One Small Step-Confluence and the Moon Mission and Neil Armstrong

These titles are getting longer, but that's the way it is when you have a couple of different points to make. Neil Armstrong's recent death brought the world's focus back to the first steps taken by one man, and by logical extension all of mankind, outside of our planet on July 20th, 1969. This is forever enshrined in our history. Now what does it possibly have to do with the theme of this Lesson of posts, known as 'Confluence'? Well this serves as an ideal opportunity for me to look at the next aspect of 'Confluence' and that is having shared time with others in projects, adventures and the like. However long their duration, you are closely relating to usually a small group, for sometimes a very important purpose. There is no doubt that the Moon Mission qualifies as 'a very important purpose'. Once again, as with romance, it's not essential, in and of itself, that you be 'Confluent'; rather it is a desirable extra, that can lead to greater empathy and bonding in times of challenge or crisis.

So, this being the case let's do a little analysis of the Moon Mission team, shall we? Neil Armstrong was born August 5th, 1930 and Buzz Aldrin was born January 20th, 1930 and Michael Collins was born October 31st, 1930. What does this tell you? Yes, they were all 'Confluent' with each other for every 'significant year' in their combined lives. This would make an ideal combination for a small 'hand-picked' team. You all know how much drama they had to face, when during the landing Neil Armstrong had to take over manual control of the Lunar Module, to find a suitable place to land and they almost ran out of fuel. What you probably don't know, is that when they climbed back into the Module for their lift off, they accidentally broke the ignition switch for the ascent engine with their bulky spacesuits, and had to use part of a pen to activate the launch sequence.

Now let's go a bit further shall we? Let's set up a hypothesis for testing. You see this Moon landing did not happen when all three astronauts were in their central, mid-life, age 36 'Year of Revolution'. So what did happen, that could be considered a reasonable turning point in their careers? Well on January 27th, 1967 Apollo 1, designed to be the first lunar spaceship, caught fire on the launch pad, killing astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee. After the inquest on April 5th, a group of 17, including obviously Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins, were told:- "The guys who are going to fly the first lunar missions are the guys in this room." This was to be the new age/directions for the eventual team. However, it is arguably a little outside Aldrin's 36th year (which ended on Jan. 20th, 1967), but in terms of other aspects of 'Life Cycles' theory, it's a complete match.

However, I'm an obsessive researcher. I'm not going to just sit back and let matters be with Buzz Aldrin. The record shows that Aldrin was confirmed as a pilot on the Gemini 12 Mission (11th to 15th November, 1966). This was the last Gemini mission and his last chance to prove himself. He set a record, showing how astronauts could work outside spacecraft. The story gets more valid, because Gemini 9A (3rd to 6th June, 1966) saw Aldrin improvise an effective docking technique, when the rendezvous with the target vehicle failed. He only got this chance because, once again in a disaster: the original pilots of Gemini 9 this time, were killed when their plane crashed into the McDonnell building in St. Louis, Missouri on Feb. 28th, 1966. This was Aldrin's story and all within his age 36 'Year of Revolution'. This is now a 100%. match with the theory.

Finally let's reflect on Neil Armstrong's earlier life. At his age 24 'Year of Revolution' (Aug. 5th, 1954 to Aug. 5th, 1955), he had just graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering and decided he wanted to become an experimental research test pilot. He applied to Edwards Air Force base, but they had no open positions, so he went to Lewis Field. However, in July, Edwards made him an offer and his new career and thus his new age/direction was commenced. Finally let's try Neil's age 31, 'Year of Broken Pathways' (Aug. 5th, 1961 to Aug. 5th, 1962). Were there any obvious challenges and direction changes? On 15th March, 1962 he was named as one of six pilot-engineers, who would fly the Boeing X-20 space plane, when it got off the design board. In the months that followed he then became more and more excited about joining the NASA Apollo program. He applied in June and although a week late, his friend from Edwards slipped it into the pile without anyone noticing. He was eventually selected and thus his challenge and direction-change was begun in earnest.

Check any biographic sources you wish, but these were undoubtedly Armstrong's highlight years for change. Oh, and please tell me if you think all my carefully complied evidence is just pure luck. Because, so far, no one has and in all probability, it will remain this way. Why? Because I deal in facts and thus it has the ring of truth about it, that's why! Till next month:- "may the cycles always bring you good fortune".