Neil Armstrong's Moon Quote Earns an 'A'

NewsMax ^ | 9/30/06 | AP

[wagglebee]

That's one small word for astronaut Neil Armstrong, one giant revision for grammar sticklers everywhere.

An Australian computer programmer says he found the missing "a" from Armstrong's famous first words from the moon in 1969, when the world heard the phrase, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

The story was reported in Saturday's editions of the Houston Chronicle.

Some historians and critics have dogged Armstrong for not saying the more dramatic and grammatically correct, "One small step for a man . . ." in the version he transmitted to NASA's Mission Control. Without the missing "a," Armstrong essentially said, "One small step for mankind, one giant leap for mankind."

The famous astronaut has maintained he intended to say it properly and believes he did. Thanks to some high-tech sound-editing software, computer programmer Peter Shann Ford might have proved Armstrong right.

Ford said he downloaded the audio recording of Armstrong's words from a NASA Web site and analyzed the statement with software that allows disabled people to communicate through computers using their nerve impulses.

In a graphical representation of the famous phrase, Ford said he found evidence that the missing "a" was spoken and transmitted to NASA.

"I have reviewed the data and Peter Ford's analysis of it, and I find the technology interesting and useful," Armstrong said in a statement. "I also find his conclusion persuasive. Persuasive is the appropriate word."

[Mr. Jeeves]

I like Apollo 12 Commander Pete Conrad's quote better:

"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me." ;)

[JohnnyZ]

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.

Agreed.

There are many, many, many occurrences where literalist transcriptions skip words or syllables that are 'swallowed' in normal speech. IMO this reflects very poorly on the intelligence of the transcriber.

ONE SMALL STEP FOR [static/crackle] MAN -- the cadence clearly implies a swallowed and/or static-obscured 'a'.

[Revolting cat!]

Neil Armstrong infamous line was concocted by sweating Nixon or Nixon and his brain trust, (I thought everyone knew that?) and to this cat represents the beginning of an era when we started interpreting staged events,theater, as what's significant and important: press conferences, speeches, all of them no different than fashion shows. There was nothing spontaneous about this line and it sounds like something an accounting clerk might come up with (with apologies to all accounting clerks with imagination.) What would any one of us say in such situation? What would Neil Armstrong say if he didn't have a script prepared by all the Ehrilchmans and Haldemans and John Deans to memorize? Me, I'd say:

Good Golly Miss Molly,
She sure likes to ball!

[oldbill]

There are no still pictures of Armstrong on the moon.
Aldrin had the camera.

[onedoug]

ping

[wagglebee]

Here's both of them on the Moon.

Plenty of pictures here:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo_11_30th.html

[jennyp]

LOL, I can't believe we have people who insist that Armstrong did indeed say "A", and we have people who insist that it's better that he didn't say "A"!

[the anti-liberal]

Wasn't the whole thing stages somewhere? If I know my conspiracy theories - and I don't - one of them says they never went up, it was all staged and photographed in some hanger somewhere, right?

[Larry Lucido]

Actually, it was Buzz Aldrin saying, "Hey, step off, man!"

[Revolting cat!]

I had a link, which I can't find now to a short ovideo outtake of Neil Armstrong's supposed walk on the moon, where he (or the actor inside the suit) fall of a ladder and the director calls out "CUT!".

Confidentially, my buddy, by the way, who hasn't been seen in years, (he may have been "eliminated" as a living witness, or is living in comfort in Tahiti, I dunno), worked as an assistant cameraman on that secrewt session in the old Warner Brothers studios in Burbank which don't exist any more. Anyway, his old lady and kids have been doing great in the meantime without any visible means of support, so that's another part of the mystery. He had some tales to tell, I tell ya!

[Tanniker Smith]

So when are they releasing the Special Edition Director's Cut on DVD?

[Tanniker Smith]

My favorite quote, according the book about the astronauts was uttered after it was over and Neil and Buzz and Mike Collins made their way back to Earth and learned of all the celebration and euphoria over their accomplishment. Buzz turned to Armstrong and said, "Neil, we missed the whole thing!"

[the anti-liberal]

:'p

How long's a guy gotta stand on the steps ta gawk?

[wagglebee]

[the anti-liberal]

I wonder if there were Liberals there protesting the landing?

If everybody else is happy about it, they must be protesting it - isn't that the way it works?

[auzerais]

A great fun movie to catch about the extraordinary measures employed to capture Armstrong's first words on the moon is THE DISH.

It is about the men and women who manned the satellite receiving dish in the Australian outback on that day to catch the first pictures from the moon.
A great family film with Sam Neill that I really recommend to everyone. If you haven't seen it, do so.

[NCC-1701]

It doesn't matter what he said. We never went to the moon in the first place. /s

[NCC-1701]

That looks like the Apollo 14 back-up crew.

[Kieri]

Didn't you get the memo?

That UFO was actually a prototype spacecraft created and developed by muslims. They used an advanced model several years ago to blast mohammad's face off Mars, then promptly called for jihad against the Martian infidels.

[NCC-1701]

Michael Collins had a neat suggestion to Neil. He suggested that Neil would start to say something, then in mock fear, say, "Hey, Buzz, what't that? LOOK OUT!" Neil was then to let out a blood-curdling yell then kill his mike. I still get a mental picture of that happening and their reaction in Houston.