Why did neil armstrong die?

Armstrong was 82 and in generally good health when a stress test early in the month showed significantly blocked coronary arteries. He had bypass surgery at an Ohio hospital days after his birthday. The operation itself was reported as successful, but complications followed during his recovery and he died on 25 August 2012. His family announced the death the same day, describing him as a reluctant hero who had always insisted he was simply doing his job.

The news drew attention partly because so little about him had been public for decades. After leaving NASA in 1971 he taught aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati for most of the 1970s, then worked in business and on technical boards. He gave few interviews, stopped signing autographs after discovering they were being resold, and declined most of the ceremonial roles offered to him. He did accept two investigations he considered a duty: the review of the Apollo 13 accident and, in 1986, the presidential commission on the loss of Challenger, where he served as vice-chairman.

Tributes came from NASA, from the White House and from his two surviving Apollo 11 crewmates, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. A memorial service was held in Washington, and because he had been a naval aviator who flew combat missions in Korea before becoming a test pilot, he was buried at sea from a US Navy cruiser in September 2012. The museum in his home town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, still keeps the aircraft and artefacts from the years before the Moon.