History, Popular Culture, Space, Space History

End Of An Icon

17 Comments

Neil Armstrong has died.

That’s a shame — he was only 82, which isn’t that old these days. No word of the cause of death. I’d heard that he’d been doing well since his recent heart surgery, so either there were later complications, or he just happened to succumb to something else.

The irony, of course, as it notes in the bio, is that he never wanted to be an icon, and generally shunned the publicity. In any event, ad astra, and resquiescat in pace.

[Update a few minutes later]

Well, my Facebook wall is all Neil, all the time.

17 thoughts on “End Of An Icon”

  5. He was only 82, but it’s worth noting that he landed on the Moon during the first half of his life. He was only 38 when he walked on the Moon, and only 42 when the Moon landings ended. For almost half his life, he would never again see a human walk on the Moon.He was only 82, but it’s worth noting that he landed on the Moon during the first half of his life. He was only 38 when he walked on the Moon, and only 42 when the Moon landings ended. For almost half his life, he would never again see a human walk on the Moon.

    http://www.citizensinspace.org/2012/08/neil-armstrong-rip/

  6. “… he never wanted to be an icon, and generally shunned the publicity.”

    Which is precisely what made him so perfect for the role.

    1. Agreed. His actions after the mission did more than the words of his first steps to make me feel like his accomplishment was one for us all. No offense to Buzz; in fact, I think the pairing was about right for both celebrating the accomplishment and sharing it with us all. I don’t think I’ll ever get there, but it feels good to have lived during a part of Armstrong’s lifetime. He tred the high untrespassed sanctity of space; may he have reason to put out his hand.

  8. I’m glad that Rand called him an icon, and not a hero. He was certainly brave, as were the other Apollo astronauts, but many thousands of people, had they been qualified, would have jumped at the chance to travel to the moon on Apollo.

  10. Oh please. Heroism is doing something necessary that is sufficiently dangerous as to represent a significant chance of death. By that standard, Neil Armstrong was a hero several times over. On at least two occasions before landing on the moon, he looked Death squarely in the eye and didn’t blink. One was the Gemini 8 flight. The second was the crash of NASA’s “Flying Bedstead” lunar lander simulator. I’m not familiar with the details of Mr. Armstrong’s Korean War and test pilot service, but I would be massively unsurprised to find additional exemplars of heroism along these stretches of his back trail too.

    1. Armstrong flew over 80 combat missions in Korea. I’ve read that he had to eject after being hit by ground fire.

      He was considered a superb test pilot. They didn’t pick anyone less than superb to fly the X-15. He said the plane was so demanding to fly that the pilot’s heart rates averaged from 145-180 during each flight. That was a plane without any computers – it had to be flown very precisely at all times. Don’t let the Hollywood image of test pilots fool you – those guys not only had guts but they kept their cool under extreme pressure. Go to Edwards AFB and look at the names of the streets and buildings. Most of them (and the base itself) are named after a test pilot killed in the late 1940s and through the 1950s. That was when Neil Armstrong was flying test aircraft.

  14. It bugs me that he died before we returned men to the Moon (or any other celestial body). He’ll be one of the few things that’s remembered about the last century a thousand years from now.

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