Being The First Man On The Moon

Ed Bradley Talks To Neil Armstrong About Fame, Family And Apollo 11

(CBS) 
Armstrong and Aldrin spent just a short time on the lunar surface, testing the gravity, completing a long list of experiments, and marking their journey. They had come in peace for all mankind, but stayed less than a day.

The hard part was re-entry. But when they returned to earth, they were superstars. In New York, four million people showered them with ticker tape. On a 45-day victory lap around the world, they were met by crowds in the Congo and by the queen at Buckingham Palace.

But as Armstrong reveals in his new biography, published by CBS sister company Simon & Schuster, he was unprepared for his sudden celebrity, and found it to be both a blessing and a burden.

“Friends and colleagues all of a sudden looked at us, treated us slightly differently than they had months or years before when we were working together. I never quite understood that,” Armstrong says.

“You said once to a reporter, ‘How long must it take before I cease to be known as the space man?’ Why did you make that comment?” Bradley says.

“I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work,” Armstrong says.

Strolling around the Ohio farm where he was born, Armstrong is easy to talk to, but hard to know. He can seem guarded, but above all we were struck by his humility.

“You sometimes seem uncomfortable with your celebrity. That you would rather not have all of this attention,” Bradley says.

“No, I just don't deserve it,” Armstrong says, laughing.

“But look. How many people have walked on the moon? Twelve? You were the first. You were chosen to do that. That’s special,” says Bradley.

“Yeah, I wasn't chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn't planned by anyone,” Armstrong says.

After Apollo 11, Armstrong hung up his spacesuit, and never felt the need for an encore. For eight years, he taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati, surely the students’ only professor who had walked on the moon.

“In the midst all your professional achievements, you've managed to get married, to have a family. Was it a difficult balance for you to maintain both sides of your life?” Bradley asks.

“The one thing I regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time, and a lot of travel,” Armstrong says. "And I didn't get to spend the time I would have liked with my family as they were growing up."

Armstrong has two sons with his wife of 38 years, Janet, who divorced him in 1994.

He remarried several years ago. In the autumn of his life, he lives very much in the present, refusing to let his famous deed define him. He has made a comfortable living serving on corporate boards, but even in retirement he keeps a watchful eye on the space program. He would like to see it restored to its glory days.

Armstrong knew the Apollo program had a limited life but expected it to last longer. “I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did.”

“And why do you think we didn't continue?” Bradley says.

“When we lost the competition, we lost the public will to continue,” Armstrong replies.

The man who once rode a 160-million horsepower rocket now flies a glider, a plane with no engine.

“Gliders, sail planes, they're wonderful flying machines. It's the closet you can come to being a bird,” says Armstrong.

What does Armstrong get out of gliding? “Oh, it is self satisfaction. A sense of accomplishment. At trying to do a little better than you think you possibly can,” he says.

NASA recently announced plans to send men back to the moon by 2018 and later to Mars. Don’t think Neil Armstrong hasn’t noticed.

“You said you would like to see us go back to the moon, and then go on to Mars. Something you want to do at this point in your life?” Bradley asks.

“I don't think I'm going to get the chance. But I don't want to say I'm not available,” Armstrong says, laughing.