Travel is travel, and flight is flight even if it means you travelled to moon and back. Recently Buzz Aldrin, who was the second man to set foot on moon after Neil Armstrong tweeted a set of forms that they had to fill out after their moon landing mission in 1969. Hilarious, yet revealing and historic on so many different levels, Aldrin’s tweets generated massive press and public response on this unique information.
After being Splashed into Pacific in their Capsule, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins arrived at the Honolulu, the legendary astronauts had to then fill and sign customs declaration forms. In the forms lunar astronauts declared that from their journey they were bringing home some ‘moon rock’, and ‘moon dust’ just like any other responsible traveller.
The date on the forms is July 24, 1969 and the flight itinerary is comically shown as ‘Cape Kennedy to Honolulu via Moon’. The most interesting thing on the forms is in the section marked ‘Any condition on board which may lead to spread of disease’, the astronauts wrote TBD (to be determined).
Earlier, astronaut Buzz Aldrin also shared with his followers his travel vouchers that he used to claim his travel expenses to ‘moon’. In case you are wondering how much Buzz Aldrin received for his share of ‘the greatest journey ever made; Aldrin was reimbursed $33.31, money he used for his transportation to Cape Kennedy.
Not long ago, Aldrin’s selfie from Gemini 12 mission made a whopping $9,000 in an auction, ten times more than it was expected to generate. Aldrin must expect handsome amount of money if he ever decides to put up his ‘moon stuff’ for auction.
The stars of the sixties and seventies, astronauts received the press and appreciation of an epic proportions. We might now consider the trip to moon something that happened some years ago, but in sixties it meant so much more than just a trip to our nearest celestial neighbour. (appy geek)
Judging by the response Buzz’s fun tweets received from his followers and others around the globe, one could conclusively state that almost four decades later we are still fascinated by the iconic moon journey. Armstrong’s iconic short speech while setting foot on the surface of the moon, ‘One small step for man, one giant leap for the mankind’ still echoes in our imaginations no matter how old we are.