Neil armstrong biography bbc youtube

DERMOT O’LEARY: In 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first human being to set foot on the Moon and in doing so completely changed our view of the world.

18 years earlier, as a 21-year-old fighter pilot in the Korean War, he flew dozens of missions, almost losing his life on one of them.

Later as an elite test pilot pushing the limits of the rocket-propelled X-15, the fastest plane in the world, he almost lost control when he flew beyond the Earth’s atmosphere to the edge of space.

Most of NASA’s astronauts were test pilots but even amongst them, Armstrong’s ability to stay calm was exceptional.

In 1969, John Tribe was part of the team responsible for getting Armstrong and his crew to the moon.

The only rocket with the power to do it was the Saturn V.

The Saturn Rocket, it’s huge. Can you try and paint the picture of how brave these guys must have been to be sat on top of it with quite a lot of hardware and explosives underneath them?

JOHN TRIBE: The crew will tell you that they were