posted 01-03-2013 06:45 AM               

This article from the Cincinnati Enquirer spells it out.

For a while upon returning to Earth, Armstrong intimated that he just thought the line up spontaneously. Later, he said he had had time to think about what to say in the hours between landing on the moon and stepping down the ladder. Years later, ever the mystery, he seemed to suggest that perhaps he spent time crafting the line before launch.

Now, Dean Armstrong, Neil’s younger brother, says Neil knew exactly what he would say well before takeoff. In an interview with the BBC, Dean says that one evening, while playing the board game Risk, Neil handed Dean the line that he was planning to say.

posted 01-03-2013 06:46 AM               

Neil Armstrong's first words on the moon: one small fib or giant leap by brother?

Were Neil Armstrong's historic first words spoken on the moon pre-scripted or, as the late astronaut long held, ad-libbed on the spot?

Armstrong, on becoming the first person to step foot onto another planetary body on July 20, 1969, radioed back to Earth, "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." His quote instantly became a part of history. (The "a" wasn't audible in the broadcast but the astronaut said — and a 2006 audio analysis supported — that he did indeed speak the word.)

Since returning to Earth four decades ago and up until his death last year, Armstrong maintained that he did not give any thought to what he would say while on the moon until after he safely landed the Apollo 11 lunar module "Eagle" at Tranquility Base.

But a new interview with his brother suggests Armstrong's "small step" quip was not a "giant leap" at improvisation...

posted 01-03-2013 05:32 PM               

If Dean's account is correct, then he is contradicting his brother, who told James Hansen (in "First Man") that he spent no time thinking about what he would say until after he landed on the moon.

Armstrong's first wife Janet, as well as his crewmates, also told Hansen that they had no idea what Armstrong would say and that he did not discuss it with them.

posted 01-03-2013 08:48 PM               

The way Neil spoke his words when he stepped off the footpad and considering it sounded sort of monotone, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to know that Neil had either written the words down somewhere to see how they sounded if he read them out loud or at least gone over them in his head. The tone in which they were spoken didn't sound spontaneous like his words regarding the LM footpads, the appearance of the lunar soil and the length of the LM strut just before he stepped off.

Neil was a thoughtful guy and I've no doubt he put more than just a spontaneous thought into those words in the seconds he was standing on the footpad. Every engineer knows sometimes you have to put things down on paper, especially if you want to check the math (or in this case, the vocabulary). Neil being engineering minded and not one for small talk probably tackled the problem in an engineering sort of way so he was prepared because he kept getting hounded by people on the topic leading up to the flight and he wanted it taken care of (cross off that part of the checklist as it were). But regardless of if he came up with that phrase while on Earth or on the lunar surface, he still came up with it himself and nobody else did it for him. The rest is just arguing semantics.

posted 01-03-2013 09:53 PM               

And if I ever ran into Neil's brother Dean on the street, he would have to tell me who he was, because I sure do not see a family resemblance.

The very first time I was in Wapakoneta, Ohio in 1969, and I made my parents drive me over to 912 Neil Armstrong Drive to "check it out" and when we were back by the garage and a man (no doubt Neil's father) was moving the trash can around... boy, did I ever want to do my FIRST dumpster diving that day, before the word was invented!

posted 01-04-2013 10:15 AM               

Like everyone else, I see no difference when he came up with his line. The important thing is it's the perfect line for the moment.

posted 01-04-2013 12:39 PM               

His brother has now contradicted that account.

posted 01-04-2013 01:13 PM               

With possibly a billion people waiting to hear those words, there had to be tremendous pressure to come up with something good.

posted 01-04-2013 01:34 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by p51:
Frankly, Aldrin saying, "Contact" was probably the first word spoken on the Moon, so I've never understood why the "one small step" line was such a big deal...

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posted 01-04-2013 02:36 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Which raises an interesting point: if we ignore for a moment Dean Armstrong's account and go only by what Neil Armstrong said, then he put more importance (or at least planning) into the words spoken upon landing on the moon than he did stepping onto the moon.

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I think it's very plausible that this is the case. Landing on the moon was the more difficult accomplishment than walking on the moon. And as a pilot, Armstrong would naturally place more emphasis on flying the LM (and landing it successfully) than he would on walking on the lunar surface.

posted 01-04-2013 08:26 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by schnappsicle:
"Contact" was the first word spoken after the the first lunar landing.

