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Armstrong’s Close Call
On May 6, 1968, more than a year before his moon landing, Neil Armstrong had a narrow escape in the lunar landing research vehicle (LLRV) at Ellington Air Force Base near Houston, as seen in this silent film clip. On a simulated lunar descent, leaking propellant caused a total failure of his flight controls and forced an ejection. His only injury was a hard tongue bite. In his Armstrong biography First Man, author James Hansen recounts how astronaut Alan Bean saw Armstrong that afternoon at his desk in the astronaut office. Bean then heard colleagues in the hall talking about the accident, and asked them, “When did this happen?” About an hour ago, they replied. Bean returned to Armstrong and said, “I just heard the funniest story!” Armstrong said, “What?” “I heard that you bailed out of the LLTV an hour ago.” “Yeah, I did,” replied Armstrong. “I lost control and had to bail out of the darn thing.” “I can’t think of another person,” Bean recalls, “let alone another astronaut, who would have just gone back to his office after ejecting a fraction of a second before getting killed.” (01:32)
Video: NASA
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Comments (10)
What a distasteful time for a forced advertisement. Shame!
Posted by Frank "Ake" Naim on August 25,2012 | 06:49 PM
He was a real man, not given to feminine dramatics. He was there to chew bubble gum and kick butt. and he was all out of bubblegum.
Posted by Stan Sikorski on August 25,2012 | 08:00 PM
Talk about the "right stuff"!
Posted by J.R. Sanders on August 27,2012 | 03:42 PM
To the men of the space program and especially Neil Armstrong we in Australia are proud to be a part of the human race who stop with mouths agape as that small step was taken so many years ago. --Robert Fisher
Posted by Robert Fisher on August 27,2012 | 11:43 PM
"He was a real man, not given to feminine dramatics."
Just saying "dramatics" would've sufficed, mate. When they say, 'the right stuff' I'm pretty sure they're not talking about actual testicles. Sheesh. You'd think we'd be past this bs by now.
Posted by Jo on August 30,2012 | 10:12 AM
I'd STILL be groping for the dang ejection handle! These guys and the entire space program at that time deserve kudos for what they accomplished with basically a pencil and slide rule andless computer power than your new car. I can remember watching that black and white image of him stepping off the LEM onto the lunar surface. Remarkable then and still today! He said of himself, "I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer."
Posted by Ron Maty on August 30,2012 | 01:16 PM
Neal Armstrong,
May you rest in peace. You have, and will continue to have a lasting position in my parade of heroes. For most people a walk on the Moon is a lifetime experience never to be duplicated. For Neal Armstrong he made one believe it was a walk in the park.
Posted by Flip Weber on August 30,2012 | 01:34 PM
Another example of his coolness in flight: he had to take over the controls of the lunar lander at the Sea of Tranquility - the terrain was a lot rougher than expected. He is flying this thing, looking for a suitable place to land - and the seconds of fuel remaining are ticking away. When he landed I have heard he had either 10 seconds' or 30 seconds' worth of fuel remaining. Imagine being out of fuel and stranded.
One cool pilot.
Posted by Bill Brandt on August 31,2012 | 02:02 AM
And to think that there have still only been 12 people to walk on the moon. He was first and with undying loyalty to this country. I wish we would go exploring again to some other planets. Godspeed Neil Armstrong and the rest of this wonderful group of Americans.
Posted by Doyle Weatherby on September 24,2012 | 06:50 PM
Not to take one iota of credit away from Neil for his coolness under pressure, but just for the record it should be noted that the '60 seconds', '30 seconds' calls he was getting from MCC were the time to "Bingo" - which meant "Abort if you can't land in the next 20 seconds".
So he wasn't getting close to crashing - just to the point where he would have to punch the "ABORT" button and return to orbit. Neither of them, though, were thinking in terms of aborting; Armstrong later confirmed that if he could have gotten below 30 ft over an acceptable landing spot he was willing to let it run out of fuel and drop the rest of the way.
Posted by Nolan Jarvis on May 7,2013 | 12:37 PM