Neil Armstrong's missing 'a' from moon found

WASHINGTON: What a difference an "a" makes, particularly in history.

An Australian researcher using high-tech software has found the tiny missing article in Neil Armstrong's declaration as he became the first human to step onto the moon's surface.

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," said Armstrong on July 20, 1969, in a transmission heard around the world 386,232 km away.

But Armstrong always insisted he had intended to say "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" and he and NASA believed that he had.

For the next 37 years official documents reflected uncertainty, some saying "for man," others "for (a) man."

Now Sydney researcher Peter Shann Ford says he has the technological proof that Armstrong said the critical "a" that gives the true meaning of humankind's first words on a heavenly body.

Armstrong's authorised biographer, James Hansen, a history professor at Auburn University in Alabama, said that Ford's analysis of the recorded transmission is "awfully persuasive to me."

Hansen said in a phone interview that he had been "highly skeptical" when the Australian researcher had contacted him 10 days ago with his findings.

Ford had detected the errant "a" in data about 35 milliseconds long, pronounced so quickly by the Apollo 11 mission commander that it was in a "sub-aural region," Hansen said.