All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Almost 40 years to the minute after Buzz Aldrin became the second man to set foot on the moon, CBS News' Bob Schieffer spoke with Aldrin about hisWhite House meeting with President Obama commemorating his historic journey.

"Well, I mostly listened," Aldrin said. "It wasn’t an opportunity for me to offer thoughts about the future."

The former astronaut was not shy, however, in explaining to Schieffer where he thinks the American space program should go next – to Mars.

"I think we ought to do what we need to do to exhibit U.S. global space leadership," Aldrin said. The astronaut has pushed for NASA to focus on the Red Planet as opposed to ongoing trips to the moon.

"What I want to do is to encourage people to look very carefully at what is the destination that we are setting a goal for," he said.

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President Obama on Monday welcomed to the White House "three iconic figures" – Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin – in honor of the 40th anniversary of the 1969 voyage that marked mankind's first visit to the moon.

"I think that all of us recall the moment in which mankind finally was untethered from this planet and was able to explore the stars; the moment in which we had one of our own step on the moon and leave that imprint that is there to this day," said Mr. Obama, standing beside the three men.

He also struck a personal note.

"I grew up in Hawaii, as many of you know, and I still recall sitting on my grandfather's shoulders when those capsules would land in the middle of the Pacific and they'd get brought back and we'd go out and we'd pretend like they could see us as we were waving at folks coming home," he said. "And I remember waving American flags and my grandfather telling me that the Apollo mission was an example of how Americans can do anything they put their minds to."

Aldrin and the other astronauts have been pushing hard for the U.S. to send astronauts to Mars, a concept supported by a slim majority of Americans. The president did not touch on a journey to Mars, which his predecessor George W. Bush called for, in his remarks.

Instead, Mr. Obama hailed the potential of the space program to inspire young Americans "who are looking up at the sky and are going to be the next Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrins."

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A slim majority of Americans believe the United States should send astronauts to Mars despite the current economic crisis, a newly-released CBS News poll finds.

Fifty-one percent of those surveyed back the journey to Mars. Forty-three percent opposed it. In 2004, 48 percent said the U.S. should sent astronauts to Mars, while in 1999 that figure was 58 percent.

As the country marks the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, meanwhile, there is widespread agreement that landing men on the moon was worthwhile. Seventy-one percent said it was worth the time, effort and money that went into the endeavor, while 24 percent said it was not.

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The second man to step foot on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, took some time away from celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11's mission to explain his ambitions for space exploration on "Washington Unplugged."

"[I]t is time to move on back into exploration. And I think now, with the new administration we are wisely re-evaluating the path," Aldrin told moderator Bob Orr.

The former astronaut announced his proposal to launch a mission Mars "to ensure American space leadership for the 21st century" in an editorial in the Washington Post this morning.

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