The Feds Reimbursed Buzz Aldrin $33 For His 1969 Trip to the Moon

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The Feds Reimbursed Buzz Aldrin $33 For His 1969 Trip to the Moon

Like any other American returning home from a business trip out of the country, former NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin filled out an expense report and a customs form when he came back from the moon. Aldrin—the second man to step foot on the lunar surface, after Neil Armstrong—recently shared the paperwork on Facebook. The records include signatures from Aldrin and a Honolulu customs inspector, and one of the most unusual itemized itineraries in history: Florida to Moon to Pacific Ocean to Hawaii, and then back home to Houston.

The official travel voucher also mentions the USS Hornet (misspelled on the form). That's the ship that picked up Aldrin and the Apollo 11 crew after they landed in the Pacific.

Aldrin was reimbursed exactly $33.31 (about $215 in today's dollars) for "travel expenses"—likely the costs of having to drive his own car to and from Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, Texas. Luckily, he was not responsible for paying for actual transportation from Earth to the moon—or even to Cape Kennedy, Florida, where Apollo 11 launched, as he had a government plane for that.

http://www.govexec.com/management/2015/08/feds-reimbursed-buzz-aldrin-33-his-1969-trip-moon/118832/

Scan of his travel voucher at link.