Aldrin returns to KSC 40 years later

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 13 (UPI) -- Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin will travel to Florida's Kennedy Space Center to talk about his trip to the moon 40 years ago this month, NASA announced.

The space center is planning an anniversary celebration Thursday featuring Aldrin and seven other Apollo astronauts, to commemorate the anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Aldrin, 79, will tell his story of the flight and sign copies of his new book, "Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home From the Moon," which recounts the trip to the moon and the troubles in his personal life that followed. The event will be in the Apollo/Saturn V Center.

Visitors to the space center can see a 363-foot-long Saturn V like the one that sent Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins toward the moon for the first manned lunar landing.

Smaller mementos of the flight include moon rocks, spacesuits the astronauts wore on their spacewalks and the tools they used to excavate the lunar surface.