WWE Smackdown World tour arrived to Portugal, to Lisbon in Pavilhão Atlântico.
The show was awsome. 3/4 of the house full tonight. The first part with 1 hour 20 minutes and the second part with 1 hour.
I will write below the results of the matches with the winners in Bold.
2012-11-10
Hosted by Tony Chimel
1 - Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara df. The Prime time Players (Titus O'Neil & Darren Young). Good match, crowd was into it.
2 - R-Truth df. El Local (Ricardo Rodriguez). Crowd chanted “Ricardo” throughout the match and was really into truth. After the match Miz attacked Truth in the ramp and cut a promo (in portuguese) about how he would win the IC title later on in the night.
3 - Wade Barrett df. Justin Gabriel. (Second best match of the night!) Crowd really liked both guys.
4 - Kaitlyn df. Natalya. Not actually a bad match, at least two divas who can wrestle put up a show.
5 - Randy Orton df. Alberto Del Rio. Crowd was into Orton, I mean REALLY into Orton.
Intermission;
6- Jack Swagger df. Ted Dibiase via Submission. Dibiase kept dancing Gangnam Style throughout the match, really funny.
7 - Kofi Kingston df. Miz to retain the Intercontinental Championship. Good match, no thanks to Miz, Kofi really had the crowd going.
8 - Sheamus df. Big Show by DQ. Big Show was DQ’d by pushing the referee in front of him when Sheamus was going for the Brogue Kick.
Sheamus hits the Brogue kick after the match is over to send us home happy. Definitely best match of the night. Sheamus and Big Show fans spread throughout the whole stadium.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Wednesday, November 07, 2012
Bon Jovi, 2012-11-07 - Correio da Manhã, Bon Jovi querem encher Bela Vista (in portuguese)
http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/detalhe/noticias/lazer/musica/bon-jovi-querem-encher-bela-vista
Por:Rui Pedro Vieira
No concerto em Lisboa, no ano passado, Jon Bon Jovi tinha dado a entender que a banda estava a encerrar um ciclo. Porém, a nova fase do grupo formado em 1983 não tardou e a banda está de volta à estrada já em 2013. Com direito a uma nova paragem pelo Parque da Bela Vista, em Lisboa, no dia 26 de Junho.
A digressão ‘Because We Can’ arranca em Fevereiro, no Canadá, e conta passar depois pelos cinco continentes. Além da revisitação de êxitos como ‘Livin’On a Prayer’ ou ‘It’s My Life’, os Bon Jovi vão também apresentar as canções do disco que será lançado na Primavera de 2013 e do qual já se conhece o nome: ‘What About Now’.
Apesar do manager da banda ter revelado há umas semanas estar preocupado com a crise global e de ter dado a entender que haveria entradas ‘low cost’, os preços dos bilhetes anunciados para Lisboa, que são postos à venda às 10h00 de sábado, são a partir dos 59 euros. Já para os fãs que quiserem ter acesso à zona VIP – com direito a comida e bebida durante o concerto – a entrada pode chegar aos 295 euros.
A 31 de Julho do ano passado, os Bon Jovi conseguiram juntar 56 mil fãs em Lisboa. Agora, querem repetir a façanha, mesmo depois de já terem sido vistos ao vivo, ao longo da carreira, por 35 milhões de pessoas em mais de 2700 concertos.
Nos últimos dias, Jon Bon Jovi esteve envolvido em acções de solidariedade e participou num concerto a favor das vítimas do temporal ‘Sandy’. Porém, já se prepara para celebrar os 30 anos do grupo a que dá nome.
Jon Bon Jovi e sua banda tocaram no Parque da Bela Vista para 56 mil pessoas, a 31 de Julho de 2011
Música: Grupo regressa pouco mais de um ano depois
Bon Jovi querem encher Bela Vista
Banda assinala 30 anos de carreira em 2013 e passa por Lisboa para novo concerto no dia 26 de Junho. Os bilhetes são postos à venda neste sábado.
Por:Rui Pedro Vieira
No concerto em Lisboa, no ano passado, Jon Bon Jovi tinha dado a entender que a banda estava a encerrar um ciclo. Porém, a nova fase do grupo formado em 1983 não tardou e a banda está de volta à estrada já em 2013. Com direito a uma nova paragem pelo Parque da Bela Vista, em Lisboa, no dia 26 de Junho.
A digressão ‘Because We Can’ arranca em Fevereiro, no Canadá, e conta passar depois pelos cinco continentes. Além da revisitação de êxitos como ‘Livin’On a Prayer’ ou ‘It’s My Life’, os Bon Jovi vão também apresentar as canções do disco que será lançado na Primavera de 2013 e do qual já se conhece o nome: ‘What About Now’.
Apesar do manager da banda ter revelado há umas semanas estar preocupado com a crise global e de ter dado a entender que haveria entradas ‘low cost’, os preços dos bilhetes anunciados para Lisboa, que são postos à venda às 10h00 de sábado, são a partir dos 59 euros. Já para os fãs que quiserem ter acesso à zona VIP – com direito a comida e bebida durante o concerto – a entrada pode chegar aos 295 euros.
A 31 de Julho do ano passado, os Bon Jovi conseguiram juntar 56 mil fãs em Lisboa. Agora, querem repetir a façanha, mesmo depois de já terem sido vistos ao vivo, ao longo da carreira, por 35 milhões de pessoas em mais de 2700 concertos.
Nos últimos dias, Jon Bon Jovi esteve envolvido em acções de solidariedade e participou num concerto a favor das vítimas do temporal ‘Sandy’. Porém, já se prepara para celebrar os 30 anos do grupo a que dá nome.
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
Bon Jovi, 2012-11-06 - ptjornal, Bon Jovi em Portugal: Digressão de 2013 passa pela Bela Vista a 26 de junho (in portuguese)
http://www.ptjornal.com/2012110611887/geral/artes/bon-jovi-em-portugal-digressao-de-2013-passa-pelo-parque-da-bela-vista-a-26-de-junho.html
A digressão mundial dos Bon Jovi passa por Portugal, no dia 26 de junho do próximo ano. ‘Because We Can – The Tour’ começa nos EUA, em fevereiro, e passa por Portugal, com um concerto que decorrerá no Parque da Bela Vista.
Já se sabia que os Bon Jovi iriam regressar à estrada no próximo ano, para encher estádios e arenas em todo o mundo, com a digressão ‘Because We Can - The Tour’. A esta boa nova para os fãs portugueses da banda junta-se uma outra informação relevante: a digressão passa por solo luso.
‘Because We Can – The Tour’, que atravessará todo o mundo, começa em fevereiro de 2013, nos EUA, antes de atravessar o Atlântico rumo à Europa. Também o Médio Oriente, África, América Latina e Austrália constam da digressão.
O regresso dos Bon Jovi aos palcos mundiais em 2013 confirma o estatuto da banda como uma das melhores do mundo, no rock ao vivo. Os Bon Jovi contam já mais de 2700 concertos, em mais de 50 países. No total, mais de 35 milhões de fãs viram e ouviram os Bon Jovi ao vivo.
A banda de Jon Bon Jobi arrecadando o prémio de digressão mundial mais bem sucedida por duas vezes, em apenas três anos. ‘Because We Can – The Tour’ não será apenas uma viagem ao passado: serão apresentadas as músicas do novo álbum ‘What About Now’, a editar na primavera do próximo ano.
Estas novidades juntam-se ao arsenal de munições dos Bon Jovi, que inclui os eternos êxitos ‘Livin' on a Prayer’, ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’, ‘Who Says You Can't Go Home’ ou ‘It's My Life’.
Com um dos maiores catálogos de canções da história do rock’n’roll, os Bon Jovi já venderam mais de 125 milhões de álbuns e têm um invejável currículo de conquistas. Nas anteriores digressões mundiais do grupo, os críticos foram unânimes nos aplausos.
O Las Vegas Sun escreveu que “os Bon Jovi deram tudo, até já não haver mais para dar. Electrizante, extraordinário, excitante, entusiasmante e exuberante”.
Já o Montreal Gazette afirmou, por sua vez, que “não há muitas bandas a conseguirem tamanho feito. Isto está apenas reservado aos melhores e resume-se a oferecer às pessoas uma experiência incrível”. Por seu turno, o Star-Ledger revelou-se ainda mais categórico: “Foi espectacular”.
Bon Jovi em Portugal: Digressão de 2013 passa pela Bela Vista a 26 de junho
| Autor: António Henriques |
| Terça-feira, 06 Novembro 2012 12:32 |
A digressão mundial dos Bon Jovi passa por Portugal, no dia 26 de junho do próximo ano. ‘Because We Can – The Tour’ começa nos EUA, em fevereiro, e passa por Portugal, com um concerto que decorrerá no Parque da Bela Vista.
Já se sabia que os Bon Jovi iriam regressar à estrada no próximo ano, para encher estádios e arenas em todo o mundo, com a digressão ‘Because We Can - The Tour’. A esta boa nova para os fãs portugueses da banda junta-se uma outra informação relevante: a digressão passa por solo luso.
‘Because We Can – The Tour’, que atravessará todo o mundo, começa em fevereiro de 2013, nos EUA, antes de atravessar o Atlântico rumo à Europa. Também o Médio Oriente, África, América Latina e Austrália constam da digressão.
O regresso dos Bon Jovi aos palcos mundiais em 2013 confirma o estatuto da banda como uma das melhores do mundo, no rock ao vivo. Os Bon Jovi contam já mais de 2700 concertos, em mais de 50 países. No total, mais de 35 milhões de fãs viram e ouviram os Bon Jovi ao vivo.
A banda de Jon Bon Jobi arrecadando o prémio de digressão mundial mais bem sucedida por duas vezes, em apenas três anos. ‘Because We Can – The Tour’ não será apenas uma viagem ao passado: serão apresentadas as músicas do novo álbum ‘What About Now’, a editar na primavera do próximo ano.
Estas novidades juntam-se ao arsenal de munições dos Bon Jovi, que inclui os eternos êxitos ‘Livin' on a Prayer’, ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’, ‘Who Says You Can't Go Home’ ou ‘It's My Life’.
Com um dos maiores catálogos de canções da história do rock’n’roll, os Bon Jovi já venderam mais de 125 milhões de álbuns e têm um invejável currículo de conquistas. Nas anteriores digressões mundiais do grupo, os críticos foram unânimes nos aplausos.
O Las Vegas Sun escreveu que “os Bon Jovi deram tudo, até já não haver mais para dar. Electrizante, extraordinário, excitante, entusiasmante e exuberante”.
Já o Montreal Gazette afirmou, por sua vez, que “não há muitas bandas a conseguirem tamanho feito. Isto está apenas reservado aos melhores e resume-se a oferecer às pessoas uma experiência incrível”. Por seu turno, o Star-Ledger revelou-se ainda mais categórico: “Foi espectacular”.
Bon Jovi, 2012-11-06 - Público, Digressão dos 30 anos dos Bon Jovi passa por Lisboa em Junho de 2013 (in portuguese)
http://www.publico.pt/cultura/noticia/digressao-dos-30-anos-dos-bon-jovi-passa-por-lisboa-em-junho-de-2013-1570258
PÚBLICO 06/11/2012 - 11:45
A digressão de 2013 dos Bon Jovi passa por Portugal a 26 de Junho. O concerto da banda de hard rock, no âmbito da Bon Jovi Because We Can - The Tour realiza-se no Parque da Bela Vista no ano em que o grupo cumpre 30 anos de carreira.
Segundo anunciou esta terça-feira de manhã a promotora Everything is New, a digressão dos Bon Jovi, que arranca em Fevereiro nos EUA e depois continua mundo fora, da Europa ao Médio Oriente, passando por África, América Latina e Austrália, vai focar-se no novo álbum do grupo americano, What About Now (que é lançado na Primavera de 2013), mas não esquecerá os hinos de estádio como Livin' on a Prayer ou It's My Life.
Os bilhetes estão à venda a partir de sábado, dia 10 de Novembro, às 10h, e os preços vão dos 59€ aos 295€ (para o Diamond Circle VIP, que inclui uma série de possibilidades exclusivas, como entrada antecipada ou acesso à pré-festa, entre outras experiências).
