Astronauts recall their time as men on the moon

0 Comments | USA TODAY, September, 2007 | by Traci Watson

NEW YORK -- The men who flew to the moon in the 1960s and '70s wasted little time then musing about the meaning of their historic adventures, let alone their own emotions. They were macho test pilots, and they had a job to do.

"The mind-set then was, 'How do we get to the moon?'" said Alan Bean, 75, who strolled on the lunar surface in 1969. "We weren't thinking about the philosophical things more than in passing."

Today the moonwalkers are in their 70s, and the passage of time has allowed them to mull over their feelings about the extraordinary things they did. Their memories and opinions have recently gained fresh relevance as NASA, at the direction of President Bush, works to send humans back to the moon by 2020.

Lately, the astronauts who flew...