Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins are urging international collaboration and partnerships for the next chapter of space exploration just as the United States celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first landing on the moon on Saturday
(Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th July, 2019) Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins are urging international collaboration and partnerships for the next chapter of space exploration just as the United States celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first landing on the moon on Saturday.
"We have [to have] an alliance of nations that need to venture out on this next step in space," Aldrin said at an event hosted by George Washington University.
Aldrin called for a global collaboration involving space agencies, countries and private companies, including NASA, ESA, JAXA, Russia and China.
"All capable agencies and entities that can carry out future space [exploration]," he said.
Aldrin, who was the second man to walk on the moon, said that such an alliance could also include countries with limited experience in space, such as India, a Saudi Arabia-United Arab Emirates, Australia and the North and South Korea.
Aldrin said the "next step space alliance" could become the foundation for future space explorations.
At a White House event on Friday, Aldrin said that he was disappointed with the progress of the US space program over the past 50 years.
When the crew of Apollo 11 - consisting of Aldrin, Collins and Neil Armstrong - made history landing on the moon on July 20, 1969, NASA's annual budget accounted for more than 4 percent of US federal spending. Today, it is less than half a percent.
In his budget proposal for fiscal year 2020, President Donald Trump requested $21 billion for NASA and the space agency later received additional $1.6 billion for fiscal year 2020.
Collins proposed that world leaders be required to travel in space in order to see just how fragile is the Earth.
"If you can get the political leaders of the world out [in space] and let them look back at their home, they can find their country. There are no borders," Collins said. "I think individual countries will become less important because of the totality."
While Collins said he believes the United States should be a great power, he also said he wants the country to be a friendly power and not one that is overbearing and trying to be dominant.
"I think we ought to bend over backwards to have a unified worldwide approach to the things that we are trying to do in space," Collins said.
In March, NASA set 2028 as the target year to return to the moon with a human presence. Vice President Mike Pence later said that the US National Space Council would push NASA to send humans to the moon four years earlier than the originally selected target year.
