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Motive
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Loved to fly
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Scientific curiosity
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Personality Traits
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An exceptionally bright child,
he learned to read before he started school, read an amazing 90 books in
the first grade
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Neil was not interested in any
sport or athletic activity
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Interest in flying developed
at an early age of two, when his father took him to the National Air Races
in Cleveland, Ohio
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Obsessed with the idea of flight,
working odd jobs to pay for flying lessons at a nearby airport
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Skillful, teacher
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Intensely private person with
a wry sense of humor
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Quiet, introspective
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Didn't like public appearances
or publicity
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Success
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The first human to walk on the
moon as commander of Apollo 11
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Was commander of Gemini 8 mission
that performed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space
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Successful in education and
business
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Failure
|
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Commander pilot on the Gemini-Titan
8 mission in 1966, was forced to bring the spacecraft down in the Pacific
because of a mechanical malfunction
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Divorced from his wife after
a 38 year marrage
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Changed the World
|
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Mission to the moon gave rise
to new ideas
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His first step became the corner-stone
for future exploration
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Demonstrated that humanity is
not forever chained to this planet and our visions go farther than that
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