Neil Armstong Dies

[Vev]

Sad news to learn today that Neil Armstrong has died.

 

Truly one of the worlds greatest heros that played his part in advancing our first steps into space and brought the world together for one common moment of peace in 1969.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/science/space/neil-armstrong-dies-first-man-on-moon.html?_r=1&hp

 

 

[Vev]

Armstrongs last interview

 

http://thebottomline.cpaaustralia.com.au/

 

Cheers

 

Vev

 

 

[motzartmerv]

[RKW]

A sad day!

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

My childhood dreams rode with him. He was my one true hero. A full moon party being planned for him.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Doesn't it suck that more than 50% of americans surveyed believed it was a hoax..

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Sad day indeed..............first one of us to set foot on another planet, pretty original and pretty ballsy in my book....................................................................Maj...

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

One of my earliest childhood memories was standing in the front yard with my parents watching John Glenn pass overhead Townsville (2-3 times I think) in Friendship 7, the first manned orbit of the earth. He passed over Perth and they were all asked to turn on their lights there, so Glenn could do a course trajectory check. He plainly saw all the lights as it was only a low-earth orbit of about 60 miles high ?........We clearly saw the little capsual go overhead, and it was definitly no shooting star !!!. and very few if any satelites up there at that time............................................................Maj...

 

 

[Sapphire]

Doesn't it suck that more than 50% of americans surveyed believed it was a hoax..

That was disproved by the Mythbusters

 

 

[dazza 38]

Photos where taken of the orbitors and even foot prints etc left by the Apollo crews in the late 2000's. 2009 I think. The photo graphs were taken by the Lunar reconnaissance orbitor.Which photo graphed the moons surface.

 

I also think that alot of the confusion of whether they landed or not has come from Stanley Kubrick filming a verson of the moon landing in (maybe Holywood or Pinewood studios in London at the time) . I think that NASA got Stanley, to film a version incase the actual landing failed. There was a space race after all with Russia to see who landed on the moon first.

 

 

[Sapphire]

If it was a hoax, the Russians would have found out first-they wanted to own the moon as much as the Americans.

 

 

[facthunter]

It's a long time ago and although Kennedy is given a lot of credit, the risks were enormous. Those guys did a great job, all of them. and seem to be such humble and pleasant, people Nev

 

 

[Wayne T Mathews]

Armstrongs last interviewhttp://thebottomline.cpaaustralia.com.au/

 

Cheers

 

Vev

Thanks for posting this Vev.

 

Neil Armstrong was truly, in so many ways, an extraordinary man.

 

I was told this story about the great man while I was living in the USA. I have no idea if it's true. But it'd be nice if it was.

 

The story goes:

 

Almost everybody knows of Armstrong's first sentence when he stepped onto the moon. But few remember that his last sentence as he stepped back onto the ladder to board the module was, "Good luck Mr Gorsky."

 

Every word spoken during that incredible mission was recorded, analysed and understood. Except that last sentence. Nobody knew what he meant, fore no one had heard of Mr Gorsky. Over the years many people searched for the explanation and meaning of that last sentence. But every time Armstrong was asked what the sentence had meant, he'd just smile and shake his head without answering.

 

In the late 90s, Armstrong was on his way to one of his rare speaking engagements when he granted a young investigative journalist an interview. During the interview, the question of that last sentence was brought up again but this time Armstrong smiled and said, "You're in luck young man, fore Mr and Mrs Gorsky passed recently, so I can now tell you what it was about.

 

"When I was a boy, I was playing stick ball in the backyard with friends when one of them hit the ball over the fence into the neighbour's yard. I went over the fence looking for the ball, and found it in the flower garden under Mr and Mrs Gorsky's bedroom window. As I reached for the ball, I heard Mrs Gorsky say, "Oral sex? You'll get oral sex when the kid next door walks on the moon." End of story.

 

And now we know who paid for Neil's original flying lessons when he was 15.

 

 

[Sapphire]

That was a long shot!

 

 

[Herm]

Sad news to learn today that Neil Armstrong has died.Truly one of the worlds greatest heros that played his part in advancing our first steps into space and brought the world together for one common moment of peace in 1969.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/science/space/neil-armstrong-dies-first-man-on-moon.html?_r=1&hp

What a very sad loss. A great Man that has made a great advance for all mankind. The world has really lost a great human being. I bow my head in respect..

 

 

[Teckair]

Doesn't it suck that more than 50% of americans surveyed believed it was a hoax..

It was on TV wasn't it that means it's gotta be true.

 

 

[Wayne T Mathews]

That was a long shot!

