Extra Section at the Armstrong Air and Space Museum

There is more to Neil Armstrong than that one small step.  My guest on this Extra Section episode is Logan Rex from the Armstrong Air and Space Museum.  We discuss Neil Armstrong's life story and the remarkable Gemini 8 mission.

Transcript

Paula 0:00

For the Best Aerospace Era this is mansplaining. Here is the host Anthony L. Sealey

0:08

Welcome aerospace enthusiasts. You may have heard that 2026 is a 250th anniversary of our nation, the United States of America. There is one prominent name that we brought up more often than others when looking back at our short but impactful history. That name is Neil Alden Armstrong, Now 2026 is also the 60th anniversary of the Eventful Gemini eight mission piloted by Armstrong himself. So I felt this was the perfect time to talk about the first man. Now there is a museum in Armstrong's, hometown of Wapakoneta, Ohio, where you can learn more about him and our aerospace history. My guest on this extra section episode is the curator and communications director of the museum, which bears his name, the Armstrong Air and Space Museum. Welcome everyone. Logan Rex. Hi. How we doing? Thank you for coming on. Mansplaneing Before we talk about the museum, the exhibits, and Neil Armstrong himself, tell us about yourself and how you came to work at the Armstrong Air and Space Museum. Yeah, so I'm originally from Lima, Ohio, which was, uh, it's about 15 minutes north of here. So, you know, you know Neil Armstrong was a real. Important piece of local history. Um, so eventually when I got my degree in political science and history, you know, a position here came open. And, uh, you know, just being a history nerd. Uh, it was a, a, a, a great opportunity, but I had no real formal background in, in aerospace or anything like that. So, um, it, it was a real, I think at the beginning, like I said, baptism by fire that, eventually turned into a real passion and a love for it. And I've been here, it's been going on seven years now. You know, I mean, it's, it's a blessing coming to coming to work every day. I love what I do. I love the people here. Um, we, we all have that same passion, that same, you know, need to, to tell more people about this amazing part of history and, and why it's so important still to America. Um, so I, I, I think there's, it's, it's always a great, you know, thing if, if you feel like you're never working a day. These, these past seven years? I, I don't think I've worked probably a single day because I just love, you know, if I wasn't, I'd be volunteering here. I mean, this is a, it's a great area that, um, I'm very happy in and I feel very fulfilled in my work. So, um, but I am the curator and communications director, so I'm in charge of exhibits and also the marketing and other, uh, communication strategies here for the museum. Now, this is my first time visiting here. So I'm excited to hear about the exhibits but first, gimme some background on the Armstrong Air Museum and tell us about its mission. Yeah, so originally the, the museum was actually, really founded on July 20th, 1969. Uh, governor Rhodes, which was the governor of Ohio at the time, um, stood on the front porch of the Armstrong home the next day. So Armstrong was still on the lunar surface. And Governor Rhodes announced to the world that there would be a museum right here in Wapakonata, which is obviously Armstrong's hometown. Um, that, you know, this museum would dedicate the Apollo 11 mission, and Armstrong and all the Ohioans that dared to defy gravity. So, I mean, that, that is how quick this museum, you know, got off the ground. Um, so the governor really wanted, this to be a, a. You know, community achievement. So he, he said that, uh, the state would supply 500,000 if the community could raise the other 500,000. So altogether in inflation terms, that's about five, $6 million that in total needed to be raised. Um, and that he wanted it to be done in a year. So the community came together, and they raised over 500,000. It was about 535,000, and. Um, you know, within that, uh, we started building, uh, within that year of 1970. So again, all of this is happening while we're still going to the moon. So, you know, this, this, this achievement, this museum, uh, is still happening while the Apollo program is still going to the moon. So, um, it's, it's kind of amazing to think that this museum was being built for the moon landing while we're still having moon landings. Um, so I always found that to be very interesting. And then we opened on July 20th, 1972. Uh, Tricia Nixon was here, sent by, the president at the time, uh, with the moon rock. So we have a moon rock here, and Tricia was the one to hand deliver the moon rock to the museum. And then, there were some other things that we wanted in the museum, like, um. Um, the, uh, Gemini eight spacecraft, some of Armstrong space suits, things like that. And there's still some of our, our, you know. Beautiful crown jewels to this day. Uh, so we were very lucky to have a lot of those, uh, amazing artifacts from the Smithsonian, from nasa, uh, and they really wanted this museum to be successful as well. Um, to my knowledge, I believe that we were the first air and space museum to be named after an astronaut in, in the world. So, that was, very interesting. But yeah, so I, I mean, I think people, I think one of the things that, that when people come in, they, they really realize that, you