Neil Armstrong's Moon Quote Earns an 'A'

NewsMax ^ | 9/30/06 | AP

[wagglebee]

It will be great to see the new version.

[wagglebee]

Space Ping.

[bpjam]

Maybe we can use this software to truly understand what the hell Bubba was 'actually' saying during the 90's. Maybe its true that he was obsessed with Bin Laden and was talking about him all the time and we just couldn't hear it because of the quality of the television transmission.

[Phsstpok]

The transmission of the word "a" was blocked by the UFO when it passed between earth and the transmitter on the lander.

No, wait. It was blocked by interference from a good humor truck passing by the sound stage where the fake landing was filmed. Yeah. That's the ticket.

[P-40]

It was still better than saying "hey, Buzz, could you toss me down the rock hammer." :)

[JaguarXKE]

Damn, I'm glad they found it! Now maybe we can all get some sleep!

[Always Right]

Damn, I'm glad they found it! Now maybe we can all get some sleep!

yep, that grammatical error had been a huge black eye on the NASA program for years.

[the anti-liberal]

I still think it should have been:

"That's one giant leap for a man, one small step for mankind."

This would be more true according to scale - on the small scale of a man stepping from the Earth to the moon is a very big step, but on the much larger scale of mankind the step is relatively much smaller, though on that scale this may well have been mankind's very first (and so far only) real step.

[operation clinton cleanup]

What did Buzz say when he stepped off the LEM? "One small step for a ... no, wait, there is some other guy already here".

[Riley]

It was still better than saying "hey, Buzz, could you toss me down the rock hammer." :)

That reminds me of a hysterical conversation that I had with (an unfortunately now banned) Freeper- about what Armstrong's historic first words from another world might have been if he'd twisted his ankle as he stepped down from the lander to the Lunar surface. The thread started on that shakey ground and just degenerated from there. It was hilarious.

[KellyAdmirer]

I thought it was perfect the way it (sort of) was. It became a unique phrase. The missing "a" may make it grammatically correct, but it also reduces it in my eyes to just a simple, straightforward sentence. Sort of the difference between someone saying in a computer game, "All your base are belong to us," which is legendary, vs. saying something like, oh, "You are defeated, lamehead."

[operation clinton cleanup]

"That's one giant leap for a man, one small step for mankind."

I think I read somewhere that was the original script.... Armstrong pronounced it wrong in all the excitement!

[KStorm]

Maybe we can use this software to truly understand what the hell Bubba was 'actually' saying during the 90's. Maybe its true that he was obsessed with Bin Laden and was talking about him all the time and we just couldn't hear it because of the quality of the television transmission.

Please, they don't need any more revisionist ideas. : )

[Dixie Yooper]

I heard what he really said was;

"That's one small step for an American, one impossible dream for for anyone else who wants to give it a try"

[the anti-liberal]

Perhaps that's where I got it - it certainly makes more sense to me! Also, by characterizing it as a small step it implicitly encourages further steps, something we haven't been doing much lately. We are a baby who has taken it's first step, then sat down on our butt and just sat there.

I wonder if we're ever going to learn to walk?

[mission9]

I distinctly remember Neil issuing a "correction" after his return from the moon, inserting the "a". Unfortunately, a historic recording widely distributed cannot be recalled. Because it is so historic and genuine, I think it has actually shaped grammar as a result. This footnote will not change anything.

[Riley]

Oddly enough- I have Liberal friends and family who agree with that, totally.

[sawmill trash]

You know ... my question has always been not what was said, but who took the pictures ?

Inquiring minds want to know...

[dr_lew]

I have always heard the 'a' . It's obscured by the nasal stop of the 'm' in "man". Just say it yourself with the midwest twang - "fer a man" - "fer man" ... very little difference.

[the anti-liberal]

Just imagine those same Muslims who brought us the beginnings of science building a space ship and landing on the moon!

What Arab Civilization?

You state, "its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption." The fundamental basis of modern mathematics had been laid down not hundreds but thousands of years before by Assyrians and Babylonians, who already knew of the concept of zero, of the Pythagorean Theorem, and of many, many other developments expropriated by Arabs/Muslims (see History of Babylonian Mathematics, Neugebauer).