As covered here, a computer scientist has claimed that Neil Armstrong’s first words on the moon were in fact grammatically correct. The recording sounds like he said “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, but apparently failed to pick up an “a” before “man”.
It’s a pity; I kind of like the idea of all those years of careful engineering and planning that it took to get there, everyone holding their breath, all to culminate in that first sentence being a fluff.
Here’s what was said next:
04 13 24 48 CDR (TRANQ) And the - the surface is fine and powdery. I can - I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles.
04 13 25 30 CC Neil, this is Houston. We’re copying.
04 13 25 45 CDR (EVA) There seems to be no difficulty in moving around as we suspected. It’s even perhaps easier than the simulations at one sixth g that we performed in the various simulations on the ground. It’s actually no trouble to walk around. Okay. The descent engine did not leave a crater of any size. It has about 1 foot clearance on the ground. We’re essentially on a very level place here. I can see some evidence of rays emanating from the descent engine, but a very insignificant amount.