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Contact light. Okay Engine Stop. ACA out of Detent. Mode Control, both Auto. Descent Engine Command Override, Off. Engine Arm, Off. 413 is in.

posted 01-04-2013 10:16 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Though it was a well-kept secret at the time, he sought permission to name the landing site "Tranquility Base." And based on his statements about taking more pride in the landing than the first step, Armstrong may have considered his call out, "Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed," as more historic than his "small step" quote.

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For the landing, Armstrong gave some though to quotes; before the flight he and Aldrin decided that if they reached the lunar surface they would use the call sign "Tranquility Base"--"base" to connote exploration. They told only Charlie Duke, lest the first words from the moon take him by surprise--"Say again, Apollo 11?" And when it finally happened, Armstrong found himself adding quite spontaneously, "The Eagle has landed."

Armstrong was a unique person, as has been well documented. As a pilot, he saw a landing as the historic moment, not the step off of the vehicle which he landed, regardless of where he landed it. Many other famous and lesser pilots likely understand this. Did Orville Wright or Lindbergh or Yeager make a planned statement after stepping out of their flying machines? No, but they didn't have a live TV audience of millions waiting to hear what they had to say, either (Lindbergh was quoted as saying simply, "Well, I made it," when the crowds reached his aircraft).

Armstrong was fully aware of this, yet for all of these decades the memories of everyone close to Armstrong and the mission have agreed... he did not have a formal statement prepared. I think it is a little late to start rewriting history now, or perhaps too early, based upon one 40+ year old recollection.

Thinking toward the future, I hope that the next person to step on the moon, or an asteroid, or Mars, is equally spontaneous. I often found the prepared and read remarks following shuttle landings to pretty long-winded. I know there will be pressure, and probably more so in that he or she will have to follow up Neil's quote. But I would leave it to the person to find something appropriate, rather than it going through some approval process at NASA HQ.

posted 01-07-2013 06:39 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by 328KF:
Now if Armstrong had a fully prepared and planned statement ready for his first step, doesn't logic follow that he would have shared that with, at the very least, Capcom Bruce McCandless?

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posted 01-07-2013 11:45 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Paul78zephyr:
Assuming that Neil Armstrong came up with those words himself, and I have no reason to believe he did not, then why does it even matter when he thought of them?

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posted 10-31-2018 07:17 AM               

Well, yeah, he did tell me, but then he said other stuff too and so I don't know which one is true, cause I ask him about it.

He did say he did not think about it until he was on his way to the Moon. He did not have that ahead...

We used to play... when you were younger did you ever play 'Mother, May I?' ? You know, you take one step - 'Mother, may I?' - 'Yes you may, or no you may not', or you can take a giant step. And that kind of came to his mind and he thought, 'Gee, you know I can say a giant step, small step, you know, and kind of put those two together'. And it came from that game that we used to play as little kids.

posted 11-01-2018 12:43 PM               

Dean and Neil Armstrong's recollections may both be correct, if one believes the current special edition of New Scientist magazine on the subject of memory. In the article, we learn that memory is a malleable, adaptable, perishable illusion and that there are significant individual differences in recollection based on brain connectivity, emotional responses to events, attention levels, and recall cues. People who are good at recalling facts and logical reasoning have more connections between the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. People with rich autobiographical memories have more connections between the hippocampus and visual processing centers.

Given the high priority demands and cognitive task load on Neil before the mission, he may genuinely not have recalled a relatively brief discussion of possible first words. Whereas Dean indicated he was surprised and pleased by what Neil had written and may, therefore, have had a more emotional response to what would have been a novel, important, and memorable revelation by Neil. The presence or absence of recall cues may have affected later memory retrieval.

An interesting example of this phenomenon is Neil and Buzz's individual recollections of the moments immediately after the nerve-wracking Apollo 11 landing.

Aldrin remembered the two men looked at each other, and he patted Armstrong on the shoulder. Armstrong recalled the two shook hands.

posted 11-03-2018 02:41 PM               

If you went around and visited the 24 men who have been to the moon and you reminisced with them about their expeditions, you would be surprised at how differently each one remembers the experience. Not so much the technical details — though the vo­luminous scientific and engineering data gathered were closely monitored and are well recorded, the men who went have largely forgotten all that.

What sticks in their minds after fifteen years is whatever impressed them personally, uniquely.

All of which raise interesting questions about how astronauts and observers should best prepare for, experience, document, and preserve future historic events on Earth, in space, on the moon and, eventually, on Mars.