The first word is still Houston to the public and always will be, and rightfully so, for instance no one is interested if he muttered something under his breath to himself out of habit, such as cool, or alright.
“We sought clarity from Bill Barry, NASA’s chief historian.
No luck: Barry told us that there are “a range of right answers.” He said “contact light” was one possibility because those words were uttered the moment that the module touched the surface of the moon.
“The next option,” he said, is the first word spoken after all four of the module’s foot pads came to rest on the moon. It’s not clear exactly when that happened, Barry said, but it probably occurred as the astronauts were running down their post-shutdown “checklist” — “like the one you do every day, but probably don’t say aloud, when you park your car.”
But Barry said that because the checklist was part of a long-rehearsed procedural script, he is “inclined toward saying that the first ‘intentional’ words spoken on the moon were Armstrong’s report to Houston that they had landed.”
“”The first word is still Houston to the public and always will be””
No, that is not accurate regardless of what the public thinks.
First word from the lunar surface were: “Contact” & “Shutdown” followed by other words below.
______________________________________________________
102:45:40 Aldrin: Contact Light.
102:45:43 Armstrong (on-board): Shutdown
102:45:44 Aldrin: Okay. Engine Stop.
102:45:45 Aldrin: ACA out of Detent.
102:45:46 Armstrong: Out of Detent. Auto.
102:45:47 Aldrin: Mode Control, both Auto. Descent Engine Command Override, Off. Engine Arm, Off. 413 is in.
102:45:57 Duke: We copy you down, Eagle.
102:45:58 Armstrong : Engine arm is off. Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
102:46:06 Duke: Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again. Thanks a lot.
102:46:16 Aldrin: Thank you.
Cycle the Parker valve.
That's funny, because when I turn off the car after a long trip, I like to recite the Apollo 11 checklist.
But Barry said that because the checklist was part of a long-rehearsed procedural script, he is “inclined toward saying that the first ‘intentional’ words spoken on the moon were Armstrong’s report to Houston that they had landed.”
I think he recited the list after they were down. There was that pause, and to me there's a real release of tension in the "OK" and the free flow of the words. Houston did say, "We copy you down Eagle," but as Mailer notes, it was a question, and Armstrong replied in the affirmative, "Roger, Houston. Tranquility Base here. The eagle has landed."