Buzz Aldrin Custom Signing

Buzz Aldrin has departed Novaspace after a sucessful signing. It was our first meeting with Aldrin. We'd crossed paths many times over the years, we're his #1 dealer and linked on his website, but we'd never actually met! He was tanned and slim with not so much as a hearing aid. A very striking 71-year old.

Buzz flew into Tucson early 9/10, with step-daughter Lisa Cannon, who kept a running audit of items and kept Buzz signing, as he was wont to comment on all the pictures and thumb through many of the books sent in. He was very meticulous and neat.

Astronomer-lecturer-writer David Levy came in and did a half-hour interview with Buzz for his weekly radio show, Let's Talk Stars. David, who was co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, had on a polo shirt embroidered with "MY DAMN COMET CRASHED."

Even right off the plane, Buzz was on his cell phone, immediately hooked up his Sony VAIO to check his email, and was constantly interrupted with calls to his phone and ours. I knew Buzz kept up a heavy schedule, but as he began to chat, I realized he is involved in a host of running ideas, projects, commissions, boards, you name it. He talks about his Mars Cycler, his non-radioactive fusion reactor, the President's new commission on the Future of Aerospace (not announced yet). He is a singularly brilliant engineer, not a wacko space advocate, as he seems to come across on talk shows. He understands political and economic realities. Here are some pictures we snapped: