Neil Armstrong's Sherpa dead

The Onion turns in another fascinating story on a little-known
corner of NASA:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news...urce=a-section

Sherpa Who Led Neil Armstrong To Moon Dead At 71
MAY 1, 2009 | ISSUE 45.18

ST. PETERSBURG, FL.Phurba Dorje, the lunar Sherpa guide
who blazed the trail for the Apollo 11 astronauts and made it
possible for Neil Armstrong to become the first white man to set
foot on the moon, died peacefully in his sleep Monday in his
Florida apartment. He was 71.

Dorje, whose career with the U.S. space program spanned
more than a decade, carried provisions, equipment, and solid
rocket fuel on 13 missions in the 1960s and 1970s, but is best
known for guiding Armstrong and his crew to Tranquility Base in
1969.
[ etc; worth reading the whole ]

--
Joseph Nebus
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