0:00:03 > 0:00:05On the evening of July 20th, 1969,
0:00:05 > 0:00:11Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon.
0:00:11 > 0:00:16That's one small step for man...
0:00:18 > 0:00:20..one giant leap for mankind.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23The whole of humanity seemed to hold its breath as
0:00:23 > 0:00:27the same ghostly images danced across screens the world over.
0:00:27 > 0:00:28The pressure was intense,
0:00:28 > 0:00:32but Armstrong appeared to revel in the experience.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35No-one had ever left earth so completely,
0:00:35 > 0:00:39and it's been said that no-one ever saw it more clearly
0:00:39 > 0:00:40than he did then.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44MUSIC: "Light My Fire" by The Doors
0:00:51 > 0:00:55When Neil Armstrong returned from his surreal adventure,
0:00:55 > 0:00:57he was the most famous man on earth.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59But now something strange happened.
0:00:59 > 0:01:04With the world craving his attention, he simply disappeared,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07declining interviews and avoiding the public,
0:01:07 > 0:01:09finally shunning autographs too.
0:01:13 > 0:01:1840 years on, the reclusive Armstrong remains one of our greatest heroes,
0:01:18 > 0:01:20but our most reluctant celebrity.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24For many like me, he is the ultimate enigma.
0:01:29 > 0:01:30I'm Andrew Smith.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34Four years ago, I wrote a book about the Apollo moon walkers.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38Neil Armstrong was the only one who always refused to be interviewed.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41This film is my attempt to understand why.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45I'm going to the key places in Armstrong's life to meet his friends
0:01:45 > 0:01:49and former colleagues and chat with Apollo astronauts.
0:01:49 > 0:01:50Hello.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57'My aim is to find out who he is,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00'and what it's really like being Neil Armstrong.'
0:02:00 > 0:02:01Oh, beautiful!
0:02:16 > 0:02:21The starting point in my journey is the mid western state of Ohio.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23I'm headed towards Neil Armstrong's hometown to
0:02:23 > 0:02:27find out what his childhood can tell me about the mysterious man
0:02:27 > 0:02:29who walked on the moon.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35100 miles north of Cincinnati, I find the small town of Wapakoneta
0:02:35 > 0:02:39where Armstrong was born in 1930 of German and Scots stock.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44His family moved a lot, but Wapa claims him for its own.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46I'm surprised how many old schoolmates and friends
0:02:46 > 0:02:47are still here,
0:02:47 > 0:02:52like Kathryn Metz, who's run the family model shop for so many years,
0:02:52 > 0:02:54the townsfolk call her "Mom".
0:02:54 > 0:02:57This is brilliant, this is all the stuff,
0:02:57 > 0:03:00I did all these models when I was a kid.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03Look, old World War II stuff.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08- Is Mom around?- Sure.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11Mom, can I call you Mom?
0:03:11 > 0:03:15- Yeah.- You used to hang around with Neil Armstrong's sister.
0:03:15 > 0:03:16His sister, June, uh-huh.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18Yeah, I graduated with her.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Right, so you were around him quite a lot.
0:03:21 > 0:03:22Yeah, maybe once
0:03:22 > 0:03:27or twice a week and that would be about it, yeah.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31But you really didn't get to visit with him a whole lot.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35It would have been "Hi, how are you? How's school?" Off he'd go, you know.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39He's not one for just stand around and talk.
0:03:39 > 0:03:40So he was sort of preoccupied
0:03:40 > 0:03:43with his aeroplanes and all that kind of stuff.
0:03:43 > 0:03:44Right, he loved flying.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47Now if you'd talk on aeroplanes, or be in an aeroplane,
0:03:47 > 0:03:49that'd be a different story.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52You probably wouldn't be able to get rid of him then.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55- Was he shy? - He was just a quiet person.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59I don't think he was, you know, backward that wouldn't talk,
0:03:59 > 0:04:00it was just...
0:04:00 > 0:04:05You have to know his mom and dad - they were very kind,
0:04:05 > 0:04:07very supportive of what their kids were in,
0:04:07 > 0:04:11and they weren't one to always be in the limelight neither.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15And this is, he's just common, you know, he doesn't want
0:04:15 > 0:04:19to be out there where everybody has to,
0:04:19 > 0:04:21you know, pay attention to him.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24He's not for that.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27Now if they had an aeroplane and want him to go fly it
0:04:27 > 0:04:29that might be a different thing.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34I'm amused to hear Armstrong being described as "common".
0:04:34 > 0:04:37Of course, Mom really just means "normal" or "average",
0:04:37 > 0:04:38words which couldn't seem
0:04:38 > 0:04:43more incongruous, in light of his subsequent life and achievements.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45I wish I could be so average.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48I'm not sure I can quite bring myself to say
0:04:48 > 0:04:53how many years it's been since I made one of these.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55Many, many, many, many.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00It's funny because they just look like, you know,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03fairly trivial toys, which they are.
0:05:03 > 0:05:08I used to love flying these as a boy and I expect Neil Armstrong did too.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12In his time, flight must have seemed the most glamorous thing on earth.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15But you do learn about how
0:05:15 > 0:05:19things fly and the laws of aerodynamics and that sort of stuff,
0:05:19 > 0:05:23because the wings, you'll see, are not straight,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25they're bent, off centre.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36I think Neil might have been better at this than me.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38He'd make short work of this.
0:05:38 > 0:05:39There we go, got it!
0:05:39 > 0:05:41OK, test flight.
0:05:41 > 0:05:453, 2, 1.
0:05:47 > 0:05:54Oh no! All that time spent doing that as a kid, wasted!
0:05:57 > 0:06:00My next encounter with Neil Armstrong's past
0:06:00 > 0:06:02is at the home of one of his closest childhood friends.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08'"Kotcho" Solacoff is now a retired doctor,
0:06:08 > 0:06:10'but he remembers the passion Armstrong had
0:06:10 > 0:06:12'for all types of planes.'
0:06:14 > 0:06:15When he was in school,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19he built lots of model aeroplanes
0:06:19 > 0:06:23and would fly them outside the window, sometimes
0:06:23 > 0:06:28catch them on fire when he's done with it and see it fly out and crash.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30But it was all by the rubber band.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34You know, he didn't have very much money at that time,
0:06:34 > 0:06:39and he was constantly building model aeroplanes.
0:06:40 > 0:06:46In 1969, Neil invited Kotcho to the launch of Apollo 11.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48From the VIP stands,
0:06:48 > 0:06:52he shot his own Super 8 footage of his friend taking off for the moon.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56His vantage point allowed him to record a rare image
0:06:56 > 0:07:00of the Saturn V rocket punching a hole through the sky.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06What was it like watching
0:07:06 > 0:07:10a boyhood friend became the first man on the moon?
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Oh, oh my gosh! Oh, I was sitting right in that room
0:07:13 > 0:07:17with a black and white television, and just yelling.
0:07:17 > 0:07:22And when he sat down there and said "The Eagle has landed,"
0:07:22 > 0:07:26I almost was in tears, you know.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28That was just overjoyous.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30Oh, I stayed up all night.
