In the wake of this accomplishment, Armstrong received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award offered to a U.S. civilian. He has also been awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, seventeen medals from other countries, the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy in 1970; the Robert J. Collier Trophy in 1969; and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, 1978.
Armstrong subsequently held the position of Deputy Association Administrator for Aeronautics, NASA Headquarters Office of Advanced Research and Technology, from 1970 to 1971. His responsibilities included the coordination and management of overall NASA research and technology work related to aeronautics. He resigned from NASA in 1971.
From 1971 to 1979 Neil Armstrong was a professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Until 1992, he served as chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation in Charlottesville, Virginia and then became chairman of the board of AIL Systems; an electronics systems company in New York. Armstrong served on the National Commission on space from 1985 to 1986. In 1986, he was appointed as vice chairman of the presidential commission that investigated the Challenger explosion. Neil Armstrong is married and has two children. He currently lives quietly on his farm in Lebanon, Ohio.
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