Who Was Neil Armstrong?

Who was the real Neil Armstrong? Beyond the astronaut suit and the moon landing, there's a fascinating story of a complex man. Join us as we delve into the life and legacy of this American hero. We'll explore his triumphs, his challenges, and the incredible journey that led him to become the first person to walk on the moon. But don't worry, space helmets optional! Dirt Nap City is packed with fun facts, surprising anecdotes, and a healthy dose of modern-day perspective about the man who's small step was a giant leap for us all!

Transcript

Kelly: 0:07

Hey everybody, you are listening to dirt nap city, dead people. And it's probably a few weeks or maybe even a burl burled through Texas, especially the Houston area. because Alex has his power and his Internet back on. But he Alex, how are you faring today?

Alex: 0:36

Doing all right man in that that hurricane was a supposed to not come here. And we really learned it was before it hit. We usually have a little more time to get can't really be prepared for something that devastating. survivors here. Yeah,

Kelly: 0:57

Houston, H town. Love some H town? Well, I know and a lot of stuff going on. But hopefully, people who are mind off of things for a moment. All these troubles we know, all these natural catastrophes and mass that stuff. dirt nap city is kind of a place where you can sort of a happy place. What do you say?

Alex: 1:25

Yeah, we try to keep it light. I mean, there's a lot talking about that we choose not to that we try to keep it

Kelly: 1:34

Yeah, I had originally proposed this idea of doing as an example with Alex and it's like, no, no, absolutely.

Alex: 1:42

do you think? Who do you think is the worst person the Eighth, right. Just most first

Kelly: 1:49

killed the most people. Certainly. I mean, Andre, the

Alex: 1:53

giant certainly beat up a lot of people. Yeah, but he Sanders poisoned a lot of people. He was kind of a son did

Kelly: 2:01

Ray Kroc. Yeah, and then, and then you've got people, right? So yeah, we kind of have a very well, this is from your favorite century? What's your favorite century century 20th century, which if people you know, you might not necessarily. But the 20th century is actually the 1900s. was the arts.

Alex: 2:32

Right? Yeah. The zeros, right. So that had to be Yeah,

Kelly: 2:36

she had to reach 100 years before you got to the one hundreds I guess. But anyway, 20 century guy born in Okay. He was born in 1930. And he died pretty recently in here's your clues.

Alex: 3:00

I think we can make try. First. What? Well,

Kelly: 3:03

let me give you the first two clues real quick, might not they're not very good clues. And then if you pretty impressed. It'd be pretty bad stuff anyway, but Did you know, he was actually in the Purdue all American

Alex: 3:19

And he didn't Well, I wouldn't have How would I know talking about

Kelly: 3:23

and he was also a university professor.

Alex: 3:27

Oh, just like like me. I'm gonna guess Can I guess? it a No. Is it not Orville? Redenbacher? It is not. It's wrong though. It's funny. Eddie

Kelly: 3:45

Van Halen was like so wrong. So So I think it's

Alex: 3:49

funny when we always guess Eddie Van Halen, he's actually done it and Jesus.

Kelly: 3:57

No, that is that is like, that is like polar

Alex: 4:03

Oh, he's the opposite of Orville. Redenbacher. Pretty

Kelly: 4:06

much. Oh, here's my last clue. And this one should of 1969, which, by the way, is the year I was born. He was in the world. Wow.

Alex: 4:24

Wow. At

Kelly: 4:27

the end of 69 I mean, not just the US. He was an Wapakoneta, Ohio, but he was like worldwide fame at the end that he would have been famous for.

Alex: 4:47

Well, Bryan Adams had a sexual awakening. Let's see.

Kelly: 4:57

I mean, oh, that was a summer of 69. Right. All Actually, you know what? No, it was summer. It was summer great guest. It's not the right one, but

Alex: 5:08

he's not dead. And you just asked me what happened in they said, Bryan Adams had his sexual awaken from

Kelly: 5:15

from a specific date. There was a specific date in

Alex: 5:21

oh, the moon landing. Mm hmm. Am John Glenn. He was a

Kelly: 5:34

Yes, but he was not the first man on the moon. But

Alex: 5:38

he was from Ohio. I didn't. You didn't say it was

Kelly: 5:46

Neil Armstrong on the moon. Neil Armstrong says, Ohio. He was a baritone player at Purdue. He did go to grew to love flying from the age of two. His father took when he was two years old. And then when he was like six first airplane ride in Warren, Ohio, on a Ford tri motor actually loved it so much that he earned a flight certificate he got his driver's license.

Alex: 6:24

A lot of these these initial astronauts were were daredevils real neat. They had the need for speed, as they'd they really liked going fast. And they were they they had, I regard for their life. But they knew every time they went to today's astronauts who are much more cerebral and kind of pilots or anything like that.

Kelly: 6:57

So interestingly, and you'll learn this as we go Neil Armstrong was one of the first cerebral cerebral Gordo Cooper, Gordon Cooper, you had guys like Deke Chuck Yeager, who was not an astronaut, but a test pilot. macho, they call them stick and rudder guys. And they were fast. Got a, you know, kind of prove them a man kind of guys. I mean, you had to be smart. But Neil Armstrong actually Collins who was on, he was the one that stayed in the capsule flight, though, he said, actually, of Neil Armstrong stick and rudder pilot. But he understood the mechanics and aspects of the flight better than anybody else, which is yeah, that's a more common thing about today. You know, the moon. We haven't been to the moon in a long time. Yeah. kind of sad, don't you think?

Alex: 8:16

I think we're headed there soon. You signed up for oh,

Kelly: 8:21

yeah, we've talked about this, I would, I would don't want to go to Mars. I don't want to go somewhere. I go either just in orbit up to the International Space didn't cost $200,000 Or three, whatever it was for. Maybe it space tourists flight. So

Alex: 8:42

NASA if you're listening, want to do a episode from the moon. Yeah, I'll stay here. And you can.

