ACKNOWLEDGMENTS



I’d like to thank my family, and especially my three kids—James Michael; my beautiful daughter, Jan; and my youngest, Andy, who is carrying on the aerospace tradition and my legacy. I’m still learning about what it means to be a father and the love that close family brings. I lost both my sisters, and each loss reminds me how much family matters. I’d like to thank my only grandson, Jeffrey Schuss, who has done everything right. He is a good kid who became an aerospace engineer and a pilot, and, best of all, he married April, which may be his smartest move. They’re continuing the family line with my great-grandsons, Nathanial and Benjamin, with baby Archer on the way. I’m grateful that both Jan and Andy married up to smart, good-looking, funny, and sensible spouses who always help with the non-Aldrin perspective: Bruce Hanifan and Maureen Aldrin.

I would be lost without my team: My Mission Director, Christina Korp, whom I consider my indispensable crutch, holding my world up and together—and all the while travel agenting, baggage lifting, mascot raising, keyboard pecking, ballad singing … and tweeting like a professional about all things Buzz. And my assistant, Rob Varnas, who keeps our gadgets in check, my website running smoothly, while at the same time photo and video archiving, Mexican food cooking, and making sure I have enough spectacles to read all the emails that come into all my devices. My mascots, Brielle Winona Korp and Logan Alexander BUZZ Korp. They represent Generation Mars.

I’d like to thank the Purdue team, who have been instrumental in helping get my concepts for Cycling Pathways to Occupy Mars out to the world, especially professor Jim Longuski, who has been a believer longer than anyone else other than me, and Ph.D. project manager Sarag Saikia.

Thank you to my committed partner and co-pilot in life, Judy Rice. You’re the best person to watch sunrises with on the beach.

Thanks to all those on my National Geographic Books team: designers Nicole Miller, Melissa Farris, and Jono Halling; photographers and photo editors Becky Hale, Mark Thiessen, and Susan Blair; and production editor Michael O’Connor.

Finally, I’d like to thank my co-writer, Ken Abraham, who has helped me capture more Buzz tales to show the world another part of me, and our editor extraordinaire, Susan Tyler Hitchcock.

I hope you like this book and these stories. I’ve already had quite a life, but you ain’t seen nothing yet!

BUZZ

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