Who Was Neil Armstrong - 尼尔·阿姆斯特朗 Chapter 4 Test Pilot

Neil had been younger than nearly all the other students when he first enrolled 1 at Purdue. But he’d been away for three years. When he returned in September of 1952, he was twenty-two and older than most students. He was more mature. He was ready to study harder. During his last two years at Purdue, his grades improved greatly. He also joined a fraternity and—for the very first time—fell in love.

Her name was Janet Shearon. Everyone called her Jan. She was an eighteen-year-old freshman 2 at Purdue. Whereas 3 Neil was quiet, Jan was outgoing. She loved being around people. She and Neil were married in 1956, several months after his graduation. Neil’s hope was to become an experimental 4 test pilot. Not only would he get to fly new types of aircraft, but he would help figure out ways to build better planes.

At Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of California, the newest planes were first tried out. Naturally, Neil wanted to work there.

So he and Jan moved to California. This meant Jan had to leave Purdue without finishing her degree. But Neil’s career came first.

At Edwards Air Force Base, one of the planes Neil flew was called the X-15. It was rocket propelled 5. Instead of taking off from an airstrip, it had to be launched 6 from another plane already in flight. The X-15 could go nearly 4,000 miles an hour and reach an altitude of 207,500 feet. (Today, regular passenger jets 7 travel at about six hundred miles an hour, at an altitude of about 40,000 feet.)

The X-15 was flying fifty miles above the Earth. That altitude is considered the start of outer space. So flying the X-15 was an early test for flying into space.

Neil said, “We were using airplanes as tools to gather all kinds of information, just as an astronomer 8 uses a telescope as a tool. We didn’t fly often, but when we did, it was unbelievably exciting.”

Even when Neil was on the ground, he lived high up in the San Gabriel Mountains. He and Jan bought a little cabin 9, far from town. It didn’t even have hot water. Sometimes Neil would fly by in a small plane and Jan would wave out the window.

Jan, who was an expert swimmer, taught lifesaving classes to children. She and Neil also wanted to have a family of their own. In 1957, their first child, Eric, was born. His parents called him Rick. Two years later, in 1959, the Armstrongs had a little girl. Her name was Karen. But Neil gave her a nickname 10, too. It was Muffie. Neil was especially close to his little daughter, who was a sweet and happy child.

Then in the summer of 1961, two-year-old Muffie fell and hit her head on a sidewalk. It wasn’t a bad accident. Yet, afterward 11, her eyes became crossed. She started to run fevers. She tripped all the time. Her parents took her to a doctor right away. The news was terrible—Muffie had cancer. There was a tumor 12 deep inside her brain.

Today there are so many medicines to treat cancer; unfortunately many of them were not discovered until after Muffie became sick. Doctors did everything they could to make her well. She lived through Christmas but died at home with her family on a Sunday morning in January of 1962.

People who knew the Armstrongs said they seemed to age overnight 13. How could something so terrible have happened?

For some people, talking about a tragedy helps them bear the pain. But not for Neil Armstrong. He kept the sadness to himself. He never spoke 14 about Muffie’s death then or ever. New friends often didn’t realize that Neil Armstrong once had a daughter.

A week after Muffie died, Neil went back to work flying test planes. And a few months later, he made a big decision. The decision changed the rest of his life. He applied 15 to become an astronaut.