Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon P2

Continue from Part 1:
There was no defining moment in Armstrong's decision to become an astronaut. In 1957, he was selected for the U.S. Air Force's Man In Space Soonest program. In November 1960 Armstrong was chosen as part of the pilot consultant group for the X-20 Dyna-Soar, a military space plane. On March 15, 1962 he was named as one of six pilot-engineers who would fly the space plane when it got off the design board. In the months after the announcement that applications were being sought for the second group of NASA astronauts, he became more and more excited about the prospect of the Apollo program and the prospect of investigating a new aeronautical environment. Armstrong's astronaut application had arrived about a week past the June 1, 1962 deadline. Dick Day, with whom Armstrong had worked closely at Edwards, worked at the Manned Spacecraft Center, saw the late arrival of the application, and slipped it into the pile before anyone noticed. At Brooks City-Base at the end of June he underwent a medical exam that many of the applicants described as painful and at times seemingly pointless. Deke Slayton called Armstrong on September 13, 1962 and asked if he was interested in joining the NASA Astronaut Corps as part of what the press dubbed "the New Nine". Without hesitation, Armstrong said yes. He would be selected as the "first civilian astronaut". Armstrong did not actually become the first worldwide civilian to fly in space, since the Russians launched Valentina Tereshkova, a textile worker and amateur parachutist, aboard Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963.
The crew assignments for Gemini 8 were announced on September 20, 1965, with Armstrong as Command Pilot with Pilot David Scott. Scott was the first member of the third group of astronauts to receive a prime crew assignment. The mission launched March 16, 1966. It was to be the most complex yet, with a rendezvous and docking with the unmanned Agena target vehicle, the second American (and third ever) extra-vehicular activity (EVA) (Armstrong himself dislikes the term "spacewalk") by Scott. In total the mission was planned to last 75 hours and 55 orbits. After the Agena lifted off at 10 a.m. EST, the Titan II carrying Armstrong and Scott ignited at 11:41:02 a.m. EST, putting them into an orbit from where they would chase the Agena. The rendezvous and first ever docking between two spacecraft was successfully completed after 6.5 hours in orbit. Contact with the crew was intermittent due to the lack of tracking stations covering their entire orbits. Out of contact with the ground, the docked spacecraft began to roll, which Armstrong attempted to correct with the Orbital Attitude and Maneuvering System (OAMS) of the Gemini spacecraft. Following the earlier advice of Mission Control, they undocked, but found that the roll increased dramatically to the point where they were turning about once per second, which meant the problem was in their Gemini's attitude control. Armstrong decided the only course of action was to engage the Reentry Control System (RCS) and turn off the OAMS. Mission rules dictated that once this system was turned on, the spacecraft would have to reenter at the next possible opportunity. It was later thought that damaged wiring made one of the thrusters become stuck on.
After Armstrong served as backup commander for Apollo 8, Slayton offered him the post of commander of Apollo 11 on December 23, 1968, as 8 orbited the Moon. A March 1969 meeting between Slayton, George Low, Bob Gilruth, and Chris Kraft determined that Armstrong would be the first person on the Moon, in some part because NASA management saw Armstrong as a person who did not have a large ego. A press conference held on April 14, 1969 gave the design of the LM cabin as the reason for Armstrong being first; the hatch opened inwards and to the right, making it difficult for the lunar module pilot, on the right-hand side, to egress first. Slayton added, "Secondly, just on a pure protocol basis, I figured the commander ought to be the first guy out. . . . I changed it as soon as I found they had the time line that showed that. Bob Gilruth approved my decision." At the time of their meeting, the four men did not know about the hatch issue. The first knowledge of the meeting outside the small group came when Kraft wrote his 2001 autobiography.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Neil Armstrong
• Apollo 11
• Moon Landing
• Retrun to the Moon
• The Moon
• Lunar
• Moon's origin
• Partial Lunar Eclipse
• Lunar Eclipse
• Solar Eclipse
• Lunar Pole
• water on the Moon
• ice on the moon
• Sunrise on the Moon
• Sunset on the Moon
• Moon
• Lunar Libration
• Lunar Phases
• Lunar Farside
• the faces of the moon
• lunar rotation
• moon
• Earth
• solar system
• lunar months
• sidereal month
• kurdistan planetarium
• kurd
• kurdistan

