[GonzoGOP]

Neil Armstrong at one time was probably the most famous man in the world.

And he managed to get Gemini VIII back on the ground. I have read the actual NASA reports and i still can't figure out how he could fire the retro rockets to cancel out the tumbling at exactly the right moment to cause a reentry rather than just turn himself into a permanent monument to man in space. He is quite likely one of the greatest pilots ever to take to the air or space.

But i don't see danger deterring him. Not when you consider some of the absolutely crazy aircraft he flew as a test pilot.


As for the rest of the group I have had the extreme privilege to have met Cernan. He was from the town right next door when I was a kid. It was nice to think that a guy from just down the road had gone to the moon. It made me actually believe you could do anything if you were willing to work for it.

[Frantzie]

Neil cheated death in space probably twice. The lunar landing was all messed up with the gauge saying the fuel was low, the LEM’s computer having memory overflows cause it could not handle all the data, boulders everywhere and Neil just stuck with it.

Lovell’s Apollo 13 burn was another miracle.

I think Neil wreck one of those because it was almost impossible to fly. All three of them were Navy guys. Cernan and Neil were engineers too.

You could not give me their job back then. In retrospect their survival on those Mercury, Gemini and Apollo moon missions were probably a bit better than 50/50.

[BradyLS]

Wasn’t that a lunar lander simulator? I did footage of him bailing out of one of those in the movie “In the Shadow of the Moon” a few years back.

He’s flying it pretty much as you see there. Then he ejects, his body going straight up and out of the camera’s field of view. The craft is stable for half a second longer, then it pitches over and crashes. Finally, you see Neil descend in a parachute a few seconds later.