Neil Armstrong Dies at 82 - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

US astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, has died at the age of 82. This comes just weeks after heart surgery and days after his 82nd birthday.

In the summer of 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man ever to set foot on the moon, and imprinted his name alongside history's greatest explorers.

In one tense and glorious July evening, Armstrong and the Apollo Eleven crew changed the face of possibility...made the unimaginable, manageable...and brought the world together as never before.

It was in Wapakoneta, Ohio where young Neil Alden Armstrong turned his attention to the skies, building model airplanes as a boy in his parents' basement.

He earned his pilot's license at 16, and was flying combat missions over Korea just four years later.

After the service, he flew everything from gliders to supersonic jets as a test pilot for the agency that would become NASA.

In 1962, the space agency started training Armstrong to be an astronaut, launching a career that would take him where no man had ever been before.

His achievement was one for the ages. Neil Armstrong will be remembered as one of the most daring pioneers on the earth, for his accomplishments outside of it.