HE MAY have been only the second man to step on the moon, but Buzz Aldrin has boldly gone where no astronaut has gone before – by becoming a rap star.
In an unlikely pairing with rap artist Snoop Dogg and producer Quincy Jones, the 79-year-old has recorded a track and video to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.
Entitled Rocket Experience the single and accompanying video
feature the Nasa veteran nodding his head and gyrating in time to the beat as delivers lines such as : "I'm the spaceman, I'm the rocket man, it's time to venture far, let's take a trip to Mars, our destiny is to the stars."
Snoop Dog is shown on the video commending Aldrin – who adopted the rap pseudonym Doc Rendezvous – on his new-found vocal skills. "That's hot right there, man. That's gangsta," he says.
The video switches between shots of Aldrin rapping – wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan "Buzz Aldrin, Rocket Hero" – and archive film of the Apollo 11 launch, his and Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, and recordings of crackly radio exchanges between the astronauts and mission control.
Rocket Experience was instigated by Aldrin as part of his mission to reignite public interest in the US space programme and teach younger generations about the past and future of space exploration.
"Young people have lost any interest in space that isn't in a video game or a movie-house. Many don't really know that man has stood on the moon," he explained.
"The Americans who will take man to Mars are already born and they don't even know that space is man's fate," he added.
Proceeds from the song and video sales will go to Aldrin's non-profit foundation, ShareSpace, which supports space education and advocacy programmes carried out by the National Space Society, the Planetary Society and the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.
Launched on the internet comedy site Funny or Die, it is accompanied by a second "behind the scenes" video that features Aldrin and his fellow rappers giving tongue-in-cheek interviews about the venture.
While Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, has generally maintained a low public profile over the decades, Aldrin has continued to dream up new ways of promoting space exploration and capturing the imagination of American youth.
