Counting down to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin during training for aircraft ejection at Perrin AFB in May, 1968.
What I like about this shot is how low-tech things seem. Aldrin’s helmet looks like an old football helmet (and may have been — who knows?) and the rest of his rig is pretty much canvas and steel. Here’s an even better shot:
NASA describes the scene this way:
Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. paddles to the shore of Lake Texoma during training at the U.S. Air Force Air Defense Command Life Support School, Perrin Air Force Base, Sherman, Texas. He sits in a one-man life raft.
He was dropped into water after making parasail ascent some 400 feet above the lake. Purpose of the training is to prepare pilots for possible ejection from aircraft during flight. 6-7 May 1968.
This is just about 14 months before the flight of Apollo 11, and dude is out floating in a football helmet and a rubber raft.
And that’s how they went to the moon.