Apollo 11

My Lunar Journey: Then and NowTuesday, July 21, 2009 By Buzz AldrinPrint NASAJuly 20, 1969: Buzz Aldrin on the moon, with photographer Neil Armstrong reflected in his helmet visor.Four decades ago this summer, I stood next to a colleague and helped set up some instruments on a distant place.I walked slowly to deploy the devices, and together we worked to erect our flag atop a shiny silver pole with an extra bounce in my step. Amidst our work, we stopped to take a phone call from home.My colleague was Neil Armstrong, the instruments lunar science, and the place was Tranquility Base on the surface of the moon. The call was from the president of the United States, and the whole world — literally — was listening in.Neil and I, along with Mike Collins still in lunar orbit, had voyaged to the moon aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft, tiny when compared to today's Space Shuttle and International Space Station.We had accomplished a challenge made eight years before by President Kennedy, who made s...

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