Neil Armstrong heads west

Sad indeed. He is my hero. Landing a man on the Moon is the greatest voyage mankind has ever done. Not to mention been the first man to ever attempted. Neil is now on another heavens voyage and his name and charisma will always be remembered for generations to come.

José
 
Agree with all the statements above and to follow. I for one, and am sure many others who were around for that amazing night, will never forget it.

RIP Neil Armstrong, you were indeed the right one to take that giant leap for mankind, sir!
 
Awesome man and explorer. RIP Neil Armstrong.
 
Godspeed Neil, I salute you.

Neil_Armstrong_pose.jpg
 
RIP Neil. My generation won't even come close. Robots on Mars just ain't the same.
 
Here's another link:

http://www.wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=2520259

"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".
 
I remember where I was when I watched the moon landing. God speed, Neil Armstrong.
 
Re: Former astronaut Neil Armstrong dies after cardiovascular procedures

Truly a great man. A real loss for the USA. RIP Neil.
 
A true American hero, an inspiration.

Few remember his close call in the test flight of the "Flying Bedstead" (LM simulator) or his cool and skill in handling the thruster malfunction on the Gemini 8 mission.

When Apollo 11 landed on the moon there were no home video recorders. So, absolutely enthralled by what was happening, I did the best I could with the technology available -- I took pictures of the TV screen as it was happening:

Apollo_11001.jpg


Apollo_11002.jpg


Apollo_11003.jpg


Apollo_11004.jpg
 
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I remember sitting in front of the tv way after bedtime watching the landing and moonwalk. I walked outside and looked up at the moon and it occurred to me that nothing was impossible and great things were afoot. Every flight was a culture stopping event. Everyone noticed.

1. First human taken photo from the surface of another world. Nothing in history compares to that.
2. Lunar reconnaissance orbiter photo of the Apollo 11 landing site.
 

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I remember the day very well. My family owned a decrepit shack summer place in Sullivan County, New York that was high enough on the mountain to grab either of two television stations -- barely -- depending on which direction the antenna was pointed. The antenna was self-rotating, meaning that we rotated it ourselves by grabbing the mast and twisting it.

On that night, in July of 1969, my dad and I twisted the antenna to the stronger of the two stations; and then our whole family sat down to watch Neil and "Buzz" on the snowy black-and-white TV set.

The feeling was something that I still find it hard to describe to younger people because it fulfilled a goal that had seemed almost impossible when JFK first proposed it. I'm not sure that anything seems impossible to kids nowadays, so it's hard for them to get a sense of how exciting it was for us. There also was a tremendous hope that came along with the landing: If we could send men to the moon, then there wasn't anything beyond our reach as humans. Or so we thought, anyway.

You have to understand that in 1969 the world was a much bigger place. We had no cell phones, ordinary people had no computers or satellite dishes. Long-distance domestic phone calls sounded scratchy and faint. International phone calls were made by calling a long-distance operator, who would call you back when a slot was open and the call could be put through. This could be a matter of minutes or hours, during which you had to sit by the phone and wait.

If you really had to get a message to someone quickly, you called Western Union and sent a telegram; and they would send a man in a funny cap to hand-deliver it. If you had to travel to someplace unfamiliar by car, you had to know how to read a map because there was no GPS; and with no cell phones, whenever you were en route anywhere, you truly were out-of-touch.

Today, everything is instant, and the world is much smaller. Today's kids don't think there's anything special about video-chatting in real time with someone on the other side of the world. But in the context of the 1969 world, the very thought of traveling to another world was awe inspiring; and the actual realization of that goal was simply exhilarating.

This sense of pride also transcended national distinctions to some extent. It was something that we had accomplished as earthlings and which all earthlings shared in, irrespective of nationality. People all around the world (except perhaps in the Soviet Union) all celebrated the landing, which culminated in what was probably the greatest simultaneous exhalation in all of human history; and millions of humans who were watching felt in their own feet a connection with Neil's first step on the moon. This was fitting, as it was in the name of all mankind that he had taken that step.

