For the first time in 41 years, astronaut Neil Armstrong talks about landing on the moon in 1969, as well as Felix Baumgartner’s Stratos project and future missions to Mars.
Today he turns 80 and is still going strong: Neil Armstrong, the first man who walked on the surface of the moon, coining the timeless phrase: “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Armstrong makes his first public appearence in 41 years on Austria’s Servus TV tonight.
In the talk show “Talk im Hangar-7,” airing at 21:05 pm (CET), the media shy astronaut admires the oldtimer planes in Salzburg’s Hangar-7, gives a bear hug to his former Russian rival and co-guest Alexej Leonov, talks about the moonlanding on July 21,1969, and its scary media afterburn, that made him quit interviews and publicity say: ”I never was the showman who could represent and discuss our mission to the moon.”
Still he made a stunning impression on 600 million spectators in the clips and photos covering the sensation and was chosen by NASA’s ground control to step out of the space ship “Eagle” onto the moon’s surface before his more self-conscious and hero-like colleague Buzz Aldrin.
After the Apollo 11 crew returned to earth, a maelstrom of public interest took its toll on Armstrong’s private life. He stopped giving interviews and autographs, left NASA in 1971 and began teaching at the Office of Advanced Research and Technology. It was around that time that he was appalled by a hairdresser who sold one of his locks for a small fortune. The ex-astronaut constrained the greedy coiffeur to donate the sum to charity.
Armstrong, born in Ohio, took his test for a flying licence at 16, even before attemping a driver’s licence. He joined the US Airforce and piloted chase plains in the Korean War, before becoming a test pilot for NASA’s first space plane. He was part of the Apollo 8 mission, before teaming up with Aldrin and Michael Collins for the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
© servus.tv
Armstrong on Servus TV: “It took so much more than us three to make it to the moon. All in all there must have been 400,000 people involved in the mission for over ten years. Walking on the moon is very comfortable, you can take leaps – if you lived in a house up there, you could jump from floor to floor.”
Armstrong also recounts how he had to take over manual control of Apollo 11, as the onboard computer suffered from a system overload. He found an area which to him seemed safe for a landing and touched down on the moon: “It certainly was the wrong moment to allow for any mistakes,” he smiles today.
As the next project relevant to humanity, he favours a mission to Mars and found Felix Baumgartner’s Red Bull Stratos project extremely exciting.
© servus.tv
Livestream on servustv.com, August 5 2010, 21:05 (CET).
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