0:07:30 > 0:07:35I know that some of the astronauts get frustrated with being asked,
0:07:35 > 0:07:37"So, what was it like on the moon?"
0:07:37 > 0:07:40You, presumably, have asked Neil that at some point,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43what was it like? What did he tell you when you asked?
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Well, knowing Neil, very few words.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50He says, "It was fun and it was exhilarating."
0:07:52 > 0:07:53And that's all he would tell me.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56He says, "very enjoyable",
0:07:57 > 0:08:03but he wouldn't actually go into any more detail than that.
0:08:03 > 0:08:08But that's typical of Neil. That's about what I would expect him to say.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12One of the things that fascinates me most about Neil Armstrong
0:08:12 > 0:08:15is that he has this reputation for being
0:08:15 > 0:08:17this very kind of reticent, private...
0:08:17 > 0:08:21Some people think it's aloofness, we're hearing it's not,
0:08:21 > 0:08:25but he's also capable of great poetry actually at times.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28There's the first words,
0:08:28 > 0:08:32which are amongst the most famous words, you know, ever spoken.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35Has he ever talked about where he got those words from,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37the first words, "One small step..."?
0:08:37 > 0:08:42Well, yeah, he did tell me, but then he's said other stuff too,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45so I don't know which one is true.
0:08:45 > 0:08:52Cos I ask him about it and he was... He did say he did not think about it
0:08:52 > 0:08:58until he was on his way to the moon. He did not have that ahead.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01And we used to play, when we were younger...
0:09:01 > 0:09:03Did you ever play, Mother May I?
0:09:03 > 0:09:07You know, you'd take one step, "Mother may I?" "Yes, you may,"
0:09:07 > 0:09:10or "No, you may not," or you can take a giant step.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14- Yeah.- And that kind of came to his mind, and he thought,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17"Gee, you know, I could say 'a giant step', 'small step'",
0:09:17 > 0:09:20you know, and kind of put those two together.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25And it came from that game that we used to play as little kids.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29So he was the quintessential schoolboy nerd?
0:09:29 > 0:09:31How to make sense of that!
0:09:31 > 0:09:35Only after leaving Kotcho does it occur to me that Armstrong was
0:09:35 > 0:09:39weaned on the exploits of aviation pioneers and World War II pilots.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43To him, they must have been what rock stars would one day be
0:09:43 > 0:09:44to my generation.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46Of course he wanted to fly.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49He earned a pilot's licence whilst still in high school
0:09:49 > 0:09:53and won a navy scholarship to Purdue University.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55He chose to study one of the buzz subjects of the era,
0:09:55 > 0:09:57aeronautical engineering,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59as glamorous as advertising at the time.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05His naval commitment led to Armstrong flying 78 missions
0:10:05 > 0:10:09during the Korean war in one of the first jet fighters,
0:10:09 > 0:10:10the Grumman F9F Panther.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19After finishing his degree in 1955,
0:10:19 > 0:10:21he became a test pilot in California.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25MUSIC: "Hound Dog" by Leiber & Stoller
0:10:27 > 0:10:312,000 miles and a seeming world away from Ohio,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35I'm on State Highway 14, a couple of hours outside Los Angeles
0:10:35 > 0:10:37at the edge of the Mojave Desert.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41This is the home of Edwards Air Force Base, a place that's witnessed
0:10:41 > 0:10:45more advances in flight than anywhere else on earth.
0:11:03 > 0:11:09Today, unmanned drones and laser armed jets are flight tested here.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14But the pilots and engineers of the late 1940s and 50s were the
0:11:14 > 0:11:18first to break the sound barrier, and with the X-15 hypersonic plane,
0:11:18 > 0:11:21they even reached the edge of space.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24After being dropped by a B52 bomber,
0:11:24 > 0:11:28the X-15 could reach six times the speed of sound.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34It tested the physical effects of such high speeds on pilots
0:11:34 > 0:11:38and, at the time, was as close to space flight as you could get.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Armstrong was one of the chosen few to fly the plane.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58'The air force's publicity department has arranged for me
0:11:58 > 0:11:59'to meet Johnny Armstrong.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03'He's not related to Neil, but worked with him in the 1950s.'
0:12:03 > 0:12:06Looking at everything that's involved with this,
0:12:06 > 0:12:08it's almost like a space flight.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10So for Neil it would have been a stepping stone.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12You're right, we had, you know,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15a de-briefing, two de-briefings after each flight.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18One was, OK, everybody that was involved in the flight
0:12:18 > 0:12:21comes and sits down and talks about how it all went,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25from the chase pilots, B52, everybody would gather,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28pat themselves on the back, have a good time, and talk about the flight.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32And then the engineers would take the pilots in a separate,
0:12:32 > 0:12:34smaller group meeting, and talk
0:12:34 > 0:12:39about the real technical aspects of what they were trying to accomplish.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41You worked directly with Armstrong.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46I did. I remember when he was a training to fly the X-15 number 3,
0:12:46 > 0:12:50which was the aeroplane he flew most, the number 3 aeroplane,
0:12:50 > 0:12:54and he was a very well disciplined,
0:12:54 > 0:12:58more than disciplined, he was one of the more technical
0:12:58 > 0:13:02test pilots we had - the paying attention to detail
0:13:02 > 0:13:06of the technical operation of that particular control system.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09There seemed to be a sort of a change in the type of
0:13:09 > 0:13:12pilots who were involved
0:13:12 > 0:13:15from the guys who could really push a plane
0:13:15 > 0:13:18and they were all about flying,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22to these people who could obviously fly brilliantly,
0:13:22 > 0:13:25but were also engineers, and could analyse.
0:13:25 > 0:13:26They were much more analytical.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29Well, that's kind of the way you're describing Armstrong.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33He brought his engineering talents to bear on it quite a bit
0:13:33 > 0:13:36in developing that flight control system for the number 3 aeroplane.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43I can imagine how Neil Armstrong's engineering side must have loved
0:13:43 > 0:13:48developing and flying futuristic planes like the X-15.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50But what was he like away from the cockpit?
0:13:53 > 0:13:57They celebrated after flights, OK.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01They went to the local bars, and had fellowship there too.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Do you remember Armstrong taking part in that?
0:14:04 > 0:14:07No, you know, I really don't.
0:14:07 > 0:14:13Neil struck me as being a more reserved pilot and less outgoing
0:14:13 > 0:14:18than the other X-15 pilots that we routinely worked with.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26Everyone I meet describes Armstrong as quiet and reserved,
0:14:26 > 0:14:28something of a conformist,
0:14:28 > 0:14:33to the extent that I'm starting to wonder if they're protecting him.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38But his decision to locate himself and his new wife, Janet,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40up in the hills, 50 miles from base,
0:14:40 > 0:14:44suggests a more maverick spirit than I'd have guessed in the beginning.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48He would have driven along this road frequently.
