Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira! And I'm Finn. Before we blast off today, we have some huge shout-outs. First, to Samantha, age 5, listening from South Carolina. We heard you loved our Yuri Gagarin episode because you want to be an astronaut.
SPEAKER_00That is so cool, Samantha. This space episode is especially for you.
SPEAKER_01We also want to wish a belated happy birthday to Charlie from Bista in Oxfordshire, England. You turned 8 around the 19th of May, and we hope you had a brilliant day.
SPEAKER_00Happy birthday, Charlie! And we have to thank Leo, who is five years old, for requesting today's amazing topic.
SPEAKER_01We sure do. Great pick, Leo! Okay, Finn, imagine stepping out of a tiny metal spaceship into an alien world. The sky is pitch black, the ground is covered in grey dust, and you are totally weightless. Wait, are we talking about the moon? Exactly! Today we are exploring the thrilling, dangerous, and mind-blowing story of Neil Armstrong. He wasn't just the first human on the moon, he was a daring test pilot who dodged death multiple times. I know he walked on the moon, but dodging death? How? Oh, you just wait. Before he was bouncing in low gravity, he was flying rocket planes to the very edge of space, going almost 4,000 miles per hour. Neil Alden Armstrong was born on August 5th, 1930, on a farm near Wapakanita, Ohio.
SPEAKER_00Wait, a farm? I thought astronauts came from high-tech military bases or something.
SPEAKER_01Nope, he was a farm boy. But he became absolutely obsessed with aeroplanes when he was just two years old, after his dad took him to the national air races. Two years old? I was still eating dirt at two. When he was six, Neil and his dad took their very first airplane ride in a Ford Trimotor. It was an airplane nicknamed the Tin Goose because it was loud, bumpy, and made of metal.
SPEAKER_00Did it scare him?
SPEAKER_01Not even a little bit. From that day on, Neil wanted to do nothing but fly. He built hundreds of model aeroplanes out of bolsa wood and read every flying magazine he could find.
SPEAKER_00So when did he actually learn to fly a real plane by himself? He started taking flying lessons as a teenager.
SPEAKER_01They cost $9 an hour, which was a ton of money back then. He had to work at a bakery and a pharmacy just to pay for them.
SPEAKER_00$9 doesn't sound like much now, but I bet it took a lot of sweeping floors to earn that.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. And all that hard work paid off. Neil earned his student pilot's licence on his 16th birthday. The crazy part? He got his pilot's licence before he even had a driver's licence.
SPEAKER_00Wait, you're telling me he could fly an airplane in the sky, but he couldn't legally drive a car to the grocery store.
SPEAKER_01That's right. He had to ride his bicycle to the airport to fly planes. Neil went to college to study aeronautical engineering, which is the science of building aeroplanes, but his studies were interrupted by the Korean War in 1950.
SPEAKER_00Did he have to go fight?
SPEAKER_01He did. Neil became a fighter pilot for the United States Navy. He flew a jet called the F-9F Panther, taking off from aircraft carriers right in the middle of the ocean. Landing on a moving ship? That sounds so hard. It was! He flew 78 combat missions. During one mission in 1951, he was flying only about 500 feet off the ground when his jet hit a booby trap. A thick metal anti-aircraft cable strung across a valley. Oh no! Did it crash? The cable sliced six feet right off the wing of his jet. He was losing control. Neil had to fly his broken plane back over friendly territory and then pull the ejection seat handle.
SPEAKER_00Phew! He parachuted down safely.
SPEAKER_01He did! After the war, he got a job doing something even wilder. He became a test pilot for NASA. His job was to fly brand new experimental aircraft to see if they actually worked. That sounds like the most dangerous job in the world. It was. He flew the famous X-15 rocket plane. It didn't take off from a runway. Instead, it was dropped out of the wing of a giant B-52 bomber high in the sky, and then its rocket engine would ignite. Dropped from a bomber?
SPEAKER_00How fast did it go?
