GOT A WRENCH? Before he gained fame...

GOT A WRENCH? Before he gained fame as the first human to tread the moon, Neil Armstrong was a NASA test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base. He lived near Palmdale, commuting in one of several old cars. Despite his prowess in jets, Armstrong often couldn’t get his junkers to start, and had to jump-start them by rolling down a hill, recalls NASA spokesman Don Haley.

FLYBOYS: Armstrong isn’t the only Apollo 11 alum associated with Edwards. Michael Collins also was a pilot at the base, where the Right Stuff crowd pushed the envelope in experimental jets. The third crewman, Buzz Aldrin, became commandant of Edwards’ test pilot school in 1971.

CARDIAC LANDING: One of Apollo 11’s tensest moments came as Armstrong eased toward the moon’s surface in the Eagle module. With Eagle hovering over rocks and fuel running low, Mission Control nearly ordered him to abort. But Armstrong put down safely and later credited time he spent in the “flying bedstead”--a trainer (above) developed at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, also at Edwards.

SPACE AGE R&R;: Being a jet jockey at Edwards was dangerous work; crashes were common. To relax, pilots headed to the Happy Bottom Riding Club, a bar run by Florence (Pancho) Barnes, a former stunt pilot with a taste for wild times. Ex-test pilot Chuck Yeager recalled a man kiddingly asking her to get him a “good-looking gal on toast.” Barnes did just that, delivering a waitress on an unhinged door--naked and lying on five loaves of toast.

BURN, BABY, BURN: For two years before the moon landing, a roar could be heard day and night in the Santa Susana hills. There, working around the clock, engineers tested Apollo 11 booster engines. Paul Fuller, who headed the tests, remembers no noise complaints. “It used to mean jobs,” said Fuller of Rocketdyne in Canoga Park. “Today, people tend to be very negative.”