RIP Neil Armstrong

Like emily said, damn right he deserves his own thread.

You know, having grown up knowing he was the first guy on the moon -- having always known we've been to the moon, that it happened -- somehow almost made it mundane. The first human, the first LIVING thing for fuck's sake, from planet Earth to having walked on another moon or planet in this huge universe. I'm just in awe, maybe properly for the first time ever.

I was hoping not to believe it yet, but it just reached the BBC too: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19381098

RIP.

hope he's braising in hell right now with his moon buddies

First his tour victories and now this! RIP, big man.

RIP Neil, we'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

Yeah, RIP. Space travel is still one of the greatest things humankind has ever managed to do.

hope he's braising in hell right now with his moon buddies

― dylannn, Saturday, August 25, 2012 3:26 PM (1 minute ago)

WTF are you on about?

First his tour victories and now this! RIP, big man.

tv text scared the hell out of me with capitals and all.

hah what

RIP an American hero

yall know that shit was fake right

then he went on to take part in the us bombing of cambodia check wikipedia

And Reuters: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/08/25/uk-usa-neilarmstrong-idUKBRE87O0B120120825

The moon landing is totally amazing to me, when I think of all the engineering involved, or just think how we all carry round computers thousands of times more powerful than the guidance computer in our phones and throwaway gadgets now, etc

Just underlines how brave all these space travelers are. Amazing individuals.

Oh, and dylannn, you should watch that mythbusters about the moon landing hoaxes.

I love how NBC broke the news and also did this at the same time. RIP big man, heaven needed a cowgirl in the sand:

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/419984_10152047220475707_1594160997_n.jpg

As much as I admire the accomplishments of the shuttle program, skylab, spacelab, the iss, etc., we dropped the ball big time after Apollo. 12 humans have walked on the moon, the last one a full year before I was born. We should've already had a colony there by now and well on our way to putting footsteps on Mars. Armstrong's death won't make the inevitable happen faster, but it's my hope that it reminds people to look upward and want more.

alien abduction porn produced by neil armstrong's production company and starring his step-granddaughter

Oh, and dylannn, you should watch that mythbusters about the moon landing hoaxes.

Fuck that. dylannn should just crawl back into whatever basement he crawled out of and resume wearing his tin foil hat.

Longest obit yet: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/neil-armstrong-man-moon-dead/story?id=12325140#.UDkpBcGPXv9

(is the link-hunting tiresome yet? I'll stop if so, sorry)

dylann you piece of shit so help me, gtfo with that crap NOW

"claire dames" aka rebecca may armstrong, the star of that clip, wound up dead of an "overdose" after she threatened to go public with evidence of neil armstrong, american hero, raping her as a child

Don't click that link dylannn posted.

unless you want to know the truth

Yeah, not even the slightest bit tempted.

Can someone delete dylannn's posts and block him from this thread, plz? Is that doable? I mean, we've been to the moon and all, so surely we can do this.

I wouldn't at all be surprised if in 1000 years, the only three figures the average person can name from the 20th century are Einstein, Hitler, and Armstrong.

can't wait to hear the "walk into a bar" joke

via my friend on twitter: "Whenever I would think making web sites was hard, I'd remind myself we landed on the moon with the computing power of my MacBook. #RIP Neil"

RIP an American hero

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, 25 August 2012 20:32 (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah Neil Armstrong was an inspiration to the whole bloody universe, this goes further than it being an American thing. He left our planet to be the first person to step on the moon. Even grisled former USSR officials from the 60s should be wanting to honour him tonight. He did something for all of us.

Alex Balk
‏@AlexBalk

Michael Stipe: "Cha-CHING!"

lmao

haha

As tcote just noted on twitter in turn:

"Sting is probably thinking the same thing."

Many years later, it was revealed that Armstrong totally saved the moon landing by manually overriding the autopilot when it became apparent the area it was aiming for was far too dangerous, then flying the lunar module to a safer place, and setting it down with all of five seconds' worth of fuel left! At the time, NASA never let out a peep about this. Apparently his heart rate was up around 150, but his hands and mind were steady.

RIP, neil.

very appropriate today, sadly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DMlxrGIi8U

love that Mekons song
RIP Neil, you brave brave man

I just called my parents to see if they knew and I had to tell them. They were less emotional than I expected them to be, but we had a nice convo about how if someone is going to represent humans to the cosmos, he was a good person and not an asshole. RIP Neil Armstrong.