Kelly: 8:52

You can be Michael Collins, and I'll be I'll be Aldrin. Yeah, so you know, all American dude. Eagle Scout, Navy. He fought the Korean War. And kind of interesting War. He flew a flight plan plane called the Panther in didn't know anything about this. No. So he flew what was assigned to San Diego, the Naval Air Station in San squadron. And this was one of the first all jet squadrons kind of Korea was when jets were starting to be these guys who were early pilots like in the Mercury been like John Glenn had been pilots in World War Two flying rudder guys. But But new Neil Armstrong was assigned to an Naval airbase in San Diego. He was the youngest pilot to make Grumman, F nine F Panther. And he actually was originally, hardest things to do in aviation is military aviation. stuff you just see the Blue Angels do and the stunts and the Navy, what do you think would be one of the hardest

Alex: 10:26

The mechanical part Oh, no. No

Kelly: 10:30

landing and taking off on a carrier? Oh, sure. Sure, think about it, they're catapulted off of this thing. 27 1950. And then on January, on actually January 5, he made landing on a carrier. And then June 5, he made his first jet carrier, the USS Essex. And, you know, that's supposed to for a pilot is if you can take off and land on a carrier. amazing. Now,

Alex: 11:15

the landing takes more than just one person, doesn't you? Like hook it? Hook it in? And all that? I mean, yeah,

Kelly: 11:22

yeah, there is. I mean, I think both of them take an off and land. But but the landing is, is definitely the land, you think about the whole thing is rocking, right? to right. And so you're not landing on a on a flat level. on a thing that's moving, right? Yes. Not only not only be these things are out in the ocean, they can have, you feet, you know, I mean, it depends on how the water is, because you're going to run out of fuel if you don't. So, landing and taking off on the USS Essex, served in Korea, was ground attack aircraft doing escorts reconnaissance, was a time when he was flying over the village of new John know how to say it. Exactly. He was doing a bombing run at all of a sudden, he hit something. It was a steel Koreans would do is attach these steel cables. It was it would attach these steel cables from mountain to of feet, hundreds of yards, 1000s Maybe even and anchor And you couldn't see him. So you're flying along 350 miles a trap. He hit it, his wing came off. And he had to fly. you know, just very, very low to the ground from an had to fly back to he was deep in enemy territory, I'd fly And he ended up having to eject out of his airplane. air shows, people doing stunts, people doing, you think, Oh, they could eject? You know, it's something you mortality rate and the injury rate for ejection is huge. I But that's something I learned from all this. No,

Alex: 13:47

but I mean, that's kind of your last chance, right? I certain deaths,

Kelly: 13:54

right, right. But what's going on is you are explosives. There are charges under your seat, and the charges go off. And you get pushed out at like Mach 12 or Mach 1212 G's. Yeah, of

Alex: 14:12

course. So I'm guessing that a lot of people just pass to in time to parachute. Right? Well,

Kelly: 14:21

the way the way a lot of these worked, and I think the seat ejects and the seat has the parachute. So you're and the seats parachute automatically deploys. So you do that. You could be unconscious and still survive. was kind of a funny story. He injected he was able to limp section of his wing. He was able to limp the plane back to was actually he ejected over water in the hopes of being he rejected. The wind pushed him back. And he ended up And he happened to land in front of a guy who was out happened to be his roommate from flight school. No picked up by that guy, and he bit his tongue really bad. But being like South Korea, right? So yes, yes, this was this was the 50s. So he ended up flying 78 missions in Korea 121 hours mission was March 5 1952. From all that, as I said, he He received a medal for 20 combat missions, you get missions. And then you get a medal of Korean service and get the National Defense medal, and he got the United very decorated. It's what I'm saying that February of 1952. he actually his regular commission with the Navy was Navy Reserve, where he stayed for the next eight years But he was able to after his regular commission go back to you this earlier, he went to Purdue, he ended up getting aerospace engineering. And then he ended up going at the time. And that agency was called the National Aeronautics, NACA or NACA,

Alex: 16:56

have you heard of that? Is that like the precursor to

Kelly: 17:01

It is. But guess what year NACA was formed by the by founded NACA in 1915. Whoa, apparently, during the early century, we were pretty behind on flight technology. Europe though the Wright brothers invented it. That was advance flight technology. And then in the 50s, Nokia started going into space. Dwight Eisenhower, in 1958, actually Aeronautics and Space Act, which established NASA and So everybody who was a NASA employee was or it was a NACA employee. Okay. There was a lot of there was a lot of pretty close to NASA. Right? You live pretty close to the

Alex: 18:08

yeah. Very.

Kelly: 18:08

Have you been there recently?

Alex: 18:13

Not recently. I mean, where to NASA itself?

Kelly: 18:18

Yeah, yeah. Just down.

Alex: 18:19

I mean, Season Passes. done there. Ya know,

Kelly: 18:24

it's pretty cool. Yeah, it's

Alex: 18:26

very cool.

Kelly: 18:27

They used to have been 10 years since I've been

Alex: 18:31

to the thing called Space Center, Houston. Because Houston, it was just NASA and you would take like the tour, it's not a theme park necessarily, but they have a Visitor friendly. There's a lot. Okay. Do spend.

Kelly: 18:51

I mean, I just remember I just remember being there rockets sitting on their sides. Yeah, that over? Yeah. think they have one of three Saturn rockets on display at And then there's one on display in Huntsville, then the

Alex: 19:14

big controversy was when the Space Shuttle was retired. Center Houston. So they have no really they have they don't have a mock up, which in a way is kind of better, because you in and Okay. Okay.

Kelly: 19:35

Is this scale like full size?

Alex: 19:38

I think so. Yeah. I think they feel snubbed?

