You are listening to an Ounce. Season 6, Episode 30, When Armstrong First Set Foot On the Moon: Was it One Small Step for Man?
On July 20, 1969, one of the most monumental events in the history of humans took place. That day, the first astronaut set foot on the surface of the moon. Yep - Neil Armstrong exited the moon lander and put the very first boot print ever in the dust of the lunar surface.
However, there are some differing opinions on what really happened… a little controversy concerning the event. Not an unusual thing when something big like this occurs. Interested amateurs, experts, professionals, and scholars have reviewed the audio and video recordings of this remarkable achievement. And they don’t all agree on what really happened.
What happened was something that, because of the relatively new miracle of broadcast television, was observed by a large percentage of the world… live, as it happened. And has now been rewatched in recordings of the event - perhaps millions of times in the years that have followed. And still, there is no solid consensus.
Not that Conspiracy – The Other One
It will probably help our conversation if we make clear we are not talking about the disagreement you might be thinking of right now. Our questioned event does not even impact on whether or not the thing you might be thinking of happened or not – though these two elements of that event happened at exactly the same time, and in the same place – no matter where or when it actually happened.
So – let's briefly address the elephant in the room. The Question: Did we really go to the moon on July 20, 1969? Or was it a fake moon landing filmed on a stage in Burbank, California?
What we are attempting to do here is – well, complicate the matter a little more… Hahaha
There have been a plethora of claims made about the video, the sound, and everything else being faked. For every claim that the landing on the moon didn’t happen – the way that shadows fall, the movement of the astronauts, the background, the way the US flag moves, and so many more. There is a logical explanation, a clarification, and proof that it did happen. Yet, disagreement persists. That’s OK – believe what you will.
However, that is not the question we are going to tackle here – but if you want to explore that aspect, a quick online search will provide an avalanche of info on both sides of that specific conspiratorial argument.
Our question is a vexing one that has been batted about for decades now, just like the moon landing itself. And, at this point in time, most credible sources now believe Neil Armstrong really did set foot on the moon, but nobody is ready to make the definitive call when it comes to our little question.
One Small Step for Who?
When Neil Armstrong first planted his boots on the surface of our closest neighbor in space, we heard these words, “that’s one small step for man, on giant leap for mankind”… right?
Are we sure?
Well, apparently that was not what was supposed to be heard at that historical moment. And, though Armstrong had rehearsed it several times, it seems he may have stated the phrase incorrectly.
What was scripted for him to say - what we were supposed to hear was, “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
That one-letter word - A - seems to be missing from the record.
Did Armstrong muff it up?
30 years later in 1999, on the anniversary of the moon landing in 1969, Armstrong admits he doesn’t hear himself self say the word A in the recording, but he is confident he said it.
What’s the deal?
Did the recording of this missing A get lost in transmission? Did Armstrong omit it by accident? Did aliens snatch it away?
There are a few hypotheses that have been offered to explain the controversy over this mysterious missing A. xx
The first and simplest seems to be Armstrong just said the phrase wrong and omitted the A. That would be easy to do.
Another idea has to do with the radio equipment used during the landing in 1969. There was a lot of extraneous and potentially distracting noise when astronauts were talking to each other in their space suits. It was an ongoing problem. John Powers, NASA public affairs officer during the Mercury program, used the phrase A- OK. That was kind of his style, and he figures that sharp A - eay - sound would cut into the static better and make the words that followed more understandable. The softer vowel sounds like o or ah would often just get lost in the static. Because of this lack of sound clarity, a short phrase like “O.K.” could end up sounding like, “…ay”, when it was transmitted.
With this in mind, the hypothesis is that the timing in the delivery of the phrase, “one small step for [ah] man”, caused an effect of completely losing the- A or in this case ah - sound located between, “for and “man”.
Thus, the static in the radio overcame and seems to delete the word A… or the sound ‘ah’.
OK – Maybe plausible.
Say What?
In 2006 a computer programmer, Peter Shan Ford, decided it was time to get to the bottom of the A. And he got the best equipment, the best recordings, and then – went one step further. He investigated the spoken English vernacular of Wapakoneta, Ohio. He wanted to understand their accent - the way the people spoke in the 1960s.
Ford found something interesting. Seems in that region, at that time, the way folks spoke that single letter word A would often be slurred or slipped into the word following it, creating a contraction – or compound word. The words ‘Does Not’ can be said ‘Doesn’t’, and ‘Can Not’ is ‘can't’. The syllables and letters of two words scrunched together into one word. Thus, the words a truck, or A Man would often be pronounced atruck, or in this case on the moon, ahman- with the ah almost disappearing into the m of man.
In the Wapakoneta Ohio version of English, “One small step for A Man,” becomes, “One small step for aMan” – with that quick ah disappearing in the static.
According to Ford, having spent countless hours reviewing the vernacular, and the recording – Armstrong is very likely to have said just exactly what he was supposed to – but we didn’t hear it then – and still can’t hear it now.
It is a puzzle will likely remain unanswered.
There may be several wonderful little bits of wisdom to be gleaned from a story like this. But for now, we’ll focus on just this one.
Do you believe Neil Armstrong? That no matter what everyone else heard, when he stepped on the moon he said, “That’s one small step for A man…”
Nobody else heard it that way. That’s not what we heard when it happened. But, inside the helmet of the space suit, surrounded by the vacuum of space through which sound does not travel, Neil Armstrong knows he said what he said – no matter what was transmitted to be heard by everyone else.
So here’s the ounce. There are few – and getting to be fewer moments – when you are really alone – surrounded by a vacuum in a way, that no one can perceive anything through. Times when you can choose what’s right, or go down the wrong path, and nobody can know which choice you made. But there will be 2 witnesses to all of it – You and God.
And, that’s it. An Ounce submitted for your consideration.
