LONE STAR

"Some months after I had reported to the manned spacecraft center in Houston, Texas, I was given a silver astronaut pin to wear in my lapel. It was a shooting star with an orbit around its tail. I wore that pin proudly until November, 1969, when Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon and I climbed into our Apollo XII spacecraft for our flight to the moon. I had my silver pin tucked safely in the left thigh pocket of my spacesuit and while it was still there, I descended the lunar module ladder for my first steps on the Ocean of Storms. "Oh, so carefully, I removed my silver pin, took one last look at it and gave it my strongest underarm toss toward Surveyor. I can still remember how it flashed in the bright sunlight then disappeared in the distance. It was the only star I ever saw up in that black sky, the sunlight was just too bright on the moon's surface to see any of the others. I often think of my silver pin resting in the dust of the Surveyor Crater, just as bright and shiny as it ever was. It'll be there for millions and millions of years or until some tourist finds it and brings it back to Earth."