Neil Armstrong First man on the moon dies.

[Duppy Conqueror 1,494]

R.I.P a fookin superb fighter pilot,test pilot and astronaut. Eternal Legend.

as Shaun Ryder once sung with Black Grape "Neil Armstrong ,Astronaut,he had balls bigger than king kong,first big suit on the moon and he`s off to play Golf"

a great man. very humble and level headed too.. i`ve studied the whole space race for years. when i was a little boy i used to want to be an astronaut or a Cherokee Indian..there wasn`t much opportunities for such along the Goldhawk road in the late 70`s early 80`s tho...just West indian dudes and Punks and the sound of sirens was my wild west

as for Neil someone to have their name known throughout the world and yet he kept such a low profile..

i`d be lording it up like Hugh Heffner in the Playboy mansion.

[Spike 12,049]

R.I.P Mr Armstrong

He just got to the door first. It could have been Buzz Aldrin!

[Muzchap 8,966]

R.I.P Mr Armstrong

He just got the door first. It could have been Buzz Aldrin!

Nope!

There was another Buzz who was 'Lightyears' ahead of him

RIP to Armstrong - true classy guy, not many of them to ever grace the earth (or moon)...

[Jase 43,479]

A tragic loss. RIP Neil Armstrong.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

A sad day for mankind. RIP Neil

[diskoviolente 425]

What a legend. Rest in Peace. Incredible to think that just a good 40 years later humankind reached Mars.

No story goes without a tragic part. Buzz Aldrins story is the sad part in the whole moon race. He never wanted to get out first, because he was afraid of all the attention and the fame. His mother just killed herself shortly before they landed. He never really got going afterwards, suffered from alcoholism, was jobless for a long time. He is still considered as the most famous "Nr. 2".

[Duppy Conqueror 1,494]

yeah Buzz` story is quite tragic tho he seems to have turned his life around now. NASA weren`t that keen on him going first either as they saw Neil as the more level headed and steady personality which he was. i`ve always thought of Mike Collins ...drove them to the Moon and had to hang around whilst they had their fun time. although some experts at the time predicted that when they landed on the moon they would just sink into the moondust and perish.

for folks like me who find the whole space race and adventures fascinating,with the fall of the soviet union and previously classified top secret information being released into the public domain there`s so much new stuff coming out at the moment it`s taken the interest to a new level.

[Amblève. 4,995]

Heard about it on the radio the last night.

When I was younger I was really into the whole NASA stuff so Neil Armstrong was always somewhat of a legend tho I never realised what an extent setting a foot on the moon meant. First man on the moon, first man to have ever put a foot on another planet. Nowadays it sounds unbelievable to me.

R.I.P

[termninja 5,290]

It's one small step for man, but a giant leap for mankind!

R. I. P.

[Duppy Conqueror 1,494]

not to be disrespectful to one of my all time heroes. but thought i`d share this quite funny story as it`s sort of Astronaut related..

as i said earlier on the thread,i wanted to be an astronaut when i was a kid. well for Christmas one year i had an astronaut suit and a helmet(no moon boots so had to wear Spiderman slippers with it or Monkey Boots,Cowboy boots,Adidas Kick etc..)..childs size naturally,although the helmet was still quite big on me,i could drink and feed myself with it.

i loved it..used to go to the local shops for my comics and sweets in it..helmet and all. anyway. i wasn`t living with my parents but my dad used to come and visit me and my siblings..

my dad had come over to my nans and had been drinking so he decided he`d try on my space helmet and it got stuck on his head. after a while of being unable to get it off he had to go to A&E to have it removed. my nan was furious with him because they had to break the helmet to get it off but i got a new one a bit later..

[Fulham Broadway 16,846]

Classic ^

[BluesChick 1,260]

RIP to another fine Boilermaker

Armstrong was an Alum of Purdue University (my alma mater) and today they had a lovely memorial service for him.

(just a side note: The aeronautical Engineering building is named for him, and I took Chemistry in a building named for another alum and astronaut Grissom)

[Duppy Conqueror 1,494]

RIP to another fine Boilermaker

Armstrong was an Alum of Purdue University (my alma mater) and today they had a lovely memorial service for him.

(just a side note: The aeronautical Engineering building is named for him, and I took Chemistry in a building named for another alum and astronaut Grissom)

ah cool..i keep on getting my colleges mixed up between Purdue and Baylor as who the boilermakers are.. i do have a lil chuckle over some of the names teams have in college football i must admit..Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Purdue Boilermakers does kinda sound funny to the juvenile side of my mind.

ah Virgil " Gus " Grissom..one of the originals for NASA.. sad and horrific how he died along with Ed White and Roger Chaffe on Apollo 1. another decorated pilot in the air force too.

i love the Movie The Right Stuff.

[Ankit 3,176]

I was born 10 years later to the time this happened. Ever since have heard stories about it and studied in my school(not much,though). You guys know a lot. So sorry for my ignorance but whats the deal with Buzz Aldrin. What was tragic about him? Some controversy? Would love to know about it and gain some knowledge!!

