Colonel Buzz Eugene Aldrin, Sc.D (born January 20, 1930 as Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr.) is an American pilot and astronaut who became the second human to set foot on the Moon (after Neil Armstrong) during the Apollo 11 mission, the first manned lunar landing.

Aldrin was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. He graduated from Montclair High School and attended the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. As a boy, he was given the nickname "Buzz" by his sister-she mispronounced "brother" as "buzzer", and this was shortened to Buzz-and he made it his legal first name in 1988.

Military career

He graduated third in his class in 1951 with a bachelor of science degree. Aldrin was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and served as a jet fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, where he flew 66 combat missions in F-86 Sabres and shot down two Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 aircraft. After leaving Korea, Aldrin was an aerial gunnery instructor at Nellis Air Force Base in southern Nevada, and later an aide to the dean of faculty at the U.S. Air Force Academy. After leaving this assignment, Aldrin flew F-100 Super Sabres as a flight commander at Bitburg, Germany.

Aldrin left military service to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, where he earned his doctorate of science in Astronautics. His graduate thesis was Line-of-sight guidance techniques for manned orbital rendezvous. After leaving MIT, he returned to the Air Force and was assigned to the Gemini Target Office of the Air Force Space Systems Division in Los Angeles, and later to Edwards Air Force Base at the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. In March 1972, Aldrin retired from active duty after 21 years of service.

Time as an astronaut

Aldrin was selected as part of the third group of NASA astronauts in October 1963. His serious and intellectual manner proved invaluable during the planning of the Gemini missions but he was not in line for a flight. The deaths of the prime crew for Gemini 9 meant that Aldrin was promoted to back-up crew for the mission. Gemini 9A's main objective was to rendezvous and dock with a target vehicle but when this failed Aldrin improvised an effective exercise for the craft to rendezvous with a co-ordinate in space. He was confirmed as pilot on Gemini 12, the last Gemini mission and the last chance to prove methods for EVA. He utilized revolutionary techniques during training for that mission, including neutrally-buoyant underwater training. Such techniques are still used today. Aldrin set a record for extra-vehicular activity and proved that astronauts could work outside the spacecraft.

Aldrin has had a much more public persona than Neil Armstrong, and much has been said about his desire at the time to be the first astronaut out of the Lunar Module, and therefore the first to walk on the moon. The matter was dramatized in the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, based on Andrew Chaikin's book A Man On The Moon.

Buzz is well known for having a spiritual side, being a Freemason, and for having made statements about God -- including celebrating the Sacrament of Holy Communion on the surface of the moon. After landing on the moon, Aldrin radioed earth with these words: "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." Aldrin kept his Communion a secret because of the lawsuit regarding the reading of Genesis on Apollo 8. Using a pastor's home Communion kit given to him by Dean Woodruff and using words used by his pastor at Webster Presbyterian Church, Aldrin celebrated Communion alone, without his colleague Armstrong participating. ("First on the Moon -- A Voyage with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr", written with Gene Farmer and Dora Jane Hamblin, epilogue by Arthur C. Clark. Michael Joseph Ltd, London (1970), page 251).

Retirement

After leaving active duty as an astronaut Aldrin returned to the Air Force in a managerial role but his career was blighted by personal problems. His autobiography Return to Earth provides an account of his struggles with depression and alcoholism in the years following his NASA career. Since retiring from NASA, he has continued to promote space exploration, including producing a unique computer strategy game called "Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space" (1992). He played the role of Reverend Woodruff in the 1996 TV movie Apollo 11.

Aldrin also teamed up with science fiction author John Barnes to write Encounter With Tiber and The Return.

In 2002, President Bush appointed Aldrin to the Presidential Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry.

A small crater on the Moon near the Apollo 11 landing site is named in his honor.

He also has a TV star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood and Vine.

He voiced himself in "Deep Space Homer", an episode of The Simpsons in which he flies into space with Homer Simpson and fictional astronaut Race Banyon. He also appeared in an interview with Ali G in the British comedy series Ali G in da USA.

He currently serves on the National Space Society's Board of Governors, and has served as the organization's Chairman.

In 1988 Aldrin legally changed his first name to "Buzz".

In 2005, through small publisher Flatsigned Press, Aldrin released two leather bound signed limited editions, Men From Earth and Encounter with Tiber.

Stalking by Bart Sibrel

In September, 2002, Bart Sibrel (a vocal proponent of the idea that NASA faked the moon landings) repeated demands (over several years) that Aldrin swear an oath on the Bible that he had walked on the Moon, or admit that it was all a hoax. Aldrin had pointedly ignored Sibrel, refusing to swear an oath, and Sibrel was becoming much more aggressive with Aldrin and several other Apollo astronauts. Sibrel often gained access to the astronauts by lying, claiming to represent organizations that he does not, and assuming false identities. When he approached Aldrin in September 2002, he cornered Aldrin and a young female relative, stood in their way as they tried to leave the area and shoving a Bible towards Aldrin several times, called Aldrin a "a coward, a liar, and a thief". Aldrin punched Sibrel in the face, later indicating that he felt forced to defend himself and his companion. Sibrel suffered no permanent injury. Although the Beverly Hills police investigated the incident, charges were never filed.

Trivia

• Aldrin's 1989 biography Men From Earth was the inspiration for the band of the same name.
• Aldrin is a descendent of blacksmiths from Varmland, Sweden.
• Aldrin's mother's maiden name was Moon.
• Aldrin's wristwatch, an Omega Speedmaster Professional was actually the first watch on the moon. Neil Armstrong had left his own Speedmaster in the LM as a backup. The watch was later stolen from Aldrin's personal effects en route to the Smithsonian and has never been recovered.
• Aldrin appeared on the British comedy series Trigger Happy TV with Dom Joly, accompanying Dom who posed as a door to door salesman.
• Aldrin was extremely disliked by Eugene Cernan.
• Aldrin was given the nickname Doctor Rendezvous by the astronauts in the space program due to his inability, as Eugene Cernan states in his book, to talk about anything other than rendezvous operations.
• Aldrin lobbied very strongly to be the first one out of the lunar module and thus becoming the first man to set foot on the moon on the Apollo 11 mission.
• When shown the launch footage from the movie Apollo 13, he asked Ron Howard what NASA vault they got the footage from. Upon receiving the reply that the footage was computer generated, he reportedly asked if NASA could use it anyway.
• Aldrin has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California.
• Aldrin was videotaped punching a man in the face after the man called him a coward and a liar and said that he never went to the moon. The video can be seen here.