A similar kind of unity would later occur during the Apollo 13 crisis, during which I suspect that more prayers were uttered, by more people, from more nations, in more languages, for the same intention, than at any time before -- or since. But that's a whole 'nuther story.

So thank you, Neil Armstrong, for what you gave to science, and what you gave to mankind. For a brief moment, you united all of us with a common sense of pride and a profound sense of hope. You touched whole generations, and many of us have yet to experience anything to compare with what we felt on July 21, 1969.

Rest in peace, Neil Armstrong.

-Rich
 
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I was away at Camp Anokojig in Wisconsin in July of 1969. One night the camp counselors gathered all 200+ of us into the mess hall, where we huddled around a tiny black & white TV (with rabbit ear antennas -- no cable TV in those days, in the middle of nowhere) and strained to catch a glimpse of Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon.

I was ten years old. It was an amazing night -- one I will never forget. He has been my hero ever since.

The world is a diminished place tonight.
 
My dad understood the importance of what was going on. He woke us all (5 sons) to come down to the living room and watch Neil step onto the moon.

I was 13.

I read another post that Neil completed his Silver C Soaring badge 5 yrs earlier, to the day, that he stepped on to the moon. He completed his gold badge also, before the trip to the moon.

Godspeed Mr Armstrong.
 
As a young boy who's father worked on the space program we were glued to the TV when they circled and landed on the moon. You could have heard a pin drop across the entire planet Earth when he walked down the ladder snd jumped the last two steps. The drama, the suspense of not knowing if they would make it back in a space capsule designed by geeks with pocket protectors and slide rules. Unless you were alive then you cannot imagine the sense of pride and sense of accomplishment in beating the Russians to the moon.

I met Neil Armstrong at OSH along which John Glenn. It was a high lite of my life to shake hands with these childhood heros of mine.

Thanks for the memories Neil. That was truly "One small step for man".
 
I was fortunate to have met Neil Armstrong at a NBAA Convention about 20 years ago. We were at a product booth and this guy was there. There were 4 or 5 of us just standing there talking about old airplanes. All the while I had this nagging feeling that I knew that guy from somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn't place him. He had the convention ID tag attached to a strap around his neck, but it was twisted so I couldn't read the name. After about 10 minutes or so he mentioned that he had to go meet some people and excused himself. He shook all of our hands as he left. I still had no clue who it was until the guy in the display booth told us that we had just spent 10 minutes with and shaken the hand of the first man to walk on the moon. Up until then, I thought that I had just met a nice guy who liked old airplanes.

Back in 1979 Neil Armstrong set some 5 different time to climb records in a Lear 28. IIRC, they flew out of Edwards AFB and took off with just enough fuel to climb to altitude, then the engines flamed out and they glided back to the runway. I guess that was pretty sedate compared to what he had done 10 years earlier. Neil Armstrong is one of my flying heroes. The other one was Jimmy Doolittle. I doubt if we'll ever see the likes of those two men again. RIP Neil Armstrong. Thank You.
 
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RJM62 said:
But in the context of the 1969 world, the very thought of traveling to another world was awe inspiring; and the actual realization of that goal was simply exhilarating.
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Rich, you nailed it as usual. Great post, and I really don't have anything to add except it was probably the most stirring moment of my life and certainly the greatest moment in history for me.

Neil and Buzz did a great job. Nobody realized how little fuel they had left at the time of tocuh down.
 
The greatest thing, to me, about that first Moon landing was that Armstrong did it "by hand" (they had overshot initially, and the program was taking them into a field of boulders). Probably not as tricky as Apollo 13's manual burn, but way up there. And of course they had seconds left before their allotted descent fuel ran out. It just adds to the legend of that amazing mission.
It must have been great to be the first one to do it, and the first to walk on that world, but I'll bet he was always quietly proud, in his Armstrong-ish way, that he had successfully applied all his skill to save the show.

