In a previous article, I wrote about Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s observations regarding moon landing hoax conspiracies. His latest response to such conspiracies was included in the interview in Reddit.com’s “Ask Me Anything” channel on July 8, 2014. However, Colonel Aldrin not only responded to moon landing hoaxes, he also responded to questions about UFOs and aliens. And as far as aliens are concerned, it appears that he believes in them.
In his Reddit.com interview, Colonel Aldrin speaks about seeing a light traveling by the rocket when they were en route to the moon. He states that he was pretty sure what he saw was the sun reflecting off of panels which came loose during separation from the rocket or a reflection from the rocket itself. He is specifically infers through his recollection of this incident that he is not a person to believe in or claim to have seen something specific without “extraordinary evidence.”
It is worth noting that Colonel Aldrin’s description of this specific incident can be seen as a response not only to a question in this interview, but to a list of intriguing articles, videos, and television specials which include the event he describes above.
Conspiracy theorists have tried to turn this event into a UFO sighting in the popularly understood sense, and thus add an observation by someone as respected as Colonel Aldrin to their evidence of life in outer space. Whatever the nuances of his beliefs regarding the existence of aliens in general, Colonel Aldrin is clear and direct that in this particular instance, “It was not an alien.”
Aldrin also spoke of the incident on Larry King a few years ago. Watch that segment below.
In requiring extraordinary evidence to make extraordinary observations, Colonel Aldrin again references and adopts the views of the late American astrophysicist Carl Sagan. At the same time he speaks of the necessity of extraordinary evidence, Colonel Aldrin also speaks of probable certainty:
“There may be aliens in our Milky Way galaxy, and there are billions of other galaxies. The probability is almost CERTAIN that there is life somewhere in space. It was not that remarkable, that special, that unusual, that life here on earth evolved gradually, slowly, to where we are today. But the distances involved in where some evidence of life may be, they may be hundreds of light years away.”
Bottom Line
On the way to the moon in the Apollo 11 spacecraft, Astronaut Buzz Aldrin saw a light reflecting from what was technically an “unidentified flying object” (UFO), because the source of the reflection was never officially identified. However the astronauts were fairly certain that the reflection came from a panel of the separated rocket or the rocket itself. He has stated definitively that the sighting was “not an alien.”
That being said, Colonel Aldrin also stated in a recent interview that “the probability is almost certain that there is life somewhere in space.” He further claimed that it is not remarkable, special, or unusual that life on earth evolved to where it is today.
Do you agree with Colonel’s Buzz Aldrin’s response to questions of extra-terrestrial life? Let us know in the comments.