Comments on: Neil Armstrong, 1930-2012: One Giant Loss for Mankind

By: timbray

timbray — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:17:00 +0000

RIP Neil Armstrong
The events you experience as a child continue to resonate throughout your life. Here’s a picture I drew at Tamaki Primary School, Panmure, Auckland, New Zealand aged 5, on 21 July 1969.

I wrote “Today a spaceman landed on the moon.” My Mum saved it, and gave it to me, framed, for my 30th birthday. Bless her.

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 18:29:00 +0000

Like a lot of urban legends, if it ain’t true, it oughta be.

By: headbone

headbone — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 01:14:00 +0000

http://www.vangloria.net/pureimagination/pi.xml
On a very much less serious note.

By: Greg Van Antwerp

Greg Van Antwerp — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 21:04:00 +0000

We could use more people like Neil. He was a hero to us growing up in America and would be a welcome sight today. I hope he has again reached his “Tranquility Base.”

I will share this post about my Apollo 11 discovery – take a look.
http://videomartyr.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-read-news-todayoh-boy.html

By: thequickbrownfox

thequickbrownfox — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 19:30:00 +0000

We were sent home from school so we could watch the moon landing on TV.

TV suddenly became “video”.

By: Jon Winchester

Jon Winchester — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 17:07:00 +0000

Hope he will never be stripped of his title.

By: pickledbeatnik

pickledbeatnik — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 15:37:00 +0000

I honestly thought this man, and all the other astronauts who made history that decade, were immortal. I was in massive disbelief when I heard the news. But the fact is that our memories and their incredible feats did make them immortal. None of us will forget, ever. In a thousand years they will still be legends, and no one will have to add any flourishes to their story. RIP, Neil.

By: Cthulhu0818

Cthulhu0818 — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 14:41:00 +0000

Godspeed Mr. Armstrong. You represented what was best in us all.

I cannot help but think that perhaps Neil spent his later years disappointed in us as a people and a culture. He and his pals achieved SO very much ,with so very little, by todays standards, and today we couldn’t return to the Moon if we wanted to. (We literally cannot. The Saturn V lifters are obsolete and cannot be re created with modern tech, believe it or not.)

We had so many opportunities, So much potential. We led the world in science, engineering and math, and now we have….nothing.

Goodby Neil, we’re sorry we let you down.

By: rasterops

rasterops — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:30:00 +0000

What a list of achievements! Flying over 200 different models of aircraft, including jets, rockets, helicopters and gliders is unreal let alone the rest.

By: CH

CH — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 07:57:00 +0000

Yes, it’s funny… but, as you stated, an urban legend. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/mrgorsky.asp

By: ocker3

ocker3 — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 06:53:00 +0000

It somehow feels inappropriate to repost that video of the moon landing with the profanity-filled narration, but I’m going to go watch it myself.

By: Tribune

Tribune — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 06:34:00 +0000

He will be missed and his impact on us will continue.

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 06:09:00 +0000

In related news, the global index of intestinal fortitude dropped a notch or two today. He had nerves of steel, that one.

By: headcode

headcode — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 05:22:00 +0000

If you want to be even sadder watch this interview from 1970 where he predicts research bases on the moon. That is at the 6:10 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtdcdxvNI1o&list=FLKnSIcVRgL9Ea8K_bErh3yA&feature=mh_lolz

By: benher

benher — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 03:43:00 +0000

Thanks for all the inspiration. Humanity requires it.
Look forward to the near-zero-gravity ribbon-cutting ceremony for the future moon-based Armstrong memorial.

By: vonbobo

vonbobo — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 02:31:00 +0000

Air and Space museums are my favorite places in the world. My mind is boggled when standing next to the rockets and capsules. I stare into those tiny capsules and think about every phase of the mission, how daring it all is, and I can’t believe a braver man exists. Calling these guys my childhood heros would be an understatement.

Think I will watch The Right Stuff tonight!

By: Ian Wood

Ian Wood — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 02:24:00 +0000

…the image of him stepping down the ladder has been an iconic image my whole life.

Especially the part about killing The Silence on sight.