I heard him speak at Oshkosh once, under a brilliant full moon... he seemed a real gent with a very sharp mind. We can't expect people like him to live forever, but I really feel something is missing now. :(
 
"A pilot takes no special joy in walking"
Neil Armstrong
 
I was only 4 at the time. Don't remember the moon landing (the only thing I remember of that year, was my first day of school), however, I've always been fascinated by the video footage and pictures!

It's probably what sparked my interest in the space program as well as science fiction.

Godspeed Neil Armstrong...and thank you!
 
Lots of aviation trivia in this tribute. Note that if you're watching it at work, it has the word "badass" in it.

 
I am glad that Armstrong lived past the age of tragedy, and saddened at his passing.

I do want to emphasize that Armstrong didn't make his signature accomplishment alone. There was an army of engineers, technicians, physicists, and others who's team efforts made it possible. I doubt von Braun could have landed the LEM off course and nearly out of fuel. But Armstrong couldn't have designed and built the Saturn V either.

An yes, the manic youtube person is correct. He was a badass. And the coolest thing, I bet he didn't think of himself that way.
 
This is a highly recommended 17 min video of Apollo 11 landing, but unlike previous similar attempts this one is based on restored high quality 16 mm camera mounted in the window of the LM. Also this footage is unique because it leads you through the whole radio correspondence and synchronizes the film tape with some events inside the mission control (sync sound, video). Quite a few people worked on it to put it together and it is a must to watch for any Apollo enthusiast:

http://vimeo.com/34066647
 
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olasek said:
This is a highly recommended 17 min video of Apollo 11 landing, but unlike previous similar attempts this one is based on restored high quality 16 mm camera mounted in the window of the LM. Also this footage is unique because it leads you through the whole radio correspondence and synchronizes the film tape with some events inside the mission control (sync sound, video). Quite a few people worked on it to put it together and it is a must to watch for any Apollo enthusiast:

http://vimeo.com/34066647
Click to expand...

That was freakin' cool. I've seen all those videos and listened to all those loop tapes many times, but synching them into one video and making the 6 fps film camera out the window, the star of the show, is damned brilliant. Nicely done.

Kranz's book, "Failure is not an option" is an excellent read. I highly recommend reading that and the re-viewing this video.
 
Local Wx guy just said on the broadcast that there will be a Blue Moon on the day of Armstrong's funeral. How appropriate!
 
olasek said:
This is a highly recommended 17 min video of Apollo 11 landing, but unlike previous similar attempts this one is based on restored high quality 16 mm camera mounted in the window of the LM. Also this footage is unique because it leads you through the whole radio correspondence and synchronizes the film tape with some events inside the mission control (sync sound, video).
Click to expand...

The only weird thing is there is no time delay between transmission and reception and response.
 
fgcason said:
The only weird thing is there is no time delay between transmission and reception and response.
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Not sure what you are talking about, the delay should not be greater than ~2 sec. anyway, point me to some concrete example in the film and explain what&why, I definitely did not encounter anything like that. Unfortunately this 'lack of delay' is another false argument used by various conspiracy theories who claim that the whole thing was a hoax, a good discussion on the subject can be found here: http://cosmoquest.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-637.html
 
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olasek said:
Not sure what you are talking about, the delay should not be greater than ~2 sec. anyway, point me to some concrete example in the film and explain what&why, I definitely did not encounter anything like that. Unfortunately this 'lack of delay' is another false argument used by various conspiracy theories who claim that the whole thing was a hoax, a good discussion on the subject can be found here: http://cosmoquest.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-637.html
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There's a few moments where Houston and Eagle are talking over each other on the same freq without "stepping" on each other; that proves the delay, I think (assuming one believes that it's the raw recording from the control room). Not sure if that would be possible otherwise, but i could be wrong. In general, though, it's pretty obvious that it's about 2 seconds. They're not pausing for dramatic effect... :D


