Buzz Aldrin’s press conference during the IAC 2012 in Naples

I received a reply from Mike Garrett – head of ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy – regarding the conference with Buzz Aldrin – the second men on the moon, july 1969 – on the last day of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), which was held last week in Napels. He was lucky enough to be there, I had to leave that day for my flight to Amsterdam. Mike wrote ‘Buzz Aldrin’s presentation touched on Neil as a man, pilot, engineer and astronaut. He said that he had hoped that all three of them (himself, Neil Armstrong and Mike Collins) would be re-united in 2019 – the 50th anniversary of the first landing on the moon – but sadly it was not to be. He also mentioned that he had not expected Neil Armstrong to be the first of them “to go”. When he entered the room he passed right by Miriam (Janssen, alsof from ASTRON) and myself – I couldn’t get much closer!’ Mike sent me some pictures of Buzz Aldrin, here attached. Besides Buzz Aldrin you see ESA-astronauts Paoli Nespoli and Christian Fuglesang, who where too on the first SpaceUp conference in Genk, a few weeks ago.