Obituary: Neil Armstrong

The first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, has died at the age of 82.

The former astronaut underwent heart-bypass surgery earlier this month, just two days after his birthday on 5 August, to relieve blocked coronary arteries.

As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on 20 July 1969.

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.

As he stepped on the moon’s dusty surface, he said: That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind, words that endure as one of the best known quotes in the English language — via redwolf.newsvine.com