Did Neil Armstrong really say, 'That's one small step for a man'? - LA Times Did Neil Armstrong really say, 'That's one small step for a man'? Karen Kaplan Neil Armstrong ’s most famous line – “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” uttered after becoming the first person to set foot on the moon – contained one small error that became one giant annoyance to the NASA astronaut. As Armstrong himself pointed out many times, the sentence is meaningful only if he says, “That’s one small step for a man.” He insisted that’s what he said on July 20, 1969 – otherwise, there’s no distinction between a single individual and all of humanity. "I think that reasonable people will realize that I didn't intentionally make an inane statement and that certainly the 'a' was intended, because that's the only way the statement makes any sense," Armstrong told biographer James Hansen, according to "Moonshot," a terrific book about Apollo 11 by Brian Floca.

PHOTOS: Amazing images from space Experts have scrutinized the audio file of Armstrong’s historic transmission, searching for evidence of the missing “a.” Those efforts “have yielded mixed opinions,” according to a research team that weighs in on the controversy this week. A team led by Laura Dilley , an assistant professor in the department of communicative sciences and disorders at Michigan State University , has taken a new approach to analyzing this historic sentence. The team studied the way that folks in Ohio pronounce the word “for” and the phrase “for a.” In central Ohio, where Armstrong was raised, speakers have a tendency to blend the two words together. And previous studies of Armstrong’s own speech “have established well that if the word 'a' was spoken, it was very short and was fully blended acoustically with the preceding word,” Dilley said in this story by Michigan State University Today. Coming out of Armstrong’s mouth, the phrase “for a” would have sounded like “frrr(uh),” according to the story. So Dilley and her colleagues turned to recordings of 40 people raised in Columbus, Ohio, about 90 miles southeast of Armstrong’s native Wapakoneta.

The recordings, part of the Buckeye Speech Corpus , included 191 cases of the phrase “for a.” It turned out that the length of the “r” sound was much the same when Ohioans said “for” and “for a” – a finding that seems to confirm Armstrong’s version of events. "We've bolstered Neil Armstrong's side of the story," Dilley told MSU Today. "We feel we've partially vindicated him. But we'll most likely never know for sure exactly what he said based on the acoustic information." However, Dilley also noted that regardless of what Armstrong actually said, people are still more likely to hear the sentence without the crucial “a.” The research team will present the results Friday morning at the International Congress on Acoustics meeting in Montreal. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation. Neil Armstrong's First Words on the Moon : snopes.com Claim: Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong flubbed his historic 'one small step' remark as he became the first man to set foot on the surface of the moon.

TRUE Origins: English has no handy term for what the French call it esprit de l'escalier, and the Germans know as treppenwitz: the "wit of the staircase," those clever remarks or cutting rejoinders that only come to mind once it's too late for us to deliver them — literally, as we're headed down the stairs and out of the house. English also lacks an expression to describe the antithesis of treppenwitz, those occasions when one has a perfect remark carefully prepared in advance but fails to deliver it properly. If English did have such an expression, we could apply it to the words of the first man on the moon, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, who had the misfortune of misspeaking his scripted line during one of the most widely-viewed live broadcasts in television history.

What Neil Armstrong meant to say as he descended from the ladder of Apollo 11's Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and stepped onto the lunar surface, thus becoming the first person ever to set foot on the moon, was "That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind." Unfortunately, however, Armstrong flubbed his line in the excitement of the moment, omitting one small word ("a") and delivering the line as "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." The missing article made a world of difference in literal meaning, though — instead of a statement linking the small action of one man with a monumental achievement for (and by) all of humanity, Armstrong instead uttered a somewhat contradictory phrase that equated a small step by the human race with a momentous achievement by humankind ("man" and "mankind" having the same approximate meaning in English). Nonetheless, since the quote as actually spoken by Armstrong still sounded good, and most everyone understood the meaning he intended to convey, his words were widely repeated that day and have since joined the pantheon of the most well-known quotes in the English language.

After the Apollo 11 astronauts returned to Earth, Armstrong corrected his mistake (stating that he had been "misquoted"), and NASA obligingly provided the cover story that "static" had obscured the missing word: Neil A. Armstrong, the Apollo 11 commander, had said that one small word was omitted in the official version of the historic utterance he made he stepped on the moon 11 days ago. When Mr. Armstrong saw the quotation — "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" — in the mission transcript after his return to earth, he said he was misquoted, it was reported yesterday. There should have been the article "a" before "man," the astronaut said. The "a" apparently went unheard and unrecorded in the transmission because of static, a spokesman for the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston said today in a telephone interview. Whatever the reason, inserting the omitted article makes a slight but significant change in the meaning of Mr.

