Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky

Posted by Kelly Whitt Dec 18, 2007

Everyone knows the first words spoken by Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969, when he stepped foot onto the moon. After saying, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," he said, "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky," or so the story goes.

The name Gorsky sounds Russian, and some believed he was sending a message to a Soviet cosmonaut. Alas, there was no cosmonaut by the name of Gorsky.

Eventually the "truth" came out that when Neil Armstrong was a kid, he was playing in his yard and his ball went over the fence into his neighbor's yard. As he crept over the fence and neared his ball for retrieval, he heard an angry woman's voice inside the house. Mrs. Gorsky was yelling, "Sex?! You want sex?! You'll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!"

It's a funny story, but unfortunately it is not true. Neil Armstrong uttered no such words as "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky" while on the moon.

The second thing Neil Armstrong said on the moon was, in fact, this: "Yes, the surface is fine and powdery. I can kick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers, like powdered charcoal, to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles."

Not as humorous, but interesting nonetheless.