Statement from Armstrong's family: http://neilarmstronginfo.com/statement/

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.

aw man

RIP

RIP dylannn you brave brave man

Just posted that on twitter, it's lovely.

Anyone with any scepticism at all should go and spend a few hours at Kennedy, wandering around the exhibits, seeing the technicians at work, speaking to astronauts.

trolling to the moon xp

RIP buddy

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/AS11_TEC.PDF

i'm just going to be dr. morbius here for a sec.

the moon landing was perfectly staged propaganda. fifty years later we still don't give a shit about exploration if it isn't exploitation first. neil armstrong an unfortunate hero for everyone who loves lying to themselves.

oh yeah? did you miss when we proved relativity?

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/AS11_PAO.PDF

^^ where the poetry is

also all technology flies like that. you think columbus was looking for *THE TRUTH*

da vinci: smoke trees, fuck bitches, get paid

of course not, that's the point. xp

Well my naive world has been blown wide open.

also all technology flies like that. you think columbus was looking for *THE TRUTH*

maybe he was looking for THREE CHORDS.

well tell you what, when the aliens get to the decrepit wreck of planet earth, they'll see a shining knight on a desolate plain, and you know what it's not morbius and morbid nihilism

they won't shed a tear for your childish bitching

Second half of a 60 Minutes interview he did, worth a look if you havent seen him speak about it.

The thing I always loved about him was how walking on the moon for him was nothing more than doing a job that was asked of him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqzbnSymE2w

xp also matt p i just tore up your ticket for the colony ship

xp

The government's purpose was propaganda. That does not mean that the purpose of the people who worked on the mission was propaganda. Their purpose was to get people to the moon and back, more or less safely, and they did it. As for Armstrong, it is a rare man who would risk his life in a tin can 250,000 miles in space, simply because he wanted to propagandize some commies.

fifty years later we still don't give a shit about exploration if it isn't exploitation first.

Who are the constituents of this perfectly-placed 'we'? Because it sure as shit doesn't include me.

he put a mirror there so we could prove relativity and he brought back rocks

also he took a picture of an earthrise which has done more for the environmental movement than any number of fools lining up w/ lattes in manhattan traffic

When Neil Armstrong was on his way to the Moon, the New York Times printed a correction, for mocking a rocket pioneer in 1920

RIP

Many xposts: Matt, you could say the same thing about every soldier who fought for their country. how about the fact that Neil had the stones to do a job that had every chance of killing him & his crew. Have you watched the test footage? They may have been pawns in your eyes but don't think that dimishes their feats in any way

Do not feed the moon trolls today.

RIP Neil. One small step indeed.

he did it for 5000 years of humans too

http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/500269/500269,1306661017,2/stock-vector-egyptian-sun-boat-78156865.jpg

the roach is the pawn of the military industrial complex stealing fire from the gods in the solar barge

that should be the "roach in the solar barge"

You mean: The scarab is rolling the sun across the sky like a ball of shit.

Can someone delete dylannn's posts and block him from this thread, plz? Is that doable? I mean, we've been to the moon and all, so surely we can do this.

― Johnny Fever, Saturday, August 25, 2012 7:45 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

board sanitiser: can't recommend enough for those persistent stains

It's not exclusively N.A., obviously, but I've enjoyed watching "For All Mankind" - and paging through its companion coffee table book - with my kids. They have no idea of the time, effort, courage and money it took to achieve what they did, let alone bring back those movies and pictures, and yet they could still connect on a primal level with the beauty and wonder of the images.

i was kidding, i think he just holds the sun like dung as it sails across the sky?

but the pharoahs built solar barges to sail to the sun on when they died

iirc akhenaten compared man and god to vermin and sun

so the moon mission is actually a holy quest

a moonship journey, if you will

tender spots! we all need our saints. i agree that symbolically the earth images run counter to the mission. doesn't make the hero-worship any less nauseating. and it doesn't make me nihilistic to point out that calling the moon landing a great accomplishment is completely ideological. xps

otoh space is cool

oh okay so you don't have any heroes or saints? or are yours just not nauseating like the ones us proles worship?

we all need our saints.

