Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight (53 page)

Neil was convinced that once we knew how to live in space and ensure our personal survival, we would have taught ourselves how to reach Mars and more distant places in one spaceship—or a flotilla.

The question was, who should go? Will it be a global effort, or again a joint mission flown by two or three countries?

Will it be a return or a one-way trip? Will they follow the traditions of the wagon trains west in the 1800s and establish a colony, to be joined later by others, or will they return to Earth—to family and friends?

Whichever, it will be an exciting time, and Neil would have certainly liked to have been around for the twenty-first-century’s greatest adventure.

But as stated, Neil had no regrets.

There really was only one annoying item he could never be done with—stamping out an outrageously fictitious story circulating in cyberspace for years.

*   *   *

The story, forwarded endlessly via e-mail:

As Neil Armstrong reentered the lunar module Eagle from his walk on the moon, he made the enigmatic remark—“Good luck, Mr. Gorsky.”

Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet cosmonaut. However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs.

Over the years many people questioned Armstrong as to what the “good luck, Mr. Gorsky” statement meant—Armstrong just smiled.

On July 5, 1995, in Tampa Bay, Florida, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26-year-year-old question to Armstrong. This time Neil finally responded. Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky had died, so Neil felt he could now answer the question.

In 1938, when he was a kid in a small Midwestern town, he was playing baseball with a friend in the backyard. His friend hit the ball, which landed in his neighbor’s yard by their bedroom window. His neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky.

As he leaned down to pick up the ball, young Neil Armstrong heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky: “Sex! You want sex?! You’ll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!”

The sad part is that millions today believe the ridiculous story to be true.

On June 7, 2012, little more than two-and-a-half months before Neil died, I wrote him:

Morning Neil:

I received this unbelievable yarn I’ve tried to knock down many times from my grandson Bryce, the football kicker you met at my 50th dinner.

I’m sure you have been pestered to death with many differing accounts of this tale.

For my kicker from your son the kicker, any comment?

Jay.

Neil replied:

Jay,

I first heard the story sometime in the 80s as told by comedian Buddy Hackett at a charity function.

As I’m sure you know the transcriptions of all the actual conversations are available on the Web at the Lunar Surface Journal.

I think there must be a secret club where they give Oscar-like awards for the most outrageous Internet scams in different categories: jokes, photographs, quotes, etc.

And there is a great deal of competition!

Best,

Neil

Rest in peace my good man. We’ll be along directly.

NOTE

TWELVE

TRAGEDIES GROUND SPACEFLIGHT

1
T. J. O’Malley was my poker buddy who nitpicked my writing severely. I made a practice of making sure what I wrote about him was precise. Believe me, the following conversations in this chapter between O’Malley and his wife, Ann, as well as with his friend, George Page, are verbatim.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Principal Storyteller

Neil Armstrong

Editor in Chief

Peter Wolverton

Thomas Dunne Books; St Martin’s Press

Associate Editor

Anne Brewer

Thomas Dunne Books; St. Martin’s Press

Editorial Assistant

Mary Willems

Associate Publicist

Katie Bassel

Management

Martha Kaplan

Science Advisor

Princeton Physicist Dr. Gene H. McCall, Ph.D.

Chief Scientist Air Force Space Command (Retired)

Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff U.S. Air Force (Retired)

Senior Scientist and Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory (Active)

Literary Arts Advisor

Bob Button

Spaceflight Advisor

Retired Chief Astronaut Charlie Precourt

Project Mercury

John Glenn

Alan Shepard

Deke Slayton

Project Gemini and Apollo

Neil Armstrong

Gene Cernan

Charlie Duke

Jim Lovell

Tom Stafford

Project Space Shuttle

Robert Crippin

Franklin Chang-Diaz

Brian Duffy

Robert “Hoot” Gibson

Rick Hauck

Charlie Precourt

Research

Nicole Gail Roberts

Pictorial

Bryce Barbree Harrington, Photo Editor

Photographic Restoration—Mark H. Widick, M.D.