Kelly: 19:42

Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's only so many of those it seems like Michigan control would have been a good, good Well, so what happened is he got out of school he got out or applied to join the NACA and and he was accepted. And Edwards Air Force Base in California. Now, if you heard Base,

Alex: 20:15

I know that's where for a while, that's where they shuttle. Yeah,

Kelly: 20:20

so it's big salt, flax, salt, flats, big, big, dry hot, very, very, kind of out in the middle of nowhere the hotshot pilots were during that time. That's where Chuck people that eventually flew into space and flew to the Air Force Base, that was kind of a big thing to be, but it because he was actually a private citizen, as an NASA.

Alex: 20:57

Rather than a military guy, you're saying,

Kelly: 20:59

yeah, and there was there was some debate back be a military, you know, should be like our Space Force as I said, it was formed by Eisenhower. And the idea was it military because they wanted it to be something that other countries. And it would be you know, for all mankind, that we were trying to develop. Anyway, he had a few like he caused this stuff, but he had a very close call You know, this B 29 bombers they used in World War Two, time to drop these rocket planes out of the bottom. So airplanes, you know, jets, prop planes, and they have a characteristic, right? The wings are high enough to give Are you familiar with like the x 15, or the Belux? One? Yeah, okay. But you can visualize one in your head. Sure, yeah. Blackbird. These planes were just rockets with small nubby they weren't really designed to fly well, in atmosphere, above the atmosphere. And again, enough power to get So there was a group of these guys at the time, including 15, like broke many records in it. And Neil Armstrong, who rocket aircraft, and taking them up to outstanding and at the time. 1010 Miles was getting to be pretty high, and miles, and then they were flying these things up to space. Now the edge of space is considered to be about 60 that's kind of where they say, you know, the atmosphere were getting right up to that edge, to the point where they they were flying these sort of parabolic. I guess space, and you're orbiting Earth, you're actually not just in freefall, you're constantly falling towards pulled forward in such a way that your capsule is moving the earth, right. It's it's the it's that balance between the velocity of the capsule. Okay, so they would experience these, you know, experimental rocket planes. Very, very very dangerous, lots of problems they had with them. one time with Chuck Yeager. Only one time, he and Chuck same mission. And he was Jr. to Chuck Yeager. At the time, was the guy he was, he was an older guy, older than a lot of going to the moon and such, and the astronauts, and he and Chuck Yeager were supposed to go out to a place near suitable landing spot where they could do emergency had to. So they took a t 33, which was a jet and they flew supposed to look at, and apparently there's conflicting biography and Neil Armstrong's biography, Chuck Yeager says, said it's gonna be muddy don't land there. And Armstrong did says, No, he never told me not to land he let me do it. Then of kind of a he said she said thing. Sure. Anyway, they they had to have someone come out and tow the plane back mud. So in 1958 on October 1, NASA took over NACA, and he And at that time, there were two competing things in the US Now, you've heard of the space race between US and Russia 60s, do you do you remember the year that Russia put the

Alex: 25:41

man, and they did dog first? Right? They did several talking Sputnik. Sputnik

Kelly: 25:49

was was the first satellite to go up into space. Sputnik was a satellite and No, no man on board. And it and just spit out a little beep every couple of seconds. strong enough that people if wherever it was above, people then

Alex: 26:09

a dog came after the dog started coming after the

Kelly: 26:14

Correct? Correct. They sent several satellites, or satellites up into space, then several dogs. And they did a animals they did turtle ever send a monkey. We sent the a monkey into space. We sent a monkey named ham into space. Shepard. And Alan Shepard was mad because basically what it can do what I'm about to do.

Alex: 26:48

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, of course. And I wish I Maybe next episode, I'll do a whole episode on the monkey

Kelly: 27:00

Ham. Ham Ham was it's really kind of sad. They Africa. And they brought them over here. They were sold by a of them. And they would put them through these tests, and buttons. And if they didn't push the button, they got was the one that was really good at pushing the buttons

Alex: 27:25

What did the buttons do?

Kelly: 27:27

I don't I never got from from the book. I never actually did anything. Or if they didn't, but

Alex: 27:35

that's just what astronauts do, though. They there he got to be busy.

Kelly: 27:40

So in late 50s, there was a program called Man in Arab Air Force program. And it was something that they were somebody into space do what you know to beat the Russians the things they didn't really account for was man in space miss?

Alex: 28:06

Oh,

Kelly: 28:08

yeah, it was the miss it was called the Miss

Alex: 28:12

Man in Space. Are you thinks oh, soonest like That's not even. Yeah,

Kelly: 28:19

that's a terrible, terrible acronym. Well, what They scrapped Miss Mann and space soonest, and they put don't know how much you know about this. I mean, I kind of but there was Mercury was the first one than Gemini was the third one. And then we didn't really do any more after that, shuttles and the ISS and all that stuff. But like, as far moon, those were the three progressions. So Mercury was were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Shepard, and Deke Slayton. And these guys were, it was a competition between the Air Force and NASA about what should it be a rocket with a capsule on top that a monkey everything's automated, and it just blasts off and you send know, you don't have to do a whole lot? Or should it be a plane, you know, this rocket with wings strapped to it, And it's very dangerous, but could potentially take you up and Air Force kind of had some friction going on between them

Alex: 29:42

And neither one was invented. Like we had to make it right?

Kelly: 29:47

No, no, they had both at the time. So So what that went up the x 15. What I was talking about earlier, to the moon but you could get it into orbit. to like it it further, they could have gotten it was going into space it was right on the edge of space wasn't going high enough space. But you're saying if

Alex: 30:12

it would have kept developing that they could moon.

Kelly: 30:16

Well, that's what they're for. That's what not That's what the space shuttle eventually became. But it it took off on like a rocket and then it landed like a

Alex: 30:28

plane. But the goal was to go to the moon.

