![]() In 2006, an Australian computer programmer, Peter Ford, attempted to prove Armstrong correct in his earliest protestations by analyzing NASA tape of the words and allegedly coming up with "evidence" that the astronaut actually did say the word but it was eradicated by transmission static. Meanwhile, most media accounts faithfully adhered to the official transcript and followed along by putting a in parentheses. "I thought I said it," he declared in an interview. He should have said, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." That way the distinction is made between man and mankind, which essentially mean the same thing, and the sentence reads as a declaration of both what the momentous occasion meant for the single explorer physically stepping off the ladder's last rung and what it represented, generally, for the entire human race.Īrmstrong maintained soon after returning to Earth that he had said the word a and that listeners at home just hadn't heard him or it had been drowned out by space static, though he modified his story in later decades and said he "intended" to say the missing article. The problem with his little speech was the fact that Armstrong left out an indefinite article, "a", before the word man. Those words became revealed when he reached the bottom of the lunar module's ladder: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." astronaut Neil Armstrong did, indeed, step in it when he uttered his immortal words upon reaching the lunar surface. (Although Armstrong insisted until his death in 2012 that he had come up with his famous phrase just minutes before he exited the Eagle spacecraft, his brother Dean admitted in a British documentary that Neil had written it down and shown it to him during a late-night board-game session months before the launch.) U.S. The heavy reponsibility of acknowledging that shared sentiment with words for the listening world fell to Armstrong, who was scheduled to be the first to step on the lunar surface and who had been long pondering what to say on that occasion. It also created a sense of unity in people worldwide who felt that the remarkable success of the Apollo 11 astronauts represented the first baby steps taken by the human race, collectively, in fulfilling its destiny of eventually spreading out from its home planet, Earth. astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong immediately eclipsed for Americans all other space accomplishments because of its sheer audacity and technological know-how, unifying for a time a country divided over the Vietnam war, civil rights, and then-president Richard Nixon. to such landmark Space Race achievements as the first orbiting artificial satellite ( Sputnik 1, 1957), the first human to orbit the Earth (Yuri Gagarin, 1961), and the first space walk (Alexei Leonov, 1965), the landing of the lunar module containing U.S. In terms of North Americans of a certain age remembering exactly where they were when a history-changing moment occurred, Apollo 11 is right up there with JFK's assassination and the breaking events of 9-11.Įven though the Soviet Union had already beaten the U.S. That first instance of humans setting foot on another celestial body was viewed by an estimated 650 million slack-jawed fellow beings back on Earth. Now, a grammar mistake might be thought to be of interest to only teachers, copy editors, or fussbudgets, but this one has to be considered in the context of the enormity of the event and its unprecedented exposure on live television. astronaut Neil Armstrong as he stepped upon the moon, accompany virtually every retelling of this famous event.Īre you also aware, though, that what Armstrong uttered is also considered to contain the most famous grammatical error of all time? ![]() For weeks, TV specials, documentaries, and newspapers have been reminding the world that Saturday (July 20) marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and those words, originally spoken by U.S. You are aware, undoubtedly, of its origin. ![]() Are you getting tired of reading and hearing this phrase recently: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"?
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