Armstrong always maintained that he said “a man,” but that the “a” was not heard because of static. Others think the Apollo 11 commander just forgot to say it.
In a 2005 biography, Neil also maintained that he came up with the statement in the few hours after landing.
But interviews with Neil’s family members for a new BBC documentary, which premiered Sunday, don’t jibe with that story.
In “Neil Armstrong — First Man on the Moon,” the astronaut’s brother, Dean Armstrong, not only contends that Neil thought up the famous line months before the historic landing, but that the phrase included the word “a.”
A couple of months before Neil left for Cape Canaveral, he invited his brother to stay with him. Neil slipped the quotation to his brother on a piece of paper while the two men played a game of Risk, The Telegraph’s Richard Gray reports. Although Dean originally forgot the letter “a” during his BBC interview, he later corrected himself.
