JOHN F. KROSS PRESENTS AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JAMES HANSEN, AUTHOR OF “FIRST MAN”

Neil Armstrong

Credit:James Vaughan

James Hansen,to left with Neil Armstrong

credit: James Hansen

Dr. James Hansen is Professor of History at Auburn University and an authority on the history of science and technology. “First Man,” his best-selling biography of Neil Armstrong, has received major awards and is the basis of the Oscar-nominated flm of the same name. “Ad Astra” sat down with Hansen to explore the life and career of the frst man to walk on the Moon.

AD ASTRA: “First Man” is in itself a “first” in so many ways. Why do you think that Neil Armstrong agreed to an authorized biography after turning down so many previous offers?

HANSEN: I think it was just the right time for him. I know that [his family] … was encouraging him [and] … I think … when he saw my previous books he knew that I would take his engineering seriously. I think the fact that I was an academic actually was in favor of having it done. Neil … [had] been an academic himself at the University of Cincinnati, so I think it was just a combination of factors.

AD ASTRA: What features about Armstrong’s background from growing up in Middle America during the 1930s and 1940s shaped the kind of person he became?

HANSEN: I believe it strongly did and certainly as a biographer I feel … you really need to understand … how he was raised and what kind of community he was in. I think it was just a sense of togetherness and Americana, and also ambition to some extent. The kind of values that were rooted in small town community life … that translated in some interesting ways for personality development and that … seemed to lead in a direction for achievement.

AD ASTRA: You spent a lot of time with Armstrong.Can you give us some insight into his personality? He often came across as introspective and reticent.

HANSEN: Both of those characteristics are true, but at the same time he could be very social, had such a great dry sense of humor, and was just a lot of fun to be around. I think once you had found his comfort zone … Neil came out of the shell in a lot of ways, whereas in public he [was] … more cautious and circumscribed in his personality. What really impressed me the most was … that once he gave me the go-ahead with the book, he trusted me … and he didn’t try to … control the contents, the tone, or anything.

AD ASTRA: Do you think Armstrong was uniquely qualified among the astronauts because of his X-15 experience?

HANSEN: I think he was. A lot of people have commented on the fact that Neil was the only one that had any experience in a rocket-powered vehicle … and all the other test flying that he had done in so many different types of vehicles when he was in NACA and a NASA test pilot. Of course, he had the military aviation experience too. He flew 70 combat missions in Korea and was in one of the first all-jet fighter squadrons with the Navy. Six of the seven Apollo commanders were naval aviators.

AD ASTRA: What was Armstrong’s attitude about applying to be a NASA astronaut? Do you think he was ambivalent because of his late application? He had other options to fly in space, such as the X-20 Dyna-Soar.