This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
One year ago yesterday, the first man on the Moon died at age 82. Two hours before the historic lunar landing, Neil Armstrong mentally composed the first words to be said on the Moon: “It’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”. That was not quite the same sentence that is written in every history book. Instead, the quote that we know is, “It’s one small step for man…”, missing the ‘a’. Armstrong and NASA initially blamed the missing syllable on static, but audio analyses later confirmed that the interval between “for” and “man” was too short for there ever having been an “a”. Armstrong was reportedly embarrassed for having flubbed the first words on the moon, which in the end, only endeared him to the world all the more. In tribute, we have restored Armstrong’s original intent by splicing an “a” between “for” and “man”. The result is perhaps grammatically more correct, but less poetic than the actual unintended quote.
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The change also destroys one of the best examples of the reverse speech illusion known as “backmasking” (in which people hear messages, often claimed to be satanic, when playing musical lyrics and speeches backwards). In reverse, “one small space for man” sounds like “man will space walk”. Poignant, and true. “One small step for a man”, however, ruins the illusion and sounds something like “man-a will space walk” when played backwards.
Armstrong was bewildered about the missing “a” even decades after the landing. He needn’t have worried. His message was clear, backwards and forwards, and in every sense.
Listen to these clips for yourself below:
We thank our colleague Jorge Otero-Millan for refashioning the original NASA audio file.