Origin of Neil Armstrong's 'One Small Step' Line Revealed 149
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."
Re:first (Score:5, Funny)
maybe he had to drop the "a" (Score:5, Funny)
to lip sync with the footage they got from New Mexico?
What he really said... (Score:2, Funny)
We're whalers on the moon...we carry a harpoon...
Re:Some of these were also considered... (Score:4, Funny)
"FIRST!"
Re:Doesn't matter (Score:5, Funny)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_in_popular_culture#Movies_and_television [wikipedia.org] says
Portions of the Apollo 11 mission are dramatized in the HBO mini-series From the Earth to the Moon episode entitled "Mare Tranquilitatis". In that episode, Michael Collins made the following suggestion as to what Armstrong should say upon stepping onto the lunar surface: "If you had any balls, you'd say 'Oh, my God, what is that thing?' then scream and cut your mic."
Now that would have been epic :)
Re:dub in the "a" (Score:4, Funny)
It's completely bogus! He said something completely different, but they were too politically correct to admit it.
He said: "Holy living fuck... Are you fucking believing this? Over.
I abso-fucking-lutely am standing on the surface of the fucking moon!"
Here's the paper from that day that confirms it.:-)
http://www.doobybrain.com/2009/07/18/the-onion-holy-shit-man-walks-on-fucking-moon/ [doobybrain.com]
Re:Doesn't matter (Score:5, Funny)
Does man's word mean so little anymore?
FTFY
Re:Doesn't matter (Score:2, Funny)
You hadn't heard of the brother angle? You win five (5) internets for responding to an article without reading the summary.