Neil Armstrong the first manned Moon landing, and spent two and a half hours outside the spacecraft while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command and service module. When Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, he famously said: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon. President Jimmy Carter presented Armstrong with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, and Armstrong and his former crewmates received a Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. After he resigned from NASA in
Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys insights into his astronaut colleagues, including Neil Armstrong ("I can't offhand think of a better choice to be the first man on the moon") and Buzz Aldrin ("would make a champion chess player; always thinks several moves ahead"). Collins was originally going to title the book "World in my Window", but he later decided that was "too corny". After discussing it with his editor, they decided to use three words to describe spaceflight. Collins decided on "Carrying the Fire". In his review for "TIME" magazine, Robert Sherrod calls it "the best-written book yet by any of the astronauts". As an