Who Was Neil Armstrong?

Roberta Edwards’s 2008 book Who Was Neil Armstrong is a part of the Who Was/ Who Is series. Intended for middle-grades readers, this biography of astronaut Neil Armstrong includes over 80 drawings illustrating the various parts of Armstrong’s life covered in the text: his boyhood in Ohio, where he grew up fascinated with planes; his training as a pilot and military service; and eventually, his career as an American astronaut, during which he famously became the first human to step onto the surface of the moon. Author Roberta Edwards has written dozens of books for young readers, both fiction and nonfiction, including a number of books in the Who Was/ Who Is series, like Who Was King Tut? and Who Is Jane Goodall? Her biography of Neil Armstrong conveys Armstrong’s passion, curiosity, dedication, and appreciation for teamwork, demonstrating how these qualities enabled him to reach this unique historical moment at the center of the historical moon landing in 1969. 

This study guide refers to the 2017 Penguin Workshop paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness or death and child death.

Plot Summary

On August 5, 1930, Viola Armstrong gave birth to her first child, Neil Armstrong. Neil’s father, Stephen, worked for the Ohio state government, which required the family to move often: Neil and his younger siblings, June and Dean, lived in 16 different places before Neil turned 13. Eventually, the family settled in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Even as a very young child, Neil was fascinated with airplanes, which were still a very uncommon mode of transportation at this time. He rode in one for the first time when he was six years old and was thrilled by the experience. One of Neil’s hobbies was building model airplanes. During World War II, his Boy Scout troop made models of enemy planes in order to learn to spot them if any flew overhead. He also read magazines about airplanes and practiced drawing them. He dreamed of one day being able to fly planes himself.

As a teenager, Neil worked part time to save up money for flying lessons. He got his pilot’s license at 15 and planned to study aeronautics in college. He took a Navy scholarship to Purdue University. After two years of college, he served three years in the Navy. There, he learned to fly small fighter planes and became a licensed fighter pilot. Neil expected to re-enroll in Purdue after his three years of service, but the start of the Korean War delayed his return. He flew 78 missions in Korea before finally returning to college.

In his final two years at Purdue, he met Janet Shearon (Jan). Neil and Jan married in 1956, shortly after his graduation. They moved to California so that Neil could work as an experimental test pilot and help develop new planes at Edwards Air Force Base. One of the planes he helped develop was the X-15, a plane that could fly 50 miles above the earth—the first American plane to fly in the lowest part of what is called “outer space.” In 1957, Jan’s and Neil’s first child, Eric (Rick), was born. In 1959, their daughter Karen (Muffie) was born. Tragically, Muffie developed brain cancer and died in early 1962. Neil did not like to talk about his daughter’s death; he threw himself back into his work and applied to become an astronaut a few months later.

Because the United States’ Cold War rival, the Soviet Union, had launched the first satellite into orbit in 1957, the United States was eager to make advancements in the exploration of space. Neil applied to become an astronaut in the early days of what is known as the “Space Race” between the United States and the Soviet Union. Determined to expand the country’s space program, the newly elected President John F. Kennedy announced that the United States would send an astronaut to the moon by the end of the decade. In order to meet this goal, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) hired several new astronauts in 1962—and one of them was Neil Armstrong.

Neil, Jan, and Rick moved to El Lago, Texas, near NASA’s Houston headquarters. In Texas, the Armstrongs welcomed a second son, Mark. Neil devoted himself to the rigorous training and long hours required of NASA astronauts. His training often required him to travel and speak in various places around the country. Finally, in 1966, Neil was chosen as the command pilot for Gemini 8. His mission would be to dock his craft on an already-orbiting satellite. The endeavor represented an important step in the United States’ plan for a moon landing, because the lunar landing module would need to detach from a larger craft, land on the surface of the moon, and then return and reattach itself to the larger craft before heading back to earth. The Gemini 8 mission was successful in docking with the target satellite, but afterward the mission had to be terminated early when the craft began spinning out of control in space. Neil encountered other dangerous situations as the race to land on the moon progressed, but he relied on his extensive training and never gave up. In 1969, he was made commander of Apollo 11, the mission to finally take humans to the surface of the moon.

On July 16, 1969, Neil and the other two Apollo 11 crew members, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins climbed aboard the Apollo 11 command module, Columbia. Columbia sat atop a three-stage Saturn V rocket engine. Three separate engines were needed to carry the astronauts the quarter of a million miles they would travel into space. The rocket fired and the Apollo 11 astronauts began their long journey to the moon. On July 20, they entered the moon’s orbit. Collins stayed in the command module while Armstrong and Aldrin entered the lunar module, which Neil had nicknamed the “Eagle.” After an hour and a half, the Eagle touched down on the surface of the moon. Armstrong stepped out onto the lunar surface, transmitting a now-famous message back to people listening on earth: “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” He and Aldrin collected specimens from the moon’s surface, took pictures, and left behind an American flag and a plaque commemorating this important occasion. After two and a half hours, the two astronauts took off again in the Eagle, reconnected with Columbia, and started the reverse journey back to Earth.

On July 24, Columbia splashed down in the Pacific Ocean as planned. A helicopter took the astronauts to a waiting ship. Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin were quarantined for three weeks to make sure that they had not become infected with anything in space. By August 13, they were reunited with their families, and they attended a big parade in New York City in their honor. Neil was expected to tour around the world speaking about the Apollo 11 mission—a task he didn’t enjoy. As soon as he could, he arranged to live a quiet life back in Ohio. He bought a farm and taught at a local college. He and Jan divorced, and he married a woman named Carol Held Knight. Many years later, Neil Armstrong died, in 2012.