The federal government spent $700,000 to study whether astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous quote as the first man on the moon was transcribed accurately, only to reach no conclusion.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called out the waste of federal money as part of his latest Waste Report this week. He said the National Science Foundation issued two grants totaling $700,000 to study whether Armstrong really did say on the moon, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

It's long been noted that his quote wasn't quite said in a grammatically correct way, and that Armstrong should have said he took one small step for "a" man, and one giant leap for mankind.

The NSF grants were used to see if his quote was transcribed incorrectly, and whether Armstrong maybe did say it correctly after all. The grant money was used to pay researchers from four universities to study the question.

"So, did they solve the mystery?" Paul's report asked. "Well, no." He said the final report isn't clear on whether he said the word "a" too quickly to be heard, and also points out that there is "substantial ambiguity" over what was said.

"Truly groundbreaking," Paul concluded.

But Paul also complained that the grants were meant for studies on how to improve communication for people with autism or Parkinson's disease.

"The grant synopses makes no mention of Armstrong, nor does the paper assert that he suffered from a condition that would affect his speech," Paul's report said.