Buzz Aldrin, Selfie King: Legendary Astronaut Tweets Stonehenge Snap After Space Selfie Auction
Buzz Aldrin, the legendary 85-year-old former NASA astronaut, is becoming a prolific selfie king. Not only did the second human being ever to set foot on the surface of the moon take the first selfie in space, he was hailed by the internet on Monday when he tweeted a picture of himself at Stonehenge.
Check out the T-shirt worn by Buzz Aldrin in his Stonehenge tweet. The message on the shirt, combined with the location and, most likely, Aldrin’s Superman-like pose, combined to take Twitter by storm.
While at @EH_Stonehenge yesterday I decided to send a message to the cosmos. #GYATM (Photo by James O.Davies) pic.twitter.com/ra5Y2OsSPB
— Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) March 16, 2015
For those who cannot see the Tweet in an internet browser, or who are unable to read the message on the t-shirt, the printing reads, “Get your a** to Mars!”
Aldrin has long been public in his enthusiasm for a potential manned spaceflight to Mars. He told Congress in February that the United States should strive to create a human colony on the Martian surface.
And in a recent book about his ideas for a Mars mission, Aldrin wrote, “Do not put NASA astronauts on the moon. They have other places to go.”
The Stonehenge setting seemed appropriate for a space-related message. The ancient British stone circle, believed by archaeologists to have been erected between 5,000 and 7,000 years ago, remains mysterious in its purpose. But most historians theorize that the structure was used as a space observatory, where ancient people would observe, and worship, the sun, moon and stars.
While the Stonehenge picture is, strictly speaking, not a “selfie” because it appears to have been snapped by another person, Aldrin is known for taking another, more famous selfie — long before the term “selfie” was concocted by the digital generation.
In 1966, three years before he traveled to the moon as part of the three-man Apollo 11 crew, Aldrin flew into orbit as part if the NASA Gemini 12 mission. During that mission, Aldrin left his space capsule on a spacewalk and while outside, used a camera attached to the exterior of the Gemini capsule to snap what Aldrin himself has recently called “the best selfie ever.”
A print of that selfie was auctioned off earlier this month as part of an auction of more than 600 vintage NASA space photos.
The Bloomsburt auction house in London expected the vintage space photo print to sell for about $900 in United States currency, but the 49-year-old Buzz Aldrin selfie fetched more than 10 times that sum, earning a $9,200 price tag.
[Images: Kevin Winter/Getty Images, NASA]
