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Origin of Neil Armstrong's 'One Small Step' Line Revealed
SchrodingerZ writes "In an upcoming BBC Documentary, Dean Armstrong, the brother of astronaut Neil Armstrong, reveals when the world famous 'one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind' line originated. For years, people have argued over when Armstrong came up with the line, whether it was on the spot or planned years ahead. Also debated is whether Armstrong meant to include 'a' before man, making the indefinite article 'man,' which alludes to mankind, into a singular, 'a man,' himself. According to Dean Armstrong, the quote was shared to him over a board game, months before the mission began. He says, 'We started playing Risk and then he [Neil] 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." He then added: "It was 'that is one small step for A man.'"' Armstrong had always insisted that he had said 'a,' that it was lost in communication static. This new story however conflicts with what Neil told James Hansen for his biography, stating he came up with the quote on the lunar surface. More on the historic moon landing and the life of Neil Armstrong in the new documentary Neil Armstrong- First Man on the Moon, on BBC."
Hello, Neil.
regardless of what he had in mind, it makes no sense, so can we just edit in the "a" and it will be a great quote.
Having watched and heard this moment in history more times than I can remember, playing it over in my mind, I do think there's a slight "hiccup" in the audio, but I'm not sure if it's long enough for a dropped "a".
But it doesn't really matter. "a" or no "a". It was a moment in history that will never be repeated, or surpassed, ever again. What Buzz Aldrin, Neal Armstrong, and Michael Collins (in alphabetical order) have accomplished stands on its own merits. It is no more and no less of an accomplishment no matter what he actually said, or didn't say.
to lip sync with the footage they got from New Mexico?
Language Log has discussed this a number of times.
Did he also remember to ask Mr. Gorsky about the second line he planned to say?
Why argue about whether he thought of it spontaneously on the moon or had thought of it or considered it before he took that first step. It's the fact that he said it ON THE MOON that is the good and important part. Personally, I believe that he probably did plan ahead and think about what he might say when he landed. Thus he most certainly did think of that phrase ahead of time (in my humble opinion). And who amongst us has not tried to get a little more glory by saying yeah I just thought of that spontaneously when we might have come up with the retort earlier. Certainly Armstrong does not NEED to be cooler or thought of as more: he walked on the moon. So who cares about whether that line was a spontaneous utterance or a well planned entrance line? ;>) ]
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:>)
Neil Armstrong, my here. I would love to fly there someday and see those footsteps in the lunar dust, if the micrometeroids have not destroyed it. They'll probably put up a velvet rope around it to keep us tourist riff-raff away. If only. I wish. I truly wish. [Fly me to the moon!!!
Mr Gorsky got lucky.
The missing "A" was not caused by static, but by the way that the VOX (Voice Operated Switch) operated.
The Sensitivity of the VOX is quite critical. If it's too sensitive, everybody gets to hear background noises like breaths and grunts. To work properly the VOX needs to be set quite "tight". If you listen to any of the recordings you can hear how the first syllable is always clipped. If the first word is a short sound, it will likely be cut completely.
In noisy conditions, most operators develop the habit of starting a sentence with a short "Ah". The "Ah" isn't transmitted, it just serves to open the mute.
Ask any Ham Radio Operator about setting up a VOX.
"In your Face, Aldrin!"
"A quarter million miles, billions of dollars, and you won't believe what I just stepped in."
"What's that monolith doing here?"
"Man, you can't believe what a fart smells like in here."
"Houston, has Aldrin told you about his crotch rot yet?"
"Honey, I think I left the stove on."
"Houston, you're not going to believe this, but there's a flag with the Hammer and Sickle standing here."
"Man, I could use the fresh, relaxing taste of Coca-Cola."
"Suck it, Aldrin!"
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
I can see how this pretty much invalidates the lunar landing entirely.
We're whalers on the moon...we carry a harpoon...
Esquire Magazine even ran a story before the moon landing where they asked sixty prominent figures at the time including Marshall McLuhan, Isaac Asimov, Buckminister Fuller, Ayn Rand, Bob Hope, Hubert Humphrey, Tiny Tim, Sal Mineo, Vladamir Nabokov, Mohamad Ali, Truman Capote, and John Kenneth Galbraith for their suggestions on what Armstrong should say upon landing on the moon that would "ring through the ages.".
