- Image Credit: AP
- Neil Armstrong in undated photo provided by NASA. The family of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, says he has died at age 82
WASHINGTON: US astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, has died, US media reported Saturday. He was 82.
Armstrong underwent cardiac bypass surgery, earlier this month after doctors found blockages in his coronary arteries. He and fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, before the eyes of hundreds of millions of awed television viewers worldwide.
His first words upon stepping on the lunar surface have since been etched in history: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."
An estimated 450 million people watched the grainy black and white broadcast that showed Armstrong, clad in a white space suit, climb down the lunar module's ladder onto the Moon's desolate surface.
As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, it was also Armstrong who had notified mission control that the module had made a successful landing. "Houston, Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed."
Armstrong underwent cardiac bypass surgery, earlier this month after doctors found blockages in his coronary arteries. He and fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, before the eyes of hundreds of millions of awed television viewers worldwide.
His first words upon stepping on the lunar surface have since been etched in history: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."
An estimated 450 million people watched the grainy black and white broadcast that showed Armstrong, clad in a white space suit, climb down the lunar module's ladder onto the Moon's desolate surface.
As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, it was also Armstrong who had notified mission control that the module had made a successful landing. "Houston, Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed."
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