Is Buzz Aldrin playing space favorites between the two entrepreneurs leading the private space race?
Page Six previously reported that Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon and a proponent of putting a man on Mars, dissed a trip to the moon planned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX program, tweeting “Been there, done that. I prefer Get Your Ass to #Mars.”
He also has criticized Musk’s ideas about how people might live on Mars if they reached the planet, saying, “It seemed as though he hadn’t given that a whole lot of thought.”
But Aldrin — an advocate of colonizing Mars — heaps praise on Jeff Bezos, whose Blue Origin company has set its sights on trips to the red planet, in the new Time 100 issue.
Aldrin writes, “In my recent visit to his . . . rocket company near Seattle, nearly 50 years after my moonwalk, I was heartened to see a space-geek extraordinaire become a passionate patron of helping to shape the future of America’s space program via his entrepreneurial spunk, imagination and, yes, willingness to put dollars where his dreams are.”
The issue also includes pieces by Helen Mirren on Ryan Reynolds, Venus Williams on Ava DuVernay, Sheryl Sandberg on Melinda Gates, and Kerry Washington on Alicia Keys, among others.
On Tuesday, the magazine will host its Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center, with performances from John Legend and Demi Lovato.