Apollo 11

The official mission report runs to hundreds of pages. During descent the computer flashed 1202 and 1201 alarms because it was overloaded; flight controllers decided it was safe to continue. Armstrong took manual control to avoid a field of boulders and landed with little fuel to spare. [1]

Armstrong stepped off the ladder at 10:56 p.m. EDT and said, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” The two men set up experiments, planted a flag, took photographs and collected 21.5 kilograms of samples. [2]

The TV pictures came first through the Honeysuckle Creek station near Canberra and then through the Parkes radio telescope. Australian viewers saw the first step a fraction of a second before Americans did, because the signal went to Sydney before being sent on to Houston. [3][5]

A popular internet story says Armstrong muttered “Good luck, Mr. Gorsky” on the Moon, a private joke about a neighbor. It is not in the transcripts. In November 1995 Armstrong wrote that he had first heard the joke told by the comedian Buddy Hackett. [1]

Armstrong said he meant to say “one small step for a man” and believed he had, though he agreed the “a” could not be heard on the recordings. The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal prints it in parentheses. [2]