just because:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq5gjfN5lns

http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/182376_o.gif

i'm not above hero worship but i try to recognize its limits, what it actually accomplishes and when it becomes something else usually en masse and i hope/trust at my best we can all do this. xp

Thing about US propaganda and the moon and all that. The cultural narrative to me has always seemed more or less that it was fulfilling Kennedy's dream, which was from a cool and nice and idealistic time before he was assassinated. Neil was pretty humble about his role in all of it, which is something i greatly admire, and he had the skills and wits to pull of some much-needed last minute SAVING THE DAY type actions, so that seems pretty heroic too. Undermining it by saying it's just a product of US propaganda just seems like empty "Sheeple!" talk. If the mission was to go to the moon and shoot missiles at Russia along the way i would be cynical. But this didn't involve physically attacking another country, and him evoking "One giant leap for mankind" rather than "One giant leap for America" sort of takes away from that propaganda talk anyways. All in all, a pretty righteous dude. Pretty much everyone I've read about the was involved in the mission saw it as something bigger than themselves, and bigger than the Cold War.

ok maybe not all of us.

that was glib and lame. i guess i made my point. anyway roll on being inspired everyone.

calling the moon landing a great accomplishment is completely ideological

But it WAS a great achievement. I don't have a horse in this race, I'm not American and I'm not blind to the fact that you guys have done an awful lot of terrible, horrible things (hey, so have we! Woo!). But to deny that PUTTING A HUMAN BEING ON THE MOON is a great accomplishment is just insane.

if a carefully staged engineering exercise is really your idea of a great accomplishment than i'm just... sad i guess.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZDB4_y8Nbf0/UDkqyIVJfLI/AAAAAAAAn_c/GscZ2uuovRI/s640/Scan10001.JPG

Neal Stephenson, Neil Armstrong, Neil Gaiman

you're definitely sad, yeah

i mean it's basically the same as the 1980 olympics but replace hockey fans with technophiles xp

you distrust the "en masse" idea because your game is to look down on the majority of people

congrats

Matt P, I am confused, what would your idea of a great accomplishment be? I find it very strange that you can't conceive of engineering something that can travel outside of the Earth's atmosphere as a great accomplishment. What have you got against engineering? I mean, are you also not impressed about discovering the theory of relativity because 'oh, well, if you consider doing a bit of maths a great accomplishment then I'm just... sad'?

a moonship journey, if you will

― the late great, Saturday, August 25, 2012 4:04 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

indeed

meanwhile we're about to destroy ourselves and our planet but going somewhere and coming back is a great accomplishment.

i mean the physical part of a journey can be an important element in transformation--i guess the earth pictures tease at the possibility of a transformation.

fast forward to 2012 and our vision of the future is mining asteroids.

xp i distrust ideology, which majorities are usually constructed in order to reinforce. i trust human decency and sharing/enabling life. doesn't usually whip everyone into a fervor unfortunately.

more xps engineering is a tool with potential, not an accomplishment.

I appreciate how there's always someone willing to turn every thread into a teachable moment. God's work. God's work.

also all technology flies like that. you think columbus was looking for *THE TRUTH*

maybe he was looking for THREE CHORDS.

― KARLOR CAN FUCK ANYTHING! AND HE WILL AND HAS!!! (Eisbaer), Saturday, August 25, 2012 9:41 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Where's a 'like' button when you need it?

you really got to stop using that royal we matt

Hang on a second, Matt. YOU were the one who reduced the act to the tool. The tool is what gave people the ability to do the thing we're talking about. So don't go "ugh, it's just engineering" in response to "why isn't it an achievement?" and then go "engineering is just the tool" in response to "well, why isn't engineering impressive?" You've just nullified your first response, and need to re-think and answer again.

This thread has reminded me that I need to start showing up more random funerals and telling the grieving families that the decedent's life was a sham.

guys couldn't we at least have waited at least a day before shitting up the thread

hey you're right, what can i say i grew up religious, i'll work on that. xp

I mean I realize that this is ILX SOP but guys

i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i

Hang on a second, Matt. YOU were the one who reduced the act to the tool. The tool is what gave people the ability to do the thing we're talking about. So don't go "ugh, it's just engineering" in response to "why isn't it an achievement?" and then go "engineering is just the tool" in response to "well, why isn't engineering impressive?" You've just nullified your first response, and need to re-think and answer again.

