They want to go down in the history books the way JFK's "we choose to go to the Moon" did without experiencing the "mind-blowing" event afterwards that made the speech historical.

Also, "we're going to the moon not because it's easy, but because it's hard"

The full version of that section is more amusing but forgotten

>> But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may as well ask: why climb the highest mountain? Why 35 years ago fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon {applause} We choose to go to the moon... {applause} We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard -- because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills -- because that challenge is one we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win. (And the others too)

(as spoken and delivered at Rice University in Houston, Texas, referencing the Rice-Texas American football rivalry, where Texas is a 10x larger university)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QXqlziZV63k&t=9m22s

https://www.jfklibrary.org/sites/default/files/archives/JFKP...

Congratulations to ISRO (and all of India) for doing not the thing that was easy, but the thing that was hard and valuable!

Here's the actual story about that quote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong#First_Moon_walk

> The infamous quote "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

What makes the quote infamous rather than just famous?

Unless you were being sarcastic, it's because people don't know what the word infamous means and think it means "extremely famous".

No sarcasm, just wondering. Armstrong could have been cancelled or something. I might have missed the Two Minutes Hate [0] when he or lunar exploitation was on.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Minutes_Hate

Could just be a misuse of infamous but could just as well be intended to refer to the fact that Man and Mankind mean the same. You need an article in front to transform "One small step for Man" into "One small step for a man" to refer to Neil himself stepping.

"One small step for a man" is what he actually said, I think, or so I've heard. Apparently the "a" was lost due to radio interference.

Wikipedia (see elsewhere for link) has good coverage of that. "A" was intended to be said, but when humans say lines like that it is common to miss a word here and there. There is no way to know for sure if he said it and the technology of the time didn't pick it up, or if he misstated his own quote.

It's like flammable and inflammable. They mean the same thing and nobody knows why we have different words for it.

At least, this is my head-canon.

Exactly! This has been my own head canon too since like decades! I was actually surprised to read in this thread that "infamous" is a negative interpretation of famous which seems like a revisionist and recent interpretation. The English language also evolves through the ages and so do the meanings and interpretations.

I think it is a sign of habitual cynicism that you assume "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." was said by a politician. I think people feel like they are defending themselves from being manipulated by not accepting anything on its face as sincere. Sometimes a pipe is just a pipe.

I think the saying goes, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And knowing Freud, you know it's not just a cigar.

That's correct about Freud! I was referring to Magritte, who made the painting "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." By which he meant the image of the pipe was not actually not a pipe. Which means .. well I think you would have to read about it and I am not sure I am using the reference in the right way.

I believe Freud and the cigar is about our thoughts and impulses sometimes not having greater meaning in our subconscious. Magritte is about something different.