Quiz It: Arizona - How much do you know about the Grand Canyon State? Space Cowboy Quiz It Question

Question: Which item has nothing to do with Astronaut Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin?

Your choices are:

1. He led the first visitors onto the Grand Canyon Glass Skywalk on opening day.
2. He trained for his moonwalk at the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Sunset Crater, and the Lowell Observatory.
3. On Valentine’s Day in 1988, he was married to the daughter of the man who was the mayor of Phoenix from 1970 to 1974.
4. On July 20, 1969, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong made their historic Apollo XI moonwalk, thus becoming the first two humans to set foot on the moon; this was witnessed by the largest worldwide television audience in history.
5. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives for two terms representing Arizona but had to resign because he fell in the shower and seriously injured his back.

The Answer Is:

Buzz Aldrin has never been elected to the United States House of Representatives. Astronaut John Glenn was a Senator (from Ohio) at one time and he fell in the shower, but he did not have to resign from office because of the accident.

More Space and Sky

Grand Canyon Skywalk

The Grand Canyon Skywalk is located at Grand Canyon West on the Hualapai Indian Reservation. It is geographically located approximately halfway between Las Vegas and the South Rim, but it is not easy to get there. It is 3-hours from Las Vegas, 6-hours from Phoenix, and 5-hours from the Grand Canyon’s South Rim.

The Skywalk is a U-shaped glass bridge jutting 70 feet beyond the rim of the Grand Canyon. The other side of the Canyon can be seen three miles away. The bridge is about 2,000 feet above the Colorado River below. The Skywalk is not directly above the main canyon, Granite Gorge, but instead extends over a side canyon.

The walls and floor of the Skywalk are built from 4-inch thick glass. The Skywalk is capable of holding 70 tons of weight, or the equivalent of about 800 people. However, the permitted capacity on the Skywalk is limited to 120 persons at a time. The Skywalk is said to be sturdy enough to hold the weight of six dozen fully loaded 747 jets, and strong enough to withstand winds up to 100 miles per hour or an 8.0 magnitude earthquake.

Meteor Crater

Approximately fifty thousand years ago, a meteorite entered the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded upon impact creating a hole almost a mile wide and 550 feet deep, now called Barringer Meteorite Crater or Meteor Crater. It is between Flagstaff and Winslow. A piece of the meteorite weighing 1406 pounds is displayed there along with observation decks for visitors to get a firsthand view of the crater.

In 1064 AD, a volcanic eruption near Flagstaff created what is now called Sunset Crater or Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument.

Meteor Crater and Sunset Crater were used as dress rehearsal locations for training America’s earliest astronauts for the pending trips to the moon.

Meteor Crater has established the Astronaut Hall of Fame and Museum in honor of the early days of space exploration.