumor).

Did you know :

- The Ohio airport where Neil first took flying lessons is now named in his honorr

- Near Cincinnati, the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum showcases many of his awards and in teresting artifacts, including the first airplane he ever flew (an Aeronca Champion)

- Armstrong took two fragments of the Wright Brothers' plane to the Moon with him

- He also took a tape of "space music" called Music Out of the Moon

- Hollywood's Walk of Fame has a special star dedicated to the Apollo 11 astronauts

- Slightly less poetic than Armstrong's first words on the Moon were the last words, spoken by Apollo 17's Eugene Cernan: "Let's get this mutha outta here."