Amazing little film, BTW!! Thanks for the link.
That's the first time I remember noticing the problems with static... at one point it seems to correspond with thruster deployment, when they are rolling the LM. Anybody know if that was due to the thruster gas being ionized?
 
rottydaddy said:
There's a few moments where Houston and Eagle are talking over each other on the same freq without "stepping" on each other; that proves the delay, I think (assuming one believes that it's the raw recording from the control room). Not sure if that would be possible otherwise, but i could be wrong. In general, though, it's pretty obvious that it's about 2 seconds. They're not pausing for dramatic effect... :D


Amazing little film, BTW!! Thanks for the link.
That's the first time I remember noticing the problems with static... at one point it seems to correspond with thruster deployment, when they are rolling the LM. Anybody know if that was due to the thruster gas being ionized?
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I believe that was a full-duplex radio link as long as the LM was transmitting direct. If they had to relay through the CM, that was half-duplex. I'd have to go dig for the references, though.

The static was the high-gain antenna not tracking Earth accurately during the early maneuvers. Armstrong selected "slew" mode and the crew manually pointed it. Thus, all the calls about the azimuth and elevation during different maneuvers.

Ground was sending them where to point the antenna after each attitude change. Later he re-selected "auto" and the high gain antenna tracked correctly. At one point they asked the crew to switch to the rear omnidirectional (low-gain) antenna and relayed that request through the CM which had it own high-gain antenna and frequency pointed at the Earth.

There's a book out about the Australian ground station (remember, no satellites) that made up the constantly switching receivers on the ground (and a massive telecom effort to connect them all back to Houston) that made up the other end of that comm link. It indirectly details many of the Comm challenges faced by the RF and land-line telecom engineers.

Much of the network wasn't finished, right up until just before Apollo 11.

The Apollo 11 crew was technically supposed to go into crew rest when they arrived, but who can sleep after landing on the moon?

It threw a monkey wrench into things for the controllers who weren't sure if the timing would work out for the video link. The original plan was to use a different ground station, when the Australian controllers got a call over their private loop asking if they were receiving because it was "go" time.

In a bit of luck, the moon rose over the Aussie horizon just in time for them to go outside. There were significant time windows in a day where video (and audio) was not receivable from either spacecraft due to the rotation of Earth, and the orbit around the Moon of the CM.

Even more amazing is that they then had to bring the radio transmissions of two spacesuits back to the LM and re-transmit those to Houston, the CM, and back also. The number of frequencies and radios used in the days when radios just sitting idle burnt up a lot of battery power, was impressive. Also had to coordinate them all not interfering with each other with minimal RF shielding of IF frequencies, etc. Every ounce of extra shielding was stripped for launch weight.

Just the Comm engineering alone for Apollo was a massive undertaking, and impressive in its own right. Not only was there the voice Comm, but all the spacecraft telemetry, medical telemetry, and other data, and this was the very early days of "digital" data over RF. It would be many years before modulation types designed for data were in use. Most of this tech today we would say was "analog" in nature. Think extremely low speed radio modems. Kinda.
 
More comment on the Moonscape Project clip:
You all should watch the other parts that are now available... amazing! Great synchronized mix of TV camera, backup camera, and moving and still color images.

Once they start the EVA, you can clearly hear Houston "echoing" from the spacesuit headsets into Buzz and Neil's mics and back to Houston (unless I'm mistaken), which also confirms a delay of about 1.5 seconds each way.
 
Oh, and additionally... It was all recorded to reel to reel tape. Audio, "data" and all. Both at the ground station receiving it and at Houston.
 
denverpilot said:
I believe that was a full-duplex radio link as long as the LM was transmitting direct. If they had to relay through the CM, that was half-duplex. I'd have to go dig for the references, though.
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Okay, that all makes sense. I forgot about duplexing (slapping myself). But still, the "no delay so it's fake" thing does not hold water if you just listen to the tempo of the conversation. The "moon hoax" people would have us believe that so many things were painstakingly faked, yet NASA failed to simulate a realistic delay. Riiiggght.

