One of the United States' most famous space explorers is backing Donald Trump for president.
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second person ever to walk on the moon, endorsed Trump in a statement today (Oct. 30), less than a week before the Nov. 5 presidential election.
"Over the years, I have seen our government's approach to space wax and wane, a fluctuating dynamic that has disappointed me from time to time," the former moonwalker wrote in the statement, which was released by Buzz Aldrin Ventures LLC.
"But under the first Trump Administration, I was impressed to see how human space exploration was elevated, made a policy of high importance again," Aldrin added. "Under President Trump's first term, America saw a revitalized interest in space. His administration reignited national efforts to get back to the moon, and push on to Mars — programs that continue today."
NASA is doing much of its moon-to-Mars work via its Artemis program of lunar exploration, which was established in 2017 to help achieve the ambitious goals laid out by Trump's Space Policy Directive-1.That directive instructed NASA to return astronauts to the moon, then send people to the Red Planet.
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The 94-year-old Aldrin gave other reasons for his endorsement as well. For example, he cited Trump's 2017 resurrection of the National Space Council after a quarter-century hiatus, his push to create the U.S. Space Force (which happened in December 2019) and the advances in private spaceflight that occurred during Trump's first term.
"These are concrete accomplishments that align with my concerns and America's policy priorities," Aldrin wrote. "For me, for the future of our nation, to meet enormous challenges, and for the proven policy accomplishments above, I believe the nation is best served by voting for Donald J. Trump."
Aldrin isn't the only former NASA astronaut to throw his name behind a presidential candidate. For example, both Jose Hernandez and Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) have endorsed Trump's opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
"I couldn't be more confident that Vice President @KamalaHarris is the right person to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country into the future. She has my support for the nomination, and Gabby and I will do everything we can to elect her President of the United States," Kelly wrote in a post on X this past July.
Kelly's wife is former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head during a public event in January 2011. Since then, both Kelly and Giffords have campaigned for stricter gun-control laws, among other policy priorities.