SPEAKER_01Neil flew it at a mind-boggling 3,989 miles per hour. That's almost six times the speed of sound. He also flew it up to 207,500 feet, right up to the very edge of outer space. Because Neil was so calm under pressure, NASA chose him to command the Apollo 11 mission. The goal? Be the first humans to land on the Moon. This is it. What year was it? It was July 1969. Neil, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins launched on top of a Saturn V rocket. Finn, this rocket was 363 feet tall. That's taller than the Statue of Liberty. Whoa, that's like a skyscraper flying into space. Exactly. It took them three days to reach the moon. On July 20th, 1969, Neil and Buzz climbed into a small landing spaceship called the Eagle to fly down to the Moon's surface.
SPEAKER_00Did they just push a button and land perfectly?
SPEAKER_01Not at all. It was terrifying. As they got close, the computer started flashing. 1202 programme alarm! The computer was overloading. And to make it worse, it was steering them right into a massive crater filled with boulders the size of cars. Boulders the size of cars? What did Neil do? Neil stayed totally calm. He switched off the autopilot, grabbed the control stick, and flew the eagle manually, hovering over the dangerous rocks, looking for a safe, flat spot. But didn't they only have a little bit of fuel for the landing? Yes. Mission control was counting down the seconds. 60 seconds of fuel left, then 30 seconds. If they ran out, they would crash into the moon. Finally, with less than 25 seconds of fuel remaining, the legs touched down.
SPEAKER_00Oh my goodness, that is too close.
SPEAKER_01Neil pressed the radio button and said, Houston, tranquility base here, the eagle has landed. Six hours later, Neil climbed down the ladder, put his boot on the dusty surface, and said the most famous words in history. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. When Neil took that step, an estimated 600 million people were watching it live on black and white televisions all across Earth. That was one out of every six people alive at the time. 600 million?
SPEAKER_00He must have been the most famous person on the entire planet when he came back.
SPEAKER_01He was. But here is the most surprising fact about Neil Armstrong. He absolutely hated being famous. Really? He didn't want to be in movies or commercials. Nope. People offered him millions of dollars to sell things, but he said no. He thought the Apollo 11 mission succeeded because of the 400,000 engineers and scientists who built the rocket, not just him. He eventually left NASA, moved to a farm, and became a quiet college teacher in Cincinnati.
SPEAKER_00Wow. That's so humble. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Now, how about some weird fun facts? Did you know that Neil's footprints on the moon are probably still there today? Exactly how he left them in 1969.
SPEAKER_00Wait, how? Wouldn't the wind blow them away?
SPEAKER_01There is no wind, no rain, and no weather on the moon. Scientists think his bootprints could last for a million years. Also, when Neil went to the Moon, he brought pieces of wood and fabric from the Wright Brothers 1903 airplane with him to honour the first people to ever fly.
SPEAKER_00That is brilliant! From the very first airplane straight to the moon. Alright, Finn, it is time for the quiz. Are you ready? Okay, I've got my space helmet on. Let's do this.
SPEAKER_01First question. How old was Neil Armstrong when he got his pilot's license? Next one. What did Neil's fighter jet hit during the Korean War that sliced off six feet of its wing? Question three. What was the name of the lunar module that landed on the moon? Here's number four. Roughly how many seconds of fuel did the eagle have left when it finally landed? Last question. What job did Neil choose to do after he left NASA because he wanted a quiet life? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is he was 16 years old, getting it before his driver's licence. For question two, his jet hit an anti-aircraft cable. The answer to number three is it was named the Eagle. For question four, he had less than 25 seconds of fuel remaining. And the final answer is, he became a college teacher in Cincinnati. Wow, I still can't believe he had to fly right over those massive car-sized boulders with alarms blaring in his ear.
SPEAKER_00I know! Neil Armstrong really was the coolest, bravest pilot ever.
SPEAKER_01Hey listeners, if you love learning about Neil Armstrong's giant leap today, please leave us a five-star review. Just scroll down on your podcast app and tap those five stars.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it helps other kids discover the show. And you've got to check out our site, kidopoly.com. We have tons of awesome learning games and activities waiting for you.
SPEAKER_01Also, if you want a shout out like Samantha, Charlie and Leo got today, or if you just want to say hi, send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com. We love hearing from you all. See you next time on History is not boring.
SPEAKER_00Bye everyone!