Passing of Neil Armstrong

[CalTran]

The passing of yet another great STEM inspiration. Quite depressing, but now his spirit can roam free among the stars he came ever so close to touching and bringing back to us.

[JaneYoung]

This news has affected me very deeply and I don't really feel like I can express my thoughts well at all. I think that living history that is remarkably unfolding before our eyes is something that becomes such a part of us we that cannot bear to let go. It makes reliving that remarkably unfolding historical moment very precious and very sad when we have to say goodbye. At least, that is how I feel right now. I am grateful for Neil Armstrong's life and for how he chose to live it.

Thank you for your post, Ian.

Jane

[ChuckDickerson]

I was born July 20, 1969, the day Neil and Buzz landed on the moon. Neil has always been my hero. I am truly saddened by the loss of such a great man. I had always hoped to meet him one day. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say to him exactly that he hadn’t heard thousands of times before from thousands of other people, yet I still just wanted to shake his hand and tell him what an inspiration he has been to me all my life. I will never get that chance now, but I suppose, humble as he was, he already knew what an inspiration he was to all of us. I think the famous poem “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. is appropriate:


“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”



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