Neil Armstrong on the Moon
Earth seen from the Moon – Neil Armstrong RIP
One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. — Neil Armstrong
There can be no great accomplishment without risk. — Neil Armstrong
We thought he was going to show us the moon. In reality he let us see earth properly for the first time. RIP Neil Armstrong. — Pandora Stevens
These famous words were spoken by Neil Armstrong from the surface of the Moon, the first astronaut to set foot on the moon.
I recall watching this live and can remember it as though yesterday.
Until the Americans set foot on the surface of the Moon and beat the Soviets in the Space Race, the Russians were the first to put a man in space, the Moon was something you read about in the novels of Jules Verne, Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein.
Neil Armstrong was commander of Apollo 11. He took manual control of the Eagle, flew over an area strewn with boulders, with only seconds of fuel left, he found a safe place to land and announced to the world: Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.
He and fellow astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on the moon, collecting samples, conducting experiments and taking photographs.
The Chairman of the Board Frank Sinatra sang about flying to the moon but Neil Armstrong did it twice.
Long before Michael Jackson was moonwalking through the years, Neil Armstrong was doing it on the Moon.
Long before Pink Floyd discovered the Dark Side of the Moon Neil Armstrong was on the light side.
The Moon landing took place on 20 July 1969.
No other act of human exploration ever laid a plaque saying “We Come In Peace For All Mankind”.
Born in 1930 and raised in Ohio, Neil Armstrong took his first flight aged six with his father and formed a lifelong passion for flying.
He flew Navy fighter jets during the Korean War in the 1950s, and joined the US space programme in 1962.
Apollo 11 was to be his last space mission. In 1971, he left the US space agency Nasa to teach aerospace engineering.
I was one of those privileged to handle one of the rocks brought back from the Moon, and was later to work on the design of an experiment on a satellite that measured CO2 in the atmosphere and led to our knowledge of global warming.
I learnt tonight of the sad news of the death of Neil Armstrong (1930-2012).
Special thanks to Bianca Jagger for videos of David Bowie and Michael Jackson.
Yuri Gagarin, was the first man in space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961. He died some years ago in a fatal accident.
Sputnik was the first orbiting satellite.
On a clear night, look up at the Moon, think of Neil Armstrong and give it a wink.
Top Story in EARTH recommended (Monday 27 August 2012).
Keithpp's Blog 