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Who Was Neil Armstrong?
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Neil Armstrong
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness or death and child death.
Neil Armstrong was an American astronaut in the mid-20th century. As the commander of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, Armstrong was the first person to step onto the surface of the moon. He is known for this historical moment and for uttering the two phrases heard around the world via radio transmission: “The Eagle has landed!” and “One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” Armstrong is the protagonist of the biography Who Was Neil Armstrong and functions as a culture hero in the text. In keeping with the parameters of the Who Was/ Who Is series, Armstrong is depicted as an inspirational figure who demonstrates The Role of Curiosity and Passion in Driving Scientific and Personal Advancement. Accordingly, aspects of his life that demonstrate these virtues are emphasized, while aspects that might distract from this portrayal are de-emphasized.
Edwards characterizes Armstrong as a deeply humble man who disliked being in the spotlight. “Neil had never liked attention,” Edwards writes, “He was happiest soaring above Earth, flying in a plane” (99). Armstrong is also depicted as someone almost single-mindedly devoted to flying from an early age. The text mentions few details from his childhood that are not about flying: it covers his passion for model airplanes, his excitement over his first ride in an airplane, his determination to get his pilot’s license, and his ambition to learn more about planes by studying them in college, but says little about childhood friends, early romances, sports or other hobbies, and so on. His marriage to Jan is mentioned, but the subject of their relationship is not explored in any depth. When Muffie dies, the text depicts Armstrong rededicating himself to his flying career and stoically refusing to discuss Muffie or her death. According to an interview with his official biographer, James Hansen, the reality is more complex: Armstrong did return to work, but in the period after his daughter’s death, he made a series of mistakes while flying that demonstrated his distraction and grief (Hansen, James. “First Man Writer Tells What Neil Armstrong Was Like In Real Life.” NBC News. 2018.) Such mistakes humanize Armstrong but distract from the text’s characterization of him as a focused and determined pioneer of space flight.
Edwards devotes two chapters to Armstrong’s childhood, seven to his flight career, and only one to his life after the Apollo 11 mission. The years from 1970-2012 are dealt with in just two paragraphs, in which Edwards mentions Armstrong’s Ohio farm, his university career, his divorce, his remarriage, and his death. There is no discussion of his distaste for the idea of returning to space, his brief stint as a NASA administrator, his completion of his master’s degree, his work as a teacher, his aeronautics research and roles in investigating the Apollo 13 explosion and the Challenger disaster, his participation in a 1985 polar expedition, or his retirement from teaching and work as a spokesman and board member for major American corporations like Chrysler and United Airlines. Rather than providing a comprehensive, complex picture of Armstrong the man and the many facets of his life, Edwards limits the scope of the text to highlight the themes Armstrong's life can be used to illustrate in keeping with the inspirational and educational goals of the series.
Other Pioneers of Flight: Charles Lindbergh, Wilbur and Orville Wright, Chuck Yeager, and Yuri Gagarin
The book contextualizes Armstrong’s achievement within the broader history of flight by highlighting several additional pioneers in the field, underscoring The Importance of Perseverance and Dedication in Achieving One’s Goals. The first of these figures, chronologically, are Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Wright Brothers grew up in Ohio, like Armstrong. Also like Armstrong, they were fascinated with flight even as children. In 1903, they built and flew the first successful airplane. The flight only lasted for 12 seconds, but it was a landmark achievement that ushered in a new era of human technology. Increasing the distance that airplanes could fly was a major focus during this early period. Charles Lindberg became famous in 1927—just three years before Armstrong’s birth—as the first person to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. He flew a plane called The Spirit of St. Louis from Long Island to Paris. The dangerous solo flight made Lindbergh, for some time, the most famous man in the world.
Once planes could travel long distances, the focus of aeronautics shifted again; now, people were interested in flying faster and higher. In 1947, Chuck Yeager, a U.S. Air Force captain and test pilot who had served in World War II, broke the sound barrier in his Bell X-1, Glamorous Glennis, traveling more than 700 miles an hour. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, became the first human being to orbit the earth in outer space. For this significant accomplishment, Gagarin was awarded the U.S.S.R.’s highest honor, Hero of the Soviet Union.
The selection of these particular figures to profile in the book conveys a story of unbroken progress that culminates in Armstrong’s walk on the moon. Edwards does not profile pilots and astronauts whose missions were not “firsts” or any whose accomplishments came after Armstrong’s, as discussions of these figures lie outside the structural scope of the narrative highlighting Armstrong’s flight to the moon and the text’s thematic interest in The Significance of Teamwork and Collaboration in Large-Scale Endeavors.
Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins
Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.—known as “Buzz” Aldrin—and Michael Collins were the two other astronauts aboard the Apollo 11 craft during its July, 1969 mission to the moon. The two trained with Armstrong for this mission for months, but the three men did not become close like many other Gemini and Apollo crews did. Instead, they simply had a pleasant, collegial relationship. Edwards does not give many details about these two men beyond their roles in the mission since Armstrong, the mission commander and first person to step out onto the surface of the moon, is the focus of her biography.
The Armstrong Family: Janet Shearon Armstrong, Karen “Muffie” Armstrong, Eric “Rick” Armstrong, and Mark Armstrong
Janet Shearon met Neil Armstrong when they were both Purdue University students. Edwards does not give details about this meeting, but in 1953, when the two met, Janet was a freshman home economics student and a synchronized swimmer. Edwards does mention that Janet , unlike Neil, was “outgoing” and “loved being around people” (30). Throughout the book, Edwards and Marchesi depict Janet supporting Armstrong’s career and caring for their home and children while he’s away for long hours, traveling, and engaged in the dangerous work of being an astronaut. She and Armstrong divorced in 1994.
The couple had three children. Their oldest, Eric, whom the family calls “Rick,” was born in 1957. Karen, called “Muffie,” was born in 1959 and died of brain cancer a few years later, in 1962. Their youngest, Mark, was born in 1963. No details about the children are given in Who Was Neil Armstrong? but they are frequently pictured in illustrations in Chapter 4, and they are portrayed watching their father’s spacecraft take off for the moon in the book’s introduction.
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