Neil Armstrong
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Neil Armstrong was born in 1930 in Ohio in the USA. He was an American astronaut, and the first person to set foot on the Earth's moon. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in a small spacecraft, that had been sent to the moon using the Saturn V rocket. They both walked on the moon, and millions of people watched and heard this event on live television.
His most famous quote is: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind. "
He spoke those words when he set foot on the moon. He wanted to say "That's one small step for a man…", but for some reason the "a" was never spoken. Armstrong thought he had said it. He admits that he often forgot syllables when speaking. Listening to the audio shows that the "for" runs on smoothly, giving no time for "a" to be spoken. Armstrong prefers written quotations to include the "a" in parentheses.
The Houston Chronicle newspaper reported on October 1, 2006, that Australian computer programmer Peter Shann Ford found the missing "a" from Armstrong's famous first words on the Moon. Ford reported that he downloaded the audio recording from a NASA web site and analyzed it using editing software originally intended for use with hearing disabled persons. Armstong is quoted to have been pleased with Ford's finding of the missing "a".
