Lunar pioneer Buzz Aldrin says U.S. taking giant leap backward

Forty-five years after man first landed on the moon, one of the men who was there is worried that the U.S. has become lost in space.

With the anniversary Sunday of Apollo 11’s giant leap for mankind, Buzz Aldrin sees a moribund American space program without a major task to conquer while a geopolitical rival is going full steam ahead, reminding him of the Soviet launch of the first man-made satellite in 1957. Only the U.S. isn’t reacting now as it did then.

“We’re in the worst position we’ve ever been in,” he told The Washington Times. “We’re in worse competitive shape than after Sputnik.”