*Ø* Blogmanac July 21,1969 | What did Armstrong really say?
“That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
These are some of the most famous, and most eloquent, words ever uttered, indelibly engraved on the global consciousness by Neil Armstrong on that day in July 1969. And yet, if he said “… one small step for man”, leaving out the indefinite article, the sentence doesn’t make much sense. What did he really say, and were his words scripted for him by PR suits at NASA?
In an article in the December 1983 Esquire, author George Plimpton revealed all. The words were all of Armstrong's own composition, according to the publicity-shy astronaut himself, as well as his colleagues and NASA officials. Armstrong didn't even consider what he might say until after he and Buzz Aldrin landed on the lunar surface, because, he wasn't sure he would get a chance to speak on the moon at all.
“I thought the chances of a successful touchdown on the moon's surface were about even money - fifty-fifty,” Armstrong told Plimpton, “An awful lot of the puzzle had not been filled in; so much had not even been tried. Most people don’t realise how difficult the mission was. So it didn’t seem to me there was much point in thinking up something to say if we’d have to abort the landing.”
As for the words: it sounded like he said “That's one small step for man”, rather than “for a man”, which would have made more sense. In fact, Armstrong claims that he did say “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” (the way it appears in every book of quotable quotes issued since 1969). He told Esquire that the ‘a’ went missing in the transmission, which was through a voice-activated system called VOX. “Vox can lose you a syllable every so often,” Armstrong explained – thus ending another of life’s little mysteries.
Do you think Armstrong’s version is true? Listen and let us know what you think.
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Neil Armstrong walked on the moon at 0256 hours Universal Time on Monday, July 21, (but in the USA it was Sunday July 20) 1969, or Julian Day 2,440,423.
Together with Universal Time (formerly Greenwich Mean Time), astronomers use this time scale (which has nothing to do with the calendar of Julius Caesar) to obviate the dating problems that exist from the perspective of Planet Earth with its dateline and different timezones. It was developed by Joseph Scaliger (1554-1609); no one knows why he chose to start his system from January 1, 4713 BC, nor why he named it after his father, Julius.
Who was that other guy?
It's said that at the 25th anniversary celebration of the first moon walk, at the White House, in July 1994, Armstrong and Aldrin went in to meet Bill Clinton, while the other guy just circled the block in the car.
Armstrong in the news today
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
These are some of the most famous, and most eloquent, words ever uttered, indelibly engraved on the global consciousness by Neil Armstrong on that day in July 1969. And yet, if he said “… one small step for man”, leaving out the indefinite article, the sentence doesn’t make much sense. What did he really say, and were his words scripted for him by PR suits at NASA?
In an article in the December 1983 Esquire, author George Plimpton revealed all. The words were all of Armstrong's own composition, according to the publicity-shy astronaut himself, as well as his colleagues and NASA officials. Armstrong didn't even consider what he might say until after he and Buzz Aldrin landed on the lunar surface, because, he wasn't sure he would get a chance to speak on the moon at all.
“I thought the chances of a successful touchdown on the moon's surface were about even money - fifty-fifty,” Armstrong told Plimpton, “An awful lot of the puzzle had not been filled in; so much had not even been tried. Most people don’t realise how difficult the mission was. So it didn’t seem to me there was much point in thinking up something to say if we’d have to abort the landing.”
As for the words: it sounded like he said “That's one small step for man”, rather than “for a man”, which would have made more sense. In fact, Armstrong claims that he did say “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” (the way it appears in every book of quotable quotes issued since 1969). He told Esquire that the ‘a’ went missing in the transmission, which was through a voice-activated system called VOX. “Vox can lose you a syllable every so often,” Armstrong explained – thus ending another of life’s little mysteries.
Do you think Armstrong’s version is true? Listen and let us know what you think.
Neil Armstrong walked on the moon at 0256 hours Universal Time on Monday, July 21, (but in the USA it was Sunday July 20) 1969, or Julian Day 2,440,423.
Together with Universal Time (formerly Greenwich Mean Time), astronomers use this time scale (which has nothing to do with the calendar of Julius Caesar) to obviate the dating problems that exist from the perspective of Planet Earth with its dateline and different timezones. It was developed by Joseph Scaliger (1554-1609); no one knows why he chose to start his system from January 1, 4713 BC, nor why he named it after his father, Julius.
Who was that other guy?
It's said that at the 25th anniversary celebration of the first moon walk, at the White House, in July 1994, Armstrong and Aldrin went in to meet Bill Clinton, while the other guy just circled the block in the car.
Armstrong in the news today
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
Pip Wilson posted item above at 9:25 PM | Permalink
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