During the Apollo 11 moon mission on July 21, 1969, almost every single Photo you see of an astronaut on the lunar surface is of Buzz Aldrin. Many people attribute this photo as being Neil Armstrong but in fact there are only about three photos of Neil on the lunar surface that exist. This is because Neil was the one tasked with carrying the camera and taking photos. The camera was mounted to his chest, so he couldn’t turn it back on himself. Because of that, he’s not really in any of them. That photo people mistake for Neil, but is actually Buzz? Neil is in that photo, but as a reflection in Buzz’s face shield. Someone recently enhanced the photo to better show the reflection.
| A July 20, 1969 photo shows astronaut Neil Armstrong reflected in the helmet visor of Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon. The astronauts had a camera mounted to the front of their suits, according to the Universities Space Research Association. |
After Neil Armstrong became the first person on the moon, Buzz Aldrin followed 19 minutes later. The hatch on the lunar lander was closed most of the way to help keep the heat in the lander, however Neil had to remind Buzz not to fully close the hatch as there was a fear if the hatch fully closed and the lander re-pressurized with the astronauts out on the lunar surface, that the internal pressure would be too much to overcome and they wouldn’t be able to open the hatch to get back in.
This was because they could not get all the air out of the lunar module (LM). The astronauts opened the valve and watched as the oxygen vented out … but even as it read zero, they could not get the hatch open. There was still too much pressure inside the lander.
“We tried to pull the door open, and it wouldn’t come open,” Aldrin said. “We thought, ‘Well, I wonder if we’re going to get out or not?’ It took an abnormal time for it to finally get to a point where we felt we could pull on a fairly flimsy door.”
In fact, Aldrin eventually resorted to peeling back one edge of the front hatch … but carefully. “You don’t wanna rupture that door and leave yourself in a vacuum for the rest of the mission!” he recalled with a chuckle.
