The first man to walk on the surface of another world is dead.
American Neil Armstrong, who walked on the surface of the moon on July 21, 1969, died Saturday afternoon following complications from heart bypass surgery.
Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died Saturday, weeks after heart surgery and days after his 82nd birthday.His family reported the death at 2:45 p.m. ET. A statement said he died following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, and he radioed back to Earth the historic news: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."He spent nearly three hours walking on the moon with fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.Armstrong and his wife, Carol, married in 1999, made their home in the Cincinnati suburb of Indian Hill, but he had largely stayed out of public view in recent years. His birthday was Aug. 5.
Armstrong was an intensely private man who always made a point to emphasize the fact that the Apollo 11 mission that went to the surface of the moon couldn't have occurred without the assistance of literally hundreds of thousands of workers, technicians, mission control personnel, and other astronauts. It is estimated that 500,000 people laid hands on the Saturn V rocket, the service module, and the lunar lander before it left the earth. That is more workers than the number that built the Panama and Suez canals, the Great Pyramid, and the transcontinental railroad -- combined.
As long as humans are writing history, Neil Armstrong's name will be mentioned.