To the Moon and Not Back? | StarTalk

So if I don't mean to get morbid on you, but if you had died on the moon, were we ready for that here in America, here on Earth? Every president has a speechwriter, a staff, and a staff writer. The president would of course prepare for the event if some disaster unfolded, like the Challenger accident. It's not surprising to me at all that one would do that, but it kind of not shocks, but it brings people into reality.

I have some of those words that were prepared in case Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong would be stranded on the moon, still alive, but we would know they would ultimately die. These words were written for President Nixon, and he never had to read them, but they exist and they're in his presidential archive.

"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery, but they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice. These two men are laying down their lives for mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding."

That's creepy but beautiful. When those guys were coming back, they had another launch to go through to get off the moon. That's why they were talking about them again, saying on the moon that rocket did not work.

They were stuck. Yeah, and I think if they were not successful, I think we would have continued. We talked about that even with the shuttle accidents. I remember after we had Challenger, I became an astronaut after that, and before the second mission we said, "Oh, if you have an accident, you know that's gonna end the program."

And it didn't. You know, we had another accident and we kept going. It's American spirit.

And in your particular case, you were on a dangerous shuttle mission. We didn't have a backup mission to save you.

That's right, and you did this knowing you were at risk of death. It was for we, the astrophysicists, to fix our telescope.

So I have to assume the answer to this next question is yes, but I need you on record to say so: was it worth the risk?

Yes, absolutely. You got it. We got.