The first man on the moon

The Guardian ^ | 07/02/09 | Tim Radford

[KevinDavis]

Apollo was momentous in a way that Yuri Gagarin's first, heroic orbit could never have been. Gagarin had circled the Earth in 92 minutes in 1961. He had travelled 24,000 miles in an hour and a half; he had made history; he had confirmed Soviet space supremacy; he had done a thing that many thought could never be done. But two things separated him from the Apollo team eight years later.

[KevinDavis]

[GoDuke]

BFL

[Mr_Moonlight]

~~~ PING ~~~

[yarddog]

I always thought John Glenn got more mileage out of his space ride than anyone else.

He was not the first man in space. He was not the first American in space nor was he the first man to orbit the earth but I suspect a lot of people would guess he did at least two of those.

[fhayek]

I think John Glenn was the first man to sell his soul for a trip to space.

[knarf]

.. and then he disappeared from the scene.

Whatever happened to him?

[KevinDavis]

I used to respect John Glenn.. But Mr Clean Marine to me is a phony.. I respect 6 out of 7 Mercury Astronauts....

[NCC-1701]

Here's the original picture that ole George is a takeoff from:

[Cyber Liberty]

That was Jake Garn. Glenn was the second.

[NCC-1701]

He shows up on occasion at NASA events.

[Altura Ct.]

Wasn’t Armstrong a slave holder or at least distantly related to one in some way? We really need to rethink and revisit what REALLY took place on the moon and the events that lead up to it and subsequently afterward. About how white advantage and the oppression from this Apollo astronaut has disenfranchised whole groups of peoples. What happened to the native moononians? Do we owe them reparations? I think in reality the first man on the moon was not Armstong but an African American. I am so disappointed he still gets accolades or for that matter any of these evil Apollo Astronauts. It is past time we disavow all NASA association and praise.... God I hate being American and in particular hate being white...I’m thinking of killing myself. We really are miserable evil people.

[Young Werther]

He never had a chance since the everything was done in alphabetical order.

Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins!

[Frantzie]

The Guardian is a leftist rag but a surprisingly well written article. Staggering we were able to this with slide rules. Odd how a UK paper is commemorating this incredible achievement 40 years ago while the US news media is stuck on Michael Jackson and drooling over Obama.

[CaptRon]

Most people I know this he was the first American in space.

[Mr_Moonlight]

few days later Senator Teddy Kennedy, brother of the late John Kennedy, was trying to explain the mysterious death of a girl off a bridge at Chappaquiddick, Nixon was talking again about the war in Vietnam and Britain abolished the halfpenny. Somehow, we were back to business as usual.

Half a million hippies were preparing to crash the gates and slosh about in the mud at Woodstock ... Charlie Manson was planning his murderous acts of infamy ... business as usual, /sigh

[SunkenCiv]

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"You want to impress us? Bring back our FLAG, A-holes!"

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[Frantzie]

The article mentions Collins gave everything a 50/50 chance because 5.6 million parts. These guys were mega smart and mega brave.

Armstrong landing the LM while the computer is going crazy with warnings because it could not handle all the data in real time. Armstrong was an incredible test pilot.

[JerseyJohn61]

I remember that day perfectly, despite only being a 7 y/o.
An overcast, late Sunday afternoon. None of us watching on
TV, knew at the time, just how close of a call both Neil
and Buzz had trying to land that gangly LM on the surface.
Instead, we all watched , as with the faith of a child, and
believed that they WOULD surely accomplish the feat with
little trouble.

JJ61

[onedoug]

‘First in war,
First in peace
And first in the hearts of spacefarers.'