Return to Earth (film) Return to Earth (film) Return to Earth is a 1976 American biopic TV movie that originally aired on May 14, 1976 on ABC. The film stars Cliff Robertson as astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Shirley Knight as Joan Aldrin. Based upon Aldrin's 1973 book of the same name, the film dramatizes the emotional difficulties of Aldrin's life following his trip to the moon on Apollo 11. The film was directed by Jud Taylor, and Aldrin served as a consultant. Based upon his own book of his ordeals, the film is story of Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk upon the
Buzz Aldrin Pilot as the first to step onto the lunar surface. However, when Aldrin learned that this might be amended, he lobbied within NASA for the original procedure to be followed. Multiple factors contributed to the final decision, including the physical positioning of the astronauts within the compact lunar lander, which made it easier for Armstrong to be the first to exit the spacecraft. Furthermore, there was little support for Aldrin's views among other senior astronauts who would command later Apollo missions, and who may have been the first to make a lunar landing had Apollo 11 failed. Collins has commented