Famous for space, but down to earth

The news just broke that Neil Armstrong has died.

Earlier this year, a series of interviews with Armstrong appeared here, which I watched with great interest. I was alive when we walked on the moon, but I was too young to remember it. But I was fascinated by space travel as a kid. And after the moon walk, Armstrong had been famous for not being famous: he stayed out of the public eye when everyone knew his name.

The interviews made today’s new more of a shock. He looked so healthy in the interview. At one point in Part 3, the reviewer jokes, “There must be something in lunar travel that’s good for longevity.” Armstrong laughs and says, “I hope that’s true.”

I am so glad he did those interviews. For someone who was famous for being the first person to step on the moon, he came across in those interviews as being completely down to earth.

We probably could not have hoped for a better representative of humanity to make our first step on another celestial body.