When Neil H. Armstrong, a blond, blue-eyed, thirty-eight-year-old civilian astronaut from Wapakoneta, Ohio, steps out of the lunar landing module this summer and plants his size eleven space boot on the surface of the moon, the event will eclipse in historic importance the landing of Christopher Columbus in the New World. Commander Armstrong's step will not immediately affect the nature of the quality of life on earth, of course (neither did Columbus'), but it will mark the departure point of a fantastic new adventure in the saga of man. For that step onto the moon will signal a readiness to travel throughout the solar system, even the universe â" in flights that will lead not merely to new worlds, new substances, new conceptions about the nature of matter and of life itself, but, it can scarcely be doubted, to contact with new beings as well. Moreover, Armstrong's will be the first such epic stride to be recorded in detail by the microphone and the television camera. Future generations will be able to relive all that was said and done at that moment as never before in the history of exploration. The stupendous magnitude and unprecedented visibility of what Commander Armstrong is about to do, therefore, combine to pose the question: when the astronaut takes the first step on the moon, what should he say?
I believe it may have been Gore Vidal who made the suggestion that still sticks in my mind after forty-three years: "We come in peace for all mankind. Now come out from behind that rock with your hands up."
Ponca City, We Love You
Last time I was there, at Tranquility Park in downtown Houston, across from the old federal building/current federal courts at 515 Rusk, there was a giant plaque at the entrance to the park quoting those first words from the moon.
The quote included the missing "a".
Somebody thought highly enough of the theory that the article belonged in the sentence that they cast it in bronze, decades ago, soon after the landing.
It's been a while since I've been in that park. Is there anybody who works nearby who can verify that the plaque, complete with the "a", is still there? It used to be at the corner entrance on the Rusk side of the park.
I'm sure any person who is about to make a giant turning point in history would come up with a quote a few minutes at least before hand. I never noticed the "man" and "mankind" but it sounds so much better with the "a".
Neil Armstrong was a gaming nerd!
In other news, who cares? It was an amazing moment in history. Why on earth are people still quibbling over the *EXACT* thing he said? Who *REALLY* cares if he messed it up live? The point was the same whether he missed an A or not.
that that it was lost in communication static
Another summary with a mistake, making it the third in a row. I think it's time to call it quits.
Not a huge fan of this origin story. I'm personally waiting for the Brian Singer reboot.
Admittedly more interesting than the story at hand, wait your turn and submit the story following the correct procedure instead of hijacking this boring story!
is the time during one could have asked Mr Armstrong directly...
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
"Man" is a noun, not an article. The addition of the indefinite article "a" is the difference between a count noun ("a man") or a non-count noun ("man").
My 6 year old son was asked what the first moon lander's famous words were, and he said "yabba dabba doo". I laughed but then thought, that was almost certainly much closer to what Armstrong was probably thinking, despite what he said.
"This new story however conflicts with what Neil told James Hansen for his biography, stating he came up with the quote on the lunar surface."
Thus exposing one of the American greatest heroes as a liar. Not even a bullshiter, which would be a softer version, but a plain liar.
Second is even better:
Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me.-Pete Conrad
Even astronauts. Even about stuff they themselves did. Brains are dumb things sometimes. :)
Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
Armstrong paused for the a and I suspect the voice controlled push to talk in his OPS pack dropped out for a moment.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Anybody?
Are you sick of your WHITE country being flooded with millions of unwanted, parasitic third world INVADERS yet?
How bad will it have to get before you stop defending this insanity? Will you wait until it's too late to turn it around, and you're surrounded by these 'wonderful' people?
I was just eight years old when Lovell Anders and Bormann flew to the Moon and back without landing the Christmas before Neil's Moon Landing. The Apollo 8 team had warmth grace and humanity I've drawn on in all the years since ... it is my fondest memory of childhood when my mother would ask us to place ourselves there ... it seemed so real. These guys were true ambassadors for good will when they returned and for years to come.
Constrast that with the petty secretive and closed-mouthed Neil Armstrong. He labored long and finally spoke up in favor of more government funding for the NASA pension system. Geez what a let down Neil was....
Comment removed based on user account deletion
With Walter Cronkite.
The first words was a big deal, everybody was anxious to hear what
they would be. After the "one small step" line Cronkite says to his
co-host well you have to understand he was under a lot of pressure
over what to say. Nobody really thought it was great by any means
but it's what we got.
For me: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."
will always be the first words spoken and quality stuff.
"That's one small step for [a] man [static] YOU SHOULD KILL US ALL ON SIGHT [static], one giant leap for mankind."