0:14:50 > 0:14:56Somewhere hidden here is Juniper Hills, which is the first town that
0:14:56 > 0:15:02Jan and Neil Armstrong settled in after they got married, 1955.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04It's away from the base.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07You've got to admire his choice though.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11It's lovely here - much, much nicer than further down in the valley.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18This is it.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22Wow!
0:15:22 > 0:15:25There's a car in the drive too. I wonder if that's the estate agent's.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29I knew it was for sale but apparently it's a foreclosure,
0:15:29 > 0:15:31so the bank owns it,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35which means that I can't get permission to go on.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38Amazingly, the people here who are looking at it,
0:15:38 > 0:15:40these people are looking
0:15:40 > 0:15:44to buy the house, don't know that it was Neil Armstrong's house.
0:15:44 > 0:15:45No-one told them.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48And I can't believe any estate agent anywhere in the
0:15:48 > 0:15:52world would let that one pass, but it seems to have happened.
0:15:52 > 0:15:53Amazing.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00Hi. Can I ask you something?
0:16:00 > 0:16:03- Yeah, sure.- Did you know that this used to be Neil Armstrong's house?
0:16:03 > 0:16:05- No idea.- No. - The estate agent didn't tell you?
0:16:05 > 0:16:08I don't think anybody knows. How did you guys find out?
0:16:08 > 0:16:10The local people do,
0:16:10 > 0:16:13so I can't believe the estate agent didn't tell you.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16I guess she doesn't know or they don't consider it a selling point.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20You'd think they would, but it's fallen into complete disrepair, so...
0:16:20 > 0:16:22Yeah, it's a foreclosure, right?
0:16:22 > 0:16:24- Yes, it's unliveable right now. - Really?
0:16:24 > 0:16:26Yeah, cos there's a hole in the water tank
0:16:26 > 0:16:30and there's no electricity hooked up to the mains.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33Thanks a lot, take care.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40Just as I'm contemplating the isolation of this place, some locals
0:16:40 > 0:16:44arrive who remember what it was like when the Armstrongs were here.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47The Armstrongs didn't have any electricity.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49No water, apparently, as well.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51They hauled water in, in the beginning.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54So that must have been an inconvenient place to live.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58It's very lovely up here, but...
0:16:58 > 0:17:01Well, it was either up here or 40 miles to the north
0:17:01 > 0:17:05in the middle of that godawful desert which his wife did not like.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08Oh, OK, do you know that?
0:17:08 > 0:17:10Is that the story about why they ended up here.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12She didn't care for the desert.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16- Ah, cos I had wondered that.- He didn't either, for that matter.
0:17:16 > 0:17:17I'd wondered that,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20because it must get very hot down there in the valley.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23It generally stays about 10 to 15 degrees cooler up here.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28Two of the Armstrongs' three children
0:17:28 > 0:17:29were born during his time here.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34As a test pilot, there was nothing to stop him from living a quiet life
0:17:34 > 0:17:36with his young family.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40I wonder if he realised that his decision to become an astronaut
0:17:40 > 0:17:42would change that forever.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53NASA's first astronauts, the Mercury Seven, flew in small capsules on top
0:17:53 > 0:17:56of rockets which were actually designed as military missiles.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05Men like John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08became instant heroes across the country.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12They were paraded through towns and given keys to cities.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16Becoming an astronaut propelled you to the top of the celebrity A-list.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20It was something Neil Armstrong would have to deal with.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25MUSIC: "San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)"
0:18:25 > 0:18:27by J Phillips
0:18:32 > 0:18:35300 miles north of Edwards, I'm heading along Highway 1
0:18:35 > 0:18:39to meet the Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42I've heard he's an interesting man who speaks his mind,
0:18:42 > 0:18:46and I hope he'll tell me what life is like as a famous astronaut.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01- Rusty, hello.- Hello.- Andrew Smith.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03- Andrew, hi. - It's really nice to meet you.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07- Come in.- I know you're really busy, thanks for making the time for us.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09This is one of my wife's favourites.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Oh, that's your expenses vouchers.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16This, there are about three or four where my wife has given me these
0:19:16 > 0:19:20on the anniversary of my flight.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22And this is one of the first ones.
0:19:22 > 0:19:23So this was,
0:19:23 > 0:19:27you know, a picture of the night before the launch,
0:19:27 > 0:19:31and a picture of the splashdown on the other side.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34But this is the travel voucher.
0:19:34 > 0:19:40Here it is, "Houston, Texas, Cocoa Beach, Florida, Earth Orbit,
0:19:40 > 0:19:46USS Guadalcanal," ie, the Pacific Ocean and return to Houston!
0:19:46 > 0:19:49All for 143.50.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53Basically it says that the government quarters and meals were furnished,
0:19:53 > 0:19:57and therefore, you know, that was deducted from my per diem.
0:19:57 > 0:19:58That's fantastic.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02Rusty's flight began on top of a Saturn V rocket just four months
0:20:02 > 0:20:06before a sister Saturn took Armstrong all the way to the moon.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09I can't help but ask Rusty what take-off was like.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13The lift-off was really interesting.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16Of course, you're so busy though thinking ahead.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18For the first 10 seconds,
0:20:18 > 0:20:20you have all of these different launch abort modes.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24So you're pretty
0:20:24 > 0:20:27intensely occupied.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29But, interestingly,
0:20:29 > 0:20:34within ten seconds of lift-off, the sound drops right down to
0:20:34 > 0:20:38the point where you really can't hear the engines any more.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42The motion is most intense right at first. It's not acceleration.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44You hardly get off the ground,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47you don't feel any acceleration vertically.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50But the spacecraft is wiggling on the back end.
0:20:50 > 0:20:55I mean, it's the old trick of holding the broom on your hand, you know.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58The broom, the head of the broom isn't moving around,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00but you're moving the bottom around to keep it.
0:21:00 > 0:21:01Because the engines are swivelling.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05The engines are swivelling back and forth to keep that thing vertical.
0:21:05 > 0:21:10But again, within a few seconds, that goes away as well,
0:21:10 > 0:21:14and from 10 seconds on, now you're just feeling
0:21:14 > 0:21:19the gradual build-up of vertical acceleration as you're going up.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23And it's quiet, and it's quite smooth.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25Until cut-off of the first stage,
0:21:25 > 0:21:28it's just this sort of steady increase of acceleration
0:21:28 > 0:21:30as you're going up.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38One of the frustrations that people have with Neil Armstrong,
0:21:38 > 0:21:42for instance, is that he won't talk about what it meant to him.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45Do you think that's because it meant less?
0:21:45 > 0:21:48- No.- Or it meant... No?
0:21:48 > 0:21:50Neil is a very private person.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54I mean, he's a wonderful guy and he has a terrific sense of humour.
0:21:57 > 0:22:03But Neil Armstrong and John Glenn - you're dealing with firsts.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06And Neil being the first man on the moon,
0:22:06 > 0:22:12he had to go into a hermit-like life
0:22:12 > 0:22:16in order to survive.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21I mean, the demand of the public for
0:22:21 > 0:22:26someone in a position of that kind is so extreme, you just have no idea.
0:22:26 > 0:22:27Describe it for me.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30Because you must have tasted this to a degree,
0:22:30 > 0:22:33because you tell people you're an astronaut...