Os Bon Jovi actuaram em Portugal pela última vez também no Parque da Bela Vista, em Lisboa, a 31 Julho 2011, no âmbito da digressão Best of. O grupo já tinha tocado, no mesmo recinto, em 2008, como cabeça de cartaz da edição lisboeta do Rock in Rio.
PÚBLICO 06/11/2012 - 11:45
Digressão dos 30 anos dos Bon Jovi passa por Lisboa em Junho de 2013
A digressão de 2013 dos Bon Jovi passa por Portugal a 26 de Junho. O concerto da banda de hard rock, no âmbito da Bon Jovi Because We Can - The Tour realiza-se no Parque da Bela Vista no ano em que o grupo cumpre 30 anos de carreira.
Segundo anunciou esta terça-feira de manhã a promotora Everything is New, a digressão dos Bon Jovi, que arranca em Fevereiro nos EUA e depois continua mundo fora, da Europa ao Médio Oriente, passando por África, América Latina e Austrália, vai focar-se no novo álbum do grupo americano, What About Now (que é lançado na Primavera de 2013), mas não esquecerá os hinos de estádio como Livin' on a Prayer ou It's My Life.
Os bilhetes estão à venda a partir de sábado, dia 10 de Novembro, às 10h, e os preços vão dos 59€ aos 295€ (para o Diamond Circle VIP, que inclui uma série de possibilidades exclusivas, como entrada antecipada ou acesso à pré-festa, entre outras experiências).
Os Bon Jovi actuaram em Portugal pela última vez também no Parque da Bela Vista, em Lisboa, a 31 Julho 2011, no âmbito da digressão Best of. O grupo já tinha tocado, no mesmo recinto, em 2008, como cabeça de cartaz da edição lisboeta do Rock in Rio.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Taylor Swift, 2012-10-23 - RED ALBUM: IMPRESSIVE SALES, RAVE REVIEWS AND MORE
http://taylorswift.com/news/105831
Red, the fourth studio album from six-time Grammy Award winner Taylor Swift, was released worldwide just yesterday (October 22nd), and the disc is already notching striking sales numbers and widespread critical acclaim.
Red topped the all-genre Top Albums chart at iTunes within 36 minutes of release, and first day sales at iTunes alone topped 262,000 albums. Taylor scored 13 of the Top 20 songs on iTunes, with the song “Everything Has Changed” taking the #1 position on the all-genre Top Songs chart. Thus far, Red has sold 4.5 million song downloads at iTunes in the U.S. alone. At Target, Taylor’s Speak Now album had the highest one-week sales in the retailer’s history. Red has now set their record for Day One sales and is on pace to exceed Speak Now’s one week results.
Worldwide, Red reached #1 at iTunes on the first day of release in 32 countries, including the UK, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Denmark, Venezuela, Thailand, and Ireland.
With Red, Taylor has set a new Billboard record -- for the most rapid accumulation of 50 Hot 100 hits in history, reaching the milestone just six years and one month after her 2006 chart debut. Aretha Franklin previously held the record, with a stretch of just over 14 years and six months, and Taylor is one of only five women in the 54-year history of the chart to reach this milestone (joining Franklin, Madonna, Connie Francis and Dionne Warwick).
Taylor Swift’s Red is also impressive in its widespread critical acclaim, garnering stellar praise from top critics around the globe.
“Taylor Swift is a turbine of artistic ambition and superstar drama, and Red is a 16-song geyser of willful eclecticism. Her self-discovery project is one of the best stories in pop. When she's really on, her songs are like tattoos.” – Rolling Stone
“The writer James Dickey once described a poet as 'someone who stands outside in the rain, hoping to be struck by lightning.' He could've been talking about Taylor Swift. Sublime…Red should be required listening…’We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ is the snarkiest pop kiss-off, like, ever.” --Entertainment Weekly
“Taylor Swift’s Red burns with confidence. [She] seems to have crossed some sort of emotional threshold [to] the assured words and music of a star. There are no bumps on Red. Only clean, perfectly rendered American popular music.” – Los Angeles Times
“Taylor Swift’s Red is another winner. What Swift does better than anyone [is] she connects with clear, concise, relatable love songs that are thrown like punches and steeped in everyday details.” – The Washington Post
“Red puts Swift the artist front and center with big, beefy hooks that transcend her country roots for a genre-spanning record that reaches heights unseen. Red is her most interesting full-length to date, but it probably won't be when all is said and done in her career.” – Billboard
“Fantastic. This is an album she's spent her entire career building toward. Red is, in every conceivable way, her bid for artistic freedom, not only her most mature and accomplished album, but also her most unapologetic. In short, this is her album, on her terms….the album of her (still young) life. Red may be the beginning of her golden age, but really, it only sets the stage for things to come. And I'm willing to bet we'll be amazed by what's next.” --MTV News
"It's clear that Red is another chapter in one of the finest fantasies pop music has ever constructed." – The Guardian (UK)
“Swift seems to know just the right phrase to pull you inside her narratives.” – The Observer (UK)
“Swift has grown into one of the sharpest songwriters of her generation. Red is all the proof you need. All in all, colour me impressed.” – The Sun (Canada)
Taylor is making multiple television appearances this week in support of Red. Her Times Square Concert this morning was the largest in the history of “Good Morning America,” and tonight she appears on “The Late Show with David Letterman” (CBS). Tomorrow (10/24) she will be live on ABC’s “The View,” and on Thursday she will make a special concert appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” On Friday, she will be a guest on ABC’s “Katie” with Katie Couric, and on Friday night she will be featured on ABC’s “All Access Nashville with Katie Couric – A Special Edition of 20/20.” Next week, Taylor will perform on ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” (Tuesday, October 30th) and also on the “41st Annual CMA Awards” (November 1st on ABC).
RED ALBUM: IMPRESSIVE SALES, RAVE REVIEWS AND MORE
Red, the fourth studio album from six-time Grammy Award winner Taylor Swift, was released worldwide just yesterday (October 22nd), and the disc is already notching striking sales numbers and widespread critical acclaim.
Red topped the all-genre Top Albums chart at iTunes within 36 minutes of release, and first day sales at iTunes alone topped 262,000 albums. Taylor scored 13 of the Top 20 songs on iTunes, with the song “Everything Has Changed” taking the #1 position on the all-genre Top Songs chart. Thus far, Red has sold 4.5 million song downloads at iTunes in the U.S. alone. At Target, Taylor’s Speak Now album had the highest one-week sales in the retailer’s history. Red has now set their record for Day One sales and is on pace to exceed Speak Now’s one week results.
Worldwide, Red reached #1 at iTunes on the first day of release in 32 countries, including the UK, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Denmark, Venezuela, Thailand, and Ireland.
With Red, Taylor has set a new Billboard record -- for the most rapid accumulation of 50 Hot 100 hits in history, reaching the milestone just six years and one month after her 2006 chart debut. Aretha Franklin previously held the record, with a stretch of just over 14 years and six months, and Taylor is one of only five women in the 54-year history of the chart to reach this milestone (joining Franklin, Madonna, Connie Francis and Dionne Warwick).
Taylor Swift’s Red is also impressive in its widespread critical acclaim, garnering stellar praise from top critics around the globe.
“Taylor Swift is a turbine of artistic ambition and superstar drama, and Red is a 16-song geyser of willful eclecticism. Her self-discovery project is one of the best stories in pop. When she's really on, her songs are like tattoos.” – Rolling Stone
“The writer James Dickey once described a poet as 'someone who stands outside in the rain, hoping to be struck by lightning.' He could've been talking about Taylor Swift. Sublime…Red should be required listening…’We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ is the snarkiest pop kiss-off, like, ever.” --Entertainment Weekly
“Taylor Swift’s Red burns with confidence. [She] seems to have crossed some sort of emotional threshold [to] the assured words and music of a star. There are no bumps on Red. Only clean, perfectly rendered American popular music.” – Los Angeles Times
“Taylor Swift’s Red is another winner. What Swift does better than anyone [is] she connects with clear, concise, relatable love songs that are thrown like punches and steeped in everyday details.” – The Washington Post
“Red puts Swift the artist front and center with big, beefy hooks that transcend her country roots for a genre-spanning record that reaches heights unseen. Red is her most interesting full-length to date, but it probably won't be when all is said and done in her career.” – Billboard
“Fantastic. This is an album she's spent her entire career building toward. Red is, in every conceivable way, her bid for artistic freedom, not only her most mature and accomplished album, but also her most unapologetic. In short, this is her album, on her terms….the album of her (still young) life. Red may be the beginning of her golden age, but really, it only sets the stage for things to come. And I'm willing to bet we'll be amazed by what's next.” --MTV News
"It's clear that Red is another chapter in one of the finest fantasies pop music has ever constructed." – The Guardian (UK)
“Swift seems to know just the right phrase to pull you inside her narratives.” – The Observer (UK)
“Swift has grown into one of the sharpest songwriters of her generation. Red is all the proof you need. All in all, colour me impressed.” – The Sun (Canada)
Taylor is making multiple television appearances this week in support of Red. Her Times Square Concert this morning was the largest in the history of “Good Morning America,” and tonight she appears on “The Late Show with David Letterman” (CBS). Tomorrow (10/24) she will be live on ABC’s “The View,” and on Thursday she will make a special concert appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” On Friday, she will be a guest on ABC’s “Katie” with Katie Couric, and on Friday night she will be featured on ABC’s “All Access Nashville with Katie Couric – A Special Edition of 20/20.” Next week, Taylor will perform on ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” (Tuesday, October 30th) and also on the “41st Annual CMA Awards” (November 1st on ABC).
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Jennifer Lopez, 2012-10-05 - Pavilhão Atlântico, Lisbon
Fri, Oct 5, 2012 in Lisbon, Portugal @ Pavilão Atlântico
Day of the first show of the tour. October 5.
The tour of Jennifer Lopez is: "Dance Again World Tour". Today and yesterday (rehearsals day) the 2 shows were shot for the Tour DVD.
Finally was time for Jennifer Lopez. She played for 88 minutes.
It was an awesome show. It was awesome for me to have a chance to see her twice in a row. Even the same show (October 4 rehearsal with more 4 songs). And I only payed for one day.
Here it is the setlist:
Never Gonna Give Up (Video Intro)
01. Get Right
02. Love Don't Cost a Thing
03. I'm Into You
04. Waiting for Tonight
Louboutins (Video Interlude)
05. Goin' In
06. I'm Real
07. All I Have
08. Feelin' So Good
09. Jenny from the Block
10. Baby I Love You (Video)
11. Hold It Don't Drop It
12. If You Had My Love (Acoustic)
13. Until it Beats No More
14. Let's Get Loud
15. Papi
16. On the Floor
Encore:
17. Dance Again
In bold are the videos I made.
Videos of Jennifer Lopez rehearsals (6 videos):
Jennifer Lopez-Love Don't Cost A Thing, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-05
http://youtu.be/-eIk8jq3m-U
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-I'm Into You + Waiting For Tonight, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-05 HD
http://youtu.be/YorOal_RPJw
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-Jenny From The Block, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-05 HD
http://youtu.be/Obq46DAOHBU
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-Until It Beats No More, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-05 HD
http://youtu.be/pww2ia5dAhU
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-On The Floor, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-05 HD
http://youtu.be/7fLhraWkESo
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-Dance Again, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-05 HD
http://youtu.be/oOGO158z5sk
And the video:
Day of the first show of the tour. October 5.
The tour of Jennifer Lopez is: "Dance Again World Tour". Today and yesterday (rehearsals day) the 2 shows were shot for the Tour DVD.
Finally was time for Jennifer Lopez. She played for 88 minutes.
It was an awesome show. It was awesome for me to have a chance to see her twice in a row. Even the same show (October 4 rehearsal with more 4 songs). And I only payed for one day.
Here it is the setlist:
Never Gonna Give Up (Video Intro)
01. Get Right
02. Love Don't Cost a Thing
03. I'm Into You
04. Waiting for Tonight
Louboutins (Video Interlude)
05. Goin' In
06. I'm Real
07. All I Have
08. Feelin' So Good
09. Jenny from the Block
10. Baby I Love You (Video)
11. Hold It Don't Drop It
12. If You Had My Love (Acoustic)
13. Until it Beats No More
14. Let's Get Loud
15. Papi
16. On the Floor
Encore:
17. Dance Again
In bold are the videos I made.