By: Neil Fox

Neil Fox — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 02:17:00 +0000

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

By: Bodhipaksa

Bodhipaksa — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 01:27:00 +0000

Just realized you probably meant “the first projected death” should have been this year. Yeah, that is creepy. And we can expect another five deaths by 2020.

By: Mister44

Mister44 — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 01:23:00 +0000

Like others said – a true hero who inspired generations of people. He will be missed.. Godspeed.

In order to lighten the mood here is one of my favorite urban legends/jokes about Armstrong:

At one point during his famous walk on the moon, Neil casually said, “Good luck, Mr Kilwoski.” It was an off the cuff moment and no one knew at the time who he was talking about. Some thought it was a rival Cosmonaut or Russian scientist. When asked who Mr. Kilwoski was, he only replied, “A friend.” and left it at that.

It wasn’t until much later that he was asked again who Mr. Kilwoski was. Neil said that since he was probably dead now, he may as well share the story. When he was younger the Kilwoskis were he neighbors. One day he hit a ball into their yard and went to retrieve it. He ended up under their bed room window where he could hear them arguing. Mrs. Kilwoski was yelling, “Oral sex? You want oral sex? I’ll give you oral sex when the neighbor boy walks on the moon!”

By: Bodhipaksa

Bodhipaksa — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 01:18:00 +0000

The table shows the first death having taken place in 1991, as it did when Irwin died of a heart attack.

By: Tom Dougherty

Tom Dougherty — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 00:31:00 +0000

Robcat is correct. The computer alarms were executive overflow; the computer was being asked to do too many tasks at once. It was up to Aldrin to respond to that problem, and he and a young Steve Bales on the ground did just that. The Landing Point Designator indicated that Eagle was going to fly into a crater. Armstrong took over to fly it past the crater manually.

By: BonzoDog1

BonzoDog1 — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 00:09:00 +0000

I was pumping gas that day, alone, in my first “real” job. Missed the touchdown and finally convinced the owner of the station on the phone to shut down and I rushed home.
There was no one on the roads. Absolutely zero traffic.
Got there just in time for his first footstep.
I’d say it a sign of our time that the day a great human was leaving this earth (again) Snooki was giving birth.

By: mike shupp

mike shupp — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 23:59:00 +0000

And now, friends, let’s have another big tax cut. And chop another ten per cent or so off the NASA budget. And decide we can’t afford to send humans beyond low earth orbit for another decade or so. Or maybe ever.

And then we can bury Neil Armstrong and swear we’ll remember him forever.

By: MrScience

MrScience — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 23:23:00 +0000

Wow, my birthday was going so well (except for the bit of having to work on a Saturday, but then I love my job)… What sad, sad news to hear. :(

By: robcat2075

robcat2075 — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 23:11:00 +0000

No, the camera was his assigned role. They thoroughly rehearsed every elaborate timeline detail of that flight. Who would carry the camera was not something decided when they got there.

Nor did he carelessly fly it into “dangerous terrain”. Your 1202 story is an absurd concoction. The 1202 error was noted and managed by Aldrin during the descent.

Armstrong took control of the flight of the LM from the automatic system to fly it OUT of danger.

By: korthmat

korthmat — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 22:43:00 +0000

I’m currently watching “Moon Shot” with the kids… so that they understand exactly why, as someone said earlier, Neil Armstrong *was* a “Real American Hero”.

RIP, Neil. What you did was one of the few things that happened before my birth that makes me wish I’d been born earlier.

By: Anahata

Anahata — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 22:31:00 +0000

RIP, Neil.

Xeni, as long as we’re acknowledging Buzz Aldrin, let’s also tip our hats to the third man, Michael Collins, who gamely kept the motor warm while the other two got to play around on the Moon.

By: airshowfan

airshowfan — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 22:23:00 +0000

http://vimeo.com/31798980

;]

On a more serious note,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF-eRBZLLwU

By: wortfeld

wortfeld — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 22:07:00 +0000

Amazingly, one of the few long Neil Armstrong interviews where he talks about Apollo 11 can be found on the website of the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants:
http://thebottomline.cpaaustralia.com.au/