Virgil

He was one of my boyhood heroes. His very name rings with adventure, challenge, and achievement. Who can forget that Apollo 11 mission? With his passing goes the magic and glory of youth. I remember as an eight year old boy at my grandmother’s house with what must have been close to twenty family members sitting in front of a black and white TV. Here's a nice news clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GcbyGRe_FI

Of all the Obit articles I read, I thought this was the best.

Neil Armstrong was a quiet, self-described "nerdy" engineer who became a global hero when as a steely-nerved U.S. pilot he made "one giant leap for mankind" with the first step on the moon.

The modest man who entranced and awed people on Earth has died. He was 82.

Armstrong died Saturday following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures, a statement from his family said. It didn't say where he died.

Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969, capping the most daring of the 20th century's scientific expeditions. His first words after setting foot on the surface are etched in history books and in the memories of those who heard them in a live broadcast.

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong said.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/...#ixzz24bmPS6kE

That’s one of the great quotes of all time. And who can forget that other great line, “The Eagle has landed.” The article goes on to have Armstrong described what he saw from the moon.

"The sights were simply magnificent, beyond any visual experience that I had ever been exposed to," Armstrong once said.

The moonwalk marked America's victory in the Cold War space race that began Oct. 4, 1957, with the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, a satellite that sent shock waves around the world.

An estimated 600 million people -- a fifth of the world's population -- watched and listened to the moon landing, the largest audience for any single event in history.

Parents huddled with their children in front of the family television, mesmerized. Farmers abandoned their nightly milking duties, and motorists pulled off the highway and checked into motels just to watch on TV.

Although he had been a Navy fighter pilot, a test pilot for NASA's forerunner and an astronaut, Armstrong never allowed himself to be caught up in the celebrity and glamour of the space program.

"I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer," he said in February 2000 in one of his rare public appearances. "And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession."

I think it was sometime before high school when I learned that Neil Armstrong was an engineer; then it was planted in my head that I had to be one as well. I too was going to be an astronaut, and I had to follow those footsteps. Of course as I grew older it dawned on me that I get horribly motion sickness and there was no way I could pass the motion flight simulator tests without puking. Heck I puked on joy rides at a carnival…lol. And to be honest, I don’t think I would have had the courage to be a pilot, let alone a jet fighter pilot, and then an astronaut. Which leads one to really admire men and women like Armstrong, sitting on tons of explosive rocket fuel as one is sling shot into the heavens, realizing that every mechanical, electrical, and chemical function that was designed and tested could fail from an erroneous calculation, a poorly set up development test, or a slip shot manufacture and assembly. They have courage in spades.

While I didn’t follow Armstrong into flight, I did follow him as that nerdy engineer, and though I don’t usually wear white socks with slacks and shoes (it has happened on a few occasions) and I don’t use a pocket protector, I do typically keep two pens, one black, one blue, and a mechanical pencil in my front shirt pocket while at work. Engineering is the next best thing to being an astronaut. If it were up to me every engineer should wear a white shirt and tie just like those NASA engineers did in the 1960s. I do have a very good and interesting job, but it aint NASA. I still dream of one day being the project manager or lead engineer of one of these NASA enterprises; heck I’d settle for lab technician, or even designer of a screw for a space ship.

Why is it that space travel carries so much fascination and charm? Is it because the stakes are so enormously high, one errant move and you face instant death? Is it because of the elegance in the execution of a complex set of actions that more than mesmerize, a sort of Houdini trick on steroids? Is it because it is the last adventure, the crossing over into a terra incognita where no one on earth has ever touched, smelled, or used any of their senses to experience? It’s all those and more. It’s the propelling forth of man’s abilities to break through natural limitations. Captain Ahab wanted to break through the mask that was the white whale. Armstrong and crew and project team and supporting nation broke through the clenching folds of earth’s protective womb and landed on what all men from first time they noticed the heavens saw as a small, pale disc that traversed the night sky. It was beyond human in scope.

Now Neal A. Armstrong has crossed over into another place. May he be in heaven’s grace.