― emil.y, Saturday, August 25, 2012 3:00 PM (59 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you're right, i'm not being clear. going to the moon was an accomplishment. it was hard. lots of odds.

guys, I don't even think Matt P has even been to the moon
this explains a lot 4 me

have only skimmed the thread, but did we talk anywhere about his recent interview? the circumstances of it were really fascinating, partic considering how bizarre everyone had assumed he'd become on account of being a 'recluse' or whatever; i heard excerpts on the radio & he spoke so humbly & impressively about his work - which is what he'd considered it, talking abuot how his main thought on stepping onto the moon was that they had a job to do, had checklists.

meanwhile we're about to destroy ourselves and our planet but going somewhere and coming back is a great accomplishment.

chill dude, we already tore up your ticket

silent runnings

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

xpost yeah i kinda love that watered down john maus run there

I appreciate how there's always someone willing to turn every thread into a teachable moment. God's work. God's work.

tbf this is how all human culture and "fun" works, fuiud

'man who spends hours every day posting about power pop online considers apollo 11 trivial distraction'

have only skimmed the thread, but did we talk anywhere about his recent interview? the circumstances of it were really fascinating, partic considering how bizarre everyone had assumed he'd become on account of being a 'recluse' or whatever; i heard excerpts on the radio & he spoke so humbly & impressively about his work - which is what he'd considered it, talking abuot how his main thought on stepping onto the moon was that they had a job to do, had checklists.

― very sexual album (schlump), Saturday, August 25, 2012 3:07 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so he was basically a good bureaucrat

sorry 'team member'

MOONMAN

so he was basically a good bureaucrat

instead of what, an organic farmer or martin luther king?

most teachers are good bureaucrats, as are nurses, you going to shit on them next

So much of me doesn't want to feed the troll...espeically in this thread on this day but I have been so sad for hours and then to see you say all this crap, goddammit Matt, you are so full of shit about this whole subject that it's personally offensive to me.

Maybe on a social and political level the moon landing and the 1980 US hockey team are similar, but if that's the only lens you're going to view it through then you are insane. The only way those two feats are similar is if the Hockey team had to invent the game of hockey, create the wood itself for their hockey sticks because such a material didn't exist before they played, and then if the stadium they played in ran the risk of losing oxygen at any given moment and or bursting into flame.

If you don't personally care about space exploration that's one thing, but don't come in here with your bullshit handwaving and try to imply that Armstrong and the Apollo 11 mission didn't achieve something scientifically remarkable. It was an inarguable FEAT and you should get over yourself.

you post a lot on i love nfl huh

also winning a game of hockey would have to be an eternal human aspiration (except for matt p)

many philosophers would argue that as a mutual appreciation of athletic beauty, the olympics are one of the highest achievements of human civilization

OH BUT CREDIT CARD COMMERCIALS

Wow, more cuntitude than I expected on this thread.. I really can't thing of anything more technically complex and demanding of a humans bravery than travelling 250,000 miles to a hostile environment with no certainty that they could return safely. I'm just about the generation that remembered the Apollo missions as something inspiring and wonderful and smdh at anyone who demeans that achievement.

i started free-form writing a week ago, asking myself questions and trying to be as real as i can cuz i've got issues. does writing help you? how about, say, recording yourself. i.e. what's the best way to look at problems under a clear light so u can start untangling them. what do you think??

― bind music up, scratch my discs up (Matt P), Tuesday, August 18, 2009 3:03 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

troll ilx

― jveggra va pbqr (Lamp), Tuesday, August 18, 2009 3:04 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

peas in a pod there. fucking glue sniffers giggling outside a dairy queen.

for real though a little depressing to think at least one of those two is an adult irl

lamp's more adult than you'll ever be unfortunately

probably not the one dabbling in free form writing and trying to be real as he can. unlike that bureucrat neil armstrong.

haha whatever

'unfortunately'

why did you use the word 'unfortunately' there?

good "humble" bureaucrats are cool they just don't usually inspire 500+ rip threads.

xp because i like you

"the best way to look at problems under a clear light so u can start untangling them? free form writing and keeping it real bro." - karl popper

so he was basically a good bureaucrat

― ayonanas (Matt P), Saturday, 25 August 2012 23:12 (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk what this is beyond PFFT PEOPLE DOING THEIR JOBS but yeah like good for him he was good at doing his job. your 'what's to admire about getting a man into space' is profoundly lolworthy.