[impalax327]

People are real idiots. The question "did we go to the Moon" is stupid considering there were numerous missions to the Moon over five years. "Did we go to the Moon EVERY time" should be the question. "The moon landing was faked" is that mantra of morons everywhere because they're too dumb to know there was more than ONE Apollo mission and think it was a one off event. We landed on the Moon alright, just maybe not as many times as they said we did.

[KurdstanPlanetarium]

@impalax327 yes, people who belive in conspiracy theory think of Apollo 11 only, while 6 Apollo mission landed on the moon, and over all 12 men walked on the moon...2 more Apollos (10, 13) went round the moon, of course Apollo 13 failed the landing.I am not in favour of Conspircay Theory, I have the Book ( Dark Moon, Apollo and the whistle blowers), aslo watched FOX TV documentary, I agree there are some inconsistency with some pictures but that does not prove it was fake !!

[C2Low1]

Question still waiting for a good and truthful answer - If Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon, who filmed him setting foot on the moon? NASA said the camera was mounted on the leg of Lunar Module. That is rubbish.

[KurdstanPlanetarium]

@C2Low1 sorry I answered someone's question 4 days ago,exactly like yours and the answer is there, if 24 Billions of Dollars spend on sending Man to the Moon, do you think is difficulte to picture him stepping outside the Lunar Module?????

Space Cameras do the amaing things these days, from Mars and Beyond, its like an Astronauts eye on Mars directing every moves of the Martian Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity), not to mention the Voyager, Galileo and Casini missions from Jupiter and Saturn !!!

[seahawk124]

At 2:06, did he say, "The Queen of Buckingham Palace."

I think you'll find she reigns more than the postal area of SW1A 1AA.

[Justmyside]

I still can't believe how people can't acknowledge Man's accomplishments & would rather cling to far fetched conspiracy theories

It is really time to mature

The Soviets were in a space war against the US at the time

The Apollo missions were tracked by Radar & Ham radio operators around the world

Moon rocks were brought back with the same oxygen isotopes that back the theory on how the moon was formed

You don't think that nobody outside the US would have busted NASA at the time

Watch this video

[frogweaver111]

@Justmyside well as Neil himself said, truth has 'many protective layers'.. I think they went to the moon but I'm not sure what they found when they were there. Perhaps there was a need to give fake footage at least once. . and who knows, maybe every time. But they must have at least gone.

[jsilence418]

@TiaraAlonso In order to be buried in a lunar basalt coffin in the sea of tranquility ,they first have to find a way to get to the moon !! hey maybe they could bury him on the set in area 51 where the fake landing was filmed! do ya think that's a good idea !

[jsilence418]

In old age the barrier between preserving a lie and the truth is let down. Here is what happened in an interview with Armstrong: Asked what was accomplished by the moon landing, Armstrong answered" Moon landing ? we did? when ? jesus h. christmas how in hell could we have done that? " true story !

[iXelsior]

@impalax327 Electrons, Protons, Neutrons and Morons make the world go round. 

[canadamonster]

50 years of lies wow

[canadamonster]

on area 51 lol

[TiaraAlonso]

God bless this man.. When he dies, there must be a WORLDWIDE funeral for him.. He must be kept in a sarcophagus made from Lunar basalt, then buried at the sea of Tranquility.. What a legend. Oh, I hope he doesn't die any time soon! How cool would it be if he was the first man on Mars too?? That would be so cool.

[TranscendIntoDreams]

@C2Low1 Why is that "rubbish"? Sounds legit