Talk:Richard Nixon's Phone Call to the Moon
Add topic| Information about this edition | |
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| Edition: | Televised speech |
| Source: | http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/Videos/historical/mooncall.txt "First on the Moon — A Voyage with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr", written with Gene Farmer and Dora Jane Hamblin, epilogue by Arthur C. Clarke, Michael Joseph Ltd, London (1970), chapter 12 |
| Contributor(s): | Jatkins, |
| Level of progress: | Proofread and corrected 
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Picture and sound media
[edit]There are only two things which detract from the quality of this entry:
- The sound clip contains only Nixon's words and not Armstrong's response, which is of at least as much interest. There must be a clip available somewhere with the full version?
- The picture of Nixon, supposedly talking to the astronauts, is obviously bogus, a composite somebody at NASA put together the fact. This is most clearly proved by the fact that the astronauts are still fiddling with the flag, which they were done with by the time the President spoke (see the video). Also, Nixon looks too young (not enough grey hair) to be President; this looks like some sort of posed PR photo which could have been taken anytime in his career.
A more authentic picture can be obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration page, Apollo 11 and Nixon, which has a split-screen TV shot of Nixon and the astronauts together, as he actually spoke to them. It's not as high quality, but it makes up for this in authenticity. The only inaccurate thing about this picture is that it seems to have been printed backwards (as seen by the direction of the flag); also, Nixon was actually left-handed and would have held the receiver in his left hand, as he does in the current picture. With your consent, I intend to fix it and upload it. JustinTime55 (talk) 17:49, 21 July 2011 (UTC)
- This is tricky to give a treatment as a single document, not for the media types, but as an assemblage. My opinion is this could make a good section, if not a whole article, at wikipedia; it would certainly gain a larger audience. Billinghurst is still active at this site. CYGNIS INSIGNIS 18:04, 21 July 2011 (UTC)
- A better picture of the real phone call is available in a Tweet I just found: Historic Phone Call. The source seems: "NASA History Office, National Air and Space Museum e S&T Adviser at State".OrmenVilla (talk) 09:27, 4 September 2019 (UTC)
Second Armstrong answer is wrong
[edit]In the official transcript (available in three NASA web pages) and also in the authorized biography of Neil Armstrong (First Man - The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, by James R. Hansen, page 506) there isn't the last "Thank you". There are only two answers, the first one by Neil Armstrong, the second and final by Buzz Aldrin. I know that in other books we find a second "Thank you" by Neil Armstrong, or the last answer attributed to him instead of Aldrin, but, I repeat, in the official transcriptions, and even in the "source" linked in this Wikisource page, it does not appear:
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11transcript_tec.html
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.mobility.html
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/Videos/historical/mooncall.txt
Also in this Wikiquote page there isn't the second "Thank you":
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong#Presidential_telephone_call_(1969)
Last but not least, here is the audio, and before Buzz Aldrin answer there is only a kind of microphone noise, not a "Thank You"
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/Videos/historical/mooncall.avi
For these reasons I think that the last "Thank you" by Armstrong must be deleted, returning to the original text (it seems this change was made in 2011).OrmenVilla (talk) 20:09, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
- @OrmenVilla: This text is somewhat of a special case for Wikisource, it not being a book or magazine or other such traditional format, but in general Wikisource transcribes previously published works faithfully. That is, it doesn't really matter what Armstrong actually said, only what the source work for this particular text contains. But in this case, as you correctly point out, the given source does not actually contain that line by Armstrong: it was added in 2011, probably based on what's given in the Farmer and Hamblin book mentioned above. I have therefore removed that line as you suggested. --Xover (talk) 07:58, 1 September 2019 (UTC)