Search between a Gas Station

Buzz Aldrin (born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American engineer, former astronaut, and Command Pilot in the United States Air Force. As Lunar Module Pilot on the Apollo 11 mission, he and mission commander Neil Armstrong were the first two humans to land on the Moon. Aldrin set foot on the Moon at 03:15:16 on July 21, 1969 (UTC), 9 minutes after Armstrong first touched the surface. One of his first missions was on Gemini 12 where he successfully proved that extravehicular activity (EVA) could be performed by astronauts, spending over 5 hours outside the craft, thus achieving the goals of the Gemini program and paving the way for the Apollo program.

Biography

Early life

Aldrin was born January 20, 1930, in Mountainside Hospital, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.^[3][4] His parents were Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr. (1896–1974), a career military man, and Marion Aldrin (née Moon, 1903–1968), who lived in neighboring Montclair.^[5][6] He is of Scottish,^[7]Swedish, and German ancestry. His nickname, which became his legal first name in 1988, arose as a result of the younger of his two elder sisters mispronouncing “brother” as “buzzer”, which was shortened to Buzz.^[8] During his childhood years, Aldrin was a Boy Scout and earned the rank of Tenderfoot Scout.^[9]

After graduating from Montclair High School in 1947,^[3][10] Aldrin went to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.^[11]

Military career

Aldrin graduated third in his class at West Point in 1951 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force and served as a jet fighter pilot during the Korean War. He flew 66 combat missions in F-86 Sabres and shot down two Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 aircraft. The June 8, 1953, issue of Life magazine featured gun camera photos taken by Aldrin of one of the Soviet pilots ejecting from his damaged aircraft.^[12]

After the war, Aldrin was assigned as an aerial gunnery instructor at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, and later served as an aide to the dean of faculty at the United States Air Force Academy, which had begun operations in 1955.^[13] That same year, he graduated from the Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.^[4]:353 He flew F-100 Super Sabres as a flight commander in the 22d Fighter Squadron, while stationed at Bitburg Air Base, West Germany.^[13]

In January 1963, Aldrin earned a Sc.D. degree in astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he had been assigned as a graduate student (under the auspices of the Air Force Institute of Technology) since 1959.^[13][14] His doctoral thesis was Line-of-Sight Guidance Techniques for Manned Orbital Rendezvous, the dedication of which read, “In the hopes that this work may in some way contribute to their exploration of space, this is dedicated to the crew members of this country’s present and future manned space programs. If only I could join them in their exciting endeavors!”^[14]

On the completion of his doctorate, he was assigned to the Gemini Target Office of the Air Force Space Systems Division in Los Angeles before his selection as an astronaut. His initial application to join the astronaut corps was rejected on the basis of his never having been a test pilot; that prerequisite was lifted when he re-applied and was accepted into the third astronaut class.^[15]

NASA career

Gemini program

With the removal of test pilot experience as a prerequisite for astronaut selection, Aldrin became eligible and in October 1963, he became a member of NASA’s Astronaut Group 3.^[16] After the deaths of the original Gemini 9 prime crew, Elliot See and Charles Bassett, Aldrin and Jim Lovell were promoted to backup crew for the mission.^[17] He was confirmed as pilot on Gemini 12, the final Gemini mission and the last chance to validate methods for extravehicular activity (EVA). Aldrin performed two EVAs; first a standup EVA, and in the second EVA he left the spacecraft. The standup EVA lasted for two hours and 20 minutes He set a record for EVA and demonstrated that astronauts could work outside spacecraft.^{[18]:141–142}

Aldrin during Gemini 12 with the Earth reflecting off his visor

Aldrin and Jim Lovell after the Gemini 12 mission

Another view of Aldrin in space, with the spacecraft and Earth

Apollo program

Aldrin walks on the surface of the Moon during Apollo 11

Aldrin’s lunar footprint in a photo taken by him on July 21, 1969

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong and Aldrin made the first lunar landing becoming the first and second people, respectively, to walk on the Moon. This mission allowed Aldrin to maintain his record EVA duration until it was surpassed in the Apollo 14 mission. Aldrin’s first words on the Moon were “Beautiful view”, to which Armstrong asked “Isn’t it magnificent?”. Aldrin answered, “Magnificent desolation.”^[20] He was also the first person to urinate while on the Moon.^[21][22][23]

