Just a 6.5? C’mon CGC that’s at least an 8.0!
2
I'm the same age as Mark Armstrong, and I, too, had to go to bed before the first steps on the moon (after 10pm Eastern time, if I recall correctly) -- except my parents *didn't* wake me up for the moon walk! I still can't believe it -- the most remarkable event of my lifetime, and I slept through it.
42
Most of all, sounds like a great dad.... :)
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I wonder what Diner’s Club has to say about their rejection of Mr. Armstrong’s application?
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Reaching the moon was America's last great accomplishment. Nothing since then can equal it. Armstrong and the other astronauts risked their lives. They made history. Only a dozen human beings have walked on the moon. All are American.
54
I was 17 when I watched the landing. I was in a Cleveland suburb at the home of my Sicilian grandparents who lived next door to us. As remarkable and exciting as it was for me, I now think about what it must have been like for my grandparents, who were barely teenagers when they left Sicily in 1916 and 1921. What was it like for them to go from travel on foot and donkey carts and steam ships to seeing people fly to the moon?
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Thanks for this reminder. Neil Armstrong a prominent American man who exuded intelligence, humility, integrity, wisdom, judgment, substance and values. It is indeed doable, and all at the same time.
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"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go the moon not because it's easy but because it's hard. That it takes the very best of our efforts and we intend to win."-President JFK' speech to Congress and the public at Rice University in 1962
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I was working at a Boys Camp in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The whole camp watched the lunar landing on a giant screen in the dining hall. It was truly amazing to see humans on the moon. FOr one who watched the first launch of an American astronaut, it was so wonderful for me that I almost cried.
37
Watched that in a motel in Wyoming. My mother yelled at us to come in from play to watch it. I remember it to this day.
49
I remember the moon landing, my mother drove me into town from camp so we could see it.
But I never knew parts of the original Wright brothers' airplane went to the moon and came back. Thank you, Neil Armstrong, you were truly a great American. And thank you, NY Times, for your excellent coverage.
102
After two days of rage focused on the men in charge of our government who cravenly push their agenda and show not a spark of decency, reading about Neil Armstrong gave me a sense of peace.
There are good and heroic men in America, and he was one of them.
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When the tragic disasters of America's space program are recounted, often left out was the disaster that wasn't thanks to Neil Armstrong: Gemini 8.
Armstrong's partner on that flight, Dave Scott, says unequivocally he was still alive because of NA's coolness under pressure and skill as a pilot in determining why the capsule was spinning out of control. The fear was the astronauts would black out and die in space.
NA determined the problem, stopped it, and prepared for an emergency re-entry.
Legend has it that it was NA's coolness under adversity that weighed heavily in his favor to be the first person to make a rocket controlled descent onto a foreign world.
That landing on the moon was still the greatest single moment in all of human endeavor.
170
A true hero for the world. So modest - one of the true greats of all time. Up there with Washington, Lincoln etc...
81
As a 12 year-old boy I built the NASA models, read science news & texts, and recall exactly where I was when Armstrong landed his craft. At the time be it NASA, our superhighways, nuclear future, giant ships, or military weapons, kids (especially boys) were fed a steady diet of futurist propaganda in "The Weekly Reader" or other public school distributed publications, to keep them fully invested in the Cold War mindset. Everyone was going to fly to work, nuclear power would be trouble free and too cheap to meter. I never stopped reading science and can today explain for you what we know about quantum gravity or how macroscopic objects behave according to uncertainty. I can't justify our trip to the moon.
I now understand what a humongous waste of national effort was the foolish and useless moon landing. It was a military make work project for missile research wrapped in a flag. What is extremely dismaying is how so many American ooh & ahh at the same rehashed Pentagon boondoggle in a new guise: going to Mars.
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@CK Apollo had nothing to do with missile research, since missile technology had by then taken a different turn. If anything, technology developed first for missiles was applied to Apollo and other space projects (e.g. integrated circuits). Don't forget that while competition with the Soviet Union was perhaps the principal motivation in the 1950's and 60's, by 1971 then-Colonel Thomas Stafford was a pallbearer on Red Square for the funeral of the three Soyuz 11 cosmonauts, and collaboration increased from then on, eventually leading to the effective union of the manned spaceflight programs of the two superpowers. The handshake of Generals Stafford and Leonov on Apollo-Soyuz was the first physical manifestation in space of the international cooperation which arose out of the moon program you so decry, and is seen every day aboard the International Space Station.
