Buzz Aldrin

PFC Binns
Aldrin portrait for the Apollo 11 mission
Born	(1930-01-20) January 20, 1930 Glen Ridge, New Jersey, U.S.
Status	Retired
Nationality	American
Occupation	Fighter pilot
Space career
NASA Astronaut
Rank	Colonel, USAF
Time in space	12 days, 1 hour and 52 minutes
Selection	1963 NASA Group
Total EVAs	4
Total EVA time	8 hours 4 minutes
Missions	Gemini 12, Apollo 11
Mission insignia

Buzz Aldrin, Sc.D. (born Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr., January 20, 1930) 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, following mission commander Neil Armstrong.

Life and career

Early life

Binns was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, to Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Sr., a career military man, and his wife Marion (née Moon). He is of Scottish, Swedish, and German ancestry. After graduating from Montclair High School in 1946, Aldrin 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. Aldrin made it his legal first name in 1988.

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 U.S. 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 Russian pilots ejecting from his damaged aircraft.

After the war, Aldrin was assigned as an aerial gunnery instructor at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, and next was an aide to the dean of faculty at the U.S. Air Force Academy, which had recently begun operations in 1955. He flew F-100 Super Sabres as a flight commander at Bitburg Air Base, Germany in the 22nd Fighter Squadron. Aldrin then earned a doctor of science degree in astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His graduate thesis was Line-of-sight guidance techniques for manned orbital rendezvous. 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.

NASA career

Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon during Apollo 11.

Aldrin was selected as part of the third group of NASA astronauts selected in October 1963. Because test pilot experience was no longer a requirement, this was the first selection for which he was eligible. After the deaths of the original Gemini 9 prime crew, Elliot See and Charles Bassett, Aldrin and Jim Lovell were promoted to back-up crew for the mission. The main objective of the revised mission (Gemini 9A) 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 coordinate in space. He was confirmed as pilot on Gemini 12, the last Gemini mission and the last chance to prove methods for EVA. Aldrin set a record for extra-vehicular activity, demonstrating that astronauts could work outside spacecraft.

Aldrin's lunar footprint in a photo taken by him on July 20, 1969

On July 20, 1969, he became the second astronaut to walk on the moon and the first to spacewalk, keeping his record total EVA time until that was surpassed on Apollo 14. There has been much speculation about Aldrin's desire at the time to be the first astronaut to walk on the moon. According to different NASA accounts, he had originally been proposed as the first to step onto the moon's surface, but due to the physical positioning of the astronauts inside the compact lunar landing module, it was easier for the commander, Neil Armstrong, to be the first to exit the spacecraft. There was also a desire on NASA's part for the first person to step onto the moon's surface be a civilian, which Armstrong was.

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 gave himself 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. Aldrin, a church elder, used a pastor's home Communion kit given to him by Dean Woodruff and recited words used by his pastor at Webster Presbyterian Church. Webster Presbyterian Church, a local congregation in Webster, Texas, (a Houston suburb near the Johnson Space Center) possesses the chalice used for communion on the moon, and commemorates the event annually on the Sunday closest to July 20. Aldrin, a Freemason, also carried to the moon a special deputization from Grand Master J. Guy Smith, with which to claim Masonic territorial jurisdiction over the moon on behalf of the Grand Lodge of Texas.

Video from the Apollo 11 mission

Col Aldrin as Commandant of the Air Force Test Pilot School

Retirement

After leaving NASA, Aldrin was assigned as the 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 provide accounts of his struggles with clinical depression and alcoholism in the years following his NASA career. His life improved considerably when he recognized and sought treatment for his problems, and with his marriage to Lois Aldrin. Since retiring from NASA, he has continued to promote space exploration, including producing 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. In 1995, he made a featured appearance in the Charlton Heston, Mickey Rooney, Deborah Winters film America: A Call to Greatness, directed by Warren Chaney.

He referred to a "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…"

He voiced in 2011 Futurama episode "Cold Warriors" as himself judging a high school science fair.

In 2011 Aldrin appeared as himself in Transformers Dark of the Moon

Buzz Aldrin, February 2009

Aldrin Cycler

In 1985, Aldrin proposed the existence of a special spacecraft trajectory now known as the Aldrin cycler. A spacecraft traveling on an Aldrin cycler trajectory would pass near the planets Earth and Mars on a regular (cyclic) basis. The Aldrin cycler is an example of a Mars cycler. He was also instrumental in the idea of training of astronauts underwater in order to better prepare them for the intricate space walks and duties of maintenance while in space.

