Queen legend Sir Brian May has recalled the moment Neil Armstrong responded to a speech he made about human exploration in space, while lamenting what he perceives as a lack of “decent” billionaires.
The revered guitarist gave a notable speech in 2011 in which he questioned the idea of humans venturing beyond Earth “when we’ve made such a mess of our own planet.”
Sitting in the audience were six Apollo moonwalkers including Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who were the first men to walk on the moon, as well as Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt from the Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 missions.
“I wish I could find a billionaire who was a decent human being,” May, told EL PAÍS at Starmus, the music, science and philosophy festival he hosts in Spain’s Canary Islands.
He continued, “They all seem to be fostering their own selfish interests while the world falls apart: they’re destroying it, people are suffering. That’s more important than going to space.”
“The first time I gave a speech about why we should be in space, I said: ‘Why do we feel confident, worthy, to be putting our seed into space when we’ve made such a mess of our own planet?’” May added.
The rock star then admitted being “petrified, terrified” to make those remarks in front of Armstrong and his peers, “I thought I might be saying maybe we shouldn’t go to space, in front of those who pioneered it, and that they would hate me.”
To his surprise and relief, Armstrong came up to him after he left the stage and apparently said, “You said the right thing.”
As well as his rock star credentials, Brian May earned a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007, three decades after pausing his studies to focus on his music career with Queen.
He recently suggested that Queen could be finished with touring after 50 years, explaining that he wants to spend more time with family and on astrophysics.
