But, until the moon landing itself, the Soviet space programme had already made stunning advances. Pretty much every single major event in the space race in the early days was a triumph of Soviet space achievement. Armstrong took manual control. As he disembarked from his lunar nest, he uttered his famous phrase: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. Armstrong’s small step was supposed to herald a giant leap, not only in space exploration but also in inter-planetary tourism.

Source: Irish Examiner July 19, 2019 23:03 UTC