Neil Armstrong died today at age 82.
We forget sometimes that the whole success of the first moon landing depended on Armstrong's skilled and courageous piloting. The landing could have ended in disaster. Armstrong landed the craft successfully with only seconds worth of fuel left.
Thanks for one of the best and most exciting moments in my life and in the lives of millions of others. Thanks for being so brave and for pushing out so far the limits of what is possible. Thanks for Everything. Rest in Peace.
My childhood revolved around NASA and the Space Program. I was 8 when the moon landing took place. I always said I wanted to be an astronaut but ended up and elementary school teachers. Close enough, LOL.
ReplyDeleteMay Neil Armstrong rest in peace and rise in glory and may light perpetual shine upon him.
I was 11 when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. I watched the CBS News coverage of the landing. For once, admitting that this is living memory instead of history makes me feel not old, but privileged.
ReplyDeleteFly on, brave flyboy!
ReplyDelete[I, too, wanted to be an astronaut. At the time of Apollo, I even adopted the goal of "America's First Female...". Even if I HAD kept that ambition, Sally Ride---speaking of heroes!---would have easily had me beat when I was 21]
FWIW, I didn't see Apollo 11, but I heard it. My family was camping at the time, and my parents got me up to listen to the broadcast on the transistor radio, owned by someone at a neighboring campsite. Imagine: people gathered around a campfire---the OLDEST form of human civilization---listening to humans broadcasting from the Moon. I sometimes think that even a thousand years from now---should humanity last that long!---historians will look at the scant ***66 years*** between the Wright Brothers and Apollo 11, and think that humans of the 20th century were some kind of Supermen (then they'll look at Auschwitz and Hiroshima, and properly curse us).
I remembering watching the landing so well. Like all the other stellar (and some not so stellar) moments that we watched it stuck in my memory. (and it makes me feel old too!)
ReplyDeleteThanks Doug, for the reminder of the man and the gifts he gave us as a nation.