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Yeah, but that's it. See, I tasted it.
0:22:36 > 0:22:43It wasn't foie gras stuck in my, and ground down into me. I mean,
0:22:43 > 0:22:46if you're someone like Neil, the first man on the moon,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49or John Glenn, first person in space...
0:22:49 > 0:22:53And even, see John - John was just the first American.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55You know, you have to protect yourself.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59You're so in demand.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02I mean, I remember when I first came into the programme,
0:23:02 > 0:23:04and you would go out to a restaurant.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08Well, there was no way that those first seven guys,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11the original seven, could be in a restaurant
0:23:11 > 0:23:15without having everybody in the restaurant
0:23:15 > 0:23:17come over and asking for an autograph
0:23:17 > 0:23:20or wrapping their arms around them and getting a picture.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23And, you know, people are calling them the wrong names.
0:23:23 > 0:23:28It's just... It was sickening.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30Understandable, perfectly understandable,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33because that person asking for your autograph,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36it's the first time they've ever asked for an autograph
0:23:36 > 0:23:38from an astronaut. It's your 10,000th time
0:23:38 > 0:23:43and you're trying to eat your soup while it's still warm.
0:23:43 > 0:23:44You can't do that.
0:23:44 > 0:23:49It's... It is unbelievably intrusive.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53So you know, you're right, I got a taste of it,
0:23:53 > 0:23:56but not the full dose, thank heaven.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58Would you trade places with Neil Armstrong?
0:24:00 > 0:24:02I'd love to trade places with Neil Armstrong
0:24:02 > 0:24:04in terms of the experience,
0:24:04 > 0:24:06but not in terms of the post-flight experience.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09Not at all, no.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13If you could only get them together, would you consider it?
0:24:13 > 0:24:15No, I would not.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19Really, seriously, even if it meant going to the moon, you wouldn't?
0:24:19 > 0:24:21Why? I had my 15 minutes.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25I'm doing so many things that are absolutely fascinating to me.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27I don't need that.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31You know, I have to be honest with you. I'm talking with you now,
0:24:31 > 0:24:35- I'm talking with this audience now about this experience.- Yeah.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37I hate it.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40I mean, it's OK, you're good, we're having a good conversation.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42Thank you very much.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46OK, seriously. I avoid this like the plague.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48Been there, done that, had the T-shirt.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50I'm done with it, that's history.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53Unfortunately, I have to tell the story again and again.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56And when you've told a story a thousand times, you're sick of it.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00You don't even know any more whether you're making things up or not.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04You're trying not to, but after a while you don't quite know.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08And so, you know, you talk to Walt Cunningham, or Neil, or Buzz,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11or Mike Collins, or somebody,
0:25:11 > 0:25:14and we'll all talk about exactly the same event,
0:25:14 > 0:25:16and we'll all talk about it differently.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20We didn't necessarily experience it differently,
0:25:20 > 0:25:23but over years it starts to diverge, you don't know.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33Rusty's description of the trials of space fame set me to thinking.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36In the run up to my journey,
0:25:36 > 0:25:40I'd considered trying to get in touch with Armstrong again.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45But understanding his perspective a little better now, I'm not so sure.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48After 40 years, it must be nearly impossible
0:25:48 > 0:25:51to say something new about walking on the moon.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57I feel torn between a desire to find out more
0:25:57 > 0:26:01and my reluctance to become just another intrusion into his life.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07I'm not sure whether to contact him or just leave him alone.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13September 16th, 1962.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16It's announced that Neil Armstrong has been selected
0:26:16 > 0:26:18as one of a second group of astronauts.
0:26:18 > 0:26:24Amid great excitement, the press dubs them 'The New Nine.'
0:26:24 > 0:26:28ARCHIVE: '...Neil Armstrong, 32, NASA test pilot on the X-15 rocket plane.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31'Major Frank Borman of the Air Force, 34...'
0:26:31 > 0:26:34The astronauts are moved to NASA's new mission control
0:26:34 > 0:26:37and training centre in Houston, Texas.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40Most of the astronauts are still active military pilots,
0:26:40 > 0:26:44so their pay is only slightly more than a school teacher's.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47But life as an astronaut does have its perks.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50MUSIC: "Born To Be Wild" by Mars Bonfire
0:27:00 > 0:27:05# Get your motor runnin' Head out on the highway
0:27:06 > 0:27:13# Lookin' for adventure And whatever comes our way... #
0:27:13 > 0:27:18This car is a 1965 Corvette Stingray
0:27:18 > 0:27:21like a lot of the astronauts drove, in fact.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25I've never driven one of these before and I'm just really enjoying
0:27:25 > 0:27:30myself, trying not to look too smug, and, I suspect, failing miserably.
0:27:30 > 0:27:31It's fantastic!
0:27:31 > 0:27:36These things are so beautiful, and space age too, the styling of it.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39It's one of the most beautiful cars I've ever seen
0:27:39 > 0:27:43and certainly the most beautiful car I've ever driven.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48These streets are a sub-division of Houston
0:27:48 > 0:27:51which is just a stone's throw from NASA.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55It's where most of the astronauts and their families lived,
0:27:55 > 0:27:57in very close quarters...
0:27:58 > 0:28:01..and you get a real sense of what it must have felt like
0:28:01 > 0:28:03to have been them at that time.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06They'd been flying their jet fighters
0:28:06 > 0:28:10and then working in the lunar lander simulators over the
0:28:10 > 0:28:13road at NASA, and then driving home in one of these,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17in a, you know, fairly modest middle class district.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21But all the same, how much more on top of the world could you get?
0:28:21 > 0:28:22Not very, I think.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29But this high-octane lifestyle came with serious risks.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40Just 14 months before the launch of Apollo 11, Armstrong was polishing
0:28:40 > 0:28:44his lunar landing skills in the lunar landing training vehicle.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47The LLTV was designed to mimic the approach and feel
0:28:47 > 0:28:49of landing on the moon.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52A pair of rockets reduced the effective weight of the craft
0:28:52 > 0:28:55to simulate the moon's reduced gravity,
0:28:55 > 0:28:58but with no wings, the craft couldn't glide back to earth
0:28:58 > 0:29:00if anything went wrong.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05Astronauts called it the flying bedstead.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07Management didn't like it.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09It scared them.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13But on this day, 100 feet from the ground,
0:29:13 > 0:29:16a thruster leak left Armstrong with no control.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18With a split second to spare,
0:29:18 > 0:29:21he fired his ejection seat and narrowly saved his life.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29Within hours, an apparently unfazed Armstrong
0:29:29 > 0:29:31would be back in the office at work.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35Perhaps his calm nature made him an ideal candidate
0:29:35 > 0:29:38to land a spacecraft on the moon.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:29:43 > 0:29:47In July 1969, the former boy scout who loved building model planes
0:29:47 > 0:29:51found himself plunging towards the lunar surface
0:29:51 > 0:29:53at the controls of the Eagle lander.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04As the world listened in, few could know
0:30:04 > 0:30:08that Armstrong and his partner Buzz Aldrin were in trouble.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14Don Willis, an Apollo controller at the time,
0:30:14 > 0:30:16tells me about the unfolding drama.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21The position we had there
0:30:21 > 0:30:26was basically to drive all of the displays that the flight
0:30:26 > 0:30:29controllers, the ones you see on TV in the control room itself...
