Continue from Part 1: There was no defining moment in Armstrong's decision to become an astronaut. In 1957, he was selected for the US Air Force's Man In Space Soonest program. In November 1960 Armstrong was chosen as part of the pilot consultant group for the X-20 Dyna-Soar, a military space plane. On March 15, 1962 he was named as one of six pilot-engineers who would fly the space plane when it got off the design board. In the months after the announcement that applications were being sought for the second group of NASA astronauts, he became more and more excited about the prospect of the Apollo program and the prospect of investigating a new aeronautical environment. Armstrong's astronaut application had arrived about a week past the June 1, 1962 deadline. Dick Day, with whom Armstrong had worked closely at Edwards, worked at the Manned Spacecraft Center, saw the late arrival of the application, and slipped it into the pile before anyone noticed. At Brooks City-Base at the end of June he underwent a medical exam that many of the applicants described as painful and at times seemingly pointless. Deke Slayton called Armstrong on September 13, 1962 and asked if he was interested in joining the NASA Astronaut Corps as part of what the press dubbed "the New Nine". Without hesitation, Armstrong said yes. He would be selected as the "first civilian astronaut". Armstrong did not actually become the first worldwide civilian to fly in space, since the Russians launched Valentina ...
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