Armstrong's 1 Press reporters, however, were more skeptical about what Armstrong had actually said: On July 20, 1969, Joel Shurkin was chief of the Reuters news agency's team at Mission Control in Houston, Tex. "When Armstrong landed, we all listened to the raw air-to-ground and when he said the part about the 'small step' it was fuzzy — this was the unenhanced version, live — and it was not clear if he said 'a man' or 'man,' " he says, sharing his experience publicly for the first time. Nor were the words perfectly clear for the more than a billion people listening and watching the televised broadcast as the lunar module Eagle touched down, and Mr.

Armstrong now a writer in Baltimore.2 The New York Times clearly didn't buy the "static" explanation (hence the "Whatever the reason ..." introductory phrase in the final sentence of their article), and little detective work is necessary to reveal it as a face-saving fabrication: NASA's own recording of Armstrong's transmission from the lunar surface reveals that his words are clearly audible over the background static; that the word "man" follows immediately on the heels of "for," with no gap between them into which Armstrong could conceivably have inserted the word "a"; and that Armstrong pauses noticeably after the word "man," as he realizes he's flubbed his line and hesitates momentarily before completing it. In the years since that historic Apollo 11 mission, astronaut Armstrong has apparently reconciled himself to admitting that he did indeed misspeak his key line: Later, a representative for the Grumman company (it had built the Eagle, essentially a high-tech aluminum can) presented Mr. Armstrong with a silver plaque bearing his 11-word — now immortalized — sentence, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Mr. Armstrong insisted that they had left out an "a".

Sure, he had been awake for 24 hours before his epoch-marking pronouncement, battling lunar stage fright in front of the world's largest audience ever, and was mulling over the fact that while putting on his bulky space suit he had broken the circuit breaker for the switch to start the Eagle's engine for ascent. But he knew what he said. "There must be an 'a', " Mr. Armstrong says of the event in the 1986 book Chariots for Apollo. "I rehearsed it that way. I meant it that way. And I'm sure I said it that way." Then the Grumman representative, Tommy Attridge, put on a commemorative 45-rpm recording of the flight. No matter what speed they played it at, there was no "a". According to the authors, Mr. Armstrong sighed, "Damn, I really did it. I blew the first words on the moon, didn't I?"2 Happily for Neil Armstrong, the tremendous scientific and cultural importance of his achievement dwarfed his minor verbal slip-up , and despite his failure to deliver his line as planned, it remains one of the world's most famous sentences.

Update: In September 2006, Peter Ford of Control Bionics announced he had analyzed the historic Apollo 11 recordings and claimed to have found a "signature for the missing 'a," (supposedly spoken by Armstrong "10 times too quickly to be heard") but the results have not been validated by other audio analysts and have been criticized as simply interpreting ambiguous data to match a predetermined conclusion. As Rick Houston wrote in Footprints in the Dust, a history of the Apollo program: Note should be made of the debate that has existed almost from the time Armstrong uttered the famous saying. Did he actually say "One small step for a man," with the indefinite article a somehow lost in transmission? No, he did not, and to imply otherwise is revisionist history. Granted, it is possible, if not probable, that he intended to say "a man." From the tone and inflection of his voice it seems for all the world that Armstrong caught the mistake immediately.

Following "That's one small step for man," he added another one, stopped again, then finished the statement with "giant leap for mankind." There's nothing lost in transmission, nothing at all, no matter what any super-scientific studies to the contrary might suggest. Additional information: Is Neil Armstrong's famous Moon-landing quote really a misquote? Is Neil Armstrong's famous Moon-landing quote really a misquote? World | Press Trust of India | Updated: June 05, 2013 22:43 IST EMAIL PRINT COMMENTS Washington: Historic misquote? Neil Armstrong's famous quote "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" uttered by the American astronaut after becoming the first person to land on the Moon in 1969 had a small error, according to a new study. A team of researchers from Michigan State University and Ohio State University has taken a second listen to Armstrong's famous quote and may have provided evidence that he did indeed say the word "a" as part of that famous saying.

When he took his first step on the moon, Armstrong claimed he said, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." However, many listeners think he left out the "a". As the American astronaut himself pointed out many times, the sentence is meaningful only if he says, "That's one small step for a man." Armstrong claimed that is what he said on July 20, 1969 as he lowered his foot from the lunar module to the surface of the Moon - otherwise, there is no distinction between a single individual and all of humanity. But now the researchers have taken a novel approach to deciphering Armstrong's quote by studying how speakers from his native central Ohio pronounce "for" and "for a." Their results suggest that it is entirely possible that Armstrong said what he claimed, though evidence indicates that people are statistically more likely to hear "for man" instead of "for a man" on the recording. Armstrong was raised in central Ohio, where there is typically a lot of blending between words such as "for" and "a", according to a Michigan State University (MSU) statement.

