NASA pioneer astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin may have gotten older over the years but he still has not missed a beat when it comes to generating a "buzz" on social media.
The 85-year-old former test pilot conquered social media's Throwback Thursday last week when he posted an image of his travel voucher during his historic trip to the Moon and back on his Twitter and Facebook accounts.
The travel form, also signed by Aldrin's fellow Apollo 11 astronauts Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong, awaited the three NASA space explorers when they reached the Honolulu Airport on July 1969. It stated that the itinerary for Aldrin and his crewmates featured the mission's launch site at Florida's Cape Canaveral, the Moon, the USN Hornet in the Pacific Ocean and Hawaii.
Yes the #Apollo11 crew also signed customs forms. We brought back moon rocks & moon dust samples. Moon disease TBD. pic.twitter.com/r9Sn57DeoW
— Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) August 2, 2015
Other information stated in the form included the status of the three astronauts' health upon their arrival, but regarding a standard question about the on board conditions that could lead to illness, Aldrin, Collins and Armstrong only indicated, "To be determined."
Aldrin said that the question referred to any potential diseases that they might have discovered during their mission on the Moon, and that they were still waiting for confirmation if they had contracted any before providing a definitive answer.
The next page on the travel form indicated further details regarding the travel arrangements for the three Apollo 11 astronauts' business trip to the lunar satellite.
Aldrin said that he drove his car from his home to the Ellington Air Force Base located just outside of Houston, Texas. From the air force base, the astronaut travelled to Cape Kennedy in Florida on a government aircraft.
The voucher also mentioned that the government arranged for the quarters and meals of the Apollo 11 astronauts for the indicated dates.
When the selection of astronauts for a series of space missions was made in October 1963, Buzz Aldrin was included in its third group as test pilot experience was no longer required for participants and it was the group which he was initially eligible for.
With the death of the original crew of the Gemini 9A mission, Charles Bassett and Elliot See, Aldrin and fellow pioneer astronaut Jim Lovell were named to the mission's backup crew. Aldrin quickly proved his skills as an astronaut and he eventually became part of the final Gemini mission, Gemini 12.
Aldrin set the record for the total extravehicular activity (EVA) time when he became the second man to ever set foot on the Moon, after Apollo 11 commander Armstrong. The record was later broken during the Apollo 14 mission.