-i guess the earth pictures tease at the possibility of a transformation.

philosophically generous of you, like if only they'd maybe shot at a better angle they could have teased something really deep out of it?

http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/apollo/img/earthrise.jpg

This cover seems even more apropos now... ;_;

http://www.andysowards.com/blog/assets/neil-armstrong-leaving-for-the-moon-time-life-magazine-cover.jpeg

anyway RIP moonman, you seemed like a decent guy who was probably more repelled by hero worship than anyone.

Much as you can get a clear sense of someone's character when you see how they behave when under duress, so too can you get a sense of how big of an IRL douche someone is by how they comport themselves in an RIP thread.

*farts*

http://www.andysowards.com/blog/assets/neil-armstrong-leaving-for-the-moon-time-life-magazine-cover.jpeg

brb

Feels like an appropriate time for this beautiful, beautiful song.
It's 4 in the morning, July in '69; me and my sister, we crept down like shadows
They're bringing the moon right down to our sitting room, static and silence and a monochrome vision
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QEtyms1sGU

matt p did you know that you can be impressed by the sheer physical magnitude of an achievement and also at the very same time think that the forces that led to it were bogus? saying 'my god' at the blast of a nuke isn't the same thing as saying 'we should do that all the time'

this is so not the same as a nuke, though?! it couldn't be more different?!?

http://whalen.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/area51.jpg

51 HINT 51

51%

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/207184_464560156898334_1342280409_n.jpg

don't know if this is real

matt what do you think of this ish involving a famous german composer:

Well, what happened there is, of course—now all of you must adjust your brains—the biggest work of art there has ever been. The fact that spirits achieve with one act something which we in music could never dream of, that people practise ten years madly, fanatically for a concert. And then die. [Hesitantly.] And that is the greatest work of art that exists for the whole Cosmos. Just imagine what happened there. There are people who are so concentrated on this single performance, and then five thousand people are driven to Resurrection. In one moment. I couldn't do that. Compared to that, we are nothing, as composers. [...] It is a crime, you know of course, because the people did not agree to it. They did not come to the "concert". That is obvious. And nobody had told them: "You could be killed in the process." (Stockhausen 2002, 76–77.)

btw no one died when neil armstrong and his buddies landed on the moon, no one was killed in the process

or: ppl going to the moon was literally spectacular

well we are the society of the spectacle so

The Kennedy Museum & NASA put together a great website for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, it's still up and running & worth checking out.

You can go through all stages of the mission with mission control audio the whole way through (even more fun if you do it with headphones on :D ), tons of photos and film from all the various stages. Good stuff

www.wechoosethemoon.org

no i feel you, that stuff wows me too and space is cool, seriously xp

if only we could all be cool bro

it was real

basically i reserve the right to be able to say 'holy shit man lands on fucking moon' and not be castigated for not staying on message about all of the bad things in the world. also the guy that was the first guy there died today, and if that gives some people a reason to pause and think 'we could be doing better, cooler things than letting poor people die and killing people with robots' then i am a-ok with it

like if we are the society of the spectacle, at least give 'em better stuff than IEDs and crowd shootings

Matt P & dylannn:

http://i.imgur.com/Tnr5r.gif

grousing about the wastefulness of space exploration is why our kids are terrible at science, btw

I'd agree with that.

canks was banned for less than this
we put a man on the moon so that our generation could listen to moonwave

ilx: we worship this hero
matt p: you would certainly revolt him as much as you revolt me

The space race was a big enough endeavor for different groups of people to exploit it different ways, but the engineers and scientists and rocket builders and astronauts and flight crews and cafeteria workers and janitors and gift shop employees and everyone who wasn't an elected official or a conspiratorial douchehammer realized that the purest purpose of reaching another heavenly object, one that no human in the history of history had ever stepped foot on before, was the most amazing thing that had and likely will ever happen (until we find another form of life).

ffs, going to the moon isn't just like driving to a fucking rollercoaster park 300 miles away.

what was cankles banned for?

he made an offhand joke on the alex chilton rip thread. tbf chilton did make power pop.