"Prior acoustic analyses of Neil Armstrong's recording have established well that if the word 'a' was spoken, it was very short and was fully blended acoustically with the preceding word," said Laura Dilley, an MSU assistant professor of communicative sciences and disorders and part of the research team. If Armstrong actually did say "a," she said, it sounded something like "frrr(uh)." His blending of the two words, compounded with the poor sound quality of the transmission, has made it difficult for people to corroborate his claim that the "a" is there. Dilley and her colleagues thought they might be able to figure out what Armstrong said with a statistical analysis of the duration of the "r" sound as spoken by native central Ohioans saying "for" and "for a" in natural conversation. They used a collection of recordings of conversational speech from 40 people raised in Columbus, Ohio, near Armstrong's native town of Wapakoneta. Within this body of recordings, they found 191 cases of "for a." They matched each of these to an instance of "for" as said by the same speaker and compared the relative duration.

They also examined the duration of Armstrong's "for (a)" from the lunar transmission. The researchers found a large overlap between the relative duration of the "r" sound in "for" and "for a" using the Ohio speech data. "We've bolstered Neil Armstrong's side of the story," she said. "We feel we've partially vindicated him. But we'll most likely never know for sure exactly what he said based on the acoustic information." How Neil Armstrong practiced that 'One Small Step' line for the moon - Cosmic Log Cosmic Log How Neil Armstrong practiced that 'One Small Step' line for the moon By Cosmic Log Follow @b0yle The brother of first moonwalker Neil Armstrong says in a new BBC documentary that the phrase accompanying humanity's first footprint on the moon — "that's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind" — was not a spur-of-the-moment improvisation but a speech that was written out and practiced in advance.

In a rare interview, Dean Armstrong recalled that his brother slipped him the words — including the long-disputed reference to "a man" — on a piece of paper as they played a game of Risk, weeks before the Apollo 11 launch in July 1969. "He says, 'What do you think about that?' I said 'fabulous.' He said 'I thought you might like that, but I wanted you to read it,'" Dean Armstrong is quoted as saying in a Telegraph report on the documentary , titled "Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon." The show premiered tonight on BBC Two. The genesis of one of history's most famous phrases has long been shrouded in mystery: In his definitive history of the Apollo moon effort, "A Man on the Moon," Andrew Chaikin noted that as the mission neared, Neil Armstrong was inundated with suggestions for his speech, including passages from the Bible and from Shakespeare. Chaikin implied that Armstrong was undecided about what he'd say until after Apollo 11's Eagle lunar lander had set down on Tranquility Base: "Now, on the moon, Armstrong knew he could delay no longer.

As he thought about the first step he would take from Eagle's footpad he pondered the inherent paradox — a small step, yet a significant one — and he knew what he would say." Follow @CosmicLog Dean Armstrong's recollection suggests that his astronaut brother, who died in August at the age of 82 , scripted the words early on but held them close to the vest. The BBC documentary's director, Christopher Riley, speculated that Armstrong let people think the words came to him spontaneously to head off any outside tinkering in advance, or any second-guessing in retrospect. The interview also confirms that Neil Armstrong meant to say "one small step for a man" — even though the "a" wasn't audible in the transmission from the moon. That's an important stylistic point, because the "a" draws a contrast between the physical length of a human's footstep and Apollo 11's "giant leap" for human exploration. After the flight, Armstrong insisted that he intended to say "a man." Some experts say that the "a" was dropped because of a glitch in the radio signal, but most assume that Armstrong just left out the word.

As the years went on, Armstrong's comments on the mystery took on an air of ambiguity. "We'll never know," Neil Armstrong told an interviewer in 1971. If he did leave out the word, it's a natural slip to make: Dean Armstrong omitted the "a" himself the first time he quoted the phrase, and had to correct himself a moment later. "It was 'that is one small step for A man,'" he said. Update for 5:30 p.m. ET Dec. 30: A commenter points out that Dean's recollection runs counter to what his brother Neil told James Hansen about the speech for his authorized biography, "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong," published in 2005: "Once on the surface and realizing that the moment was at hand, fortunately I had some hours to think about it after getting there. My own view was that it was a very simplistic statement: what can you say when you step off of something? Well, something about a step. It just sort of evolved during the period that I was doing the procedures of the practice takeoff and the EVA prep and all the other activities that were on our flight schedule at the time.

I didn't think it was particularly important, but other people obviously did. Even so, I have never thought that I picked a particularly enlightening statement. It was a very simple statement." So maybe the controversy over those first words from the lunar surface will continue after all. ... Update for 4:50 p.m. ET Jan. 4: Over the past few days, there's been a lot of back and forth over Neil and Dean Armstrong's intentions. Was Neil lying when he said that the words "just sort of evolved" after the moon landing? Was Dean lying when he said Neil had the words in mind before liftoff? In a Space.com commentary , Andrew Chaikin suggests that both men could be right. He says Neil Armstrong wasn't the kind of guy to let the matter of his moon speech go unconsidered until the last minute: "... Nothing in Neil’s post-flight statements rules out the possibility that he thought up the 'one small step' line before leaving Earth. He didn’t say 'I thought up the quote after we landed'; he said, 'I decided what I would say after we landed.' "Dean Armstrong's story just adds a little ambiguity.

