speaking of things that are hard to do…
Neil Armstrong has been immortalized in human history as the first human to set foot on a celestial body beyond Earth. “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” he radioed back to Earth from the moon on July 20, 1969.
Neil Armstrong’s death at the age of 82 marks the passing of a “reluctant American hero,” as well as the dimming of the Space Age’s brightest moment.
“High Flight”
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air….Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.–John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
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13 Comments!
And right on cue, NBC announced that NEIL YOUNG has died!!!!!! Mfcs TARDS———– Daily Show will have a blast with this……….
Neil Armstrong, predeced in death by the U. S. Space Program, passed away on Saturday…
Met him and shook his hand in 1973. A real class act.
An American’s American.
Not many mortals achieve immortality.
I was a young teen when I watched the moon landing on TV with my family. Like most Americans at the time, I thought it was a really fantastic feat. There were, however, others like Nicholas von Hoffman of the “New York Times” who disparaged the space program as a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money that could have been better spent on “human needs” (i.e., the the government-funded dependency culture). So now, NASA is just another government bureaucracy (albeit poorly-funded) and we have college grads who can’t balance their own checkbooks, much less understand how to solve quadratic equations or to explain Ohm’s Law. I think that there still are guys like Neil Armstrong out there; they’re just not to be found working for “the Government”.
What amazes me and what I said at the time was some day they’ll wonder how they did it with what they had at the time compared to what they have now. People like Nicholas von Hoffman are getting their way all too easily.
Yet another whose memory we must honor by voting to change the direction of our government come November.
thunderbottom (5)
You’ve gotta remember that Apollo was, at it’s foundation, a national-security program. It’s motivation was the Soviet threat. Early satellite technology was based on ballistic-missile technology and was aimed at developing national-security missions (not overtly, of course). Science was a convenient “cover” for ICBM/satellite-booster development. Only later did commercial and truly scientific missions get a foothold. Exploration came later, as the technology became practical. The manned space program was built to compete with the USSR for World opinion and prestige (especially in the third world and undeveloped world as a counter to Soviet expansionism). The science/exploration/man’s-destiny themes eventually became the sales pitch to justify the permanent NASA mega-budget. Movie/TV fiction went a long way, here.
Very few people know how fragile the Lunar lander was at the time. The fuselage was basically Reynold`s Aluminium Foil! When it touched down on the moon`s surface the lander had only seconds of fuel remaining!
Compare and contrast that event with the latest landing on the planet Mars of an SUV sized vehicle. America is great and decades ahead of all other nations on earth!
Nothing against Neil, he was the best. But Buzz Aldrin is my favorite of the two because he punched-out some idiot who confronted him in a hotel lobby, loudly proclaiming that the moon landing was all fake.
Decked him on the spot. God Bless America.
Hate to lose another American icon and hero. He represents an adventuresome America first era we are too rapidly removing ourselves from.
Very very sad and extremely frustrating that shitstain obama happily announced that NASA’s new mission is muslim outreach. I wish by that he meant multi nuclear warhead ballistic missles being launched toward all the sharia ruled cesspools.
Even the President said goodbye, in his usual style.
It’s a sure sign of time’s passing, when the first man to stand on the Moon (43 years ago!!!) has died of old age.
Armstrong trivia: “… flew 78 combat missions during the Korean War.”
Hog (#10): ” Buzz Aldrin is my favorite”.
I wrote about that at the time:
Aldrin Biffs Bozo
“… one Mr Bart Sibrel, accosted him and asked him to swear on a Bible that he really did walk on the Moon.
… Sibrel also told Aldrin that he was a thief
. . .
After considering Mr Sibrel’s request, Aldrin gave Sibrel a good right hook.”
(Some sources say “left jab”.)
Oddly, most of the links still work. One of the best is the Hare Krishna site:
Colossal Hoax
“The Vedic account of our planetary system is already researched, concluded, and perfect. The Vedas state that the moon is 800,000 miles farther from the earth than the sun. …. even if we accept the modern calculation of 93 million miles as the distance from the earth to the sun, how could the “astronauts” have traveled to the moon – a distance of almost 94 million miles – in only 91 hours …”
. . .
“… no one can transfer from one planet to another without becoming properly qualified. ”
Well, there you have it.