Was “One Small Step” a Lie?
If you haven’t heard already, apparently Neil Armstrong lied about having not preplanned the phrase “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Neil had always insisted that he came up with the phrase after he landed on the moon. Neil’s brother however, is telling a different story now that Neil is dead.
Here is my question: Why does this matter? Why does it matter if he came up with that phrase before he left Earth? Who cares? He went to the moon. Have you been to the moon? I doubt it. If you were supposed to be going to the moon would you really not think about what you were going to say when you got there? Especially if you were going to be the first person on the moon, and it was going to be televised, and everyone in America and the whole world would be watching?
He probably felt pressure to say that he came up with the phrase after he got to the moon. It doesn’t seem quite as glamorous to say he spent hours thinking about what to say before he set foot on a space ship. However, how do we know who is telling the truth? Dean Armstrong, Neil’s brother never spoke up until now. Neil is no longer here to defend himself, and Dean has no proof. So, should we even be listening to him? Or is Dean Armstrong just looking for his 15 minutes of fame?
Joy Larson is a mother of four boys, graduate of The University of Montana, animal lover and writer.