SEATTLE — Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died Saturday at the age of 82.
According to Armstrong’s family, he died of complications from heart surgery.
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong said when he stepped on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Armstrong visited Seattle’s Museum of Flight twice in the last decade.
The museum features a display with a training version of the Apollo 11 capsule Armstrong rode into space, a mockup of the lunar lander and a rare picture of him on the way to the moon.
KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Essex Porter spoke with a museum visitor, Jinda Rosmann, who remembered the day Armstrong landed on the moon.
“When I was listening to that actual broadcast, my heart just swelled up. We did it. It’s real. It’s possible,” said Rosmann. “I was raised in an era when spaceflight was the most exciting possibility, and it seemed so dangerous.”
Rosmann was inspired by Armstrong that she became a science teacher.
Corbin Menta, a young air cadet, told KIRO 7 that he was interested in carrying on Armstrong’s legacy.
“With new explorations to mars, now we need a man to step on mars,” Menta said.
The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is taking charge for recovery efforts of the Apollo 11 engines used to send Armstrong to the moon. The engines have been under 14,000 feet of water in the Atlantic Ocean since 1969.
Bezos said a search team has found the engines and wants at least one of them. Once one of the engines is recovered, he would like NASA to donate it to the Museum of Flight.
KIRO
