Until recently I believed that too. However, I came across some discussion which made me realize I was mixing up the sequence. The transmission interruption, which can be clearly heard, didn't happen at that point in the quote; it happened a moment later, after the word "man". The critical part of the quote seems to come through clear. It's more of a linguistic question about how "for a" and "for" may sound almost indistinguishable in Armstrong's accent.
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Until recently I believed that too. However, I came across some discussion which made me realize I was mixing up the sequence. The transmission interruption, which can be clearly heard, didn't happen at that point in the quote; it happened a moment later, after the word "man". The critical part of the quote seems to come through clear. It's more of a linguistic question about how "for a" and "for" may sound almost indistinguishable in Armstrong's accent.
I have a similar accent and we would say it like "furrah-man". For me, the "ah" becomes a lot weaker going into the "m", so I can easily see it.
I'm also intrigued by the idea that it was a flub which he realized instantly (if you listen to the recording):
... step for man <pause> (dammit) ... one giant leap...