0:30:29 > 0:30:35All those maps and all those displays and everything were driven by a huge
0:30:35 > 0:30:39bank of computers which were located one floor below the control room.
0:30:39 > 0:30:44A standard PC today would probably have better speed
0:30:44 > 0:30:50and about the same capacity as one of those IBM 360/75s.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54The first warning occurred at an altitude of 2,000 feet
0:30:54 > 0:30:57when the crew was alerted to an overload alarm
0:30:57 > 0:31:00of the onboard computer known as a 1202.
0:31:03 > 0:31:08There were some overload alarms where the computer is not able to complete
0:31:08 > 0:31:11its full range of processing.
0:31:11 > 0:31:12It's not good to have alarms,
0:31:12 > 0:31:17because you're never quite sure what's not getting done.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20Because Armstrong, when he was asking "What is the 1202?",
0:31:20 > 0:31:22his voice was terse at that point.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25- Yes.- And he asked a number of times,
0:31:25 > 0:31:28and his heart rate apparently went up to 150 BPM.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33- ARCHIVE:- Bravo 2, we have a reading on the 1202 programme alarm.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37- We're "go" on that, flight. - Roger, we got you.
0:31:37 > 0:31:38We're "go" on that alarm.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45The people who wrote the software and who were actually operating it
0:31:45 > 0:31:48knew what a 1202 was, and knew that it was
0:31:48 > 0:31:50not life threatening, not mission threatening.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53- ARCHIVE:- Has it converged?- Yes. - OK, all flight controllers,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56- go now go for landing. Retro. - Go.- Vital.- Go.
0:31:56 > 0:31:57- Guidance.- Go.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59- Control.- Go.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01Capcom, we're "go" for landing.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04Eagle, Houston, you are "go" for landing, over.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07DON WILLIS: And as they started the descent burn,
0:32:07 > 0:32:09the landmarks on the way down were
0:32:09 > 0:32:12not quite where the astronauts thought they should be.
0:32:12 > 0:32:18And as they got down very, very low, the low fuel alarm light came on,
0:32:18 > 0:32:21meaning that they had
0:32:21 > 0:32:25just a small amount of fuel left, like 60 seconds or something.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29- ARCHIVE:- 60 seconds. Lights on.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34The mission rules had said if you get this low, you should abort,
0:32:34 > 0:32:37but he was basically over-riding that, and said,
0:32:37 > 0:32:39"No, I can get this, I can get it down.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41"We can achieve the mission."
0:32:43 > 0:32:44When he saw the crater,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48realised he had to get over on to the other side to really land.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55- ARCHIVE:- Forward, just into the right a little.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58- Down a half.- 30 seconds.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00Picking up some dust.
0:33:06 > 0:33:11Contact light. OK, engine stopped.
0:33:11 > 0:33:13We copy you down, Eagle.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21Roger, Tranquillity, we copy you on the ground.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again.
0:33:24 > 0:33:25Thanks a lot.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28(DON WILLIS) "The Eagle has landed", the call came out.
0:33:28 > 0:33:30There was just a tremendous cheer.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33And it was not only the people in the room, but all those people
0:33:33 > 0:33:35in the back rooms and everything,
0:33:35 > 0:33:39all across the mission control centre was just a huge big cheer.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42And a lot of people, I think,
0:33:42 > 0:33:47exhaling, myself included, like "Ah, we've made it,
0:33:47 > 0:33:52"and we're safe on the surface."
0:33:52 > 0:33:56And it'll be very interesting when we go back to the moon some day to check
0:33:56 > 0:33:58how much fuel was actually in that tank.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01But I think it was pretty well on zero
0:34:01 > 0:34:03when he touched down and he got engine shutdown.
0:34:04 > 0:34:10- ARCHIVE:- I'm at the foot of the ladder.- Roger, Neil.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17I'm going to step off the LEM now.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22That's one small step for man...
0:34:23 > 0:34:26..one giant leap for mankind.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33I don't know that I've ever tried to calculate how many
0:34:33 > 0:34:37thousands of people were focussed and working for that single event.
0:34:37 > 0:34:42But I know, and I've read Mr Armstrong's book and there
0:34:42 > 0:34:47wouldn't be one person that I know of at NASA that wouldn't agree with him.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50That this was a team effort and probably many of them would agree
0:34:50 > 0:34:55that it was one of the greatest teams ever assembled.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02Neil Armstrong had become the first man to walk on the moon,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06but I wonder what the other astronauts made of him being first?
0:35:08 > 0:35:09- Mr Cunningham.- Yes.
0:35:09 > 0:35:14So I'm paying a visit to Apollo 7 crew member Walt Cunningham.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17I think Neil has the admiration
0:35:17 > 0:35:25of all of us from those days, by the way he's handled the notoriety.
0:35:28 > 0:35:33And there's others that haven't handled it all that well.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35And I feel very fortunate,
0:35:35 > 0:35:43standing at a reception in 1969, the Society of Experimental Test Pilots,
0:35:43 > 0:35:48and we were making Charles Lindbergh an honorary fellow that year.
0:35:48 > 0:35:53And of course, that was right after Neil's first steps on the moon.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56And I was like a fly on the wall.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00I was about one foot behind Neil and Charles Lindbergh when I
0:36:00 > 0:36:05heard Charles Lindbergh advising Neil Armstrong on how to handle
0:36:05 > 0:36:07all of this attention, this notoriety,
0:36:07 > 0:36:10and about keeping a low key, kind of staying
0:36:10 > 0:36:12out of the public eye because, you know,
0:36:12 > 0:36:16Lindbergh's experience was not all that wonderful.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20And Neil has done that.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27Walt Cunningham's comment about Armstrong meeting Charles Lindbergh
0:36:27 > 0:36:31has got me thinking about the similarities between the two men.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37In 1927, Lindbergh made the hazardous first solo flight across
0:36:37 > 0:36:40the Atlantic from New York to Paris,
0:36:40 > 0:36:44but it was the consequent fame that almost destroyed him.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48He was besieged by the press and public alike.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52His infant first son was kidnapped for ransom and then killed,
0:36:52 > 0:36:58a son who coincidentally was born the same year as Neil Armstrong.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01Lindbergh wrote in his autobiography,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04"As one gains fame, one loses life,"
0:37:04 > 0:37:07a view which still resonates.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10His solution was to become a recluse,
0:37:10 > 0:37:14avoid interviews, and refuse to sign autographs.