The static was the high-gain antenna not tracking Earth accurately during the early maneuvers. Armstrong selected "slew" mode and the crew manually pointed it. Thus, all the calls about the azimuth and elevation during different maneuvers.
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I guessed right initially about the static, but the part where it coincided with the roll got me wondering. I guess it was all about the position of the antenna as they rolled.



Even more amazing is that they then had to bring the radio transmissions of two spacesuits back to the LM and re-transmit those to Houston, the CM, and back also. The number of frequencies and radios used in the days when radios just sitting idle burnt up a lot of battery power, was impressive. Also had to coordinate them all not interfering with each other with minimal RF shielding of IF frequencies, etc. Every ounce of extra shielding was stripped for launch weight.

Just the Comm engineering alone for Apollo was a massive undertaking, and impressive in its own right. Not only was there the voice Comm, but all the spacecraft telemetry, medical telemetry, and other data, and this was the very early days of "digital" data over RF. It would be many years before modulation types designed for data were in use. Most of this tech today we would say was "analog" in nature. Think extremely low speed radio modems. Kinda.
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True, true... another example of how much of the whole operation was on the very edge of what was possible at the time. all these years later, I am still awestruck by the success of all of these missions.
 
During Shuttle/ISS missions, Shuttle talked down through TDRSS satellite, whereas Station typically talked through ground stations.

Even for not having to deal with the RF delays, the hop delays were enough that after Shuttle docked to Station, an umbilical was run through the hatch to connect the two Comm systems, and a setup called "The Big Loop" was enabled which allowed ISS to communicate using Shuttle's TDRSS system as Primary.

ISS radios were generally unused during docked operations, or used as back channels. Video however was always direct downlinked via Ku-band and it would go in and out of the coverage of ground stations.

Later upgrades to TDRSS provided (and still provide) data rates capable of hosting videoconferencing from the on-board PCs on the "WAN"... And crews even got private talk time with family and personal medical doc conferences over those links.

The Comm configuration of ISS also had to patch the space suits for construction and EVA activity back into "The Big Loop".

At times, when the wrong audio patches were selected, "The Big Loop" could go quite sideways. I heard it a few times via NASA Select/NASA TV audio feeds over the years.

One of the reasons I keep my GE MP/A boat-anchor handhelds (re-tuned for the Ham Radio bands... One each for VHF, UHF, and 900 MHz) is the historical -- the GE MP/A handheld attached to a custom adapter to a David Clark headset, was the first space qualified ham radio rig utilized aboard the Shuttle for their Ham Radio outreach program.

Some history of the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) and a photo of the MP/A and DC headset can be seen here:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/reference/radio

Sadly, while my first flight instructor worked the Shuttle and received a QSL card/gorgeous certificate, I never got around to doing it. Listened to them a number of times though. And tried to call in the "pile-ups" when many Astronauts operated during their personal time.

Later, both Shuttle and Station received Kenwood mobile rigs and packet radio digipeaters.

Hundreds of Ham Radio contacts between Shuttle/Station have been done with various school classrooms over the years. Friends have helped do the leg work on some of those. There's a lot of behind the scenes coordination, and I was proud to learn that a teleconferencing bridge built by my former employer was utilized heavily during those school contacts.

Only the archive.org folks now have the venerable old original NASA SAREX website, complete with HTML 1 tags, and that always ubiquitous "techy" black background... Heh...

http://web.archive.org/web/20030124194138/http://sarex.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Good times. Lots of memories. My former employer also provided a massive audio conference bridge setup for Discovery's first return to space mission, where thousands of classrooms listened into the launch, and had posters done up for it... mine hung in my home office for years and got damaged in a move. :(
 
BillTIZ said:
I read another post that Neil completed his Silver C Soaring badge 5 yrs earlier, to the day, that he stepped on to the moon. He completed his gold badge also, before the trip to the moon.

Godspeed Mr Armstrong.
Click to expand...

He kept with it. I haven't seen a G-103 without that orange paint...
 
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