Armstrong Air & Space Museum, Wapakoneta, Ohio

The main premise behind the Armstrong Air & Space Museum is the fact that Neil Armstrong, the first man to step foot on the moon, was born and raised in the city of Wapakoneta, Ohio. The museum features Mr. Armstrong and his contribution to space exploration but also highlights other aspects of the space race. Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, on his grandparents' farm near Wapakoneta. He was the oldest of three children and graduated high school in 1947. He died on August 25, 2012.

Aviation was Armstrong's main interest as a boy. He built model airplanes, conducted experiments with a homemade wind tunnel, and read about planes and rockets. He joined the Boy Scouts and the American Rocket Society. While most boys of 16 were riding bicycles to get places, Armstrong left his bicycle behind and took to flying. Armstrong obtained his pilot's license on his 16th birthday, before he could drive legally. Armstrong learned to fly in an Aeronca 7AC Champion in 1946. 

After high school he attended Purdue University on a U.S. Navy scholarship before serving as a Navy fighter pilot during the Korean War (1951-1952). While in the Korean War, Armstrong flew 78 combat missions. He earned an aeronautical engineering degree from Purdue University, and then went to work at NASA's Lewis Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio. Later, at Edwards Air Force Base in California, he became a top test pilot. Armstrong flew two important planes, the X-15 and the F5D Skylancer. Each plane's technology was adapted for later space flights.

John Glen (1921-2016)

Ohio's Astronauts

To get more people into the space program, NASA lowered its age limit to 35 and rose its height limit to six feet, thus allowing civilians who met the requirements to apply. In 1962, Armstrong became one of the first two civilians chosen in the second group of astronauts.

Armstrong retired from NASA in 1971 to become a professor of engineering at the University of Cincinnati. He left teaching in the late 1970s and served on the boards of many corporations. He became directly involved in the space program again in 1986, when he served as the vice-chairman of the Rogers Commission that investigated the Challenger disaster.

Ancient people were interested in the sun and moon before Christ was born. The following picture is of the Hopewell people who built the earthworks at Newark, Ohio between 100 B.C. and 400 A.D. The openings are lined up with the rising and setting of the moon.

Ancient Greeks believed that Apollo, the god of the sun, made the sun rise and set by pulling it across the sky every day.

Unlike the dreamers, scientists and inventors worked to bring about the reality of space flight. The development of rockets and airplanes had to take place before humans could think seriously about reaching the moon. The first simple rockets were developed by the Chinese around 100 A.D. 

In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright gave the world the first successful manned air flight. It took almost 60 years to combine the technology of manned flights and rockets to send a human into orbit successfully. Two important scientists, Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and American Robert Goddard, believed that rockets could be used for space travel. Konstantin pioneered the idea of multi-stage rockets and space suits. Goddard patented 200 inventions covering every aspect of rocket design, including the development of liquid fuel to power rockets.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935)

Cleveland Rocket Society

Rocket science interested amateurs as well. In the 1920s and 1930s, amateurs created worldwide rocket societies. In Cleveland, Ohio local enthusiasts founded the Cleveland Rocket Society in 1933. The society constructed a number of small, experimental rocket engines, although no rocket was ever launched.

The American/Soviet space race started at the end of World War II. After the war, the United States, the leader of the Western democracies, and the Soviet Union, the leading communist nation, became bitter enemies. The two superpowers competed for influence around the world in what came to be known as the Cold War. In order to stay on top and to prove to the world that each was better than the other, the superpowers used the rocket technology acquired in World War II to begin the race to send a human into space.

In August 1957, the Russians launched the first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a powerful R-7 rocket. The Americans realized that the Soviets now had a nuclear weapon that could cross 4,000 miles to reach the United States. On October 4, 1957, the Russians further shocked the world by launching the first artificial satellite into the earth's orbit by using a modified R-7 ICBM as the launch vehicle.

This satellite, called Sputnik, orbited the globe more than 500 miles above the earth and sent a radio signal to earth. Sputnik was in orbit for 90 days. It burned up on its return entry to earth.

