Illustrations from photographs. (4to) original printed wrappers. First Edition.
Signed on the half title by astronaut and first man to walk on the surface of the Moon, Neil Armstrong. Beneath the signature, the original owner has noted: "3 June, 1982 at Vacaville Fly In Rotary Meeting. J.R. Waston, MD". The Vacaville Reporter in 2012 described Armstrong's visit at the Fly-in. Additionally signed by Jean Kerr, author of "Please Don't Eat the Daisies."
"JUNE 2, 1982, was a Wednesday. There was a full moon, looking bigger than ever.
We stood in a Vacaville back yard after dinner, transfixed by the lunar glow.
About then, the fellow standing on my left raised his right hand, pointed his finger and said, "See that curved shadow? That's where we landed." And where he planted his boot, 30 years before. Name droppers are boring, and I am sometimes guilty as charged. But I can't help it, the fellow on my left was Neil Armstrong. I inched as close as I dared to the man who on July 20, 1969, took "... one small step for man ... one giant leap for mankind." Guess I just wanted to make sure he was real. He was, and mythical at the same time.
The next day, Armstrong was the guest speaker for Vacaville Rotary Club's Fly-in at the Nut Tree. Since 1957, hundreds of pilots and planes from several Western states flew in to take part in a not-to-be-missed event featuring icons like Chuck Yeager, Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, Bill Piper. But it was too successful: too many planes and people. So its creator, Ed Power, decided the 25th event would be its last. It had to end on a high note. How high the moon? Power invited Neil Armstrong, in 1982 a professor in Ohio. Neil said yes. On the eve of the fly-in, a small group met at the Powers' home for dinner. That's how we ended up in his back yard, with Neil.
I've written of this before. This week, the week Neil died, it came roaring back.
Last fall, Armstrong appealed to Congress to not give up on human exploration of space. The moon was and always will be the stepping stone to the universe, he said. He and a lot of Right Stuff people got us that far; lots more have been standing on his shoulders since then -- and from now on. Goodbye, Neil. Hello, Mars." - From http://www.thereporter.com/general-news/20120902/rico-how-high-the-moon