The Nation - News from July 23, 1989

Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin Jr. led a parade through the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the city whose name was the first word ever spoken on the moon two decades ago. “On July 20, 1969, men first stepped on the moon and made more than footprints in history,” Aldrin told space fans at a rally beside what would have been Apollo 18, the giant Saturn 5 rocket whose mission was scuttled because of the costs of the war in Vietnam. Aldrin, minus his fellow moon walker of 20 years ago, Neil A. Armstrong, was one of 14 Apollo astronauts who attended the events commemorating the successful 1969 mission and other past accomplishments and looking ahead to an expanded program of space exploration. When the Apollo 11 crew first landed on the moon, Armstrong had said: “Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.”