Neil Options

[Guest_Oersted_*]

The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal and Flight Journal are amazing web resources, I have spent many many hours there, re-living the missions that I was too young to recall when they happened.

[jmknapp]

Anybody been to the Neil Armstrong Museum in Wapakoneta? Here are a few photos I took back in 2008:

High school yearbook ("He thinks, he acts, 'tis done.")



Flying pin:



Love the local boy flavor of this headline:



Amazing how he remained out of the public eye so much after that. One remarkable and uncharacteristic appearance was during the 1980s when he hosted a PBS series on Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle. He introduced each episode in his typical flat manner. Not his strong suit, but it demonstrated his commitment to science and scientific discovery, I think.

[Guest_Oersted_*]

He actually hosted quite a few series, I believe. I remember one on aviation... There was also a quite hilarious speech at a German tv award show, 'tv program of the century'...

Thanks for those pictures of his hometown museum!

[PDP8E]

Tonight, I looked at the moon for a little while through my binoculars. As I started my way back home, I remembered, and then turned around... and winked.

For the last few minutes I had been transported back to a warm and humid summer night in 1969. A wide-eyed sixteen year old kid had just witnessed the Eagle land safely around 4:30 east-coast USA time. By 8:30, I and the rest of the world were nervous and elated about the moonwalk that was about to unfold in two hours . My father gathered up my brothers and I (mainly to give Mom a break think) and then he led us to the top of the street to get a clear and unobstructed view of the western sky. And there at dusk, we looked at the moon thru Dad's old binoculars. The moon was flying between the clouds and it was just a little bigger than a crescent. But right at that moment, it had two men about to step out of a spaceship and walk upon the surface, and there was yet another man orbiting it! We strained and strained to see them! I saw the moon that night for the very first time as a destination, not just the moon of yore wandering in the sky.

Neil, thanks for all the inspiration you, your crew, the people of NASA, the universities, and industry gave to me and all the countless others on that night. The memory of that long ago moon hanging in those binoculars has lingered with me ever since. That wonderful day was the -- spark -- the trigger -- the fuse -- that has lead me try to capture the meaning and significance of that event into my every day life.

Today, this engineer, this pilot ,this father, this arm-chair adventurer to Mars, and especially the sixteen year old kid who still lives inside me... are all proud to say you were and still are... my hero.

Thank you.

[CosmicRocker]

... we are clouded out here in Toulouse

My eyes are apparently clouded, too.

... I saw the moon that night for the very first time as a destination...

Me too, PDP, me too. I think he'd want us to keep our eyes pointed upward.

[belleraphon1]

Neil Armstrong....

I shook his hand in 73. He was then teaching Aeronautical Engineering in Cincinnati. My best friend from HS had him as an instructor. I went down to Cincinnati to visit my friend. He had to get some kind of paper signed by his teacher (Neil!!!). Asked if I could tag along…. Dr. Armstrong signed the paper. I put my hand out and he shook it. He had that wonderful wry smile on his face. He knew why I was there. Did not say a word to him except thank you.

Private man.

My Grandsons start 1st grade today…. I hope when they are my age (with fond memories of their Grandpa) that they live in a cislunar civilization. Neil was one of first forays that perhaps happended too early to sustain.


Thank you Dr. Armstrong.

Craig

[climber]

My father was born in 1929, the year before Neil and he was 100% Italian. He died 4 years ago.
A few years ago, I ran into a picture from Neil visiting Space mountains and I couldn't believe my eyes! On this very picture, I though it was my father and so thought members of my family.


So, from this time on, Neil became even more special to me and his passing is hurting even more.

[MahFL]

I just winked at the Blue Moon, and remembered Neil Armstrong.