Tag Archives: Neil Armstrong

That was the Year That Was…2012 in Air and Space

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No question 2012 will be remembered as a simultaneously joyous and tumultuous year, certainly in politics but also in air and space. As a retrospective of the year just gone, here are my five most significant events in air and space. Like all such lists, it is idiosyncratic and I recognize that others might choose different events. I list them in order of their occurrence—not according to their significance—during the year, along with my reason for including them on this list. Comments are most welcome from others concerning other events that might find their way into this discussion of 2012 in air and space.

  1. A century of U.S. Marine Corps aviation (May 22, 1912). One hundred years ago, on May 22, 1912, the first Marine Corps aviator, First Lieutenant Alfred A. Cunningham, began the effort to create a flying corps for the Marines. He took flight at the Burgess and Curtiss aircraft factory at Marblehead, Massachusetts, in August 1912. During the year that followed Cunningham made 400 sorties in the Curtiss Model B-1, instructing others, and working through tactics of air operations. From that modest beginning the Marine Corps built a formidable flying force that has engaged in combat as needed throughout the world.

    Lt. Alfred A. Cunningham

    Lt. Alfred A. Cunningham in a Curtiss hydroaeroplane in 1914. Cunningham was Naval Aviator No. 5 and as the first Marine aviator, is considered the father of Marine Aviation.

  2. Landing of Curiosity rover on Mars (August 6, 2012). There was nothing magic about it, but the event itself transcended the hard-edged scientific and technological knowledge that made the latest Mars landing successful. After years of hard work and dedication, the team working on Mars Curiosity had their moment of truth about 1:30 a.m. EDT on August 6. The first data back demonstrated that the rover has reached the surface of the red planet safely, and the first images to reach Earth showed where Curiosity was sitting on the Gale Crater floor. It was euphoric,…at mission control, around NASA, in numerous science centers, and in Times Square where thousands gathered to watch the proceedings. It was a geek’s dream come true as the folks in Times Square watching on the big screen began chanting “sci-ence, sci-ence, sci-ence.” Of course, at year’s end there was still more to do—a lot more—as Mars Curiosity undertakes its multi-year mission to explore the Gale Crater and to climb Mt. Sharp in its center. Curiosity brings to the red planet’s surface a formidable life sciences laboratory that may well help us resolve beyond serious question whether or not life ever existed on Mars. This rover is the first full-scale astrobiology mission to Mars since the Viking landers of 1976. The mission is intended to help NASA answer this massively large question: Are there locations on or under the surface that could have supported—or might still support—life on Mars?

    Curiosity

    Curiosity on Mars (artist’s conception). Credit: NASA/JPL. Image number: PIA14156.

  3. Passing of Neil Armstrong (August 25, 2012). The aerospace world lost an iconic figure this past year with the passing of the first human to set foot on the Moon from complications resulting from heart bypass surgery. He was 82 years old. We will all miss him, not just because he was the first human being in the history of the world to set foot on another body in the solar system, but perhaps especially because of the honor and dignity with which he lived his life as that first Moon walker. He sought neither fame nor riches, and he was always more comfortable with a small group of friends rather than the limelight before millions. When he might have done anything he wished after his completion of the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969, Armstrong chose to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati. My favorite memories of Neil Armstrong were at the various anniversaries of the Moon landing. He was always a bit perplexed by all of the praise heaped on him. It was the result of the labor of hundreds of thousands and the accomplishment of a generation of humanity, Armstrong always said. More than this, he was a superb research pilot, a geeky aerospace engineer, and a gentleman of true honor and dignity.

    Neil Armstrong

    Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong inside the Lunar Module during the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. NASA photo.

  4. Space Dive by Felix Baumgartner (October 14, 2012). Dropping from a balloon at over 128,000 ft (39,000 m), Baumgartner broke the 1960 record of Joseph Kittinger for a high-altitude jump. Reaching a speed of Mach 1.24, Baumgartner safely returned to Earth at Roswell, New Mexico, after a 4-minute, 22-second free fall before opening his parachute at about 5,000 feet (1,524 meters). The Austrian sky diver had difficulty controlling his body at that high speed and went into a flat spin which he worked to recover from before passing out.
  5. Safest Year for flying in history (December 31, 2012). It is now officially safer to fly than ever before, according to the Aviation Safety Network which released its 2012 airliner accident statistics showing a total of 475 airliner accident fatalities, resulting from 23 fatal airliner accidents. Both figures were much lower than the ten-year average of 34 accidents and 773 fatalities. Compared to 2011, the number of fatal crashes and accidents fell dramatically over the last twelve months, to just one death for every 2.5 million flights. Almost 75 percent of the 2012 fatalities came because of two major incidents—153 lives were lost in Nigeria when a DANA Air jet crash landed in June and 127 deaths occurred when a Bhoja Air airliner crashed in Pakistan last April.

