{"id":802075,"date":"2026-05-06T05:53:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T10:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=802075"},"modified":"2026-05-06T05:53:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T10:53:31","slug":"today-in-science-neil-armstrongs-close-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=802075","title":{"rendered":"Today in science: Neil Armstrong\u2019s close call"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NEIL ARMSTRONG&#039;S LUNAR LANDER TRAINER ACCIDENT\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OlJGQ92IgFk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/><em>This amazing footage from 1968 shows Neil Armstrong\u2019s close call while training for his moon landing.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place<\/strong>. Click here to subscribe to EarthSky\u2019s free daily newsletter.<\/p>\n<h3>On this day in May 6, 1968: Neil Armstrong\u2019s close call <\/h3>\n<p>In 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon. But things could have been very different. More than a year earlier, he narrowly escaped from a dramatic accident during training.<\/p>\n<p>He was flying in the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) at Ellington Air Force Base near Houston. The LLRV had been designed to simulate a descent to the moon\u2019s surface, and all the lunar astronauts trained in it. That day, while Armstrong was piloting, a leaking propellant caused a total failure of his flight controls. <\/p>\n<p>He attempted to right the vehicle, but to no avail. The craft plummeted to the ground \u2026 and he ejected just before impact. See the dramatic footage of Neil Armstrong\u2019s close call above.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_481235\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-481235\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-481235\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neil Armstrong in the lunar module Eagle shortly after his historic 1st moonwalk, when he became the 1st human to set foot on a world besides Earth. Image via NASA\/ Wikipedia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Armstrong made it through unscathed<\/h3>\n<p>Armstrong was fine. He bit his tongue hard during his landing by parachute, but otherwise was uninjured. Smithsonian magazine described this encounter between Armstrong and another astronaut later that day:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u2026 astronaut Alan Bean saw Armstrong that afternoon at his desk in the astronaut office. Bean then heard colleagues in the hall talking about the accident, and asked them: \u2018When did this happen?\u2019, \u2018About an hour ago,\u2019 they replied. <\/p>\n<p>Bean returned to Armstrong and said: \u2018I just heard the funniest story!\u2019 Armstrong said: \u2018What?\u2019 <\/p>\n<p>\u2018I heard that you bailed out of the LLRV an hour ago.\u2019 <\/p>\n<p>\u2018Yeah, I did,\u2019 replied Armstrong. \u2018I lost control and had to bail out of the darn thing.\u2019 <\/p>\n<p>Bean later recalled: \u2018I can\u2019t think of another person, let alone another astronaut, who would have just gone back to his office after ejecting a fraction of a second before getting killed.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>So no doubt \u2026 Armstrong was made of the right stuff for space travel!<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line: On May 6, 1968 \u2013 more than a year before his famous first moonwalk \u2013 Neil Armstrong narrowly escaped disaster during a training accident.<\/p>\n<p>Read more: Artemis 2: Return to the moon<\/p>\n<p>Read more: 4 astronauts win Congressional Gold Medals<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"cp-load-after-post\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"post-author\">\n<h4>Deborah Byrd<\/h4>\n<p>                    View Articles\n                  <\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-tags\">\n<h6 data-udy-fe=\"text_7c58270d\">About the Author:<\/h6>\n<p>Deborah Byrd (asteroid 3505 Byrd) helps edit EarthSky.org and is a frequent host of EarthSky videos. Deborah created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named in her honor in 1990, a Public Service Award from the National Science Board in 2003, and the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society in 2020. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. &#8220;Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/space\/this-date-in-science-neil-armstrongs-close-call\/?rand=772280\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This amazing footage from 1968 shows Neil Armstrong\u2019s close call while training for his moon landing. Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":802076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-802075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-sky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=802075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/802076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=802075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=802075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=802075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}