Phatose on 26/8/2012 at 06:29
He was a hell of a man.
Funny to think the US could send a man to the moon 50 years ago, but couldn't today.
scumble on 26/8/2012 at 09:34
It has very little to do with capability, it is a question of politics. In the 60s it was all about showing the Soviets who had the biggest rocket. That was a lot easier to sell at the time...
A cynical summary perhaps. I would criticise Neil Armstrong for managing to get to the moon and back, but also there were a large number of other people who made the thing that got him there.
Scots Taffer on 26/8/2012 at 10:18
Man, just after getting all his tour de france medals stripped from him... :nono:
Trance on 26/8/2012 at 11:47
One giant loss for mankind.
demagogue on 26/8/2012 at 11:48
Also with no respect given for his Crazy Horse years.
(The headline on NBC's online article gave his name as Neil Young.)
From the documentary I watched on it, there was a reason Neil Armstrong was picked to be the first one to take the first step. He was the natural leader of the pack. But yeah of course a lot of recognition has to go to countless other people, the engineers, von Braun & company, Mission Control...
Tocky on 28/8/2012 at 02:10
For the first time since he walked on the moon there isn't a world full of people who want to be him. For those of us alive when he did it was as if we had too. We were elated. We felt we could do anything. Nothing was out of the reach of mankind. We had touched the moon, a thing gazed upon since we first looked up in wonder, a thing only dreamed of by the most bold imaginings of science fiction writers, we had done it. Mankind was capable of anything. Star Trek was surely just around the corner. Sigh. I am now certain nothing will surpass it in my lifetime.
Nearly all of the heroes of childhood are dead, Armstrong, Bradbury, Asimov, my father. There is still Archie Manning and Buzz Aldrin but this year has knocked many blocks from under my pedestals and even as an adult none have quite replaced or ever could those of my youth. You have your heroes of your age and perhaps to you they are giants but, though I hope I'm wrong, you may never look so far up as the moon to one of them. I will never forget the feeling I had staring up at the moon from my parents porch just after they landed. My little brother looked doubtful as he said he couldn't see them. "They are there", Dad said, "men are on the moon." I remember how proud we were of how far we had come. In our way each of us who stared at it that night were there with them.
DaBeast on 29/8/2012 at 15:58
Quote Posted by scumble
It has very little to do with capability, it is a question of politics. In the 60s it was all about showing the Soviets who had the biggest rocket. That was a lot easier to sell at the time...
Public attitudes toward NASA and the space program were abysmal back then too. It's easy to forget since all we see are the Kennedy's speech and the like, but the people hated the idea of wasting money like that. They did it anyway because yea, damn soviets!
Unless you're among the tinfoil crowd who still think it didn't happen (and even have interesting scientific evidence to support it).
Tocky on 30/8/2012 at 04:11
I beg to differ. I live in the most redneck state in the union and most folks could give a shit about one- upping the soviets. Most supported the space program because it was damned amazing we could do it. After the fact postulating seems a cynical rewrite of history, some avant guard speculates on why we eat fruit and suddenly it's because of something other than it tastes good. It wasn't just teachers who were in awe, it was the common yokel. Sure some griped at the cost and said we had already been there by 16 but for the average joe we were expanding our reach into the heavens and it was worth it for the further grasp of science. Read a magazine from those days. We loved ourselves way more than we hated or feared anything. It was an exciting time.
Not that we didn't hate commies mind you. Hell, there are times I could punch Putin now.