0:37:14 > 0:37:15To survive the dark side of fame,
0:37:15 > 0:37:21Lindbergh devised a formula to focus on what he called
0:37:21 > 0:37:27"the core" - his family, friends, the things he loved, like flying,
0:37:27 > 0:37:31to shield these things from prying eyes and the ravenous media.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38But I'm fascinated by the notion that Neil Armstrong's reticence,
0:37:38 > 0:37:41so often taken for aloofness or reserve,
0:37:41 > 0:37:45may in fact form part of a deliberate Lindbergh-inspired
0:37:45 > 0:37:49strategy for dealing with the trauma of the public's intense gaze.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54Unfortunately, this thrusts me right back
0:37:54 > 0:37:56into the jaws of my old dilemma.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03OK, I've just decided to do something that I really didn't want
0:38:03 > 0:38:06to do and I've been resisting for quite a long time,
0:38:06 > 0:38:08despite people telling me I should do it,
0:38:08 > 0:38:11and send Neil Armstrong an e-mail.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13People keep asking, "Have you asked Neil?
0:38:13 > 0:38:15"Have you talked to Neil?
0:38:15 > 0:38:17"You should get in touch with Neil."
0:38:20 > 0:38:23And, you know, I haven't really wanted to do it because
0:38:23 > 0:38:29I know he doesn't like doing it, he doesn't really do interviews,
0:38:29 > 0:38:32but the Lindbergh stuff changes the way I feel about that
0:38:32 > 0:38:35to some degree, because I think this is something
0:38:35 > 0:38:38that's really genuinely interesting
0:38:38 > 0:38:41which actually he might respond to because
0:38:41 > 0:38:44flying and Charles Lindbergh are two things he feels
0:38:44 > 0:38:47very strongly about,
0:38:47 > 0:38:49from what I can see.
0:38:49 > 0:38:56And so in doing this, I understand that I'm adding to his pile,
0:38:56 > 0:39:00his mountain of unsolicited messages,
0:39:00 > 0:39:04but I also think that it's...it's something that I need to do,
0:39:04 > 0:39:08just because it's interesting, and I would like to have an answer
0:39:08 > 0:39:11and like to give him the chance to have an answer.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15Until you've sat down and tried to write an e-mail to Neil Armstrong
0:39:15 > 0:39:16or someone like Neil Armstrong,
0:39:16 > 0:39:20is there anyone else like Neil Armstrong,
0:39:20 > 0:39:24you don't realise how sort of nervy an experience it is. It's odd.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26"Dear Neil..."
0:39:26 > 0:39:28He can't object to that.
0:39:28 > 0:39:33"Dear Neil..." No. Idiot.
0:39:33 > 0:39:35"Dear Mr Armstrong..."
0:39:38 > 0:39:40"Dear Mr Armstrong,
0:39:40 > 0:39:44"we are in the process of making a documentary film to commemorate the
0:39:44 > 0:39:47"40th anniversary of the first moon landing.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50"I know you're reluctant to pronounce on matters of opinion,
0:39:50 > 0:39:53"but I was hoping you might be able to help
0:39:53 > 0:39:55"with a few small, but important, matters of fact."
0:39:57 > 0:40:01He might like that. At least that's gonna
0:40:01 > 0:40:03not get off on the wrong foot
0:40:03 > 0:40:08by asking him what it felt like to walk on the moon.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10Sometimes I hate writing.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16"We also understand that Mr Lindbergh was someone you
0:40:16 > 0:40:20"greatly admired and met with in the run up to the launch of Apollo 11.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23"Indeed, it has been suggested that you took advice from him.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25"Is it true?"
0:40:27 > 0:40:29All we can do now is wait.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33I hope e-mailing him was the right thing to do.
0:40:38 > 0:40:43The Kennedy Space Centre is America's gateway to space.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47Today, the space shuttle stands on the launch pad where, 40 years ago,
0:40:47 > 0:40:50Apollo 11 began its mission to the moon.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55Not much has changed here since the space race ended,
0:40:55 > 0:40:57least of all the place
0:40:57 > 0:41:00astronauts stayed and played when they were preparing for flights.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06When NASA first came to Cocoa Beach, there really wasn't a lot here.
0:41:06 > 0:41:08One thing which did exist was the Holiday Inn
0:41:08 > 0:41:12which is where the astronauts stayed while they were training
0:41:12 > 0:41:13and getting ready for flights.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16And happily for me, it's where I'm staying.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19There it is.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21MUSIC: Fly Me To The Moon by Bart Howard
0:41:25 > 0:41:27During the early days of the space programme,
0:41:27 > 0:41:30Mercury and Gemini astronauts are said to have had
0:41:30 > 0:41:35a pretty wild time here with a combination of sun, sea and sex.
0:41:37 > 0:41:39But by the time of Apollo 11,
0:41:39 > 0:41:42there was too much serious work to be done.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47Back in my hotel room, I turn on my laptop
0:41:47 > 0:41:50and check my e-mails a little nervously.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55I've come back into the room and there's a reply.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57There's lots of it too.
0:41:58 > 0:42:03"Dear Mr Smith, here are some replies to your questions."
0:42:03 > 0:42:05And down the bottom it's signed "Neil Armstrong."
0:42:05 > 0:42:09I can see the words, "I hope that is helpful. Neil Armstrong."
0:42:09 > 0:42:13The first question was about Lindbergh's Autobiography Of Values.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16We'd noticed the parallels and connections
0:42:16 > 0:42:18between Lindbergh's experience and his.
0:42:18 > 0:42:25"I became an aviation enthusiast aged nine or ten, and never wavered.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28"I read every aviation book and magazine that I could
0:42:28 > 0:42:31"and built airplane models constantly.
0:42:31 > 0:42:33"I wanted to become an airplane designer
0:42:33 > 0:42:35"and learnt about the great ones.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40"Alexander Seversky, RJ Mitchell, Igor Sikorsky,
0:42:40 > 0:42:42"Tony Fokker, Don Berlin, etc.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45"I had no aspirations as a pilot at that time,
0:42:45 > 0:42:48"but avidly learnt about the record setting flyers -
0:42:48 > 0:42:51"Alcock and Brown, Mattern, Post, the Mollisons,
0:42:51 > 0:42:53"Lindbergh, Earhart etc.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56"I don't remember focussing on Lindbergh.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00"Probably read more about all those who preceded him
0:43:00 > 0:43:02"across the Atlantic by air.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04"The only advice..."
0:43:04 > 0:43:06OK, now this is good.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08"The only advice I can remember him giving me,"
0:43:08 > 0:43:12brackets, "although there may have been others,
0:43:12 > 0:43:14"was to not give autographs.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21"When I read Autobiography Of Values many years ago,
0:43:21 > 0:43:23"Lindbergh's autobiography,
0:43:23 > 0:43:28"I was also struck by a number of similarities to my own experiences.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31"I hope that is helpful, Neil Armstrong."
0:43:34 > 0:43:37He spent some time on that, thinking about it,
0:43:37 > 0:43:42and...it's really sweet.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44It's really sweet,
0:43:44 > 0:43:49and does confirm a lot of what we were suspecting.
0:43:49 > 0:43:54And now we've got to decide whether we want to follow up
0:43:54 > 0:43:55with another e-mail,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58or whether we want to see whether we can meet with him.
