Three Towns Forum
Members' Lounge => Obits => Topic started by: Bellringer on August 25, 2012, 09:56:59 pm
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It was announced a little earlier this evening, that Neil Armstrong has died. He was 82 and had bi-pass surgery earlier this month.
He was of course the first man to step onto the moon and uttered those immortal words "One small step for man, .................."
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Very sad news indeed. I remember being allowed to stay up until 4am in our family home in Llandudno to watch the landing of Apollo 11. A defining moment in my life.
The Apollo missions have been a lifelong interest of mine and I have read extensively on the subject including all of the biographies and autobiographies of all of the Apollo astronauts. They all speak of him with the highest respect. I have actually met three of the astronauts who went to the moon, Captain Jim Lovell (13), Dr Edwin Aldrin (11) and Colonel Jim Irwin (15) the latter two having walked on it - these were indeed extraordinary human beings.
Neil had been unwell for some time and his recent heart bypass was a foreboding, but it is still a shock and the world to me seems a little more lonely a place with his passing. His legacy to humanity is immense and as long as there are humans extant in this big old Universe of ours, his name will echo throughout their eternity...
This is one of the only pictures of him in Mare Tranquilitatus (he is in the reflection in Buzz Aldrin's visor):
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_982w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2009/07/17/National-Enterprise/Images/PHO-09Jul08-169586.jpg)
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I've moved the OT posts to a new topic in Science and Technology.