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/
Neil Armstrong is the greatest American hero in my lifetime. I’m happy to see others feel the same. Our country is diminished by his passing.
To the poster of “High Flight” with the F-104. In “First Man” you will find that the F-104 was a rather favorite plane for the Apollo guys to fly. Thus the video is a fitting tribute, in more ways than one!
Here is an online memorial to Neil Armstrong – please feel free to light a virtual candle or send
virtual flowers – http://www.memorialmatters.com/memorials.php?page=NeilArmstrong
aquapulser,
I remember watching that F-104 video back in the 1970’s, before there was ‘video’. It was the 2 a.m. sign-off tape from our local TV station. I recall watching it many times when I was young & stayed up late watching B&W movies [recalled here, as I put on my white loafers and hitch up my white pants to go yell at the kids trespassing on my lawn]. ☺
Truly, the right stuff. Requiscat In Pace.
Anthony,
‘High Flight’ is an excellent eulogy, for this somber occasion. It sends chills up my spine… and recaptures many treasured memories! One such was on July 20, 1969. I was 13 years old and a passenger with my twin brother in my oldest brother’s car. We had decided to drive over to the western Lake Michigan shore (from central Wisconsin) for a cold swim, on a ‘lark’, and listen to the moon landing on the car radio as we were traveling.
At some point just before we arrived, the words coming out of the scratchy but sufficiently clear AM car radio heralded “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” And the world stood still…..
I’ve never looked at the moon… the planets… or the stars… the same way since. They are within our grasp, if we have the courage and commitment to reach for them and do not let the beggar mentality of socialism impoverish us beyond the will and means to so.
God Speed, Mr. Armstrong…..
MtK
The term “Hero” is much overused today. Neil is one of mine. He was also a humble man who had the courage not to cheapen his accomplishments with tawdry, self-serving media appearances.
Most engineers today sit in front of computer screens, risking carpal tunnel syndrome, or an inaccurate modeling program.at worst.
Rest in Peace my hero! I hope one day America will make real the dream of a lunar base in your honor.
Eighty-two years – a very good run.
Let us pause, and honour a good life… and a great one.
At 9 years old, I remember my family driving back home from Ocean City, Md. to make it in time to see the first lunar landing. The roads were EMTPY! We flew to make it in time (and my Father was NOT know for his “gentle” driving) only to find that our neighborhood had lost power! It came back on just in time to watch the descent and landing of “The Eagle”. These intrepid adventurers have been my heroes. Before, during, and after. God Speed Neil. Fair winds and Following Seas.
I too watched the live TV feed as Neil stepped onto the moons surface. After they had been out of the Lunar Lander for a while I walked out on the front porch and gazed up at the full moon and pondered the fact that for the first time in human history another human was standing on the surface of the moon. I briefly considered all the billions of men and women who had gazed up at that body over the millennia since we became sufficiently self aware to dream big dreams, dare great adventures, and wonder if man would ever stand on the moon looking down on earth.
It dawned on me that I was experiencing an event that would be in history books for as long as mankind keeps track of historical events, as one of the great thresholds of exploration in all of mans history.
Sleep well Neil, you did well in representing both America and Mankind in that one magic moment in man’s history of exploration!
The red, white, and blue on the moon is beautiful.
What a privilege for Neil Armstrong to be in that picture. He will be ever a memorable name in America.
I would be remiss and all would not be right in the world if I did not make mention of this obscure observation of the Apollo 11 event directly by an amateur radio astronomer (and ham) named Larry Baysinger in Louisville, Kentucky who was able to monitor _not_ the Unified S-band downlink transmissions (that would be used by NASA for communications with the astronauts) *but* instead the UHF backpack AM transmitter carried by (Apollo 11 astronaut) Neil Armstrong on UHF channel B (259.7 MHz) which was intended only to carry voice comms to the LEM for relay back to earth via the S-Band Unified System.
Larry Baysinger used a very large corner reflector antenna in his yard to receive the weak, but readable, signals carrying both of the astronauts’ voices. At the website below are mp3 reproductions of Larry’s tape-recordings from the Apollo 11 mission on the moon in 1969:
http://legacy.jefferson.kctcs.edu/observatory/apollo11/
Direct line-of-sight pathloss calculations coupled with a low lunar angle (using the earth as a partial reflector as well to ‘gather’ RF energy) indicate within the realm of possibility that Larry could copy directly the astronaut’s communications directly from the surface of the moon; this trick known and used by hams when attempting 2-way Moon-bounce contacts (i.e. utilize the low lunar angle to make partial use of the earth as a reflector).
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When I watched that historic first step as a boy, Neil’s singular action made me hope for a better future. Of course he was only the tip of a very broad pyramid of engineers who took our imaginations off our own rolling ball of rock, but he was the first, and should forever be ennobled in memory of the 1960’s space race.
God speed and happy landings Neil. You blazed the trail.
