He may have been the second man to walk on the moon, but on Tuesday morning Buzz Aldrin was the very first astronaut to ever walk at New York Fashion Week: Men’s.

“I didn’t realize we were in for a nude beach,” remarked the newly minted 87-year-old model after the presentation, still donning his silver Nick Graham-designed NASA jacket and silver sneaks as he eyed his fellow models shedding their duds backstage. A “beautiful view,” indeed.

Aldrin’s graduate astronautics degree from M.I.T. proved handy while making his walk for the show’s finale. “I wasn’t sure what side to get on,” Aldrin remarked, referring to the crowd lined up tangent to the presentation’s linear walkway. “If I walked too close to the people, then not enough of them would see it. I’m always calculating time and distance.”

Aldrin was joined at Skylight Clarkson by another space buff, and a repeat Nick Graham show attendee and collaborator — Bill Nye , who initially bonded with the designer over their shared love of space and Carl Sagan. Nye opened Graham’s presentation with a brief science lecture. The theme of the collection? “Life on Mars.”

Speaking of life on Mars, Nye reflected on another popular space persona post-show: Elon Musk, who spoke at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara this past fall. “The young people went running to the front, and knocked people over when he did his talk,” Nye said, referring to the SpaceX chief executive officer’s announcement of his plans to develop an interplanetary spaceship to transport humans to Mars. “The thing is, to have a colony on Mars — I think that’s not an especially good idea,” Nye added. “There’s no substitute for Earth. This idea we’ll go Terraform Mars, you’re freaking high. There’s no way — the Earth is it. So you gotta take care of it.”

At that, a new cluster of fans wandered over to prod the Science Guy for a selfie. “I’m going to face the sun,” Nye told them, looking toward the window. “So if you want a picture, go over there.”

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