0:44:00 > 0:44:05And that seems tricky now because after everything I've heard,
0:44:05 > 0:44:06do we want to go and...
0:44:07 > 0:44:14..disturb his privacy or not?
0:44:14 > 0:44:18And maybe we do. I don't know, we'll have to think about it.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22But it's exciting to get this. It's really exciting to get this.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:44:25 > 0:44:29When Apollo 11 returned to earth, the world's press was in a frenzy
0:44:29 > 0:44:33to interview the first man to walk upon the moon.
0:44:36 > 0:44:41It was our pleasure to participate in one great adventure.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48It's an adventure that took place not just in the month of July,
0:44:48 > 0:44:51but rather one that took place in the last decade.
0:44:58 > 0:45:03The entire country was lined up to see Armstrong and shake his hand,
0:45:03 > 0:45:05and despite Lindbergh's advice,
0:45:05 > 0:45:07he felt an obligation to the US taxpayers for their
0:45:07 > 0:45:11contribution to the space programme, so he continued to sign autographs.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16But unlike previous astronauts,
0:45:16 > 0:45:19Armstrong was not just a hero in America.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23He had become an inspirational figure for the entire world
0:45:23 > 0:45:25and there was nowhere to hide,
0:45:25 > 0:45:28no place he could escape a potentially all-consuming fame.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34Perhaps Lindbergh's advice came to mind
0:45:34 > 0:45:39because Armstrong appears to have retreated to his core self.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42A neighbour would speak of Neil's desire
0:45:42 > 0:45:45to get back to the fundamentals.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47With the world at his feet,
0:45:47 > 0:45:50he slipped back to Ohio to become a teacher.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53In 1971, Armstrong became a professor
0:45:53 > 0:45:58of aeronautical engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01'After the creativity of Apollo, academia must have been a shock.
0:46:01 > 0:46:06'Dr Ron Huston was in the mirthful position of being Neil's boss.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10'He's taking me to see the man's old office.'
0:46:10 > 0:46:12This is the office I was telling you about.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17And this is where he would enter and you notice there's a partition there,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20so Neil would be in here
0:46:20 > 0:46:25- and his secretary would be in this little alcove.- Right.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28And so you'd go in there and you could see him.
0:46:28 > 0:46:30Now what was interesting is when he first arrived,
0:46:30 > 0:46:34it was just like this and students would
0:46:34 > 0:46:36sort of build a human pyramid
0:46:36 > 0:46:40- so they could get up and peek into the windows.- No, really?
0:46:40 > 0:46:43And that went on for a while until then they put a
0:46:43 > 0:46:46sort of a curtain or a cover, just put some paper on the window so
0:46:46 > 0:46:48that they couldn't see in.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52And it...burned off.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56It took about, I would say roughly one quarter,
0:46:56 > 0:47:00which is three months, for it to subside.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04And then things went on. This started in the autumn and then by the
0:47:04 > 0:47:07winter time it got dreary outside,
0:47:07 > 0:47:10- people got more interested in their own things, and so it passed.- Right.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14Were there a lot of requests for autographs and that kind of stuff?
0:47:14 > 0:47:18Oh, well, ha-ha, that's what this lady did.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21If you wanted to get an autograph,
0:47:21 > 0:47:25it was no big deal, because NASA wanted to take advantage of the
0:47:25 > 0:47:31notoriety, and so they gave him, they paid for, part of his secretary.
0:47:31 > 0:47:33And what she did was arrange for autographs.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36So you would go in there and write your name on a list,
0:47:36 > 0:47:41so every morning, Neil would come in for an hour or two
0:47:41 > 0:47:44and just write his name on these autographs.
0:47:44 > 0:47:46And how long did that last for?
0:47:46 > 0:47:50Oh, that went on for the entire time that he was here.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53I mean that went on for years.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56Did you hear him complain about that? That would drive me insane.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58I think he just did what he...
0:47:58 > 0:48:00He was disciplined, he was disciplined,
0:48:00 > 0:48:02so he did what people told him to do.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05He'd just come in here, sign the autographs,
0:48:05 > 0:48:09then he'd be teaching his classes, then he would go fly airplanes.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14In 1979, Neil Armstrong abruptly resigned his position
0:48:14 > 0:48:17at the University of Cincinnati.
0:48:17 > 0:48:18In the years that followed,
0:48:18 > 0:48:22he worked in a number of advisory posts for engineering firms.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Having committed himself to signing autographs through the 70s and 80s,
0:48:29 > 0:48:32the advent of the internet alerted Armstrong
0:48:32 > 0:48:34to the fact that people had been selling them straight away.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37This drove him to take Lindbergh's advice
0:48:37 > 0:48:40and he hasn't signed an autograph since.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49But the lengths to which people would go to exploit Armstrong's fame
0:48:49 > 0:48:53reached a peak of absurdity in 2005,
0:48:53 > 0:48:55when his barber, one Marx Sizemore,
0:48:55 > 0:49:00sold cuttings of his hair to a hair collector.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04A guy from Colorado named Todd Mueller,
0:49:04 > 0:49:07back in '04 started calling me on the phone
0:49:07 > 0:49:12and asking me if he could buy some of Neil's hair.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15For two weeks I told him no.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19And then he asked me a question like,
0:49:19 > 0:49:21"If you don't sell me the hair, next time he comes in
0:49:21 > 0:49:25"and gets his hair cut, what are you going to do with it?"
0:49:25 > 0:49:29And I said, "Probably sweep it up and throw it away just like I always do."
0:49:29 > 0:49:31And he said, "All right, sell me your trash."
0:49:31 > 0:49:34So when I thought about it that way, I thought,
0:49:34 > 0:49:37"You know, it's not that big of a deal."
0:49:37 > 0:49:45So I let him, I entertained an offer from him. He offered me 3,000
0:49:45 > 0:49:49and so next time Neil came in, I swept up before he got here
0:49:49 > 0:49:51and once he left,
0:49:51 > 0:49:55I swept it up again and bagged it up and sent it to him.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58So Neil's reaction was?
0:49:58 > 0:50:00He wasn't too happy about it.
0:50:00 > 0:50:05He asked me if I thought I could get the hair back, and I told him that
0:50:05 > 0:50:08I would call and see, but I called Tom
0:50:08 > 0:50:12- and of course he didn't want to sell the hair back, so...- Right.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16I called Neil at his house and told him that.
0:50:16 > 0:50:17He gave you his home number?
0:50:17 > 0:50:21- Yeah, he gave me his home number. - So he trusted you with that?- Yeah.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24That would be worth quite a lot of money to some people.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26Well, how much will you give me? HE LAUGHS
0:50:26 > 0:50:31Well, we can talk about that afterwards.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34He threatened legal action,
0:50:34 > 0:50:41so I released it to the media and it became a huge story.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43It went worldwide.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47I think once he'd seen how big of a
0:50:47 > 0:50:52news article it was becoming, he backed off.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56His lawyers didn't want no more to do with it.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00So Marx, this was all about 4 years ago.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03Have there been any further developments since?
