Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) RIP

The legendary Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon, died yesterday aged 82 due to complications following heart surgery. Few men can hope to claim to have accomplished as much in their lives or will be as well remembered. RIP Mr. Armstrong.

He was unique in the entire history of the species and will be remembered for as long as humanity endures. Rest in peace.

I read over the weekend that he liked to tell bad jokes about the moon landing, and then say "I guess you had to be there".
I don't know if that's true, but I hope so!

How many of the Apollo astronauts are still with us? GBF will know this, I'm sure...

Of the twelve men who have walked on the moon only eight are still with us:

Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11)
Alan Bean (Apollo12)
Ed Mitchell (Apollo 14)
David Scott (Apollo 15)
John Young (Apollo 16)
Charlie Duke (Apollo 16)
Gene Cernan (Apollo 17)
Jack Schmitt (Apollo 17)

All but Duke, Cernan and Schmitt are in their 80s and the others late 70s. In our life time there be a point where nobody on the planet will have been to the moon, never mind walked on it. That is a shame. I had the honour of speaking with Alan Shepard (fifth man on the moon), Duke (tenth man on the moon) and Cernan (eleventh man on the moon) some time ago and you can read the results in my book "The Dark Side of the Moon". It's only on disk so far, but if you want a copy (it's only a fiver) let me know.