Apollo 11 pilot Michael Collins dies

[JesusAndYourBush]

Everyone who landed on the moon also walked on it. Did you mean the flew to/walked split? There are 24 people who have flown to the moon, of which 12 landed and walked, and 12 orbited/looped around but did not land.

That doesn't look right... Three men were in each Apollo, 2 landed one didn't.  So of the 6 successful Apollo missions 12 walked on the moon, and 6 orbited in the taxi waiting to take them home.

If we add Apollo 13 because they orbited the moon we get 12 walked, 9 didn't.

If we're including Apollo 13 we also have to add the earlier Apollo test flights where they orbited the moon, Apollo 8  and 10  so that makes 12 walked, 15 didn't.  But subtract 3 because 3 went twice, so, er, 12 and 12, like you said!

[steve98]

It wasn't a Small Step For A Man, Neil, it was a rather large (and clumsy) jump-off for a man, due to the landing module's shock-absorbers not compressing correctly (due to you landing too gently.)

[Fr.Bigley]

It wasn't a Small Step For A Man, Neil, it was a rather large (and clumsy) jump for a man, due to the landing module's shock-absorbers not compressing correctly (due to you landing too gently.)

The computin' pooer was less than a Casio calculator mon. Mindblowin

[steve98]

Aye.
Also Neil, how did you get back up the ladder? Mmm?....... that's' got you innit? Thought nobody would notice eh?  What did Buzz just get down on his hands and knees and you stepped on him? Yeah right.

[An tSaoi]

It's perfect that at the very peak of human achievement, Armstrong flubbed his line. It sums up humanity.

[steve98]

He failed to prepare for the moment.

(Here's a small step for a Manc):

[touchingcloth]

A slight fuck-ma-hat moment, but Apollo 8 was the first mission to travel to the moon, but also the only mission which flew to the moon all of whose crew members are still living. They could do a repeat of that Christmas Eve bible reading if they felt like getting sued again.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Apollo 10 went one further than Apollo 8 and took the lunar module out for a fly, they just didn't land.  I've always wondered if they'd decided to go rogue and just go "Fuck it, we're landing anyway!" whether they had the necessary equipment/fuel/etc to complete the mission successfully.

[mothman]

If I remember correctly, that is a plot point in For All Mankind, in that the fictional Apollo 10 crew do briefly consider it before ultimately deciding to stick to the mission plan. And then the Russians land before Apollo 11 even launches.

[NoOffenceLynn]

A few more titbits from the Armstrong book, which was as emotionally barron as the Moon, so this is best you're gonna bet.


When they were coming in to land on the Moon they literally had 4 seconds of fuel to do so AND to dock again with Collins, Buzz remembered looking at Armstrong making "just fucking land quickly" hand gestures.

Armstrong's heart rate was measured at all times and reached its highest when he was about to get out of the Lunar Module, the guys on the ground were communicating live on TV with them and rather than letting the public hear "your heart rate is literally off the planet, just relax and breathe" they asked him to take an atmosphere check, which was code for calm the fuck down.

When Buzz and Armstrong got back into the Lunar Module their bulky suits knocked off a vital lever, vital as in, we need this to start the Module to get home. Armstrong camly got a pen and jutted it into the hole left behind by the broken lever and the rest is...

[NoOffenceLynn]

Woops tried to modify but ended up quoting myself.

[NoOffenceLynn]

.

[Butchers Blind]

There was that bit in Buzz's autobiography where he recalls Neil picking up a bit of Moon rock. When they're back in the command module, Neil takes off his helmet and gives the rock a lick, he looked disappointed and didn't speak for the rest of the journey.

[NoOffenceLynn]

Have just done the same quote thing again, christ l need to go to bed.

In my defence l have been up all night looking after my bro (he has a serious illness) no mistakes are going happen.

[steve98]

no mistakes are going happen.

So?

[NoOffenceLynn]

So?

Lol, it just gets worse.

[markburgle]

It's perfect that at the very peak of human achievement, Armstrong flubbed his line. It sums up humanity.

I think he claimed that he did say it properly but didn't enunciate enough - that his American accented "for uh man" sounded indistinguishable from "for man".

[An tSaoi]

Yes, I've heard that he was happy if the "a" was included in parenthesis.

They did all sorts of tests on the audio recording, thinking that maybe the "a" got last in static, but the boffins just couldn't find it.

The simple explanation is he just fucked it up, which I find endearing.

The places an emphasis of "man" that doesn't sound right to me. It very much sounds like the way you would say the Dawn of Man, or Man is the most dangerous animal, not the way you would say "a man".

[Fr.Bigley]

"For Man" sounds much nicer, it implies the achievement is shared with "man". Mankind is the legacy element. It actually, symantically, works.

[An tSaoi]

No, Man and Mankind is the same thing. The fucked it. Alright? He fucked it.

What a dunce. Man on the moon? Man with his foot in his mouth more like.

[idunnosomename]

One Swiss dinosaur in Polly Gosling's anorak hood

[An tSaoi]

Q: Did you misspeak?

A: There isn't any way of knowing.

Q: Several sources say you did.

A: I mean, there isn't any way of my knowing. When I listen to the tape, I can't hear the 'a', but that doesn't mean it wasn't there, because that was the fastest VOX ever built. There was no mike-switch — it was a voice-operated key or VOX. In a helmet you find you lose a lot of syllables. Sometimes a short syllable like 'a' might not be transmitted. However, when I listen to it, I can't hear it. But the 'a' is implied, so I'm happy if they just put it in parentheses.

Omni, June 1982, p. 126

A bad workman always blames his tools.

[steve98]

A small step for Neil, one giant leap for non-stick-pan annealing.

[Johnboy]

Well I never knew till now that he flubbed it and I've always understood what he meant, so it was fine really.

[H-O-W-L]

There was that bit in Buzz's autobiography where he recalls Neil picking up a bit of Moon rock. When they're back in the command module, Neil takes off his helmet and gives the rock a lick, he looked disappointed and didn't speak for the rest of the journey.

Absolutely fucking creasing at this. Can't get over it.

[Alberon]

I just have this image of Neil looking sadly at a packet of crackers all the way home.

[touchingcloth]

Well I never knew till now that he flubbed it and I've always understood what he meant, so it was fine really.

That, and I think we can forgive it given this:

Armstrong's heart rate was measured at all times and reached its highest when he was about to get out of the Lunar Module, the guys on the ground were communicating live on TV with them and rather than letting the public hear "your heart rate is literally off the planet, just relax and breathe" they asked him to take an atmosphere check, which was code for calm the fuck down.

There's also precedent which well predates Are Neil for man/a man ambiguity - early Shakespeare texts can't agree on Hamlet's "what a piece of work is (a) man".[nb]The subsequent lines also vary in their punctuation, some being more blaspheming than others:

how noble in reason,
how infinite in faculties, in form and moving,
how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension,
how like a god!

how noble in reason? How infinite in faculties?
In form and moving, how express and admirable?
In action, how like an angel? In apprehension,
how like a god!

The Elizabethans were less rigorous with commas, and uncertain over whether angels could act or only apprehend.
[/nb]

[mothman]

I just have this image of Neil looking sadly at a packet of crackers all the way home.

At least he didn't try to sell them afterwards, as "moon crackers", or he'd've been done like Dave Scott was over those stamps.