Not long after he became the first man to walk on the Moon, astronaut Neil Armstrong visited Britain and was guest of honour at a celebration at 10 Downing Street. During the course of the evening, he proposed a toast to the man who, he said, had played the most significant role in the history of crewed space flight. Who was that man? Aristotle? Galileo? Isaac Newton? Wernher von Braun? John F. Kennedy? My full list would have been much longer, but the name Armstrong toasted was not on it. Chances are it wouldn't be on your list either. Who exactly is, or was, John Harrison, the individual who according to Armstrong played such a pivotal role in the exploration of space.
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