0:51:03 > 0:51:05Well, the guy I sold the hair to,
0:51:05 > 0:51:11he's thinking about coming out with something for the 40th anniversary,
0:51:11 > 0:51:18- so he says we have enough hair to do 250,000 items.- Oh, my God.
0:51:18 > 0:51:26I mean, if anything, if we just tape a piece of the hair to a postcard,
0:51:26 > 0:51:27and mail it out,
0:51:27 > 0:51:33you know, I mean even if we get 50 bucks a piece, that's 12.5 million.
0:51:33 > 0:51:37So, I mean, it could be quite a big...
0:51:38 > 0:51:42So you could actually become a millionaire out of this hair?
0:51:42 > 0:51:44I could, possibly, yeah.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47So ask me again if I would do it again.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56'With money-making schemes like this around, it must be impossible
0:51:56 > 0:52:00'for Armstrong to know if he can trust anyone, including me.'
0:52:00 > 0:52:01A big improvement, thank you.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08The more I learn about Armstrong's life,
0:52:08 > 0:52:11the better I understand why he avoids contact with the public.
0:52:14 > 0:52:19But I have an idea, a way of offering rather than demanding.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23Armstrong will undoubtedly refuse an interview
0:52:23 > 0:52:25but perhaps he'll come out to play.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29His love of flying stems from the day in 1936
0:52:29 > 0:52:33when his dad took him for a ride in a visiting plane.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37To better understand the effect of this experience,
0:52:37 > 0:52:42I am going up in an original 1940s Boeing-Stearman biplane.
0:52:42 > 0:52:43And so, just in case,
0:52:43 > 0:52:48I'm writing Armstrong a final time to invite him to join us.
0:52:48 > 0:52:50You never know.
0:52:57 > 0:52:58Waiting for a response,
0:52:58 > 0:53:02I kill some time in Wapakoneta's Neil Armstrong Museum.
0:53:02 > 0:53:04It's a wonderful collection of items
0:53:04 > 0:53:06from the different periods of Neil's life.
0:53:06 > 0:53:11There is everything from his bicycle to his first plane,
0:53:11 > 0:53:16his flight jacket from the Korean war, his Edwards test pilot boots,
0:53:16 > 0:53:20his Gemini space suit, the Gemini 8 capsule,
0:53:20 > 0:53:24his Apollo space suit, and even a moon rock.
0:53:24 > 0:53:29But the best thing for a big kid like me is the Lunar Simulator
0:53:29 > 0:53:32where you can have a go yourself at landing on the moon.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36This is where I get to be an astronaut or not be an astronaut.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39I'm getting it, I'm getting it now...
0:53:39 > 0:53:42No, I'm not. Come on, come on!
0:53:42 > 0:53:45I'm getting this one. This is going to be the one.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Here we go, here we go, here we go.
0:53:48 > 0:53:49SIMULATOR: OK, we're climbing.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52Just hold the throttle back, drifting backward.
0:53:52 > 0:53:5420 feet down. Contact.
0:53:54 > 0:54:00Oh, you utter... Oh, I had it that time!
0:54:00 > 0:54:02Oh, that's so unfair.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05I was coming down perfectly!
0:54:05 > 0:54:08"Don't call us, we'll call you."
0:54:10 > 0:54:13Back at my hotel room, I have mail.
0:54:17 > 0:54:18I've got another reply from Neil.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25"Dear Mr Smith, it is impossible for me to remember what thoughts
0:54:25 > 0:54:27"went through my head 70 years ago.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31"I guess it was a combination of reading about airplanes and building
0:54:31 > 0:54:35"and flying model airplanes that was the chief motivating factor.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38"In reading, I learnt of the history and exciting developments
0:54:38 > 0:54:41"of aviation, and in flying model airplanes,
0:54:41 > 0:54:44"I learned of the logic of what contributed to performance,
0:54:44 > 0:54:46"stability and control of aircraft.
0:54:46 > 0:54:51"Both invigorated my interest in design.
0:54:51 > 0:54:53"Thank you for your invitation
0:54:53 > 0:54:55"to join you at the Stearman flying event.
0:54:55 > 0:55:00"I am already committed on both days but I'm confident that you will get
0:55:00 > 0:55:02"a new appreciation for a breeze in the face
0:55:02 > 0:55:05"and the sound of the wind in the rigging.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08"Best of luck, NA."
0:55:11 > 0:55:13No surprise there then,
0:55:13 > 0:55:18but I'm not going to waste my chance to punch a hole in the sky.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31I'm disappointed Neil won't be coming.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34I'd like to have seen his engineers' eyes light up
0:55:34 > 0:55:37at the sight of this stunning machine.
0:55:37 > 0:55:41But my disappointment vanishes in the Stearman's open cockpit
0:55:41 > 0:55:44as I feel the rush of air across my face just as he did.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51Hey, we're up! Ha-ha!
0:56:03 > 0:56:04This is fantastic!
0:56:08 > 0:56:11It would have been wonderful for Neil to have come,
0:56:11 > 0:56:13as I know he'd have loved the plane and enjoyed the ride.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22HE LAUGHS
0:56:38 > 0:56:41Up here, it's so easy to see
0:56:41 > 0:56:45how a six year old boy's love affair with flying might have begun.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52You feel free in the air, and it's great fun.
0:56:52 > 0:56:55But I'm still not sure what he meant about the wind in the rigging.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58When we come in to land, the really nicest part of the flight,
0:56:58 > 0:57:01I'll pull the engine back to idle
0:57:01 > 0:57:04and you'll just hear the wind whistling through the wires.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06It's just really peaceful.
0:57:06 > 0:57:09Do you know what? Neil Armstrong mentioned that.
0:57:09 > 0:57:10He said I'd enjoy that.
0:57:10 > 0:57:12Yeah, you will.
0:57:12 > 0:57:14ENGINE QUIETENS, WIRES WHINE
0:57:19 > 0:57:20Oh, yeah...
0:57:22 > 0:57:26Richard's just cut back the engine and the wires are singing.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28WIRES HUM
0:57:43 > 0:57:45Oh, what a peaceful vision.
0:57:46 > 0:57:48I finally think I understand the
0:57:48 > 0:57:52mystery of Neil Armstrong's retreat from the public.
0:57:52 > 0:57:54In a sense, it's you and me he's retreating from -
0:57:54 > 0:57:58our childlike wish that we could have been with him,
0:57:58 > 0:58:00that he can tell us what it was like.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05And he's right in his modest belief that the Apollo fame should be
0:58:05 > 0:58:09shared among the thousands of people responsible for its success.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11As Lindbergh himself wrote,
0:58:11 > 0:58:15"My landing was like a match lighting a bonfire.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18"People began to confuse the light of the bonfire
0:58:18 > 0:58:20"with the flame of the match."
0:58:21 > 0:58:25In the end, Neil Armstrong's greatest gift to us
0:58:25 > 0:58:26could be his silence.
0:58:31 > 0:58:34INDISTINCT RECORDINGS FROM MOON LANDING
0:58:49 > 0:58:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:52 > 0:58:54E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk