DailyDirt: One Small Step For A Man...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Neil Armstrong's recent passing has reminded lots of folks about the first manned mission to the moon. The whole idea that "we could put a man on the moon" seemed incredible in the 1960's, and the feat is still remarkably difficult -- even if kids today can't fully appreciate the accomplishment. Maybe someday, we'll go back to the moon (and this XKCD will have to be adjusted), but in the meantime, here are just a few links about that historic first moonwalk.

• Neil Armstrong's first words as he stepped on the moon were slightly misheard by everyone on Earth, and audio analysis of the recordings suggests that Armstrong didn't just mis-speak. "That's one small step for *A* man, one giant leap for mankind." [url]
• In 2006, NASA realized that it had lost its original Apollo 11 moon landing videos, but fortunately, archived footage of the moonwalk was found in Australia in 2010. The tapes were restored and digitized -- and hopefully we won't lose them again when nobody remembers what MP4 is. [url]
• President Nixon was prepared for an Apollo 11 disaster with a speech that he thankfully never read to the American public. The "moon disaster" speech is a creepy reminder that space exploration is an inherently risky venture... [url] [page2]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: apollo 11, exploration, moon, moonwalk, neil armstrong, nixon, space
Companies: nasa