Aldrin, << AWL drihn, >> Buzz (1930-…), a United States astronaut was the second person on the moon . He and Neil A. Armstrong landed there on July 20, 1969. They traveled to the moon in the Apollo 11 lunar module. Aldrin stepped onto the moon 19 minutes after Armstrong.
Aldrin was born in Montclair, New Jersey, on Jan. 20, 1930. His original name was Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr. His family nicknamed him Buzz. The nickname was short for Buzzer, his young sister’s pronunciation of the word brother. He legally changed his name to Buzz Aldrin as an adult.
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Aldrin graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1951. He became an Air Force officer. After completing pilot training in 1952, he flew 66 combat missions in the Korean War . In 1963, he received a doctor’s degree in astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He became an astronaut later that year.
Aldrin piloted the Gemini 12 space flight in 1966. During this flight, he left the spacecraft and “walked” in space. He drew on his experience as a scuba diver for the spacewalk. He was partially or completely outside the spacecraft for 5 1/2 hours. This experience helped prove that people can work outside an orbiting vehicle.
In 1971, Aldrin resigned from the astronaut program and returned to active duty with the Air Force. In 1998, he founded the ShareSpace Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit organization that promotes interest in space travel . Aldrin wrote two volumes of autobiography. They were Return to Earth (1973) and Magnificent Desolation (2009).
