What did the second man who stepped on the moon say? The biggest secret of 'Buzz' Aldrin

Much has been said and speculated on what Neil Armstrong said as soon as he reached the lunar surface ... but, does anyone remember what Aldrin said after leaving the module?

"A small step for man, a great step for humanity": possibly one of the most famous phrases of all time, that pronounced by Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969 when the American astronaut became the First person to step on the moon. In just over two months, fifty years of that unforgettable feat, in which he was accompanied by another member of NASA, will be celebrated. But does anyone know what he said?

In the middle of the Cold War, the United States wanted to win the space race to the USSR. For that reason, in September of 1962, John F. Kennedy announced with great fanfare that, before the end of the decade, his country would have been able to reach the Moon before the Soviets. "We chose to go to the Moon, not because it's easy, but because it's difficult," was the great phrase that remained for the eternity of that announcement, although the then US president could not see the great success of his country.

Thus, the decade of the sixties became a race against the clock between blocks to achieve an achievement never before reached: get a mission to the moon, in which a human being was able to step on its surface and return to Earth alive . The US was looking for a coup d'etat, after the USSR had already managed to be the first country to put a satellite into orbit ('Sputnik', 1957) and to send a man into space (Yuri Gagarin, 1961).

After many years of hard work, almost at the end of the term marked by Kennedy himself, the US achieved the miracle: in the summer of 1969, Apollo XI managed to land, leaving images and phrases to remember. Neil Armstrong, Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin and Michael Collins were the three people who were part of the expedition, but Collins could not be part of the lunar module, in which there was only room for two: Armstrong and Aldrin were chosen.

Aldrin was the pilot who managed to command the ship to its target and, after landing, Armstrong was the privileged one who had the honor of being the first person to step on the surface of our satellite. To remember, that lunar footprint, the first words of the astronaut or the famous image of the flag of the United States, all symbols of a conquest that many other skeptics have questioned and about what is still speculating today. Half a century everything seems to be counted but, is there any enigma of that expedition? Actually, it is not a secret to use, but something that has not been made public too many times: what did Aldrin say when he arrived on the Moon? Or, put another way: what is the first thing the second man said about stepping on our satellite? The pilot's first mission was to record the first minutes of Armstrong on the Moon; 19 minutes later, he joined him.

"Beautiful view", were his first words. Armstrong did not hesitate to agree with his helmet, to which Aldrin insisted: "Magnificent desolation," were his words. Collins, despite arriving there, never came to tread the moon. However, it is necessary to remember that the expedition could end in tragedy, after the lunar module passed the planned landing point and had to do it in another completely unknown, but with equal success.

Therefore, after the first two sentences of Armstrong and Aldrin, the conversation between them and Houston was about how the module was and how thin the lunar surface was. The third to get on the moon was Charles Conrad JR, commander of Apollo XII. "Well, that could have been a small step for Neil, but I assure you it is a big one for me," were his first statements after stepping on the moon 50 years ago.

~El Confidencial