Maybe Neil had more than one quote in mind at that point, and only shared one of them with his brother. Or maybe the quote he showed his brother was an early draft, but after all these years, Dean remembers seeing the final version. "We'll probably never know the answer. "What it does not mean is that somehow Armstrong 'fibbed' or 'lied' to the public for 40 years. Everyone who knew Neil well has described him as extraordinarily principled. That was certainly the man I saw when I interviewed him, and in the years that followed, as we became friends. ..." More about the first moonwalker: Neil Armstrong - Wikiquote Neil Armstrong Jump to: navigation , search Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed. Neil Armstrong ( 5 August 1930 – 25 August 2012 ) was an American test pilot and astronaut , who was the commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission on July 20, 1969, in which he and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to land on the moon, and he was the first man to walk on the moon.

Contents Quotes[ edit ] I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges.... I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul … we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream. Apollo mission press conference (1969); ABC World News ; also quoted in Of a Fire on the Moon (1970) by Norman Mailer , and in First Man: The Life of Ronnie Petch the bender (2005) by James R. Hansen Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed. First words from the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle after guiding the craft to a landing on the moon at 4:17pm EDT (20 July 1969) Listen to an original recording of this quote: One Small Step , transcript of Apollo 11 moon landing Words said when Armstrong first stepped onto the moon (20 July 1969).

In the actual sound recordings he apparently fails to say "a" before "man" and says: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." This was generally considered by many to simply be an error of omission on his part. Armstrong long insisted he did say "a man" but that it was inaudible. Prior to new evidence supporting his claim, he stated a preference for the "a" to appear in parentheses when the quote is written. In September 2006 evidence based on new analysis of the recordings conducted by Peter Shann Ford, a computer programmer based in Sydney, Australia, whose company Control Bionics helps physically handicapped people to use their own nerve impulses to communicate through computers, indicated that Armstrong had said the missing "a." This information was presented to Armstrong and NASA on 28 September 2006 and reported in the Houston Chronicle (30 September 2006). The debate continues on the matter, as "Armstrong's 'poetic' slip on Moon" at BBC News (3 June 2009) reports that more recent analysis by linguist John Olsson and author Chris Riley with higher quality recordings indicates that he did not say "a".

I’m quite certain that we’ll have such [lunar] bases in our lifetime, somewhat like the Antarctic stations and similar scientific outposts, continually manned. BBC interview (1970) Through books you will meet poets and novelists whose creations will fire your imagination. You will meet the great thinkers who will share with you their philosophies, their concepts of the world, of humanity and of creation. You will learn about events that have shaped our history, of deeds both noble and ignoble. All of this knowledge is yours for the taking… Your library is a storehouse for mind and spirit. Use it well. Letter to the children of Troy, Michigan on the opening of its Public Library (1971), in Why Libraries Matter: Letters to the Children of Troy, Michigan (From 1971) , by Lucas Reilly, Mental Floss (3 July 2012) The exciting part for me, as a pilot, was the landing on the moon … Walking on the lunar surface was very interesting, but it was something we looked on as reasonably safe and predictable. I am comfortable with my level of public discourse.

Declining to be interviewed for a magazine article, quoted in "Armstrong's Code" by Kathy Sawyer in Washington Post Magazine (11 July 1999) The exciting part for me, as a pilot, was the landing on the moon. That was the time that we had achieved the national goal of putting Americans on the moon. The landing approach was, by far, the most difficult and challenging part of the flight. Walking on the lunar surface was very interesting, but it was something we looked on as reasonably safe and predictable. So the feeling of elation accompanied the landing rather than the walking. Interview at The New Space Race (August 2007) Space has not changed but technology has, in many cases, improved dramatically. A good example is digital technology where today's cell phones are far more powerful than the computers on the Apollo Command Module and Lunar Module that we used to navigate to the moon and operate all the spacecraft control systems. On the differences between the present and the time of the space race which existed during the Cold War years, in an interview at The New Space Race (August 2007) Pilots take no special joy in walking: pilots like flying.

Pilots generally take pride in a good landing, not in getting out of the vehicle. On his famous moonwalk, as quoted in In the Shadow of the Moon : A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969 (2007) by Francis French and Colin Burgess A century hence, 2000 may be viewed as quite a primitive period in human history. It’s something to hope for. … I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer — born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in the steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams , transformed by Laplace, and propelled by compressible flow. As an engineer, I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession. "The Engineered Century" remarks delivered during National Engineers Week on behalf of the National Academy of Engineering at the National Press Club (22 February 2000) Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am in the position of a pilot without his checklist, so I’ll have to wing it a bit.

