For all the fail-safes and contingency plans, the mission was only ever a malfunction or a miscalculation from disaster.Īldrin is a survivor. His most treasured possessions are a circuit-breaker from the Eagle that broke off as they were exiting, and a pen, his improvised solution to re-complete the circuit, so they could take off again. Even the Andy Warhol print of him standing on the lunar surface is gone, filched by his third wife, Lois. His Omega Speedmaster watch was stolen on route to the Smithsonian Museum. His church lost the chalice that he used to celebrate a lunar communion at Tranquility Base. His slide rule and the handwritten prayer he carried went up for auction years ago.
MAN ON THE MOON PICTURES LAWN CHAIR SERIES
In a series of lawsuits, NASA had argued that they were government property. Three years ago, Obama signed a law establishing that the Apollo astronauts have the right to keep mementoes from the moon. "And they don't like it when I criticise what they're saying." "Human nature doesn't want to admit that somebody on the outside had an idea that they are responsible to develop, so they keep charging ahead with blinders on," Aldrin says. He took Hallmark Cards to court for using "one small step" without permission, sued his barber for selling his hair and turned down all interview requests, showing up at the White House every five years with Aldrin and Collins to mark the anniversary. "Magnificent desolation," he called it, while he was there.Īrmstrong served his time as an ambassador for the space program and then retreated. Because for 46 years now, the question is always the same: "What did it feel like on the moon?" He doesn't have an answer. NASA should have sent up a poet or an artist, he reckons, to describe the view for all mankind. Mostly, Aldrin was alone at home with a bottle of whisky and the depression in his genes. They were alone in front of the cameras, alone in the ticker-tape parades, alone on stage with Sinatra singing Fly Me To The Moon. They soon discovered that physical isolation wasn't the half of it. He is 85 but the force is still with him.Īfter being fished out of the Pacific Ocean by the USS Hornet following their epic journey in July 1969, Aldrin, Armstrong and Michael Collins – who had piloted the command spacecraft in orbit during the 21-hour moon landing – were put in quarantine.
"What I do has to have an objective," he says. Braces keep his trousers up and a belt holds his gut in. In his Destination Mars T-shirt, a bracelet of red, white and blue skulls on one wrist and a translucent bangle and oversized watch on the other, Aldrin resembles Popeye with a hint of Jack Sparrow. Credit:Courtesy of Buzz Aldrin Enterprises. Buzz Aldrin splashes down back on Earth following his July 1969 journey to the moon.
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