Aldrin, Thomas and Grunsfeld

Buzz Aldrin in discussion with Ed Crawley, a member of the Augustine Commission.
Andy Thomas chats with conference attendees.

Buzz Aldrin seemed somewhat between surprised and pissed off when I asked him to say a few comments on what Australia could do to support manned spaceflight, but after moment's reflection gave me some ideas for broadcast.

Then I spied a group gathered around someone, and I figured he had to be important. I sidled up to join the throng, started recording and thrust my microphone forward. The topic of discussion was Obama's announcement that a goal of the U.S. manned space programme would be missions to asteroids. The other folks gradually drifted away until only I was left. I asked him if he would like to go to an asteroid, and he said "Yes." I then asked him his name. He looked somewhat surprised, and he said "John Grunsfeld". Whoops! I immediately recognised my faux pas, and told him, that I had closely followed his mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

I again conversed with Andy Thomas, and he gave me a confidential briefing on the background to the day's events.

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