The Moon Landing 42 Years On: Five Odd Facts (Includes Urine, Wine and a Petty Refusal to Take Photos)

Categories: NASA

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The flag: Better than a solar-wind experiment that just looks like a flag.
​Wednesday marks the 42nd anniversary of man landing on the moon. One small step, and all that.

It's an odd anniversary, the 42nd, so here are five odd facts about the mission.

5. Buzz Aldrin, First Man to Piss on the Moon
One giant leak for mankind -- Neil Armstrong may have been the first man to set foot on the moon, but Buzz Aldrin was the first one to take a leak on it. As millions watched across the globe unknowingly, Buzz let loose the floodgates and enjoyed a good old session of draining the lizard. The Moon Lizard.

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Serve cold....on the moon
4. NASA Thought Hard about Not Putting up a Flag
In what we don't doubt was definitely not a silly exercise, diplomats from around the world agreed that the moon could not be the property of any country who, say, got there first and claimed it like Columbus.

Still, the urge to plant an "America, fuck yeah!!" flag was enormous. NASA, you'll be glad to know, had a Committee on Symbolic Activities for the First Lunar Landing, popularly known (we guess) as CSAFLL. They debated options that might not offend other countries but would still be flag-like, including "an adaptation of the solar wind experiment in the form of a flag," according to NASA's report.

Eventually, of course, the Stars and Stripes were so proudly hailed, once the astronauts fought their way through the rocky surface, very, very nervous that they wouldn't get a good plant and the flag would topple over in front of the world.

3. First Drink on the Moon: Vino, Baby
Get that Tang shit out of here. You're one of the first men in history to land on the moon, you want something that will give you a buzz, man. Let you enjoy the moment, you know?

So the first drink ever imbibed on the moon was....wine. We know not if it was Annie Greensprings, Ripple or Boone's Farm, it being the late '60s and all, but it was wine.

Aldrin had smuggled along some wine and a wafer so he could have communion on the moon, was the official story, but really he was already trying to drink away the whole "second man on the moon" thing.

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