Buzz Aldrin is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He and Neil Armstrong were the first two humans to land on the Moon. Aldrin was commissioned into the United States Air Force, and served as a jet fighter pilot during the Korean War. He retired from the Air Force in 1972, after 21 years of service.
About Buzz Aldrin in brief
Buzz Aldrin is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He and Neil Armstrong were the first two humans to land on the Moon. Aldrin was commissioned into the United States Air Force, and served as a jet fighter pilot during the Korean War. After earning a Sc. D. degree in astronautics, he was selected as a member of NASA’s Astronaut Group 3, making him the first astronaut with a doctoral degree. He retired from the Air Force in 1972, after 21 years of service. He has been accorded numerous honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969. He continued to advocate for space exploration, particularly a human mission to Mars, and developed the Aldrin cycler, a special spacecraft trajectory that makes travel to Mars more efficient in regard to time and propellant. His nickname, which became his legal first name in 1988, arose as a result of Fay’s mispronouncing \”brother\” as \”buzzer\”, which was then shortened to \”Buzz\”. He was a Boy Scout, achieving the rank of Tenderfoot Scout. His father was an Army aviator during World War I and the assistant commandant of the Army’s test pilot school at McCook Field, Ohio, from 1919 to 1922, but left the Army in 1928 and became an executive at Standard Oil. He had two siblings, both sisters: Madeleine, who was four years older, and Fay Ann, who was a year and a half older. His parents, Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr. and Marion Aldrin, lived in neighboring Montclair, New Jersey.
He graduated third in the class of 1951 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from West Point. He is married to former U.S. Air Force First Lady Rosalie Aldrin, and they have three children. His son, Michael, is a physician who served in the U.N. Security Council and the United Nations. He was the first person to hold a religious ceremony on the moon when he privately took communion. He suffered from seasickness and considered ships a distraction from flying airplanes. He also suffered from depression and alcoholism in the years after leaving NASA. His autobiographies Return to Earth, and Magnificent Desolation, recount his struggles with clinical depression and Alcoholism. He became a double-immelmann and attempted a double turn in T-28-28 in Vietnam; he became one of the two friends who became a prisoner of war in Vietnam. His friends included Sam Johnson, who later became a POW in Vietnam, and Sam Johnson became a Trojan soldier. He died in a car crash in 2007 in Florida; he is survived by his wife, three children, and two step-granddaughters. He served as Commandant of Air Force Test Pilot School from 1971 to 1972, and was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his service in World War II. His first space flight was in 1966 on Gemini 12 during which he spent over five hours on extravehicular activity. Three years later, Aldrin set foot on Moon at 03: 15: 16 on July 21, 1969.
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This page is based on the article Buzz Aldrin published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 22, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
