Vale Neil Armstrong.

[Curly3]

Watching him step off that ladder is one thing most of us old codgers have in common.
We were watching it on a little B&W tele at school, 4th class at Clemton Park Syd.
Remember the cardboard fold together Apollo 11's.
A sad loss.

[mustanggrahame]

Yep. He seemed a very humble man. Maybe standing on the moon and looking back at Earth made him a bit that way. Me, I'd use it as conversation starter with chicks to get laid for the rest of my life.
Cheers, Grahame

[TT5 Matt]

i was repeating 2nd grade then when all the kids at our school were sent home to watch neil walk on the moon,teachers told us that even if there was no tv in your house to go around to niebours/friends houses to watch it.its something ill never forget.RIP Neil

[AdamN]

When you think that he was the first known person from the human race to set foot on another planet, I don't think that anyone could do anything that could ever better that IMO. RIP.

Adam

[cappra]

Neil Armstrong never took any gifts that people or companies wanted to give him after his moon mission.
Montesa wanted to present him with a new bike and he respectfully refused. A class act to the end.

[JAP 454]

It's a moment in my life I will never forget, watching the landing at EA's Dads place with EA and Billy Watson and watched most of the rest of the mission, live, at the PMG theatre, as OTC was handling Comms here in OZ and I worked for the PMG at the time.
As Grahame said, looking back at our planet from up there would  have a humbling effect.

A great man, not just for what he did but for who he was. RIP



Pic from Fotohound

Foss

[maico police]

Me, I'd use it as conversation starter with chicks to get laid for the rest of my life.

Yup. I would've milked it for all it was worth......

[GMC]

I too was one of the privileged to have watched Neil on the small B & W TV in the staff room at Yarrambat Primary.
I was interested in what was happening but like any school kid it was good to get out of class to watch TV.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was in a history class...
learning history as it was being made.

I would have milked it too, which goes to show that NASA chose wisely their man to represent Earth for this landmark occasion.

[firko]

On that great day I was at working as a final year boilermaking apprentice at the Eveleigh Railway Workshops. The management saw the significance of the moment and called for a 'down tools' so we could all watch the moon landing on TV in the canteen. After going back to work, my first job was to help make a concrete plynth to relocate a lathe in the workshop. After the concrete was poured we couldn't help but record the moon landing in the wet cement and we all signed it, knowing that a lathe would soon be sitting on top, the graffiti never to be seen by management.

Cut to 2012 and the Eveleigh workshops are now market, performance and office space in what is now a trendy part of town. The architects who redeveloped the workshops have endeavoured to maintain as much of the original historical patina of the buildings as possible and I've been told by a number people that our concrete plynth recording the moon landing is still there on the floor of what has become a graphic design firm. Apparently there was a small piece in the Sydney Morning Herald describing the plynth and what was written on it when the workshops were being converted to their current use 10 or so years ago but I missed it. I've often wanted to try and find it myself but for various reasons never got around to it. If it is still there I'm stoked that our little contribution to that magic day has now become some sort of 'historical graffiti' in itself.

*This morning I watched a small portion of Neil Armstrong's final interview, done by an amateur Australian last year in Ohio. In the interview Armstrong came across as a warm, humble and truly nice bloke who had decided early on that being a celebrity wasn't his scene. While being proud of his achievements he spoke of the moon landing as a team effort involving hundreds of people of which he was only one of the team. He said that if any one of those team members got it wrong the mission would have failed so for that reason he felt uncomfortable doing interviews as the 'hero'.  Whether he liked the accolades or not, Neil Armstrong was a genuine legend who will be an important part of history for centuries to come.

[Canam370]

I hope that the day never arrives that the conspiracy theorists have the day with the later generations being unable to believe the landing happened because there will be no Neil or Buzz left to show it did. Vale to the generation of doers.

[Bitten]

I was a little too young at the time to know what was going on but over the years have come to the opinion that this  historical event was probably the pinnacle of mans achievements.

To achieve what they did with the prevailing technology of the day was simply astonishing, our mobile phones of today have 10x more computer oomph than they had! I can't think of anything that can compare??

As Armstrong has said he was just at the pointy end of a huge team effort....... but what an effort, what an adventure!

RIP

[IT400C]

I remember watching the launch on TV - I was 5 years old, and recovering from having my tonsils out...  Funny though, I don't remember watching the moon walk..

I have some NASA slides at home of the moon walk.  A close friend of my Grandfather's worked at NASA, and sent him a set of the slides that NASA gave everyone that worked on the Apollo 11 flight.

I'll have to pull them out and scan them tonight...

And send a wink to Neil Armstrong too...

[IT400C]

Neil Armstrong’s family said, “While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves.

“For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request: Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”

[Canam370]

....and consider that the shuttles ran on the chips that powered the Commodore 64 play console. But apparently these days its all too hard.

[vmx42]

While being proud of his achievements he spoke of the moon landing as a team effort involving hundreds of people of which he was only one of the team. He said that if any one of those team members got it wrong the mission would have failed so for that reason he felt uncomfortable doing interviews as the 'hero'.  Whether he liked the accolades or not, Neil Armstrong was a genuine legend who will be an important part of history for centuries to come.

That kind of behaviour would never be acceptable today...

America will only return to greatness when they can put Kim Kardashian on the moon. And they will only regain the respect of the world if they leave her there...

....and consider that the shuttles ran on the chips that powered the Commodore 64 play console. But apparently these days its all too hard.

I don't think it is too hard, but it is too expensive. But if they had been smart enough to elect Newt Gingrich he promised to build a base on the moon during his first term in office... now that would have been fun to watch...




RIP Neil, you [and your kind] will be sorely missed!!! A humble hero...