Neil Armstrong's famous first words when stepping onto the lunar surface in 1969 were transmitted back to Earth using a radio transponder built by Motorola.

A closer look

Neil Armstrong's famous first words when stepping onto the lunar surface in 1969 were transmitted back to Earth using a radio transponder built by Motorola. Decades before they became known for the iconic Razr flip phone that every popular high schooler aggressively snapped shut to end a dramatic phone call, they were actively facilitating communication across a 240,000-mile cosmic void. It is honestly depressing that the exact same company responsible for delivering humanity's greatest triumph over the vacuum of space eventually lost the tech war to a company named after a fruit, leaving us with a bittersweet reminder of how quickly the mighty fall in the ruthless arena of consumer electronics