know, we might be a smaller museum in terms of, you know, if you go to like the Air Force Museum or Kennedy Space Center, huge complexes. But if you come here, I mean, it's very manageable. And I think it's, it's the artifacts and the story itself that really packs a punch. And we really, I think we hold our own when it comes against those other larger institutions. And I do want to just say for reference, Wapakonata. Yeah. I am saying that correctly, right? That is right. Awesome. Wapakonata is about an hour and a half northwest of Columbus, Ohio, just for reference. Now, I know the museum is not just about Neil Armstrong, but let's start with him. It was much more to Neil Armstrong than just that one small step on the moon. What can we learn about his early life here? Yeah, so like I said, Armstrong was, uh, born about five miles south of the museum on his grandparents' farmhouse. Um, so he grew up, a lot in the area. His father was a state auditor at the time, so. He moved around a lot as a child, I believe, around, I think over 13 times. His, his father picked up and moved and being a, an auditor for the state, they would go, you know, live in a community as he would, you know, audit their books and then they would move to a new community. Um, so I think that really also influenced Armstrong, sort of having that, you know. I think it was hard for him growing up and moving so much. But that also just made him more focused on, uh, his, his own interests. Um, so at the age of three, from, from his parents' interviews, that's when he sort of really realized that he liked aviation. Uh, it was actually at the Cleveland Air Show that Armstrong, got to see sort of the first airplanes that were, were coming about. And, he had his first airplane ride. In Warren, Ohio, at the age of five, he was about to turn six. Um, and that really solidified that he wanted to have a, a career in aviation. Uh, he had a real passion for it. Uh, that's when he would start doing model airplanes. And, um, eventually when, he was about 14, uh, his parents moved back to Wapakoneta. So here. You can see a lot of him forming that, that interest into a career. So, um, he learned how to fly about two miles north of here in Wapakoneta. He graduated high school here, his parents lived here the rest of their lives. So anytime that he would come back to his hometown, that would be Wapakoneta. And you know, his parents watched the moon landing from, from here. So, and if you look at. You know, it's always interesting. I know, I know you were recently talking about Ohio astronauts and how they determine what is an Ohio astronaut. Um, but usually the NASA application says hometown, uh, and NASA put, or Armstrong put. Wapakoneta as that, that home. Um, so that, that was, one big reason why, again, they wanted to have a museum here. Um, and in terms of things like in artifacts, we have a lot from his childhood. His parents were a big influence on the museum. Um, so a lot of the things that they had in their house, or if they wanted to donate to the museum, uh, they would bring it here so you can see things. Uh, like the first airplane that he got his pilot's license in, his mom donated a bicycle to show that he had a bike to the airfield every day. 'cause when you're 16, you don't have your driver's license. We have some other things from his college years, some college textbooks, from when he went to Purdue. And then some other things like, uh, a Boy Scout, patrol flag. And then some other small things like uh, his science fair project was a wind tunnel, so we have some wind tunnel parts. So he wanted to have, an experiment to see the, um, sort of the aerodynamics of aircraft. Uh, so it's, it is, there's a lot of things that really show you that he had that, that true passion for aviation at a very young age. Uh, and it really started right here in Wapakoneta. That's excellent. It's more not just aviation, not, he just don't wanna fly. Sounds like his mind of an engineer you can already see at a young age, it seems. Yeah, absolutely. If you look at a lot of the, just a lot of the, um, things that he was passionate about, you know, he was an avid reader. He was in the American Rocket Society, uh, and you know, that was before, you know, rockets were taking humans up. So he was really interested at a very young age. Um, you know, he had dozens of model airplanes that he would, you know, craft and he even was part of a model airplane society into his college years. I know I'm always interested in about a astronaut's aviation career before he joined nasa. You know, I know we touched on it a little bit, but can you give us a little more about that? Yeah, so, like I said, he, he, he knew he wanted to get a pilot's license early. Um, so it was about two miles north here. It was called Port Cane, Ohio. And it was just, uh, an airfield. It was only up actually for, uh, less than 18 months before it went defunct. A lot of those airfield post World War ii, uh, sprung up 'cause they really thought that these, um, these Army Air Corps guys, these Air Force guys wanted to, sort of keep their skills. Um, and so, so many of these air fields just popped up, but. They really found that the demand was not there. A lot of these, these Army Air Corps guys had seen so much in Europe and the Pacific Theater that they were no longer really interested in, in keeping up their skills. Um, but it was right around that time, 19 45, 19 46, that Armstrong was