JULY 1 2009
AMERICANWAY 59
PEOPLE TAKE WALKS EVERY DAY.
But on July
20, 1969, Buzz Aldrin took awhole different kind of
stroll. He became the secondman, behindNeil Arm-
strong, towalk on the surface of themoon. To get a
breathtaking account of that historic mission and a
summationofAldrin’s life since then,we recommend
taking a walk of your own to your local bookstore
and picking up Aldrin’s new memoir,
Magnificent
Desolation: The Long Journey Home from theMoon
(Harmony, $27). We checked in with the astronaut,
whonow runs theShareSpaceFoundation, toget his
thoughts on the 40th anniversary of his moonwalk,
his travels since then, andAmerica’s future in space.
You first used the phrase “magnificent desola-
tion” while you were on the moon. Why has
thatphrasestayedwithyou?
Shortlyaftergetting
on the surface of themoon, Neil and Iwerewalking
todo someexperiments. I knew that if I lookedback
andup Iwould see the earth. And I had this thought
that the two of us were farther away than any two
people had ever been … in terms of what we had to
do togetbackhome.At the same time, the ironywas
thatmorepeoplewerepayingattention tous at thatmoment than
had ever happened in history. It’smagnificent [thatwe couldgo to
the moon], but what a desolate place. There is no place on earth
that is as desolate as themoon.
Which moments of the nine-day mission stand out most in
yourmind?
It’s themoment thatwasunrecorded. It’s themoment
I really think isunderappreciated. But itwas thewords I saidwhen
the probe hit the ground and turned on the light in the cockpit.
Those words were, “Contact light. Engine stop,” and all the other
technical things that communicated to the mission controllers so
they knewwewere on the ground.
Howdid themission change your life?
Return toEarth— that
was thebiggest challenge forme. Not technically, notoperationally.
But as a human being coming back after having been on the sur-
face of themoon, I now have to live up to that image, because I’m
going togoaround theworldandmeetqueensandkingsand speak
toeverykindergartenclass in thecountry. Ihadhada little tasteof
this aftermyfirst flight in
Gemini 12
. I didn’t relish this idea.
What is your hope for the future of American space travel
now that the space-shuttle program is scheduled to end in
2010?
I think that needs to be changed. We invested so much in
the spaceprogram, asmuchas the amazingamount of 3.5percent
of our national budget [in 1967]. Then, it went downhill, and it’s
now approximately six-tenths of a percent. [Iwould like to see us]
extend the shuttle flights to one a year and put something at the
space station thatwouldhelpwith long-durationflight. [We could]
goandvisit asteroids, comets, and themoonofMars several times.
And then, we could visit the surface ofMars permanently. [By the
50th anniversary of
Apollo 11
, we could] lead theworldby landing
thefirst Earth creatures to stay andpopulateMars.
On the travel front, what keeps an astronaut excitedwhen
his past includes a moonwalk?
I have been to the North Pole
on aRussian nuclear icebreaker. I have been to see the
Titanic
in a
little French submarine. I am looking forward to driving along [on
an educationmission] to theSouthPole thisDecember.
THETRIALS
that Sean
Stephenson has endured
wouldbe enough to test
even themost resilient spirit.
Expected to die at birth,
Stephensonwas diagnosed
with osteogenesis imperfecta,
a rare disorder that causes
bones to be extremely brittle
andgrowth to be stunted. By
the age of 18, he had frac-
turedmore than200bones
from activities as simple as
sneezing. But Stephenson,
who is just three feet tall and
uses awheelchair, has chosen
to look at his disorder as a
gift rather than a burden.
Now a board-certified
clinical psychotherapist and
an inspirational speaker,
Stephenson haswritten a
book called
Get Off Your
“But,”
a guide for overcoming
negativity andfinding
happiness in life. “Until you
own your life— the good
and the bad— you’re like a
beachedfishflopping around
on land,” Stephensonwrites.
“You canmove all youwant,
but you’re not going any-
where.” Stephenson’s anec-
dotes and advicewill inspire,
challenge, andmotivate
readers to eliminate excuses
and take control of their lives.
AA
Recommends:
BuzzAldrin’s name served
as inspiration for
Toy
Story
’sBuzz Lightyear
character.
A cartoon rendering of
Aldrin (voicedby theman
himself)made an appear-
ance on
TheSimpsons
in a
fifth-season episode titled
DidYouKnow?
Four decades afterwalking on
themoon, BuzzAldrin looks
back at his life in a newmemoir.
By JennaSchnuer
Outof
thisWorld
Get Off
Your “But”:
How to
EndSelf-
Sabotage
andStand
Up for
Yourself
bySean
Stephenson
(Jossey-
Bass, $20)
“DeepSpaceHomer.”
TheMoonman statues
handed out at theMTV
VideoMusicAwards are
modeled afterAldrin.
Aldrin cowrote the 1997
novel
EncounterwithTiber
with prolific science-fiction
author JohnBarnes.
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