Neil Armstrong was the wrong person to be a hero, but he was the right person to do a hero’s job.
This quiet American changed everybody’s life when he stepped on the moon in July 1969, but perhaps nobody’s more than his own. Studious and private, Armstrong was a skilled pilot and a fanatical engineer before the Apollo 11 mission, but a world icon and symbol of human achievement after it. Never before or since have laurels sat so awkwardly on the head of a hero.
Case in point 1: he became the most famous person in the world in 1969, but didn’t authorise a biography until 2005, and even then reluctantly. The temptation to cash in on hero status is hard for any man to resist, but Armstrong obviously found it easy.
Case in point 2: there is only one photograph of Armstrong on the moon’s surface. He held the camera for most of the moon walk, shooting Aldrin as they bounced around in the dust. According to the book First Man, Aldrin was reluctant to take over photo duties, which ensured all the great pictures from Apollo 11 are of Aldrin. Armstrong didn’t press the point.
On his return to earth, he found himself with a new career: the job of being Neil Armstrong. He would much rather have taken on another mission or engineering task as soon as possible, but NASA was reluctant to risk America’s number one hero again. Neither he, Aldrin nor Collins were to return to space. Armstrong resigned from NASA and went teaching instead
It is a bit harsh to say that Armstrong ran away from his fame. He did his job as hero as best as he could, but it was a career he never cultivated. The task of being the eternal voice of Apollo 11 he left to the effervescent and controversial Buzz Aldrin, so restricting his own exposure that over the years he garnered the epithet “reclusive”.
He also attracted controversy himself. Over the years his relative silence gave his detractors a free hand to graffiti his reputation, particularly when it came to his suitability to command the most important mission the world had ever seen.
Chuck Yeager knew Armstrong well; USAF test pilots shared Muroc Lake (now Edwards AFB) with the NASA test pilots for years. Yeager once described Armstrong to Australian Flying as “a great engineer, but not much of a pilot.” This is not as damning as it reads; the General is not known for handing out flying compliments to many others except Bob Hoover and Bud Anderson.
Why would NASA hand the Apollo 11 mission to a quiet man who was “not much of a pilot”, considering also that his only other space mission, Gemini 8, had to be cut short when they lost directional control over the capsule and Agena docking system? On paper, there were better people to take command.
Yeager prefers to say that Armstrong’s appointment as commander was political. At the time, both the US Air Force and the US Navy were lobbying to have one of their men the first to step onto the moon. It was a point of great prestige to claim that fame. Armstrong, having resigned from the Navy years before, was a civilian. Placing him in command killed the politics dead.
But would NASA risk sending the wrong person just to take the pressure off themselves? A mistake that caused that mission to fail would be devastating to NASA and could jeopardise the whole future of a program already under intense public scrutiny.
Most likely, NASA chose Armstrong because he was the best person to deal with a catastrophe. Had something gone seriously pear-shaped, it would be the mind of a studious engineer that would best work the problem and bring them home, not the hand of a hot-shot jet jockey.
Neil Armstrong died last Saturday at the age of 82, from complications following heart surgery. He will be lauded from the highest skyscraper, flags will be flown from half mast and the hero will be seen off with pomp and ceremony befitting a King.
In reality, we will be saying goodbye to the world’s greatest quiet achiever.
- Steve Hitchen
In brief
Born August 5 1930 Wapakoneta, Ohio
Called up for Navy service January 26 1949 - to NAS Pensacola
First combat mission 29 August, USS Essex, Korea in F9F Panther
78 missions flown in Korea
Left Navy 1952 - into USNR until 1960
Graduated Purdue Universtiy 1955, degree in aeronautical engineering
Joined National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) Edwards Air Force Base July 1955
Joined NASA astronaut program September 13 1962
Commander Gemini 8 Mission March 16 1966
Back-up pilot Gemini 11 September 12 1966
Commander Apollo 11 July 16-24 1969
Vice President, Rogers Commission into space shuttle Challenger Disaster 1986
Surgery to relieve blocked arteries August 7 2012
Died from complications August 25 2012