Armstrong's 'Poetic'slip on the Moon

[astroron]

There has been lots of discussions over the years on the subject what was said when Neil Armstrong first put his foot on the Moon, now it seems that the matter has been put to bed;)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8081817.stm

[iceman]

I don't think it really matters one way or the other - it was a great line either way.

I liked the 3 minute video at the top too, some great highlight footage.

Thanks for the link.

[Campus Dweller]

I have never understood the need for the constant intrigue over this matter.:shrug:
How many times in our everyday conversations do we not use the right word or phrase? Even in written forums such as this one, the contributions are unedited and we're always using the incorect gremmar and spolling.:whistle:

Poor old Neil A, in one of the momentous moments of history, stumbles and leaves out an 'a'. He was a pretty damned good pilot so I think we can forgive him an error of syntax.

I wish the pedants would just get over it:mad2:
Cheers otherwise
Drew:)

[AstralTraveller]

I don't have the reference to hand but I'm pretty sure that quote was not actually his first words on the surface of the moon. I think the first words were something like: "It's grey powdery stuff" (refering to what he was standing on). Then he went into the announcement he had obviously prepared.

[iceman]

If you watch the video at the top of the story, it has the whole blurb.

The famous words were the first he spoke after stepping on the moon. The blurb before that was while he was on the ladder.

[AstralTraveller]

OK, foot in mouth. :doh: I was going to watch the video at home, and should have waited until then to comment.

[GrahamL]

That pic of the eagle heading down for the surface is just
staggering .. 40 years forward to today thats still a pretty ballsy
achievment.. I remember getting dragged up to the music room at school to watch as not everybody had a tv at home :)

Would you of gone if given the choice all those years ago?

[astroron]

We keep getting told that it was not a prepared speech, yet everyone seems to know what he was supposed to say:screwy:

[Jen]

:eyepop:OMG all that fuss over the letter A huh :screwy::screwy::rolleyes::rolleyes :
Havnt they realised how much emotion he would have had going through his head at that time ;) Wow if that was me stepping on the moon all they would have heard from me would have been beeped.......
OMG BEEP BEEP wow BEEP BEEP this is beautiful BEEP BEEP.... OMFG beeeeeeeepppppppp:lol::lol:
:D

[Glenn Dawes]

Hi Guys,

You know Armstrong's "On small step for Man...." was impressive, but I wonder how many of you reading this would have heard the last words spoken on the surface from Eugene Cernan, Apollo 17, at the end of the last EVA:

"Bob, this is Gene, and I'm on the surface; and, as I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come - but we believe not too long into the future - I'd like to just (say) what I believe history will record. That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus- Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. "Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17."

It turned out his "not too long in the future" was wrong, but overall quite inspirational. Especially to me as a 15 year old starry eyed boy listening to this live on the radio dreaming of being an astronaut one day! Oh well...

Glenn

[Jen]

:doh::doh: Oh no you missed out the letter "E" in the word One now that changes the saying once again :lol::lol::lol:
:D

[Glenn Dawes]

Hi Jen,

You got me there! I feel like I'm playing Scrabble! Can I buy a vowel? You know if Armstrong had we wouldn't have seen discussions like this come up from time-to-time over the last 40 years! :)

Glenn

[Jen]

:lol::lol:

[Glenn Dawes]

Jen,

I was serious! I'm running out of vwls fst!;)

[erick]

Not recorded but something like - "I'll dump the garbage bags behind this rock over here- be with you in a minute." ??

[stephenb]

I did :hi:. I have read Gene Cernan's Autobiography a few times now and love it.

I have read First Man, Neil's Authorised biography, and he goes to great lengths to emphasise that no one was told of any of his first words. No one told him what to say. Neil is quite clear on that.

1. Incidently, to be technical, Buzz actually said the first words!!, not Neil.

Buzz said: "Contact Light", referring to the illuminated contact light which lit up when one or more of the sensors on the LM foot pads touched the surface.

