Neil Armstrong, dead at 82 - RIP
- Thread starter djk
- Start date
RIP
I remember as clear as if it was yesterday the broadcasts of the moon landing. An amazing triumph.
I remember as clear as if it was yesterday the broadcasts of the moon landing. An amazing triumph.
@NBCNews: Armstrong family statement "Next time you walk outside on clear night & see moon smiling down at you, think of Neil & give him a wink."
It was an amazing event when you consider it was 66 years from the first flight of the Wright Brothers and mankind landing on the moon.
These guys went there trusting to a computer with the power of a modern calculator. They define guts. Period. A manly species of explorer rarely to be found. They will always be remembered for this.
I think LivLuvLaf's vid in post #11 is taken from a fantastic movie I saw at the Hot Docs festival or the TIFF - In The Shadow of the Moon. Neil Armstrong refused to be interviewed for the movie, the director thinking that he wanted others to be in the limelight cuz they deserved as much credit too.
I urge everyone to see it and to show it to their young, loved ones who were born after the Apollo Missions.
I recall hearing the landing on the radio as a kid returning from the Kawarthas with my mom and dad and brother. When we got home, we watched it on TV. The first footage was black and white.
Back in the day, every kid had models of the lunar module or a poster of the moon in their bedroom.
To the naysayers, NASA has taken satelitte pics of equipment left on the moon by the Apollo landings, but every question posed by non-believers can be debunked by simple table top experiments (I recall on a site called Bad Astronomy or it's successor link).
I urge everyone to see it and to show it to their young, loved ones who were born after the Apollo Missions.
I recall hearing the landing on the radio as a kid returning from the Kawarthas with my mom and dad and brother. When we got home, we watched it on TV. The first footage was black and white.
Back in the day, every kid had models of the lunar module or a poster of the moon in their bedroom.
To the naysayers, NASA has taken satelitte pics of equipment left on the moon by the Apollo landings, but every question posed by non-believers can be debunked by simple table top experiments (I recall on a site called Bad Astronomy or it's successor link).
In the documentary, In The Shadow of the Moon, there were some interesting stories about his cool head and nerves of steel. He was like a computer.
In one account, while practising on Earth with a lunar lander, he had to eject when the spider-like contraption equipped with retro-rockets tipped and lost control, only to crash to the ground. Later on, Buzz Aldrin sees Neil in the lunchroom having a snack, and he says, 'Hey I heard what happened. That musta been scary' or words to that effect. Neil just replied with a quiet 'yup'.
When the lunar module was orbitting the moon to the landing destination, Neil knowing he had to put it down or else, says "Let's land right there". So he manouevres the LM with the little rockets, turns it upright and fires the retro-rockets, making adjustments during it's descent. Buzz said Neil was as cool as a cucumber.
Clearly, cut from the same cloth as Admiral Chester William Nimitz who led the U.S. Pacific fleet to victory in WW II. Post-war, he declined an offer of $500,000 for his authorized biography saying all the credit belonged to the men and 3 women under his command.
