At the end of Apollo 11, there's a scene in which Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins make a TV broadcast.
"We would like to thank all those Americans who designed the spacecraft, who did the fabrication, the design, the testing, and put their heart and all their talents into the crafts," Armstrong says.
His gratitude is well deserved. Back on Earth, 400,000 men and women worked tirelessly to back the Moon landing. We tend to forget about them-but never did Neil Armstrong. He redirected all attention and applause over the years to those unidentified leaders of the Apollo Programme.
Notwithstanding this, he was launched into instant stardom by the Moon landing. But unlike Buzz Aldrin, Armstrong never took it upon himself. He firmly believed that he was not worthy of the fame.
Then what was he doing? While Aldrin was enjoying his time at the spotlight, Armstrong resigned from NASA and moved to an Ohio farm to get away from it all. Ultimately he stopped almost entirely giving interviews or making public appearances.
That gave him the reputation of being "private, nearly to a fault" and "painfully shy." Some even thought he was standoffish, rude, or even ungrateful.
infographic by: blog.kickresume.com