Roger D. Launius is a senior curator in the Space History Department at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 Extravehicular Gloves and Visor

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Extravehicular gloves and visor worn by Neil Armstrong when he took his first steps on the Moon on July 20, 1969.

There is a new display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport.  Along the south wall of the James S. McDonnell Space Hanger, in a large storefront case, are the extravehicular (EV) gloves and visor that Neil Armstrong wore when he first stepped on the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969.  These three components of Armstrong’s A7-L spacesuit are a small portion of what hundreds of millions of people saw on the television broadcast of his first steps on the lunar surface.  But they are also the most immediately identifiable.  The gloves have the blue silicone fingertips and the stainless steel fabric that wraps the hands with the long white gauntlet with instructions printed on the left one.  The visor is the giant sun goggles that astronauts needed to survive in absence of the Sun-filtering effects of the Earth’s atmosphere.  These objects were placed on display on Tuesday afternoon as part of the Museum’s memorialization of Neil Armstrong’s life.

Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 Visor

Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 EV Gloves

The first question that might come to mind to many of the visitors seeing the gloves and visor is why these components and not the rest of his spacesuit?   The short answer to that question is that the Museum is trying to preserve Armstrong’s suit and all the other spacesuits in the national collection for generations to come.  When the news of Neil Armstrong’s death was released to the public, I was shopping for a swim team picnic and immediately began to text our spacesuit conservator, Lisa Young.  We both immediately recognized that the significance of Armstrong’s life and his role in the space program called for a significant action on the part of the Museum.  The components of Armstrong’s spacesuit that he returned from the Moon have been on display almost continuously from the time in 1973 when NASA transferred them to the Museum until 2001 when my predecessor Amanda Young made the very difficult decision to remove them for conservation purposes.  Objects in the spacesuit collection are rotated on and off display based on their individual needs as determined by Museum collections specialists. The climate and display conditions in the existing display were not ideal for preserving the spacesuit for decades.  The natural deterioration processes of the synthetic materials; interactions between components of the suit, humidity, light and the traditional upright display position were all contributing to a worsening condition of the suit.  By 2001, Lisa Young had determined that storage conditions of a moderate temperature (60 degrees Fahrenheit or 15.5 degrees Celsius) and low relative humidity (<30%)  are the ideal conditions to maximize the stabilization of the materials in the suit. Once removed from display, Neil Armstrong’s suit was stored under those conditions for 10 years, first at the Museum’s Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland, and more recently at the Museum’s modern storage facility at the Udvar-Hazy Center. Lisa and I decided that these three of all the suit components were the best able to withstand the hazards of display outside of their storage containers for a brief period of time.

Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit, currently in storage at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. Photo credit: Mark Avino

Once we made that decision, a remarkable number of Museum divisions had to come into play to make the display happen.  The Exhibits Design and Exhibits Production units had to approve a design and location including approving, editing, and producing exhibit labels.  The Smithsonian’s Office of Protection Services had to ensure that the display conditions met the Institution’s monitoring requirements.  Our chief conservator, Malcolm Collum, swung into action in the midst of moving his laboratory from Suitland to the Udvar-Hazy Center and produced a detailed condition report prior to display.  Our mount maker, Glenn Rankin, had to build new mounts to fit the glove and the visor that met both conservation and exhibit requirements.  Then Samantha Snell, Jeannie Whited, and Jennifer Stringfellow of the Collections Division worked to assure that the transport of the artifacts from storage to the Conservation lab and finally to display went smoothly and without incident.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s spacesuits were formerly on display together, pictured here in 1999. Buzz Aldrin’s suit is currently on display in “Apollo to the Moon.” Photo credit: Eric Long

The gloves and visor will be on display for about two weeks.  When they return to storage, we hope that it will not be for another decade.  Neil Armstrong’s death has emphasized to all of us at the Museum the importance of sharing our precious collections related to the Apollo program with the public.  The Museum plans to complete a renovation of its Apollo to the Moon gallery on display at the Museum in Washington, DC.  The new gallery, which is planned for 2018, will tell the story of how the United States built the Apollo program in eight years on the basis of 15 minutes of human spaceflight experience.  In that gallery, visitors, including those who have no personal memory of seeing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in 1969, will see his spacesuit kit and other personal materials on display.  At that time, the suit and its components will be displayed under conditions that will come close to our storage standards.  Once we have established these new display standards for our spacesuit collection, we will be able to share more of our collection with the public while preserving it so that visitors will be able to view it for generations.

