Neil Armstrong profile: ‘Nerdy engineer’ averted disaster and kept his cool demeanour

NEIL Armstrong was born in Ohio, flew as a fighter pilot and test pilot in the US navy and was recruited by Nasa in 1962 as a member of the “New Nine,” the second group of elite astronauts destined to fly in space.

His debut venture beyond the final frontier was aboard the Gemini 8 mission in 1966, which performed the first rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft and but risked disaster when the vehicle tumbled into a violent roll – a drama that was resolved by the cool demeanour and acute engineering know-how that was Mr Armstrong’s hallmark.