Buzz Aldrin

Buzz Aldrin, born on January 20, 1930, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, is a distinguished American former astronaut, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. He graduated third in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1951, earning a degree in mechanical engineering. Following his commissioning into the United States Air Force, Aldrin served valiantly as a jet fighter pilot during the Korean War, where he completed 66 combat missions and shot down two MiG-15 fighter jets.

Aldrin's remarkable journey into space began after he earned a Doctor of Science degree in astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was selected as a member of NASA's Astronaut Group 3, becoming the first astronaut with a doctoral degree. His groundbreaking thesis on orbital rendezvous techniques earned him the nickname 'Dr. Rendezvous.' His first spaceflight was the 1966 Gemini 12 mission, during which he conducted over five hours of extravehicular activity.

On July 21, 1969, Aldrin made history as the second person to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, just nineteen minutes after Neil Armstrong. While command module pilot Michael Collins orbited above, Aldrin became the first person to hold a religious ceremony on the lunar surface, privately taking communion. After leaving NASA in 1971, he served as Commandant of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and retired from the Air Force in 1972 after 21 years of service.

Aldrin's post-NASA life has been marked by his candid autobiographies, 'Return to Earth' (1973) and 'Magnificent Desolation' (2009), which detail his struggles with clinical depression and alcoholism. Despite these challenges, he remains a passionate advocate for space exploration, particularly for human missions to Mars, and developed the Aldrin cycler, a spacecraft trajectory designed to optimize travel to the Red Planet. He has received numerous accolades, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, and is currently the last surviving member of the Apollo 11 crew.