very interested in aviation and, uh, he got that opportunity to get his pilot's license. Um, he actually wanted to continue, he got his, you know, aeronautical engineering degree from Purdue. But he was also on the Holloway plan for, going to school, which means he had to enlist in the Navy. So he did two years of schooling, three years back to duty service. He would go back into the reserves and then finish his schooling at Purdue. So again, he has, uh, a military background as well. So, I think there was a quote out there from Armstrong, or at least when talking to his family. And a lot of astronauts will also say this in terms of either a space mission or their first time landing on the aircraft carrier at night. That is way scarier. Uh, and, and a lot of 'em will tell you, you know, when, when, when you go into space travel, you have, you know, America's top minds working behind you when you're. Landing on an aircraft carrier. It's, it's really just you and you have to really be prepared for that. So that first time landing on an aircraft carrier, especially at night, um, you know, you could see Armstrong was relatively nervous compared to going on a space mission. So he has deep respect, for America's military, America's, Navy, and those, those, those Navy guys, especially. His time in the Korean War, um, you know, there were a lot of his good colleagues that he lost, you know, and being an astronaut is one thing, but seeing what you see and, and being a military veteran during a war, um, he, he has, uh, a great or had a great respect, uh, for those, for those men and women that we're fighting. well, let's get into it. Let's talk about Neil Armstrong, the astronaut. What do you have for us here? Yeah, so, in terms of being an astronaut, so, Armstrong was selected in the second group in 1962. Um, we have a lot of items in terms of, that, that early, that early selection, the training that's involved. Um, like I said, obviously we have probably one of our crown jewels is the Gemini eight spacecraft. But Armstrong was also, uh, in NASA as a test pilot as well. So we have the F five D sky lancer, uh, that's out on our front lawn actually. Um, and that was used for the dinosaur program, so the X 20 space plane. Um, and. So he was creating, the abort launch maneuver, uh, that we was using. And it's, I, I think till to this day, um, there's only two F five D Sky Lancers left in existence. And this is actually the only one that, uh, Armstrong flew. And I think altogether we have four craft that were flown by Armstrong, which I believe from my research is the most of, of any museum in the world. Uh, so that's also, a great feather in our cap to have. But when it comes to being an astronaut, uh, you know, the, the, the, we have the Gemini eight space suit as well. So I think one of the best things that we tell, um, pretty well is, is that story of Gemini eight. Um, if you go upstairs, we start going into Apollo as well. So we have a lot of things from the Apollo program. And again, there's some things from the Apollo 11 mission. We have things, from other Ohio astronauts like, Jim Lovell, uh, and some of the other, sort of big names of the early space race. And like I said before, we had our, our Apollo 11 Moon rock, uh, which was picked up by Armstrong, and it's off of the. Largest sample collected on Apollo 11. Um, so again, I mean, a lot of these artifacts really speak for themselves and really allow us to tell a very, compelling, convincing, and interesting story. And, you know, whether you're five years old, you know, on a kindergarten field trip or whether you're 70 years old and you're, you know, a, a PhD, you know, both people are. Getting the, the same experience, but, you know, both people really walk away satisfied, which is an amazing if, if you can keep a five-year-old interested and, you know, a 70-year-old PhD interested, uh, in the same story, uh, you're, you're doing something right. So I think, our museum, really, uh, does that well. And in terms of, um. Guest satisfaction, being able to, have, a very knowledgeable staff too. We have a lot of it people working here that are telling that story and, and getting people interested in, in telling them a lot of stuff behind the scenes too. That's excellent. I wanna wanna talk about, uh, the Gemini eight, 'cause I actually reread Dave Scott's account from that mission. I know there's one time 'cause they had a thruster malfunction mm-hmm. Which started spinning the spacecraft and it spinned so much that Dave Scott said it looked like a strove light. Yeah. The sun was in there and they were, and they were kind of thrown to the side because of the spin. And Neil Armstrong had to reach up while spinning, without looking and flip this one switch to turn on the reentry, thrusters, so that way it would stop the spin, which also meant. The mission was ended. So I think Dave Scott was supposed to form a space walk on that mission. Yeah. But obviously with the malfunction, none of that happened. But it later worked out for both of 'em 'cause they both walked on the moon. But yeah, this mission definitely showed, you know, Armstrong's, you know, way to work a problem. Now I'm interested to know this about you and your staff. What do y'all think of the movie First Man released in 2018? Do y'all think that was a good profile of Neil Armstrong? Yeah, so, back when the movie was. You know, in development, um, Damien Zel, which was the director, uh, and