In January 1958, the United States placed its first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit. Explorer 1 discovered the Van Allen radiation belt circling the Earth, named for the scientist who designed the experiment. In 1958, President Eisenhower signed a bill into law creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 

This new federal agency gathered the nation's nonmilitary space programs under one administrator who answered directly to the president. Some people believed the Russians were ahead in the race because American schools were not producing enough young scientists and mathematicians. In 1958, Eisenhower signed a bill that provided students with the first federal loan money for higher education and funds for high school math and science programs.

In the first few years of the 1960s, the Russians continued to outperform the United States, but that was soon to change. When NASA created the Gemini program, the Americans began to lead space exploration.

America's First Astronauts, the Mercury Seven

Sam, a Rhesus monkey, flew in an early version
of the Mercury spacecraft

Ham, the first chimpanzee

Both the Russians and the Americans used animals as the first passengers in space. Engineers could test equipment and learn how living beings would do in space without risking human lives. Ham flew the first manned flight of the Mercury program on January 31, 1961. Ham flew for 17 minutes and returned safely to earth.

Armstrong, command pilot and David Scott, pilot docked the Gemini 8 with an already orbiting Agena rocket. Within minutes of successfully docking, the joined vehicles began to spin out of control. Armstrong fired the Gemini 8's thrusters to undock the Agena, but his separated ship went into a roll. After several tense minutes, Armstrong cut the main thrusters and activated the re-entry control system to stop the spinning. NASA aborted the mission. An electrical fault had caused one of the ship's thrusters to remain in an open position.

Gemini VIII

Crew of Apollo 8

Apollo 11 Crew

Astronauts were not singled out for any particular mission but assigned according to their place in a rotating schedule. When NASA was ready to assign astronauts to the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins were next. Armstrong was chosen as commander of the mission.

On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 crew blasted off for the moon on top of the Saturn V rocket. The crew entered lunar orbit three days later. About 100 million people around the world watched the historic event on TV. With Michael Collins in the orbiting spacecraft, Armstrong and Aldrin began their journey to the lunar surface in the Eagle. On seeing the automobile-sized boulders and a huge crater at the original landing site, Armstrong was forced to change the landing site at the last moment. When the Eagle touched down, the astronauts had less than 30 seconds of fuel left.

Pictures of the Moon, Space and the Landing:

Armstrong's footprint on the moon

Surveyor 3 on the Moon

Landing on the Moon: Armstrong manually landed the Eagle onto the Moon's surface on July 20, 1969. Armstrong maneuvered the Eagle across the foreign landscape away from the West Crater and landed in the Sea of Tranquility. The landing was difficult. Five computer alarms sounded as Armstrong steered the spacecraft and Aldrin called out altitude and velocity changes to avoid rocky terrain. 

Moon Rock

Moon Rock

This is the Apollo 11 Moon Rock. This lunar sample was collected in July 1969. It is composed of fragments from the moon's original crust, which is over four billion years old. Scientists call this type of rock vesicular basalt. The impact of many small meteorites over a period of four billion years gradually pulverized the hard basalt of the lunar crust into powder. In the geographically recent past, a large meteorite fell near the sample site. The heat produced by this meteorite plunging through the moon's surface welded the powder back into a hard rock. A close examination of the rock will show that there are different kinds of particles welded together. The small glassy pits scattered over the surface are from more recent small meteorite strikes.

Apollo 11 crew waits for pickup after splashdown

President Nixon talking to crew in quarantine

When the Apollo 11 crew splashed down on July 24, they had to go into quarantine. Scientists were concerned that the crew would bring back deadly microscopic organisms from the moon. The crew was quarantined for 20 days. After Apollo 14, NASA discontinued quarantining the astronauts because no organisms were ever found.

Homecoming parade for Neil Armstrong

The Saturn V Rocket

This is a rear view of a Saturn V's first booster prior to final assembly shows a cluster of five F-1 engines provide the needed 7-1/2 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. 

Quote of the day: "Astronauts don't have to be either very feminine or very masculine women, or very superhuman males, or any color or anything. It's about people in space." ~~ Judith Resnik