Videos of Jennifer Lopez rehearsals (6 videos):
Jennifer Lopez-Love Don't Cost A Thing, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-05
http://youtu.be/-eIk8jq3m-U
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-I'm Into You + Waiting For Tonight, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-05 HD
http://youtu.be/YorOal_RPJw
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-Jenny From The Block, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-05 HD
http://youtu.be/Obq46DAOHBU
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-Until It Beats No More, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-05 HD
http://youtu.be/pww2ia5dAhU
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-On The Floor, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-05 HD
http://youtu.be/7fLhraWkESo
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-Dance Again, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-05 HD
http://youtu.be/oOGO158z5sk
And the video:
Saturday, October 06, 2012
Jennifer Lopez, 2012-10-04 - Rehearsals, Pavilhão Atlântico, Lisbon
Thu, Oct 4, 2012 in Lisbon, Portugal @ Pavilão Atlântico
For the ones who already got the ticket for the show of October 5 could have a free ticket to the rehearsals one day before. October 4.
The tour of Jennifer Lopez is: "Dance Again World Tour" and today October 4 was the Rehearsal and shooting of the tour DVD. The shooting of the DVD was also on the show day.
It was a great experience for me to see the rehearsals of the complete show. It was like a complete show.
Time for Jennifer Lopez rehearsals. It took about 102 minutes.
Here in the rehearsals Jennifer Lopez sang 4 songs that she not sang on October 5 (day of the first show of the tour).
Here it is the setlist:
Never Gonna Give Up (Video Intro)
Never Gonna Give Up (Video Intro)
Never Gonna Give Up (Video Intro)
01. Get Right
02. Love Don't Cost a Thing
03. I'm into You
04. Waiting for Tonight
Intermission
05. Goin' In
06. I'm Real
07. All I Have
08. Feelin' So Good
-09. Ain't It Funny (not played on October 5, first show of the tour)
10. Jenny from the Block
Intermission
11. Hold It Don't Drop It
-12. Do It Well (not played on October 5, first show of the tour)
Intermission
13. If You Had My Love (Acoustic)
14. Until it Beats No More
-15. Qué Hiciste (not played on October 5, first show of the tour)
-16. No Me Queda Más (Selena cover) (not played on October 5, first show of the tour)
Intermission
17. Let's Get Loud
18. Papi
19. On the Floor
Intermission
Encore:
20. Dance Again
Encore 2:
21. On the Floor (Reprise)
Intermission
22. Dance Again (Reprise)
In bold are the videos I made.
Videos of Jennifer Lopez rehearsals (6 videos):
Jennifer Lopez-Waiting For Tonight, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-04 HD
http://youtu.be/Eg4nGpFnqPI
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-If You Had My Love (Acoustic), Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-04
http://youtu.be/nSEACkGBcFk
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-If You Had My Love (Acoustic), Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-04 HD
http://youtu.be/oOfE3BW2aUY
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-Let's Get Loud, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-04 HD
http://youtu.be/L_lwdtIZ3bw
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-On The Floor, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-04 HD
http://youtu.be/9Aa57ZA62GE
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-Dance Again, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-04 HD
http://youtu.be/jp_Q7FWwVfg
And the video:
Next the story of Jennifer Lopez at Pavilhão Atlântico, Lisbon on October 5th 2012.
For the ones who already got the ticket for the show of October 5 could have a free ticket to the rehearsals one day before. October 4.
The tour of Jennifer Lopez is: "Dance Again World Tour" and today October 4 was the Rehearsal and shooting of the tour DVD. The shooting of the DVD was also on the show day.
It was a great experience for me to see the rehearsals of the complete show. It was like a complete show.
Time for Jennifer Lopez rehearsals. It took about 102 minutes.
Here in the rehearsals Jennifer Lopez sang 4 songs that she not sang on October 5 (day of the first show of the tour).
Here it is the setlist:
Never Gonna Give Up (Video Intro)
Never Gonna Give Up (Video Intro)
Never Gonna Give Up (Video Intro)
01. Get Right
02. Love Don't Cost a Thing
03. I'm into You
04. Waiting for Tonight
Intermission
05. Goin' In
06. I'm Real
07. All I Have
08. Feelin' So Good
-09. Ain't It Funny (not played on October 5, first show of the tour)
10. Jenny from the Block
Intermission
11. Hold It Don't Drop It
-12. Do It Well (not played on October 5, first show of the tour)
Intermission
13. If You Had My Love (Acoustic)
14. Until it Beats No More
-15. Qué Hiciste (not played on October 5, first show of the tour)
-16. No Me Queda Más (Selena cover) (not played on October 5, first show of the tour)
Intermission
17. Let's Get Loud
18. Papi
19. On the Floor
Intermission
Encore:
20. Dance Again
Encore 2:
21. On the Floor (Reprise)
Intermission
22. Dance Again (Reprise)
In bold are the videos I made.
Videos of Jennifer Lopez rehearsals (6 videos):
Jennifer Lopez-Waiting For Tonight, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-04 HD
http://youtu.be/Eg4nGpFnqPI
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-If You Had My Love (Acoustic), Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-04
http://youtu.be/nSEACkGBcFk
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-If You Had My Love (Acoustic), Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-04 HD
http://youtu.be/oOfE3BW2aUY
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-Let's Get Loud, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-04 HD
http://youtu.be/L_lwdtIZ3bw
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-On The Floor, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-04 HD
http://youtu.be/9Aa57ZA62GE
And the video:
Jennifer Lopez-Dance Again, Lisbon, PT, 2012-10-04 HD
http://youtu.be/jp_Q7FWwVfg
And the video:
Next the story of Jennifer Lopez at Pavilhão Atlântico, Lisbon on October 5th 2012.
Thursday, September 06, 2012
Neil Armstrong, 2012-09-06 - TMZ, Will Be Buried at Sea
http://www.tmz.com/2012/09/06/neil-armstrong-buried-at-sea/
Astronaut Neil Armstrong will be buried as far away from outer space as possible ... at the bottom of the ocean -- this according to his family.
The family wouldn't specify when or where the burial at sea will take place.
In case you didn't know, Neil was a Navy fighter pilot before he joined the space program in 1962 -- and burials at sea are common for Navy veterans.
A public memorial for Neil will be held at the Washington National Cathedral next Thursday. A private service has already been held in Ohio, Neil's home state.
As we reported, Neil died on August 25th. He was 82.
Neil Armstrong
Will Be Buried at Sea
Astronaut Neil Armstrong will be buried as far away from outer space as possible ... at the bottom of the ocean -- this according to his family.
The family wouldn't specify when or where the burial at sea will take place.
In case you didn't know, Neil was a Navy fighter pilot before he joined the space program in 1962 -- and burials at sea are common for Navy veterans.
A public memorial for Neil will be held at the Washington National Cathedral next Thursday. A private service has already been held in Ohio, Neil's home state.
As we reported, Neil died on August 25th. He was 82.
Monday, September 03, 2012
Michael Clarke Duncan, DEAD (1957-12-10, 2012-09-03)
Michael Clarke Duncan dies with 54. Actor.
The gentle giant. I love many of his movies like: "Armageddon", "The Scorpion King", "Daredevil" and "Sin City".
Here it goes the story of Michael Clarke Duncan from Wikipedia
Thanks to Michael Clarke Duncan on Wikipedia
Michael Clarke Duncan (December 10, 1957 – September 3, 2012) was an American actor, best known for his breakout role as John Coffey in The Green Mile, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. He was also recognized for his appearances in motion pictures such as Armageddon, The Whole Nine Yards, The Scorpion King and Daredevil, as well as voice acting roles in works such as Brother Bear and Kung Fu Panda.
Early life
Duncan was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in a single-parent household with his sister, Judy, and mother, Jean Duncan (a house cleaner), after his father left. He always wanted to act, but had to drop out of the Communications program at Alcorn State University to support his family when his mother became ill. Duncan's large frame—6 feet 5 inches (196 cm) and 315 pounds (142 kg)—helped him in his jobs digging ditches for the People's Gas Company and being a bouncer at several Chicago clubs. Duncan also played basketball at Kankakee Community College and for one season at Alcorn State.
In 1979, he participated in the Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox, where he was among the first 100 people to run onto the field and he slid into third base. During the ensuing riot his silver belt buckle was stolen while he was stealing a baseball bat from the dugout.
Career
Duncan took other security jobs while in Los Angeles while trying to get some acting work in commercials. During this time, he worked as a bodyguard for celebrities like Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J, and The Notorious B.I.G., all the while doing bit parts in television and films. When the Notorious B.I.G. was killed in 1997, Duncan quit this line of work.
After having begun his career with several bit parts playing bouncers in films such as Bulworth and A Night at the Roxbury, Duncan first came to prominence when he was cast as Bear in the blockbuster Michael Bay action film Armageddon (1998). During the production of the film, Duncan struck up a friendship with castmate Bruce Willis and it was Willis' influence that helped him to get his breakout role as gentle giant John Coffey in the Frank Darabont-directed The Green Mile (1999). Starring alongside Tom Hanks, Duncan's acclaimed performance netted him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.
Following his iconic dramatic turn as Coffey, Duncan was then cast in a string of films that helped to establish him as a star adept at both action and comedy: The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Planet of the Apes (2001), The Scorpion King (2002) (where he starred alongside his friend, The Rock), and Daredevil (2003) (reuniting him with Armageddon co-star Ben Affleck) as Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin.
When Duncan was cast as the Kingpin in 2002, he faced the dual challenge of portraying a typically white character and having to gain 40 pounds to fit the character's large physique. In July 2006, Duncan showed interest in returning for the role of the Kingpin, but stated that he would not be willing to regain the weight that he had lost. In 2009, he stopped eating meat and later appeared in a PETA ad campaign, touting the health benefits and his increased strength from a vegetarian diet.
In 2005, Duncan appeared in two prominent action films, The Island (his second Michael Bay Film) and Sin City (again alongside Bruce Willis) where he played Manute, a powerful mobster. Critic Roger Ebert singled out Duncan for praise for his role in the Island, writing that "[Duncan] has only three or four scenes, but they're of central importance, and he brings true horror to them." Duncan appeared in a supporting role in the 2006 comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby as Lucius Washington and, in 2009, Duncan played Balrog in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li and starred as the titular Cleon "Slammin'" Salmon in Broken Lizard's farce The Slammin' Salmon.
Famous for his deep baritone, Duncan also provided his voice for a number of roles, for films such as Brother Bear (2003) and its sequel, Brother Bear 2, Kung Fu Panda (2008), Green Lantern (2011), TV series such as Loonatics Unleased and Operation: Z.E.R.O., Quiznos commercials, and a number of video games such as Demon Stone, SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs, The Suffering: Ties That Bind, Saints Row, Soldier of Fortune, and God of War II, where he provided the voice of the Titan Atlas. He additionally reprised his role as the Kingpin in Spider-Man: The New Animated Series.
In addition to his film roles, Duncan also guest starred in numerous television shows. Among these, he appeared in an episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and a first-season episode of CSI: NY. In 2008, he appeared as "Mr. Colt" in the second-season premiere of Chuck, "Chuck Versus the First Date" and as a guest star on two episodes of Two and a Half Men. Most notably, in April 2011, Duncan guest starred on an episode of TV series Bones as Leo Knox which, in 2012, led to Duncan receiving his first starring role as the same character in the spinoff series The Finder.
During the week of May 14, 2012, Duncan appeared on the late night talk show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson as a guest, when the show was taping for a week in Scotland. Duncan was one of the show's most frequent guests, appearing a total of eighteen times, and, the day after Duncan's death in September, Ferguson began his show with a special tribute to him. In January 2013 during the Late Late Show's winter break, reruns of the Scotland episodes were broadcast with a memoriam to Duncan at the beginning of each of the 5 episodes featuring Duncan on a pink background and the text "In memory of our friend Michael Clarke Duncan".
Illness and death
On July 13, 2012, Duncan was taken to a hospital after suffering a heart attack. Media reports suggested that his girlfriend, Omarosa Manigault, had previously tried to save his life by performing CPR. Duncan's publicist, Joy Fehily, issued a statement on August 6 that read he was moved from the intensive-care unit but remained hospitalized following his heart attack.
