IN THIS FEATURE Space now-boy When a pilot loves his cars Part-time racer A vision of space tourism

An idealist, Aldrin defines space travel as "when the engine cuts off you stay in orbit for an indefinite period of time", not the planned, tentative nose into space that Virgin Galactic will offer. At the same time Aldrin is a realist and he understands that to achieve the space equivalent of Concorde, the Wright Flyer must lift off first. And Branson's space ship is the modern Wright Flyer.

"I think [Virgin Galactic] is what we're going to be able to see in the next five years," predicts Aldrin. "The question is how many people will avail themselves of that opportunity and indications are that it's quite a high number.

Two symbols of the American way

"To me travelling to space is going into orbit. Something like Branson's project is a viable stepping stone, though, and a very attractive one at that. And I think people are enthusiastic about that because they realise just how difficult it is to get into orbit."

Whilst Aldrin dreams of a future where we can all travel into space, the humble automobile still boasts a few tricks that even the most advanced space craft can't match.

"When we get in a car, we leave one place and we can go somewhere else that's a block away, 5 blocks away, a couple of miles away, or we can go right across the country," explains Aldrin. "When we go into space we depart from one particular place and right up to now it's pretty been much restricted, and then we come back to land somewhere specifically pre-arranged. But there's not a great choice and hopefully that will change."

To learn more about Buzz Aldrin, visit www.buzzaldrin.com.