Photographs

J. L. Pickering

Pictorial Research

Mike Gentry

Research Librarian, Johnson Space Center

Maggie Persinger

Research Librarian, Kennedy Space Center

With special thanks to contributors

Howard Benedict

Associated Press Aerospace Writer and Historian

Tom Brokaw

NBC News Space Anchor

David Brinkley

NBC News Apollo Anchor

Bob Button

Gemini and Apollo Spokesman

Martin Caidin

aerospace writer and space historian

Gene Cernan

last on the moon,
Apollo 17
commander

Colonel Bill Coleman

astronaut affairs, office of the secretary of the Air Force

Tom Costello

NBC News space correspondent

Walter Cronkite

CBS News anchor and space historian

David DeFelice

community and media relations, Glenn Research Center

Brigadier General Charlie Duke

Apollo 11
CapCom and
Apollo 16
moonwalker

John Glenn

first American in orbit and veteran U.S. Senator

Herb Gold

NBC space group’s associate producer, Gemini and Apollo

Hugh Harris

director, NASA’s public affairs and voice of Launch Control

Ed Harrison

chief of information, NASA’s KSC

Jim Hartz

NBC News space anchor and
Today
show host

Lester Holt

NBC News space anchor and
Today
show host

James Holten

NBC News space producer and management

Chet Huntley

NBC News space anchor

Bob Jacobs

NASA deputy associate administrator, communications

Jim Kitchell

executive producer, NBC space coverage

Jack King

NASA
Apollo 11
commentator

Matt Lauer

NBC News space anchor and
Today
show host

Jim Lovell

Neil Armstrong’s
Apollo 11
backup commander and commander of
Apollo 13

Scott MacLeod

Korean War F9F Panther carrier pilot and Grumman lunar module instructor

Lisa Malone

director of media affairs, NASA’s KSC

Ralph Morse

Life
magazine’s photographer of the astronauts

Frieda Morris

NBC News management of spaceflight

Danny Noa

NBC News space producer

Charlie Precourt

chief astronaut (retired)

Alan Shepard

first American in space and commander of
Apollo 14

Deke Slayton

chief astronaut and director of flight crew operations

Lt. General Tom Stafford

commander of
Apollo 10
and Apollo/Soyuz

Russ Tornabene

NBC News space producer and management

Manny Virata

television networks press site coordinator

Bob Watkins

Grumman lunar module team

Harold Williams

NBC News Manned Spacecraft Center

Brian Williams

NBC News space anchor

INDEX

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

abort mode

aeronautical engineering

Agena rocket

chased by
Gemini 8

docking with

as target rocket

undocking from
Gemini 8
in emergency

Agnew, Spiro T.

aircraft carriers, launches from

Aitken basin, on the moon

Alarm!

Albrook Air Force Base, Panama

Aldrin, Buzz

and
Apollo 8

on
Apollo 11
flight

with
Apollo 11
in background

background of

chosen for
Apollo 11

on the Eagle

EVA skill of

on
Gemini 12

landing on moon

in lunar module simulator

on Neil’s personality

in quarantine

recruited as astronaut

return to Earth

science experiments on the moon

scientific credentials of

training for Apollo missions

weather report from space

Aldrin, Joan

American flag on the moon

Anders, Bill

animals in space

antenna

Apollo 1,
launchpad fire that killed three

Apollo 7

Apollo 8

crew of

in flight

heading for launch

interior of

lunar orbit

mission of

outdoes the Soviet effort

reentry

scouting the landing approach for
Apollo 11

White House ceremonies for astronauts

Apollo 9

mission of

Apollo 10

Charlie Brown command module

mission of

scouting the landing approach for
Apollo 11

Snoopy lunar module

Apollo 11

backup crew of

components of

crew of

crew of called “Misfits”

dominating the news

life aboard (eating, sleeping)

mission of

plan for lunar landing

training for

—Columbia command module

flight around moon

undocked from Eagle

—Eagle lunar module

camera and photography

descent to moon

discarded in lunar orbit

discarded items from, photographed from space

docking with

“the Eagle has landed”

“the Eagle has wings”

flight around moon

inspection for damage

landing legs

at launch

on the moon

return to Columbia

TV broadcast from

—the flight