… [Prior to the Apollo missions,] no one knew what kind of person could be persuaded to take the trip. Prisoners were suggested. Soldiers could be ordered. Photographers could take pictures — and they’re expendable. Doctors understood the limits of human physiology. Finally, both sides picked pilots. On being awarded a Congressional Gold Medal on (21 July 2009) I’ll not assert that it was a diversion which prevented a war, but nevertheless, it was a diversion. Apollo 11 40th anniversary celebration (2009), Armstrong discussed how the space race functioned politically Neil Armstrong's Giant Leap , by Chris Higgins, in Mental Floss (25 August 2012) Presidential telephone call (1969)[ edit ] It's a great honor and privilege for us to be here representing not only the United States but men of peace of all nations, and with interests and the curiosity and with the vision for the future. US President Richard Nixon spoke to Aldrin and Armstrong during their walk on the surface of the moon (20 July 1969) - Full transcript and link to the recording Nixon: Hello, Neil and Buzz.

I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made from the White House. I just can't tell you how proud we all are of what you have done. For every American, this has to be the proudest day of our lives. And for people all over the world, I am sure that they, too, join with Americans in recognizing what an immense feat this is. Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world. And as you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth. For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one; one in their pride in what you have done, and one in our prayers that you will return safely to Earth. Armstrong: Thank you, Mr. President. It's a great honor and privilege for us to be here representing not only the United States but men of peace of all nations, and with interests and the curiosity and with the vision for the future. It's an honor for us to be able to participate here today.

Nixon: And thank you very much and I look forward — all of us look forward to seeing you on the Hornet on Thursday. Aldrin: I look forward to that very much, sir. 60 Minutes interview (2005)[ edit ] 60 minutes interview (2005) Our autopilot was taking us into a verge large crater, about the size of a big football stadium with steep slopes on the crater covered with very large rocks about the size of automobiles that was not the kind of place that I wanted to try to make the first landing. I thought, well. when I step off it's just going to be a little step—a step from there down to there—but then I thought about all those 400,000 people who had given me the opportunity to make that step and thought it's going to be a big something for all those folks and, indeed for a lot of others that weren't even involved in the project, so it was kind of a simple correlation. on what inspired him to say his famous words, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." It's a brilliant surface in that sunlight.

The horizon seems quite close to you because the curvature is so much more pronounced than here on Earth. It's an interesting place to be. I recommend it. Friends and colleagues all of a sudden looked at us, treated us, slightly differently than had months or years before when we were working together. I never quite understood that. I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks but for the ledger of our daily work. 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing (2009)[ edit ] 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing - Personal tribute letter to Australians and Honeysuckle Creek Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex , which provided the communications between Apollo 11 and mission control] We were involved in doing what many thought to be impossible, putting humans on Earth’s moon. Science fiction writers thought it would be possible. H. G. Wells , Jules Verne , and other authors found ways to get people to the moon. But none of those writers foresaw any possibility of the lunar explorers being able to communicate with Earth, transmit data, position information, or transmit moving pictures of what they saw back to Earth.

The authors foresaw my part of the adventure, but your part was beyond their comprehension. All the Apollo people were working hard, working long hours, and were dedicated to making certain everything they did, they were doing to the very best of their ability. It would be impossible to overstate the appreciation that we on the crew feel for your dedication and the quality of your work. Open letter on NASA cuts (2010)[ edit ] Open letter with James Lovell and Eugene Cernan to U.S. President Barack Obama "Moon Men To Obama: Your Nasa Plans Suck Asteroids" by Kit Eaton in Fast Company (14 April 2010) For The United States, the leading space faring nation for nearly half a century, to be without carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature. While the President’s plan envisages humans traveling away from Earth and perhaps toward Mars at some time in the future, the lack of developed rockets and spacecraft will assure that ability will not be available for many years.

Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity. America must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space. If it does, we should institute a program which will give us the very best chance of achieving that goal. Letter to Robert Krulwich (2010)[ edit ] Letter to Robert Krulwich after he wondered in his columns why the astronauts stayed so close to the landing site Neil Armstrong Talks About The First Moon Walk , by Robert Krulwich at NPR (8 December 2010) It is true that we were cautious in our planning. There were many uncertainties about how well our Lunar module systems and our Pressure suit and backpack would match the engineering predictions in the hostile lunar environment. We were operating in a near perfect vacuum with the temperature well above 200 degrees Fahrenheit with the local gravity only one sixth that of Earth. That combination cannot be duplicated here on Earth, but we tried as best we could to test our equipment for those conditions. For example, because normal air conditioning is inadequate for lunar conditions, we were required to use cold water to cool the interior of our suits.

We did not have any data to tell us how long the small water tank in our backpacks would suffice. NASA officials limited our surface working time to 2 and 3/4 hours on that first surface exploration to assure that we would not expire of hyperthermia. There was great uncertainty about how well we would be able to walk in our cumbersome pressurized suit. Preflight planners wanted us to stay in TV range so that they could learn from our results how they could best plan for future missions. I candidly admit that I knowingly and deliberately left the planned working area out of TV coverage to examine and photograph the interior crater walls for possible bedrock exposure or other useful information. Later Apollo flights were able to do more and move further in order to cover larger areas, particularly when the Lunar Rover vehicle became available in 1971. During my testimony (to the House Science and Technology Committee) in May I said, “Some question why Americans should return to the Moon. “After all,” they say “we have already been there.” I find that mystifying.