Something hilariously surreal about this whole thing: Pres Nixon addresses the quarantined Apollo 11 astronauts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU0B-loHHTM&t=4m24s

That line where he tells them that he made a date with their wives; nice awkward moment there, Tricky

it's amazing that the man's natural modesty and understatement (his contention that going to the moon was just his job) is being used against him (that he was merely a "bureaucrat").

boy, america has changed a lot between 1969 and now.

Hmm that doesn't seem to want to play

Try again. Start it at around 5 min for the arrival of Nixon etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU0B-loHHTM

I've tried to convey to my students how much we were in awe of the space program when I was in grade school in the late '60s--how they were certified celebrities on the order of athletes or pop stars today. I was even in awe of three kids in my grade 4 class--Norm Allen, Bobby Selmar, and Rich Szczepaniak--who built a really large model of Apollo 11 and brought it into school one day.

i kinda just want to look at space tonight but its cloudy

ffs, going to the moon isn't just like driving to a fucking rollercoaster park 300 miles away.

― Johnny Fever, Saturday, 25 August 2012 23:56 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

c'mon man it's just going somewhere and coming back, like if you ran to the grand canyon & jumped over it & then back again, nbd

gbx otm itt

http://s12.postimage.org/op17yqhwt/neil_armstrong.jpg

i lol'd

as i said on the RIP thread, i've just finished reading moonshot, a fairly in-depth and moment-by-moment telling of the Apollo 11 mission. what armstrong achieved - along with his fellow astronauts, and the many hundreds of NASA scientists, technicians, test pilots and so on - was so very dangerous, so very difficult, can't help but inspire me. thinking about the risks involved, the incredibly high level of concentration and discipline the mission required, the almighty step into the dark unknown... i find it both really inspiring, and really humbling. it really is a massive achievement, and its no act of hagiography to respect that, to understand armstrong was just an ordinary man, but that the course of his life and the results of his actions and his efforts were entirely extraordinary.

like i say, i look at it all and i'm humbled, as i guess many are. maybe your reaction is to feel so belittled by comparison that you have to shit all over it and make some dumb joke about it, and that's fine. i don't guess it makes you feel any less pathetic, though.

and going by what you've posted in this thread, matt p, i'm guessing you're mostly ignorant of the mission, the circumstances, the results and the humans who were involved in making that all happen. it really is a story worth investigating.

I have been meaning to check out Moonshot, stevie, thanks for the reminder

and otfm to all that you said.

I was a youngster.

Post-Apollo NASA def a big letdown.

i spent much of my childhood wanting to be an astronaut. as an adult, i just think, oh my god, they all had/have balls of steel. i could never do anything like that.

Looks like there are two books called Moonshot, which one are you recommending, the one by Dan Perry?

the one that's not a history of anal porn

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/294648_10151123689744481_442079392_n.jpg

First man on the moon.
Homemade pizza chef.

I would eat all these moonman pizzas.

66.6

Well, I see somebody just *had* to be the Momus of this thread.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/ap11-neilukulele-2.jpg

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/tt203/pplains/ripneil.jpg

whut

"Like emily said, damn right he deserves his own thread."

was ned actually saluting when he started this thread and wearing his old cub scout uniform? plus, i'm hearing charlton heston saying this.

oh but anyway i get scared when i think of people on the moon! i get vertigo thinking about it. i'm afraid they are going to fall off...many years ago. i like the earth pictures a lot. i understand the conspiracy people because its so beyond what anyone had ever done. this is true of the 9/11 people too probably. i ended up watching moon footage AND 9/11 footage on youtube tonight. because one leads you to the other on youtube. in case you didn't know that.

Landing on the moon is heroic, but flying the X-15 took a lot of straight-up guts: http://blogs.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/2009/05/neil-armstrongs-x-15-flight-over-pasadena/

was ned actually saluting when he started this thread and wearing his old cub scout uniform?

A vision but no.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnZakGY3RgQ

http://lazenby.tumblr.com/post/30206152130/well-right-naturally-you-should-hate

The astronaut quoted in that blog is about 50 times more eloquent than the blogger is.

I went to the junior-high version of Space Camp, called Space Academy, when I was 13. That year I attended 8th grade at Armstrong Middle School.

It was built in 71-72.

Guess whom it was named after.

It had conversation pits and "clusters" instead of classrooms because progressive education trends in the early 70s were fucking weird.

