So, today is the day—the 40th anniversary of the moon landing and Neil Armstrong's first steps on an alien world. Right around now, the CSM and LM combination were in the first of 12 orbits of the moon prior to landing.
Armstrong was an interesting choice as the man to take that "one giant leap." The crew rotations on the Apollo missions were decided upon by Deke Slayton, a man who faced innumerable pressures in getting the line up of each trio correct. One of Armstrong's big advantages (in fact, I'd say it almost guaranteed he'd be the choice) was that he was a civilian. There was a strong feeling at NASA that they did not want to militarise space, so a civilian test pilot rather than a navy/air force guy was a better bet. There was some symmetry to this in having Harrison 'Jack' Schmidt, a civilian scientist, be the last man on the moon in 1972 on Apollo 17.
Something that has bugged the media for 40 years has been Armstrong's supposed reclusiveness (as addressed in Andrew Smith's documentary Being Neil Armstong on BBC4 recently). He's been interviewed many times and has appeared in some recent documentaries (notably the BBC's NASA: Triumphs and Tragedies), but you can understand why he'd get a bit tired of being ask the same question for 40 years: "What was it like to walk on the moon?"
However he feels about it, Armstrong is a true pioneer, up there in the history of aviation alongside Charles Lindberg. He'll always be the first man on the moon.
