2nd Reflection

It was July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong spoke what must be considered the most famous words of the 20th century, " one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind'. This, of course, was the day that men from Earth first "set foot on the moon". It was the culmination of years of research and development, success and failure, and bitter competition from our feared rivals. And it was the words of 38 year old Neil Armstrong that echo in the annals of history. Neil Armstrong was born August 5, 1930 on a farm in Wapakoneta, Ohio. But proceeded to move around the state for most of his young life, before his family finally settled back in Wapakoneta in 1944. There Neil held many jobs around town, especially at the local airport as he was always fascineted with aviation. After starting flying lessons at the age of 15, he was awarded a pilots license on his 16th birthday, before he had earned a driver's license. In 1957 Armstrong was selected for the ironically named Man In Space Soonest (MISS) program. Then in September of 1963 he was selected as the first American civilian to fly in space. In a966 Armstrong flew an the Gemini 8 mission which launched March 16. Serving as command Pilot, the crew was to complete the first ever docking with another space craft, an unmanned Agena target vehicle. After 6.5 hours in orbit they were able to dock with the craft, but due to complications they were unable to complete what would have been the third ever "extra- vehicular activity" now referred to as a space- walk.