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| "I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine..." |
The 12 men who set foot on the moon, and their crew mates and fellow astronauts, are to my mind some of the bravest, most unflappable, men this world has ever seen. They are my personal heroes, to a man.
Neil Armstrong was, by all accounts, the quietest of the lot about his achievements - he rarely spoke in public, he was among the last to authorise a biography. But if you read the accounts of the Apollo 11 landing, he displayed a level of calm and resolve that just beggar belief: he landed Eagle with (assuming Charlie Duke's callouts of remaining fuel were accurate) of the order of fifteen seconds of fuel remaining between him and Buzz Aldrin and a very un-cushioned impact with the lunar surface.
The world has lost a truly great man among great men. I only pray that some day soon there will be more who get to do what he did, and more.102:45:21 Aldrin: 30 feet, 2 1/2 down. (Garbled) shadow.102:45:25 Aldrin: 4 forward. 4 forward. Drifting to the right a little. 20 feet, down a half.102:45:31 Duke: 30 seconds102:45:32 Aldrin: Drifting forward just a little bit; that's good. (Garbled) (Pause)102:45:40 Aldrin: Contact Light.102:45:43 Armstrong (on-board): Shutdown102:45:44 Aldrin: Okay. Engine Stop.102:45:45 Aldrin: ACA out of Detent.102:45:46 Armstrong: Out of Detent. Auto.102:45:47 Aldrin: Mode Control, both Auto. Descent Engine Command Override, Off. Engine Arm, Off. 413 is in.102:45:57 Duke: We copy you down, Eagle.102:45:58 Armstrong (on-board): Engine arm is off. (Pause) Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.102:46:06 Duke: (Momentarily tongue-tied) Roger, Twan...(correcting himself) Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot.
A true hero
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered about the space programmes (and not just the American) since then. What happened? From this distance, one feels that the achievements of those guys have been wasted (not to mention fuelling the incredulity of a certain type of skeptic who believes the landings never happened).
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm being unfair...
Cheers,
Ion
Nicely said.
ReplyDeleteWell said. I remember watching the launch of Apollo XI on a tiny black and white TV at infants school. I was eight at the time, but remember the event clearly.
ReplyDelete