On 29/08/2012 03:21, Doug Freyburger wrote:
Hg wrote:

Nothing can top being the first man to walk on the Moon - so quitting
being an astronaut would be the first thing I would have done as well.
Neil knew spaceflight is dangerous. I remember him saying he thought
the Eagle landing had more chance of crashing than landing safely.
So, why take the risk on lesser missions?

Several other space walking astronauts stayed in the program and ended
up going up on the shuttle. For a lot of astrnauts once you have the
space bug, the space bug has you back. It's like Gagarin - He went out
in a blaze of glory on a training flight.

If you're doing it for the fame, sure. I don't think they let people
into the astronaut corps who they thought were doing it for the fame.
There would have been competition among the astronauts for the first
step but it was among people who were already astronauts who'd already
flown in space.

Stepping out of the spotlight... I'm not sure the reasons for that,

I think he expected he'd be okay with the fame but when it actually
happened he disliked it worse than Lindberg had. Some situations can be
imagined and mentally simulated before they happen. Some can't. When
your'e good at running such mental simulations, as all test pilots must
be, you'll figure you can pull it off in other fields. But when he was
actually a celebrity he clearly didn't like it. So he stayed private.
He earned it as far as I'm concerned. He didn't step on the Moon by
winning a lottery. He earned it the hard way.

Look at how Buzz has done. He's (or was) a jet setting celebrity doing
all sorts of beneficial tasks. The world's a better place for how Buzz
uses (used) the celebrity he ended up enjoying.



I guess Armstrong thought he could benefit society by being a teacher
instead of going up in rockets all the time. I wonder how good of a
teacher he was? Anyway, he clearly enjoyed teaching so IMO if you
can do what you enjoy then you'll be happy.


though he did return to the spotlight whenever he was needed, being
part of the investigation panels for Apollo 13 and Challenger, for
example.

Exactly. When his celebrity could make a large difference in the space
program, he used it that way very deliberately for what he thought was
the good of the program.


--
T