There has been speculation about the extent of Aldrin’s desire at the time to be the first astronaut to walk on the Moon and its impact on his pre-flight, in-mission and post-flight actions.^[24] According to various NASA accounts, early versions of the EVA checklist had the Lunar Module Pilot as the first to step onto the lunar surface. However, when Aldrin learned that this might be amended, he lobbied within NASA for the original procedure to be followed. A number of factors seem to have contributed to the final decision, including the physical positioning of the astronauts within the compact lunar lander, which made it easier for Armstrong to be the first to exit the spacecraft. Furthermore, there was little support for Aldrin’s views among other senior astronauts who would command later Apollo missions, and who may have been the first to make a lunar landing had Apollo 11 failed.^[25] Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot Michael Collins has commented that he thought Aldrin “resents not being first on the moon more than he appreciates being second.”^[26]

Aldrin, a Presbyterian, was the first person to hold a religious ceremony on the Moon. After landing on the Moon, he radioed Earth: “I’d like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours, and to give thanks in his or her own way.” He took communion on the surface of the Moon, but he kept it secret because of a lawsuit brought by atheist activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair over the reading of Genesis on Apollo 8.^[27] Aldrin, then a church elder, used a home communion kit given to him, and recited words used by his pastor at Webster Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Dean Woodruff.^[28][29] The communion elements were the first food and liquid consumed on the Moon: in Guideposts, Aldrin stated: “It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the Moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.”^[30]

Later Aldrin commented on the event: “Perhaps, if I had it to do over again, I would not choose to celebrate communion. Although it was a deeply meaningful experience for me, it was a Christian sacrament, and we had come to the Moon in the name of all mankind – be they Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, agnostics, or atheists. But at the time I could think of no better way to acknowledge the enormity of the Apollo 11 experience than by giving thanks to God.”^[30][31] Mindful of the controversy caused by the Bible readings made by the Apollo 8 crew, the NASA management had warned the Apollo 11 crew against making any explicit religious comments during the flight. However, in the final Apollo 11 TV broadcast during the return journey to Earth, Aldrin quoted from Psalm 8 (verses 3 and 4)^[32] “I’ve been reflecting the events of the past several days and a verse from the Psalms comes to mind to me. ‘When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him?'”.^[33][34]

Retirement

Aldrin as Commandant of the Air Force Test Pilot School

After leaving NASA in July 1971, Aldrin was assigned as Commandant of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California. In March 1972, Aldrin retired from active duty, after 21 years of service, and returned to the Air Force in a managerial role but his career was blighted by personal problems. His autobiographies Return to Earth, published in 1973, and Magnificent Desolation, published in June 2009, both recount his struggles with clinical depression and alcoholism in the years after his NASA career.^[35]

After retiring from NASA, Aldrin continued to advocate for space exploration. In 1985 he joined the University of North Dakota (UND)’s College of Aerospace Sciences (now the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences) at the invitation of John D. Odegard, the dean of the college at time. Aldrin helped to develop UND’s Space Studies program and brought Dr. David Webb from NASA to serve as the department’s first chair.^[36] Later, he produced a computer strategy game called Buzz Aldrin’s Race Into Space (1993). To further promote space exploration, and to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing, Aldrin teamed up with Snoop Dogg, Quincy Jones, Talib Kweli, and Soulja Boy to create the rap single and video, “Rocket Experience”, with proceeds from video and song sales to benefit Aldrin’s non-profit foundation, ShareSpace.^[37]

He referred to the Phobos monolith in a July 22, 2009, interview with C-SPAN: “We should go boldly where man has not gone before. Fly by the comets, visit asteroids, visit the moon of Mars. There’s a monolith there. A very unusual structure on this potato shaped object that goes around Mars once in seven hours. When people find out about that they’re going to say ‘Who put that there? Who put that there?’ The universe put it there. If you choose, God put it there…”^[38]

Aldrin has voiced parody versions of himself in two of Matt Groening’s animated series: The Simpsons episode “Deep Space Homer”, in which he accompanies Homer Simpson on a trip into space as part of NASA’s plan to improve its public appearance, and the Futurama episode “Cold Warriors”. In 2011, Aldrin appeared as himself in the film Transformers: Dark of the Moon, where he explains to Optimus Prime and the Autobots that the Apollo 11 mission also discovered a Cybertronian ship on the Moon whose existence was concealed from the public.

