Today I learned there is a Congressional Space Medal Of Honor.

"One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind." A true hero from my childhood. May he never be forgotten.

Not one of the great explorers of the last century… he and Buzz are the greatest explorers of the last century.

Three big babies in diapers sitting in a space pram, two of them making a few steps. And this counts as the greatest feat of exploring in the 20th century. Pathetic. Columbus must have been turning in his grave.

Columbus killed off natives and treated them like shit. It's one thing to kill people and treat them like shit. It's another to kill people and treat them like shit in the name of your god. It's another to kill people and treat them like shit in the name of your god and manipulate them into thinking there will be no harm done. It's another to kill people and treat them like shit in the name of your god and manipulate them into thinking there will be no harm done and then trying to change the history books and give yourself all the credit.

Or you could be the first humans to step on the moon.

So Columbus wasn't an explorer? How interesting.

They really need to proof-read before hitting "post".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/
Astronaut Neil Armstrong dies, aged 82
First American woman in space, who showed 'millions of little girls that they can be heroes and explorers'
25 Aug 2012

Oh, Columbus was an explorer, as was half of Europe in that time period it seems. Not the best in his century let alone in history. He wasn't even the one that landed in North America. I don't know why he gets so much credit. He was a dick first of all and he didn't even "discover" the continent.

bo_sox, maybe it's hard for you to imagine that some people might find something admirable in a suicidal mission across an uncharted ocean in a ship that looks like a wooden toy. I understand you're fascinated by guys sitting in a metal box, waiting to arrive to a known destination. You call that exploring? I suppose you get excited by elevator rides, too.

What did Columbus do? He had the guts to go and explore westward, and he managed to convince Spain to fund his trip. He had navigators and a crew the whole way, who charted the course and did the grunt work. Still, he did have courage to set sail, as did the astronauts who trusted the NASA scientists even with recent failures and death in the space program, and who knew that one misstep in the calculations and they would die, alone and in space. You are being utterly disrespectful for reducing their journey to "Three big babies in diapers sitting in a space pram, two of them making a few steps."

Unlike Armstrong, Columbus didn't know where he was going. He *hoped* he'd get somewhere. That's what I call exploring. Getting to the Moon was a great technical feat, but that's all.

Of course, there's an obvious reason why astronauts are the heroes of our age. They were the best pupils in the astronaut school. They followed the rules. It's easy to identify with them.

But there are no schools for explorers. They are people who break the mold and do something that everybody else considers insane. The greatest explorers of the 20th century can be found in the sciences, arts, philosophy, politics, not in astronaut schools.

In before the conspiracy theories, but unfortunately not the flame war. We've just lost a great explorer and a great American. Hopefully there will be people (who aren't communists) on the Moon again before all these great men die.

Bo, just quoting what you wrote before, Europe was full of explorers... who didn't actually DARE to travel westwards before Columbus showed the way (with a certain amount of luck, considering that he wanted to reach India from the other side, but he tried to do it, and before he STUDIED how to do it. That's an explorer, I suppose...)

Do you think that, if half of America managed to be on a shuttle (just to use your way of reasoning), only Armstrong would be successful?
Well, I do not think so. I have no reasons to believe Armstrong was so much better than a mass of astronauts... since this mass never existed. Congrats to him and to the people who managed to send him safe, but seriously...

Both were explorers. Armstrong and Aldrin didn't know if the LEM would get them down and back safely as it was impossible to truly test the landing technology and nobody could know what the surface environment would do to the return system. And as Apollo 13 demonstrated along with two shuttle disasters since, space travel is hardly a nice little ride to space and back.

Columbus did risk a lot in the boats but despite what the grade school history books say, it was pretty well established the Earth was round so keeping a true course would bring him to land and he knew that. He just didn't know where or how long it would take.

An explorer can know wherr they arey going

Stupid phone...

An explorer can know where they are going but the fact no one from their civilization has been there before (or very few have) combined with the risk involved is what makes them explorers.

Going from the Wright Brothers to the Moon in a little more than 65 years was a monumental achievement that took the combined efforts of many people from many countries. There are many names that came from that era as heros. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldren (always wondered if Alderan was named after him), Yuri Gagarin definitely have their place at the top of that list. Go to Huntsville Alabama and stand at the foot of a Saturn V rocket and imagine riding that roman candle into space. Those guys had balls of solid steel. They went where no one had gone before. They were explorers, heroes, and symbols of what humanity can achieve.

I love how Zmaj admires the risk that Columbus took in exploring but gives no credit to astronauts, who apparently are just bookworms. Obviously there is no risk or danger in going into space. Things never go wrong... /sarcasm

Good way of putting it Crazy Anglican. Columbus didn't sail to America within living memory of the invention of the canoe.

But comparing explorers in that kind of way is really dumb anyhow.

I never said Columbus wasn't an explorer. I did say that the purpose of his exploration was different. Armstrong and Aldrin had a much more rational and appreciative purpose in mind.

Almstrong and Aldrin's purpose was to beat the Russians there. It was the Cold War and, while I admire those two men greatly (I wanted to be an astronaut in elementary school, 1971-1976), I wouldn't call "beating the other guy there" a rational and appreciative purpose. Just saying...

Draugnar, the Soviets landing on the Moon first would have been a huge deal and America putting great effort to get there first was completely rational.

Apollo 11 was not even a year after the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia to end the Prague Spring. It was just over a year from the protests in France that realistically could have lead to a communist revolution there. Nixon's Vietnamization was barely six months old, and the Tet Offensive happened only a year and a half before the landing.

What I'm saying is, things were bad for the West at that time. Communism was proving itself a viable (or even inevitable) alternative to democracy. The Apollo program did a lot to push back against all that.

He's right. "Beating the other guy there" isn't an cause for admiration. What difference does it make if there is an American or a Soviet on the moon first? Apart from the tribal "this is our side" outlook?

I suppose you just didn't read my previous post.

I didn't say it wasn't worthy, but beating the other guy is not a rational reason to do anything except defend oneself from the other guy when the other guy wants to do you harm.

Oh and the Soviets getting there first... So what? It's not like their tech would have been ahead of us or that they wojld own the moon and not us. It was a morale boost for ua to win and a morale boost just being in (and leading) the race. But in the grand scheme, it meant nothing. Scientific exploration amd discovery is what space flight should be about, not oneupmanship. Thankfully, that still happened becaise NASA. had the vision to make it happen and used Kennedy's ego to fund it.

Dear loveable webDip family whom I swear I only shove in the closet when friends are over out of pure and honest concern for our mutual perceptions by the rest of society,

This is a thread dedicated to remembering Neil Armstrong. Can we please keep the flaming to a minimum? And I'm not sure what the Soviets have to do with it.

Love,
Eden

I'm surprised nobody here commented about him having his medals stripped like people are on facebook....

We are talking about Neil Armstrong, fuckwit. Not Lance Armstrong.

Or is the point that your fwcebook friends are even bigger fuckwits than that? If so, then realize a man is defined by the company he keeps and that isn't saying much about you if your friends are complete fucking morons.

Draug, are you actually friends with all of your Facebook friends. What about their Facebook friends? Just because he saw a stupid comment on Facebook doesn't mean he's stupid.

The measure of a man is in the company he keeps. With the exception of some really stupid classmates, yes I am.friends with them all. I wish Facebook had an "acquaintance" status for old.classmates and stuff.

Sorry, with respect, I thought we were saying farewell to one of the greatest astronauts ever, not evaluating Facebook friends like teenagers?

Obi, to quote Amadeus, you're so lofty you sound as if you shit marble.