US astronaut Neil Armstrong,
the first man on the Moon, has died aged 82. A statement
from his family says he died from complications from
heart surgery he had earlier this month.
He set foot on the Moon on 20
July 1969,
famously describing the
event as "one small step for a man, one
giant leap for mankind". US President Barack Obama
said Armstrong was "among the greatest of American heroes - not just
of his time, but of all time".
Last November he received the
Congressional Gold Medal, the highest US civilian award.
He was the commander of the Apollo 11
spacecraft.
More than 500 million TV
viewers around the world watched its touchdown
on the lunar surface. Armstrong and fellow
astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on
the moon, collecting samples, conducting
experiments and taking photographs. "The
sights were simply magnificent, beyond
any visual experience that I had ever been
exposed to," Armstrong once said.
Mr Aldrin told the BBC's
Newshour programme: "It's very sad indeed that we're not able to be
together as a crew on the 50th
anniversary of the mission. I will remember him as a very
capable commander."
Apollo 11 was Armstrong's last
space mission. In 1971, he left the US space agency Nasa to
teach aerospace engineering. Born in 1930 and
raised in Ohio, Armstrong took his first flight aged six
with his father and formed a lifelong passion for
flying. He flew navy fighter jets during the Korean War
in the 1950s, and joined the US space programme in
1962.
Correspondents say Armstrong
remained modest and never allowed himself
to be caught up in theglamour of space
exploration. “I am, and ever will be, a
white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer," he
said in February 2000, in a rare public
appearance.
In a statement, his family
praised him as a "reluctant
American hero" who had "served his
nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and
astronaut". The statement did not say where Armstrong died. He had
surgery to relieve four blocked coronary
arteries on 7 August.
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