Neil Armstrong has died

[Imperial528]

There are no words that I know which can express how tragic his passing is.

The universe itself has become lesser with this day.

[Simon_Jester]

Personally, I think the key is to keep going.

US spaceflight has hit a bad patch at the moment, but I'm still reasonably optimistic about the general trend. America is not the world. And the very fact that the cost and requirements of spaceflight are now within the reach of private companies is promising when it comes to long range viability. Companies shouldn't do everything, but it's a sign that spaceflight isn't as 'bleeding-edge' a technology as it was in the 1960s.


(editing this in) Armstrong was a very private man after the moon landing. He didn't think publicity was a big part of his life, and I don't think he'd want us to fixate on him as The Moon Man to the exclusion of all else that goes on in space. That includes both the rest of his career (such as the heroic recovery of Gemini , and that of the hundreds of other spacefarers we've sent into the heavens in the past half century.

[Gervasius]

"A bit of history for you. Aren't you proud, 'cause you helped. Now. Do you know how many people are watching this live on the telly? Half a billion. And that's nothing, because the human race will spread out among the stars-you just watch them fly. Billions and billions of them, for billions and billions of years. And every single one of them at some point in their lives will look back at this man taking that very first step and they will never ever forget it."

- The Doctor.

I thought that I will never shed a tear for a person I didn't know personally.

I was wrong.

[Ahriman238]

"All we did was fly to the Moon."

My first thought was that this was some sort of hoax or joke. I've never had denial over the death of someone I never met before.

RIP Neil Armstrong. Let's hope death is half the adventure your life was.

[Zinegata]

Here, men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon, July 1969 A.D.

We came in peace for all mankind.

[Skylon]

I truthfully thought it was a typo, and that Lance Armstrong was dead...then I remembered reading that Neil had undergone heart surgery recently and it hit me as potentially true. With modern medicine, especially when it deals with notable people, you kinda assume it will always work out.

No one can ever take away his footsteps, and if celebrity should ever fall upon anyone, I would pray they handle it as Armstrong did. Truly a class act.

[Vanas]

I was going to post that Dr. Who quote if no-one else had. A true history maker. And one who thought it was just another day.

RIP, sir.

Jesus H Christ, Houston. The fucking Moon. Over.

[Dalton]

I think in honour of his passing, this site should use use one of his quotes for the quote of the week, I think this: It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. was one of his best quotes, it revealed a lot of truth and how much it meant for him and for us to know were truly a spec in the cosmos.

Definitely agree.

I passed this up to Mike and he has agreed with the suggestion.

[Phantasee]

"All we did was fly to the Moon."

My first thought was that this was some sort of hoax or joke. I've never had denial over the death of someone I never met before.

RIP Neil Armstrong. Let's hope death is half the adventure your life was.

Dalton told me as it broke. My first thought was "Why is D trying to start a Twitter death hoax about Neil Armstrong? He's not that kind of guy… oh"

[PeZook]

Since that fateful day in 1969, humanity has never looked at the Moon the same again. It ceased to be a mere stellar object, a useful timekeeper and the object of fantasies and mystery.

It became a place. An actual destination that humans have travelled to. Armstrong's achievement was, in reality, merely a crowning moment of a titanic amount of work by hundreds of thousands of people, who themselves stood on the shoulders of countless giants who laid the necessary groundwork with their discoveries in the fields of physics, astronomy and mathematics. He was just a pilot, the most visible piece of the entire monumental pyramid of human curiosity, knowledge and perseverence.

And yet, the symbollic power of that first step is tremendous. It has literally transformed the consciousness of the entire human species. Flying to the Moon, walking on its surface is no longer a dream. Today, we casually talk about returning humans to another world at the water cooler.

[Broomstick]

Since that fateful day in 1969, humanity has never looked at the Moon the same again. It ceased to be a mere stellar object, a useful timekeeper and the object of fantasies and mystery.

It also changed the way we looked at the Earth. As I said in my prior post we had never seen the Earth from space before like the space program (US and Soviet) showed us, and that image of the Earth hanging in space, as seen from the Moon, was just... mind blowing. It was part of changing the way humanity sees the whole universe. Used to be, saying "the whole world" was the same as saying "everything" or "the universe". Suddenly it wasn't anymore. Like Mr. Armstrong said, we suddenly felt very, very small in all that vast, endless, emptiness of space. Earth was no longer a "special" place, it was one world among all the others. We'd so often seen a Moonrise from Earth. Now that we could see an Earthrise from the Moon we realized a different perspective.



Pictures like these changed how people thought about our home.

I know 10 year old kids who can look at a picture and say "That was taken on Mars" or "That was taken on Titan". I remember when we didn't know what our own planet looked like from space, much less anywhere else. People born after that achievement take it for granted, but back then people would look at something like that and it didn't always make sense, it was outside the context of anything they'd seen before.

