WASHINGTON — Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, died from complications following a recent heart surgery, the former astronaut’s family said in a statement posted online Aug. 25. He was 82.
The statement did not say when Armstrong died, or where.
“We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures,” the Armstrong family’s statement said.
Earlier this month, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden publicly confirmed, in a short note posted on Facebook, that Armstrong had undergone cardiac bypass surgery.
Armstrong was most notably the spacecraft commander for NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, the first crewed sortie to the lunar surface. Armstrong and fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin first walked on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Prior to the Apollo 11 flight, Armstrong was was the command pilot for NASA’s Gemini 8 mission in 1966. Armstrong earned his astronaut wings in 1962. He left NASA in 1971.
Armstrong is survived by his wife, Carol, two sons, a stepson and stepdaughter, 10 grandchildren, a brother and a sister, according to the statement his family posted on neilarmstronginfo.com.
