UPDATE: As a boy of 11 years old, I watched much of this in utter awe as many of you did on that Sunday in July, 1969. It is well worth watching again. I get choked up just watching.
America has just lost its most heroic son. I’m sad. It is doubly sad that America’s manned space program is also dead.
This poem, a favorite of pilots worldwide, seems the most appropriate:
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew –
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
– Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee, No 412 squadron, RCAF, Killed 11 December 1941
Neil Armstrong, the astronaut who became first to walk on the moon as commander of Apollo 11, has died. He was 82 years old.
He was born in the small town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, on Aug. 5, 1930.
On July 20, 1969, half a billion people — a sixth of the world’s population at the time — watched a ghostly black-and-white television image as Armstrong backed down the ladder of the lunar landing ship Eagle, planted his left foot on the moon’s surface, and said, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Twenty minutes later his crewmate, Buzz Aldrin, joined him, and the world watched as the men spent the next two hours bounding around in the moon’s light gravity, taking rock samples, setting up experiments, and taking now-iconic photographs.
more; here: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/neil-armstrong-man-moon-dead/story?id=12325140#.UDkpQqAnBio
UPDATE: Andrew Revkin has an interesting backstory on the space race that I think is worth reading here: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/the-cold-war-push-behind-neil-armstrongs-one-small-step/
He was my hero – i remember my parents letting me stay up to watch the now-famous broadcast of him stepping out on the moon, when we lived in Scotland. May God rest his soul.
Someone delete that inane comment by NikFromNYC. Maybe meant as ironic, it sits ill with most all other comments here.
R.I.P., Neil.
Best Book: “First Man”…http://books.simonandschuster.com/First-Man/James-R-Hansen/9780743257510
Well done book. One of the best parts is when Armstrong had to eject from the Lunar Lander simulator (real rocket device..)
Max
“I always knew I would see the first man on the moon. I never dreamed I would see the last.”
Jerry Pournelle.
RIP Neil Armstrong.
Nothing I can think of to say would be adequate.
Like many, I was allowed to stay up way past my bedtime, (I was 16,) to watch the Moon landing.
R.I.P. Neil Armstrong.
DaveE.
A unique pioneer that America and the world can be proud to have witnessed.
Memories here from Australia for that most famous Apollo flight
Our whole school went to the gymnasium to watch the one 25 inch television set the school owned. About 400 students and teachers.The import of the moment was not lost on us.
I will always remember you as the first human being to set foot on another world.
At the age of 7 and 1/2 my mom took me shopping in Quincy, Illinois. It seemed like every store had a TV set up in the window and only one thing was on. After fruitlessly trying to get me to move on and hearing me complain about wanting to go back to Grandma’s house, Mom finally gave in. The 2 bus rides through town took what seemed forever and hearing the news on the radio didn’t help my anxiety, but we finally made it and I made straight for the TV. We had made it with 10 minutes to spare. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Sis and I watched as the Eagle landed and even at that young age I remember being so overwhelmed that I started crying. I didn’t move from that TV until an hour after Neil stepped out of the LEM, by which time I was so exhausted I fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed.
God speed Neil Armstrong
Frank, please, go pollute some other site.
Let us show our respect for a top class human. Thank you.
I remember sitting home in Ohio as a 10 year old watching him step off the LEM.
I remember better the grace and modesty with which he lived the remainder of his life.
“Some people claim the Moon landing was faked (in the desert of Arizona), but if the Moon landing had been simulated and faked I would have to have been part of the conspiracy.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19383368
Not to mention we still don’t have the technology to “fake it”.
Here is the LEM trainer accident. This man was one Sierra Hotel Pilot…
Also-Second Tom Wolfe’s “The Right Stuff..” Movie’s ok but the book’s better…
Armstrong and the other lunar astronauts just had incredible balls to sit in that tin can and get to the moon and back. You meet the same daring in the early Western explorations of the terrestrial oceans. A fraction of a degree of course and you were toast.
There is no epitaph that can match his “One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind”. Let that be his epitaph.
“It is doubly sad that America’s manned space program is also dead.”
