First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong is the official biography of Neil Armstrong, the astronaut who became the first man to walk on the Moon, on July 20, 1969. The book was written by James R. Hansen, and was first published in 2005, by Simon & Schuster. The book describes Armstrong's involvement in the United States space program (culminating with the historic Apollo 11 mission), and details his personal life and upbringing. The book has received a warm reception from several individuals associated with astronomy and the promotion of spaceflight.
The First Men in the Moon he acknowledged "The First Men in The Moon" to be "the best of the sort [of science fiction] I have read..." (from a letter to Roger Lancelyn Green). The influence of Wells's book is especially visible in "Out of the Silent Planet", the first book of Lewis's "Space Trilogy". There, too, a central role in the story line is played by a partnership between a worldly businessman interested in the material gains from space travel (and specifically, in importing extraterrestrial gold to Earth) and a scientist with wider cosmic theories. Also in Lewis's book, the two quietly build themselves a