I was watching a documentary about Neil Armstrong last night - a chap going over his history, interviewing people who know him, and coming across quite sickening people like his barber, who sold the hair from Armstrong's head for $3000, and was laughing about "Neil" bringing lawsuits ("So I went to the press and it turned in to this global story, after that he backed down" - what a nice guy you are. I hope you're happy with your cancerous soul, you worthless cock). Truly revolting. It doesn't surprise me that Armstrong wants to hide away from people. The documentary was one of those modern, slightly queasy ones where the filming is supposedly as much about the man making the documentary as it is about the subject. I didn't feel comfortable with that aspect of it, but in the absence of the subject of your documentary, you have to fill it with something, I suppose.
I came away from it with enormous respect for Neil armstrong, the man, as opposed to the legend. A disciplined, quiet, introverted engineer who also just happened to be totally obsessed with flying. His Dad took him up in a bi-plane at the age of 6, and he was hooked for life. At the end of the documentary, he emailed some delightful comments about the humming of the wind through the wires on the biplane, and how unique and inspiring it is. Not just introverted, but poetic. But then we knew that.
I talked with McK afterwards about the impact that the Apollo missions had on the public imagination. It's something that is easy to forget about now. The sixties was not just a time of social revolution, but scientific revolution too. The Russian and American space flights gripped the public imagination, and ordinary people, who these days don't even bother looking skyward were excited about science. Philosophical and moral upheaval abounded. In retrospect, the sixties were nothing short of amazing.
Here's the thing with the Apollo missions. If we ignore the political motivation of the men with the money to control and invest, the astronauts themselves took the race with Russia as friendly rivalry in competing for an *amazing* prize. Exploration of space; the chance to look down on this unique bejeweled marble and to be fully alive. Just about as fully alive as it would be possible to be. The Americans were orbiting earth, sending people up, and realistically, they hadn't exactly become experts at that when they ramped up a gear and said right, well let's just Do this moon thing. And they did. Really, really fast.
The passion, enthusiasm and bravery involved is astonishing.
...and then it all became normalised, and people didn't care too much any more... there were no big goals, there was only golf. Now, 40 years on, the Americans are close to de-commissioning the Shuttle, whilst having nothing to replace her. At least not for a good few years. What the hell happened? It's too easy to glibly moan about the state of education, disinterest, and selfishness taking over - science fiction books sell by the ton. Science based histories of the first understanding of geology, psychology, the history of cod fishing even, sell well; people continue to be fascinated and excited by the unknown, and Shuttle journeys are followed by excited schoolkids who even get to ask Astronauts questions and do scientific experiments whilst they're in actual space! I listened to President Obama talking to the astronauts up in the Shuttle a month or so back, and there were times when he lost his usual eloquence. He was talking to real Astronauts! He was excited!!
For doubtless important reasons at the time, after the moon had been achieved, there was no secondary thruster. Nothing that said Right, well let's just Do this... Mars thing? Venus? But without the immediate focus of a new action to conquer, a new place to discover, the wrong people could wield their influence to spread dissent about the programme.
So was that unique and amazing achievement, was that first step actually the best step humans will ever achieve? What with the climatic disaster area beginning to unfold around us, it could be. We have no time left to create the science fiction future where we send people off to discover new worlds. But Neil Armstrong and his 11 colleagues hopefully were not the first and last of us who will walk on the moon. The Chinese are pushing to get people out there. That is again spurring on the Americans to step up to the plate. Probes, satellites and robots making their steady way across the universe before us are wonderful outriders. Ambassadors for the people who may come after them. But they aren't people. It is in our nature to explore, and risk take. Thus we must.
Meanwhile, it is incumbent upon us to remember that Neil Armstrong was not at that time a God, nor is he now. He is a human being. If those 12 guys could do it, our honouring of their achievement must be in striving, not just to be better, but to achieve as much as - more than - we did, 40 years ago.
