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When Buzz Aldrin, the second man to step foot on the moon, retired from NASA he was pretty sure of two things. First, that he would never make it back to the Moon, and second, that he'd never even leave Earth's atmosphere again. But he could have been a little hasty in his assumptions...
Next week, the Space Shuttle Discovery is due to break free of the restraints of our planet's gravity. That 114th shuttle lift-off will reignite the shattered dreams of manned space flight, almost killed off with the crew lost aboard Columbia two years ago.
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| We're not sure about that hat, Buzz... |
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Aldrin, 75, will watch the launch of Discovery from his home in Beverly Hills with keen interest. The shuttle's return to space makes him proud, but the real sparkle in his eyes comes from his belief that space is on the verge of becoming far more accessible to mere mortals. As in 'Joe Public', not just the select few astronauts picked by NASA or their Russian counterparts. Aldrin reckons space travel could one day become as common as motoring.
"I've been a supporter of space tourism and [finding] ways of carrying that out for a while," claims the world's second most famous astronaut, who has been working on a stillborn project to take tourists to Mars. But the highly publicised announcement last year of Richard Branson's less ambitious but far more achievable Virgin Galactic two-hour joyride to the edge of space inspired Aldrin to make an ally of the British entrepreneur. He has even reputedly been offered one of the first seats aboard the VSS Enterprise.
"I'd have to examine why I would do that," Aldrin says, hedging his bets when asked if he'd jump at the chance to leave Earth again. Clearly, returning to space does not hold the same thrill for a man who's stood on the Moon as it might for the rest of us. That said, Aldrin just might find the project too intriguing to turn down. "When I left NASA I figured the opportunities for me to [go into space again] had passed!"
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