Buzz Aldrin was the second person to ever step foot on the lunar surface and now he is cheering on the Artemis II team from the ground as they successfully completed their Moon flyby.
On July 20, 1969, the world held their breath as they watched Aldrin and Neil Armstrong explore the Moon for the first time in history.
Now, over 50 years later, the former NASA astronaut has been supporting Artemis II, according to documentary filmmaker and longtime friend of Aldrin, Steven Barber.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Barber said: “Buzz has been in a spirited mood all week. He’s been watching Artemis.
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“He’s absolutely amazed that they used a lot of his ideas through the years. He’s giddy about it all and kept saying: ‘now it’s time to occupy Mars!’”
This is similar to comments made by billionaire Elon Musk who has long had his sights set on colonizing the Red Planet.
Barber went on to say: “You could see the joy in his eyes. He has the NASA feed on his TV all day. This is an awesome thing for him to watch.
“To know NASA is going back to the moon so many years after he and Neil Armstrong first set foot there makes Buzz very happy.
“He told me he was glad we were going back. He said: ‘this is fantastic. They are following in our footsteps. It is long overdue’.”
On Monday (April 6), the crew aboard the Orion capsule, which is made up of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, successfully completed their flyby of the Moon.
This involved traveling to the dark side of the Moon, meaning the team lost all contact with Earth for around 40 minutes as the lunar rock blocked their signal.
Now, Artemis II is officially Earthbound, with the crew expected to splashdown just off the coast of San Diego on Friday (April 10).
The trip has also been record breaking as it marks the furthest human space travel in history.
This was previously set by the Apollo 13 crew who went as far as 248,655 miles away from Earth, but now Artemis II has beaten them after their capsule reached the 252,756-mile mark.
Unlike Aldrin’s mission, the astronauts of Artemis II won’t be stepping foot on the Moon but if their mission is successful then we could see humans back on the lunar surface as early as 2027 with the upcoming Artemis III mission expected to launch next year.