Buzz Aldrin took both his tobacco pipe and wine into space. But once he landed on the moon, there was something else NASA didn’t want to go public.
Few have been celebrated and hailed like Neil Armstrong after he became the first man to walk on the moon.
A brave hero, a true patriot, and a shining example for humanity.
Buzz Aldrin, on the other hand, has humorously noted that while he came in second, he was the first to pee on the moon.
He even managed to sneak a sip of wine to the moon and almost caused a scandal upon landing.
And then there’s the story about the tobacco pipe in space…
It’s been over 50 years since Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the moon shortly after Neil Armstrong.
Every detail and every second of the first moon landing has been analyzed and featured both scientifically and in popular culture.
What hasn’t been widely talked about at NASA is when Buzz Aldrin brought his tobacco pipe into space or the wine to the moon.
Buzz Aldrin’s Moon Pee
”I may have been the second man to walk on the moon, but I was the first to pee there,” Buzz has mentioned in several interviews.
There’s a film clip of Buzz as he descends from the capsule, pausing on the ladder to lift one leg. This legendary but perhaps less significant moment in space history is captured by the first man, Neil Armstrong.
Fortified himself with wine
Just before Buzz Aldrin made history with the first moon pee, he had fortified himself with a bit of wine.
After the iconic words ‘The Eagle has landed’ were announced, the two astronauts had to stay in the capsule for a few hours for safety reasons, eating and resting before they could open the door to step outside.
During this time, Buzz pulled out the wine he’d brought along. With a communion wafer, he planned to have a little religious ceremony, just like Christopher Columbus did when he reached the New World.
Concerns at NASA
Buzz Aldrin initially planned to share his religious ceremony with the rest of the world in a broadcast from the moon. However, a woman named Madalyn Murray O’Hair put a stop to that.
She was an atheist activist and founder of ‘American Atheists.’ In 1964, Life magazine named her the most hated woman in America after she successfully lobbied the Supreme Court to ban Bible reading in American public schools.
In her campaign for the separation of church and state, Madalyn Murray O’Hair also filed a lawsuit against NASA after the Apollo 8 crew read from the Book of Genesis about how God created heaven and earth. This Christian message from space was broadcast on Christmas Eve 1968.
At NASA, they were literally scared stiff after Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s lawsuit.
As a result, Buzz Aldrin’s request to share his ceremonial moment with the world was denied. NASA flight control advised him to tone it down.
From ‘The Eagle,’ Buzz only said a few carefully chosen, general words inviting people to join him in a moment of contemplation and silence while he took communion.
He later wrote in his book ‘Magnificent Desolation’ that he somewhat regretted the religious gesture.
Killed and butchered
Madalyn Murray O’Hair was brutally murdered and butchered a few years later, a story that Netflix has turned into a film.
The U.S. Supreme Court never took up the case against NASA, as it was determined that they lacked jurisdiction over space.
Brought the pipe to space
On a previous space mission, Gemini 12, Buzz Aldrin brought a pipe with him. As the enthusiastic pipe smoker he was at the time, he described how he could hardly wait to get into orbit so he could take out the pipe and bring it to his mouth. Of course, he couldn’t light the pipe up there, but the moment was captured by a fellow astronaut aboard Gemini.
NASA hasn’t made much effort to publicize this less significant moment in space history either.
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