Ryan Gosling, uh, were actually here at the museum, to do some further research for the Gemini eight scene like you were talking about. Um, so they were able to come here, you know, Ryan and Damien and I think also one of the, the prop guys, were able to come in, uh, sort of learn more about how to tell. That story because it's such an essential piece of Armstrong's story. And you know, it's like, how, how should it, how should this be done? How should it be? You know, the, the way that it's being directed and. And like you said, it, it, it's such, it's such a, a, a moment that, you know, this is one of NASA's first true in-flight emergencies. You know, if, if Armstrong didn't execute this properly, they both would've perished in space. And that, that's a, that's a big chunk of, of. Uh, reasoning why Armstrong was chosen as the first man on the moon because he was so calm and collected under that emergency. And I think in terms of our contributions to that movie, I think it was very well done. Overall, I mean, it's, it's Hollywood. Hollywood tells, um, you know, a story that they want to tell. Uh, and in terms of. F you know, accuracy. There's obviously a few things that, that the movie took liberties for. Um, but you know, it was reassuring to know that, you know, James Hansen, which is the official biographer for Armstrong, uh, was on set a lot talking to them, seeing how this should be done. I think there were some small roles that Neil's sons may have been in as well, so. Um, overall, I think it was, uh, a great way to get, people interested in the moon landing and Neil Armstrong's life. Um, should it be taken as, you know, the end all be all as the accuracy. Um, no, I mean that's, that's usually any movie that you watch. I mean, if I, if I read a book and then I watch the movie, you know, there, there's always like, oh, they should have done this. They should have done that. Why did they do that? Why did they take this section out and, you know, why didn't they go into this subplot more? Um, you know, you're, you're always gonna have some qualms with it. But overall, I think it was fine. And, um, you know, it, it. I still watch that Gemini Gemini eight scene and you know, I think they did a, a relatively good job in terms of showing the, the danger of that moment and Armstrong trying to remain calm. Yeah, can't wait to see the Gemini. I've, I've actually seen Gemini three Gus Grissom's and can't wait to see Neil Armstrong's now. Now I know this museum is more than just about Neil Armstrong. What other aerospace figures do you profile here? Yeah, so, um, we really wanted to have a good focus on, you know, Armstrong, but all Ohioans that that dared to defy gravity. So, we have in total around 26, Ohio astronauts that, um, we like to highlight and, you know, we have a good focus on the, the shuttle program. Um, you know, there's a lot of, of Ohioans, you know, let's like the, um, I think it's SSTs 70, which was the all Ohio mission. Um, so a lot of Ohioans, you know, the old, the old joke is, you know, why are there so many Ohio astronauts? Because there's something about Ohio that makes you wanna leave the planet. Um, and. You know, we're, we're very thankful to have such a rich history in aviation. Um, Ohio has a good, military background as well. We have, a large number of veterans and you know, there, there's something where all of this combines, to have great candidates for, for being, uh, an astronaut. So we have other things, like I said, from the, uh, the shuttle program. We have a, a good focus on, um, curiosity and some of the UNC crewed missions to worlds beyond our own. Um, and. You know, Ohio has, the NASA Glen Research Center as well. So it's one of the NASA facilities that do a lot of research, for those, those missions and things. So it, it's not just. You know, the astronaut, you know, there's a lot going on in the backgrounds and, you know, even Armstrong, you know, he really wanted to have this museum have a focus on all the engineers, you know, all the crew, you know, everyone that, that had a small piece in the, the progress of space exploration. And he thought. That those people were just as important as the accomplishments he had in, you know, his early uh, space program and missions. What is your personal favorite exhibit or aspect of this museum? Yeah. Um, you know, as the curator, you try to stay impartial. You, you try not to have, uh, favorite artifacts 'cause you don't wanna hurt their feelings. But, um, if I had to choose, um. You know, I, I, I really like walking by our moon rock. Um, you know, just going through and, and seeing, you know, this, this shiny, sparkly little rock that, you know, was at one point just on the lunar surface, and then, you know, one day it got picked up by a human being and brought back to our planet. Um, you know, it, it is an amazing journey. And it, it speaks volumes for, for just being, uh, you know, an igneous rock. Um, you know, seeing Armstrong spacesuit, and just the, a lot of the items that were so intimate to the missions and, you know, they were so vital to, the success of the missions. I mean, like I said, I think one of the things that we do very well here is having such a, a wide variety of artifacts. Uh, it's, it's very hard to, to pick out because, you know, each one has such an amazing story that I think I, I see so many different guests walk through and they connect all to different, you know, artifacts and. You