Yep! But hey, who's to say Mr. Gorsky didn't recognise the man's potential even way back then?

 

 

[Sapphire]

We'll never know if Mr Gorsky was sucessful but he would have been the last thing I would have been thinking of if I was stepping onto the moon that day.. I'd be thinking of getting out of this place alive! Niel Armstrong was lucky to even make it to old age. There are are numerous unknown test pilots working for unknown organizations who didn't make it but made it much safer to fly.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Hope Mr Gorsky enjoyed it !!................do you remember that the second man to climb out of the luner lander knocked the guts out of the main rocket switchs, when he hit it with his large back-pack on the way out ?..They needed that switch to work to blast off from the moon, to rendevous with the lunar orbitor, otherwise it was curtains. Mission control worked for hours on the serious problem, and finally came up with a suitable solution...jam a metal 'space pen' into the switch, and active the blast-off rocket, which is what they did.

 

When asked a few years ago what the second astronauts' most valuable souvenier of his moon landing was, he replied.... "the space pen that got us off the moon !!!!!!"

 

There were so many 'one-shot' deals in an adventure like that, and they were all lucky to have come through it really.

 

One of my past engineering teachers from the US had worked in Houston building the massive Saturn 5 rockets. He said they never got to watch any of the Apollo launches, as they were too busy getting the next one ready !!....

 

He also said that there were fuel lines in the first stage booster that a small man could crawl through !!! .......

 

Additionally, Ed Garmin now of Garmin GPS fame was the NASA engineer who did all the tracking systems on the moon vehicals. The tracking/guidance systems that he devised were very early computer technology and in many cases no more sosphisticated than todays average digital watch !...

 

My hats off to all of them with large enough manjewels to strap themselves to any of those rockets !.....................................................................Maj...

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

It's a long time ago and although Kennedy is given a lot of credit, the risks were enormous. Those guys did a great job, all of them. and seem to be such humble and pleasant, people Nev

How different the world is today. How much smaller our aspirations, our dreams.

 

 

[damkia]

Going way back, Channel 9 played the whole landing live to air, in its day a very expensive and technical thing to do. A family friend was the Senior Engineer at Channel Nine for that exercise and can vouch for the fact at the signals were indeed coming by way of a satellite dish pointed at the moon. No if's or but's in my mind..

 

FWIW anyone that has the balls to strap themselves to controlled "bomb" and pray that everyone else has done their job properly earns my respect

 

RIP Neil Armstrong

 

 

[Sapphire]

They were lucky the knocked switch didn't activate the circuit. They would be blasting off again before they could even get any happy snaps.

 

FWIW anyone that has the balls to strap themselves to controlled "bomb" and pray that everyone else has done their job properly earns my respect

 

I woudn't have gone unless I had done a two week preflight inspection myself

 

 

[Wayne T Mathews]

We'll never know if Mr Gorsky was sucessful but he would have been the last thing I would have been thinking of if I was stepping onto the moon that day.. I'd be thinking of getting out of this place alive! Niel Armstrong was lucky to even make it to old age. There are are numerous unknown test pilots working for unknown organizations who didn't make it but made it much safer to fly.

Hhmmm, I've done a few test flights over my years on the big jets. And one of the things I noticed was that luck had very little to do with any of them. Hours, and even days, of preparation and going over what we'd do in advance meant we were prepared for what might happen. But that doesn't mean there was no humour or fun in what we were doing. On the very first DC10 test flight I did (took us 6.5 hours over the Irish Sea), Neil Jackson, the captain, gave his departure brief prior to lining up and at the end, asked if there were any questions. I leaned forward and asked, "Yair Neil, what's the purpose of life?"

 

Without batting an eye or missing a beat, Neil said as he lined up, "Flying jets, driving 'vettes, drinking whiskey, and chasing women. Now if you've got no other questions. Set take-off thrust." and we were off with a song in our hearts.

 

From what I've read of the Astronauts, every one of them approaches his job from that angle and then some. And Armstrong was way up there at the top of that exceptional group. So while luck may have played a part in his making old age, I suspect that hard work, self discipline and focus would have had a lot more to do with it than any luck. Test pilots who rely on luck, don't get to do it for very long.

 

 

[Sapphire]

Chuck Yeager was asked how he survived all his years of test flying. He said words to the effect that he studied and learnt all the systems on the a/c. We are all test pilots every time we go up. Nobody has ever before flown through that air you are flying through.

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

How different the world is today. How much smaller our aspirations, our dreams.

Well now we have figured out how to control the global climate, that's pretty big no?

 

And all it took was to dumb down education, especially maths.