Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon

Today on Far Future Horizons we celebrate the forty-seventh anniversary of the first lunar landing and honor the memory of Neil Armstrong on what would have been his eighty-sixth birthday.  

We proudly present the documentary Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon.

Neil Armstrong's family and friends, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, tell the story of the first man to set foot on the moon. Drawing heavily on never broadcast archive footage and the unique perspectives of the contributors, this is an exclusive account of Neil Armstrong's extraordinary life story.

This fabulous photograph shows Neil Armstrong’s face through his space suit visor as he walks across the lunar surface. The image was captured in video footage by the movie camera mounted on the Eagle lunar lander. The image was retrieved by Spacecraft Films, an Ohio-based specialist in historical space footage, and was included in the newly published book, Voices from the Moon, by author Andrew Chaikin. Copyright NASA and Andrew Chaikin.

Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon features interviews with Armstrong's first wife Janet, their two sons, Rick and Mark, Neil's brother and sister Dean and June, his best friend Kotcho Solacoff and second wife Carol. Fellow astronauts Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke and Dave Scott also feature in this revealing biopic.

The Apollo 11 crew portrait. Left to right are Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin.

This documentary, from the producers of 'In the Shadow of the Moon', goes beyond his days as an astronaut and shows that his life after the flight of Apollo 11 was, in many ways equally challenging, as Armstrong came to terms with life outside NASA and the relentless demands of fame until his death in August 2012.

It was in this documentary that Neil’s younger brother Dean, made the controversial claim that it was not entirely true that Armstrong was speaking entirely off the cuff when he delivered the most iconic quote in the history of manned space flight: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."  Some people even claimed that Neil Armstrong may have lied.
But, this claim was debunked by space historian Andrew Chaikin: 

Nothing in Neil’s post-flight statements rules out the possibility that he thought up the "one small step" line before leaving Earth. He didn't say "I thought up the quote after we landed;" he said, "I decided what I would say after we landed."

"What it does not mean is that somehow Armstrong "fibbed" or "lied" to the public for 40 years. Everyone who knew Neil well has described him as extraordinarily principled. That was certainly the man I saw when I interviewed him, and in the years that followed, as we became friends."

Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon
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