CRAP - RIP Neal Armstrong

From NBC's Cosmic Log:

Astronaut Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dies at age 82
First moonwalker Neil Armstrong's death at the age of 82 marks the passing of a "reluctant American hero," as well as the dimming of the Space Age's brightest moment.

His death followed complications from heart-bypass surgery he underwent this month, Armstrong's family said today in a statement released by NASA. The first public report of Armstrong's death came via NBC News' Cape Canaveral correspondent, Jay Barbree, a longtime friend.

Armstrong has been immortalized in human history as the first human to set foot on a celestial body beyond Earth. "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," he radioed back to Earth from the moon on July 20, 1969.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that "as long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them."

Armstrong's fellow moonwalker on the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin, was among the legions mourning his passage. "We are missing a great spokesman and leader in the space program," Aldrin said in a BBC interview. He said he'd remember Armstrong "as being a very capable commander and leader of an achievement that will be recognized until man sets foot on the planet Mars."

Michael Collins, the crewmate who circled the moon in the Apollo 11 command module while Armstrong and Aldrin took that first trip to the lunar surface, also paid tribute to his commander in a NASA statement: "He was the best, and I will miss him terribly."

President Barack Obama said that Armstrong and his crew "carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation," and that the first steps on the moon "delivered a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten."

I was nineteen when he stepped down that ladder -- working for Fritz Noack -- a pipe organ builder in Andover, MA. My Mom and Dad were vacationing that year in Rockport, MA (they alternated every other year there and Estes Park, Colorado). Came to their rental house and watched the landing on the TV. That was an incredible time of hope -- we were on the threshold of space exploration. The technology industry just mushroomed. The Personal Computer happened six years later with the Altair 8080. As for me, I'm still waiting for my Jet-Pack. I want my Jet-Pack dammit! Of course, Obama is going to "issue a statement" but considering that Obama is the reason we have to hitch a ride on a Russian spacecraft when we want to go anywhere, screw him. He is why we no longer have the ability to put a man into space. We need more space exploration, not less -- it is a minuscule part of our budget (about 3% at its largest) and the benefits from the technology developments more than pay back the costs incurred.