I later went on to get an Aerospace Engineering degree in Ann Arbor, soon realizing that everywhere that was doing manned American space flight was no where I would ever possibly want to live.

Also, I built this set in his honor:

http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/images/0928-1.jpg

which played a part in the whole "go to university to get an aero degree" thing

and I still want this tshirt:

http://image.spreadshirt.com/image-server/v1/products/19167921/views/1,width%3D378,height%3D378,appearanceId%3D17/LEGO-Space.png

That year I attended 8th grade at Armstrong Middle School... Guess whom it was named after.

Still kinda weird that the largest U.S. airport named after an Armstong is the one named for a jazz musician.

I haven't read any of the obits, but I remember he was from Wapakoneta OH

That Lego space shirt is one example of childhood nerdstalgia that I would actually wear.

RIP Mr. Armstrong and Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky!

like if we are the society of the spectacle, at least give 'em better stuff than IEDs and crowd shootings

― catbus otm (gbx), Saturday, August 25, 2012 10:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM. How much better the world would be if ideological competition between nations was fought solely through space races and not wars.

and giant robot fights and boxing and hockey games

lol totally. Or some combo of all of the above!

How much better the world would be if ideological competition between nations was fought solely through space races and not wars.

for real. <3

It's cool that someone just went somewhere, picked up some souvenirs, freestyled some poetry, and came back. The whole event is like performance art. And the economic benefits were not too shabby either:

A November 1971 study of NASA released by the Midwest Research Institute of Kansas City, Missouri concluded that the $25 billion in 1958 dollars spent on civilian space R & D during the 1958-1969 period has returned $52 billion through 1971 -- and will continue to produce pay offs through 1987, at which time the total pay off will have been $181 billion. The discounted rate of return for this investment will have been 33 percent.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA

That is over $300 billion in 2012 dollars, and that is without exploiting anything other than the spectacle.

And if you think it's fake, then you believe the U.S. government spent the modern equivalent of $1.7 billion dollars on an art film watched simultaneously by 500 million people.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/hold-state-funeral-neil-armstrong-symbol-american-dream-and-inspiration-generations/f2Nkgn6G

Creating an account requires less personal info than Facebook.

"signatures needed by September 24" - isn't a funeral usually a bit sooner?

many xposts, but yes, i meant the moonshot by dan parry.

Dutch Newspaper De Telegraaf broke the news on their site like this: ("first man on earth dead")

http://i49.tinypic.com/rm360i.jpg

matt p think you're still in need of a few more "truthful zings"

wow, I had no idea what this book was about
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2cidjTIuZP8/Tl7r8MdgEkI/AAAAAAAAA18/oKMQ1wnevlA/s1600/moon%2Bshot.jpg

For All Mankind (1989), streaming on Hulu

The best documentary, ever, about the experience of the Apollo crews. With an oft quoted Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois soundtrack.

Watching it with some tears.

oh that's a good one

damn I need to see that

It is spectacular.

a moonship journey, if you will

― the late great, Saturday, August 25, 2012 5:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

nice.

;-)

now, for the other view

http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com/2009/07/53-space-exploration.html

not sure if this is hard-trolling or not but in honor of matt p ...

I'm not so sure we even deserve a space program.

One thing the obits have brought home for me is that there isn't a really great iconic picture of Armstrong on the surface of the moon because the great famous shots were taken by Armstrong of Aldrin. But this Reddit post claiming to be from the head of press relations for the mission says that the famous photo of an astronaut saluting the flag was misattributed and is actually of Armstrong.

So I've spent ten minutes staring at the photos trying to match up any distinguishing features of the suits or the patterns of moon dust on them to work out if this might be true, until finally it hit me: wow, these are people, on the moon, with MOON DUST up their legs. And this was too overwhelmingly immense and awesome to continue with my nitpicking investigation.

sort of a half-baked blog post linked there but wow, i never knew about that editorial(?) from the NYT in 1969:

For all his resplendent glory as he steps forth on another planet, man is still a pathetic creature, able to master outer space and yet unable to control his inner self; able to conquer new worlds yet unable to live in peace on this one, able to create miracles of science and yet unable properly to house and clothe and feed all his fellow men, able eventually to colonize an alien and hostile environment and yet increasingly unable to come to terms with the nurturing environment that is his home.

