More than 30 years after he first set foot on the moon, Buzz Aldrin is working on a plan that would allow ‘citizens’ the opportunity for space travel on their own
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon July 16, 1969 with Apollo 11 colleagues Neil Armstrong and Mike Collins, becoming the first humans to leave their footprints in the lunar dust. Aldrin says he was acutely aware that what he said and did at that moment would be remembered for a lifetime.
Today, Aldrin, 70, is still aware that what he says can have far-reaching effects on the future of space tourism. Aldrin’s personal goals are to get people excited about space again and encourage the government to fund studies on the commercialization of space tourism with a new generation of reusable rockets.
Aldrin wasn’t always this focused. In 1977, eight years after returning from the moon and after battling alcoholism and depression, he was trading on his renown selling cars at a Cadillac dealership. It wasn’t until his present wife Lois met the “incorrigible bachelor” in 1988 that he was transformed, with the help of her savvy marketing skills, into a rather lucrative space icon.
These days, the Aldrins travel the world for speaking engagements, mostly for corporations like Fisher Price that pay him anywhere from $25,000 to the occasional $100,000 fee. Aldrin became Radio Shack’s corporate spokesman this year.
Question: Are you still active in the space program?
Answer: I am extremely active for a non-permanent employee of either NASA or the industry.
Q: In what ways are you active?
A: I have two formal involvements, one of which is a nonprofit company called ShareSpace Foundation Inc. in Washington, D.C., whose sole purpose is promoting the idea of private citizens flying in orbital space flights.
Q: And the other involvement?
A: I was trying to find better ways of going from Earth to Mars and back, and to establish a transportation system that is reasonable to embark on economically. So I created my own rocket company called StarCraft Boosters to create a better system of rockets.
Q: Why do we need to improve rockets?
A: We need two-staged orbit vehicles, booster rockets that are re-useable.
Instead of them plunging into the ocean to be thrown away, we want them to sprout wings and fly back unmanned with jet engines and land on a runway so we can use them again. If you throw a rocket away, you never get to see what its development history is.
Q: So what have you created?
A: StarCraft Boosters is developing methods of taking rockets and combining them with an airplane so they are launched vertically. The rocket is inside the airplane so that it boosts other upper stages that go on and do the mission.
Q: Is NASA supportive of your efforts?
A: No. They want revolutionary changes and our proposals aren’t as ambitious or high performance in their objectives. We are trying to reduce the cost by a factor or two and learn from it and start with a booster.
Q: What do you think of the government’s attitude towards space?
A: There has been a reluctance on the part of the government to entertain private citizens flying in the shuttle to develop a tourism business.
Q: Without the help of the government, could private individuals fund tourism in space?
A: The cost of trips back to the moon and Mars is in excess of several hundred billion dollars. It exceeds the expectations of the private sector to do it alone.
Q: What are the attitudes from the corporate world toward space tourism?
A: I am increasingly optimistic that the entertainment business, cruise business, adventure travel business, all of these are beginning to recognize that space will be available as a profit-making adventure/travel/tourism business.
Q: What do you think about the public’s interest in space?
A: There are lots of people who are still fascinated.
Q: How did the concept of ordinary citizens going to space get started?
A: When the Russians started carrying satellite nations’ passengers in the early 1980s, namely test pilots, we started doing the same thing with the space shuttle.
Q: What were the repercussions of the failed Challenger mission in 1986 that carried Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher to fly in space?
A: Our luck ran out. As a result of the Challenger accident, we stopped flying citizens in space until John Glenn.
Q: Do you see space flights becoming as regular as commuter flights?
A: Hopefully, the next-generation shuttle system will be flying once a day.
Q: How would that happen?
A: We are going to have to make it affordable and get the public behind it, perhaps through reality TV shows.
Q: What would it be like initially for those private citizens who fly in space?
A.: If they are only going for 24 hours, I would expect them not to have a high desire to sleep. Why would they want to miss whatever is happening down below? They would see one orbit around the earth in 90 minutes and a sunrise and sunset every 45 or 55 minutes.
Q: Then why would we need space hotels?
A: Because eventually the next-generation shuttle flight will be able to take about 100 to 150 people at a time for longer periods of time.
Q: What would a space hotel be like? Paint a picture for us.
A: Austere. It isn’t going to be a bunch of people lolling around in a cocktail lounge on board the new airliner. Space is not going to be like that; space is going to be very austere and at a premium. We have to construct small, private, adequate sleeping areas. If there are going to be large windows, those will be shared, as will areas in which to do somersaults and enjoy the weightlessness.
Q: How do you earn a living?
A: By personal appearances and by lending my credibility to commercial activity. There is a speaker’s bureau that I am involved in and I do commercials that promote appropriate technical entertainment-type products that are useable for people.
Q: How many speaking engagements do you do in a month?
A: Maybe three to five.
Q: If you hadn’t been an astronaut, what would you have done?
A: Probably continued a military career through 30 to 35 years of service, instead of 21 years.
Q: What was it like to step on the moon?
A: I was consumed with performing very responsible tasks.
Q: Do you anticipate going into space again?
A: I’ve walked on the moon with the first mission, and I don’t need to go into space to satisfy that experience again.
Q: Are there lucrative commercial aspects associated with your space career?
A: Last year there was a release of products including Hasbro’s officially licensed “Buzz Aldrin Astronaut/G.I. Joe Classic Collection” figure and others. There is a commemorative artwork, posters and lithographs by Peter Max based on me on the moon, and I have also licensed a number of educational products and computer software games for children, including Interplay’s “Buzz Aldrin’s Race into Space.”
Q: Anything else?
A: I lend my persona to appropriate TV and print advertising campaigns, as well as make appropriate personal appearances for major corporations.