Neil Armstrong in his Apollo 11 spacesuit with visor on the table in front of him. Photo credit: NASA

 

Cathleen Lewis is a curator in the Space History Division of the National Air and Space Museum.

All photos by Dane Penland, National Air and Space Museum, unless otherwise noted.

Because of the fragility of the suits, the Air and Space Museum joined with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) to create Suited for Space based on Amanda Young and Mark Avino’s book, Spacesuits: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Collection.  Near full-sized images of spacesuits from the Museum’s collection bring you up close, and x-rays give you the inside-look at some suits and their components. The exhibit is currently showing at the Center for Earth and Space Science in Tyler, Texas and will open at the National Air and Space Museum on the Mall in July 2013.

Neil, Flat Stanley, and Me

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I knew Neil Armstrong, not all that well, but for a very long time. I first met him in July 1972, when the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) opened the Neil Armstrong Museum in the astronaut’s hometown of Wapakoneta, Ohio. A 20-something director of education for the OHS, I had planned all of the exhibitions for that museum. I wrote my first short book, or long pamphlet, depending on your point of view, as part of the project: The Giant Leap: A Chronology of Ohio Aerospace events and Personalities (Columbus: Ohio Historical Society, 1971). Neil agreed to write the foreword for the book, an extraordinary honor for a budding historian. When my little book was published, the designer printed Neil’s signature at the end of the forward. Twenty years later, in 1991, Neil spent some time at the National Air and Space Museum working on his short-lived television series, First Flights. He was sitting in my office one day when I showed him a copy of the book, and asked him if he remembered writing the foreword. He said of course he did, picked it up and signed it beneath his printed signature, this at a time when he was no longer giving autographs. That is a souvenir I treasure.

I met Neil quite a few times over the years. In 2000 I even recruited him to membership on the First Flight Centennial Federal Advisory Board, an organization which I chaired that was involved in helping to plan the commemoration of the first flights of the Wright brothers a century before. It was one of my most important contributions to the success of the centennial effort. Neil was one of the most active members of the Board. The most private of men, he nevertheless made a great many media appearances in 2003, insuring that the public understood and appreciated the genius of the Wright brothers and the extent to which their invention had shaped the modern world.

Only once during the forty years that I knew him, did I presume to ask Neil for a personal favor. In the fall of 2010 the National Museum of Naval Aviation invited me to present a talk on the Wright brothers at its annual history symposium. Our grandson, a proud first grader, was involved in a “Flat Stanley” project. Each of the kids in his class colored a pasteboard cut-out of a character named “Flat Stanley,” who was then mailed to friends or relatives in another part of the country. Those kind folks were asked to take photos of Stanley at local scenic spots and send the cut-out character and the photos back to the student, along with a letter talking about the places he had visited. The kids used that information to create a poster and tell the class about Stanley’s travels.

Our grandson had sent his Flat Stanley to his uncle in Georgia, but as my wife and I were about to leave on a long driving trip through the South, Alex’s teacher asked us if we would take one of his classmate’s cut-out Stanley with us on our trip. The child responsible for this Stanley was the daughter of new South Asian immigrants and wanted to participate, but did not know whom to send her character to. So, off we went on a trip that would take Flat Stanley on a visit with family in Georgia, attendance at the Pensacola conference, and on to a wedding in south Florida.

Flat Stanley

Neil Armstrong, Tom Crouch, and Flat Stanley

When we arrived at Pensacola, I discovered that Neil was there, as well. We chatted at some length, and I thought about asking him to have his picture taken with Flat Stanley, but decided that I did not want to impose. At the end of the conference, as my wife and I were loading our luggage into the car parked outside the Visiting Officers Quarters, a familiar voice behind me said, “Tom, say hello to Wilbur and Orville for me!” On the spur of the moment I stuck my head in the car and asked Nancy to give me Flat Stanley and a camera. I tried my best to explain this fairly complex notion for a first grade project to Neil, and asked him if he would have his picture taken with Stanley and me. He did so, with grace and a huge smile. I just hope he remembers to say hello to Wilbur and Orville for me.