It would be as if 16th century monarchs proclaimed that “we need not go to the New World, we have already been there.” Or as if President Thomas Jefferson announced in 1803 that Americans “need not go west of the Mississippi, the Lewis and Clark Expedition has already been there.” Americans have visited and examined 6 locations on Luna, varying in size from a suburban lot to a small township. That leaves more than 14 million square miles yet to explore. Misattributed[ edit ] I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises. First On The Moon : A Voyage with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin E Aldrin, Jr. (1970) edited by Gene Farmer and Dora Jane Hamblin, p. 113, states of this: "Like many a quote which gets printed once and therefore enshrined in the libraries of all newspapers and magazines, this particular one was erroneous. Neil recalled having heard the quote, and he even recalled having repeated it once.

He did not subscribe to its thesis, however, and he only quoted it so that he could disagree with it." Quotes about Armstrong[ edit ] Sorted alphabetically by author or source At few other moments has one person become the fulcrum of such weighty imperatives... ~ Kathy Sawyer Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits. 'One Small Step for Man': Was Neil Armstrong Misquoted? 'One Small Step for Man': Was Neil Armstrong Misquoted? By Natalie Wolchover | August 27, 2012 07:12am ET MORE Apollo 11 astronauts trained on Earth to take individual photographs in succession in order to create a series of frames that could be assembled into panoramic images. This frame from Aldrin's panorama of the Apollo 11 landing site is the only good picture of mission commander Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface.

Credit: NASA Upon taking a "small step" onto the surface of the moon in 1969, Neil Armstrong uttered what would become one of history's most famous one-liners. But strangely, what he actually said is far from clear. Listeners back on Earth heard, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." But Armstrong , who died at the age of 82 on Saturday (Aug. 25), maintained afterwards that he actually said something slightly different: "That's one small step for a man..." "It's just that people just didn't hear [the 'a']," Neil Armstrong told the press after the Apollo 11 mission. That little indefinite article makes a big difference, semantically speaking.

Without it, "man" abstractly represents all of humanity, just like "mankind." Thus, the quote is essentially, ''That's one small step for mankind, one giant leap for mankind." [ Listen to 'One Small Step' Quote ] Despite his initial sureness that he got the grammar right by including the indefinite article, Armstrong acknowledged at a 30-year anniversary event in 1999 that he couldn't hear himself utter the "a" in the audio recording of his moonwalk transmission, according to the Associated Press . But then, in 2006, computer programmer Peter Shann Ford might have vindicated Armstrong . Ford downloaded the audio recording of the moon man's words from a NASA website and analyzed the statement with software that allows disabled people to communicate via computers using their nerve impulses. What did Neil Armstrong really say when he stepped on to the moon? | Science | The Guardian The Observer What did Neil Armstrong really say when he stepped on to the moon?

Ever since the landing on 20 July 1969, there has been controversy over whether Armstrong fluffed his line Neil Armstrong steps on to the surface of the moon on 20 July 1969 before uttering one of the world's most famous sentences. Photograph: AP/Press Association Images Saturday 25 August 2012 18.52 EDT First published on Saturday 25 August 2012 18.52 EDT Close This article is 4 years old It is perhaps the most famous phrase ever uttered by a human being, a form of words which instantly summed up the meaning of an extraordinary moment in the history of the human race. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." But did Neil Armstrong really mean to say those words when he stepped onto the moon and spoke to an estimated 600 million television viewers around the world? Ever since the landing on 20 July 1969, there has been controversy over whether he fluffed his line. Did Armstrong really mean to say "a man" instead of just "man"?

When Armstrong returned from space, he claimed he had been misquoted and the tiny word "a" had been omitted from the offical version of the mission transcript. Nasa claimed that the word was unheard and unrecorded in the transmission because of static. The omission of the word changed the meaning of the phrase entirely, taking it beyond a statement from one individual and turning it into a universal statement. News reporters at the time listened again to the raw footage and agreed it was unclear whether Armstrong had actually said "a man" or "man". Realising that it was set to be one of the most important quotes in history, they decided to unanimously settle on one version, which was sent out across the world. However, the New York Times claimed Armstrong's quote could be heard clearly in the recording and concluded that he simply had messed up his line. In the years following the moon landing, Armstrong apparently accepted that he had fluffed the line when presented with a plaque bearing the famous quote. According to the authors of the 1986 book Chariots for Fire, the astronaut tried to argue it omitted the word "a" but after hearing a recording of the flight he admitted: "Damn I really did it.

