When Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on a July day 37 years ago, he was observed by millions of people back on Earth who watched a live television broadcast.
They heard him proclaim for the ages, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Most were simply thrilled at the accomplishment. But some scratched their heads and wondered why the heck Armstrong put it that way. He went a long distance to utter a sentence that didn’t quite make sense. In the context of the sentence, “man” and “mankind” seemed to mean the same thing.
Now comes proof, courtesy of an Australian computer programmer who utilized today’s sound-editing technology, that Armstrong actually said, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” NASA’s transmission equipment simply didn’t pick it up.
Now that makes sense. Armstrong took one step from the bottom rung of the Eagle’s ladder onto the surface of the moon, but the implications for mankind were staggering. Human beings had finally traveled into the darkness of space and landed on the moon.
Armstrong has always insisted that he uttered the critical article “a” when he emerged from the Eagle and set foot on the moon. Turns out he was right. A single word obscured for decades has now been revealed. That’s one small step for comprehension.