2. There are no photos taken of Neil, by Buzz, whilst on the surface outside the LM, apart from the reflection of Neil in Buzz's sun visor in that famous image. It wasn't anything deliberate, it's just that it wasn't on Buzz's EVA checklist.

3. Neil had to reminded a number of times to "Get the contingency samples" (i.e. rocks) asap, because if they had to take off in an emergency, Mission Control wanted to ensure they had on board the most important samples of all time.

4. The famous foot print in the lunar dust is actually Buzz's.

Don't get me started on the Apollo program, I'll be here for days.

[Robh]

"One small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind."

Makes sense to me both ways!
Without the (a) ...
It was both a small step and a giant leap for man(kind).
Landing on the moon was a small step in man's exploration of space.
But as an intellectual and technological achievement, it was a giant leap forward.

Rob

[anthony2302749]

Neil's quote was good but you have to like the line that Pete Conrad use while stepping onto the lunar surface during Apollo 12

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

[Zaps]

IIRC, Armstrong has said that it was his wife who suggested the line to him. Protocol may have dictated that he first get NASA's okay to say it. (I'm guessing about that last part, but NASA has always been a notoriously bureaucratic outfit.)

[Glenn Dawes]

Hi Stephen,

Interesting comment re Buzz and the 'contact light'. I've always thought being on Apollo 8 and being the first to go to the Moon would have been great as well - no wonder NASA chose to go this way. It must have been disappointing for the Russians.

Anyway, I would love to have a long chat on Apollo one day (it might bore everyone else)

Btw, you should be able to answer my trivia question (see above post).

Regards

Glenn

[stephenb]

Hi Glenn, we could probably bang on about the space program for days. It's a favorite topic of mine.

Just to set the records straight, I don't think I've answered that question ""where were you when Neil walked on the moon?".. umm, propped up in front of the ol' Pye black and white only 12 days old. I cannot quite remember it.

I have read First Man and listened to the Audio Book several times, and for the first time I think I like the audio book better than the paper version. I love the reading and the emotion of it.


More interesting trivia, which I'm sure some of you know...

1. Buzz is the first human to take a pee on the Moon. As he is descending down the ladder he pauses before stepping onto the surface "does an Alan Shepard" LOL pees in his suit. Even Buzz admits to it in In the Shadow of the Moon doco, in a slight grin!

The CapCom was Bruce McCandless for Neil's EVA out of the LM. His famous quotes you all would have heard (especially if you have at least watched The Dish. "Ok Neil we can see you coming down the ladder...". What was Bruce famous for? Clue? I remember the Herald Sun Headline on the (I think) front page the next day "Look Mum, no hands!"

[stephenb]

There have been rumours that part of the One Small Step statement came from a memo from William Shapley, Associate Deputy Administrator at NASA to Dr. Geo. Mueller, head of the Manned Space Flight Centre. This memo passed Deke Slayton's desk to pass onto Neil. Or so the story goes. It is just one of many stories about the origins of the One Small Step statement.

But in my opinion, that's all they are, stories. Legends lost in time.

Neil has absolutely no recollection of it, and Deke is not alive today to confirm or refute it.

Even Walter Cronkite made a comment on live television on the morning of the landing referring to "a giant leap".

Neil sums it up by saying,

"... you never know subliminally in you brain where things come from. Bit it certainly wasn't conscious. "

In regards to the missing "a". Neil says,

"For people who have listened to me for houes on the radio communications tapes, they know I left a lot of syllables out. It was not unusual for me to do that. I'm not particularly articulate. Perhaps it was a supressed sound that was not picked up by the voice mike. As I have listened to it, it doesn't sound like there was time there for the word (the letter "a") to be there. On the other hand, I think that reasonable people realise that I "a" was intended, because that's the only way the statement makes sense.

So I hope that history would grant me leeway for dropping the syllable and understand that it was certainly intended, even if it wasn;t said - although it actually might have been".

Finally, asked how historians should quote his One Small Step statement, Neil answers only somewhat facetiously, "They can put it in parentheses".

That's enough for me. I'm convinced.