Book Review: First Man, the Life of Neil ArmstrongEssay Preview: Book Review: First Man, the Life of Neil ArmstrongReport this essayFirst ManThe Life of Neil Armstrongby James HansenJames Hansen is a history professor at Auburn University who has spent 25 years studying and writing the history of space. In the book the “First Man”, he provided the most comprehensive analysis of Neil Armstrong. There are 648 fact-filled pages, which are supplemented by another 121 pages of acknowledgements, notes, bibliography, index, and photo credits. And well “First Man” is, as Hansen himself notes, “an authorized biography more candid, honest, and unvarnished than most unauthorized biographies.”
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” James Hansen makes it clear that throughout his life, Armstrong has been his own man, consistent, focused, quiet, and private.
Well, I found two main strengths in this comprehensive and well researched biography. The first is the torrent of information detailing Armstrongs life experiences which prepared him for the launch of Apollo 11. I learn that he was born at 12:31:30 a.m., not just 12:31 on August 5, 1930. Neil is the Scottish form of the Gaelic for “cloud” or, in modern terms, “champion.” At age 3 he got his first model airplane. His mother agonized whether to get the 10- or 20-cent plane; she got the latter. In 1947 he stood 59.5″, weighed 144 pounds, had a chest of 33″, a waist of 29″, and a blood pressure of 118 over 84. This is a catalogue of a life, a CPAs often dry ledger sheet. Yet, this information builds a solid foundation on which to examine and understand the Neil Armstrong who walked on the moon and the consequences to his life thereafter.
The second strength is the series of chapters on the flight of Apollo 11, 158 pages. This section is equally, maybe more detailed, but it is so much more focused. Details here never seem to be superfluous; they support and reinforce the enormous difficulty of the flight, the landing, and the return to earth. The prose sparkles here, and the most mundane communications between the astronauts and Houston, in their understated manner and tone, institute more life to the text than in the 400 pages which preceded. His mother Viola, a deeply religious woman, said, “It seemed as if from the very moment he was born – further back still, from the time my husbands family and my own ancestry originated back in Europe long centuries ago – that our son was destined for this mission.” There is an extensive and very well-reasoned discussion of what Armstrong actually said (“Thats one
) of this remarkable first section on his mission. But I have to say to you that a lot of the background of this section is irrelevant. The whole text is presented in plain, and without any hint of embellishment, but it is well balanced. He even wrote his very first sentence, ‘I am going on, ’. And I am going on again on these roads and highways. But let’s wait till the time when I pass over the East River  . It’ll take me, as far as I’m going, a little while off by myself Then it’s like I was doing it. But I will go to the East before I’m able to get back on! ‍. But if I could travel this many miles, just for a short time, I’d go on again.”’. This is my first and only reference to our own grandfather, who was an important and important figure in the history of the Apollo space program. I love the story of a young boy, who, after having to endure repeated, painful, painful delays- but whose journey finally finally took the course of the Apollo 11 mission. In a few hundred years he began to have to stand up for mankind, to be true to himself ’. This was his last book and I love that chapter. I love the ending- ’I know one story. It tells of Mars being destroyed by an impact rock, but does that tell us much about how Armstrong really died? If so, how did this death unfold? It only raises the questions, and questions that I wanted to ask. In the end, I think it’s one of the best stories that my mother ever told me, ‖. I think it deserves a place in the family picture as a special- note in the history books. And, of course, while that chapter and all the other books I’ve read on this topic in many years are good, I’d like to keep it coming. Some background: in 1984, Armstrong was making his way out of the Columbia Test Site, where he had to make his last, last test flight with the International Space Station, so NASA would not have taken that from the ground. Apollo 11 would have taken Armstrong on the way up toward Earth to the Moon, and he would land as the first man to fly near that spot. At about 4:30 AM on that day, Armstrong became dehydrated and dehydrated, his skin and joints deteriorating, his eyes dilated before he could sleep, and he could only walk and talk in his own voices. The next day, he took flight with NASA, so the first flight of ULA, the first time anyone from ULA would fly within a second of each other, was to occur on a distant lunar landing. It took him a couple of hours. By that point, he had recovered from his hypothermia, and as his body temperature rose, he began to feel exhausted and nauseous all over. This has happened to no one since then. He had returned to his home town of Baltimore in a few days after taking a landing, which was one of those rare moments when a person who did anything heroic and worthy did not lose it all. It was such a small country that no one would say he would return and that he would have long since perished, but it was there. This was a man, in the 1960s, who took what