Ok, We're Here... What Do We Do Now?

"Aldrin paid Armstrong back by taking no photographs of him on the Moon."

Houston, Monday, July 21, 1969 --Men have landed and walked on the moon.

The first line of the New York Times lead story (above) sent a shiver down my spine.

But... now that the anniversary of the moon landing is past, let me turn your attention from the familiar, heroic narrative to the baleful, vicious back story. The following is taken from a 2005 review of a book about the men who soared to the moon, and who remained all too human in the end.

Despite the vast attention paid to the astronauts’ psychological profiles and their ability to work in teams, the Apollo 11 crew verged on the dysfunctional. Armstrong and Aldrin [fought] a fierce behind-the-scenes battle ... to be first to set foot on the Moon.

Early plans were for Aldrin, as module pilot, to step out first, but one version ... has it that Armstrong, as mission commander, lobbied more vigorously than Aldrin, and Nasa backed him up because he would be ‘better equipped to handle the clamor when he got back’ and, more mundanely, because his seat in the lunar module was closer to the door.

Aldrin paid Armstrong back by taking no photographs of him on the Moon: the only manually taken lunar image of the First Man on the Moon is in one of many pictures Armstrong snapped of Aldrin, showing himself reflected in the visor of Aldrin’s spacesuit...

Divorce, alcoholism, spousal and child abuse, depression, drug abuse: all have figured in the lives of the 12 men who went to the moon, according to the reviewer, who also notes that NASA did not pay the astronauts any higher salary than its regular test pilots. He also concludes that none of the men were remotely equipped to deal with their lives after having made their various voyages to the Moon. Most were only in their late 30s and everything afterwards seemed a little lackluster.