Kelly: 30:31

Well, the goal at this point was to get a man in so this was still this was the late 50s, early 60s. So the orbit. Nobody had Yuri, as I said, Yuri Gagarin was the the Earth in space. And then Alan Shepard was the second seven Mercury astronauts, these guys were all test just badass guys. And there was a lot of debate about thing to be in this astronaut corps, or whether it was you know, because, because they weren't going to really so much of it was automated, they were going to be just passengers, their passengers, and it was more about could Could they tolerate the weightlessness? Could they gonna happen to their bodies in space. And that's, you were physically strong, especially in Russia, the short, because they didn't want big heavy people in the capsule. The Americans were a little bit bigger, John Glenn the heaviest of all the original Mercury astronauts. been like, alpha pilots for so long. They were annoyed by fighting in NASA about how much control the pilot there But what happened as soon as these guys were selected they became rockstars. Everybody loved them. them. I mean, if you've seen the right stuff, the movie or what that's all about. It's about these guys had the right heroes. And in that book, Tom Wolfe, I think is the author. single Gladiator. You know, back in the old days, when would have, sometimes they would have one member of the that army. And that would be how it's decided, like in had a single gladiator that was going up to beat the first, that's who these guys were supposed to be. And as I credit, was ready to go fight with them to go sooner. And about having somebody blow up, you know, on national with the Challenger, Russia, because they had had some the Mercury program, the Russians beat us into space. space was Alan Shepard, as you know, and then all seven of earlier, all went up on a different Mercury Program. And well. But then Russia had some problems, their flight driving it all the the genius behind it all. died and their apart. But what happened is, after Russia beat us to space, been in office for a short period of time in 1961 1962, Russians beat us into space, he that's when he made his the moon. You remember that speech? Right? It

Alex: 34:12

was a man at Rice University. Oh, that's right. he said, Why does? Why does Rice play Texas easy?

Kelly: 34:21

Yeah, he did. He did. Yeah. Well shout out.

Alex: 34:25

He likened the difficulty of going to the difficulty is rice football beating Texas football.

Kelly: 34:34

That's right. And for those of you that don't know, Longhorns. Yeah.

Alex: 34:39

They said, We do these things. We choose to do these because it's easy, but because it is hard. Yeah,

Kelly: 34:48

exactly. Right. Well, that's a good one. And he was in a bad spot. He had had the bad pigs in Cuba that had egg on his face at the time. The Russians had beaten us to face. And he got together with a group in his cabinet and people hope about America? What can we do to make people build unity behind us? And the idea was send a man to the that, actually, so LBJ was a big space guy. LBJ wanted moon LBJ wanted, he was all all about it. Kennedy had not kind of funny that he made that speech and got all the But it was really to win political points. And it ended up beating Russia to the moon. And it it of course, he that time. So what happened is mercury seven, they all flew of trading punches with Russia, you know, going punches in the space, the space race or space fight. We then after the mercury seven, were finished, there were some know, we spent a lot of money on men going to the moon. with politics at the time, whether this was a good use of 1962, so this guy named Deke Slayton, he was one of the actually had some sort of a heart issue like a irregular grounded him, but he became like, kind of the head of the flight operations. So he got to pick the astronauts, and he would be interested in joining the next group of astronauts Project Gemini. Do you know why they called it Project two man space capsule.

Alex: 37:07

Gemini is the twins. Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly: 37:09

So instead of one it was they had two spaces in the it Gemini. There were 16 pilots in Gemini. They did 10 crude as in cussing, and farting, stinking, but crew there was, you know, Gemini three was the first one. And don't line up. So Neil Armstrong and a guy named eight, which was a pretty complex mission. And, but it mission. Even though it's called Gemini eight, they were to do 75 hours and 55 orbits around the Earth. And one of doing, which actually they did successfully, was docking a vehicle up in space. So do you know anything about the Egina? interesting. And I saw this in several things. I saw this in about Neil Armstrong, as well as in the biography and the about this. The Egina was an unmanned spacecraft that they hour before Gemini aid lifted off. So they had two launches into orbit. And then the whole objective was for Gemini to Gemini eight to be able to go up and dock with it. And it docking of two air or two spaceships. And Neil Armstrong happened. So that was pretty cool. There was a problem on where once they docked with the Egina, they had a problem spinning really fast. And they couldn't figure out why. And with it, do some things up there. As I said, go up for 75 they had to cut that really short because the aircraft were trying to figure out what was going on. And eventually undocked with Egina. They were like, well, something's going two of them together causing a problem. And they undocked spitting even faster. And it was at that point that they thrusters was stuck in the on position, one of their was causing them spin. So they were able to override it and that they were Okay, but do you know how they move around you know what turns you know what you pour on a cut when when you want to dye your hair what you put on your hair and peroxide. Right. Yeah. So so they use little thrusters that And that's how that thing

Alex: 40:23

moved. Yeah. Wow. Pretty low tech.

Kelly: 40:27

Very low tech. I mean, there's but there's no there's no air, there's no wind, there's no, well, freefall gravity. So it doesn't take very much thrust You've seen movies, space movies, where they use like a, know, or air hose nozzle to fly around in space, same kind ended up having to cut the mission short. And, you know, they were or reentered the atmosphere in splashdown to. And, you know, kind of had figured out what was going on. little bit of a kerfuffle, when they landed, that, guys in NASA were saying that, that Armstrong had botched the yeah, he had, he had messed it up because he was supposed to Krantz who was high up in NASA for a long time. Maybe you said, quote, the crew reacted as they were trained. And they train them wrong. So he, he kind of came to their defense, great mission. We had never docked two spacecraft together what to do or what not to do.

