New Evidence Finds Neil Armstrong Mistakenly Believed He Discovered India After Landing On Moon

WASHINGTON—Noting that the late astronaut was actually quite disoriented after spending four days confined to the cramped Apollo 11 command module, a new report from NASA confirmed Tuesday that Neil Armstrong mistakenly believed he had discovered India after landing on the moon. “While Neil Armstrong did in fact land on Earth’s largest satellite and collect geological samples from its surface, what he was really in search of were exotic spices, including cinnamon, cloves, and pepper,” said NASA historian Lea Goulding, adding that Armstrong, who was working with extremely outdated maps of Earth’s orbit, believed he could reach Asia by blasting off from Florida and flying west. “While the Apollo 11 mission was historic, Armstrong ended up landing over 238,900 miles from his target location, and ultimately returned with nothing but lunar rocks and debris. This explains why, after delivering his famous line about ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,’ he immediately demanded to see the king of Bombay. And why he then claimed the moon for Spain.” Goulding went on to say that even though more than five decades had passed since Armstrong made his mistake, people still erroneously referred to the moon as the “Space Indies.”