Tag: Buzz Aldrin

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Buzz Aldrin makes waves with latest moon vision

Buzz Aldrin
During a discussion presented by the International Academy of Astronautics in Washington, D.C., Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin recalls how enthusiastically he and his crewmates were greeted during a post-mission goodwill tour.(GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin says there’s no need for the lunar-orbiting Gateway outpost that plays a key role in NASA’s vision to land astronauts on the moon by 2024.

Instead, he envisions a differently configured transportation system that makes use of commercial rockets under the leadership of a “Space Exploration Alliance” that includes China as well as NASA’s current partners.

“I’m not a big fan of the Gateway,” Aldrin said today during a panel discussion presented by the International Academy of Astronautics in conjunction with this week’s International Astronautical Congress in Washington. “I do not believe we need a permanent structure around the moon.”

Aldrin sided with critics who say the Gateway’s benefits as a way station for moon-bound astronauts are outweighed by its limitations and its multibillion-dollar cost.

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Buzz Aldrin shares his latest moon plan amid turmoil

Buzz Aldrin
Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin acknowledges that the change in tone on his Twitter account has “unfortunately resulted in an exchange or two.” (Buzz Aldrin via Twitter)

Buzz Aldrin wants people to know that he has some cool new ideas about how to get to the moon — not just because they’re cool, but also because they show his mind is working.

“That’s not an inactive, incapacitated, dependent mind,” the 88-year-old Aldrin, who became one of the first humans to walk on the moon during 1969’s Apollo 11 mission, told me today during a wide-ranging telephone interview.

That’s an issue nowadays, due to a legal fight that’s pitting Aldrin and his new business managers against two of his children and his former business manager.

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SNC and Blue Origin show off space hardware

Buzz Aldrin and Mark Sirangelo
Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin and Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Mark Sirangelo get an early look at SNC’s Dream Chaser atmospheric test plane. (SNC Photo)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. —  A year after Blue Origin put its New Shepard rocket booster on public display for the first time, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space venture has brought its BE-4 rocket engine here for one of the nation’s premier space conferences.

But this time, Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Corp. is taking up at least as much of the spotlight at the 34th Space Symposium with the prototype for its Dream Chaser mini-space shuttle.

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Jeff Bezos wins an award … from Buzz Aldrin!

Jeff Bezos and Buzz Aldrin
Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos receives the Buzz Aldrin Space Innovation Award from Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin during a gala at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Buzz Aldrin via Twitter)

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin space venture have picked up a good number of awards over the past year, but this weekend’s award was the first of its kind.

The Buzz Aldrin Space Innovation Award was created by the famed Apollo 11 moonwalker, who gave Bezos his weighty glass trophy during a July 15 gala at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

In a day-after tweet, the 87-year-old Aldrin said he was “delighted” to have Bezos and Blue Origin as the award’s first honorees. Bezos tweeted his thanks in return.

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Buzz Aldrin visits Jeff Bezos’ rocket factory

Bezos and Aldrin
Jeff Bezos, Buzz Aldrin and the moonwalker’s son, Andrew Aldrin, are front and center in this picture taken at Blue Origin’s headquarters in Kent, Wash. Buzz Aldrin’s longtime assistant, Christina Korp, is to the right and behind Andrew Aldrin. (Blue Origin Photo via Twitter)

It’s been a good week for Blue Origin, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space venture. Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin just paid a visit to the company’s headquarters in Kent, Wash., and today the team behind Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship won one of the space industry’s most prestigious prizes.

Aldrin dropped by only a couple of days after starring in a New York fashion show, and in a picture that Bezos tweeted today, it looks as if the 87-year-old space icon is wearing the same T-shirt. Aldrin is the guy standing in the front row between his son, aerospace executive Andrew Aldrin, and Bezos himself.

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Bill Nye and Buzz Aldrin model fashions for Mars

Bill Nye and Buzz Aldrin
Bill Nye the Science Guy joins forces with Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin at a New York fashion show. (Buzz Aldrin via Twitter)

To be a fashionable geek is usually a contradiction of terms, but Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin and Bill Nye (“the Science Guy”) pulled it off during New York Men’s Fashion Week.

The 86-year-old former astronaut teamed up with the bowtie-wearing educator and TV personality to show off space-shiny duds designed by Nick Graham.

