Buzz Aldrin

About

Buzz was the second man on the moon! He is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history.

On July 20, 1969, he was the second human being to set foot on the Moon, along with mission commander Neil Armstrong.

Buzz Aldrin, Sc.D. was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. After graduating from Montclair High School in 1946, Buzz turned down a full scholarship offer from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The nickname “Buzz” originated in childhood: the younger of his two elder sisters mispronounced “brother” as “buzzer”, and this was shortened to Buzz. He made it his legal first name in 1988.

Buzz graduated third in his class at West Point in 1951 with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and served as a jet fighter pilot during the Korean War. He then earned his Doctor of Science in astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On 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. He was selected as part of the third group of NASA astronauts in October 1963.

Books co-authored by Buzz Aldrin include Return to Earth (1973), Men From Earth (1989) and Magnificent Desolation (2009). He has also co-authored with John Barnes the science fiction novels Encounter with Tiber (1996) and The Return (2000).