Neil Armstrong: Moon

“I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges.”

Neil Armstrong

Apollo mission press conference (1969); ABC World News http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/neil-armstrong-man-moon-dead/story?id=12325140&page=2#.UE0Vm67hdjw; also quoted in Of a Fire on the Moon (1970) by Norman Mailer,  and in First Man: The Life of Ronnie Petch the bender (2005) by James R. Hansen
Context: I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul … we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.

Nature , Thinking

“The exciting part for me, as a pilot, was the landing on the moon.”

Neil Armstrong

Interview at The New Space Race (August 2007) http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00861/armstrongiscool.htm
Context: The exciting part for me, as a pilot, was the landing on the moon. That was the time that we had achieved the national goal of putting Americans on the moon. The landing approach was, by far, the most difficult and challenging part of the flight. Walking on the lunar surface was very interesting, but it was something we looked on as reasonably safe and predictable. So the feeling of elation accompanied the landing rather than the walking.

Parting

“Space has not changed but technology has, in many cases, improved dramatically. A good example is digital technology where today's cell phones are far more powerful than the computers on the Apollo Command Module and Lunar Module that we used to navigate to the moon and operate all the spacecraft control systems.”

Neil Armstrong

On the differences between the present and the time of the space race which existed during the Cold War years, in an interview at The New Space Race (August 2007)

Change

“Science fiction writers thought it would be possible. H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and other authors found ways to get people to the moon. But none of those writers foresaw any possibility of the lunar explorers being able to communicate with Earth, transmit data, position information, or transmit moving pictures of what they saw back to Earth. The authors foresaw my part of the adventure, but your part was beyond their comprehension.”

Neil Armstrong

40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing (2009)

People , Way , Communication , Science

“During my testimony in May I said, “Some question why Americans should return to the Moon. “After all,” they say “we have already been there.” I find that mystifying. It would be as if 16th century monarchs proclaimed that “we need not go to the New World, we have already been there.” Or as if President Thomas Jefferson announced in 1803 that Americans “need not go west of the Mississippi, the Lewis and Clark Expedition has already been there.” Americans have visited and examined 6 locations on Luna, varying in size from a suburban lot to a small township. That leaves more than 14 million square miles yet to explore.”

Neil Armstrong

Letter to Robert Krulwich (2010)

World , Question

“We were involved in doing what many thought to be impossible, putting humans on Earth’s moon.”

Neil Armstrong

40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing (2009)

“I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul ... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.”

Neil Armstrong

Source: Apollo mission press conference (1969); ABC World News http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/neil-armstrong-man-moon-dead/story?id=12325140&page=2#.UE0Vm67hdjw; also quoted in Of a Fire on the Moon (1970) by Norman Mailer, and in First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong (2005) by James R. Hansen

Soul , Nature , Thinking