Buzz Aldrin Addresses CPAC; Urges Continued Space Exploration, Town Hall
“Retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin received a standing ovation at CPAC on Thursday, speaking “not as a Republican” or as a Democrat, but as someone who is concerned that America needs to maintain its space exploration program.”

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25 replies on “Buzz Does CPAC”

  1. Even aside from the whole “take support wherever you can get it” aspect, he’s a pretty devout evangelical Christian IIRC.

    I feel awful that he’ll almost certainly not live to see the next person on the Moon – or on Mars.

      1. I’m 47 and feel the same. The direction we’re going with SLS/Orion will suck up so much money, there won’t be any left for actual exploration vehicles.

      2. I’m in my early 30s myself. I think I’ll see it, but only because I’m hoping for life extension technologies at some point in the next 50 years or so.

          1. If it was just NASA going for it, I’d be skeptical that I’d see it in my life-time. But with Musk throwing money at it, the Chinese building a crewed space program . . . it makes me just a tiny bit more optimistic that we might get it in the 21st century.

    2. Important to note that religion is not politics. I know plenty of Christians who are well left in their politics.

    3. That is probably why he’s now supporting it, his entire living was made of being #2 on Moon.

      1. He gets flak for that, yea, but on the other hand I always faulted the First Man on The Moon for disappearing when some speeches and a higher profile could have made a difference. A difference that #2 can’t make but #1 could have.

          1. Oh please. He did no such thing. NASA and the US citizenry made him famous. There was so much he could have done.

          2. like what? charge $100 per signature? made speeches about how great he is? Mr Armstrong knew that he was the last person in a line of a million that were more deserving in the accolades but he was humble. Buzz is a glory hound that changes his mind and support daily.

          3. One of the great things about being famous– something I observe from afar– is that the room somehow quietens when you speak.

            When the difficulty of achieving your fame is so difficult and so out of reach for the rest of us, your words are not only heard but acquire the power to move policy.

            And when your fame comes from being first, with all the panache attached– the first to climb the tallest mountain, for instance, or the first man on the moon- your words are heard as Truth.

            The death of Apollo can be traced at least in part to a very quiet voice in Cincinnati. I have to believe that there were those making the Apollo 11 Commander assignment who considered the value of what they were creating. After all, there was a very large handful of fully capable men ready and able to do what Mr. Armstrong did.

            How his introverted personality and resultant refusal to advocate was either missed or dismissed is a piece of history I’ve not yet uncovered. It’s vexing and it is full of “if only”.

  2. Crew on Mars, no. Crew on the Moon, yes, but not anytime soon. Also, they may be wearing Chinese flags on their shoulders. That is the kind of national glory they covet, IMO.

    1. China has no interest in a new space race. Most people involved in Chinese spaceflight would prefer to join us in an international program, however we have rejected collaboration with China and in fact been rather insulting about it.

        1. Yet Aldrin calls unequivocally for us to go to Mars as partners with China. Is he wrong?

          I have worked with people from China for more than a decade. Most Americans simply do not understand China’s goals in space. To quote my Chinese friend: “China has nothing to gain from a new space race. If we lost we would look incompetent. If we won we would irritate our largest customer. If you Americans want to race to the Moon, go ahead. We will not race with you. You will be racing by yourself.”

          China’s human spaceflight program certainly has goals. They include building national pride in their domestic audience, still recovering from a collective inferiority complex instilled by more than a century of foreign military occupation. Moreover they see international collaboration in human spaceflight as supporting their international business relationships and promoting their commercial technology. It is not a zero-sum game. Increased trade must in some respects help all the trading partners, or it would not occur. Far from racing us to the Moon, China would much prefer simply to be invited to join the ISS program, not to show they dominate the world, but rather to show they have “joined the club” of world leaders.

          If we, the US, have such a simplistic vision of world affairs that we think putting boots on the Moon (again) before the Chinese will provide any lasting benefits, then we will lose. Indeed, it will show that we do not even understand the game.

          1. I think, Dr. Woodard, that many see a new space race as a way to get back to the moon. Perhaps the Chinese have a more practical viewpoint.

            Nobody has suggested a way to maintain Lunar (or Martian) presence that is actually affordable.

  3. Hopefully he will also speak (and be invited to speak) at a Democratic function to show that this is not about politics. Space cannot be about politics (well, at least the left/right version, obviously Congressional funding is about politics regardless of party).

  4. Cheers to Buzz for getting outside of the space groupie echo chamber. The base of support will never grow if you only ever preach to the choir. His name means something and he’s not afraid to use it. I salute him!

  6. A proper Mars mission will require a vehicle more similar to the one in the movie The Martian than an Orion capsule. We don’t have the needed technology for Mars yet, and at the rate NASA is going, we won’t have it for many decades. An advanced lunar system would have made a lot more sense. Of course Buzz convinced Obama that wasn’t needed.

    NASA was given an opportunity to put together a meaningful program 10 years ago, and wasted that opportunity on Apollo redux. There was never any reason to think an effort like Constellation would survive; Apollo did not survive after 1970 and there was never any reason to think it would survive in 2010. Kudos to the idiots who took us down that path.

    The present NASA is not set up for R&D, or for systems development, or to push the envelope. The “operators” saw to that. But they failed with Shuttle and they are failing now with ISS, and unless we see a significant decline in cost of access to and operations in space in the next decade, my guess is that ISS will be the end of the road for Americans in space for some time to come.

  7. Buzz really did an outstanding job. I was expecting the usual motherhood and apple pie speech that we always hear in the space community echo chamber, but this was different. It definitely had more of an edge. His talk reminded me of George C. Scott’s preamble in “Patton,” (without the expletives) and Kirk Douglas’s talks over the last 15 years. Buzz had the bearing of an emeritus General/explorer in top form. Everyone should hope to have this kind of vigor when they’re 86.

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