Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) flew as a naval aviator in the Korean War before becoming a test pilot with NACA and NASA, where he flew the X-15 rocket plane prior to his selection as an astronaut in 1962. As commander of Gemini 8 in 1966 he performed the first docking of two spacecraft. Commanding Apollo 11, he became the first human to walk on the Moon on 20 July 1969, uttering the famous words about "one small step." Famously reserved and reluctant to trade on his celebrity, he later taught aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati and served on the Apollo 13 and Challenger accident inquiries.