Page 504 - Space Program News Today

Difference with where the country is. what dole represented is the idea of taking a step back. i dont think the electorate ever likes to do. i dont know know that thats romneys issue here. a lot of nostalgia, american innovation around the idea of the space program, but here there is an economic reality here he can say -- the reason i like the line not so much it was snashg ki about global warming but you can take it from that, but that you had a grand promise, my promise is simply to help you a...

But we are always going to be remembered as the crew of the apollo 11 mission. at the same time, millions of people literally went with us to the moon with their presence. in front of their tv sets. jon: i remember watching that night. it was such an awe-inspiring achievement. now, your crew mate is gone. what are your thoughts? >> well, it is very regrettable. especially that he will not join mike and i at the 50th anniversary in 2019. hopefully by that time, we will be able to make a firm comm...

Us. >> thanks for having me. >> heather: first of all, you obviously were an astronaut from 1992 to 2004. veteran of four space flights yourself. what did neil arm strong mean to you and your career? >> well, like tom said previously i watched neil land on the moon in the summer of 69 after my fifth graitd grade. on a black and white tv. i decided some day i should be an astronaut because that was the perfect job. so i was very inspired by neil and the entire space program. i grew up in the spac...

>> i think so. it was a time when nothing was guaranteed. a lot of people argued we were better when we were striving. we had a target. everyone could see it in the night sky above our homes. to this day, people of a certain age in this country look up at it and we cant believe that our detritus is still up there on the surface. we cant believe the audacity of president kennedy and the nasa space program, that we named that as a target, landed, walked around and planted the flag. now our science...

>> we remember that armstrong and colleagues landed on the moon only about seven or eight years after john f. kennedy set the goal. it was an all out cold war effort, crash program. we havent treated the space program in that regard today. we dont an urgent need to race with anyone bushlgs we do need to set goals to ourselves that are challenging and get after those goals in the immediate future. well never get there if we are talking about two or three decades away. with armstrongs passing, it ...

With neil happened to be the person who commanded the mission that got the opportunity to do this. he always claimed that his position was nothing special that somebody else could have done the job had the timing worked out differently but the bosses selected him for his coolness under fire demonstrated on gemini 8. >> he had such a cool, calm demeanor which is why he was selected among the crew of astronauts that nasa had at the time. in the years since that day, he was not somebody who sought ...

You should be completely humble and try to give back as much as you possibly can to your community and nation. that was something you could counted on neil armstrong to do. whatever he was going to do, it would be something that would shine a bright light on his community and also his country. he didnt want the bright lighted on him. that is something that is pretty amazing to the rest of us, ever had that opportunity to have that light -- he didnt like it. it wouldnt stay off of him. he handled...

Images. youve lived them yourself having flown on several space shuttles. do you think the turn of events today and mr. armstrong having passed, that will renew our energy, nothing political but us as americans and perhaps pushing the political folks to get involved and to actually be engaged and lets rethink this. nasa the space program is very much a part of our history and very important part of our history. >> armstrongs career is evident that the country can do tremendous things. i dont thi...

>> you have flown to the moon twice and last person to put your footprint what do you want the world to know about neil armstrong. >> we had our problems coming and going on the space program we lost columbia and challenger. you know this is another great loss to the country. when the going got tough we all believed in strongly where we were head the value of what we were doing. we were all hitch totted same wagon we lost the leader of the team. we lost neil. i think we are going to continue to ...

But you are basically asking me, am i disappointed with where we are going and what we are doing today? absolutely, im disheartened and disappointed. i cannot understand why some of the decisions have been made and we floor filed some of the things we have done. i will tell you, curiosity was a tremendous accomplishment. that program started many, many, many years ago. that program was funded many years ago. >>neil: but that has been relegated to fixing toyotas going off cliffs, for nasa, lookin...