Tranquility

On this 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 journey to the moon, Popular Mechanics revived an article Buzz Aldrin wrote for them on the 25th anniversary.

I don’t recall the precise words I uttered to Neil Armstrong when we slapped each others’ shoulders on the Moon—“We made it,” or “Good show,” or something to that effect. But today, a quarter-century later, certain memories remain as crisp as the shadows that creased that airless, desolate landscape. The perfect little waves of Moon dust that rolled away from my boots as I walked.

Later; back in the lunar module, its pungent smell—like gunpowder: The pleasure of adapting one’s movements to one-sixth of Earth’s gravity. The horizon that fell away within a mile or two. The clean blackness of the sky. Above all, the quiet.

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