News Neil has passed away

[fausto]

RIP Neil

 

[Robsoie]

What a sad new, i pray that he rests in peace in a better world.

 

[Phil Smith]

I cant believe it's happened! It's very difficult to understand..RIP..
GODSPEED NEIL!
IL LOVIN MEMORY!

''HOUSTON, TRANQUILITY BASE' HERE, THE EAGLE HAS LANDED" (C)

 

[Keatah]

I went to a concert today and one of the guests asked me I kept looking at sky. I had no particular reason to do so, just doing it for no reason. Then tonight I read the message boards..

When I met the guy years and years ago I always thought we'd live forever, and thought nothing more about it for years until now.

 

[kamaz]

RIP Neil.

 

[ApolloFZ]

R.I.P. Neil, we'll see you on the dark side of the moon!

 

[Keatah]

Anyone going to do a dedication flight in Orbiter? Doesn't have to be a full-blown NASP mission or anything exotic.

 

[dougkeenan]

Anyone going to do a dedication flight in Orbiter? Doesn't have to be a full-blown NASP mission or anything exotic.

I did one. Blew the dust off some rusty lunar transfer skills, good time for meditation. Thank Orbiter for even a little tiny taste of what Armstrong's flight was like.

 

[Topper]

I'm happy and proud that I've lived a part of my live at the same time the first man on the Moon has lived!
People in thousand of years will look up to the Moon and talk about this, our period of time, when a human first steps foot onto another heavenly body.

R.I.P. Neil, I hope that we will live your dream further...

 

[NukeET]

All of my really important boyhood heroes are becoming fewer in numbers.

I won't bore anyone here with my personal memories...but I did watch the "first step" live, and can tell you exactly what I was doing at that moment.

Resquiescat in pace, and ad astra per perspira!

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, –and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of –Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr

 

[Submariner]

Neil, you are go for PDI. Farewell!

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

For some reason I cannot sleep the night before here (the news broke at around 3 am local), and just hours before I was thinking about another Armstrong (Lance, which I shall open another thread about the continuing saga), and I thought if heros can keep their names for generations. Needless to say, I was shocked to see the news about Neil's death, but then he has already enjoyed 82 years of life, so while I am saddened, I think we should praise his achievements, especially his calm attitude with dealing problems on his two space flights and in other occasions (like dealing with the RCS problem on Gemini 8 and the LEM computer problem before the historic moment).

Alas, he is no more.......

 

[Tychonaut]

I'm not much of one for calling people heroes, but it's a title Neil Armstrong earned. We are all uplifted to have shared a world with a man of such courage, accomplishment, and humility.

 

[FordPrefect]

For those who haven't seen it yet.

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

 

[Kalman]

Here is what Polish astronaut, Mirosław Hermaszewski, said about Armstrong death:

"A man passed away, but that what he done, will stay. Its a terrible news, I feel like i lost somebody close, cause he was really one of us. I had a chance to meet Armstrong, many times I meet with Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, therefore with all Apollo 11 crew. Its so unwaited message, because I followed current Armstrong's health state, and there was such a big hope after this surgery, that all is going to right direction.
Neil Armstrong was a wise and modest man, who realised, that he is first and will stay now in history of our planet forever. He was always very modest. People gone, but what they did (especially him) will stay forever. To the last days of our planet we will speak about Gagarin, Armstrong, because they was first man who leave the Earth and first who landed on other celestial body.
A man passed away, but that he done will stay. He already went to eternal orbit, but that what he done will stay with us on Earth to the end of the world".

 

[bujin]

As sad as it is, it had to happen eventually. No one physically lives forever.

Neil will, however, live on in the history books for as long as there are humans walking the planet, and has left footprints in the lunar regolith that will still be there when the human species is a long distant memory.

 

[asbjos]

I just flew the Apollo 11-trip in honor of Neil Armstrong, and I have to say: when I stepped onto the Moon's surface and the OrbiterSound played "That's one small step...", I just had to smile. Thank you to everybody who made it possible.

 

[FADEC]

They showed a short portrait of Neil in the German television, past 11:00 p.m. on a Sunday, when people already lie in bed. That's all what is left in the public already one day after his death... :facepalm:

 

[Linguofreak]

My Dad related to me today that Armstrong's work as a test pilot with the X-15 program probably influenced him more than the moon landings. He wanted to do high-performance aircraft design, and majored in aerospace engineering in college, though he has never worked in the aerospace industry, and so he followed the X-15 program with great interest.

 

[Andy44]

Armstrong was also one of the pilots in the X-20 Dynasoar program early on.