Buzz Aldrin on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (2000)

The record, Buzz Aldrin on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (2000), documents Buzz Aldrin’s appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, hosted by Conan O’Brien. Its principal subject is Aldrin’s account of the Apollo 11 Moon landing 1969-07-20. Aldrin said that there was no television picture of the landing at the time itself, and that viewers instead saw animation.¹ He also described calling out the distances as the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle moved left and right during descent.² He recalled saying “contact light, engine stop” at touchdown.³ He attributed the announcement “Houston, Tranquility Base, the Eagle has landed” to Neil Armstrong, and said that he considered it a good line.⁴⁵ The account therefore concerns communications and visual representation associated with Apollo 11, rather than an unexplained aerial observation.

Aldrin also described the crew’s state of mind and events after landing. He said that he and the crew were focused rather than worried about what they would say, while also recalling that he was afraid Armstrong might ask him to go out onto the Moon first and think of lines to speak.⁶⁷ O’Brien said that Aldrin was not the first man to walk on the Moon.⁸ Aldrin then made a claim about being the first man to relieve himself there, explaining that an astronaut could not unzip the suit and that the Apollo 11 crew used a device instead.⁹¹⁰ O’Brien identified Aldrin as the astronaut seen hopping in Apollo 11 Moon footage.¹¹ Aldrin called the two-feet-at-a-time movement a “kangaroo hop”, not a “bunny hop”, and said that he used hopping on the Moon to demonstrate how easily a person could move across its surface.¹²¹³ The source matters as a compact record of Aldrin’s later spoken recollections, including references to Moon, Sea of Tranquility, Tranquility Base and USA, Texas, Houston in the remembered landing exchange.