In 2012, he made a cameo appearance in the Japanese drama film Space Brothers.^[39] Aldrin appeared as himself in the Big Bang Theory episode, “The Holographic Excitation”, which aired on October 25, 2012.^[40] Aldrin also lent his voice talents to the 2012 video game Mass Effect 3, playing a stargazer who appears in the game’s final scene.^[41]

In December 2016, Aldrin was part of a tourist group visiting the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica when he fell ill and was evacuated, first to McMurdo Station and from there to Christchurch, New Zealand.^[42] At 86 years of age, Aldrin’s visit made him the oldest person to ever reach the South Pole.^[43]

Aldrin cycler

In 1985, Aldrin proposed the existence of a special spacecraft trajectory now known as the Aldrin cycler.^[44][45]
Aldrin’s proposed system of cycling spacecraft makes travel to Mars possible using far less propellant than conventional means, with an expected five and a half month journey from the Earth to Mars, and a return trip to Earth of about the same duration on a twin-cycler. Aldrin continues to research this concept with engineers from Purdue University.^[46]

Bart Sibrel incident

On September 9, 2002, Aldrin was lured to a Beverly Hills hotel on the pretext of being interviewed for a Japanese children’s television show on the subject of space. When he arrived, Apollo conspiracy proponent Bart Sibrel accosted him with a film crew and demanded he swear on a Bible that the Moon landings were not faked, insisting that Aldrin and others had lied about walking on the Moon. After a brief confrontation, during which Sibrel kept following Aldrin despite being told to leave him alone, said to Aldrin: “You’re the one who said you walked on the moon when you didn’t!” and finally called him “a coward and a liar”,^[47] Aldrin punched Sibrel in the jaw, which was caught on camera by Sibrel’s film crew. Aldrin stated that he had struck Sibrel in order to defend himself and his nearby stepdaughter. Witnesses stated that Sibrel had aggressively poked Aldrin with the Bible before being punched. Additional mitigating factors were that Sibrel sustained no visible injury and did not seek medical attention, and that Aldrin had no previous criminal record; the police declined to press charges against Aldrin.^[48] Aldrin dedicated a chapter to this incident in his autobiography Magnificent Desolation.^[49]

Views

Aldrin in Mission Control with NASA spokesman Josh Byerly and Flight Director Ron Spencer in 2009

Criticism of NASA’s 2003 return-to-Moon objectives

In December 2003, Aldrin published an opinion piece in The New York Times criticizing NASA’s objectives.^[50] In it, he voiced concern about NASA’s development of a spacecraft “limited to transporting four astronauts at a time with little or no cargo carrying capability” and declared the goal of sending astronauts back to the Moon was “more like reaching for past glory than striving for new triumphs”.^[50]

Support of a manned mission to Mars

In June 2013, Aldrin wrote an opinion piece, published in The New York Times, supporting a manned mission to Mars and which viewed the Moon “not as a destination but more a point of departure, one that places humankind on a trajectory to homestead Mars and become a two-planet species.”^[51] In August 2015, Aldrin, in association with the Florida Institute of Technology, presented a “master plan” to NASA for consideration where astronauts, with a “tour of duty of ten years”, establish a colony on Mars before the year 2040.^[52]

Climate change

In 2009, Aldrin commented on climate change by saying: “I think the climate has been changing for billions of years. If it’s warming now, it may cool off later. I’m not in favor of just taking short-term isolated situations and depleting our resources to keep our climate just the way it is today. I’m not necessarily of the school that we are causing it all, I think the world is causing it.”^[53]

Awards and honors

Aldrin was awarded the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal in 1969 for his role as lunar module pilot on Apollo 11.^[54] He was awarded an oak leaf cluster in 1972 in lieu of a second Distinguished Service Medal for his role in both the Korean War and in the space program.^[54] He was also awarded the Legion of Merit for his role in the Gemini and Apollo programs.^[54]

• 
  Distinguished Flying Cross with cluster^[54]


• 
  Air Medal with two clusters^[55]


• 
  Air Force Commendation Medal^[55]


• 
  Presidential Medal of Freedom^[56]


• 
  NASA Distinguished Service Medal^[55]


• 
  NASA Exceptional Service Medal^[55]


• Civilian awards and decorations include the Robert J. Collier Trophy, the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy, and the Harmon Trophy.^[19]


• Aldrin and his Apollo 11 crewmates were the 1999 recipients of the Langley Gold Medal from the Smithsonian Institution.^[57]


