Neatorama » Buzz Aldrin

Rare Photos from the Dawn of Spaceflight

Alex — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:31:13 +0000

National Geographic has a gallery of really neat rare photos from the Project Gemini Online Digital Archive. This one above is of astronaut Buzz Aldrin (the first man who peed on the moon, btw), who took this self-portrait while spacewalking during NASA's Gemini XII mission in 1966.

Can't beat that background: Link

Map of the First Moonwalk Superimposed on a Baseball Diamond

John Farrier — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:24:20 +0000

NASA has created a map of Aldrin and Armstrong’s journeys on the surface of the moon to the scale of a baseball diamond. It helps put their activities at the landing site in perspective. Also, we know “Who’s on first?” It was Buzz Aldrin.

Link via Popular Science

Ten Things You Didn’t Know About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

John Farrier — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:49:22 +0000

Craig Nelson offers ten lesser-known facts about the first human moon landing:

6. The “one small step for man” wasn’t actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn’t compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle’s ladder to the surface.

7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle’s door because there was no outer handle.

8. The toughest moonwalk task? Planting the flag. NASA’s studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft, but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to accidentally knock it over.

Link

Rigging Apollo 11 on the Moon

Miss Cellania — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:07:16 +0000

The more we find out about the Apollo moon missions, the more we find they were operating closer to the edge than anyone outside of NASA knew. In an excerpt from Buzz Aldrin’s new book, “Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon”, he tells about a crucial circuit breaker he and Neil Armstrong found broken on the floor of the moon lander. Aldrin rigged the circuit by inserting a felt-tip pen, and hoped it would work during their liftoff.

The liftoff from the moon was intrinsically a tense time . The ascent stage simply had to work. The engines had to fire, propelling us upward, leaving the descent stage of the LM still sitting on the moon. We had no margin for error, no second chances, no rescue plans if the liftoff failed. There would be no way for Mike up in Columbia to retrieve us. We had no provision for another team to race from Earth to pick us up if the Eagle did not soar. Nor did we have food, water, or oxygen for more than a few hours.

Link -via Digg