know, someone would walk through and, and see a newspaper and they'd be like, Hey, that's from my town. So, you know, it, it's, everyone has such a, a, a different way that they connect. Um, and it's amazing to see how, you know, a newspaper from 1969 can, can move them in such a way and, and be able to, to hear that story that they have and, um. You know, there's so many people that walk through and, and we get to hear their stories, what were they doing on the moon landing? And um, I think that's another reason why so many people like this museum is that they get, they get to, relive that moment and reminisce. And, um, it's, it's a great way that we, that we are able to, to give back to that story. Yeah, I'm definitely interested to see the moon rock, 'cause I've seen. At Moon Rocket, the Johnson Space Center. Mm-hmm. It was very small. Definitely interesting to compare. Do you have any big annual events here that you'd like to mention? Yeah, so, every year we have what's called the Summer Moon Festival, so that's around the anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Uh, the whole town sort of just shuts down and for that week, and we have a lot of, um, interesting activities. You know, downtown has. Um, a lot of, uh, fun, you know, community events. They have a, a beer tent, you know, here at the museum. Um, we have a, a good focus on educational activities. Um. A lot of fun outdoor activities. You know, we get some like inflatables. We have, you know, other museums come out and they're able to, talk about what they do and their contributions to aviation and aerospace stem. Um, and then we have some other events that are more, um. Annual. We have our Boo on the moon event. That's usually that last Tuesday in October. So kids go through trick or treat through the museum. Um, and then in the winter we always have our holiday light display. So, we have a, a, a large, I think we have over 200,000 lights, uh, over I think three dozen, different, just. Installations that, show a variety of different, uh, fun, you know, Christmas things, different space things. We have like all the whole solar system up, we have, you know, a Saturn five rocket as it, uh, we have, you know, the Apollo 11, you know, saluting the flag. So there's a lot of fun, fun things and it's all free, uh, for like the holiday lights display. So it's just one of our ways that we give back to the community. Awesome. Now I need to bring this up. Yeah. 'cause this is how I came across you. You wrote an article back in December, but back in December, I was writing my episode called Ohio and Aerospace about, you know, everyone from Ohio and the astronauts and different, pilots from Ohio. When I finished recording that episode, I was going to edit it and upload it later the next day. I opened up Facebook and right there on my first thing on my social media feed was your article. Why are there so many astronauts from Ohio? Great. Yeah. And this was, I had one of those moments where I was like, my phone's spying on me. Yeah. It has to be. Because I was, I always had my phone next to me, you know, nearby when I'm recording. I was like, it heard me. He is like, here, check this out. And I even looked it up. You wrote that article right around when I was, I'm recording that episode, but I wanted to bring that up to you, but also, well, since you're here, so why are so many astronauts from Ohio? And we can compare what you came up with and what I came up with on my episode. Yeah. So, um, you know, that's the question that we always like to get. Um, and it's, it's always interesting too because, you know, first off, like for us, we consider 26 Ohioans as astronauts and you know. There's always a difference between like a, a birthplace and a hometown. So some of these, you know, astronauts weren't born in Ohio, but they consider Ohio as their home. Um, so that's one key characteristic that, you know, is always a stipulation. So, you know, like You know, there's, there's some astronauts that, uh, like Greg Johnson for example, he was born on a, uh, an air base in the United Kingdom, you know, but he's from Ohio. He put down, you know, Ohio as one of his. Hometowns. Um, so, and then there's the new nuance of, you know, private industry and private astronauts. Commercial astronauts. Um, so like Larry Connor for example, he was someone that was on the Axiom Space Crew Axiom, I think it was XM one. Um, so he went to the International Space Station for, I think his mission was about 17 days long, but he was from Dayton. Now he wasn't a NASA astronaut, so that's when we were starting to go into, okay. Before we were just doing NASA astronauts, you know. But if we go back into, you know, FAA, um. Guidelines and definitions as to what it means to be, uh, an astronaut, commercial, astronaut space flight participant. Um, you know, and that's when you start getting into, so for, for Larry, for example. Uh, he was in space and he conducted experiments. You know, there was a lot of, um, geriatric experiments that he conducted, medical experiments. Um, and he was on the International Space Station like for about two weeks. Um, now that versus let's say there was a gentleman from Ohio, I think his name was Paul Jarris. Um, he is considered a space flight participant because he was on one of the Boeing. Um, you know, blue Origin missions, where it goes, you know, up over the car, main line back down. Um, so by that definition, you, you, you