Aldrin Buzz - Moon rush: the new space race

FIFTY YEARS AGO, ON JULY 20, 1969, I know exactly where I was standing. I was well suited for where I was, but without a tie. On the Moon, my get-down-to-business attire weighed 180 pounds. After stepping down from the Eagle lander, I stood there with my fellow space traveler, Neil Armstrong. High above the barren lunar scenery that I viewed as magnificent desolation was our Apollo 11 partner, Mike Collins, orbiting the Moon.

Americas Apollo program was an impressive team effort. It drew upon the talents of thousands and thousands of individuals who came together to make real a vision. It was a unified undertaking: a mix of government, industry, and academic stamina to transform a long-held dream into a reality.

But lets focus on a future trajectory. We need to revitalize the U.S. space program and fortify a leadership position, being mindful of the growing stature of other spacefaring nations that also are setting their sights on the heavens. I am more optimistic today than just a few years ago, given the revitalization of the National Space Council, under the chairmanship of Vice President Mike Pence. This council can guide American space policy in the direction I assert we should be moving: to regain and retain U.S. leadership in space. Our nation has suffered by not having an energetic, resolute, and true trajectory for NASAs exploration program.

That given, heres my vision for the future.

From a U.S. leadership position, we need to pull together space-capable nations to forge a partnership. I call it a global Moon-Mars coalition of nations, including China. The United States should stand forth as the experienced and essential leader of this coalition of countries determined to access space. By forming this international coalition, we will decrease for all the cost of many activities in Earth orbit and at the Moon in preparation for our missions to Mars.

But let me be blunt about something.

I have a major message to ground controland, for the most part, ground control is at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. My communiqu consists of two words: fiscal responsibility. Also, as in Apollo, an authoritative, independent advisory group should be available to those at NASA headquarters and others who are blueprinting the future with the intent of furthering a global space coalition. Space control should be in Houston, Texasa mission control to be independent from politics. There are major decisions to be madewhether about the utility of whats dubbed the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway thats now in vogue, or how long to keep the International Space Station (ISS) on a financial lifeline, or the proper utilization and future of NASAs Orion spacecraft, and also NASAs new big booster, the Space Launch System. Great stewardship of these programs is necessary; otherwise we will eat up every piece of the NASA budget, and we wont get anywhere.

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the landing of Apollo 11s Eaglethe spacecraft that got Neil and me down to the Moons surface safe and soundlets rekindle that momentum of progress. I see any number of Eagle landers in the future. Theres a clear opportunity to do that.

I am proud that I have championed the call for establishing a permanent human settlement on Mars over the decades. Perhaps, on this historic occasion of saluting the first human landing on the Moon, we need to signal future goals, those that inspire and draw upon the wherewithal of the global space community to push forward, not only to Mars, but beyond.

There is a historical legacy, and we humans need to live up to that heritage. Our Moon, as you can read throughout this book, is a world in waiting. How we utilize Earths celestial neighbor to further space objectives is yet to be determined. What I do know is that beyond returning to the Moon, occupying Mars is a task like no other. That undertaking, I firmly believe, can unite the great nations of the world in a cooperative, beneficial way. We can set sail to Mars, eventually putting in place a flourishing civilization step-by-step. This peaceful pursuit is unparalleled in history. It is time to place spacefaring nations on that unified trajectory.