On September 3, Duncan died in Los Angeles. Celebrations of Duncan's life were scheduled for a later date. The statement also, for the first time, described Manigault as Duncan's fiancée.
Manigault joined the cast of The All-Star Celebrity Apprentice and played in Duncan's honor for his favorite charity and one he had benefited from himself, the Sue Duncan Children's Center. In episode 2 of the season, Manigault won $40,000 for the charity.
| Michael Clarke Duncan | |
|---|---|
 Duncan at the Warner Bros. Lot in Burbank, California, in January 2009. |
|
| Born | December 10, 1957 Chicago, Illinois, United States of America |
| Died | September 3, 2012 (aged 54) Los Angeles, California, United States of America |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1995–2012 |
| Height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
| Partner(s) | Omarosa Manigault (2010–2012; his death) |
Monday, August 27, 2012
Neil Armstrong, 2012-08-25 - NASA
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/people/features/armstrong_obit.html
Neil Armstrong: 1930-2012
08.25.12
Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, has died. He was 82.
Armstrong's words "That is one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind," spoken on July 20, 1969, as he became the first person ever to step onto another planetary body, instantly became a part of history.
Those few words from the Sea of Tranquillity were the climactic fulfillment of the efforts and hopes of millions of people and the expenditure of billions of dollars. A plaque on one of the lander's legs that concluded "We came in peace for all mankind," further emphasized that Armstrong and fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were there as representatives of all humans.
In a 2001 oral history interview, Armstrong credited those behind the scenes for the mission's success: "when you have hundreds of thousands of people all doing their job a little better than they have to, you get an improvement in performance. And that's the only reason we could have pulled this whole thing off."
(NASA's History Office has published five oral histories taken with Armstrong on its NASA Oral History Collection.)
Armstrong is survived by his wife, two sons, a stepson, a stepdaughter, 10 grandchildren, and a brother and sister.
"Neil Armstrong was a hero not just of his time, but of all time," President Barack Obama said via Twitter. "Thank you, Neil, for showing us the power of one small step."
Armstrong's family released the following statement on Saturday:
"Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. He also found success back home in his native Ohio in business and academia, and became a community leader in Cincinnati.
While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves.
The family will be providing further updates at www.neilarmstronginfo.com .
"As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind's first small step on a world beyond our own," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
“Besides being one of America’s greatest explorers," Bolden added, "Neil carried himself with a grace and humility that was an example to us all."
Apollo 11 lunar module pilot and fellow moonwalker Buzz Aldrin on Armstrong's passing: “I am very saddened to learn of the passing of Neil Armstrong today. Neil and I trained together as technical partners but were also good friends who will always be connected through our participation in the Apollo 11 mission. Whenever I look at the moon it reminds me of the moment over four decades ago when I realized that even though we were farther away from earth than two humans had ever been, we were not alone."
Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins said simply, “He was the best, and I will miss him terribly.”
As news of Armstrong's death became widely known, many NASA officials offered their thoughts on the agency's best-known representative:
"The passing of Neil Armstrong has shocked all of us at the Johnson Space Center," said Center Director Michael Coats. The whole world knew Neil as the first man to step foot on the Moon, but to us he was a co-worker, a friend, and an outstanding spokesman for the Human Space Program. His quiet confidence and ability to perform under pressure set an example for all subsequent astronauts. Our role model will be missed."
“Neil Armstrong was a very personal inspiration to all of us within the astronaut office," said Bob Behnken, Chief of NASA's Astronaut Office. "His historic step onto the Moon’s surface was the foundation for many of our personal dreams to become astronauts. The only thing that outshone his accomplishments was his humility about those accomplishments. We will miss him as a friend, mentor, explorer and ambassador for the American spirit of ingenuity."
Armstrong's single sentence, though it was focused above the national divisions and quarrels of Earth, still signified unquestionably the U.S. victory in the desperate space race with the Soviet Union.
Neil A. Armstrong was born Aug. 5, 1930, in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He earned an aeronautical engineering degree from Purdue University and a master's in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.
He was a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952. During the Korean War he flew 78 combat missions.
In 1955 he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), NASA's predecessor, as a research pilot at Lewis Laboratory in Cleveland.
Armstrong later transferred to NACA's High Speed Flight Research Station at Edwards AFB, Calif. As project pilot, he was in the forefront of the development of many high-speed aircraft, including the X-15, which flew at 4,000 mph.
He flew more than 200 aircraft models. They included jet and rocket-powered planes, helicopters and gliders.
Armstrong was selected as an astronaut in 1962.
His first space flight was Gemini 8, which he commanded. He was the first civilian to fly a U.S. spacecraft. With fellow astronaut David R. Scott, Armstrong performed the first docking in space, with an Agena target satellite.
Less than an hour later their spacecraft began an unplanned rolling motion. After undocking, it increased to one revolution per second. One of the Gemini's 16 thrusters had stuck open because of an electrical short circuit.
Armstrong used re-entry thrusters to control the capsule, and after a 30-minute struggle, it was stabilized. Flight rules required a return to Earth after use of the re-entry thrusters, so the crewmembers fired retrorockets that sent Gemini 8 to a contingency landing zone in the Western Pacific.
The eventful flight on March 16, 1966, had taken just over 10 hours, 41 minutes.
Apollo 11 lifted off on July 16, 1969, with Armstrong, Aldrin and Mike Collins aboard. Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command module while Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the lunar module they had named Eagle to their historic landing on the moon's surface.
"Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed," Armstrong said, telling a tense and waiting Earth that men had finally reached the lunar surface.
He and Aldrin spent about two hours exploring, gathering more than 50 pounds of moon rocks and setting up three scientific experiments. The next day, after 21 hours and 37 minutes on the moon, they fired Eagle's engine to begin the return to Collins and the command module.
The crew returned to Earth, landing near the USS Hornet in the Pacific after a mission of just over eight days. President Richard M. Nixon was on the aircraft carrier's deck to welcome them.
"This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the creation," Nixon told the three.
After 16 days in quarantine to protect Earth from any returned moon germs, the crew went on U.S. and international tours. Millions greeted them as heroes.
Armstrong later served as deputy associate administrator for aeronautics in the Office of Advanced Research and technology at NASA Headquarters. He resigned from the space agency in 1971. As a professor at the University of Cincinnati from 1971 to 1979, he was involved in both teaching and research.
He later went into the business world. Among other positions, he served for 10 years as chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation Inc. of Charlottesville, Va. and later as chairman of AIL Systems Inc., an electronic systems company based in Deer Park, N.Y.
Armstrong was a fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and the Royal Aeronautical Society, and an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the International Astronautical Federation.
He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He served as a member of the National Commission on Space in 1985 and 1986, and was vice chairman of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. He also was chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Peace Corps from 1971 to 1973.
Seventeen countries decorated Armstrong. He received many special honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal (see NASA feature on ceremony), the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award, the Explorers Club Medal, the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the Harmon International Aviation Trophy, the Royal Geographic Society's Gold Medal, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale's Gold Space Medal, the American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Award, the Robert J. Collier Trophy, the AIAA Astronautics Award, the Octave Chanute Award, and the John J. Montgomery Award.
Neil Armstrong: 1930-2012
08.25.12
Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, has died. He was 82.
Armstrong's words "That is one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind," spoken on July 20, 1969, as he became the first person ever to step onto another planetary body, instantly became a part of history.
Those few words from the Sea of Tranquillity were the climactic fulfillment of the efforts and hopes of millions of people and the expenditure of billions of dollars. A plaque on one of the lander's legs that concluded "We came in peace for all mankind," further emphasized that Armstrong and fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were there as representatives of all humans.
In a 2001 oral history interview, Armstrong credited those behind the scenes for the mission's success: "when you have hundreds of thousands of people all doing their job a little better than they have to, you get an improvement in performance. And that's the only reason we could have pulled this whole thing off."
(NASA's History Office has published five oral histories taken with Armstrong on its NASA Oral History Collection.)
Armstrong is survived by his wife, two sons, a stepson, a stepdaughter, 10 grandchildren, and a brother and sister.
"Neil Armstrong was a hero not just of his time, but of all time," President Barack Obama said via Twitter. "Thank you, Neil, for showing us the power of one small step."
Armstrong's family released the following statement on Saturday:
"Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. He also found success back home in his native Ohio in business and academia, and became a community leader in Cincinnati.
While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves.
The family will be providing further updates at www.neilarmstronginfo.com .
"As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind's first small step on a world beyond our own," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
“Besides being one of America’s greatest explorers," Bolden added, "Neil carried himself with a grace and humility that was an example to us all."
Apollo 11 lunar module pilot and fellow moonwalker Buzz Aldrin on Armstrong's passing: “I am very saddened to learn of the passing of Neil Armstrong today. Neil and I trained together as technical partners but were also good friends who will always be connected through our participation in the Apollo 11 mission. Whenever I look at the moon it reminds me of the moment over four decades ago when I realized that even though we were farther away from earth than two humans had ever been, we were not alone."
Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins said simply, “He was the best, and I will miss him terribly.”
As news of Armstrong's death became widely known, many NASA officials offered their thoughts on the agency's best-known representative:
"The passing of Neil Armstrong has shocked all of us at the Johnson Space Center," said Center Director Michael Coats. The whole world knew Neil as the first man to step foot on the Moon, but to us he was a co-worker, a friend, and an outstanding spokesman for the Human Space Program. His quiet confidence and ability to perform under pressure set an example for all subsequent astronauts. Our role model will be missed."
“Neil Armstrong was a very personal inspiration to all of us within the astronaut office," said Bob Behnken, Chief of NASA's Astronaut Office. "His historic step onto the Moon’s surface was the foundation for many of our personal dreams to become astronauts. The only thing that outshone his accomplishments was his humility about those accomplishments. We will miss him as a friend, mentor, explorer and ambassador for the American spirit of ingenuity."
Armstrong's single sentence, though it was focused above the national divisions and quarrels of Earth, still signified unquestionably the U.S. victory in the desperate space race with the Soviet Union.
Neil A. Armstrong was born Aug. 5, 1930, in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He earned an aeronautical engineering degree from Purdue University and a master's in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.
He was a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952. During the Korean War he flew 78 combat missions.
In 1955 he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), NASA's predecessor, as a research pilot at Lewis Laboratory in Cleveland.
Armstrong later transferred to NACA's High Speed Flight Research Station at Edwards AFB, Calif. As project pilot, he was in the forefront of the development of many high-speed aircraft, including the X-15, which flew at 4,000 mph.
He flew more than 200 aircraft models. They included jet and rocket-powered planes, helicopters and gliders.
Armstrong was selected as an astronaut in 1962.
His first space flight was Gemini 8, which he commanded. He was the first civilian to fly a U.S. spacecraft. With fellow astronaut David R. Scott, Armstrong performed the first docking in space, with an Agena target satellite.
Less than an hour later their spacecraft began an unplanned rolling motion. After undocking, it increased to one revolution per second. One of the Gemini's 16 thrusters had stuck open because of an electrical short circuit.
Armstrong used re-entry thrusters to control the capsule, and after a 30-minute struggle, it was stabilized. Flight rules required a return to Earth after use of the re-entry thrusters, so the crewmembers fired retrorockets that sent Gemini 8 to a contingency landing zone in the Western Pacific.
The eventful flight on March 16, 1966, had taken just over 10 hours, 41 minutes.
Apollo 11 lifted off on July 16, 1969, with Armstrong, Aldrin and Mike Collins aboard. Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command module while Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the lunar module they had named Eagle to their historic landing on the moon's surface.
"Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed," Armstrong said, telling a tense and waiting Earth that men had finally reached the lunar surface.
He and Aldrin spent about two hours exploring, gathering more than 50 pounds of moon rocks and setting up three scientific experiments. The next day, after 21 hours and 37 minutes on the moon, they fired Eagle's engine to begin the return to Collins and the command module.
The crew returned to Earth, landing near the USS Hornet in the Pacific after a mission of just over eight days. President Richard M. Nixon was on the aircraft carrier's deck to welcome them.
"This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the creation," Nixon told the three.
After 16 days in quarantine to protect Earth from any returned moon germs, the crew went on U.S. and international tours. Millions greeted them as heroes.
