Neil Armstrong
#1
08-26-2012, 10:11 AM
Neil Armstrong
An American hero with ***** of steel has passed away. Its a shame that Armstrong was such a private man, and was never a public figure. None the less, he was the first of only 12 men to land on the moon. Post your memories.
On an especially hot night of 7/20/1969, we sat outside on the porch like always, because it was too hot to sit in the house (no AC) and watched on a black and white tv - american astronauts, Armstrong and Aldrin, walk on the moon.
My grandfather, born in 1900 and age 69 at the time, said it was all fake, and he never accepted the concept that anyone could go into space, much less travel to the moon.
a guy I know now was on the USS Hornet at the time, and they performed the pickup in the Pacific.
a collection of great pictures here.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/galle.../g3dw/#2456956
a few selected pictures
On an especially hot night of 7/20/1969, we sat outside on the porch like always, because it was too hot to sit in the house (no AC) and watched on a black and white tv - american astronauts, Armstrong and Aldrin, walk on the moon.
My grandfather, born in 1900 and age 69 at the time, said it was all fake, and he never accepted the concept that anyone could go into space, much less travel to the moon.
a guy I know now was on the USS Hornet at the time, and they performed the pickup in the Pacific.
a collection of great pictures here.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/galle.../g3dw/#2456956
a few selected pictures
#2
08-26-2012, 10:35 AM
Captain
#3
08-26-2012, 11:38 AM
this is exactly what the world saw and heard live on TV that day. I think the landing was late in the afternoon and the moonwalk was late that night.
Note the simulated views of the landing craft as if from the moon's surface.
Also note the timing problem, where the actual flight went about 60 seconds longer than anticipated, and the simulation view was already on the ground.
As told by Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, with astronaut Wally Schirra at his side. The tears at the end are real.
without a lot of searching for the best, here's an after-the-fact editing of the video and the audio of the landing. You can recognize the voice of flight controller Gene Kranz barking orders.
for those not familiar with the drama and uncertainty of the landing, they overshot the original landing site by a few seconds and were headed into an area that Armstrong determined to be unsuitable due to craters and rocks. Without missing a beat, he flew on to a perfect landing at a better spot. As additional drama, the the words "1201" and "1202" were alarm codes from the navigation computer, indicating data overload and that it was no longer working and had to be reset. And finally, the words "60 seconds" and "30 seconds" were the amount of remaining fuel. At 60 seconds, they were still at 75 feet, still off the ground at 30 seconds, and landed with only 26 seconds of fuel left. listen to the volume of information that's spoken in the last 2-3 minutes, the importance of it, and think about how many irreversible decisions were made within a few seconds and nobody ever hesitated or stumbled. very impressive.
stories and pictures, here.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...nding/toc.html
Note the simulated views of the landing craft as if from the moon's surface.
Also note the timing problem, where the actual flight went about 60 seconds longer than anticipated, and the simulation view was already on the ground.
As told by Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, with astronaut Wally Schirra at his side. The tears at the end are real.
without a lot of searching for the best, here's an after-the-fact editing of the video and the audio of the landing. You can recognize the voice of flight controller Gene Kranz barking orders.
for those not familiar with the drama and uncertainty of the landing, they overshot the original landing site by a few seconds and were headed into an area that Armstrong determined to be unsuitable due to craters and rocks. Without missing a beat, he flew on to a perfect landing at a better spot. As additional drama, the the words "1201" and "1202" were alarm codes from the navigation computer, indicating data overload and that it was no longer working and had to be reset. And finally, the words "60 seconds" and "30 seconds" were the amount of remaining fuel. At 60 seconds, they were still at 75 feet, still off the ground at 30 seconds, and landed with only 26 seconds of fuel left. listen to the volume of information that's spoken in the last 2-3 minutes, the importance of it, and think about how many irreversible decisions were made within a few seconds and nobody ever hesitated or stumbled. very impressive.
stories and pictures, here.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...nding/toc.html
Last edited by dhvaughan; 08-26-2012 at 11:42 AM.
#4
08-26-2012, 11:54 AM
#5
08-26-2012, 12:30 PM
#7
08-26-2012, 06:12 PM
I remember that day very well. I was 14 years old at that time. I had developed a habit of watching the race to space as a youngster from Shepards Mercury flight in 1961. It is amazing to look back at the fast pace of single piolt missions of Mercury, the two astronaut flights of Gemini, and then the Apollo series with a landing on the moon in only an 8 year span.
Armstrong was a true pioneer and hero.
Armstrong was a true pioneer and hero.
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#8
08-27-2012, 12:41 PM
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