The emphasis on the risk-taking test pilot aspect of the whole thing makes it easy to gloss over the fact that guys like Armstrong were engineers first and foremost. He had an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, and Buzz Aldrin an Sc.D (PhD) in Astronautics.
"He earned a student flight certificate on his 16th birthday, then soloed later in August; all before he had a driver's license."
And he got his MS 15 years after his Bachelors, although it was in aeronautical engineering. As for Aldrin:
"Buzz Aldrin graduated third in his class at West Point in 1951, with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force...."
He got his Sc.D. in astronautics a dozen years later.
I think they had to be both serious pilots and engineers to succeed in the Apollo program, e.g. note Armstrong's diversion from a boulder strewn field during the descent.
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[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 15.5 ms ] thread"He earned a student flight certificate on his 16th birthday, then soloed later in August; all before he had a driver's license."
And he got his MS 15 years after his Bachelors, although it was in aeronautical engineering. As for Aldrin:
"Buzz Aldrin graduated third in his class at West Point in 1951, with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force...."
He got his Sc.D. in astronautics a dozen years later.
I think they had to be both serious pilots and engineers to succeed in the Apollo program, e.g. note Armstrong's diversion from a boulder strewn field during the descent.