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I'm still hoping for the Jetpack. It would have been very handy in tonight's commute.
15
I have one word to prove you wrong, sir:
Tang.
And of course, you can’t defend or criticize the space program by any scientific accomplishment as significant as Tang or any lack of scientific discovery. That wasn’t the mission.
Americans were united in a singular goal to beat the Soviet Union to the moon. The western world was behind us and cheered with us. The space program was a source of pride for us all. I remember my father taking a picture with his 35mm camera of the moon landing on our black and white TV. He wanted to remember.
I wish we had something like the space program for our country to rally around now. It was money well spent in my opinion. Though we learned much by space travel, that was only a byproduct of the greatest exploration in the history of the world.
51
“That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”
― Neil Armstrong
Giant leaps to the moon have never interested me.
No libraries, no restaurants, no theaters, no movies, no cathedrals, no women -- up there.
I like it here on terra firma.
10
@A. Stanton
Without those giant leaps to the moon, there would be nothing in those libraries, theaters, and movies.
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Alex Jones says the moon landing was fake news. Hoping they’ll auction his stuff off next.
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@itsmildeyes A garage sale would be more appropriate.
48
I have a better idea — put him in a missile and blast him off into space.
Let the aliens figure him out!
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I am an immigrant and a naturalized US citizen and reading this made me so proud of our country! Not solely for the enormity of our nation's accomplishment in putting men on the moon and returning them safely home (fulfilling President Kennedy's promise). Perhaps an even more American trait was how Armstrong talked to his sons after the mission. Asking about their school work, their household chores and how they were helping their mom. No bragging about himself or what he had accomplished. I can't help contrast that with some of today's "leaders" and celebrities. How American he was! How decent!
187
I am an Ohioan born on July 20 (many years ago). So one can guess who my personal heroes are.
31
Brings back wonderful memories of most of my Cub Scout troop in our basement, side by side on worn-in couches, glued to a 19" black and white TV, with my parents shuttling popcorn and bug juice downstairs hourly. The complexity was lost on us as kids - "It's the Moonwalk Show". Some of the troop went into computers and electrical engineering later on, inspired by the mission.
Just a Dad to his children, but certainly a hero to all of us.
71
Armstrong's alma mater, Purdue University (aka the "Cradle of Astronauts" w/first and last men on moon and many others in space), houses his official papers. Before he died he was on campus to dedicate the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, with then school president and first female chief scientist for NASA. Outside the building are cement footprints of his space walk and inside are other space-related exhibits marking the school's incredible space legacy. The statue of young student shows him sitting and gazing at the moon. Just outside the building, it has quickly become a photo-op must for students and visitors alike. This year Purdue turns 150 years and is using "Giant Leaps" to mark the occasion given the dual anniversary of moon landing and many milestones from Purdue graduates and faculty.
60
This is a humbling reminder of what it means to be The Dad. I wouldn’t trade a minute of that joy.
53
As a historian and archivist I’m always saddened to see a complete and rich collection of a great American sold off in pieces.
49
I understand the sale of many of the objects in this auction. But shouldn't the piece of fabric from the Smithsonian should go back to the Smithsonian? It is a unique piece of the institution's history.
81
Neil Armstrong was my hero and is my hero and always will be my hero. I am 60 years old, but I will remember being and 11 year old boy and thinking that there would never be as great a man and as humble a man as Neil Armstrong. I was right.
70
Your father was also a class act; brave, cool under fire, and humble.
88
Armstrong was once of a kind. The way he handled the chaos just before the Apollo 11 landing is the stuff of legend.
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@Plennie Wingo - There was no chaos just before the landing, it was simply a bit tight. Any trained military test pilot would have handled it just as well. FYI They don't find "once (sp) of a kind" people to do these sorts of things, they find very predictable people who never do anything out of the ordinary.
12
@CK
I’ll readily admit I may be predictable and never do anything out of the ordinary, but I do tend to be predicable and non-extraordinary right here on earth. In short, kudos to all you “flyboys,” and to those especially who touch the cosmos.
10
@CK Thats what Neil actually said.
6