August 27, 2012 — There is only one photograph of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, and in it, he has his back to the camera.
The first man to set foot on a planetary body other than Earth was not camera shy. It was just that for most of the time he and Buzz Aldrin were exploring the moon in July 1969, the checklist called for Armstrong to have their only camera.
When the news broke Saturday (Aug. 25) that Armstrong, 82, had passed away, it is likely that many people's memories of the first man on the moon were of black and white television images or color film stills. If they did recall a photo captured during the Apollo 11 moonwalk, it was almost certainly one of Aldrin, whether it was of him saluting the flag or looking down at his bootprint.
In fact, perhaps the most iconic photo taken of an astronaut on the surface of the moon is also of Aldrin. A posed shot, he is facing the camera with the reflection of his photographer, Armstrong, caught in Aldrin's golden helmet visor.
Of course, there were photographs taken of Armstrong at other points during the moon flight, and on his previous mission, Gemini 8. Cameras were ready when he was named an astronaut seven years before walking on the moon, and were more than ever present after he returned to Earth as a history-making hero.
A few of those other photos ran alongside obituaries in the numerous newspapers that told of Armstrong's death in their Sunday editions. But they — the photos, not necessarily the obituaries — only told part of the story. A great many lesser seen photos capture Armstrong as the research pilot, astronaut, engineer and, as his family described in a statement, "a reluctant American hero."
To help illustrate that record, collectSPACE asked Retro Space Images to search their extensive archives of NASA photographs and pick out those that showed the Armstrong that the public didn't always get to see. The three dozen photos they chose have been presented chronologically, with one exception: the gallery below begins with the rare photo of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.