Alex: 41:53

So that changed the training at that point for

Kelly: 41:56

Gemini nine Gemini 10. Yeah, actually, and they ended didn't have to launch a new one for Gemini 10, they were them to dock with. So that was kind of a good thing. But, but mercury, we had Gemini and the next one. Apollo, right? The don't know if you remember this or have heard about this, Because of a fire that killed three astronauts. You hear who was originally one of the original Mercury seven was one. And all they were going to do was orbit. I say all were going to orbit and do some more testing. The way they wanted to make small, incremental strides each time, figure out how to talk doc to aircraft, they had to figure stay in orbit, they had to figure out how to how to bring atmosphere correctly, they had to figure out like Apollo moon. That's that was I believe, Jim Lovell was on 13. It went to the moon but had problems. But it all it the moon, but we wanted to go see if we could orbit the of the surface and then come back. And then later they gonna go there and just land without having never imagined

Alex: 43:35

though going all the way there and not not being able looking at it.

Kelly: 43:43

Well, yeah, that would be that's what happened to 11. He was he never got off the aircraft. So they got crew would be Mike Collins Buzz Aldrin and Neil 11 crew. And there was a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff that scenes. One of the reasons they say that they put Neil didn't have a lot of ego. They said he was one of the most they liked that that like this guy was going to be famous. who could be modest and and, you know, not be a jerk when know if he got to be famous. So they also had these things Houston called the lunar landing research vehicles, ll TVs which was the lunar landing training vehicles. And simulate the gravity of the moon which is 1/6 the gravity these things over, like go up into the air and then try to Earth as if they were in 1/6 gravity. And Neil Armstrong TV. But he actually did have to eject from one because he problems. And basically, they said that he, he was within a when he ejected. If he had ejected later, he would have ejected sooner, he would have been like the thing was kind it was angling upward, he would have been facing the the ground. So he kind of seemed to have either nine several different planes. Or he had, you know, really good actually flew over 200 aircraft in his career, by the about that, you know, two different 200 different planes. Yeah, yeah. It during his test pilot and pilot flown? Or I'm sorry, have we even driven 100 Different

Alex: 46:14

Absolutely. Not. Exactly. Like I think

Kelly: 46:17

about how long I've been driving. And even with Maybe 5075

Alex: 46:25

I just bought my fourth car ever. Well, I'm even

Kelly: 46:29

talking about like rental cars. Yeah,

Alex: 46:31

even. I mean, yeah, probably not to one. Maybe, And you travel a lot more than I do. So you probably have 200 even those aren't 200 different kinds. There's a lot

Kelly: 46:49

Honda CRV, a 2018 Honda CRV and a 2019 CRV run about they they identified the Apollo 11 crew. And one of the let well a couple of things about the Apollo 11 crew. be Buzz, Buzz Aldrin. Neil Armstrong was going to be the going to be the command. The Lunar Module Pilot, the guy module down. And then Michael Collins was going to be the Collins was going to stay aboard the command module and to take both Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, were going to the lunar module eject from it. This is why they had to from the command module fly down to the surface of the in Columbia, that's what they call it, the command module took back off from the lunar module, but only the top part they left the landing gear down on the moon, it's still redock with the command module. And then the command back towards Earth. And then eventually, they would come just land in Earth's orbit. In the lunar module, like the heat shield. So very, very complicated, very sticky things. Number one was Buzz Aldrin was apparently a reputation for being difficult to work with. And Neil Armstrong replace him with Jim Lovell, because he he along and Jim level was easy going and but Neil Armstrong You know, I'm not going to do that because I want level to him to have his own command of his own mission. And so he have a problem with Buzz Aldrin. So he kept kept they all took off from the Kennedy Space Center, above a 16th 1969, at 932, Eastern local time, and they said it they'd ever heard. The power of it was just amazing.

Alex: 49:43

I've heard him say that it felt like it was going to

Kelly: 49:47

a lot of shaking a lot of but that was all kind of the ground. These things weighed millions of pounds. mostly fuel and the hardest RT is getting some momentum, getting them past that first stage. And then the higher up was. And then by the time they were to the second stage, you main engines and dropped the first stage away, apparently There's nothing, no friction, they're just kind of coasting. things called the TLI. Now, have you heard of that? That trans lunar injection. And what it is, is they they went into Earth's orbit. And then they had to actually, you certain number of times, at the right time, with the right amount of thrust, they had to leave Earth's orbit. And they towards the moon, at just the right angle. Because the thing the moon, you don't go straight towards it, you don't moon, you go towards the moon, close enough that it will pull you want to hit you want to you want to go to the edge of other. enough, close enough so that it's gravity will pull enough that you won't, it won't pull you in so fast, you to do that going to the moon, and then they have to do the way back. And I've been told or what I what I read in these degrees that they have to be accurate. You know, if you was like two human hairs on a basketball. That's how that's not either go past the moon because they went too fast. gravity to pull them into orbit or not crash into the back, it's even harder. Because guess what, you got have to get the gravity, right, but you also have to go you burn off your speed in the atmosphere. But you don't burn a fireball.

Alex: 52:20

And the engineers that figure this out are using

Kelly: 52:25

Yeah, yeah. It's just amazing that we haven't done know, if we mess it up in 2025 2026, whenever we spend bad on us, because yeah, those guys did it with so much less. they did the translunar injection, basically, they they do a burn. And then midway around, interestingly, ship around to face Earth. So initially, they're facing away halfway or two thirds of the way through, they turn around, down, they need to start slowing down to need to thrust have any idea I didn't until I started all this? How far how Earth to the Moon?

Alex: 53:17

Oh, I don't know. Take a guess. This is where you know, is it a million?

Kelly: 53:27

Between those two? Yeah, yeah.

Alex: 53:30

Is it is it like, yeah, like 230,000?