need, you need some type of public benefit for your mission to be considered an astronaut now. And I think that's where we're drawing the line as to what an astronaut is. Um, but again, Ohio, like I said, has, you know, those early requirements, you had to have some type of military. Test flight experience. You know, Ohio has great, uh, military background, a lot of veterans. Like I said, we have, um, oh, you know, the NASA Glen research facility here. Um, so a lot of people, in the Cleveland area would be familiar with that. And, you know, having that as an aspiration growing up in northeast Ohio. So there's, there's this, this great amalgamation of different, things, you know, having that, and obviously like the Wright brothers, you know, we have a large, um, aerospace industry here in Ohio, uh, and education education's very important. Um, a lot of these Ohioans went to Ohio universities or they were, again, having that military background, you know, you'd be going to, you know, west Point or the, uh, Naval Academy, things like that. Or Purdue. 'cause again, Purdue's only one state over, and it is the, you know, cradle of astronauts. You know, they have the most astronauts of any public university. In America. So, uh, and that's where Armstrong obviously went. So, um, there's, there's always a great, great number of factors that contribute, but overall, Ohio doesn't have the most, and Ohio doesn't have the most per capita. If you look at places like California and New York, they have, uh, I think around 30. Um, and then there's places like, uh, North Dakota where. If you look per capita, if you have two astronauts from North Dakota Times that by the, the number of actual residents, they beat you out per capita. So really, Ohio just has, um, in terms of just astronauts who have the most impact, you know, John Glynn, Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, uh, Judith Resnick, um, and some of those other, uh, shuttle pilots that were in the missions. They, they really hold their own in terms of history. So Ohioans are, are probably, again, not the most, but we're, we're, we're good at making those, those milestones. One other thing I mentioned in my episode was a backwards right flyer license plate that Ohio released a few years ago. Yeah. Do you have one of those license plates with the right flyer facing the wrong direction? Yeah, I, it's so funny that you asked, actually, I collect license plates, so, um, you know, I have some of the early ones from Ohio, from like 1917 all the way up. And I called my, my friend, and I said, you need to get me one of those backwards, you know, license plates because I, I love it. You know, as, as a license plate collector, you know this, I find it. I mean, everyone was freaking out because, I mean, if you don't know anything about aviation, you look at a right flyer, you're like, oh yeah, that's the front, that's the back. Obviously not like that. But again, I think it was an honest mistake and you know, from an, I think aesthetically it did look nicer, backwards, but that is definitely not accurate. So, uh, overall we thought it was funny. Um, I think there were some people that were kind of worked up by it, but they was, I think they made a couple thousand before they had to rescind them, put 'em back into production. So it was funny, I thought. Yeah, I mentioned that'd be a great collector's item. Yeah. Well, I'm definitely ready to go have a look around now and I'll share my thoughts about Neil Armstrong and the Armstrong Air Space Museum at the end of this episode. So standby for that. But I want to thank the staff here and I want to thank you for coming on. Mansplaneing. Yes, thank you. It was an honor. Now I want to tell you about my impression of the Armstrong Air and Space Museum. I first noticed the unique shape of the museum itself. I learned that it was constructed to replicate a proposed moon base that was planned for the 1970s, but was never made. The exhibits and displays are presented from the earliest aerospace pioneers to the Soviet Space program. Then to our response with nasa. All the way up to the space shuttle program. All along this timeline are exhibits from Armstrong's life, like his bike that he rode to the airplane he learned to fly on to the Gemini eight. What an amazing progression of his life on display here. Also, the spacesuits, the moon rock, the infinity room, and the video in the movie theater are all of must see. In all of the staff that I met there were very hospitable and friendly. I highly recommend the Armstrong Air and Space Museum to everyone. Also, follow them on social media because they're always posting fascinating material. Now for Neil Armstrong. As I said before, his name will come up often as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation. In Armstrong's name will still be mentioned in the history books on the 350th, 450th anniversaries and beyond. One interesting thing I learned about Armstrong. Was the aviation records he set in a Learjet 28. About a decade after his moon landing, he set a record in space before setting records here on Earth. Who else has accomplished that? I will end here with a quote from Armstrong himself. From the time of our birth. Our instinct is to explore, to make new discoveries. We must explore. Think you so much for listening. And remember, there's always a light at the end of the runway.

Paula 36:28

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