Moon landing shock: Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 confession revealed by NASA astronaut

It has been more than 50 years since the monumental achievement from NASA and the Apollo 11 crew on July 20, 1969. Armstrong made history after jumping out of the lunar module Eagle and delivering his “one small step” speech to the millions watching back at home, before Buzz Aldrin joined him 20 minutes later. However, Armstrong, who passed away in 2012, made an admission to his then-NASA colleague when he first joined the space agency, that has stuck with him since.

Mr Massimino, who has been to space twice, asked his hero how he came up with his legendary quote after landing on the lunar surface.

He explained during Neil deGrasse Tyson’s SpaceTalk podcast last month: “We were at a luncheon going on, because it was a reunion as well as him coming in for his physical.

“I ended up next to him on the food line, you know, making a sandwich.

“He’s next to me and I said to myself ‘I have to say something to this guy’ and I don’t know how it happened, but [it was] serendipitous.

“I asked him, ‘when did you think of that first thing that you said on the Moon, one small step for man?’

“I said ‘did your wife tell you? Or was it a publicist? How did you come up with this?’”

However, Mr Massimino revealed Armstrong’s confession over the origin of his deliberation.

He added: “He turns to me and he said ‘I thought about it only after we landed.

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He revealed how he used the same approach as Armstrong.

He continued: “So, for my tweet I did the same approach, I said ‘I’m not going to worry about this first tweet, we have to launch into space, we have to get there alive and successfully’.

“This was a mistake. So I get there and it’s alright, we’re alive, the computers are up and running on day one, so I need to come up with something.

“So what I tweeted was: ‘Launch was awesome, the adventure of a lifetime has begun, I’m feeling great and enjoying the view.’”

However, Mr Massimino did not get the same reception as Armstrong, he explained.

The 57-year-old was ridiculed on US show Saturday Night Live by presenter Seth Meyers. 

Mr Massimino joked: “In 40 years we’ve gone from ‘one giant leap for mankind’ to ‘launch was awesome’.

“So they made fun of me, but my kids sent me an email on the Monday and it said ‘Dad, they made fun of you on Saturday Night Live, all the kids at school loved it, keep saying stupid stuff.'”

source: express.co.uk