Armstrong later served as deputy associate administrator for aeronautics in the Office of Advanced Research and technology at NASA Headquarters. He resigned from the space agency in 1971. As a professor at the University of Cincinnati from 1971 to 1979, he was involved in both teaching and research.
He later went into the business world. Among other positions, he served for 10 years as chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation Inc. of Charlottesville, Va. and later as chairman of AIL Systems Inc., an electronic systems company based in Deer Park, N.Y.
Armstrong was a fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and the Royal Aeronautical Society, and an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the International Astronautical Federation.
He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He served as a member of the National Commission on Space in 1985 and 1986, and was vice chairman of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. He also was chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Peace Corps from 1971 to 1973.
Seventeen countries decorated Armstrong. He received many special honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal (see NASA feature on ceremony), the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award, the Explorers Club Medal, the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the Harmon International Aviation Trophy, the Royal Geographic Society's Gold Medal, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale's Gold Space Medal, the American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Award, the Robert J. Collier Trophy, the AIAA Astronautics Award, the Octave Chanute Award, and the John J. Montgomery Award.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Neil Armstrong, 2012-08-25 - ABC News, Neil Armstrong Dead; Apollo 11 Astronaut Was First on Moon
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/neil-armstrong-man-moon-dead/story?id=12325140#.UbBZd5z4JBN
By NED POTTER
Aug. 25, 2012
Neil Armstrong, the astronaut who became first to walk on the moon as commander of Apollo 11, has died at the age of 82, his family said today.
Armstrong had heart surgery several weeks ago, and a statement from his family said he died following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.
"Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job," his family said. "He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. ... He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits."
On July 20, 1969, half a billion people -- a sixth of the world's population at the time -- watched a ghostly black-and-white television image as Armstrong backed down the ladder of the lunar landing ship Eagle, planted his left foot on the moon's surface, and said, "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."
Twenty minutes later his crewmate, Buzz Aldrin, joined him, and the world watched as the men spent the next two hours bounding around in the moon's light gravity, taking rock samples, setting up experiments, and taking now-iconic photographs. The third member of their crew, Michael Collins, orbited overhead in the Apollo 11 command ship, Columbia.
"Neil and I trained together as technical partners but were also good friends who will always be connected through our participation in the mission of Apollo 11," said Aldrin today in a statement. "Virtually the entire world took that memorable journey with us. I know I am joined by millions of others in mourning the passing of a true American hero and the best pilot I ever knew."
Collins said, "He was the best, and I will miss him terribly."
President Obama issued a statement from the White House: "Neil was among the greatest of American heroes -- not just of his time, but of all time," it said. Armstrong and his crewmates "set out to show the world that the American spirit can see beyond what seems unimaginable -- that with enough drive and ingenuity, anything is possible."
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden -- himself a former space shuttle astronaut -- joined in the tributes. With the space shuttles retired, NASA does not currently have a way to launch astronauts on its own, but it is working on a new spacecraft, and, this month, landed the robotic Curiosity rover on Mars.
"Besides being one of America's greatest explorers, Neil carried himself with a grace and humility that was an example to us all," said Bolden. "As we enter this next era of space exploration, we do so standing on the shoulders of Neil Armstrong."
'I Believe That This Nation Should Commit Itself....'
Armstrong's step fulfilled a challenge laid down by an earlier president, John F. Kennedy, in May 1961. Struggling in his first months in the White House, Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress:
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth," he said. "No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."
Armstrong was a 30-year-old test pilot at the time of Kennedy's challenge, flying the X-15 rocket plane for a new government agency called NASA. He had served as a Naval aviator in the Korean War, flying 78 missions, and had an engineering degree from Purdue University. A native of the small town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, he was married to the former Jan Shearon and living near Edwards Air Force Base in the high desert of California.
NASA already had seven astronauts, flying its Mercury space capsule. In 1962 it sent out word that it was looking for more, and Armstrong was one of the nine it selected.
Gemini VIII
On March 16, 1966 he became the first American civilian to orbit the earth, commanding the two-man Gemini VIII mission with David R. Scott as his crewmate. On their fourth orbit, they made the first-ever docking in space with another spacecraft -- a maneuver the still-untested Apollo project would need to get astronauts to and from the lunar surface.
Minutes later, though, the spacecraft began to tumble wildly out of control, apparently because of a broken maneuvering thruster. It was a dangerous moment -- a 6,000-pound ship, moving at 17,500 mph, spinning and turning end-over-end once a second. Armstrong ended the emergency by using a second set of thrusters. Mission Control ordered the astronauts to land as soon as possible, and after 10 hours of flight they splashed down safely in the Pacific.
The two astronauts were commended for keeping their cool in a difficult situation, and when Project Apollo began, Armstrong was assigned to command one of the first six flights. At the time this was not momentous news. NASA had a system for rotating its crews among flights -- one served as backup crew for a mission and then actually flew three flights later -- and nobody knew how many test flights would be needed before the first moon landing could be attempted.
Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon
Armstrong, along with Buzz Aldrin and Fred Haise Jr., was named to the backup crew for Apollo 9, the third manned test of the new moonship. Soon Apollo 9 was swapped with Apollo 8 -- and Apollo 8 was then sent to take astronauts around the moon. The mission was a success. While it was still in progress, chief astronaut Deke Slayton took Armstrong aside and told him that he, Aldrin and Mike Collins would fly Apollo 11.
So it was happenstance that made Neil Armstrong one of the most famous names of the 20th century. If the order of flights had been different, or if Apollo 9 or 10 had run into trouble, Apollo 11 might very well have been a practice run for the first lunar landing.
But by May 1969 the rehearsals had gone well and Apollo 11 was next up. Reporters swirled around Armstrong. More than a million people crowded the Florida coast to see the liftoff.
"I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul," Armstrong said at a preflight news conference, "We're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream."
Apollo 11 Leaves for the Moon
On the morning of July 16, 1969, Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin were woken before dawn. They suited up and climbed into the Apollo 11 command ship, high atop its 363-foot-tall Saturn V rocket.
Liftoff was flawless. Three days later the astronauts arrived in lunar orbit, and on the morning of July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin took their places in the landing ship Eagle, leaving Collins to run the command ship Columbia. They fired Eagle's main engine to slow themselves toward the moon's surface, aiming for a landing site on the Sea of Tranquility, a relatively flat plain near the moon's equator.
As they came in on final approach, Armstrong later reported, he saw they were in trouble. Eagle's computer was steering them right toward a crater, with boulders the size of cars. Armstrong took over manual control. Fuel was in short supply, but he hosed out more, skittering a few hundred feet above the lunar surface in search of a clear spot to land.
"1201 alarm," called Aldrin, watching Eagle's computer readout while Armstrong looked out the window. The computer was overloading.
"Hang tight, we're go," said astronaut Charles Duke, the one person at Mission Control assigned to talk with Armstrong and Aldrin by radio.
Armstrong was silent as he lowered the ship on a pillar of flame. He was too busy flying. Aldrin called out numbers to mark their progress in feet per second. "Four forward, drifting to the right a little."
"Thirty seconds," said Duke. In half a minute he would have to tell the astronauts to abort the landing -- even though they were less than a hundred feet up.
Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon
Finally, Aldrin called out, "Contact light" -- a signal that a five-foot-long metal probe, protruding from Eagle's landing legs, had touched the surface. The ship gently settled. Finally, Armstrong came on the radio.
"Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed."
Armstrong would say later that he considered the landing a much greater challenge, and a greater accomplishment, than actually walking on the surface. But after making sure Eagle was in good shape for the return trip, he and Aldrin put on their bulky backpacks and prepared to open the hatch.
It was 10:56 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, when Armstrong backed down the ladder of the Lunar Module, went back up a step to make sure he could, and then planted his left boot in the lunar soil.
Moonwalk
Armstrong walked on the moon for two hours and 21 minutes, Aldrin for about half an hour less. They took rock samples, set up two experiments, and took a phone call from President Nixon. They planted an American flag (with some difficulty; its staff wouldn't stand firmly in the lunar dirt and the flag itself, stiffened with wires, rumpled). They bounded around in the weak lunar gravity, reporting it was great fun but a little hard to stop.
Armstrong carried a camera, mounted on the chest of his spacesuit, and took some of the most famous pictures of the century. Aldrin did not have a camera -- so, in one of the ironies of the space age, almost all the still pictures from the Apollo 11 moonwalk are by Armstrong, not of him.
After a fitful night's sleep, the two men lifted off from the lunar surface and rejoined Collins in Columbia. They splashed down safely in the Pacific on July 24, 1969. They were greeted by ticker-tape parades and a beaming President Nixon. After that, Armstrong tried his best to resume a private life.
He served for a few years as a NASA manager in Washington. He taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati, not far from his birthplace. He served on corporate boards. He was appointed to the panels that investigated the Apollo 13 accident and the Challenger disaster. He declined almost all requests for interviews, and stopped giving autographs when people sold them for thousands of dollars.
A few personal details emerged: He suffered a minor heart attack in 1991. His wife Jan divorced him in 1994 and he soon married Carol Knight. In 2005 his authorized biographer, James R. Hansen, wrote, "Neil Armstrong today seems to be a very happy man -- perhaps happier than at any other time in his life."
Armstrong, who was born in the small town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, on Aug. 5, 1930, said he did not want to be an icon, remembered only for that one-week trip he made in 1969. He did appear at the White House to mark major anniversaries of Apollo 11, and when he did he urged America to go on exploring.
"There are great ideas undiscovered, breakthroughs available to those who can remove one of truth's protective layers," he said in 1994. "There are places to go beyond belief."
Neil Armstrong Dead; Apollo 11 Astronaut Was First on Moon
By NED POTTER
Aug. 25, 2012
Neil Armstrong, the astronaut who became first to walk on the moon as commander of Apollo 11, has died at the age of 82, his family said today.
Armstrong had heart surgery several weeks ago, and a statement from his family said he died following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.
"Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job," his family said. "He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. ... He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits."
On July 20, 1969, half a billion people -- a sixth of the world's population at the time -- watched a ghostly black-and-white television image as Armstrong backed down the ladder of the lunar landing ship Eagle, planted his left foot on the moon's surface, and said, "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."
Twenty minutes later his crewmate, Buzz Aldrin, joined him, and the world watched as the men spent the next two hours bounding around in the moon's light gravity, taking rock samples, setting up experiments, and taking now-iconic photographs. The third member of their crew, Michael Collins, orbited overhead in the Apollo 11 command ship, Columbia.
"Neil and I trained together as technical partners but were also good friends who will always be connected through our participation in the mission of Apollo 11," said Aldrin today in a statement. "Virtually the entire world took that memorable journey with us. I know I am joined by millions of others in mourning the passing of a true American hero and the best pilot I ever knew."
Collins said, "He was the best, and I will miss him terribly."
President Obama issued a statement from the White House: "Neil was among the greatest of American heroes -- not just of his time, but of all time," it said. Armstrong and his crewmates "set out to show the world that the American spirit can see beyond what seems unimaginable -- that with enough drive and ingenuity, anything is possible."
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden -- himself a former space shuttle astronaut -- joined in the tributes. With the space shuttles retired, NASA does not currently have a way to launch astronauts on its own, but it is working on a new spacecraft, and, this month, landed the robotic Curiosity rover on Mars.
"Besides being one of America's greatest explorers, Neil carried himself with a grace and humility that was an example to us all," said Bolden. "As we enter this next era of space exploration, we do so standing on the shoulders of Neil Armstrong."
'I Believe That This Nation Should Commit Itself....'
Armstrong's step fulfilled a challenge laid down by an earlier president, John F. Kennedy, in May 1961. Struggling in his first months in the White House, Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress:
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth," he said. "No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."
Armstrong was a 30-year-old test pilot at the time of Kennedy's challenge, flying the X-15 rocket plane for a new government agency called NASA. He had served as a Naval aviator in the Korean War, flying 78 missions, and had an engineering degree from Purdue University. A native of the small town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, he was married to the former Jan Shearon and living near Edwards Air Force Base in the high desert of California.
NASA already had seven astronauts, flying its Mercury space capsule. In 1962 it sent out word that it was looking for more, and Armstrong was one of the nine it selected.