Tom D. Crouch is a senior curator in the Aeronautics Division of the National Air and Space Museum.

Remembering Neil Armstrong

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Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong inside the Lunar Module during the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. NASA photo.

I first heard the sad news while having a late lunch with friends at a seafood restaurant on the water in Annapolis, Maryland. Neil Armstrong passed away today, August 25, 2012, from complications resulting from heart bypass surgery. He was 82 years old. We will all miss him, not just because he was the first human being in the history of the world to set foot on another body in the Solar System, but perhaps especially because of the honor and dignity with which he lived his life as that first Moon walker. He sought neither fame nor riches, and he was always more comfortable with a small group of friends rather than the limelight before millions. When he might have done anything he wished after his completion of the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission, Armstrong chose to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Imagine having the first person to walk on the Moon as your engineering professor!

Neil Alden Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, on his grandparents’ farm near Wapakoneta, Ohio. His parents ­were Stephen and Viola Armstrong. Because Stephen Armstrong was an auditor for the state of Ohio, Neil grew up in sev­eral Ohio communities, including Warren, Jefferson, Ravenna, St. Marys, and Upper Sandusky, before the family settled in Wapakoneta. He developed an interest in flying at age 2 when his father took him to the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio. His interest intensified when he had his first air­plane ­ride in a Ford ­Tri-­Motor, a “Tin Goose,” in Warren, Ohio, at age 6. At age 15 Armstrong began learning to fly at an airport near Wapakoneta, working at various jobs to earn the money for his lessons. By age 16 he had his student pilot’s license; all before he could drive a car or had a high school diploma.

He then went to Purdue University to study aeronautical engineering, but in 1949 he went on active duty with the Navy, eventually becoming an aviator. In 1950 he was sent to Korea, where he flew 78 combat missions from the aircraft carrier USS Essex.

After mustering out of the Navy in 1952, Armstrong joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). His first assignment was at NACA’s Lewis Research Center near Cleveland, Ohio. For the next 17 years he worked as an engineer, pilot, astronaut, and administrator for NACA and its successor agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

In the ­mid-­1950s Armstrong transferred to NASA’s Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, where he became a research pilot on many pioneering ­high-­speed ­aircraft—including the famous ­X-­15, which was capable of achieving a speed of 4,000 mph. He flew over 200 different models of aircraft, including jets, rockets, heli­cop­ters, and gliders. He also pursued graduate studies and received a M.S. degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.

Armstrong transferred to astronaut status in 1962, one of nine NASA astronauts in the second class to be chosen. On March 16, 1966, Armstrong flew his first space mission as commander of Gemini VIII with David Scott. During that mission Armstrong piloted the Gemini VIII spacecraft to a successful docking with an Agena target spacecraft already in orbit. Although the docking went smoothly and the two craft orbited together, they began to pitch and roll wildly. Armstrong was able to undock the Gemini and used the RCS system to regain control of his craft, but the astronauts had to make an emergency landing in the Pacific Ocean.

On Apollo 11, Armstrong flew with Michael Collins and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Armstrong completed the first Moon landing on July 20, 1969. As commander of Apollo 11, Armstrong piloted the lunar module to a safe landing on the Moon’s surface. On 20 July 1969, at 10:56 p.m. EDT, Neil Armstrong stepped down onto the Moon and made his famous statement, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Armstrong and Aldrin spent about two and ­one-­half hours walking on the Moon collecting samples, doing experiments, and taking photographs. On July 24,1969, the module carry­ing the three astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. ­They ­were picked up by the aircraft carrier USS Hornet.

No question, the Moon landing unified a nation divided by political, social, racial, and economic tensions for a brief moment in the summer of 1969. Virtually everyone old enough recalls where they were when Apollo 11 touched down on the lunar surface and Neil Armstrong said his immortal words, “Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.” Millions, myself included, identified with Neil Armstrong as he reached the “magnificent desolation” of the Moon. One seven-year-old boy from San Juan, Puerto Rico, said of the first Moon landing: “I kept racing between the TV and the balcony and looking at the Moon to see if I could see them on the Moon”. His experiences proved typical; as a fifteen-year-old I sat with friends on the hood of a car on the night of July 20, 1969, looking at the Moon and listening to the astronauts on it. “One small step,” hardly; Neil Armstrong nailed it with the second phrase of his famous statement, “one giant leap for mankind”.