Kelly: 53:33

Okay. 240,000. And when they were traveling towards traveling towards the moon, at the highest speed, they were hour.

Alex: 53:47

That's crazy. I've heard Neil deGrasse Tyson. Say, for orange, you imagine that's the earth, he said, and then the away. And then the Mars is like 100 yards away. Yeah, and Elon Musk, or Bezos, and those guys that are going up, he wouldn't even penetrate the skin of the orange. Yeah, they're barely getting up there. Right. They're calling it's called, it's called leaf base. They're calling it know,

Kelly: 54:25

it's so close to Earth. It's like closer to Earth, you they said 60 miles up is considered space. So if you're would be closer to an astronaut orbiting over us between Austin and Houston. So yeah, you know, if you if you perspective, but yeah, they had to do this trans just right. And then they had to get into the moon's orbit. the moon's orbit, they actually had to disengage the module. And then once they did that I want to play a clip there's a beginning part and then there's a gap I'll maybe I can skip forward here. I think I can do that I'm not seconds so we may have to sit for a little while but you eagle has wings is what Armstrong says meaning that it's flying away from the Columbia capsule and then hear them go through this long checklist and they're checking controllers to see if they can land like is everything you know as a fuel okay is the Arts where they are okay so second

Unknown: 55:55

okay all flight controllers gonna go for like so. Go go go go surgeon go Capcom or Go for landing landing over Afghanistan Go for landing 3000 feet looking here five How about you tell Tom go guidance you know fight right here. degrees still looking very good. Here go Bravo one, bravo. Bravo. 12 one alarm. Okay, we're gonna Altitude 16. Eagle looking great. Roger 12 out the way beats at a 15 Then put the pay down for altitude velocity light. And four and a half down. Five and a half. Three and a half down good down a half. Forward 60 seconds. Python. Forward. Forward. Pretty Write that out or forward grip into the right level 30 and then wake up and get down and go. Here, the ankle I've landed.

Kelly: 57:59

So that 1201 alarm. They had an alarm go off in had happened is there was nothing actually wrong. But overtaxed, and it couldn't handle everything that was one of the flight controllers actually figured that out. He like because they were worried they were like 1201 it keeps mean? What's going on? And they were worried but the we've just overtaxed the computer system is they had and they had forgotten to turn it off. And that's why it was like doing its job plus some other simulator. So did you Flight Lem? Fido guy guaido. Retro. I'm gonna tell you a mean. So flight is the flight director. That's that's the asking the flight director go no, go. LEM is the lunar they call it the limb.

Alex: 59:03

So if it was that's what they would have said if it was

Kelly: 59:08

no go. Yeah, go no, go. Fido is the flights dynamic they control the trajectory. When I was talking about the know, they're the ones saying yes, you're on the right path. who is also in charge of like where they're gonna land. officer. And that person tells them when to fire the motors the motors. So I mean, these guys are just like phyto lipo maintenance and cut off that's used at the lunch and when first stage. They say go for Miko, and that's when the main They have that on the shuttle too. Yeah. Yep. And then Neo and low Earth orbit. And then the one you'll hear a lot is communicator, it's a person who is in charge of talking to interesting because it was usually another astronaut. So astronaut, they would have, you know, three astronauts, many. And then they would have reserves and one of those the exact same training because they were training for that would talk to them. Sounds like a good idea. Yeah, So they, they, you know, they took the LEM, the LM, the using their rockets and their little thrusters to get it all talked about Armstrong being really good at the simulator, training device they had built that he had the parachute are going over and they realize they're off by a they think they should be. They think they should be in are a couple of seconds off. Well, what that means is that want to land in a crater. They want to land on a nice flat Base, right? Sea of Tranquility. Sure. Well, they is the one giving all of the stats. He's feeding the stats Armstrong was actually piloting the thing like flying And they came within like 1520 seconds of running out of fuel goodness, it was and they didn't even realize it. They seconds left. And so you know, it's a big difference. It's they what they thought they had, but they they landed, the that would come on at a certain distance. And if you the landing, you can see film video of this. These lights shadow, they can see the ground, they come down. And what the surface of the Moon was like, they had no idea.

Alex: 1:02:19

Are they cheese?

Kelly: 1:02:21

Are they going to land and cheese? Were they going to dust and they would just sink because of things heavy They had these sort of probes they were 67 inches long that the dirt. And that was when they were in contact. They tip over. They were they were designed to go down into the There was a little bit of a pause. And of course, they of fuel. And Armstrong says Houston Tranquility Base here. first word set on the moon Houston.

Unknown: 1:03:06

Kind of Yeah, yeah, it

Alex: 1:03:07

was cool. How long were they on the moon?

Kelly: 1:03:10

They were there for I don't have the exact number. hours. So they had to do a once they landed, they They had to do a big checklist. And then they period. They had built in a rest period for those guys to Because, you know at the landing, Armstrong's heart monitors was going between 100 and 150 beats a minute. His a little bit of arrest. So they took it. And it was checklists. And then they had actually set it up in such a designed so that Armstrong was closer to the door than Buzz couldn't have climbed over him in his spacesuit. So Armstrong the mission commander. They wanted him to go first. And so after their rest, after their checklists, all that stuff, gets on the ladder, he starts going down. And then what's bottom of the ladder, the last step before he stepped down, surface of the Moon was harder, like it wasn't as they thought they would. The ladder was higher up than he thought actually like three feet off the off the surface. So he had But because of the low gravity he can lead back up. They were trepidation for a moment when he wasn't sure if he'd be able or not. So I'm gonna go and play for you, you know the what he said when he when he got down to the bottom of the

Unknown: 1:05:08

Very, very fine grained as you get close to the lamp That's one small step for man. One giant leap. That

Kelly: 1:05:36

Beauty all its own. And so his famous quote, One small for mankind. Did you know there's a controversy about

Alex: 1:05:45

Was he was it supposed to say one small step for

Kelly: 1:05:51

Yes, that's right. What's interesting is there's he actually said, One small step for a man or one small those radios worked, they, you notice when you listen to talking, it's actually silent. You don't hear a lot of static transmitted when someone was speaking, so it was like, it when you actually started talking it automatically open stopped it, closed it. And Armstrong thinks that he said, out.

