Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut

As it is for many people, my memory of July 21, 1969 is well embedded with details of the evening. I was sitting in the property manager’s living room at an apartment complex where I was employed as a maintenance man. We were watching in awe as Neil Armstrong and then Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the Moon.

Eighteen years to the day later, I was once again watching Buzz Aldrin in awe. This time he was sitting across the table from me as we had lunch in a Boulder, Colorado restaurant. He was accompanied by his fiance, Lois Cannon.

We were attending “The Case for Mars III” conference at the University of Colorado. Aldrin was there as a participant and advocate. I was there to cover the event and to interview him, and later Carl Sagan, for Newsweek Magazine.

The conference featured discussions on political, technical, and scientific strategies for sending humans to Mars, including mission architectures, precursor robotic missions, in-situ resource utilization (using Martian resources like atmosphere for fuel and oxygen), human factors, and long-term base concepts.

Very notable was a four-hour “Spacebridge” teleconference via closed circuit TV, linking American and Soviet experts in Moscow and Boulder.

Over that lunch, we discussed Mars, the U.S. space program, the space shuttle, and what came after the Moon.

Aldrin was a prominent Mars advocate. And he was a critic of the space shuttle. He regretted not arguing more forcefully for a fully reusable two-stage system instead of the partially reusable shuttle design chosen simply to keep America in space while trying to figure out what to do next.

Some weeks later, Newsweek published a special report, “Lost in Space”. As was typical, much more hit the cutting room floor than got published. The Mars conference wasn’t even mentioned. From my copious notes, one quote of Aldrin’s first impressions of the space shuttle made it into print. As Aldrin told me, “I said, ‘You’re not serious. You don’t really mean this stack of three things with an airplane on it.’”

There was a bonus in it for me besides the experience: the business card he gave me. It’s so simple…”Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut”. Especially significant to me is his handwriting on the back providing his Laguna Beach address and phone number. He had invited me to stop in if I was in the neighborhood. I never managed that.

I’ve saved the card though. It’s one of the few artifacts from my reporting career that has not been boxed away.