Who is the second person landed on the moon

The magnificence of our achievement for humanity was that we were there. But when I looked around I saw the most desolate sight imaginable. No oxygen, no life, just the lunar surface that hasn't changed for thousands of years—and the blackness of the sky. It was the most desolate thing I could ever think of. Nothing was smuggled aboard. So a couple of weeks before we blasted off I thought it would be a good idea if I told the guy in charge of the flight crew what I was going to do.

He said, Just don't talk about it when you are on the moon. When the Apollo 8 crew read from Genesis on Christmas Eve some people complained that, as a government-funded institution, NASA should not be promoting religion. So it wasn't until years later that I felt okay about talking about it. I was involved, like John Glenn and some of the other astronauts, with a particular church. So I felt it was appropriate for me to demonstrate my Christian background. Today, my philosophy is more like what Albert Einstein called a cosmic sense of a greater power involved in the creation of the universe.

The title of my first autobiography was not Journey to the Moon. It was called Return to Earth , which was more descriptive of my situation coming back. I had been stationed there for a couple of years and I was an aide to the dean of faculty.

But that assignment went to a classmate of mine from West Point, whose father was a four-star general in the Air Force. Instead, I was assigned to command a test pilot school, which was rather ironic because I was somewhat unique on the crew, having never trained as a test pilot, as was required for all earlier astronauts. I was interested in space, not airplanes.

So, after a year, I decided to retire from the Air Force. I'd already left NASA and wasn't anxious to join some corporation.

So I was not sure what the rest of my life would be like. When I returned from the moon I became a celebrity, a hero, with ticker tape parades and speeches. But that's not really what I looked for or desired. My mother had been unsettled by my celebrity status after my first space flight with Gemini 12 a few years earlier. And my older sister and I both came to the conclusion that perhaps that, along with other things, caused her to take her life.

Her father, my grandfather, had also committed suicide, and my uncle had daughters who had committed suicide. I began to think it was a genetic, inherited tendency. That brought me to consuming alcohol more and more and, of course, you can't straighten out something in your head unless you have a clear mind. You have to deal with obtaining sobriety first before dealing with other situations that are disturbing you.

Today, I have 37 years of sobriety. If, occasionally, my mind gets the sense that the world around me is not doing what I'd like it to do, I may disappear for a day or even a week. That's something I've needed to deal with. At the time, not in the least. As the senior crew member, it was appropriate for him to be the first.

But after years and years of being asked to speak to a group of people and then be introduced as the second man on the moon, it does get a little frustrating. Is it really necessary to point out to the crowd that somebody else was first when we all went through the same training, we all landed at the same time and all contributed? But for the rest of my life I'll always be identified as the second man to walk on the moon.

No dream is too high. But, of course, going to Mars is much more difficult than going to the moon. It won't happen while I'm alive, unless I can live to He's working very diligently with the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute , which we formed in conjunction with the Florida Institute of Technology. An astronaut, military pilot and educator, Neil Armstrong made history by becoming the first man to walk on the moon on July 20, Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was an officer in the U.

Navy and served in the Korean War. Buzz Aldrin is an American engineer and former astronaut. As the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11, he was one of the first two humans to land on the Moon, and the second person to walk on it. Pete Conrad was an American NASA astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and during the Apollo 12 mission became the third man to walk on the Moon. Apollo 12 moonwalker Alan Bean in , became the fourth person to walk on the Moon. In , he made his second and final flight into space as a member of the Skylab 3 mission, logging 59 days and 24,, orbital miles aboard the Skylab space station.

John Young was the only agency astronaut to go into space as part of the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs, and the first to fly into space six times. He was the ninth man to walk on the moon. Young was the commander for the space shuttle fleet's inaugural flight in He died Jan. Left: Young poses in a portrait for the Apollo 10 mission, where he was the command module pilot.

Harrison Schmitt stands next to a huge, split lunar boulder during the third Apollo 17 moonwalk with Eugene Cernan in December Photos: Apollo 17, the Last Moonshot. Eugene Cernan, left, and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt pose aboard the Apollo 17 spacecraft during the final lunar landing mission in December Schmitt was the first person initially trained as a scientist to walk on the moon.

Originally a geologist, he was selected by NASA in June along with a group of other scientist-astronauts — the first group not to be test pilots. Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan holds the lower corner of the U. Cernan , the last man on the moon, traced his only child's initials in the dust before climbing the ladder of the lunar module the last time. He died on Jan. IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Politics Covid U. News World Opinion Business.

Share this —. Follow NBC News. In Focus The 12 men who walked on the moon From to , twelve men stepped foot on Earth's natural satellite.