Alex: 1:06:33

And obviously, that doesn't sound as good to our mankind is kind of the same thing.

Kelly: 1:06:41

Yeah, yeah. One, one small step for man. I mean, right? He was one guy stepping down and trying to say I'm a part of humanity, mankind, right? Anyway, he kind of went interviewed many times about that as to whether he actually was during an interview. The question was, did you I mean, there isn't any way of knowing. When I listen to the that doesn't mean it wasn't there. Because that was the fastest VOCs ever built. I think meaning that they get it done in time. There was no mic switch, it was voice syllables. Sometimes the short syllable, like a might not be listened to it, I can't hear it. It's an apply day. So I'm parenthesis.

Alex: 1:07:43

Maybe you should have said person. Yeah, one small

Kelly: 1:07:48

Yeah. Yeah. And he didn't even have to deal with No, no,

Alex: 1:07:54

no. Yeah. Nowadays, you couldn't say man for sure.

Kelly: 1:07:58

So he was on the surface for about 90 minutes. joined by Buzz Aldrin about 90 minutes later. And as I said, there. I don't know if it was 10 hours or 17 hours. But it than just an hour. They planted a flag and I don't because there's no wind, it actually had a steel frame horizontal like so it looked like a good flag. This

Alex: 1:08:30

is what the conspiracy theorists are crazy about the

Kelly: 1:08:34

know, and there's a movie out there's a movie out which Johansson. Scarlett Johansson. Yeah. Which I apparently that flag got knocked down. When they took the, to the lander and the dust that they kicked off when down. They set up some experiments. They talked to around, they jumped up and down. And there's also kind of said that it looked like they were goofing around. But they part of their mission was to do that walking to see how like that. So that was actually them. You know, they just horsing around. They weren't just horsing around. back off in the limb, they left the landing component this point, now they're a little bit smaller, a little and they redock with Columbia, with Mike Collins, and then their Earth injection, the trans Earth injection, and interesting too, because of the size of Earth and the size to get almost all the way to the moon before the moon's entire time they were traveling away from Earth, the backwards. And and then there's a point, maybe, you through the flight that they it's a neutral point where the gravity are the same on the on the ship, and then the moon were slowing down, they were coasting away from Earth was trying to pull them back. And then they hit that point, And that same thing happened in reverse coming back to pretty quickly hit the Earth's gravity and started speeding turnaround retro racket retro rocket thing had to happen. So

Alex: 1:10:41

yeah, probably took a lot less time to get back.

Kelly: 1:10:46

No, because they started off slower. Took about a little bit less time. But it wasn't because because they they when they took off from her because they were taken rocket. Right? So they ended up splashing down. They were carrier and brought a board in

Alex: 1:11:10

the Indian Ocean or something right? Pacific

Kelly: 1:11:13

Ocean was and they were picked up by the USS Hornet. you know, again, congratulated them he was aboard the Hornet, mean, this was a big deal. We won, right? We beat the doing it several more times. So Apollo 11 was the first Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Can you name any other moon? I could have only named two prior to doing this. So I could have named three. There were 14 more. Wow.

Alex: 1:11:51

Wow. That's crazy. Who are they?

Kelly: 1:11:54

Pete Conrad and Alan Bean on Apollo 12. And I'd Apollo 13. Didn't make it to the moon. Remember, they they Tom Hanks playing Jim Lovell. So Jim Lovell actually never Unfortunately, he went in space several times. Alan space got to go to the moon with Edgar Mitchell. David Apollo 15. John Young and Charles Duke on Apollo 16. And Schmitt on Apollo 17. Harrison Schmitt, never heard of that moon last person to walk on the moon, period. That was

Alex: 1:12:38

what year was the 70s? That 7272? Yeah, that was hitting golf balls. By the time they were hitting golf

Kelly: 1:12:46

had pretty much Alan Shepard was the first one to yeah,

Alex: 1:12:50

by then it's like, you know, we've ran out of stuff

Kelly: 1:12:55

So there was some debate about whether that you know, about whether we were doing the American moon, what do you think? Do you think it was important for you think we should have spent it on, you know, feeding

Alex: 1:13:13

definitely think it was a good thing to do. That's, there's aspirational things about being human, I think the need to explore. And I think only good things can can come technology that came out in so many different walks of life program, I think benefits.

Kelly: 1:13:44

So even though it doesn't, it doesn't feed poverty, and it spends a lot of money. It still is a net

Alex: 1:13:53

I believe that yes, I believe

Kelly: 1:13:55

that as well. I want to play a counter a counter if you've heard this or not, but I want to play it for you. I'm not dissing this guy. I just thought, I just thought perspective that he has about why we shouldn't have wasted

Alex: 1:14:15

And let me clarify that. I think it's good for do this. Not necessarily billionaires. I think spend their money on on more productive things, but that's

Kelly: 1:14:30

Well, I mean, there's certainly billionaires that donate their money. I mean, that Bill Gates is giving away

Alex: 1:14:38

about current space race of just guys. Right, you know, know what they're doing up there. Well, this

Kelly: 1:14:46

is a guy named Gil Scott Heron. Well, I'm going of thoughts on the whole landing on the moon thing.