Nye, who got his start on TV as a geeky experimenter on KING-TV’s “Almost Live” late-night show, doubled as the announcer for this week’s runway outing, titled “Life on Mars: Fall-Winter 2035.”

Nye wore a silver-and-charcoal suit featuring a Saturn print, while Aldrin showed off a shiny metallic bomber jacket, worn over a black and silver version of his trademark “Get Your Ass to Mars” T-shirt.

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Buzz Aldrin on his health scare and John Glenn

Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin check out the engines on a Saturn V rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “I’m feeling better and my rocket is ready to launch,” he tweeted. (Buzz Aldrin Photo via Twitter)
Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin check out the engines on a Saturn V rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “I’m feeling better and my rocket is ready to launch,” he tweeted. (Buzz Aldrin Photo via Twitter)

Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin made light of what some might consider a close brush with death during an interview that aired today on NBC’s “Today” show – but he made a serious point as well.

A medical emergency at the South Pole forced Aldrin’s evacuation from the South Pole during a tourism trek on Nov. 30. “I got out of breath,” the 86-year-old told interviewer Al Roker at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “You know, that’s nothing new, except it’s a little more concentrated.”

Aldrin suffered from respiratory problems associated with Antarctica’s cold temperatures and high altitude. “Not much air to breathe up there,” he said. He was airlifted to a hospital in Christchurch, New Zealand, for a week of recuperation.

It didn’t sound as if he had any regrets.

“When turning back is about as difficult as pressing on, you press on, because you’ve got an objective,” Aldrin said. “Especially when they tell me that I just set a record – the oldest guy to the South Pole. See, now it was worth it, really!”

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Buzz Aldrin’s OK after South Pole medical scare

Buzz Aldrin and Christina Korp
Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin flashes a thumbs-up during his evacuation from Antarctica to New Zealand. His manager, Christina Korp, is in the foreground, taking the selfie shot. (Christina Korp Photo via Twitter)

Buzz Aldrin’s South Pole adventure turned into a medical emergency when his health deteriorated, but his manager says the Apollo 11 moonwalker is safe today in a New Zealand hospital.

The 86-year-old’s health declined during a tour of Antarctica, an adventure travel firm called White Desert said in a statement today.

Aldrin was handed over to the National Science Foundation for a medical airlift. The first leg of the outward trip took Aldrin from NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station to McMurdo Station on Ross Island, aboard a ski-equipped LC-130 cargo plane from the New York Air National Guard. He was flown from McMurdo to Christchurch, New Zealand, aboard a Safair cargo plane, NSF said.

White Desert said Aldrin was taken to a Christchurch hospital, where he was found to have fluid in his lungs. The travel firm said he was “responding well to antibiotics and being kept overnight for observation.”

“His condition is stable, and his manager, who is currently with him, described him being in good spirits,” White Desert said.

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Supermoon puts Buzz Aldrin in beast mode

This week’s supermoon has been pretty much clouded out in Seattle, but it appears to have had an effect on Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin.

In a Twitter update, the 86-year-old space icon mugged for the camera, werewolf-style, and said it took all his willpower to stop from howling.

Aldrin doesn’t shy away from media moments, whether it’s cutting a rug on “Dancing With the Stars” or putting in a cameo on the NBC sitcom “30 Rock.”

On a 2010 episode, Aldrin invited series star Tina Fey to join him in yelling at the moon over Manhattan. Fey obliged, but it was Aldrin who showed the moon who’s boss. “I own you! I walked on your face!” he shouted.

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Buzz Aldrin has a plan to settle Mars by 2040

Image: Buzz Aldrin
Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin addresses the 32nd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., with an Apollo-era picture of himself serving as a backdrop. (GeekWire photo by Alan Boyle)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Nearly five decades after his first spaceflight, Buzz Aldrin is still thinking about the next giant leap to Mars. Today he shared his latest plan for sending astronauts to the Red Planet for regular tours of duty, starting in 2040.

“From that point, we will always have humans living there,” the 86-year-old Apollo 11 moonwalker told his audience at the 32nd Space Symposium here.

The mission architecture, which Aldrin calls Cycling Pathways to Mars, relies on transfer spacecraft that cycle perpetually between the Earth-moon system and Mars and its moons.

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