in the visor of my helmet. It is truly an astounding photograph. In one click of the camera shutter, Neil captured man’s first walk on the Moon. Over the years, people have often asked me why this photo was so great. I answer with three words: Location, location, location!
EVENTUALLY, I CAME TO EMBRACE the fact that Neil was the first man on the Moon and I was “second,” and that my position was not insignificant. A relative on my mother’s side of the family, Reeve Darling, and I were talking about being second, and I expressed some consternation about my dubious distinction. Reeve looked at me and said, “Buzz, you can’t change history. You were the second man on the Moon. The media and everyone else focuses on the first; like in the Olympics, we want to know who won the gold medals, but we’re not as interested in the silver and bronze medal winners. Accept it.”
That was a turning point for me. I began to realize that although Neil would always be known as the first man on the Moon, I was there with him, and my contributions helped make Neil’s first step possible. Moreover, I was a participant in and an eyewitness to that first, monumental achievement. Why should I bellyache about being second, when I had so much for which I could be thankful and excited? I am the second person in the history of human beings to set foot on another celestial body. That is a meaningful position in itself.
Oh, I do have a couple of “firsts” in space. I own the title as the first person to ever take a “selfie” in space. During my Gemini 12 space walk, I was taking photos for an experiment involving ultraviolet rays, and while outside the spacecraft, I decided to see what would happen if I took a headshot of myself with Earth over my shoulder and the vastness of space above me in the background. I was confident that I could do it because my future Apollo 11 colleague Mike Collins had taken a photo inside the space capsule during Gemini 10, but nobody had ever tried a selfie outside the spacecraft.
Nearly 50 years later, my manager and “Mission Control Director,” Christina Korp, noticed that someone else had declared a photo as the first selfie in space. Christina has worked with me for a number of years, and she and her husband, Alex, along with their children Brielle and Logan, have become like family to me. Alex and Christina even named their son Logan Alexander Buzz Korp. The boy even has “Buzz” on his passport.
Christina not only manages my business, but she manages my life, and nowadays, she often teases that she has become my substitute mother, protecting my interests and making me behave … or else! We have a wonderful, close relationship, and I depend on her wisdom and expertise.
When Christina saw someone else claiming to have taken the first selfie in space, it was as though someone had insulted her family member! “Oh, I don’t think so,” she said, and instantly sent out the same message on Twitter. “That honor belongs to Buzz Aldrin.” She pointed out the photo I had taken with the Gemini 12 infrared camera. In 2015, a collector released original, authentic NASA prints from the early days of U.S. space exploration, and a print of my selfie sold for more than $9,000 at a London auction that year. I’m not sure whose pocket that money went into, but it wasn’t mine!
AS FAR AS I KNOW, I WAS ALSO THE FIRST person to ever relieve his bladder on the Moon, which I did immediately after jumping off the ladder of the lunar module. Neil took one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind; I took one small step for man and one giant leak for mankind!
In June 2012, I was in Carnarvon, Australia, a tiny town far up the western coastline, out in the middle of nowhere, where a radar station was once used to help track the Apollo missions. When I was speaking to a group of young elementary school children who asked about my first acts on the Moon, I told them a sanitized version of this story.
“Do you know what I did?” I asked the kids.
Sitting on the floor, they leaned forward and looked at me expectantly, waiting quietly for my next words.
“I peed my pants!”
The kids went crazy, elbowing each other and hooting with laughter.