• The crater Aldrin on the Moon near the Apollo 11 landing site and Asteroid 6470 Aldrin are named in his honor.^[19]


• Aldrin received honorary degrees from six colleges and universities.^[13]


• In 1985, Aldrin was inducted into the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame, a signature event of Norsk Høstfest.^[58]


• In 1994, Aldrin was anonymously honored on a United States postage stamp. The 29¢ stamp, commemorating the silver anniversary of the landing, was based on a famous photograph of Aldrin, captured by Neil Armstrong, in which Aldrin’s face is obscured by his reflective visor. Postal rules at the time prohibited directly featuring living persons on stamps.^[59]


• In 2001, President Bush appointed Aldrin to the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry.^[60]


• Aldrin received the 2003 Humanitarian Award from Variety, the Children’s Charity, which, according to the organization, “is given to an individual who has shown unusual understanding, empathy, and devotion to mankind.”^[61]


• Aldrin is on the National Space Society’s Board of Governors,^[62] and has served as the organization’s Chairman; an inductee of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame,^[63]National Aviation Hall of Fame^[64] and the International Space Hall of Fame^[19]


• In 2006, the Space Foundation awarded Aldrin its highest honor, the General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award.^[65]


• For contributions to the television industry, Aldrin was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[66]


• Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2008.^[67]


• In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Aldrin was ranked as the No. 9 (tied with astronauts Gus Grissom and Alan Shepard) most popular space hero.^[68]


• In 2011, Aldrin was nominated for Best Cameo at the 2011 Scream Awards for his role playing himself in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.^[69]


• In 2011, Aldrin was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, along with his Apollo 11 crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins.^[70]


• In 2015, Aldrin was named as the Chancellor of the International Space University.^[71]


• In 2016, Aldrin’s hometown middle school in Montclair, New Jersey was renamed the Buzz Aldrin Middle School.^[72]

Detached adapter panel sighting

Buzz Aldrin speaking at an event in April 2016.

In 2005, while being interviewed for a documentary titled First on the Moon: The Untold Story, Aldrin told an interviewer that they saw an unidentified flying object. Aldrin told David Morrison, a NASA Astrobiology Institute senior scientist, the documentary cut the crew’s conclusion that they probably saw one of the four detached spacecraft adapter panels. Their S-IVB upper stage was 6,000 miles (9,700 km) away, but the four panels had been jettisoned before the S-IVB made its separation maneuver so they would closely follow the Apollo 11 spacecraft until its first mid-course correction.^[73] When Aldrin appeared on The Howard Stern Show on August 15, 2007, Stern asked him about the supposed UFO sighting. Aldrin confirmed that there was no such sighting of anything deemed extraterrestrial and said they were, and are, “99.9 percent” sure that the object was the detached panel.^[74][75]

In an interview with the Science Channel, Aldrin mentioned seeing unidentified objects, but according to Aldrin his words had been taken out of context. He made a request to the Science Channel to clarify to viewers that he did not see alien spacecraft but was refused.^[76]

Personal life

Aldrin has been married three times. His first marriage was to Joan Archer (1954–1974), mother to his three children (James, Janice and Andrew). His second marriage was to Beverly Van Zile (1975–1978), and his third to Lois Driggs Cannon (1988–2011), from whom he filed for divorce on June 15, 2011, in Los Angeles, citing “irreconcilable differences”.^[77] The divorce was finalized on December 28, 2012.^[78] He has one grandson, Jeffrey Schuss, born to his daughter, Janice, and three great-grandsons.^[79]

His mother committed suicide in 1968, the year before the Moon mission. Her father had also committed suicide, and he believes he inherited depression from them.^[80]

His battles against depression and alcoholism, upon returning home from the Apollo 11 mission, have been well documented, most recently in Magnificent Desolation.^[81][82]
Aldrin is an active supporter of the Republican Party, headlining fundraisers for GOP members of Congress.^[83]

In 2007, Aldrin confirmed to Time magazine that he had recently had a face-lift;^[84] he joked that the G-forces he was exposed to in space “caused a sagging jowl that needed some attention.”^[84]