Aldrin:

I am very saddened to learn of the passing of Neil Armstrong today. Neil and I trained together as technical partners but were also good friends who will always be connected through our participation in the mission of Apollo 11. Whenever I look at the moon it reminds me of the moment over four decades ago when I realized that even though we were farther away from earth than two humans had ever been, we were not alone. Virtually the entire world took that memorable journey with us. I know I am joined by millions of others in mourning the passing of a true American hero and the best pilot I ever knew. My friend Neil took the small step but giant leap that changed the world and will forever be remembered as a landmark moment in human history.

Higgledy-piggledy
Armstrong the astronaut
rode in a rocket ship
up to the moon.

"Not made of cheese," said the
Wapakonetian.
"Sounds kind of crazy, but
it’s a balloon."

― weatheringdaleson, Friday, September 14, 2007 7:45 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

RIP

I remember the Moon Shot miniseries on TNT, I think. Barry Corbin narrated it, and they cut back & forth from archival footage to present day interviews. I remember Gene Kranz breaking down on camera and being comforted by the offscreen interviewer when recounting the Apollo 13 rescue efforts.

Heh; I'm just now remembering that my gifted class teacher got me out of school one day in 5th grade to go see Jim Lovell speak in Flint, MI.

HE TOOK THEREMIN MUSIC INTO SPACE. WHAT A DUDE.

http://www.overgrownpath.com/2006/03/neil-armstrong-finally-reveals-his.html

Woah

Hey, I have that Dr Samuel Hoffman collection!

sort of a half-baked blog post linked there but wow, i never knew about that editorial(?) from the NYT in 1969:

For all his resplendent glory as he steps forth on another planet, man is still a pathetic creature, able to master outer space and yet unable to control his inner self; able to conquer new worlds yet unable to live in peace on this one, able to create miracles of science and yet unable properly to house and clothe and feed all his fellow men, able eventually to colonize an alien and hostile environment and yet increasingly unable to come to terms with the nurturing environment that is his home.

The very first "if they can put a man on the moon, why can't they . . ." I guess.

it's a little more of a ... "let's take this moment to reflect on how great we can be, and try to bring that greatness to our efforts at home"

LBJ called that The Great Society program, which actually worked much better than the conservative propaganda would have us believe. Unfortunately, in order to sell the idea, the liberals overpromised on the results.

Hey, I have that Dr Samuel Hoffman collection!

Me too!

0 of 57 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars No Man has ever Walked on the Moon, January 16, 2012
By iruri - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts (Paperback)
I won't be reading this book. It is based on a Real Moon Landing, therefore I will not be reading a book touted as Real based on a Pack of Lies.

carlos ‏@famouscrab
i think when they were maybe reading the resumes for apolo 11 they didnt even get past the names. BUZZ? MAN WITH STRONG ARM? F*KIN SWEET

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/687709main_armstrong_burial_cropped_946-710.jpg

What it was like to hang out with Neil Armstrong over the past couple of years.

Read a whole bunch of books about the Apollo program because of this thread and a few more are still waiting.

what did you read? recommendations plz

(xp)That was awesome. Thanks, Chris.

After the good book with the title Moonshot, the one by Dan Parry, I read Moondust, by Andrew Smith, where he interviews all the surviving moonwalkers and tries to find out what it was like- rave review from Arthur C. Clarke and J. G. Ballard! Then Andrew Chaikin's A Man On The Moon, which is kind of a standard work that narrates all the Apollo missions which, although it has its longueurs when they are on the ground, does a really good job once they are in flight. Then the most excellent How Apollo Flew to the Moon, by W. David Woods, which goes into as much technical as you could want without reading the actual NASA manuals. Paged through Al Worden's Falling to Earth, saving up Mike Collin's Carrying The Fire, which is supposed to be the best of the "nose cone histories."

Mike Collins. Lately my apostrophes have started floating in microgravity.

Did not read Gene Cernan's book or Chris Kraft's, nor Deke!, although the last is supposed to be pretty good. Nor 2012's Forever Young.

Also, please feel free to help answer this important question if you can: Apollo 8 anniversary RFI: which astronaut brought along "Sleepwalk" on his spaceman Walkman?.

this is p cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9HdPi9Ikhk&feature=youtu.be

*Bump* to RIP the Last Man, Gene Cernan.

Rip lance armstrong, inventor of the trumpet