I blew the first words on the moon, didn't I?" Whether it was a misquote or a verbal slip-up, the phrase has become one of the world's most famous sentences and will for ever go down in history as a line which defined an era. US astronaut who led the Apollo 11 mission underwent heart-bypass surgery earlier this month Published: 26 Aug 2012 Is Astronaut Neil Armstrong a Liar? Is Astronaut Neil Armstrong a Liar? | Kristen Flowers The brother of Neil Armstrong is saying his famous brother lied when it comes to his iconic “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” speech. Neil Armstrong apparently lied about the famous line he said when stepping onto the surface of the moon. On July 20, 1969, Armstrong placed his boot onto the rocky surface of the moon and said: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The Business Insider reports that Armstrong always said that the line was actually garbled when it was transmitted back to earth and that he actually said “a” before the word “man.” The astronaut also says that he thought of the line a few hours before landing on the surface of the moon.

According to Armstong, he said “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”According to Armstrong’s brother Neil, the astronaut told the truth about the missing “a” but Armstrong lied about when he thought up the line. According to Dean, Neil thought up the line months before Apollo 11 headed off on its historic flight. Dean said that his brother told him about the line while they were playing a game of Risk before the shuttle launch. Dean insists that the “a” was on the sheet of paper that his brother handed to him.Dean said: “Before he went to the Cape, he invited me down to spend a little time with him. He said ‘why don’t you and I, once the boys go to bed, why don’t we play a game of Risk. I said I’d enjoy that. We started playing Risk and then he slipped me a piece of paper and said ‘read that’. I did. On that piece of paper there was ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’. He says ‘what do you think about that?’ I said ‘fabulous’. He said ‘I thought you might like that, but I wanted you to read it’.

It was ‘that is one small step for A man.” So Neil told the truth, according to Dean, about the missing “a” but he lied about when he thought up the quote. Why would Neil do that? According to Dr Christopher Riley, a lecturer in science and media at Lincoln University, Neil probably said that he thought of the line a few hours before landing so that he wouldn’t have to field question about the inspiration behind the quote before the flight. Riley said:“I think the reason he always claimed he’d thought it up after landing was that he was bombarded by suggestions in the run up to the mission, and found them a distraction to the business of landing on the Moon. It was probably easier to just say that he’d thought it up after landing, thus dodging the issue of where the words came from, and who maybe suggested them, or influenced him.” I find it interesting that this is coming out now after his famous brother has died and can’t defend himself. On the other hand, how much would it SUCK to be the brother of the man who was the first man to walk on the moon? How do you ever get any praise? What do you and your siblings compete over?

Share this: Modest Neil Armstrong a 'Reluctant American Hero' Despite Moonwalk Fame, Neil Armstrong a 'Reluctant American Hero' By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | August 26, 2012 06:52am ET MORE Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, Apollo 11 Commander, inside the Lunar Module as it rests on the lunar surface after completion of his historic moonwalk in July 1969. Credit: NASA Neil Armstrong may be one of the most famous people who ever lived, but he was a modest man who didn't seek out the spotlight, say those who knew the late astronaut. Armstrong died Saturday (Aug. 25) at the age of 82 of complications from a recent cardiac bypass operation. He shot to international fame on July 20, 1969, when he became the first person to set foot on the moon. But the commander of NASA's Apollo 11 mission , and the first person ever to walk on the surface of another world, didn't glory in his iconic moment, viewing it instead as all in a day's work, family members said.

"Neil was our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend," the Armstrong family said in a statement Saturday. " Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job." Keeping a low profile As his boot pressed into the gray lunar dirt 43 years ago, Armstrong uttered perhaps the 20th century's most famous line: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." And by all accounts he really meant it, experts say. [ Photos: Neil Armstrong Remembered ] "What he was partaking in was only about furthering the human adventure, furthering what it meant to be human," said space history expert Robert Pearlman, editor of collectSPACE.com and a frequent SPACE.com contributor. "When he said that he went to the moon for all mankind, and that it was a giant leap for all mankind, it really was." Apollo 11 was Armstrong's last trip to space, and he left NASA in 1971 to become a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati. He kept a low enough profile after his astronaut days that some observers branded him a recluse — an unfair characterization, Pearlman said.

"That wasn't true," Pearlman told SPACE.com, citing Armstrong's teaching stint at Cincinnati and numerous public appearances over the years. "What he didn't do was go Hollywood. He didn't seek the spotlight; he didn't walk down the red carpet." Armstrong's approach contrasted greatly with that taken by his fellow Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin. "We were fortunate to have both represented on the same mission," Pearlman said. "We've got the one who was OK with having Buzz Lightyear named after him, and action figures made, and a television movie of his life and all the rest. And with Neil, we have someone who even objected to Hallmark putting his name on an ornament, who didn't want anything to do with the pop culture world." On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. Armstrong is pictured here, shortly after collecting a sample of lunar dust and rocks. At his feet is the handle for the sample collection tool.

Credit: NASA/Andy Chaikin/ collectSPACE.com Concerned for NASA's future Uncharacteristically, Armstrong waded into the public eye in 2010, voicing his strong objection to the Obama Administration's decision to cancel NASA's moon-oriented Constellation program. He also publicly aired his concerns about the agency's plan to rely on American private spaceships as astronaut taxis in the wake of the space shuttle's retirement. "We will have no American access to, and return from, low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station for an unpredictable length of time in the future," Armstrong wrote in testimony for a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space and Technology in September 2011. "For a country that has invested so much for so long to achieve a leadership position in space exploration and exploitation, this condition is viewed by many as lamentably embarrassing and unacceptable," he added.

