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Legendary Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin this week greeted “everyone” from NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on the successful landing of the Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars.
Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, after Neil Armstrong, on the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, shared his observations in a phone interview on Fox News’ “Cavuto Live”.
The New Jersey native, who turned 91 in January, has long been a supporter of efforts by the U.S. space program to explore Mars, the next planet after Earth in the opposite direction to the Sun.
Fox host Neil Cavuto started the segment by sharing the latest video footage of Mars that was captured by Perseverance, the fifth rover NASA sent to the planet and NASA’s ninth landing there, according to the ‘Associated Press.
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“I think it’s a great tribute to all the people at NASA, led by Jim Bridenstine and all the other people, especially those in the control room at JPL.”
Bridenstine, the NASA administrator who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, left the agency on January 20, when President Biden took office.
Cavuto later asked Aldrin to estimate in what year humans will be able to reach the surface of Mars.
“About 10, 20 years ago, my estimate was around 2030, 2033, and that was earlier than most other people imagined,” Aldrin replied.
Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin. (Associated press)
“We have to do a lot of things to Artemis, our moon-manned program…” he continued. “So it’s going to take the first one on the moon and then the audience will be ready to see the next one, which will be a sophisticated upgrade for manned missions.”
Other planned missions to Mars include the landing of a small rover by China, scheduled for late spring, and a spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates that entered Martian orbit last week, the United Arab Emirates reported. AP.
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Aldrin was previously in the news in January when he received his first coronavirus vaccine, just days before his 91st birthday.
“I urge everyone to sign up for a vaccination as soon as possible when they are eligible to do so, so that life can soon return to normal,” Aldrin wrote on Twitter.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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