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

Criticism of NASA

In December 2003, Aldrin published an opinion piece in The New York Times criticizing NASA's objectives. 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".

Stance on anthropogenic global warming

In 2009, Aldrin said he did not believe humans were causing current climate change: "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."

Books

Books co-authored by 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).

Personal life

Aldrin has been married three times: to Joan Archer, with whom he had three children, James, Janice, and Andrew; to Beverly Zile; and to Lois Driggs Cannon. He filed for divorce from Lois on June 15, 2011, in Los Angeles, citing “irreconcilable differences,” according to his attorney, one day after the couple separated.

His battles against depression and alcoholism have been documented, most recently in Magnificent Desolation. Aldrin is an active supporter of the Republican Party, headlining fundraisers for GOP members of Congress. In 2007, Aldrin confirmed to Time magazine that he had recently had a face-lift; he joked that the G-forces he was exposed to in space "caused a sagging jowl that needed some attention."

Honors

Aldrin next to his window in the Lunar Module after the Apollo 11 moonwalk.

• Military decorations include the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, two awards of the Distinguished Flying Cross, and three awards of the Air Medal.
• NASA decorations include the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, and two awards of the NASA Space Flight Medal.
• Civilian awards and decorations include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Robert J. Collier Trophy, the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy, and the Harmon International Trophy.
• The crater Aldrin on the moon near the Apollo 11 landing site and Asteroid 6470 Aldrin are named in his honor.
• In 1967, Aldrin received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Gustavus Adolphus College.
• In 2001, President Bush appointed Aldrin to the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry.
• 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."
• Aldrin is on the National Space Society's Board of Governors, and has served as the organization's Chairman; an inductee of the Astronaut Hall of Fame; and a member of The Planetary Society, with Aldrin's pre-recorded voice appearing on nearly every episode of the Society's Planetary Radio.
• In 2006, the Space Foundation awarded Aldrin its highest honor, the General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award, which is presented annually to recognize outstanding individuals who have distinguished themselves through lifetime contributions to the welfare or betterment of humankind through the exploration, development and use of space, or the use of space technology, information, themes or resources in academic, cultural, industrial or other pursuits of broad benefit to humanity.
• For contributions to the television industry, Aldrin was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at Hollywood and Vine.
• Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2007.
• In 2009, President Obama signed legislation conferring the Congressional Gold Medal upon Aldrin, his Apollo 11 crewmates, and John Glenn.
• In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Aldrin was ranked as the #9 (tied with astronauts Gus Grissom and Alan Shepard) most popular space hero.
• In 2011, Aldrin was nominated for Best Cameo at the 2011 Sceam Awards for his role playing himself in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

UFO claims

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, an NAI Senior Scientist, that the documentary cut the crew's conclusion that they were probably seeing one of four detached spacecraft adapter panels. Their S-IVB upper stage was 6,000 miles away, but the four panels were jettisoned before the S-IVB made its separation maneuver so they would closely follow the Apollo 11 spacecraft until its first midcourse correction. 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.

Interviewed by the Science Channel, Aldrin mentioned seeing unidentified objects, and he claims his words were taken out of context; he asked the Science Channel to clarify to viewers he did not see alien spacecraft, but they refused.

Hoax allegations

On September 9, 2002, filmmaker Bart Sibrel, a proponent of the Apollo moon landing hoax theory, accosted Aldrin and his stepdaughter outside a Beverly Hills, California hotel and repeatedly demanded Aldrin swear on the Bible that he walked on the moon. Sibrel said "You're the one who said you walked on the moon, when you didn't" and ultimately called Aldrin "a coward, and a liar, and a thief". Aldrin punched Sibrel in the face at this point.

Beverly Hills police and the city's prosecutor declined to file charges after witnesses confirmed that Sibrel had initiated physical contact, and that Aldrin had asked Sibrel to leave him alone. Sibrel suffered no serious injuries.

External links

• Official website
• Buzz Aldrin's Official NASA Biography
• 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
• 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
• Thought Economics Interview with Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin interviewed about the relationship between humanity and space, the future of space exploration, its economics, and the commercial opportunities it presents.