The Unexplained - Howard Hughes - Remembering Neil Armstrong

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Aug. 25, 2012 - The Unexplained - Howard Hughes

02:57

Remembering Neil Armstrong

Remembering Neil Armstrong – An American Hero...

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	As I record these words, our world is digesting the news of the death of Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, at the age of 82.
	I've spent hours overnight listening to anecdotes from friends, journalists who met him down the years, colleagues in the space program, and I realized we really have lost a hero, and according to everybody who knew him, a reluctant hero.
	As a journalist, my first instinct was to hit the phones and call up as many people as I know to see if I can put together tributes for the unexplained.
	But I realized we're all media monitors now, so you'll have heard the tributes, and you know his story.
	So there's nothing that we can meaningfully add here now, I don't think.
	But what I can say is a few reflections on why this man has such a part in so many of our lives.
	As a boy in Crosby, Liverpool, I had his photograph on my bedroom wall.
	I was captivated by the story of a group of men, backed by fantastic technology, who set foot on another world.
	They really did it.
	And down these years, I wondered as we all wonder, what that must have felt like, as you step through the grey lunar dust, and you look back at the distant blue globe that you call home.
	Do you feel amazement?
	Do you feel a tinge of fear like a child lost in the supermarket?
	Do you feel great pride?
	Pride in the size and scale of the achievement?
	Probably all of those things.
	Eighteen months ago on this show, I asked Moon astronaut Edgar Mitchell about that.
	And Edgar just said, What I thought as I stepped out was, wow, it was a wow moment.
	And watching Neil Armstrong step out of the lunar module, that's what we all thought, from schoolboys in the UK, to seasoned journalists like America's Walter Cronkite, who'd seen it all over the years, but never this.
	Man on the moon.
	We got to get down, Eagle.
	It's easy for journalists to say, this is the end of an era.
	You must have heard that phrase in all the coverage of Neil Armstrong's death.
	I wonder if the reality of exploring space can be as tangible for a generation who weren't part of the excitement of Apollo.
	I was still a child when the moon missions ended, but I did watch every one, and they fired questions in my young brain, and today they still fire questions in my older brain.
	Neil Armstrong was always amazed children read about him in history class today, even when he was still alive.
	Now he really is part of our history.
	And whenever we look up at the bright autumnal moon in the northern hemisphere, we need to take a second out and celebrate the achievements of a quiet hero who showed us we can always exceed our expectations.
	We can always achieve the impossible dream.
	It's one small step for man.
	One diamond wait for man.

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