On 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11, was the first person to set foot on the moon. His first words- ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’- were heard by millions.

He then said: ‘Good luck, Mr. Gorsky.’

People at NASA thought he was talking about a Soviet cosmonaut, but it turned out there was no Gorsky in the Russian space programme. Over the years Armstrong was frequently asked what he had meant by ‘Good luck, Mr. Gorsky.’, but he always refused to answer for fear of offending the man.

When Mr. Gorsky died, Neil Armstrong finally felt able to tell the story. When he was a kid playing in his backyard, he once had to fetch his ball from the neighbours’ yard. As he dashed in, he overheard his nieghbour Mrs. Gorsky: ‘Sex! You want sex?! You’ll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!’

Alas, not only is the story untrue, but Neil Armstrong never even uttered the words ‘Good luck, Mr. Gorsky’.

This story is an urban myth that has gathered currency on the internet. It’s a prime example of the old saying that a lie can be halfway round the world before the truth has even got its boots on.