Unknown: 1:14:57

You have a bomb here. It's called YT on Moon and it by some white he's on the moon. So I want to give credit Miranda unbid My sister now with riding on the moon for and why it is on the moon. I can't pay no doctor bills. But from now I'll be paying still why? Why it is on the moon. read last night because why it is on the moon. no hot water, while he's on the moon. I wonder why he's up in me. Well, I was already given him 50 a week. And now why it is whole damn check. The jockeys make me a nervous wreck. The as if all that crap wasn't enough, a random bit my sister face and arms began to swell and why it is on the moon. last year. But why are they on the moon? How come I ain't got the moon. You know, I just about had my fill of writing these doctor bills and mail special. To Whitey on the moon

Alex: 1:16:56

it's a take for sure that's a take?

Kelly: 1:16:58

Yeah, yeah. And I'm not dissing the guy. I'm not at thing. Just to be clear. I do think it's a take. And I can words he uses and the stories he's telling in that poem. But know, it's easy. It's probably easier for guys like us who you know, to survive than it might have been for other picture wise going to the moon was a great thing.

Alex: 1:17:27

Yeah. Do you watch the show? For All Mankind? Right? It's a take for those of you who haven't watched it, it's a show about what if we weren't the first ones to go there?

Kelly: 1:17:46

the view. Watch the whole thing like all the way Yeah, yeah,

Alex: 1:17:50

we did to get a little silly after a few seasons, but

Kelly: 1:17:53

it gets it gets worse and worse. But it's funny like Gordo and Deke digitally and yeah, those those are Yeah, they that they, I kind of watched one of watch it all this research.

Alex: 1:18:09

And there's a spin off coming about, I think about Russian counterpart, right? It's coming out with that. But might have done ourselves a disservice. I guess their by actually winning that race, because then there was nothing they hypothesize.

Kelly: 1:18:32

We would have gone to Mars, we would have

Alex: 1:18:34

gone to Mars. And there would have been on the other military playing out and people taking guns to space That was kind of

Kelly: 1:18:45

part of why I think that's part of why they they military agency, right.

Alex: 1:18:52

And there's been just about as much time that's Brothers first flight. And us going to the moon as their has

Kelly: 1:19:02

yeah. No, it's time to go back.

Unknown: 1:19:04

Well,

Kelly: 1:19:05

let me finish up on Neil Armstrong. He, you know, instant, as I said, he was probably the most famous man time. He was given all kinds of awards. He was given, you given ticker tape parades. He did this thing with Mike the giant leap tour where they went around the world and gave private guy and didn't actually enjoy that sort of mentioned him earlier, John Glenn actually liked all that became a Senator. There was there were groups of both wanted Neil Armstrong to go into politics, but he didn't up doing a couple of things. He He actually was assigned to the space shuttle Challenger disaster. He was on that signed, you know, kind of figured out what happened. Do blew up? By the way? I actually know why now the O And the O rings were too cold. And they didn't stretch the Right. Yeah, I didn't know that. But that was kind of to the North Pole, with a guy named Mike Dunn who put Edmund Hillary, Steve, Fossett. Edmund Hillary's Steve Fossett was the first person to solo around the wing aircraft. And then a guy named Patrick Morrow who Neil Armstrong, and they he was 54 years old. This was in went to the North Pole. And his quip was I've only seen it see it on the ground. But his family kind of considered him they thought that he was somebody that didn't want to and as I said, John Glenn was not necessarily a showboat, political career out of his success. But he basically said should be hast hucksterism himself. He was a very humble guarded with his image that he actually got into a beef with the flag. You know, that thing? He sued hallmark for quote,

Alex: 1:21:57

when he didn't want MTV to use that? No, no,

Kelly: 1:22:01

he refused to let them use his voice and likeness, actually wanted to have him. They wanted to use him. And that he got an illegal dispute with a guy named Mark for 20 years, because Sizemore was selling his hair. It's hair here. And he found out he wasn't happy and he made charity, which I think is pretty good. He for a long congratulating Eagle Scouts when they got the rank of that the some of his signatures were being sold on making money off of his signature. And so he stopped people kind of thought he was a wreck loose because of all kind of fed up with people trying to capitalize from his happen. He was a private pilot well into his 70s. And then he complications after heart surgery. And unfortunately, he surgery well and was recovering. But his family he was given afterward was mishandled, and he took a And the family sued the hospital and got a out of million. And it was supposed to be kept secret, but then it died in August of 2012, he was memorialized by Barack Obama was among the greatest of American heroes, not just for Wow.

Alex: 1:23:54

Yeah. I'm still trying to figure out how he's the save that for another day, I guess. Yeah.

Kelly: 1:24:01

No, I mean, I can see the similarities. I can see Gordon

Alex: 1:24:05

red and Docker would have been skinny enough, but be in the capsule.

Kelly: 1:24:11

I don't know how tall he was. But you know, he would have brought some great snacks. One one great snack. that's Neil Armstrong. Yeah, if you if you haven't seen for a great resource if you haven't read the book or seen Stuff, which is actually about the Mercury program, which of, but it was still really interesting. I got really deep like I said biography about Yuri Gagarin, the first apparently was a super nice guy, who ended up actually crash. Later, like, I don't know, six or seven years after pretty young. These guys were all living lives where they for, you know, for Armstrong to make it to 70 and then I might still be alive. Yeah, he died recently because he's, I him that were done. John

Alex: 1:25:15

Glenn actually went up in space when he was like, 80 Yeah,

Kelly: 1:25:20

yeah. John. Oh, John Glenn. That's a whole other a he was originally part of the mercury seven. And they all like, he was sort of this righteous do gooder. He was

Alex: 1:25:36

Johnny Appleseed. Yeah.

Kelly: 1:25:38

Anyway, that's, that's Neil Armstrong hope you liked hope everybody has a chance to go to the moon Sunday.

Alex: 1:25:46

Bye

Unknown: 1:25:58

walking walking walking, walking

Alex: 1:26:30

walking,

Unknown: 1:26:33

walking walking walking some sick