RIP Neil Armstrong

[HudsonHawk]

A god among men 

http://news.yahoo.com/neil-armstrong-1st-man-moon-dies-82-200215442--finance.html

[Ron Brand]

One of humanity's greatest heroes.

[Phil_in_CS]

My favorite Neil Armstrong story: Reporter asks him if he jogs to stay in shape. Armstrong replies "Hell no. God gives a man so many heartbeats, and I've burned up enough of them sitting in cockpits. I will be damned if I waste them running up and down a stupid road."

RIP Sir.

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Neil Armstrong.

[remy]

Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Neil Armstrong.

+1

[subnuclear]

If someone knows something bad about him, I don't want to hear it.

[strosrays]

If someone knows something bad about him, I don't want to hear it.

He was from Ohio.  That's all I got.

[EasTexAstro]

Armstrong's quiet engineering demeanor was perhaps best demonstrated after a flight in the Lunar Lander Training Vehicle (LLTV). Affectionately known as the "flying bedsteads," the LLTV was used to train astronauts who would be making approaches to the lunar surface and was basically a large jet engine pointed downward and small thrusters that could control the attitude of the vehicle during flight.

It was considered a very difficult, and dangerous aircraft to fly. On a LLTV flight in 1968, Armstrong lost control of the aircraft due to a propellant leak and windy conditions. He ejected only moments before it crashed in a fireball. According to James Hansen's biography, an hour or so later fellow astronaut Alan Bean returned to his desk after lunch and found Armstrong at his own desk simply "shuffling some papers." Bean didn't believe what others had told him about the crash so he asked Armstrong who replied, "I lost control and had to bail out of the darn thing."

[Gizzmonic]

Living legend.  RIP to one of my boyhood heroes.

[Limey]

Something I didn't realise until only a few years ago - and which puts the astronaut pilot rebellion scene in "The Right Stuff" into stark perspective - is that Armstrong and Aldrin took control of the descent/landing because the computers had screwed the pooch and they would've had to abort (or crash) otherwise.

In a million years' time, archeologists are going to find a treasure trove of fossilised human remains - the missing link between apes and post-humans.  In amongst those fossils, they will find one pair of perfectly preserved and untarnished stainless steel testicles...

[Noe]

I once heard a radio interview of some guy who swears the lunar landing never happened. It was beyond weird in terms of a conspiracy to fool the American public. In short, you'd have to have a ton of people, governments, and scientist involved to pull off the hoax. And technology too. What it would take to pull off a hoax is more complex than actually landing on the moon... literally. So in a way, the guy and his theory was an advocate of much more genius on the part of the space community. And what is funny is that with every question asked of him and how they could possibly pull off the hoax, the more he just didn't seem to get it that he was talking about some very serious work on the part of the community that was indeed herculean!

[MusicMan]

I once heard a radio interview of some guy who swears the lunar landing never happened. It was beyond weird in terms of a conspiracy to fool the American public. In short, you'd have to have a ton of people, governments, and scientist involved to pull off the hoax. And technology too. What it would take to pull off a hoax is more complex than actually landing on the moon... literally. So in a way, the guy and his theory was an advocate of much more genius on the part of the space community. And what is funny is that with every question asked of him and hold they could possibly pull off the hoax, the more he just didn't seem to get it that he was talking about some very serious work on the part of the community that was indeed herculean!

Go check out the video of Buzz Aldrin decking the moon conspiracy guy.

[Noe]

Go check out the video of Buzz Aldrin decking the moon conspiracy guy.

Several NASA employees called in and calmly tried to explain how they were involved in monitoring the entire mission at remote tracking stations around the world (and how they knew the Russians were monitoring the mission as well). To fool the technology in place would have been a massive undertaking that would have been beyond the technological boundaries of the day.

IOW - unless aliens from another planet came and gave NASA technology they did not have to pull off a hoax, it would not be possible. But then, if you think about it, if aliens from another planet were to give NASA technology, it would have been how to land on another planet. It is an insult to men and their passion to do things of that proportion to just go all conspiracy theory on them. I would deck the guy too if I would have been involved back then.

[Bench]

Go check out the video of Buzz Aldrin decking the moon conspiracy guy.

Fast forward to 2:45.

[Limey]

Go check out the video of Buzz Aldrin decking the moon conspiracy guy.

Which is awesome...

...and here is Ali G asking him the conspiracy theorists' favourite question:  "Does the moon really exist?"

[subnuclear]

I once heard a radio interview of some guy who swears the lunar landing never happened. It was beyond weird in terms of a conspiracy to fool the American public. In short, you'd have to have a ton of people, governments, and scientist involved to pull off the hoax. And technology too. What it would take to pull off a hoax is more complex than actually landing on the moon... literally. So in a way, the guy and his theory was an advocate of much more genius on the part of the space community. And what is funny is that with every question asked of him and how they could possibly pull off the hoax, the more he just didn't seem to get it that he was talking about some very serious work on the part of the community that was indeed herculean!

On the contrary, here is some secret footage of this being planned out by people with British accents for some reason.

[Noe]

On the contrary, here is some secret footage of this being planned out by people with British accents for some reason.

Nice! This was somewhat what I was thinking when I heard the interview. I had to listen because it was just weird enough to make me listen to the entire thing. It was a guy with a British accent too (Marcus Allen?) who I don't think ever heard himself really speak on this until he had to answer some questions on this by the NASA employees who asked him to explain how they did it. I love the illogical logic to pull off a hoax like this, so this comedy bit is perfect in it's questioning of the conspiracy theorist and the seemingly dumb idea that this was all a hoax.

[Noe]

Which is awesome...

...and here is Ali G asking him the conspiracy theorists' favourite question:  "Does the moon really exist?"

"My man Buzz Lightyear!"... classic!

[Lefty]

Marco Polo, Neil Armstrong.

How about Cook? Magellan?

If you wanted to be totally America-centric, replace Columbus (infinitely over-rated) with Lewis and Clark.  On the other hand, if you wanted to be totally worldly, how about those Polynesian guys sailing around the pacific in dugouts and populating a quarter of the globe?

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

How about Cook? Magellan?

If you wanted to be totally America-centric, replace Columbus (infinitely over-rated) with Lewis and Clark.  On the other hand, if you wanted to be totally worldly, how about those Polynesian guys sailing around the pacific in dugouts and populating a quarter of the globe?

I was demonstrating the regard I had towards Mr Armstrong by positioning him with other well know explorers. Feel free to create you own explorer hierarchy.