Gemini VIII
On March 16, 1966 he became the first American civilian to orbit the earth, commanding the two-man Gemini VIII mission with David R. Scott as his crewmate. On their fourth orbit, they made the first-ever docking in space with another spacecraft -- a maneuver the still-untested Apollo project would need to get astronauts to and from the lunar surface.
Minutes later, though, the spacecraft began to tumble wildly out of control, apparently because of a broken maneuvering thruster. It was a dangerous moment -- a 6,000-pound ship, moving at 17,500 mph, spinning and turning end-over-end once a second. Armstrong ended the emergency by using a second set of thrusters. Mission Control ordered the astronauts to land as soon as possible, and after 10 hours of flight they splashed down safely in the Pacific.
The two astronauts were commended for keeping their cool in a difficult situation, and when Project Apollo began, Armstrong was assigned to command one of the first six flights. At the time this was not momentous news. NASA had a system for rotating its crews among flights -- one served as backup crew for a mission and then actually flew three flights later -- and nobody knew how many test flights would be needed before the first moon landing could be attempted.
Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon
Armstrong, along with Buzz Aldrin and Fred Haise Jr., was named to the backup crew for Apollo 9, the third manned test of the new moonship. Soon Apollo 9 was swapped with Apollo 8 -- and Apollo 8 was then sent to take astronauts around the moon. The mission was a success. While it was still in progress, chief astronaut Deke Slayton took Armstrong aside and told him that he, Aldrin and Mike Collins would fly Apollo 11.
So it was happenstance that made Neil Armstrong one of the most famous names of the 20th century. If the order of flights had been different, or if Apollo 9 or 10 had run into trouble, Apollo 11 might very well have been a practice run for the first lunar landing.
But by May 1969 the rehearsals had gone well and Apollo 11 was next up. Reporters swirled around Armstrong. More than a million people crowded the Florida coast to see the liftoff.
"I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul," Armstrong said at a preflight news conference, "We're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream."
Apollo 11 Leaves for the Moon
On the morning of July 16, 1969, Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin were woken before dawn. They suited up and climbed into the Apollo 11 command ship, high atop its 363-foot-tall Saturn V rocket.
Liftoff was flawless. Three days later the astronauts arrived in lunar orbit, and on the morning of July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin took their places in the landing ship Eagle, leaving Collins to run the command ship Columbia. They fired Eagle's main engine to slow themselves toward the moon's surface, aiming for a landing site on the Sea of Tranquility, a relatively flat plain near the moon's equator.
As they came in on final approach, Armstrong later reported, he saw they were in trouble. Eagle's computer was steering them right toward a crater, with boulders the size of cars. Armstrong took over manual control. Fuel was in short supply, but he hosed out more, skittering a few hundred feet above the lunar surface in search of a clear spot to land.
"1201 alarm," called Aldrin, watching Eagle's computer readout while Armstrong looked out the window. The computer was overloading.
"Hang tight, we're go," said astronaut Charles Duke, the one person at Mission Control assigned to talk with Armstrong and Aldrin by radio.
Armstrong was silent as he lowered the ship on a pillar of flame. He was too busy flying. Aldrin called out numbers to mark their progress in feet per second. "Four forward, drifting to the right a little."
"Thirty seconds," said Duke. In half a minute he would have to tell the astronauts to abort the landing -- even though they were less than a hundred feet up.
Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon
Finally, Aldrin called out, "Contact light" -- a signal that a five-foot-long metal probe, protruding from Eagle's landing legs, had touched the surface. The ship gently settled. Finally, Armstrong came on the radio.
"Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed."
Armstrong would say later that he considered the landing a much greater challenge, and a greater accomplishment, than actually walking on the surface. But after making sure Eagle was in good shape for the return trip, he and Aldrin put on their bulky backpacks and prepared to open the hatch.
It was 10:56 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, when Armstrong backed down the ladder of the Lunar Module, went back up a step to make sure he could, and then planted his left boot in the lunar soil.
Moonwalk
Armstrong walked on the moon for two hours and 21 minutes, Aldrin for about half an hour less. They took rock samples, set up two experiments, and took a phone call from President Nixon. They planted an American flag (with some difficulty; its staff wouldn't stand firmly in the lunar dirt and the flag itself, stiffened with wires, rumpled). They bounded around in the weak lunar gravity, reporting it was great fun but a little hard to stop.
Armstrong carried a camera, mounted on the chest of his spacesuit, and took some of the most famous pictures of the century. Aldrin did not have a camera -- so, in one of the ironies of the space age, almost all the still pictures from the Apollo 11 moonwalk are by Armstrong, not of him.
After a fitful night's sleep, the two men lifted off from the lunar surface and rejoined Collins in Columbia. They splashed down safely in the Pacific on July 24, 1969. They were greeted by ticker-tape parades and a beaming President Nixon. After that, Armstrong tried his best to resume a private life.
He served for a few years as a NASA manager in Washington. He taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati, not far from his birthplace. He served on corporate boards. He was appointed to the panels that investigated the Apollo 13 accident and the Challenger disaster. He declined almost all requests for interviews, and stopped giving autographs when people sold them for thousands of dollars.
A few personal details emerged: He suffered a minor heart attack in 1991. His wife Jan divorced him in 1994 and he soon married Carol Knight. In 2005 his authorized biographer, James R. Hansen, wrote, "Neil Armstrong today seems to be a very happy man -- perhaps happier than at any other time in his life."
Armstrong, who was born in the small town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, on Aug. 5, 1930, said he did not want to be an icon, remembered only for that one-week trip he made in 1969. He did appear at the White House to mark major anniversaries of Apollo 11, and when he did he urged America to go on exploring.
"There are great ideas undiscovered, breakthroughs available to those who can remove one of truth's protective layers," he said in 1994. "There are places to go beyond belief."
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Neil Armstrong, DEAD (1930-08-05, 2012-08-25)
Neil Armstrong dies with 82.
Here it goes the story of Neil Armstrong from Wikipedia
Thanks to Neil Armstrong on Wikipedia
Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was an officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the Korean War. After the war, he earned his bachelor's degree at Purdue University and served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics High-Speed Flight Station, now known as the Dryden Flight Research Center, where he logged over 900 flights. He later completed graduate studies at the University of Southern California.
A participant in the U.S. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs, Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962. He made his first space flight, as command pilot of Gemini 8, in 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. On this mission, he performed the first docking of two spacecraft, with pilot David Scott.
Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing, in July 1969. On this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent two and a half hours exploring, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the Command Module. Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon; in 1978, President Jimmy Carter presented Armstrong the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978; he and his former crewmates received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.
Armstrong died in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 25, 2012, at the age of 82, after complications from coronary artery bypass surgery.
Early years
Neil Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, in Wapakoneta, Ohio, to Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise Engel. He was of Scottish, Irish, and German ancestry and had two younger siblings, June and Dean. Stephen Armstrong worked as an auditor for the Ohio state government; the family moved around the state repeatedly after Armstrong's birth, living in 20 towns. Neil's love for flying grew during this time, having gotten off to an early start when his father took his two-year-old son to the Cleveland Air Races. When he was five, he experienced his first airplane flight in Warren, Ohio on July 20, 1936 when he and his father took a ride in a Ford Trimotor, also known as the "Tin Goose".
His father's last move was in 1944, back to Neil's birthplace, Wapakoneta, in Auglaize County. Armstrong attended Blume High School and took flying lessons at the county airport. He earned his flight certificate at age 15, before he had a driver's license. Armstrong was active in the Boy Scouts and earned the rank of Eagle Scout. As an adult, he was recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with its Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo Award. On July 18, 1969, while flying towards the Moon inside the Columbia, Armstrong greeted the Scouts: "I'd like to say hello to all my fellow Scouts and Scouters at Farragut State Park in Idaho having a National Jamboree there this week; and Apollo 11 would like to send them best wishes". Houston replied: "Thank you, Apollo 11. I'm sure that, if they didn't hear that, they'll get the word through the news. Certainly appreciate that." Among the very few personal items that Neil Armstrong carried with him to the Moon and back was a World Scout Badge.
In 1947, at age 17, Armstrong began studying aeronautical engineering at Purdue University. He was the second person in his family to attend college. He was also accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The only engineer he knew (who had attended MIT) dissuaded him from attending, telling Armstrong that it was not necessary to go all the way to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a good education. His college tuition was paid for under the Holloway Plan: successful applicants committed to two years of study, followed by three years of service in the U.S. Navy, then completion of the final two years of the degree. At Purdue, he earned average marks in his subjects, with a GPA that rose and fell during eight semesters. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1955, and a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1970. Armstrong was later awarded honorary doctorates by several universities.
Test pilot
Following his graduation from Purdue, Armstrong decided to become an experimental research test pilot. He applied at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base; although they had no open positions, they did forward his application to the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, where Armstrong began working at Lewis Field in March 1955. Armstrong's stint at Cleveland lasted a couple of months, and by July 1955, he returned to Edwards AFB for his new job.
On his first day at Edwards, Armstrong was tasked his first assignments, which were to pilot chase planes during releases of experimental aircraft from modified bombers. He also flew the modified bombers, and on one of these missions had his first flight incident at Edwards. On March 22, 1956, Armstrong was in a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, which was to air-drop a Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket. He sat in the right-hand pilot seat while the left-hand seat commander, Stan Butchart, flew the B-29.
As they ascended to 30,000 feet (9.1 km), the number-four engine stopped and the propeller began windmilling (rotating freely) in the airstream. Hitting the switch that would stop the propeller's spinning, Butchart found the propeller slowed but then started spinning again, this time even faster than the other engines; if it spun too fast, it would break apart. Their aircraft needed to hold an airspeed of 210 mph (338 km/h) to launch its Skyrocket payload, and the B-29 could not land with the Skyrocket still attached to its belly. Armstrong and Butchart brought the aircraft into a nose-down alignment to increase speed, then launched the Skyrocket. At the instant of launch, the number-four engine propeller disintegrated. Pieces of it damaged the number-three engine and hit the number-two engine. Butchart and Armstrong were forced to shut down the number-three engine, due to damage, and the number-one engine, due to the torque it created. They made a slow, circling descent from 30,000 ft (9,000 m) using only the number-two engine, and landed safely.
Armstrong's first flight in a rocket plane was on August 15, 1957, in the Bell X-1B, to an altitude of 11.4 miles (18.3 km). The nose landing gear broke on landing, which had happened on about a dozen previous flights of the Bell X-1B due to the aircraft's design. He later flew the North American X-15 seven times; his penultimate flight reached an altitude of 207,500 feet (63.2 km).
Armstrong was involved in several incidents that went down in Edwards folklore and/or were chronicled in the memoirs of colleagues. The first occurred during his sixth X-15 flight on April 20, 1962, while Armstrong tested a self-adjusting control system. He flew to a height of over 207,000 feet (63 km), (the highest he flew before Gemini 8), but the aircraft nose was held up up too long during descent and the X-15 bounced off the atmosphere back up to 140,000 feet (43 km). At that altitude, the air is so thin that aerodynamic surfaces have almost no effect. He flew past the landing field at Mach 3 (2,000 mph (3,200 km/h)) at over 100,000 feet (30 km) in altitude, and ended up 40 miles (64 km) south of Edwards (legend has it that he flew as far as the Rose Bowl in Pasadena). After sufficient descent, he turned back toward the landing area, and barely managed to land without striking Joshua trees at the south end. It was the longest X-15 flight in both time and distance from the ground track.
Four days later, Armstrong was involved in a second incident, when he flew for the only time with Chuck Yeager. Their job, flying a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, was to evaluate Smith Ranch Dry Lake for use as an emergency landing site for the X-15. In his autobiography, Yeager wrote that he knew the lake bed was unsuitable for landings after recent rains, but Armstrong insisted on flying out anyway. As they attempted a touch-and-go, the wheels became stuck and they had to wait for rescue. Armstrong tells a different version of events, where Yeager never tried to talk him out of it and they made a first successful landing on the east side of the lake. Then Yeager told him to try again, this time a bit slower. On the second landing, they became stuck and according to Armstrong, Yeager was in fits of laughter.
Many of the test pilots at Edwards praised Armstrong's engineering ability. Milt Thompson said he was "the most technically capable of the early X-15 pilots." Bill Dana said Armstrong "had a mind that absorbed things like a sponge." Those who flew for the Air Force tended to have a different opinion, especially people like Yeager and Pete Knight, who did not have engineering degrees. Knight said that pilot-engineers flew in a way that was "more mechanical than it is flying," and gave this as the reason why some pilot-engineers got into trouble: their flying skills did not come naturally.
A few weeks later on May 21, 1962, Armstrong was involved in what Edwards' folklore called the "Nellis Affair." He was sent in a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter to inspect Delamar Dry Lake in southern Nevada, again for emergency landings. He misjudged his altitude, and also did not realize that the landing gear had not fully extended. As he touched down, the landing gear began to retract; Armstrong applied full power to abort the landing, but the ventral fin and landing gear door struck the ground, damaging the radio and releasing hydraulic fluid. Without radio communication, Armstrong flew south to Nellis Air Force Base, past the control tower, and waggled his wings, the signal for a no-radio approach. The loss of hydraulic fluid caused the tail-hook to release, and upon landing, he caught the arresting wire attached to an anchor chain, and dragged the chain along the runway.
It took thirty minutes to clear the runway and rig an arresting cable and Armstrong telephoned Edwards and asked for someone to collect him. Milt Thompson was sent in an F-104B, the only two-seater available, but a plane Thompson had never flown. With great difficulty, Thompson made it to Nellis, but a strong crosswind caused a hard landing and the left main tire suffered a blowout. The runway was again closed to clear it, and Bill Dana was sent to Nellis in a T-33 Shooting Star, but he almost landed long—and the Nellis base operations office decided that to avoid any further problems, it would be best to find the three NASA pilots ground transport back to Edwards.
Armstrong made seven flights in the X-15 from November 1960 to July 1962. He reached a top altitude of 207,500 feet (63.2 km) in the X-15-3, and a top speed of Mach 5.74 (3,989 mph (6,420 km/h)) in the X-15-1; he left the Dryden Flight Research Center with a total of 2,400 flying hours. Over his career, he flew more than 200 different models of aircraft.
Astronaut career
In the months after the announcement that applications were being sought for the second group of NASA astronauts, Armstrong became more and more excited about the prospects of both the Apollo program and of investigating a new aeronautical environment. Armstrong's astronaut application arrived about a week past the June 1, 1962, deadline. Dick Day, with whom Armstrong had worked closely at Edwards, saw the late arrival of the application and slipped it into the pile before anyone noticed. At Brooks Air Force Base at the end of June, Armstrong 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 whether he would be interested in joining the NASA Astronaut Corps as part of what the press dubbed "the New Nine"; without hesitation, Armstrong said yes. The selections were kept secret until three days later, although newspaper reports had been circulating since earlier that year that he would be selected as the "first civilian astronaut." Armstrong was one of two civilian pilots selected for the second group; the other was Elliot See, also a former naval aviator. See was scheduled to command Gemini 9, but died in a T-38 crash in 1966 that also took the life of crewmate Charles Bassett. Armstrong was the first American civilian in space, but the first civilian was Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union, nearly three years earlier. A textile worker and amateur parachutist, she was aboard Vostok 6 when it launched on June 16, 1963.
Gemini program
Gemini 8
Main article: Gemini 8
The crew assignments for Gemini 8 were announced on September 20, 1965, with Armstrong as Command Pilot and David Scott as Pilot. Scott was the first member of the third group of astronauts to receive a prime crew assignment. The mission launched on 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 extra-vehicular activity (EVA) 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 am 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, and Armstrong attempted to correct this 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 in the on position.
Throughout the astronaut office there were a few people, most notably Walter Cunningham, who publicly stated that Armstrong and Scott had ignored the malfunction procedures for such an incident, and that Armstrong could have salvaged the mission if he had turned on only one of the two RCS rings, saving the other for mission objectives. These criticisms were unfounded; no malfunction procedures were written and it was possible to turn on only both RCS rings, not just one or the other. Gene Kranz wrote, "the crew reacted as they were trained, and they reacted wrong because we trained them wrong." The mission planners and controllers had failed to realize that when two spacecraft are docked together, they must be considered to be one spacecraft.
Armstrong himself was depressed that the mission had been cut short, canceling most mission objectives and robbing Scott of his EVA.
Gemini 11
Main article: Gemini 11
The last assignment for Armstrong in the Gemini program was as the back-up Command Pilot for Gemini 11, announced two days after the landing of Gemini 8. Having trained for two flights, Armstrong was quite knowledgeable about the systems and was more in a teaching role for the rookie backup Pilot, William Anders. The launch was on September 12, 1966, with Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon on board, who successfully completed the mission objectives, while Armstrong served as CAPCOM.
Following the flight, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Armstrong and his wife to take part in a 24-day goodwill tour of South America.[52] Also on the tour, which took in 11 countries and 14 major cities, were Dick Gordon, George Low, their wives, and other government officials. In Paraguay, Armstrong impressed dignitaries by greeting them in their local language, Guarani; in Brazil he talked about the exploits of the Brazilian-born Alberto Santos-Dumont, who was regarded as having beaten the Wright brothers with the first flying machine with his 14-bis.
Apollo program
On January 27, 1967, the date of the Apollo 1 fire, Armstrong was in Washington, D.C., with Gordon Cooper, Dick Gordon, Jim Lovell and Scott Carpenter for the signing of the United Nations Outer Space Treaty. The astronauts chatted with the assembled dignitaries until 6:45 p.m. when Carpenter went to the airport, and the others returned to the Georgetown Inn, where they each found messages to phone the Manned Spacecraft Center. During these telephone calls, they learned of the deaths of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Armstrong and the group spent the rest of the night drinking scotch and discussing what had happened.On April 5, 1967, the same day the Apollo 1 investigation released its report on the fire, Armstrong assembled with 17 other astronauts for a meeting with Deke Slayton. The first thing Slayton said was, "The guys who are going to fly the first lunar missions are the guys in this room." According to Eugene Cernan, Armstrong showed no reaction to the statement. To Armstrong it came as no surprise—the room was full of veterans of Project Gemini, the only people who could fly the lunar missions. Slayton talked about the planned missions and named Armstrong to the backup crew for Apollo 9, which at that stage was planned to be a medium Earth orbit test of the Lunar Module-Command/Service Module combination. After design and manufacturing delays in the Lunar Module (LM), Apollo 9 and Apollo 8 swapped crews. Based on the normal crew rotation scheme, Armstrong would command Apollo 11.
To attempt to give the astronauts experience with how the LM would fly on its final landing descent, NASA commissioned Bell Aircraft to build two Lunar Landing Research Vehicles, later augmented with three Lunar Landing Training Vehicles (LLTV). Nicknamed the "Flying Bedsteads", they simulated the Moon's one-sixth of Earth's gravity by using a turbofan engine to support the remaining five-sixths of the craft's weight. On May 6, 1968, about 100 feet (30 m) above the ground, Armstrong's controls started to degrade and the LLTV began banking. He ejected safely (later analysis suggested that if he had ejected 0.5 seconds later, his parachute would not have opened in time). His only injury was from biting his tongue. Even though he was nearly killed, Armstrong maintained that without the LLRV and LLTV, the lunar landings would not have been successful, as they gave commanders valuable experience in the behavior of lunar landing craft.
Apollo 11
Main article: Apollo 11
After Armstrong served as backup commander for Apollo 8, Slayton offered him the post of commander of Apollo 11 on December 23, 1968, as Apollo 8 orbited the Moon. In a meeting that was not made public until the publication of Armstrong's biography in 2005, Slayton told him that although the planned crew was Armstrong as commander, lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin and command module pilot Michael Collins, he was offering the chance to replace Aldrin with Jim Lovell. After thinking it over for a day, Armstrong told Slayton he would stick with Aldrin, as he had no difficulty working with him and thought Lovell deserved his own command. Replacing Aldrin with Lovell would have made Lovell the Lunar Module Pilot, unofficially the lowest ranked member, and Armstrong could not justify placing Lovell, the commander of Gemini 12, in the number 3 position of the crew.
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's 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.
On July 16, 1969, Armstrong received a crescent moon carved out of Styrofoam from the pad leader, Guenter Wendt, who described it as a key to the Moon. In return, Armstrong gave Wendt a ticket for a "space taxi" "good between two planets".
Voyage to the Moon
During the Apollo 11 launch, Armstrong's heart reached a top rate of 110 beats per minute. He found the first stage to be the loudest—much noisier than the Gemini 8 Titan II launch—and the Apollo CSM was relatively roomy compared to the Gemini capsule. This ability to move around was suspected to be the reason why none of the Apollo 11 crew suffered from space sickness, while members of previous crews did. Armstrong was especially happy, as he had been prone to motion sickness as a child and could experience nausea after doing long periods of aerobatics.
The objective of Apollo 11 was to land safely rather than to touch down with precision on a particular spot. Three minutes into the lunar descent burn, Armstrong noted that craters were passing about two seconds too early, which meant the Eagle would probably touch down beyond the planned landing zone by several miles. As the Eagle's landing radar acquired the surface, several computer error alarms appeared. The first was a code 1202 alarm, and even with their extensive training, neither Armstrong nor Aldrin was aware of what this code meant. They promptly received word from CAPCOM in Houston that the alarms were not a concern; the 1202 and 1201 alarms were caused by an executive overflow in the lunar module computer. As described by Buzz Aldrin in the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon, the overflow condition was caused by his own counter-checklist choice of leaving the docking radar on during the landing process, so the computer had to process unnecessary radar data and did not have enough time to execute all tasks, dropping lower-priority ones. Aldrin stated that he did so with the objective of facilitating re-docking with the CM should an abort become necessary, not realizing that it would cause the overflow condition.
When Armstrong noticed they were heading towards a landing area which he believed was unsafe, he took over manual control of the LM, and attempted to find an area which seemed safer, taking longer than expected, and longer than most simulations had taken. For this reason, there was concern from mission control that the LM was running low on fuel. Upon landing, Aldrin and Armstrong believed they had about 40 seconds worth of fuel left, including the 20 seconds worth of fuel which had to be saved in the event of an abort. During training, Armstrong had landed the LLTV with less than 15 seconds left on several occasions, and he was also confident the LM could survive a straight-down fall from 50 feet (15 m) if needed. Analysis after the mission showed that at touchdown there were 45 to 50 seconds of propellant burn time left.
The landing on the surface of the moon occurred at 20:17:39 UTC on July 20, 1969. When a sensor attached to the legs of the still hovering Lunar Module made lunar contact, a panel light inside the LM lit up and Aldrin called out, "Contact light." As the LM settled on the surface Aldrin then said, "Okay. Engine stop," and Armstrong said, "Shutdown." The first words Armstrong intentionally spoke to Mission Control and the world from the lunar surface were, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Aldrin and Armstrong celebrated with a brisk handshake and pat on the back before quickly returning to the checklist of tasks needed to ready the lunar module for liftoff from the Moon should an emergency unfold during the first moments on the lunar surface. During the critical landing, the only message from Houston was "30 seconds", meaning the amount of fuel left. When Armstrong had confirmed touch-down, Houston expressed its worries during the manual landing as "You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again".
First Moon walk
See also: Apollo 11—Lunar surface operations
Although the official NASA flight plan called for a crew rest period before extra-vehicular activity, Armstrong requested that the EVA be moved to earlier in the evening, Houston time. Once Armstrong and Aldrin were ready to go outside, Eagle was depressurized, the hatch was opened and Armstrong made his way down the ladder first.
At the bottom of the ladder, Armstrong said "I'm going to step off the LEM now" (referring to the Apollo Lunar Module). He then turned and set his left boot on the surface at 2:56 UTC July 21, 1969, then spoke the famous words "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
Armstrong did not prepare his famous epigram in advance. In a 1983 interview with George Plimpton in Esquire Magazine, it was revealed that Armstrong "had produced the lines on his own...and the words were composed not on the long trip up there, as had been supposed by most of his colleagues, nor beforehand but after the actual landing of Eagle on the moon's surface." He explained to Plimpton that "I always knew there was a good chance of being able to return to Earth, but I thought the chances of a successful touchdown on the moon surface were about even money—fifty-fifty... Most people don't realize how difficult the mission was. So it didn't seem to me there was much point in thinking of something to say if we'd have to abort landing."
