"Amiable Strangers"
Three distinct personalities, one goal: reach the moon.
- By Michael Klesius
- AirSpaceMag.com, May 21, 2009
NASA
Armstrong practices descending the ladder on the lander mock-up, July 11, 1969. When he came down the real ladder on the moon, he climbed back up onto the last rung, about 32 inches, and observed, “Okay. I just checked getting back up to that first step, Buzz. It’s.…The strut isn’t collapsed too far, but it’s adequate to get back up.” A few seconds later he added, “[It] takes a pretty good little jump.” During the technical debrief after the mission, Armstrong recalled being more comfortable with the ladder at the end of the moonwalk. “The technique I used was one in which I did a deep knee bend with both legs and got my torso down absolutely as close to the footpad as I could. I then sprang vertically up and guided myself with my hands by use of the handrails. That’s how I got to the third step, which I guess was easily five to six feet above the ground.”
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Comments (1)
While the astronauts were deserving heros of the Apollo project your series needs a section on one person in particular, George M. Low. It was he who met the challange of the disastrous fire that killed three astronauts and brought together the science and engineering that made the capsule workable.
George was originally brought from the Cleveland NASA lab to the Office of Manned Space Flight by Abe Silverstine. After the fire he was transferred to Houston to take over the design of the capsule. Without him the Moon landing may never have happened. After the landing and the instigation of the Space lab project he was made Deputy Administrator of NASA. His life story would be worth an article.
Posted by Robert E. Blue on June 24,2009 | 12:16 PM