Neil Armstrong

NEIL Armstrong, who has died at the age of 82 following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures, found lasting global fame as the first human to set foot on the surface of the Moon.

As the 38-year-old mission commander of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, he made history with the evocative words, "that's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind" as he made his first contact with the lunar surface, at the Sea of Tranquillity.

It was one of the defining moments of the 20th century.

Armstrong's colleagues on the flight, which touched down on July 20, 1969, were Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, the pilot of the lunar landing module with the call sign Eagle, and Michael Collins, pilot of the command module, with the call sign Columbia.

The moonwalk gave Americans a heady sense of achievement in the space race with the Soviet Union, and also came at a time when their country was mired in the Vietnam war. The mission fulfilled the wishes, too, of the late President John F Kennedy, who in May 1961 had declared that "before this decade is out" the US would have achieved a manned landing. Kennedy, however, never lived to see that crowning moment.

Tributes were paid to Armstrong on his death from around the world. President Barack Obama spoke for many when he said: "Neil was among the greatest of American heroes – not just of his time, but of all time."

Neil Alden Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, on a farm near Wapakoneta in western Ohio. His boyhood idol was the aviator Charles Lindbergh.

He was just six years old when he took his first airplane ride. He was immediately hooked on aviation, and he built model airplanes and even carried out experiments in a wind-tunnel that he had himself devised. He was just 16 when he qualified for his pilot's licence – his driving licence came later.

He studied aeronautical engineering at Purdue University but in 1949 began his Navy flight training. He became the youngest pilot on his fighter squadron on the USS Essex aircraft carrier. He flew 78 combat missions in Korea, and even survived being shot down on one occasion.

In 1955, with an aeronautical science degree from Purdue, and an MSc in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California, he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (the forerunner to NASA), as a research pilot at Lewis Laboratory in Cleveland.

He then switched to NACA's High-Speed Flight Research Station at Edwards Air Force base in California.

This was one of the most productive spells of his life. He flew more than 200 aircraft models, ranging from helicopters and gliders to jet- and rocket-propelled planes. He was a key figure in the development of many high-speed aircraft, not least the X-15, which flew at 4000mph.

It was not until 1962 that Armstrong was chosen as an astronaut, part of NASA's second intake. That same year, however, his two-year-old daughter Karen had died of brain cancer. Amstrong's sister would later say that his grief led him to pour his energies into something positive, and so began his time with the space programme.

His first space flight was Gemini 8, which he commanded. He also became the first civilian to fly a US spacecraft and –along with colleague David R Scott – performed the first docking in space. This mission, however, almost ended in disaster, when the spacecraft pitched into an unplanned rolling motion.

The craft bucked so wildly – the cause was a malfunctioning thruster – that Armstrong and Scott were at risk of blacking out. Armstrong's sang-froid in dealing with a potentially fatal incident impressed NASA officials, and three years later he was put in command of Apollo 11.

The manned lunar landing in July 1969 was watched – or listened to on radio – by an estimated 600 million people, or around a fifth of the world's population at that time.

Armstrong and Aldrin were in the lunar module, which had separated from the capsule. Armstrong had to control the last moments of the descent as it would otherwise have landed in a huge, boulder-strewn crater.

In years to come, Armstrong, who never did like to talk too much about himself, said that flying the lunar module had been by some distance the "most difficult and challenging" part of the mission; the descent, he added, had been "very high-risk. But achieve it he did, and the pictures of his footsteps on the Moon, beamed back some 240,000 miles to Earth, transfixed all who saw them.

The question of why Armstrong, rather than Aldrin, should get the signal honour of being the first man on the lunar surface was apparently related to the men's personalities.

According to reports that appeared in 2001, whereas Aldrin had been opinionated and ambitious, and had wanted to be the first, Armstrong –- considerably lower-key, and genuinely modest – was always going to be their favoured candidate.

The astronauts' return to Earth was followed by global tours, but Armstrong tended to shy away from publicity. Between 1969 and 1971 he served as deputy association administrator for aeronautics at NASA, and then, for eight years, was professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinatti. He also held a number of corporate positions.

In the mid-1980s he was a member of the National Commission of Space, a presidential committee. He was vice-chairman of the committee that investigated the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster, in which all seven astronauts aboard died.

Armstrong was proud of his Scottish roots, never more so than the day in 1972 when, in Langholm, Dumfriesshire, he accepted the freedom of the town. Local people were surprised but delighted when he accepted their invitation. Forty years later, the collective memory of that day has not dimmed.

In 2010 Armstrong and some friends visited Leven Links, in Fife, for a round of golf. The former astronaut, as retiring as ever, had wanted to keep his trip secret but word leaked out. The mother of two young boys who met him said Armstrong had insisted to them that the mission had been much more famous than him.

In November last year, Armstrong and fellow astronaut and Ohio native John Glenn, together with Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, were presented with the Congressional Gold Medal for their contributions to America's rich history in space exploration.

For all he achieved, Armstrong was keen to play it down, taking the view that the landing was the mission's real achievement. "I guess we all like to be recognised not for one piece of fireworks but for the ledger of our daily work," he said in an interview on CBS's 60 Minutes programme in 2005.

He once was asked how he felt knowing his footprints would be likely to stay on the moon's surface for thousands of years. "I kind of hope that somebody goes up there one of these days and cleans them up," he said.

Even late in life, he was content to sum himself up as a "white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer." Others, however, saw him very differently.

Armstrong's family said at the weekend: "Neil Armstrong was ... a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits."

They added: "For those who may ask what they can do to honour Neil, we have a simple request. Honour his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the Moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."

Armstrong is survived by his second wife Carol, two sons, a stepson, a stepdaughter, 10 grandchildren, and a brother and a sister.