FRANCE: 40th anniversary of first steps on the moon celebrated at festival in Paris with moon walker Buzz Aldrin
Record ID:
386221
FRANCE: 40th anniversary of first steps on the moon celebrated at festival in Paris with moon walker Buzz Aldrin
- Title: FRANCE: 40th anniversary of first steps on the moon celebrated at festival in Paris with moon walker Buzz Aldrin
- Date: 26th April 2009
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (APRIL 24, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIOR OF PARIS CINEMA "LE REX" POSTER OUTSIDE CINEMA VARIOUS OF PUBLIC QUEUING OUTSIDE JULES VERNE FESTIVAL FLYER VARIOUS POSTER SHOWING ASTRONAUT (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) VARIOUS OF ASTRONAUT BUZZ ALDRIN ON RED CARPET PHOTOGRAPHERS AT WORK VARIOUS OF ALDRIN / ALDRIN ENTERING CINEMA PUBLIC WAITING OUTSIDE PARIS, FRANCE (APRIL 24, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS ALDRIN ARRIVING AND SITTING DOWN FOR INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) BUZZ ALDRIN, ASTRONAUT, SAYING: "It was a continuous carrying out of one event after another that was in the checklist. We were inside the cabin, we get outside the cabin and we were on the surface and then we do what we were... we were not stopping to make a mental remembrance of what the feeling is. We were there to do a job, not to satisfy the very easy questions of people for the next 40 years of 'what did it feel like on the moon?' We did not go there to do that. We went there to perform certain things, not to write poems about it, not to pontificate about the grandeur." ALDRIN TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) BUZZ ALDRIN, ASTRONAUT, SAYING: "People who go into space need to have a good reason to do that because it is very difficult, it is very costly in resources. And I think to justify the large expenditure of going to Mars with humans rather than with robots, I think we must get the most out of our investment. And to me that means that people who go to the surface of Mars go there to stay and settle as colonists, and they do not come back." ALDRIN TALKING
- Embargoed: 11th May 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVABS0YRNPSA7VKSUQN5FHHZCB0I
- Story Text: The 17th annual Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival takes place in Paris this weekend (April 24-26).
Named from the French author whose 19th century novels helped create the science fiction genre, the three-day festival is dedicated to the spirit of adventure and exploration.
This year's festival celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 space mission, in which three American astronauts executed history's first moon landing in the summer of 1969.
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin , who introduced a film about the mission on Friday night, spoke to Reuters television on Thursday.
40 years after their feat, Aldrin downplayed the role and the achievement he and his colleagues undertook far far away from planet Earth:
"It was a continuous carrying out of one event after another that was in the checklist. We were inside the cabin, we get outside the cabin and we were on the surface and then we do what we were... we were not stopping to make a mental remembrance of what the feeling is. We were there to do a job, not to satisfy the very easy questions of people for the next 40 years of 'what did it feel like on the moon?' We did not go there to do that. We went there to perform certain things, not to write poems about it, not to pontificate about the grandeur," said astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
Until today, people around the world look up to Apollo 11 as a revolution in science and exploration. Today the astronaut considers even greater steps in space, and, why not, even colonisation:
"People who go into space need to have a good reason to do that because it is very difficult, it is very costly in resources. And I think to justify the large expenditure of going to Mars with humans rather than with robots, I think we must get the most out of our investment. And to me that means that people who go to the surface of Mars go there to stay and settle as colonists, and they do not come back," said Aldrin.
The Apollo 11 celebration will include a concert after Georges Méliès' "A Trip to the Moon," the first European screening of Jeff Roth's documentary "The Wonder of It All," and an informal conference with space professionals from the International Space University. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None