Today sees the private Ohio funeral of Neil Armstrong who died at the weekend aged 82. Piers Sellers, the British-born Nasa astronaut now deputy director of the sciences and exploration directorate at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre, has paid a delightful tribute in today's UK Guardian newspaper, which is quoted beneath Neil's photo below.
I remember watching that first moon landing in July 1969 just weeks short of my 21st birthday at a flat in Lexham Gardens in west London. I can clearly remember Armstrong's first historic step on to the moon's surface but I no longer have the slightest idea why and with whom I was in Lexham Gardens.
I remember watching that first moon landing in July 1969 just weeks short of my 21st birthday at a flat in Lexham Gardens in west London. I can clearly remember Armstrong's first historic step on to the moon's surface but I no longer have the slightest idea why and with whom I was in Lexham Gardens.
Sang Froid is a term that was invented for Neil Armstrong. You're flying what is basically a bedstead several hundred feet above the moon's surface with just 60 seconds fuel left between you and certain death. Trouble is, you can't find a place to land because of rocks all over the surface. Panic? Not Neil Armstrong, he kept his cool and found a spot with 15 seconds left between him and oblivion. He would certainly have won the Gold for Sang Froid had it been an event at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.
by Piers Sellers
First up, Neil Armstrong is my hero. He's absolutely iconic. He's the astronauts' astronaut.
It's amazing when you look at what he did. The business of flying the X-15, which was basically a piece of steel pipe with a rocket on the end, was dangerous enough. Then there was the Gemini 8 which went out of control, but he managed to figure out what was going on, saving the spacecraft, his crew mate and himself. That was incredible. And then there was landing on the moon itself. This man's career, as a test pilot and as an astronaut, is completely peerless.
But, I think, the man himself was a more complex and richer personality than many give him credit for. He was a very dedicated engineer who became a professor of engineering when he retired from Nasa. He was really interested in how science and technology influence society and the development of civilisation. He was a deep thinker, insightful, well-rounded, not your ordinary "fighter jock".
He was simply the best.
He was simply the best.
