ABOUT THE FIRST MAN ON THE MOON LICENSE

There was work to be done,' says Armstrong, matter-of-factly. He ejected barely 100 feet from the ground.ДЄfter the almost-fatal ordeal, Armstrong went back to his office to do some paperwork. When it malfunctioned, Armstrong was sitting at the controls. He cheated death again two years later, while flying an experimental device designed to simulate a lunar landing. He flew his first space mission in 1966 on Gemini 8, and nearly lost his life when his tiny capsule briefly spun out of control. And I was doing the best I could,' Armstrong says.Дuring that same difficult year, Armstrong was chosen to be an astronaut.

'At the time I thought the family was handling it well. And try as hard as I could not to have it affect my ability to do useful things.' 'I thought the best thing for me to do in that situation was to continue with my work, keep things as normal as I could. It was during that time, in 1962, when he faced his most difficult test, losing his 2-year old daughter, Karen, to brain cancer.ДЄrmstrong poured himself into his work. After the war, he became a hotshot test pilot, flying the famous X-15 at 4,000 miles an hour to the edge of the atmosphere. By age 21, he was flying combat missions over Korea.

ABOUT THE FIRST MAN ON THE MOON LICENSE

He earned his pilots license at 16 before he learned to drive. Armstrong's entire life had prepared him well, starting with a childhood fascination with flight. And, even more than that, you hope that you don't, you as a person, don't make any mistakes.'ДЄnd he didn't. It took 400,000 workers and $24 billion, intended in large part to prove American superiority over the Soviets.ДЄrmstrong acknowledges that the hopes of the nation were riding on the mission. Perched atop a Saturn 5 rocket, the astronauts were on their way to meet the challenge President Kennedy had made eight years earlier: to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth before the end of the decade. So, actually, when you actually lift off, it's really a big surprise.' 'You know, the reality is, a lot of times you get up and get in the cockpit, and something goes wrong somewhere and you go back down. 'Yeah, but a little bit of a sham, I admit,' says Armstrong.

About the first man on the moon