{"id":59200,"date":"2024-05-25T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-25T07:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/6397af5d-0a7e-41e1-9c61-9db863ada056"},"modified":"2024-05-25T08:08:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T08:08:22","slug":"one-small-step-for-man-what-did-neil-armstrong-really-say-when-he-stepped-onto-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/one-small-step-for-man-what-did-neil-armstrong-really-say-when-he-stepped-onto-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"One small step for man&#8230; What did Neil Armstrong really say when he stepped onto the Moon?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\">A grammatical debate has plagued one of the most famous lines in history, ever since it was first spoken. <\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By <\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Saturday, 25 May 2024 at 07:11 AM<\/p><hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/><?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body><p>You\u2019d think this would be a nice easy question to answer, wouldn\u2019t you?<\/p><p>What with audio and video clips of the historic event not just readily available, but counting among some of the most-viewed footage of all time.<\/p><p>But no.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Apollo 11 Moonwalk Montage\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hxPbnFc7iU8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-one-small-step-for-a-man\"><strong>One small step for a man?<\/strong><\/h2><p>It&#8217;s hardly a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-missions\/apollo-moon-landing-conspiracy-theories-crushed\">moonlanding conspiracy theory<\/a>, but over the years there&#8217;s been quite a bit of discussion about what Neil Armstrong actually said on the Moon.<\/p><p>&#8220;That\u2019s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind&#8221; is what millions of TV viewers around the world heard Armstrong say on that fateful July day in 1969, when the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-missions\/apollo-11-story-of-moon-landing\">Apollo 11<\/a> mission landed on the Moon.<\/p><p>The problem is, that wasn\u2019t what he meant to say at all.<\/p><p>What he meant to say was \u201cone small step for <em>a<\/em> man\u201d, which makes a lot more sense.<\/p><p>And for many years, Armstrong insisted that that was what he HAD said.<\/p><p>The \u201ca\u201d, he said, either simply hadn\u2019t been picked up by the fairly primitive communications equipment, or had been obscured by static.<\/p><p>After listening to the recording many times, however, Armstrong eventually conceded that there was no \u201ca\u201d detectable and acknowledged, reluctantly, that he may have misspoken.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">One small step for man. Buzz Aldrin pictured climbing on to the surface of the Moon. Photo taken by Neil Armstrong. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-twist\"><strong>The twist<\/strong><\/h2><p>So that\u2019s that all cleared up then, yes?<\/p><p>Well, no, actually, because in 2006 a computer programmer and speech analyst called Peter Shann Ford went back to the original recording, re-analysed it using ultra-sensitive modern equipment and came to the conclusion that Armstrong was right all along: he had indeed said \u201ca man\u201d but the \u201ca\u201d was covered up by static.<\/p><p>Shann Ford published his findings in a paper called\u00a0 <em>Electronic Evidence and Physiological Reasoning Identifying the Elusive Vowel &#8216;a&#8217; in Neil Armstrong&#8217;s Statement on First Stepping onto the Lunar Surface<\/em>, but other speech therapists have since called them into question.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"741\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2019\/07\/Armstrong-Apollo-11-a723242-e1562752663766.jpg\" alt=\"Neil Armstrong works at an equipment storage area on the lunar module during Apollo 11. Credit: NASA\" class=\"wp-image-38002\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Neil Armstrong works at an equipment storage area on the lunar module during Apollo 11. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>So we may never know for sure.<\/p><p>And as an aside\u2026 it\u2019s not like there\u2019s an original script we can refer to, either.<\/p><p>Armstrong traditionally said that he only started thinking about what he\u2019d say when they touched down as the lunar module Eagle was approaching the surface of the Moon.<\/p><p>Yet his own brother, David Armstrong, claimed in 2012 to have seen a draft of the famous line months before the mission took off.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A grammatical debate has plagued one of the most famous lines in history, ever since it was first spoken. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":59201,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/one-small-step-for-man-what-did-neil-armstrong-really-say-when-he-stepped-onto-the-moon.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/one-small-step-for-man-what-did-neil-armstrong-really-say-when-he-stepped-onto-the-moon-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/one-small-step-for-man-what-did-neil-armstrong-really-say-when-he-stepped-onto-the-moon-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/one-small-step-for-man-what-did-neil-armstrong-really-say-when-he-stepped-onto-the-moon-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/one-small-step-for-man-what-did-neil-armstrong-really-say-when-he-stepped-onto-the-moon-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/one-small-step-for-man-what-did-neil-armstrong-really-say-when-he-stepped-onto-the-moon.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/one-small-step-for-man-what-did-neil-armstrong-really-say-when-he-stepped-onto-the-moon.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A grammatical debate has plagued one of the most famous lines in history, ever since it was first spoken.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/59200"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}