Astronaut Neil Armstrong, an engineer’s engineer, has passed away.
Statement from Neil Armstrong’s Family
My prayers go out to Neil Armstrong’s family and friends. He was a true American Hero and will be greatly missed.
Rest in peace Neil, your name will forever be blazed in the stars.
This is a sad month for space exploration and pioneers, losing both Sally Ride and Neil Armstrong.
Neil’s words and actions will live on forever as an inspiration to the word.
Please, He was a WORLD Hero.
Rest in Peace Neil. You changed the world for the better.
Very Sad, but he was a hero.
A test pilot’s test pilot. Sad day to see his passing, but it is refreshing to see the public respect being paid… Maybe we do celebrate the right things after all…
I think this picture puts a lot of things in perspective.
Neil Armstrong… Eagle Scout, test pilot, astronaut, first man to walk on the moon. You’ll be remembered, sir.
Goodbye Neil, you were one of my greatest heroes!
Signing off for now…
“I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer, born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace and propelled by compressible flow.” Armstrong said in February 2000 in one a rare public appearance. *“And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession.” *
RIP Neil.
He lived in Cincinnati and we invited him to the Queen City Regional, but he was not able to make it.
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.
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
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.”
.
There really aren’t words to properly say what Armstrong’s service to our country means. I am in awe of all he’s done.
An Ohio Representative has called for President Obama to honor Armstrong with a state funeral. If any non-President is worthy of a state funeral, I think it would be Armstrong, though he probably would have hated the idea of it.
NASA has also stated that if Armstrong says he said “a man” that’s their official stance.
No doubt about either of those points. I do think if there is only a small private gathering it provides a thought provoking contrast to Yuri Gagarin’s massive state funeral.