No Dream Is Too High by Buzz Aldrin

Author:Buzz Aldrin [Aldrin, Buzz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4262-1650-3
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Published: 2016-04-04T16:00:00+00:00

I’VE ALWAYS BEEN SMART. God blessed me with a good mind and the ability to understand certain things that others have trouble comprehending. But there is a big difference between being smart and being a smart-ass. For most of my life, I’ve been both.

As any of my family members or my fellow astronauts will tell you, I’ve always had a healthy dose of self-esteem and an appreciation of my abilities. I tend to say whatever I’m thinking, with few filters, and I’m not bashful about what I believe and don’t believe. Moreover, I don’t have much patience with incompetence or mental laziness.

These traits have served me well over the years. But there have been times—I know this is hard for some people to believe—when I might have come across as arrogant, stubborn, inflexibly opinionated, and totally devoid of tact.

Someone asked me recently, “Buzz, have you ever said the words, ‘I was wrong’?”

“No,” I answered without a moment of hesitation. But I might have been wrong about that.

Still, people who know me recognize that I have unusual talents, and I know it, too. The danger, of course, is that my greatest strengths could also reveal my most serious flaws, and sometimes I didn’t realize that.

During Gemini 9, Jim Lovell and I were the backup crew, so we were in Mission Control during the launch. Once it appeared that everything was going well and the crew was on their way, Jim and I were no long needed, so I left. On the way home, I stopped off to have a drink, which led to several drinks. Meanwhile, little did I know that Gemini 9 had developed a problem in the “Angry Alligator,” a crucial part of the vehicle’s docking mechanism necessary for it to complete its mission.

When I heard that the crew was in trouble, I hurried back to Mission Control. I walked into the control room and found everyone anxious and on edge, trying desperately to come up with a solution.

I knew there were wire cutters on board Gemini 9, so I made a suggestion that one of the astronauts do a space walk outside the spacecraft and use the wire cutters to cut the cables to release the Angry Alligator and get it to unlock. I knew that time was of the essence and that the system worked on hydraulics, so if the cable could be released, it might be a quick solution. Unfortunately, perhaps because of my semi-inebriated condition, my suggestion didn’t make much sense to my superiors.

When the problem was finally solved, Deke Slayton, one of the original NASA astronauts and now director of flight crew operations, expressed his fury with me. “Buzz, your irresponsible suggestion really irritated me,” Deke said.

Bob Gilruth, the program director, echoed Deke’s sentiments. “I’m thinking of taking you off the program,” Bob railed. Bob was not merely threatening to kick me off the Gemini program; he was talking about kicking me completely out of the space program. This was a big deal and could have derailed my entire career and changed the course of my life.

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