Since that euphoric event a lot has passed, the world has changed, and the future does not seem to hold quite the same possibilities as it once did. Yet, Neil Armstrong captured that sense of hopefulness so well until his last breath. He was an American hero, no doubt, but he was more. He lived a life of quiet grace, rarely embroiling himself in the day-to-day fights we see all around us even as he exemplified a unique merger of the “Right Stuff” with the self-reflection of a poet. Landing on the Moon was singular accomplishment, but not one to be remembered as an accomplishment of Neil Armstrong, as he so often said. It was the result of the labor of hundreds of thousands and the accomplishment of generation of humanity. Armstrong always recognized the honor he received from humanity in being allowed to participate in Apollo 11.

Armstrong would have agreed with legendary journalist Walter Cronkite, about the experience of reaching the Moon. “Yes, indeed, we are the lucky generation,” Cronkite wrote. In this era we “first broke our earthly bonds and ventured into space. From our descendants’ perches on other planets or distant space cities, they will look back at our achievement with wonder at our courage and audacity and with appreciation at our accomplishments, which assured the future in which they live.” When those descendents do look back on that era when humanity first journeyed beyond Earth, I’m sure they will also remember the contributions of an unassuming engineer and pilot from Ohio in advancing the exploration of the cosmos. The most fitting tribute I can offer at this time of recollection was the same said on more than one occasion in the space program: “Godspeed, Neil Armstrong.”

 

Roger D. Launius is a senior curator in the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

That’s One Small Step. . .

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These suits have come a long way. True, it’s only 37 miles from Suitland, Maryland to Chantilly, VA. On a good day, that’s less than an hour’s drive on the beltway. But today, like 42 years ago, these suits are worlds away from where they came.

 

Neil Armstrong's Spacesuit

Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit, flown on Apollo 11, is inspected and prepared for shipment at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility. From left to right, Amelia Kile, Samantha Snell, Lisa Young, and Stephanie Harris. Photo by Eric Long

On December 6th, the spacesuit that Neil Armstrong wore as he took his first steps on the Moon made the giant leap from outdated storage facilities to new, state-of-the-art collections storage at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. About 200 suits are being relocated from the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland this winter. These include Michael Collins’ Apollo 11 suit and many more used to develop spacesuit technology and train astronauts.

 

Garber

Spacesuits are loaded onto the “Big Blue” tractor-trailer in Suitland, MD. From left to right, Stephanie Harris, Scott Wood, Pat Robinson, and Christine Cannon. Photo by Eric Long.

Museum staff sometimes calls the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center “the promised land.”  In some ways, the place is a museum worker’s (and culture buff’s) dream come true. The reason for this name? Conditions are ideal for the long-term preservation of these national treasures. Temperature, relative humidity, exposure to light, the elements, and pollutants can all seriously affect the life-expectancy of these beloved artifacts, but each can be tightly controlled at the new facility. Simply having a permanent, secure building with modern infrastructure and adequate physical space for each spacesuit ensures that the National Air and Space Museum’s comprehensive collection of spacesuits will survive for years to come.

 

Hazy

Spacesuits are delivered to the new storage facility. From left to right, Cathy Lewis, Amelia Kile, Stephanie Harris, Christine Cannon, Katherine Watson, Samantha Snell, Scott Wood, and Pat Robinson. Photo by Dane Penland.

In the relatively short time I have worked with the Museum, much progress has been made in preparing this collection to move to its new home, as curator Cathy Lewis explained in a previous post. Many collections staff, volunteers, interns, contractors, and more than one curator and conservator have worked with purpose and diligence in the last decade toward this day and this goal. It opens a new chapter for the Museum, begun earlier this year with the framed art collection. Now this collection will be more accessible to researchers and staff, and in turn, the public. I am honored to participate in this moment.

This is one of many “small” artifact collections being relocated to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in the next several years, so check back for updates on our progress.

Amelia Brakeman Kile is lead move contractor in the Collections Division of the National Air and Space Museum