First man on the Moon - Neil Armstrong (1930 - 2012):

Earth’s ultimate hero

By Pramod DE SILVA

“Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all Mankind.”

The giant step for mankind

The plaque on which these words have been inscribed still lies somewhere in the Sea of Tranquillity on the Earth’s only natural satellite, the Moon. We have still not conquered any other world ‘in the flesh’, though our robotic probes are out there doing great work. One example is NASA’s Curiosity Rover which is now exploring Mars. However, there is nothing like sending a human being to an extraterrestrial world, even if it is the Moon, our nearest celestial neighbour.

This is precisely what Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin did on July 20, 1969. Armstrong, who died last week at the age of 82, will be known forever as the first man to set foot on the Moon and for his famous words: “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind”. And 600 million people around the world watched in awe (in grainy black and white) as he left his footprints on the sands of the Moon.

Today, the focus is naturally on Mars, especially with the success of the NASA missions to that planet. There are growing calls for sending a man to the Red Planet, but when John F. Kennedy spoke 60 years ago of sending a man to the Moon “before the decade is out”, only a very few believed it could be done. Not only was it done with five months to spare, but they also launched multiple sessions which saw 12 people walk on the Moon. Yet, we have not been able to repeat that feat during the past 40 years.

Armstrong was a strong proponent of manned space exploration. As the trailblazer of space travel, he had every right and every reason to express his feelings on this score. Along with more than two dozen Apollo-era veterans, he signed a letter calling NASA’s current plans a ‘‘misguided proposal that forces NASA out of human space operations for the foreseeable future’’.

US space program

In an interview in Australia earlier this year, he said it was “sad” that the current US government’s ambitions for NASA were so reduced compared with the achievements of the 1960s. “NASA has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve,” said Armstrong. “It’s sad that we are turning the program in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people.”

Armstrong was indeed a young man when he was picked for the US space program.

It was a challenging time for NASA because the Russians had actually sent the first satellite and the first man into space. Kennedy’s pledge added an extra burden to an organisation which was already facing immense pressure to ‘win’ the space race. Armstrong was perhaps in the right place at the right time.

The young Neil Armstrong

Armstrong in later years

Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio in 1930. He was fascinated with aviation from his young days, experimenting with model airplanes. At 15 he began flying lessons in an Aeronca Champion, and by 16 acquired his student pilot’s licence even before getting his driver’s licence. In 1947, he enrolled at Purdue University to pursue a degree in aeronautical engineering.

In 1949 the Navy called him to active duty in the Korean War during which he flew 78 combat missions. In 1952 he returned to his studies and completed his BSc at Purdue and an MSc in aerospace engineering at the University of Southern California.

In 1955 he became a civilian research pilot at the Lewis Research Centre of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

He then went to NACA’s high-speed flight station at the Edwards Air Force Base in California as an aeronautical research scientist/pilot. He was a test pilot on many high-speed aircraft, including the X-15. He could handle over 200 different models of aircraft. In 1962 he was among the nine test pilots chosen by NASA for its second astronaut-training program.

Flight cut short

Armstrong received his wings as an astronaut in March 1966 as commander of the Gemini 8. He and his fellow astronaut David Scott experienced an emergency in the first ever space docking procedure, but they made a dramatic escape after Mission Control ordered them to cut the flight short.

Just three years later, Armstrong was at the helm of NASA’s first lunar landing. (There was no special selection system – according to NASA’s flight roster, it was simply Armstrong’s turn.) On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 blasted off. On July 20, four days later, at 4.18 pm US Eastern Daylight Time, the Eagle lunar lander was guided to land on a valley near the south-western edge of the Sea of Tranquillity.

He later described those “12 minutes of terror”, having realised that the Eagle lunar module’s auto-pilot was preparing to land the crew on the slope of a huge moon crater.

“The computer showed us where it intended to land, and it was a very bad location, on the side of a large crater about 100-150m in diameter with very steep slopes covered with very large boulders – not a good place to land at all.”

Armstrong took over the craft manually and landed it like a helicopter in a smoother area to the west with just 20 seconds of fuel left. ‘‘Houston: Tranquillity Base here,’’ Armstrong radioed after the spacecraft settled on the Moon. ‘‘The Eagle has landed.’’

At 10.56pm Armstrong stepped off the ladder of the lunar module and became the first human to set foot on the Moon. Buzz Aldrin joined him 20 minutes later. They walked on the Moon for nearly two hours, put up a flag and a plaque and collected 22 Kg of Moon rocks and soil. They also talked to President Richard Nixon via a radio link. ‘‘The sights were simply magnificent, beyond any visual experience that I had ever been exposed to,’’ Armstrong said later.

Sea of Tranquility

Meanwhile, Michael Collins orbited the Moon alone in the Columbia command module. The Eagle was on the Moon for 21 hours and 36 minutes. It took off from the Moon at 1.54p.m on July 21 and docked with Columbia for the journey home. They splashed down in the Pacific on July 24, 1969 as heroes who had conquered another world and changed ours in the process.

Neil Armstrong’s footprint on the Moon

Dr Arthur C. Clarke wrote that the Apollo 11 moon landing was “one of the great divides in human history; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquillity. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined.”

John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, noted it was “the first time any human being set foot on a place other than Earth, and that’s a pretty big step.”

However, Armstrong never let that “pretty big step” go to his head. He shunned publicity and kept away from the limelight. He described himself as a simple engineer who simply did his job. ‘‘I can honestly say - and it’s a big surprise to me - that I have never had a dream about being on the Moon,’’ he once said. As one of his friends said, “He was the ultimate hero in an era of corruptible men’’.

The next time you gaze at the Moon, just remember this ultimate hero. In the words of his family,‘‘Honour his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the Moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink’’.