In addition, he was handsome and photogenic, which made him a natural choice for the media. For these reasons, Armstrong was paid $27,401, or $190,684 in today's dollars, for his role in the Apollo 11 mission—a significant sum at the time but a bargain compared to what he could have earned today.
The pay grades for civilian astronaut candidates are set by federal government pay scales and vary based on academic achievements and experience. According to NASA , civilian astronaut salaries range from $104,898 to $161,141 per year. Here are a few of the benefits offered to civilian astronauts: Health care.
The US government reimbursed Buzz Aldrin $33 for his trip to the moon in 1969.
Independent 07242009 :"Salary 1969: Regular astronaut's salary of dollars 20,000 a year. No bonuses were paid on the Moon-landing mission, but the glamour of taking part in the Apollo programme helped to further subsequent careers in the business world."
As of Jun 11, 2023, the average annual pay for a Nasa Astronaut in the United States is $46,585 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $22.40 an hour.
Neil Armstrong's Salary
At the time of the Apollo 11 flight in 1969, Neil Armstrong was paid a salary of $27,401 and was the highest paid of the flying astronauts, according to the Boston Herald. That translates to $190,684 in 2019 dollars.
The national average salary for a Astronauta is $90,000 in Australia.
Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon and received the 1969 Collier Trophy.
As he arrives on the moon, it's revealed that Armstrong has brought his daughter's bracelet with him, the same one he's seen holding at various points throughout the film. In one of First Man's most moving moments, he throws it into a giant crater before returning to complete his work.
Armstrong learned that a barber had sold his hair clippings to a memorabilia collector for $3,000.
The family's service was strictly invitation-only and closed to the press. The guest list was not released, but among those in attendance were Armstrong's two Apollo 11 crew mates Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, as well as Apollo astronauts Bill Anders, Dick Gordon, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan.
Apollo 11, the first mission to successfully land man on the moon, cost approximately 355 million dollars, and the final mission, Apollo 17, cost approximately 450 million dollars.
$194 billion. That's our total cost to go to the moon.
Now for a bit of history: for the 1967 Apollo mission to the moon, Saturn V rocket's first stage carried 203,400 gallons of kerosene fuel and 318,000 gallons of liquid oxygen needed for, totaling over 500,000 gallons of fuel for getting out of the atmosphere alone.
Landing humans on the Moon by the end of 1969 required the most sudden burst of technological creativity, and the largest commitment of resources ($25 billion; $164 billion in 2021 US dollars) ever made by any nation in peacetime.
Images taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera more than 40 years later proved Aldrin right. Unlike the other Apollo sites, there is no longer an American flag still standing at the place where humankind first made contact with the lunar surface 50 years ago on July 20.
Roger Launius, the former NASA chief historian and a former senior curator at the National Air and Space Museum, agreed, saying, “there is no evidence to support the assertion that he left a bracelet of his daughter on the moon.” Though apparently fiction, the moment is a critical one.
Apollo 11 brought a message of peace to the Moon — but Neil and Buzz almost forgot to leave it behind | Astronomy.com.
They left hammers, scoops, measuring devices and many other tools on the lunar surface. To maximize space, they also left their waste bags. According to reports, the six Apollo missions left 96 bags of human waste on the moon. Later missions even left Lunar Roving Buggies on the surface to make room for samples.
The only full-body photograph of Neil Armstrong on the moon shows him working at the Apollo 11 lunar module "Eagle." The first man to set foot on the lunar surface was inadvertently captured on film by Buzz Aldrin, who was tasked with taking a series of panoramic photos.
The trio of career astronauts launched on 16 July 1969 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It took them four days to travel the 55,200 miles to the surface of the moon. The shuttle landed on the moon's surface close to midnight on 20 July.
The average salary for a Scientist is $85,122 per year in Australia, which is 14% lower than the average NASA salary of $100,000 per year for this job.