Buzz Aldrin: The First Person Ever To Take A Space Selfie

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On July 20, the whole world celebrated the 45th anniversary of the first even human landing on the moon. Neil Armstrong landed on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, followed by Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin, 84, may not be the first person to set foot on the moon. But he celebrated the 45th anniversary of their landing on the moon by proving that he was the first person to take a selfie in the space.

Buzz Aldrin took the selfie during the Gemini 12 training mission in 1966

He tweeted the selfie on Sunday. He took the snap of himself during the Gemini training mission in 1966. The tweet reads, “Did you know I took the first space selfie during Gemini 12 mission in 1966? BEST SELFIE EVER!” The picture clearly shows his young face as he tries to fit into the photo. In the background, there is a beautiful glimpse of Earth viewed from space.

Talking about the selfie, the 84-year old astronaut told CNN, “I didn’t realize I was pioneering the selfie.” On his training mission in 1966, Buzz Aldrin was testing the methods of extra-vehicular activity (EVA). He spent more than five hours outside Gemini 12, setting a world record for space walks. He also demonstrated that astronauts could work outside the craft. Buzz Aldrin served in the U.S. Air Force before starting his career as an astronaut in 1963.

Twitter users go crazy over Buzz Aldrin’s selfie

Aldrin’s selfie has been retweeted more than 17,000 times, and has got about 12,000 favorites. As part of the Apollo 11 mission’s 45th anniversary, a newly declassified report revealed that the U.S. military had plans to build outposts on the moon, and even test nuclear weapons on the lunar surface. The documents were originally published about ten years before the Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon.

Unfortunately, no one has been to the moon since the Apollo program was cancelled in 1972. The latest U.S. efforts to take astronauts to the moon ended when President Barack Obama axed the underfunded moon mission in 2010. Instead, the Obama administration directed NASA to plan for a human expedition to an asteroid.

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