R.I.P. Neil Armstrong

[f6fhellcat13]

On Saturday, Neil Armstrong passed away at 82 years old.

I'm not really big into hero worship; there are very few musicians, drivers, politicians, celebrities etc... whom I would want to meet, much less idolize, but Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, and all the others who set foot and flag on another world are among them.

Fortunately, eight of the twelve who've walked on the moon are still alive, but probably not for much longer.

I wasn't going to post this here but I found a slightly car-related obit on Joe Saward's blog. The importance of Neil Armstrong in F1 (http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/the-importance-of-neil-armstrong-in-f1/)

[NSXType-R]

We need more people like Neil Armstrong. People idolize sports and movie stars, but other than make a lot of money doing something relatively comfortable, what sort of contributions have they really made?

And yet people really do track celebrities nearly 24 hours a day on social media.

People like Neil Armstrong are the few that really do deserve the praise and he will be missed.

Another way to look at it is from Neil deGrasse Tyson- the space program, expensive as it is, also shapes the future- the computer industry, for example, flourished because they needed to cut pounds off of spacecraft in order to save money and leave room for instruments. As a result, humanity as a whole is pushed forwards.

And in this case, he inadvertently became a role model for Ron Dennis.

On a side note- here's what Tyson had to say about the contributions of the space industry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIZU8cQWXc

If any of you are interested still, check out NPR, there's a 1 hour long interview with Tyson.

[RacingManiac]

I think of Neil Armstrong as the perfect quiet professional. Someone who let his action speaks far louder than his word. Although his words are pretty famous....

Sad day, but 82 is a pretty good life, and one that is pretty meaningful at that...

[csl177]

+1 on Neil deGrasse Tyson's memories of how it affected us, and him... heard him on NPR today. Moving stuff. He's right, we've stopped reaching.

Neil Armstrong's personal qualities and background as an aeronautics engineer and test pilot made him ideal for the space program, and particularly to command Apollo. He was a thoughtful, unflappably precise and private man that had no interest in playing a hero, so he didn't. But he WAS to a lot of us. He was genuinely humble about his skills and successes in the face of unimaginable danger, which is a rare thing anymore. Pop culture lately has made a profitable icon of Steve McQueen as the King of Cool. I say the kind of cool Neil Armstrong had beats the snot outta that.

I'll never forget watching the first moon landing with about twenty people from our neighborhood, squeezed around our color TV (even though
the images were in B&W) all marveling at how far we'd come, from Redstone to the moon in just 9 years. My dad was a jet & rocket propulsion engineer for Pratt & Whitney; my parents friends worked for Honeywell, ITT, Motorola, Grumman and Teledyne Ryan. Most kids with a dad working on related projects felt a special connection... Florida's economy was driven by the space race in the 1960s. There were tours of Cape Kennedy, and I got to watch seven launches up close during that decade, from Friendship 7 to Apollo 11... built models of the Lunar and Command modules, and an Estes replica of a Saturn 1B, launched a dozen times before it got lost. Downrange just 120 miles, we could see the trail of the launches we didn't go to from our backyards. With my first car, me and a friend drove to Merritt Island to see the final launch (Apollo XVII), which had been delayed by rain. Nothing can describe the sight and sound of a Saturn V launch... at midnight, surrounded by misty drizzle it was like something from another world. But it was us, going to one. Not a single photo I tried to take came out. Kodak Instamatics sucked.

As a national R&D program that benefitted the world with an amazing array of technology and science we now take for granted, NASA was actually a cheap investment compared to what's been thrown at the military industrial complex. It ended up costing $23 Billion... about $150 Billion today. We spent nearly $130 Billion in Viet Nam during the same decade, and have pissed away ten times that in Iraq and Afganistan.

NASA is still important, but it's been gutted. If only we had the social and political will to fund it, plus a similar program for oceanic research.

Regardless, the first man to walk on the moon will be remembered for being an important part of an effort that likely will not be repeated.

RIP, Commander Neil Armstrong

[RacingManiac]

NASA still do amazing work today despite what is now a fraction of the budget and national spotlight now....just imagine if we(as in you, Americans...lol) had given them more attention....

Sidenote, I wonder, if he is happy for the success of Curiosity. Which despite being a far cry of man landing on Mars, is still the most ambitious thing that NASA have done in a while....

[NSXType-R]

If NASA's budget is considered small, then oceanic research is an even smaller percentage of NASA's.

I honestly think Tyson has a good point- part of the reason why America is where it is now is because of the Cold War, and honestly, since its end, we've gotten complacent. We feel as if we don't need to continue to innovate.

Although Armstrong was just a small cog in the whole Cold War machine, his contribution resulted in a far bigger good.

I feel as if the influx of immigrants willing to work hard just suddenly stopped, we'd be in big trouble.

And about the Steve McQueen thing- yes he's cool, but nothing he does is real, like you said.

I mean think about this- ticker tape parades used to be used for special occasions, oh, say the lunar landings.

Now the Yankees can win the so called "baseball world series" which appears to be only played in the US and get a ticker tape parade. Frankly, winning a sports championship is mundane and pales in comparison to the contributions these men made. Boo hoo, you pulled a tendon, you won't be throwing balls as fast as you used to. And yet these athletes make millions in a year, probably far more than what these men made, which were probably just on military pay anyway. These men who went to the moon could have died any number of ways. Just take a look at Gus Grissom- he died on the launchpad.

John Glenn is another man who deserves much respect.

[jcp123]

Rest in peace, sir. I have a high reverence for physics, astronomy, and scientists in general. Mr. Armstrong was a gentleman and a scholar, and quite humble from what I hear. He is a legend like no other from what he did, and there will never be a replacement.

[Kitdy]

Rest in peace, sir. I have a high reverence for physics, astronomy, and scientists in general. Mr. Armstrong was a gentleman and a scholar, and quite humble from what I hear. He is a legend like no other from what he did, and there will never be a replacement.

Speaking of, it was nice to see Google honour a titan of physics with a doodle on his 1278th birthday yesterday: Niels Bohr.

EDIT: I was on the Toronto Islands for my friends birthday when the news broke. I was actually upset.

We went out to a club that night and I poured some (I am ashamed to admit I was drinking it) Bud on the floor in his honour in my inebriated state.