Aldrin commented on the death of his Apollo 11 colleague, Neil Armstrong, saying that he was “deeply saddened by the passing. I know I am joined by millions of others in mourning the passing of a true American hero and the best pilot I ever knew. I had truly hoped that on July 20th, 2019, Neil, Mike and I would be standing together to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of our moon landing…. Regrettably, this is not to be.”^[85][86] Fellow Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell died on the eve of the 45th anniversary of Mitchell’s lunar landing.^[87] His death was widely reported, with Aldrin tweeting the following morning, “It’s the 45th Anniv of the #Apollo14 landing on the moon & yesterday we lost another Lunar Pioneer Edgar Mitchell.”^[87]

Aldrin primarily resided in Los Angeles, California and its environs, including Hidden Hills and Laguna Beach, from 1972 to 2014.^[88] Following his third divorce, he sold his Westwood condominium (initially purchased in 1998) for $2.87 million in 2014.^[89] As of 2016^[update], Aldrin was living in Satellite Beach, Florida.^[90]

In 2018 he was involved in a lawsuit over a dispute with his children Andrew and Janice and former business manager Christina Korp over their claims that he was mentally impaired through dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.^[91]

Film and television

Filmography

Portrayed by others

Aldrin has been portrayed by:

• 
  Cliff Robertson in Return to Earth (1976)^[100]


• Larry Williams in Apollo 13 (1995)^[101]


• 
  Xander Berkeley in Apollo 11 (1996). He was also a technical advisor for the film.^[102]


• 
  Bryan Cranston in From the Earth to the Moon (1998) and Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D (2005)^[103]


• 
  James Marsters in Moonshot (2009)^[104]


• Cory Tucker as a younger Buzz Aldrin of 1969 in Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), and Buzz Aldrin played himself^[97]


• 
  Lawrence Sonntag in Camp Camp Season 2, Episode 12 – Parents’ Day (2017)^[105]


• 
  Corey Stoll in First Man (2018)^[106]


• The name of the Toy Story character Buzz Lightyear was inspired by Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin acknowledged the tribute when he pulled a Buzz Lightyear doll out during a speech at NASA, to rapturous cheer, a clip of which can be found on the Toy Story 10th Anniversary DVD.^[107]

Bibliography

• Aldrin, Col. Edwin E. Jr. 1970. Footsteps on the Moon. Edison Electric Institute Bulletin. Vol. 38, No. 7, pp. 266–272.


• Aldrin, Buzz and Wayne Warga. 1973. Return to Earth. New York, Random House.


• Aldrin, Buzz and Malcolm McConnell. 1989. Men from Earth. New York: Bantam Books.


• Aldrin, Buzz and John Barnes. 1996. Encounter with Tiber. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1996.


• Aldrin, Buzz and John Barnes. 2000. The Return. New York: Forge.


• Aldrin, Buzz and Wendell Minor. 2005. Reaching for the Moon. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.


• Aldrin, Buzz and Ken Abraham. 2009. Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon. New York: Harmony Books.


• Aldrin, Buzz and Wendell Minor. 2009. Look to the Stars. Camberwell, Vic.: Puffin Books.


• Armstrong, Neil; Michael Collins; Edwin E. Aldrin; Gene Farmer; and Dora Jane Hamblin. 1970. First on the Moon: A Voyage with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. Boston: Little, Brown.


• Aldrin, Buzz. 2013. Mission to Mars. Washington, D.C.: The National Geographic Society.


• Aldrin, Buzz and Marianne Dyson. 2015. Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Children’s Books.

See also

• Space rendezvous


• List of spaceflight records

Notes and references

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Buzz Aldrin.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Buzz Aldrin

• Official website


• Astronautix biography of Buzz Aldrin


• Iven C. Kincheloe Awards


• A February 2009 BBC News item about Buzz Aldrin’s Moon memories, looking forward to the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing


• 
  “Satellite of solitude” by Buzz Aldrin: an article in which Aldrin describes what it was like to walk on the Moon, Cosmos science magazine


• Aldrin at Encyclopedia of Science


• 
  Buzz Aldrin on IMDb
  


• 
  Buzz Aldrin at the National Aviation Hall of Fame
  


• 
  Video interview with Buzz Aldrin Buzz is shown an enlarged print of Tranquility Base and talks Graeme Hill through the points of significance.


• 
  Video interview on AstrotalkUK


• Buzz Aldrin’s Quotes


• Buzz Aldrin Paul Mauriat’s History


• 
  Appearances on C-SPAN
  


• 
  NASA – Tapping Resources in Space and the Community (NASA, Feb. 3, 2017) (Buzz talks to students as part of the Living Off the Land in Space lecture series)