Buzz Aldrin's Biography and Story of the First Lunar Landing

I’ve always been fascinated with space and with the astronaut corps in general.  Like many kids when I was young I wanted to be an astronaut.  Growing up in the early days of the shuttle program I made my fair share of space shuttle models and cried myself to sleep the day the Challenger exploded.  Even though my ambitions eventually turned to music and writing I still have a very soft spot in my heart for the topic, and picked up a copy of Buzz Aldrin’s new biography about the first lunar landing, Magnificent Desolationa few days ago at our local library.  It gives a very interesting look into Aldrin’s life and career, and serves as yet another reminder that climbing the highest mountain also means that you have farther to fall.

Aldrin starts the book by detailing the specifics of the Apollo 11 launch, moon landing, and return, but this is only the first quarter of the entire book.  From there we get a look at something much more personal, a proud American hero who, after achieving what only 11 other people in the world have done, found himself in his own personal desolation.  He suffered terribly from depression, partly from his constant quandry that after being one of the members of the first lunar landing expedition, “what do I do now?”  He also had some serious genetic issues stacked against him (both his father and mother committed suicide).  While other famous astronauts also went through similar bouts of depression Aldrin was the first to be brave enough to seek help, a decision that in the old Air Force climate cost him a promotion to General and effectively ended his career in the military.

Aldrin came out of this depression a better man.  Today he works with a foundation that encourages the commercialization of space, making it accessable to everyone instead of just the elite.  His ideas and tactics have not been appreciated by all of his fellow astronauts, and truthfully the idea of making the Rocket Experience  rap video with Snoop Dog still baffles me.