To mark the first anniversary of Armstrong's death and to honor his achievements, NASA released this moving tribute video Friday, highlighting the indelible mark that the celebrated astronaut made on history.
The video features images of the Apollo 11 moon landing and snapshots of Armstrong's life flash, all set to singer Eric Brace's "Tranquility Base." As Space.com notes, "Tranquility Base" was the name Armstrong gave the moon landing site after touchdown.
In its obituary for Armstrong last year, the New York Times described how the astronaut came to make that legendary "giant leap for mankind":
A quiet, private man, at heart an engineer and crack test pilot, Mr. Armstrong made history on July 20, 1969, as the commander of the Apollo 11 spacecraft on the mission that culminated the Soviet-American space race in the 1960s [...]
On that day, Mr. Armstrong and his co-pilot, Col. Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., known as Buzz, steered their lunar landing craft, Eagle, to a level, rock-strewn plain near the southwestern shore of the Sea of Tranquillity. It was touch and go the last minute or two, with computer alarms sounding and fuel running low. But they made it.
In a Space.com op-ed this week about Armstrong's life, James Hansen, Auburn University professor and the biographer behind "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong," describes what a remarkable man Armstrong was in both his personal and professional life.
He was a "down-to-earth, yet deeply complex and brilliant, three-dimensional human being," Hansen wrote, a man who was able to face the "bright glare of international fame" with modesty and grace.
Watch NASA's tribute video to Armstrong above.
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