The broadcast did not have the "a" before "man", rendering the phrase a contradiction (as man in such use is synonymous with mankind). NASA and Armstrong insisted for years that static had obscured the "a", with Armstrong stating he would never make such a mistake, but after repeated listenings to recordings, Armstrong admitted he must have dropped the "a". Armstrong later said he "would hope that history would grant me leeway for dropping the syllable and understand that it was certainly intended, even if it was not said—although it might actually have been".
It has since been claimed that acoustic analysis of the recording reveals the presence of the missing "a"; Peter Shann Ford, an Australia-based computer programmer, conducted a digital audio analysis and claims that Armstrong did, in fact, say "a man", but the "a" was inaudible due to the limitations of communications technology of the time. Ford and James R. Hansen, Armstrong's authorized biographer, presented these findings to Armstrong and NASA representatives, who conducted their own analysis. Armstrong found Ford's analysis "persuasive." However, the article by Ford was published on Ford's own web site rather than in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, and linguists David Beaver and Mark Liberman wrote of their skepticism of Ford's claims on the blog Language Log. Thus, NASA's transcript continues to show the "a" in parentheses.
When Armstrong made his proclamation, Voice of America was rebroadcast live via the BBC and many other stations worldwide. The estimated global audience at that moment was 450 million listeners, out of a then estimated world population of 3.631 billion people.
About 20 minutes after the first step, Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface and became the second human to set foot on the Moon, and the duo began their tasks of investigating how easily a person could operate on the lunar surface. Early on, they unveiled a plaque commemorating their flight, and also planted the flag of the United States. The flag used on this mission had a metal rod to hold it horizontal from its pole. Since the rod did not fully extend, and the flag was tightly folded and packed during the journey, the flag ended up with a slightly wavy appearance, as if there were a breeze. Shortly after their flag planting, President Richard Nixon spoke to them by a telephone call from his office. The President spoke for about a minute, after which Armstrong responded for about thirty seconds.
In the entire Apollo 11 photographic record, there are only five images of Armstrong partly shown or reflected. The mission was planned to the minute, with the majority of photographic tasks to be performed by Armstrong with a single Hasselblad camera.
After helping to set up the Early Apollo Scientific Experiment Package, Armstrong went for a walk to what is now known as East Crater, 65 yards (59 m) east of the LM, the greatest distance traveled from the LM on the mission. Armstrong's final task was to leave a small package of memorial items to deceased Soviet cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov, and Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee. The time spent on EVA during Apollo 11 was about two and a half hours, the shortest of any of the six Apollo lunar landing missions; each of the subsequent five landings were allotted gradually longer periods for EVA activities—the crew of Apollo 17, by comparison, spent over 22 hours exploring the lunar surface.
In a 2010 interview, Armstrong explained that NASA limited his moonwalk to two hours because they were unsure how the spacesuits would handle the extreme temperature of the Moon.
Return to Earth
After they re-entered the LM, the hatch was closed and sealed. While preparing for the liftoff from the lunar surface, Armstrong and Aldrin discovered that, in their bulky spacesuits, they had broken the ignition switch for the ascent engine; using part of a pen, they pushed the circuit breaker in to activate the launch sequence. The lunar module then continued to its rendezvous and docked with Columbia, the command and service module. The three astronauts returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific ocean, to be picked up by the USS Hornet.
After being released from an 18-day quarantine to ensure that they had not picked up any infections or diseases from the Moon, the crew were feted across the United States and around the world as part of a 45-day "Giant Leap" tour. Armstrong then took part in Bob Hope's 1969 USO show, primarily to Vietnam.
In May 1970, Armstrong traveled to the Soviet Union to present a talk at the 13th annual conference of the International Committee on Space Research; after arriving in Leningrad from Poland, he traveled to Moscow where he met Premier Alexei Kosygin. He was the first westerner to see the supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 and was given a tour of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, which Armstrong described as "a bit Victorian in nature". At the end of the day, he was surprised to view delayed video of the launch of Soyuz 9—it had not occurred to Armstrong that the mission was taking place, even though Valentina Tereshkova had been his host and her husband, Andriyan Nikolayev, was on board.
Life after Apollo
Teaching
Armstrong announced shortly after the Apollo 11 flight that he did not plan to fly in space again. He was appointed Deputy Associate Administrator for aeronautics for the Office of Advanced Research and Technology, Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), but served in this position for only a year, and resigned from it and NASA as a whole in 1971.
He accepted a teaching position in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, having decided on Cincinnati over other universities, including his alma mater, Purdue, because it had a small aerospace department; he hoped that the faculty members would not be annoyed that he came straight into a professorship with only the USC master's degree. He began the work while stationed at Edwards years before, and finally completed it after Apollo 11 by presenting a report on various aspects of Apollo, instead of a thesis on the simulation of hypersonic flight. The official job title he received at Cincinnati was University Professor of Aerospace Engineering. After teaching for eight years, he resigned in 1979 without explaining his reason for leaving.
NASA accident investigations
Armstrong served on two spaceflight accident investigations. The first was in 1970, after Apollo 13, where as part of Edgar Cortwright's panel, he produced a detailed chronology of the flight. Armstrong personally opposed the report's recommendation to re-design the service module's oxygen tanks, the source of the explosion. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Rogers Commission which investigated the Space-shuttle Challenger disaster of that year. As vice-chairman, Armstrong was in charge of the operational side of the commission.Business activities
After Armstrong retired from NASA in 1971, he acted as a spokesman for several businesses. The first company to successfully approach him was Chrysler, for whom he appeared in advertising starting in January 1979. Armstrong thought they had a strong engineering division, plus they were in financial difficulty. He later acted as a spokesman for other companies, including General Time Corporation and the Bankers Association of America. He acted as a spokesman for U.S. businesses only.Along with spokesman duties, he also served on the board of directors of several companies, including Marathon Oil, Learjet, Cinergy (Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company), Taft Broadcasting, United Airlines, Eaton Corporation, AIL Systems and Thiokol. He joined Thiokol's board after he served on the Rogers Commission; the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed due to a problem with the Thiokol-manufactured solid rocket boosters. He retired as chairman of the board of EDO Corporation in 2002.
Voice actor
In 2010 he voiced the character of Dr. Jack Morrow in Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey, a 2010 animated educational sci-fi adventure film initiated by JPL/NASA through a grant from Jet Propulsion Lab.Illness and death
Armstrong underwent bypass surgery on August 7, 2012, to relieve blocked coronary arteries. He died on August 25, in Cincinnati, Ohio, after complications resulting from the cardiovascular procedure. After his death, Armstrong was described, in a statement released by the White House, as "among the greatest of American heroes—not just of his time, but of all time". The statement further said that Armstrong had carried the aspirations of the United States' citizens and that he had delivered "a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten."
His family released a statement describing Armstrong as a "reluctant American hero [who had] served his nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut ... While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves. For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink." This prompted many responses, including the Twitter hashtag "#WinkAtTheMoon".
Armstrong's colleague on the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin, said that he was "deeply saddened by the passing. I know I am joined by millions of others in mourning the passing of a true American hero and the best pilot I ever knew. I had truly hoped that on July 20th, 2019, Neil, Mike and I would be standing together to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of our moon landing...Regrettably, this is not to be." Apollo 11 Command Module pilot Michael Collins said, of Armstrong, "He was the best, and I will miss him terribly." NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that: "As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind's first small step on a world beyond our own".
A tribute was held in Armstrong's honor on September 13 at Washington National Cathedral, whose Space Window depicts the Apollo 11 mission and holds a sliver of moon rock amid its stained-glass panels. In attendance were Armstrong's Apollo 11 crewmates, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin; Eugene A. Cernan, the Apollo 17 mission commander and last man to walk on the moon; and former Senator and astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. In a eulogy, Charles Bolden said, "Neil will always be remembered for taking humankind's first small step on a world beyond our own, but it was the courage, grace, and humility he displayed throughout this life that lifted him above the stars." Eugene Cernan recalled Armstrong's low-fuel approach to the moon: "When the gauge says empty we all know there's a gallon or two left in the tank!" Diana Krall sang the song "Fly Me to the Moon". Michael Collins led prayers. Aldrin and Collins left immediately after the event. The Apollo 15 commander, David Scott, spoke to the press; he recalled the Gemini 8 mission with Armstrong when he spoke, possibly for the first time, about an incident in which glue spilled on his harness and prevented it from locking correctly minutes before the hatch had to be sealed or the mission aborted. Armstrong then called on back-up pilot Pete Conrad to solve the problem, which he did, to continue the mission without stopping the countdown clock. "That happened because Neil Armstrong was a team player, he always worked on behalf of the team."
On September 14, Armstrong's cremated remains were scattered in the Atlantic Ocean during a burial-at-sea ceremony aboard the USS Philippine Sea. Flags were flown at half-staff on the day of Armstrong's funeral.
Legacy
Armstrong received many honors and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy, the Sylvanus Thayer Award, the Collier Trophy from the National Aeronautics Association, and the Congressional Gold Medal. The lunar crater Armstrong, 31 mi (50 km) from the Apollo 11 landing site, and asteroid 6469 Armstrong are named in his honor. Armstrong was also inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor and the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame. Armstrong and his Apollo 11 crewmates were the 1999 recipients of the Langley Gold Medal from the Smithsonian Institution.
Throughout the United States, there are more than a dozen elementary, middle and high schools named in his honor, and many places around the world have streets, buildings, schools, and other places named for Armstrong and/or Apollo. In 1969, folk songwriter and singer John Stewart recorded "Armstrong", a tribute to Armstrong and his first steps on the moon. Purdue University announced in October 2004 that its new engineering building would be named Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering in his honor, the building cost $53.2 million and was dedicated on October 27, 2007, during a ceremony at which Armstrong was joined by fourteen other Purdue Astronauts. In 1971, Armstrong was awarded the Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy at West Point for his service to the country. The Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum is located in his hometown of Wapakoneta, Ohio, although it has no official ties to Armstrong and the airport in New Knoxville where he took his first flying lessons is named for him.
Armstrong's authorized biography, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, was published in 2005. For many years, Armstrong turned down biography offers from authors such as Stephen Ambrose and James A. Michener, but agreed to work with James R. Hansen after reading one of Hansen's other biographies.
In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Armstrong was ranked as the #1 most popular space hero.
The press often asked Armstrong for his views on the future of spaceflight. In 2005, Armstrong said that a manned mission to Mars will be easier than the lunar challenge of the 1960s: "I suspect that even though the various questions are difficult and many, they are not as difficult and many as those we faced when we started the Apollo [space program] in 1961." In 2010, he made a rare public criticism of the decision to cancel the Ares 1 launch vehicle and the Constellation moon landing program. In an open public letter also signed by Apollo veterans Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan, he noted, "For The United States, the leading space faring nation for nearly half a century, to be without carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature". Armstrong had also publicly recalled his initial concerns about the Apollo 11 mission, when he had believed there was only a 50% chance of landing on the moon. "I was elated, ecstatic and extremely surprised that we were successful", he later said.
On November 18, 2010, at age eighty, Armstrong said in a speech during the Science & Technology Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, that he would offer his services as commander on a mission to Mars if he were asked.
In September 2012, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced that the first Armstrong-class oceanographic research ship will be named RV Neil Armstrong. The ship (currently under construction) will be a modern oceanographic research platform capable of supporting a wide range of oceanographic research activities conducted by academic groups.
The Space Foundation named Neil Armstrong as a recipient of its 2013 General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award.
| Neil Armstrong | |
|---|---|
 Armstrong in July 1969  |
|
| NASA Astronaut | |
| Other names | Neil Alden Armstrong |
| Nationality | American |
| Status | Deceased |
| Born | August 5, 1930 Wapakoneta, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | August 25, 2012 (aged 82) Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Previous occupation | Naval aviator, test pilot |
| Time in space | 8 days, 14 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds |
| Selection | 1958 USAF Man In Space Soonest 1960 USAF Dyna-Soar 1962 NASA Group 2 |
| Total EVAs | 1 |
| Total EVA time | 2 hours 31 minutes |
| Missions | Gemini 8, Apollo 11 |
| Mission insignia |   |
| Awards |   |
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