Project Mercury also excluded civilian NASA X-15 pilot Neil Armstrong, though he had been selected by the US Air Force in 1958 for its Man In Space Soonest program, which was replaced by Mercury. Although Armstrong had been a combat-experienced NAP during the Korean War, he left active duty in 1952. Armstrong became NASA's first civilian astronaut in 1962 when he was selected for NASA's second group, and became the first man on the Moon in 1969. It was further stipulated that candidates should be between 25 and 40 years old, no taller than , and hold a college degree in a
Neil Armstrong Lebanon, Ohio, and the country of Lebanon, which has a majority Muslim population. In 1972, Armstrong visited the town of Langholm, Scotland, the traditional seat of Clan Armstrong. He was made the first freeman of the burgh, and happily declared the town his home. The Justice of the Peace read from an unrepealed 400-year-old law that required him to hang any Armstrong found in the town. While working at his farm near Lebanon, Ohio, in November 1978, Armstrong jumped off the back of his grain truck and his wedding ring was caught in the wheel, tearing off the tip of