Things I Originally Said Elsewhere

As some may have forgotten - or were not even alive when it happened - On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, as part of Apollo 11 became the first human being to set foot on the moon. There are some interesting background issues which a number of people may not be aware of, and I'd like to share them.

1. Armstrong blew his line! When he stepped onto the surface of the Moon, Armstrong says, "It's one small step for man..." long pause, "One giant leap for mankind." I think the pause there meant that Armstrong realized he had not just blown it on national television, but on worldwide television. The line was supposed to be read as "It's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Rather than be caught with his pants down (hard to do when on the moon in 250 degrees F!), he finished the line anyway.
2. The transmission of the television signal used up almost the entire remaining spare national transmission capacity. My understanding was that basically, there was enough capacity in AT&T's microwave network to support 4 television channels. With the three networks using theirs (for programming being taped or filmed for broadcast later), that was essentially sll the extra capacity there was, one channel.