[Duppy Conqueror 1,494]

@Ankit

Magnificent Desolation:the latest of his books that he has written is a good book to check out. he did write one in the early 70`s but that may be hard to find

he wasn't really a badboy as such,he has been outspoken but the majority of what he has said and done i think is understandable.

he just has battled alcoholism and clinical depression for many years. .

the whole reasons why Neil went first ahead of him is still an ongoing debate really.

Buzz was at one point supposed to be the first man on the moon but i believe personally in the end they felt that Neil would be the better suited to handle the extra fame that came with being the first man on the moon. Buzz wanted to be the first more than Neil did and that i believe played a part.

it was basically that Neil was seen as a safer option ,Neil Armstrong looked at it as a mission to complete,he wasn't that interested in being the first....and they`ve built up this rivalry in the media between Neil and Buzz when it wasn't really the case.

Neil had nearly died a while before the mission when he had to parachute out of a prototype space vehicle that had turned faulty and he parachuted out of it before it crashed to the ground and blew up. i`ve seen footage of that crash,i`m not sure if it`s on youtube or not tho..anyway it was a narrow escape and the way he kept his cool during it all impressed the NASA big wigs so that may have been part of the reason.

there are mixed reports on what the actual reason is for Neil being the first,some have said it was merely the fact that where Neil was positioned at his tasks inside the lunar module (the part of the spaceship that broke off and landed on the moon.) made it easier for him to leave the door first.

at the time of the mission most experts predicted that they would never return and die on the moon or attempting to return.

Buzz is the first person to hold a religious ceremony on the Moon.he is presbytarian btw incase you are curious.

when they got back in the lunar module the switch that was needed to be pressed to boost them up off the surface and to reconnect with Micheal Collins had been broken off as Neil accidentally broke it with his backpack. thanks to Buzz both him and Neil was saved as he put his pen into the hole that was left and got what would basically be the ignition on a car to work again.

although when they landed back on earth unsurprisingly they had alot of media attention and interviews to do around the world after a year or so Neil grew tired of it and became a semi-recluse. they had given out more autographs than it`s possible to estimate and Neil started refusing to do them. he never really wanted to become famous,just do what he was good at and what he enjoyed most,flying and exploring space. his hairdresser sold off his cut hair and that was something that didn`t help the situation.

Buzz has been open with the media,sometimes too open. he once was set up by a conspiracy theorist he trapped him and tried to make him swear on the bible that the moon landing wasn't faked. Buzz beat him up for the insult.

like he has often said..250,000 people worked for NASA at the time,if it was fake why hasn't one single person come out who worked for NASA.

all the astronauts find it insulting to suggest that it was faked and have been hurt by it...if i had gone on what some believed was "a suicide mission" and some people who can't believe in anything good made up stuff about me not even doing the mission.i think i`d be annoyed too.

[BluesChick 1,260]

ah cool..i keep on getting my colleges mixed up between Purdue and Baylor as who the boilermakers are.. i do have a lil chuckle over some of the names teams have in college football i must admit..Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Purdue Boilermakers does kinda sound funny to the juvenile side of my mind.

ah Virgil " Gus " Grissom..one of the originals for NASA.. sad and horrific how he died along with Ed White and Roger Chaffe on Apollo 1. another decorated pilot in the air force too.

i love the Movie The Right Stuff.

Yes some of the nicknames are actually quite juvenile. Especially ones like Purdue Boilermakers, Indiana Hoosiers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, ... they came from the sports writers in the early 1900's who often used them to describe other teams and sometime were just being insulting. Purdue became the boilermakers because one writer thought our players were so big they looked like the boilermakers from the railroad. A lot of people assume it is because of the drink, the boilermaker (A beer with a shot of whisky in the bottom (glass and all)) but I believe that came after the nickname.

The early years of the space program was an amazingly dangerous time. I don't think they had a firm grasp of just how dangerous until some of the accidents occurred like the one Grissom died in. It was a tragic and preventable accident. I've read the report and I have seen several documentaries on it and it is interesting to read the why and how of the accidents.

[Duppy Conqueror 1,494]

ah thanks for explaining where the boilermakers name comes from..i had thought it was because the college had quite literally created boilers in the past as in the boilers used in old fashioned heating systems ..i know..i bow my head in shame..

the Astronauts and Cosmonauts no doubt knew they could die on these missions but i guess just not in how many ways it was possible.the race was on under the cold war pressures and corners were undoubtably cut by both sides. glad that the race is now over even though it must have been incredibly exciting during those times.i like the humans from all over the world working together now,formula of doing things.

i have a keen interest and admiration for all forms of explorers..there`s something in the not really knowing if they`ll ever get back home again but going out there anyway. for me personally i`m not scared of death atall,just of dying without leaving my mark and being forgotten as soon as i`m gone, in that regard i think me and all the great explorers share something. although when i had a family i didn`t think like that so much,i wanted my family to be proud of me but not so much at the risk of my life,so can`t really relate to those that take such risks when they have kids and a wife/husband who need them around in their lives.

[capriccioso 2,545]

Now we'll never know the truth!

I wonder how many cosmonauts Khrushchev killed off before they managed to get Gagarin safely home.