In that grand banquet that marks the beginning of a true Kingdom, Mr. Armstrong would be one who would humbly and quietly take his seat in the back row. And then, he would be invited forward! Wonderful! Lord, bless and comfort those who look to the brave men you’ve placed on this earth as examples for all of us, and multiply your comforts especially to those closest to them who are now bereaved.
There is a book, the paper back version of which I had a few years ago written after the collapse of the old USSR when the Russians became much more forth coming on their past history and which I can’t recall the name of unfortunately , that details from the Russian’s themselves, the Russian’s all out drive to beat the American’s to the Moon.
It was pure brutal politics that led to the Moon Race as First Secretary of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev poured billions of rubles into the Russian Space program and drove his space scientists and engineers into trying to fulfill an almost impossible political task of being the first of mankind to set foot on a new and totally foreign world.
The final disaster that broke the back of the Russian space rocket program as the massive explosion on the pad at Baikonur of N1 prototype moon rocket as a direct result of the General in charge of the Russian space program and on the site, demanding that an electrical fault be repaired without de-fueling the rocket. He died along with many of Russia’s best rocket technicians.
That was about the third time the N1 had failed it’s test launches.
In about 1952 or thereabouts the British Interplanetary Society had developed a long range plan to place men on the Moon by 1998.
I had just reached my teens in 1952 and can still remember the excitement I felt when I found a long article about the BIS ‘s plans and then proceeded to devour the article word for word.
And when Armstrong and Aldrin made their famous landing, all other activities in our household were cancelled and even my two young daughters were made to sit and watch for as I told them, [ they haven’t forgiven me yet! ] you are seeing something that when the history of our times is written and those of the generations to come will look with awe upon a feat that can never ever be repeated, the very first time mankind has ever set foot on a world that was not his own.
And we will go back and back, again and again until mankind has mastered space for that as always has been our destiny.
We take our losses.
We learn.
Mankind as always pushes ever onwards to newer and higher goals.
Space is another goal which we have yet to master but we will.
Rand Simberg August 25 1:32 PM On what basis do you say that the U.S. manned space program is “dead”? We have astronauts aboard the station right now, and within three years or so, we’ll have multiple private American spaceflight providers. The next decade will be the most exciting for human spaceflight since the sixties.
Ignorance explains many cases, I suppose, but I also think it’s one of those things that a certain type of man likes to say.
… One Giant Loss For Mankind
( credit: Geoff Brown )
Watching a B&W TV in the truck repair shop at steel yard we dropped our tools and cranes our necks to see the magic moment. Buck Rogers was real. It was glorious.
I am interested in his ET related comments – footprints and all. Did he ever confirm any of it? Are ETs going to remain verboten even with all the private launches taking place? Everyone has a camera now. Maybe we’ll get a peek now and then!
This week we lost 2 Armstrong heroes: Lance and Neil. How different their epitaphs will be.
Rob Carter wrote (8/25/12 at 1:47 pm): “As a six year old I can remember the excitement . . .” That’s neat stuff. I, too, recall that Sunday as a lad a few years older than you, perhaps, but on a little lake bass fishing with my dad in our canoe. Before we left the house, he reminded me to get the transistor radio (remember those things?). I thought he wanted to hear the Phillies game, but instead he kept the radio tuned to AM 1210, which I thought was odd. We both heard the landing broadcast on the radio, and then dad turned and smiled (dad always had the front seat in the canoe) and said, “America has done it again, son.” Good stuff. That mindset proves why dad deserved the front seat of the canoe, and why I am amazed as I watch the exploits of men far braver than me. RIP, Mr. Armstrong. Say “hi” to poppy for me!
Somehow this hits me harder than anything else lately. I don’t know, what to say. It’s like a large part of my life has gone into the abyss with Armstrong.
I have read around ten of the generally available biographies and histories of the Apollo astronaut corps. My own conclusion from this study was that Neil Armstrong wasn’t selected for the first moon landing by accident. He was likely selected because he was the best at dealing with the unknown in the specialized environment of the lunar landings. I will say that again: He was the best. To me, it is more than a little interesting that this man — the best person available for this mission — proved to be so self-effacing, so personally humble. Too many in public life today are frauds and cheats, driven by money and ego. We can learn more than a little from Neil Armstrong.
I watched Neil Armstrong’s walk on TV in the geology lecture theatre at the Australian National University. That remains a highlight of my life. In 1973 I met Jack Schmitt, the only geologist to walk on the moon, on top of the Gosses Bluff impact in central Australia. I showed him some Devonian sandstone we had collected and said ‘Hey Jack, I bet you never found any fossil fish up there!’
Vale Neil!
Ciao
John
In the 50’s I was ridiculed by all my school mates for saying a man would walk on the Moon.
Thanks Niel making my day.
Neil Armstrong – the very best of the USA.
Apart from understandable sadness, this should also be a time of great American pride.
omanuel says:
August 25, 2012 at 12:51 pm
I too salute the man who risked his life to save mankind from domination by the USSR !
WTF? I hope that was irony.