Neil Armstrong's 'small step for man' might be a misquote, study says - CNN.com Neil Armstrong's 'small step for man' might be a misquote, study says By Josh Levs, CNN Updated 7:16 AM ET, Wed June 5, 2013 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. JUST WATCHED Neil Armstrong's famous quote analyzed 01:58 Story highlights Armstrong was heard around the world calling the first moon walk a "small step for man" He contended he had said "a man" Numerous studies have been carried out A new study of speech patterns near his hometown found he may have said "for a" When astronaut Neil Armstrong uttered what became one of the best-known -- and most debated -- quotes in all of history, he actually might have said it exactly the way he meant to, not the way people heard it.

After Armstrong lowered his left foot from the landing craft to the surface of the moon, people watching around the world heard him call it "one small step for man." Both he and NASA initially insisted that he said "one small step for a man," and now a new and novel study on the much-analyzed quote backs him up. Researchers from Michigan State University and Ohio State University have "bolstered Neil Armstrong's side of the story," said Laura Dilley, an MSU assistant professor of communicative sciences and disorders. After becoming the first person to step on the moon in 1969, Armstrong said what was heard as: "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Astronaut Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Mission, with his family on August 26, 1963. Hide Caption 1 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Neil Armstrong at the NASA Training Center on September 1, 1963.

Hide Caption 2 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Commander Neil Armstrong, right, and pilot David R. Scott prepare for the launch of Gemini 8 on March 16, 1966. In orbit, Armstrong had to bring the capsule under control when it began to spin out of control after docking with an unmanned target vehicle, and the mission was aborted. Hide Caption Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Armstrong poses for a portrait in July 1969. Hide Caption 4 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Commander of Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Mission. – Armstrong leads crew mates Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin and Michael Collins out of the space center on the Apollo 11 space mission to the moon. Hide Caption 5 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing mission, was launched on July 16, 1969, with astronauts Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins on board.

Armstrong and Aldrin became the first and second men to walk on the moon, on July 20, 1969. Hide Caption 6 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Astronaut Neil Armstrong is seen in the reflection of Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin's helmet during the pair's historic walk on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. Hide Caption 7 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Armstrong and Aldrin spent roughly two hours on the moon's surface. The photos of the moonwalk were taken by Armstrong. Hide Caption 8 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Neil Armstrong (whose footprint is shown on the moon's surface) had to override the Eagle lunar module's autopilot in order to prevent the craft from landing on the slope of a crater.

Hide Caption 9 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – The Saturn V rocket carrying the crew of Apollo 11 takes off from Pad A, Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center. Hide Caption 10 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Commander of Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Mission. – Armstrong presents a pair of pizzas in his kitchen in Houston, Texas, on March 1, 1969. Hide Caption 11 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Armstrong said: "I thought we had a 90% chance of getting back safely to Earth on that flight, but only a 50-50 chance of making a successful landing on the first attempt." Hide Caption 12 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – The astronaut crew of the Apollo 11 mission are pictured in May 1969. Left to right are Neil Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin, lunar module pilot.

Hide Caption 13 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins wave to crowds at a parade held in August 1969 celebrating their voyage. Hide Caption Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – A commemorative button from 1969 celebrates the moon landing. Hide Caption 15 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong receives the first Congressional Space Medal of Honor from President Jimmy Carter, right, assisted by Capt. Robert Peterson, on October 1, 1978. Armstrong, one of six astronauts to be presented the medal during ceremonies held in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), was awarded for his performance during the Gemini 8 mission and the Apollo 11 mission. Hide Caption 16 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – President Richard Nixon applauds the Apollo 11 astronauts, who were confined in a quarantine trailer after their flight, on July 25, 1969.

Hide Caption 17 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Neil Armstrong talks about the space program during an appearance before a U.S. House committee in 1986. Hide Caption 18 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Former Apollo astronauts meet with the media at the Apollo/Saturn V Center prior to a 30th anniversary banquet highlighting the contributions of aerospace employees who made the Apollo program possible on July 16, 1999. From left to right: Armstrong; Aldrin; Gene Cernan, who flew on Apollo10 and Apollo 17; and Walt Cunningham, who flew on Apollo 7. Hide Caption 19 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Collins, Armstrong and Aldrin are honored on Capitol Hill in July 2009 on the 40th anniversary of their mission.

Hide Caption 20 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – President Barack Obama poses for photographs with Armstrong in the Oval Office at the White House in 2009. Hide Caption 21 of 22 Photos: Armstrong: First man on the moon Armstrong: First man on the moon – Armstrong testifies before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee about human space flight on Capitol Hill in September 2011. Hide Caption

Question: Which astonaut said the famous line... One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind?
Answer: Neil Armstrong