OPINION:
The moonshot countdown has begun. This month, humankind — led by America in a historic achievement under the Trump administration — is scheduled to send four heroic astronauts to the moon via Artemis II. A moon landing by Artemis III is scheduled for later this year.
Among those who assuredly will be watching the launch, the swing around the moon and the splashdown is the last surviving crew member of Apollo XI, Buzz Aldrin. He was one of the two original moon landers and the embodiment of America’s trailblazing spirit.
On Jan. 20, Mr. Aldrin — decorated U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, Gemini spacewalker, Apollo 11 lunar module pilot — turned 96. No one has expanded the boundaries of exploration as profoundly as he. His scientific work, spacewalking mastery and operational capability were essential to the success of the Apollo program.
Mr. Aldrin performed groundbreaking extravehicular activities during Gemini 12, proving that humans could work effectively in the vacuum of space. (While there, he seized the opportunity to take the first selfie in space.) Three years later, he served as lunar module pilot of Apollo 11, where he and fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first humans to land on the moon.
Messrs. Aldrin and Armstrong thus successfully executed the most consequential celestial voyage in the annals of human exploration, fulfilling the bold promise made in 1962 by President Kennedy at Rice University and winning the “space race” with the Soviet Union. Mission accomplished!
Mr. Aldrin’s extraordinary lifetime of service didn’t end with NASA. He continued to shape America’s future as commandant of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. He also has been a tireless advocate for sending astronauts out beyond low earth orbit to explore the solar system and colonize the moon and Mars.
Mr. Aldrin, like any great decathlete, is prolific in many disciplines. In addition to his world-renowned spaceflights, he has been up high (Mauna Loa, Hawaii; Table Mountain, South Africa; the Breithorn, Switzerland) and down low (to the wreck of the Titanic on the ocean floor).
He has scoured the globe researching extreme terrestrial landscapes that mirror lunar and Martian terrain. He explored the North Pole at 68 and the South Pole at 86. He ran high‑altitude parabolic flight campaigns into his 80s and played the first pickup baseball game standing at the North Pole with Norman Augustine, former undersecretary of the Army and Lockheed Martin CEO.
Mr. Aldrin is one of only 12 humans ever to walk on another world. He holds the title of honorary president of the Explorers Club, from which he has received the Explorers Club Medal, its highest award. Every four years, the club grants the Buzz Aldrin Space Exploration Award to an individual “noted for accomplishments in exploration of outer space that best typify the spirit of explorer Buzz Aldrin.”
He has earned, but not quite received, recognition for more than simply being the first moon lander. He has earned the title of respect as the greatest explorer in world history.
The recipient of more awards and decorations than can be listed in this space — including the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom — he also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
As the U.S. prepares to return astronauts to the moon, Mr. Aldrin’s legacy as the most accomplished explorer the planet has ever known has never been more relevant.
So tonight, push pause on the mundane operations of the evening, walk outside, stare up at the big, waning gibbous moon and take a moment to imagine the combination of curiosity, teamwork, bravery, genius and faith that a team of up to 400,000 Americans displayed in fulfilling Kennedy’s promise “to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
As we return to the moon, let’s recognize Buzz Aldrin — the last surviving member of Apollo 11 and the oldest living astronaut — as the greatest explorer in the history of humankind.
• Doug Centilli served as the Congressional Joint Economic Committee’s director of national economic policy and chief of staff to Rep. Kevin Brady. He is currently a Houston-based entrepreneur. Ralph Benko has served in or with three White Houses, has authored the internationally award-winning book “The Websters’ Dictionary: How to Use the Web to Transform the World,” and is co-founder and an executive of software enterprise F1R3FLY.com.
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