they found themselves ministers , politicians and conspiracy buffs . Some struggled with common issues : Many of their marriages fell apart and alcoholism affected at least one . In possibly the most extreme case of post-Apollo readjustment , Buzz Aldrin -- the second human being to set foot on the moon -- became a car salesman in Texas . `` Not very successfully , '' the 79-year old Aldrin quickly acknowledges . The Apollo 11 lunar module pilot 's post-flight battles against depression and alcoholism have been well-documented , most recently in his own memoir , `` Magnificent Desolation . '' As for a brief stint hawking Cadillacs in the late 1970s , Aldrin told CNN Radio , `` Most people who have received a degree of public recognition find themselves financially pretty well off . Does n't happen to be the case with astronauts . '' Others took more existential , even spiritual , approaches to dealing with their lunar experiences . Apollo 15 Lunar Module Pilot Jim Irwin left NASA and became a Baptist minister . Apollo 14 crewman Edgar Mitchell spent years investigating possible extraterrestrial life ; in April , he went public with claims of
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- It turns out going to the moon is a tough act to follow . Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 . For all their Buck Rogers , `` Right Stuff , '' history-making achievements , the question for many of the 12 astronauts who walked on the lunar surface starting four decades ago ultimately became `` one giant leap to where , exactly ? '' `` You have your peak experience at 38 or 39 , '' says space historian Andrew Chaiken , summing up their collective experience , `` and -LSB- they -RSB- have a hard time coming up with something to do for an encore . '' Apollo 11 lifted off from Cape Canaveral , Florida , on July 16 , 1969 . Four days later , the first two humans walked on the lunar surface ; 10 more Americans followed by the end of 1972 . In the 40 years since the Apollo program first took humans to the moon , the astronauts ' lives have taken diverse paths . Almost all had been military test pilots before joining NASA ; in later life ,