Like so many other celebrated astronauts, he could have chosen to bask in the heroic afterglow of his stunning achievement. However, he remained an unassuming and deeply private man—a reluctant hero—to the end.

The identity of the first human being to live on earth may be a matter of faith, but the name of the first person to reach the moon is a matter of fact. When Neil Armstrong gingerly stepped onto the moon’s powdery surface on July 20, 1969, the history of the human race was transformed. The first words he said, “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind,” have no equal for fame in any compilation of space quotes. Following Armstrong’s death on August 25, 2012, it is fitting to recall how one man embodied an amazing moment for humanity when no goal seemed too great to achieve.

Neil Alden Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, USA, on August 5, 1930. Just 15 when he started flying, he became a licensed pilot on his 16th birthday. Then he joined the US Navy as an aviator and flew 78 combat missions during the Korean War. In September 1951, while making a low bombing run at about 560 kmph, his aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire. As he struggled desperately to regain control, he collided with a pole at a height of about six metres that sliced off almost three feet of the wing. Still, he was able to fly back to friendly territory, before ejecting safely. After the war, be became a research pilot at NASA’s Flight Research Center, flying on many pioneering high-speed aircraft. He had been prone to motion sickness as a child and sometimes experienced nausea during long periods of aerobatics. It did not deter him from flying over 200 different types of aircraft, including gliders, helicopters, jets and rockets.

Armstrong joined the US astronaut corps in 1962 and his first space assignment came in September 1966. As command pilot for the Gemini 8 mission, he performed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space. The mission nearly ended in disaster when a thruster rocket malfunctioned, sending the spacecraft spinning wildly out of control. However, Armstrong remained unruffled and brought the Gemini home safely. His day of glory was yet to come.

In 1961, President John Kennedy, alarmed at the spectacular space achievements of the Soviet Union, had committed the US “to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth”. Considering that till then the Americans had sent just one astronaut on a 20-minute sub-orbital flight, this seemed a tall order indeed. Yet, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) worked determinedly and it was in July 1969 (still five months before the deadline) when Mission Commander Neil Armstrong, with Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, blasted off in Apollo 11—destination the moon.

Four days later, the lunar lander module with Armstrong and Aldrin aboard separated from the Columbia mother ship and commenced its automatic final descent sequence. Just before touchdown, Armstrong noticed that they were heading towards an obstacle. So he took over manual control and attempted to steer the craft towards a safer area. This took longer than expected, and on landing they had just 40 to 50 seconds of fuel burn time left. That’s when he radioed the second-most famous space call ever: “Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.” They spent about two-and-a-half hours on the moon’s surface, conducting experiments, taking photographs and collecting rock and soil samples. They also planted the American flag and left behind a plaque: “Here men from the planet earth first set foot upon the moon. We came in peace for all mankind.” Then the lunar module took off, rendezvoused with Columbia, and docked. The three astronauts returned to earth, soon splashing down safely in the Pacific Ocean. Later, Armstrong said he had believed there was only a 50 per cent chance of landing on the moon. “I was elated, ecstatic and extremely surprised that we were successful.”