Armstrong's achievement was, in reality, merely a crowning moment of a titanic amount of work by hundreds of thousands of people, who themselves stood on the shoulders of countless giants who laid the necessary groundwork with their discoveries in the fields of physics, astronomy and mathematics. He was just a pilot, the most visible piece of the entire monumental pyramid of human curiosity, knowledge and perseverence.

I think no one realized that more than Mr. Armstrong, which might have had something to do with his discomfort in the limelight. Yes, he was the first to set foot on another world but it was very much a group effort.

Flying to the Moon, walking on its surface is no longer a dream. Today, we casually talk about returning humans to another world at the water cooler.

Yes. That was the day science fiction (moon rockets! hur, hur that's kid's fantasy stuff!) became science fact. Suddenly, imagining the future and saying "I'm going to make it happen" was no longer crazy talk.

[Pelranius]

Well, rest in peace, sir.

[Sarevok]

The best way we can honor him is to make sure the crew of Apollo 17 are not the last humans to travel to another heavenly body. Sally Ride a few days back and now Armstrong. I hope this is not the end of an era as one by one pioneers of human spaceflight leave us.

Mr Armstrong was a very humble man but I hope some kind of inspiring monument is built to his legacy. The world needs its heroes.

[Skylon]

Mr Armstrong was a very humble man but I hope some kind of inspiring monument is built to his legacy. The world needs its heroes.

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/uploads/lm_westcrater.png

His monument is an experiment package, a knocked over flag, the decent stage of Eagle...and of course his footprints in the Sea of Tranquility. They will never go away.

Edit: Has anyone noted if flags were at half mast? I don't think I saw any, and I would have thought it appropriate.

[Borgholio]

I always wanted to meet him, now I never shall, to my eternal regret. His words will last for eternity.

I met him once, long ago when I was a kid, shook his hand and everything. I felt even smaller than I actually was back then because even though I was in elementary school, I still knew what he did and what kind of man he was. When the CNN notification popped up on my phone I just stared at it in shock. He was indeed an old man so it's not entirely unexpected, but to me his death hurts more than your typical celebrity death. Unlike many celebrities, he actually did something important.

[Isolder74]

Edit: Has anyone noted if flags were at half mast? I don't think I saw any, and I would have thought it appropriate.

No one I've seen has their flags at half mast as of today. Something that has been a bit annoying for me.

[Ziggy Stardust]

One of the most important men in human history.



RIP

[Skywalker_T-65]

If I had a flag it would be at half-mast. Armstrong most definitely deserves for flags to be at half-mast in his honor. I mean, we did it for Whitney Houston for God's sake...why not Neil Armstrong?

That being said...I'm sure Armstrong wouldn't want any special treatment. The sign of a true hero is modesty, and Armstrong had that in droves.

[PeZook]

The crayon leaflet brigade (thanks for that one, Shep) has, of course, used this occasion to crawl out of their stinking shitholes to slander Armstrong and celebrate his death.

And this is the first time...ever that I'm absolutely sure I'd actually start a fight over something like that if I ever saw one of them face to face. It's a pretty alien feeling to me...

[Skywalker_T-65]

You're not the only one. I've seen several people who have been slandering Armstrong and his achievements...quite tempting to punch them out and I'm not a violent person. Tis a very strange feeling...

[PeZook]

It's crass and low-class enough when talking about anybody (well,except monsters, murderers and the like) who died recently, but seeing some two-bit nobody crowing how Armstrong will soon be revealed as a liar and a traitor and a thief makes me angry. As in actually angry, not in the usual way when I read something stupid or offensive.

I've only felt like that once or twice, and both times it led to me getting into an angry verbal confrontation. Once it might've gotten violent if a security guard did not intervene.

Weird. I didn't even know the guy, after all...

[Skywalker_T-65]

Never met him myself either. But like you said, its one thing when say...a famous musician or actor dies and people start saying those things about them. Its quite another when you have the first man to walk on another world, and was modest about it till the day he died.

At least in my case, that's what makes me so angry about it. He never asked for any special treatment, and didn't want people to idolize him. Armstrong was the epitome of a 'modest hero' and to have people slander him makes me more angry than I can remember being in a LONG time.

[Alerik the Fortunate]

Not to worry about the crayon slander brigades; Armstrong's footprints and his memory will outlive even the family names and every accomplishment they will ever attain. Just remember that when you see them; they are of no consequence.

[PeZook]

It's hard to even find a massive character flaw in Armstrong that you could trot out to people who DID idolize him, beyond what all humans are guilty of. It's not like he died of cocaine overdose. He was basically a normal guy...except for that part where he was not

In other news: world glider champions dedicated all their medals to Armstrong. Apparently he was an avid glider pilot and flew gliders as long as he still physically could.

[Eternal_Freedom]

If you want an impressive memorial, the guy who founded Amazon recently located the Apollo 11 first stage on the ocean floor and was considering raising it. I think that would be suitably impressive.