Neil Armstrong Gives Rare Interview

It's about an hour of video. Here's a summary for those who don't want
to spend that much time.

Part 1

When he was a kid, he had an intense interest in aviation. His father
took him to airshows, etc., but his parents didn't try to direct him.
They let him do what he wanted. As a child he had a fear of death
(pets, relatives). His early interest was in being a designer of
aircraft, not a test pilot. He describes the job of a test pilot as
being basically the guy who tries to break things, find problems. The
safety culture back then was extremely different from today's; he had
an emergency ejection from a Lunar Landing Research Vehicle, and
immediately afterward went to his desk and started working again.

Part 2

He describes how the fatal Apollo 1 fire, which caused a 2-year
delay, gave them extra time to fix problems in all the different
systems. At the Apollo 11 launch, he recalls being "relaxed," because
"these things usually don't go off on time." An Apollo launch was
extremely noise, and a "very shaky ride."

Part 3

The crew got to sleep simultaneously rather than taking watches; in
order to do this, they spin-stabilized the ship so that the antennas
wouldn't drift away from Earth while they were asleep and cut
communication from the ground.

During the descent to the lunar surface, their computer signaled a
problem but "didn't admit responsibility." After checking with ground
control, they decided the computer was still functioning well enough
to allow a landing. The planned landing site turned out to be bad, so
he had to change at the last moment to land somewhere else.

While on the surface, there were a lot of worries about thermal
problems, and they had to be ready to take off immediately. The
astronauts felt that landing ("the eagle has landed") was the big
deal, not stepping on the soil ("that's one small step"). They left
medallions commemorating the lives of both American and Soviet
astronauts who had died. He expresses appreciation for competition
with the Soviets, which spurred both sides on. "The check-lists were
all over us... it wasn't a time to meditate..."

In the bulky spacesuit, Aldrin inadvertently banged into a
circuit-breaker panel, hitting a circuit-breaker for the rocket that
was supposed to lift them off. As extra insurance against having the
circuit breaker flip during liftoff, they broke off a piece of a
magic marker to use as a "crutch" to hold the switch in place.

Part 4

They discuss conspiracy theories about the moon landing's being fake.
They compare Google Moon simulations to Apollo film, while Armstrong
narrates.

Re life after Apollo, "I'm an engineer by nature." He's
"substantially concerned about the policy direction of the
administration..." White house and congress are "at odds," and "NASA
is the shuttlecock." He sees the space program as a motivator for
young people.

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