11 mission that we had a lot of other things to talk about. We let the matter of the unidentified object drop.
A number of years later though, I was doing an interview with a foreign television network, and, assuming that NASA had made public our observations about the UFO, I told the story. When word got out that Apollo 11 astronauts had seen a UFO and not informed the world—especially those who adamantly believe in extraterrestrial presences in space—it caused a major uproar. In more places than I care to imagine, people were saying things such as, “Buzz saw an alien and NASA’s covering it up and won’t let him talk about it.”
It seemed that way. But now you know what really happened.
As Carl Sagan was fond of noting about improbable possibilities, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” Personally, I strongly believe other life-forms might exist in various places throughout the universe, but the tremendous distances involved in trying to explore the immenseness of the universe make discovery unlikely in the near future.
DON’T LIVE YOUR LIFE BY what seems to be true. Other people may not “get” you. So what? It’s not what you do or where you go, but who you are becoming that really matters. Although many people sit around worrying that a decision by a roomful of strangers is about to change their lives forever, the reality is that their lives have already been shaped decisively by the sum of their own past decisions—the habits developed, the friends made, and the challenges overcome. What you do or where you work or go to school matters, because those types of criteria often present a measure of the person you’re becoming. But never allow other people to define your destiny. Who you work for and what you do are not nearly as important as who you are.
The important thing is that you believe in yourself and that you learn to maintain your composure, even under difficult circumstances. Handling pressure is a lifelong process, and the ability to remain calm or to regain self-control is key to thriving even in potentially frightening or life-threatening situations.
Why?
Because most people don’t make their best decisions when they are angry or frightened or nervous. When your emotions are surging and running rampant, it is far too easy to make an irrational mistake, to do something really stupid that you may regret for a long time. Many of those emotion-driven, irrational responses could be avoided simply by taking time to breathe.
When somebody says something that angers you, rather than lashing back with equal venom, take a few moments (or hours, or days, if necessary) to calm down and make a more calculated response. Your actions will usually be wiser, better, and more effective when you have taken the emotional elements out of them as much as possible.
As fighter pilots, Neil and I learned the principle of not allowing our emotions to get the better of us in difficult circumstances. That training came in real handy on the Moon.
After completing our experiments on the lunar surface, Neil and I reentered the Eagle, and we threw out our “garbage” bag, containing anything that was contaminated, including the boots we wore on the lunar surface. I’ve always wished that we could have kept those boots.
When we completed our housecleaning chores, we repressurized the LM, putting oxygen back into the cabin, and depressurized our space suits. We snacked on cold cocktail sausages and fruit punch. After that, our checklist told us that it was time to sleep. On Earth, we had simulated being in and out of the LM many times, but we had never really determined how and where we were going to sleep while on the Moon. We had no beds or even cots in the lunar module. I took first dibs and decided to sleep on the floor, while Neil sat on the ascent engine cover and leaned back against a console with his feet off the ground.
It was cold in the cabin and hard to sleep in the cramped conditions. As I lay down and fidgeted on the floor, I turned my head and noticed some lunar dust we’d tracked in, but also something else—a piece of plastic that looked as though it had broken off something. It seemed like a circuit breaker, so I stood up and started looking over the row of circuit breakers, trying to determine where the plastic may have come from. My heart sank when I saw it.
To my dismay, the