——————————————————-
I respectfully disagree.There may be no current US manned launchers, but to say the program is dead is misleading. NASA is spending a total of about 5% of its budget on three manned launch systems that plan to fly in the next few years. They are being built by Space-X, who have already docked a habitable module to the Space Station, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada. Boeing and SNC will use launch vehicles provided by United Launch Alliance. ULA currently launches all US military payloads to space, and many of NASA’s payloads. The Delta and Atlas launchers are owned and operated by ULA.
Beyond this, Virgin, Armadillo, and XCOR will all likely be flying people to space suborbitally in the next few years, and at least two of those companies have plans for manned orbital systems.
I was in Huntsville, AL for the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. (I was working on the Space Shuttle at the time) The 3 astronauts were there and I clearly remember one of them saying “The last thing I want is to come back here and celebrate the 30th anniversary”
Note to mods. Sorry, Robert of Ottawar is me, I just made a typo
[True, true. We have had few Ottowars down here since 1812.
PS. Do you want Seattle, WA back? 8<) Robt]
RIP Neil Armstrong. I remember the excitement of the Moon landing well. We were in Abu Dhabi with our new first son at the time, (who’s now an airline captain). It was also the year we saw, actually saw, the British prototype Concorde make her maiden flight.
Rest in peace, sir. You are a hero to many many pilots!
Sincerely
Captain Owen Smith
simberg8 and a couple others “on-thread” appear to have no souls – pity, but life goes on. An observation that I have made as a result of my experiences (17 when Neil and Buzz touched down) is that one usually can’t over (or under) estimate what another may do. While ‘simberg8 (and some others) apparently represent the former, thankfully Neil Armstrong joined in leading most others in representing the latter.
If there is an extra-terrestrial, solarial, etc. future for our kind Neil, Buzz, Chris, et al will have singularly, as well as en toto, provided the major foundations for such eagerly (by many) anticipated accomplishments. The detractors “on-thread” – no so much, if any – pity, but life goes on.
I take great pleasure in sharing with my sons (27 yrs) great hopes that soon we may once again revere the special accomplishments of those who ‘built it’ due to their outstanding uniqueness, as well those who ‘built it’ through their graduatedly appreciated supporting roles. Some of us are, in fact: special. Neil Armstrong is in fact one of the most special – and always will be.
First to walk on the moon? There is no equal. Lead on Neil.
(Luv ya Buzz, and others – for your own unique accomplishment & contributions, absolutely!)
Goodbye Neil, and RIP.
You inspired me, and, I thought at the time, a whole generation, but it seems that generation was more inspired by other things (power, money etc.).
The comments about not being able to even put a man into low earth orbit reminded me of a short article I wrote just over a year ago. I was not optimistic when I wrote it. I am even less so today:
http://thoughtsoftheguru.com/2011/07/back-to-the-dark-ages/
[Snip. Inappropriate. ~dbs]
An excellent video of Astronaut Neil Armstrong delivering a lecture at MIT. He discusses engineering aspects of his lunar landing.
http://techtv.mit.edu/collections/aeroastro/videos/43-robert-seamans-and-neil-armstrong-on-the-apollo-program
RIP, to a true American hero.
A slight tangent here and apologies….
The next time I hear the likes of Tiger Woods et-al described as ‘heroes’ when we have had people like Armstrong walk among us I am going to scream and vomit abuse….
OK?
I always have admired Armstrong’s refusal to profit personally from his iconic status. He did his job, turned to teaching, and let history take care of his legacy.
Might I suggest the black flag afforded Robert E. Phelan [REP] on the masthead?
I agree also with Robert of Ottawa,
is a suitable epitaph for this great man.
DaveE.
simberg8 and a couple others “on-thread” appear to have no souls – pity, but life goes on..
Ummm…..what?
An observation that I have made as a result of my experiences (17 when Neil and Buzz touched down) is that one usually can’t over (or under) estimate what another may do. While ‘simberg8 (and some others) apparently represent the former, thankfully Neil Armstrong joined in leading most others in representing the latter.
I said nothing about either over- or underestimating what Neil Armstrong could do. I was discussing what is possible today.