LAWRENCE — Former astronaut and Kansas University professor Steve Hawley, who was born in Ottawa and grew up in Salina, said Neil Armstrong, who died Saturday at 82, was the perfect astronaut to be the first man on the moon. “He was a remarkable guy,” Hawley said. “He was the perfect person for the role he found himself in as the first man on the moon.” Armstrong was humble and matter-of-fact about his feat and always aware that he represented tens thousands of other people who worked on the Apollo 11 mission, Hawley said. “He knew he was on a team,” Hawley said. When Hawley interviewed astronaut candidates for the space he always measured them by Armstrong’s attitude. But Armstrong was also unruffled during periods of crisis, Hawley said. Although everyone remembers Armstrong’s lunar landing, most overlook Armstrong’s earlier Gemeni mission, which Hawley called the first serious problem in the U.S. manned space program. When the Gemeni capsule linked up with part of the rocket booster something went wrong and the capsule began wildly spinning. Armstrong coolly dealt with the crisis and stopping the spin and unlinking the capsule, he said. Hawley remembers sitting in his parent’s home at Salina watching the TV as Armstrong made his historic step. “If you would have told me then that I would have met him, I wouldn’t have believed it,” Hawley said. Although Armstrong retired before Hawley became an astronaut and who made five space shuttle flights from 1984 to 1999, they got to know each other and worked on the team investigating the Challenger space shuttle accident in 1986.
Wednesday, Aug. 29, 7 a.m.
