Amazing man, and truly went where no human had ever been before! What a thing for one of us to have done..
Very sad, a true explorer and i would love to know on a personal level how he felt when he put that first foot on moon and what was going through his mind as he stood there and looked back at the earth. RIP Mr Armstrong.
Does make you wonder. What do you think when your stood there looking at ALL of mankind on one small planet! Bet he FULLY understood how fragile our home is and how pathetic war is between us "humans" when after all we have NO where else to go... Me I would have been thinking "right all I have to do now is get back" but then knowing the big picture, if you could stay would you want to go back...?
Very sad to hear the news. I've been obsessed with the Apollo moon program for many a year. A true true piece of history departed.
"i hope they put enough fuel in this sucker to get us home ...." "hey collins what was our av/mpg on the way here ??" You know i watched a discovery prog the other night and they showed how minutely thin the atmosphere, which helped create and sustains us, really is, a proper eye opener. What them 3 guys did and witnessed on that 1st epic journey leaves me envious, jealous and also a little bit fearful as they must have realised how fragile and special we on planet earth really are.
Just seen this and am truly upset. As I was when Pete Conrad, James Irwin and Alan Shepard died. Men who have stood on another world....it's too easy a thing to say for such an unimaginably large thing. As heroes, for me, these men have stood over all other comers for as long as I have had the ability to differentiate. Maturity comes when we leave home and for an all too brief period and out of less than altruistic motivations, the Apollo crews were the spear point of a project that held the focus of the whole world despite being in the middle of one of the most violent and dangerous period of our history. An estimated half a billion people watched that first landing. 500 Million souls of a war torn planet forgot their conflicts and watched two men walk on another. That's often forgotten now in a society that tends to regard their endeavour merely for the cost. Of the twelve men that walked on the moon, it was the first that retained the quiet dignity of the fictitious American hero the most and has now carried it to his passing. This world's a little bit less special tonight.
The thing that always amazed me, especially on the later, long-duration missions, was that the two guys who went down in the LM spent up to 3 days on the moon and slept in their suits in the tiny cramped space inside the LM. Imagine falling asleep and then waking up and being in that first dozed moment, opening your eyes and realising.........oh yeah........I'm on the moon. Just awesome.
I just think its such a massive achievement by mankind, to simply leave our word and cross the void called space to step onto another planet.. I often stare up at the stars and wonder what it's all about... I'm fascinated by space... The mars thing is interesting but nothing will match the first trip to the moon... They say NASA wants to go back.
Gene Cernan said that he once lived there. He had a house, a job, even a car. After the powers that be decreed that no one could be allowed to own a moon rock after he had promised his daughter one, he instead carved her initials in the dust of a large boulder. A tribute that will last geological ages. Even the simplest, most inconsequential things they achieved we're the kind of acts related in Norse sagas. Armstrong himself was told, during an interview for professorship at the university of Ohio that because his resume consisted of his navy service, university and his time at NASA, it read as a 'bit thin'.
I too also often wonder about that void between us and the moon and would love to know if at any time during that 1st landing, did they stand there looking back at earth and feel lonely, isolated, scared and then turn and look out to the depths of our solar system and beyond and think " christ this is massive !!!!!!! WTF is out there ?????? "
The experience affected many of them adversely. Aldrin had real problems adjusting to life after Apollo, substance abuse and marriage break up. Ed Mitchell became slightly obsessed with the para normal after having strange ESP experiences on his flight home? James Irwin's religious leanings intensified after he walked on the moon and he became a minister. But I can't help but think what changed them was that the intensity of their training meant that the aftermath and perhaps even the missions themselves were so physically and psychologically anti climatic that their ego's couldn't handle life after Apollo. How can you not look out across a gap that can only be realistically measured in the time it takes the photons released from them to journey to our eyes and not be effected by it. I can see the Andromeda Galaxy, just, with my peripheral vision. And what I see occurred two and a half million years ago. And if an andromedan sees me looking, it will be in two and a half million years from now. I'm going to pour one now, stand outside and look at the moon and drink one to Pete, smiling Al, James and Neil.
Disillusionment is never going to be a strong enough word to describe how they must have felt after returning to earth. what they felt and witnessed would have been completely over shadowed by the corporate debriefing of NASA and the stringent control over what they where allowed to say and what was classified. To then be expected to intergrate back into 'normal society'................. never gonna happen !!
Some of you guys might like this. I found it by accident a while ago and still haven't worked my way through it yet. Apollo Image Atlas
I rem seeing that and all the other apollo programs on sky and the net. could watch the shows about them hero's all day, hence why I got the apollo xlite helmet.
Request from the Armstrong family. "For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."
Just trying to explain it all to my 2.5 year old daughter... she loves the moon and is now obsessed with the picture of earth taken from the moon... future astronaut me thinks
She needs one of these Gappy. If I could get away with it, I would. Cool Moon Remote Controlled Wall Light - £35.99 : Random, Funky, Novelty, Funny Gifts in UK - Birthday Gift Ideas