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Ayn Rand was asked about words to say on the Moon - a landing funded by tax payer money? Money taken by the government from its citizens.
Ayn Rand: "This is what happens when Collectivism works."
No, couldn't have happened. She was the Queen of rationalizations. She would have come up with something about great men and private industry, skirting around the whole government involvement, and then gone a fucked one of her fanboys - while still married.
She had wonderful rationalizations for cheating on her husband, too.
Turned out it was one giant leap for Armstrong, one largely irrelevant step for mankind.
Since they never *actually* landed on the moon :).
Certainly worth looking into, but I'm reminded of a quote my uncle used to often say:
"Believe none of what you see, and only half of what you hear."
Stories like this fuel active imaginations everywhere and bolster an underground culture that thrives on these conspiracy theories. The problem is that one day, your government may really turn on you (this fiscal cliff may be the beginning of something very ugly), and the vast majority of the population will then assume that all whisperings are just another conspiracy theory.
I listened to the event live, and I and everyone in the room heard it as "one small step for man." And I remember at the time hearing a comment, "shouldn't he have said one small step for a man?" The audio recording is perfectly clear. There's no squelch, no gap, and nothing half-buried under static. The New York Times reported it as it was.
Neil Armstrong originally insisted he had said "a" but later acknowledged that he could not have said so. Wikipedia cites sources.
Yet some encyclopedias and history books include the "a." It is a kindly falsification of history, made out of misguided respect for Neil Armstrong's feelings.
And I find it shocking.
It is a trivial distortion, but it is a distortion of an event that was witnessed in live broadcast by half a billion people and electronically recorded.
If such a thing can be distorted simply to spare one man's feelings about a completely inconsequential mistake, what does that tell us about the trustworthiness of basic, prosaic factual details of historical events with few eyewitnesses, no electronic records, and money, politics, or national pride hanging in the balance?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
He has created multiple controversy towards the end of his life:
1) his blasting of Obama's push for private space support while ignoring the fact that NASA's main-line rockets are disasters.
2) his blasting of SpaceX, elon musk, and then his retraction of it.
3) now, questions about his earlier statements; IOW, a question about his veracity.
While it appears that his mind is going, or that he has allowed his political extremism to take hold, I just hope that none of this overshadow's his earlier accomplishments. Prior to his getting involved with politics, he did a lot of good work.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Hello, Neil.
hat doffed.. well done sir!
Bliadhna mhath ùr!
I've read about the missing 'a' controversy for years and was watching live on TV when Neil made his step and statement, but the big news for me from this story is that Neil and his brother were playing Risk a few months before the mission. So was I, how cool is that!
I assume you mean this? Neil Armstrong's bootprint.
http://img.groundspeak.com/waymarking/78a83d0a-889c-4d0a-9e90-aa8e42efaa74.jpg
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
could send a guy named "Buzz" to the moon. America, F**k Yeah!
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
anyone talk about Armstrong's REAL mistake. It's HUMANkind, you sexist man!!!
"That's no moon..."
I grew up about a hundred miles from where Mr. Armstrong grew up - not that close really, but close enough for me to be familiar with how English is spoken in these parts. If I close my eyes, and say that phrase with the 'a' in it, but mimic how Armstrong phrased it - the 'a' is there because I put it there, but it's extremely difficult to hear. It's my belief that this is what happened. He said it, in his own natural way, and it's already very difficult to hear. Throw in the fact of transmission quality and noise, and there you have the apparently missing 'a'.
Last I heard, Armstrong (who insisted he said it right), was vindicated by analysis of the original audio.
Link?
NASA has claimed such for some time. "He totally said it, and we totally used top-secret NASA technology to verify it in our top-secret space-age labs, but don't feel like releasing the reconstructed audio, because we at NASA consider such a blatant public relations coup to be beneath us."
Go listen to it yourself on Youtube. The part between "for" and "man" is the one part of that transmission that's perfectly clear of static, mostly since it's way too short to contain an "a" anyway.
He flubbed the line.
There is an old photo that exists, which I saw maybe 5 years ago when arguments about this were also going on, which has Armstrong and the team in a room at NASA doing...whatever it is that astronauts do in the weeks/months they fly.
I cant recall if it was on the internet or a documentary. I think it may have been a doco.
On a blackboard or similar in the background in the room they are all posing it the quote written. It was different from what he said.
I had a quick google but couldnt find the photo. If someone knows where it is or the name of the doco, please post the link!