Buzz didn’t let a little hurricane stop them! After weathering Hurricane Tomas in St. Lucia at the end of October, Buzz and Lois were out on the road traveling again for most of November. Buzz took off for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to participate in the Astronaut Scholarship Fund’s autograph show before jetting off to London for the ICONS dinner at Windsor Castle. Never ones to stay put for long, the Aldrins were back stateside after just a few days and landed in New York where they celebrated with renowned artist Romero Britto as he unveiled his newest collection of work centered around the Apollo XI mission and Buzz himself. Buzz and Romero participated in the Veteran’s Day Parade and enjoyed a wonderful opening reception where Buzz took time to sign the original Britto pieces. A week later Buzz and Lois attended Danny DeVito and wife Rhea’s X-prize party at their Beverly Hills home. The last shot is of Buzz with Astronauts Dave Scott and Al Worden. We also wanted to thank all those that sent well wishes Buzz’s way as he took a few days off at month’s end to recover from toe and back surgery!

RE: Recent announcement of VG collaboration with OSC, and with SNC, on NASA CCDev-2 Program

In response to media inquiries concerning my perception of the radical new course of America’s involvement with space, I want to establish that I am personally delighted to see the expansion of private sector involvement in NASA’s Commercial Crew Development-2 Program, through the recent announcement that Virgin Galactic will be partnering with Sierra Nevada Corporation, and with Orbital Sciences Corporation, in this important step to commercialize access to space – for both civil space, and for the emerging space tourism business. We have learned through nearly fifty years of Human Space Flight experience, and from nearly thirty years of the Space Shuttle operations, that returning reusable vehicles to the launch site is operationally much more efficient, and thus the private sector requirement for low operational costs will dominate this need. I also see great value in capitalizing on the investment that NASA has already made in the Orion Program – to use this capability for its intended purpose – returning from higher energy, deep space missions, where this configuration is better suited to meet these requirements. I would like to endorse this kind of approach as the right direction for our future in human space flight – in partnership with NASA, as a cost effective means of meeting our civil space needs, while also providing the foundation for expanded commercial access to space for the private sector, and enabling the eventual expansion of humankind beyond the bounds of Low Earth Orbit.

BBC News London had a few questions for Buzz after SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launch and covered topics of commercial vs government funded space activities and the future of commercial space activity.

Download Buzz Aldrin Interview with BBC London