Fifty years ago, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, USC Viterbi School of Engineering alumnus, M.S. '70, guided Apollo 11 to a safe landing on the moon as hundreds of millions of television viewers from around the world watched in awe. Taking his first steps--man's first steps on the moon ever--he shared the iconic words: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
NASA estimates that it took more than 400,000 engineers, scientists and technicians to achieve the moon landing. Over 500 people across the world have been to space, including over a dozen USC Viterbi alumni. Only 12 people have ever walked on the moon's surface.
Wanda Austin, interim president of USC from 2018-2019 and USC Viterbi Ph.D. '88, said:
“I grew up in the 60s, a young black female in the inner city. My parents told me that education was going to be the key to my success. They were obviously impacted by the decision that President Kennedy made that we were going to put a man on the moon. The fact that the United States was on a mission and the focus that it remain great in terms of science and technology and innovation, that enabled me to pursue a wonderful education that subsequently opened doors for me.”
Photo/Gus Ruelas
Bogdan Marcu, part-time lecturer in the USC Viterbi Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, recalls his memory of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. Listen to the audio, the TV crackling with Armstrong’s messages to mission control in the background, and hear the story of how the historic moment inspired Marcu's own space dreams.
Photo/Courtesy of NASA
The collector.
Among the personal items that Armstrong took with him to the moon were two pieces of the Wright brothers' first successful airplane. Read up on more fun facts about the legendary astronaut here.
Photo/Courtesy of NASA
USC Viterbi Dean Yannis Yortsos remembers the day Armstrong landed on the moon:
"I was in the Greek island of Rhodes that day. It was evening, and we all turned our eyes to the bright moon, trying to imagine what would be like having a human land there. The Greek word for human is άνθρωπος meaning 'looking up high.' The moon landing was a literal manifestation of that definition--human ingenuity always looks higher up. It opened a truly new dimension, one that helps us understand the preciousness of planet Earth. It also demonstrated to the world the remarkable power of technology and innovation, developed in the United States by many for the benefit of all worldwide."
Photo/Courtesy of NASA
In 2005, Neil Armstrong delivered the USC commencement address to more than 8,000 students.
"At the time of my college graduation, airliners were propelled by propellers. A few military jets existed and rocket engines were primitive. Had a faculty member, at that time, suggested preparing for a career in spacecraft operations, he or she would have been ridiculed. The most serious proposals for space flight were found on a Sunday evening television program, "The Wonderful World of Disney." But within just three years, the Soviet Union launched the first earth satellite and the Space Age was born. Within a decade, satellites were being used for a variety of scientific and commercial purposes, probes had been sent to nearby planets and humans were frequently flying into space. I suggest that you cannot imagine the change and related opportunity that will arise for you in the years ahead. Hopefully, the things you have learned will help you be ready for them. And you will not stop learning."
- Neil Armstrong, May 13, 2005
Photo/Lynne Shavelson, Courtesy of USC University Archives
Charles Bolden, USC Viterbi M.S. '77, former NASA chief administrator, astronaut and USC trustee, on touring SpaceX with Neil Armstrong:
"I served for about eight years as President Obama’s administrator of NASA. One of the early decisions we made was to retire the shuttle and turn to American industry to produce the aircraft that would carry us to space. We had an organization of retired aviators called the Golden Eagles and we had a convention in Orlando. One of the things we set up was a tour of the Kennedy Space Center. On the front seat of the bus was Neil Armstrong. The tour was set up so we would go by the SpaceX facility where they had a Falcon 9 getting ready to launch. As we pulled up to the hangar, the first person off the bus was Neil Armstrong…Neil jumped off the bus and ran right into the hangar. He found some of the young engineers and introduced himself and started asking them questions about the Falcon 9. The human side of him understood the importance of them knowing that he cared about them, and that he thought what they were doing was important."
Photo/Gus Ruelas
The inspiration.
"Neil was more than a hero to us."
Said James Moore, USC Viterbi professor of industrial and systems engineering; policy, planning and development; and civil and environmental engineering in his tribute to Neil Armstrong. Read the full piece here.
Photo/Courtesy of NASA
USC Viterbi School of Engineering has been home to quite a few astronauts. Check out these illustrious space enthusiasts here.
Paul David Ronney, USC Viterbi professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, recalling the moment Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon:
“I was a pre-teen. My family and I were on summer vacation, sitting around an ancient, fuzzy, black and white TV in a trailer in Newport Beach. We were watching attentively and the mood was somber. I remember my father saying, 'I’ll bet there are more people around the world watching this than have ever watched any TV program.' With the benefit of hindsight what it has meant to me is unlimited potential, some of which we haven’t yet realized. I tell my students, 'Think of what was accomplished in the 66 years between 1903 [the Wright Brothers] and 1969 [the moon landing]. If in 1969 you extrapolated our progress to 2001, Clarke and Kubrick’s vision of a manned mission to Jupiter seemed not only plausible, but likely."
In 2005, the year that Neil Armstrong shared his wisdom with USC graduates in his commencement address, the USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (USCRPL) flew its first rocket, Del Carbon.
USCRPL students are inspired by the infinite possibilities of space, and many of them dream of being a legendary astronaut like Neil Armstrong. Just this year, they broke the student world altitude record with student-built, designed and operated rocket Traveler IV. Reaching an apogee of 339,800 feet, it shot past the Von Karman Line, the boundary between Earth and space that sits at 330,000 feet.
Meanwhile, the USC Liquid Propulsion Laboratory, an offshoot of USCRPL, built and tested USC's first 3-D printed rocket engine last spring (2018).
Photo/Courtesy of USCRPL
Garret Reisman, USC Viterbi professor of astronautics practice, on Armstrong's visits to NASA:
“Neil Armstrong would go back once a year and offer to speak to new astronauts. He gave a big presentation all about the X-15—in some ways he viewed the X-15 and his contributions to that program as the pinnacle of his career because of how involved he was in the development of the flight control algorithms of that vehicle. A classmate of mine asked, ‘When you saw the moon getting bigger and bigger and the Earth getting smaller and smaller, what was going through your mind?’ He gave what I thought was a really quintessential Neil Armstrong answer: 'Well at that moment, we had completed the transposition and docking maneuver and the TLI burn was done so I could take all those checklists and chuck ‘em…I put it in a bag of trash and it felt great.'”
PHOTO/Gus Ruelas
USC Viterbi students have been inspired by Neil Armstrong and other legends in the industry in their quest to explore new horizons. Here are some incredible alumni, profiled in 2015 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the USC Viterbi Department of Astronautics.