In 1973, Buzz Aldrin wrote a remarkable book. It was called Return to Earth, and for an

astronaut's memoir, it was surprisingly candid. In 1973, the happy memory of the Apollo

missions was still fresh. So too was the life magazine image of the American astronauts. The

squeaky clean, morally upright, uber patriotic, and unflappably courageous picture that had been

painted by Life magazine, and the American media at large, hadn't really been challenged

or complicated yet. We were years away from Tom Wolf's Warts and All Best Seller, the

right stuff that chronicled all the bravery and bad behavior of the Mercury astronauts. In 1973,

the astronauts were still all beyond reproach, which made Buzz Aldrin's book all the more jaw

dropping. In the pages of Return to Earth, Aldrin makes some amazing revelations. He punctured the

official NASA line that all the pre-Apollo spacewalks and in-orbit rendezvouss had gone perfectly

to plan. Aldrin was one of the first to reveal that some of the early spacewalks had nearly

proved fatal. He also revealed that at one point he had been tapped to be the first person to

set foot on the moon. But the plan had been changed, much to his disappointment. He was also one

of the first people to get real about the space groupies. The young women interested in spending

some personal time with bonafide astronauts. He admitted that he had cheated on his wife,

and that infidelity was incredibly common among the astronauts.

He also included some fun details, like the fact that the hydrogen bubbles and the water they

used to rehydrate their food, gave the astronauts some really wicked farts.

Aldrin tells us that within the Apollo 11 command module, there was, quote, a considerable

fragrance. He also let the world know that the first thing he did when he got on the moon was

kicked the lunar dust and watched it shoot away in great low-gravity arcs. Apparently,

the second thing he did on the moon was take a pee in his suit.

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