Would you accomplish a task if you knew that by doing it would have only 50% chance of survive?

That’s what former U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong did. On July 20, 1969, in an era when there weren’t even cell phones, he stepped on the moon. And 43 years after uttering the famous phrase “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” Armstrong dies on this Saturday, in Ohio, United States.

On the last 5th, the astronaut was undergone for a surgery to unblock heart’s arteries, and died yesterday after complications from the same surgery.

The courage of this man certainly deserves our homage. He was the commander of the first lunar mission, the Apollo 11, alongside the astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. On July 21, 1969, the lunar capsule Eagle landed on the lunar surface and Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon.

The commander was born on August 5, 1930. He was a Navy pilot in the United States between 1949 and 1952 and fought in Korean War. Graduated in 1955 in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University and served as a civilian pilot to the agency that originated NASA, NACA (National Council for Aeronautics).

President Barack Obama, as well as NASA and Aldrin and Collins, his companions on the journey, publicly lamented the loss of Armstrong. In a statement, the family of the first man to walk on the Moon wrote:

“For those who may ask what they can do for the memory of Neil, we have a simple request. Remember his example of service, commitment and modesty. And the next time you walk down the street one night and look at the moon smiling at you, think about and give Neil a ‘wink’ “.