Buzz Aldrin (born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, Air Force fighter pilot, and engineer who became the second person to walk on the Moon. As lunar module pilot of Apollo 11, he stepped onto the surface on July 20, 1969, nineteen minutes after commander Neil Armstrong, and described the landscape as "magnificent desolation."[1][2]
Aldrin's influence on spaceflight began before he ever flew. His 1963 MIT doctoral thesis on orbital rendezvous supplied techniques that NASA used throughout the Gemini and Apollo programs, and his marathon spacewalks on Gemini 12 in 1966 solved a problem that had defeated every previous American EVA. After Apollo he wrote candidly about depression and alcoholism, then rebuilt his public life as an advocate for Mars settlement, proposing the Earth-Mars cycler trajectory that bears his name.[1][3]
As of 2026 Aldrin is 96 years old, the oldest living astronaut and one of four surviving moonwalkers. He remains a vocal supporter of NASA's Artemis program, which flew a crewed lunar flyby in April 2026.[4]
Early life and Korean War
Aldrin was born on January 20, 1930, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and grew up in neighboring Montclair. His father was an Army aviator and aviation executive; his lifelong nickname came from a younger sister's pronunciation of "brother" as "buzzer," and he made "Buzz" his legal first name in 1988.[1]
He graduated third in the class of 1951 at the United States Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned in the Air Force. Flying the F-86 Sabre in the Korean War, he logged 66 combat missions and shot down two MiG-15s; gun-camera film of one of his kills was published in Life magazine in 1953.[1][2]
Dr. Rendezvous
Rather than attend test pilot school, Aldrin earned a Doctor of Science degree in astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963. His thesis, "Line-of-Sight Guidance Techniques for Manned Orbital Rendezvous," worked out how a pilot could bring two spacecraft together in orbit using visual sightings and simple onboard calculations, a foundation of practical orbital mechanics for crewed flight.[1][3]
NASA selected him in its third astronaut group in October 1963, the first astronaut with a doctorate. Colleagues nicknamed him "Dr. Rendezvous" for his habit of steering conversations toward orbital trajectories. His mission-planning work paid off directly: he devised rendezvous techniques used across Gemini and helped plan the rendezvous sequences that Apollo lunar missions depended on.[1][3]
Gemini 12
Aldrin flew his first mission on Gemini 12, November 11-15, 1966, with command pilot Jim Lovell. When the spacecraft's rendezvous radar failed during the approach to the Agena target vehicle, Aldrin used a sextant and pre-computed charts to determine the maneuvers by hand, and the docking succeeded.[3]
The mission's larger achievement was extravehicular activity. Spacewalkers on earlier Gemini flights had exhausted themselves fighting their pressurized suits, with heart rates spiking and visors fogging. Drawing on underwater training and a spacecraft fitted with handholds, foot restraints, and deliberately paced tasks, Aldrin logged 5 hours and 30 minutes outside across three excursions, including a two-hour umbilical spacewalk, and finished each one without distress. The flight proved that astronauts could do useful work in open space, a prerequisite for everything from Apollo to the International Space Station.[3][5]
Apollo 11
Aldrin served as lunar module pilot of Apollo 11, launched on July 16, 1969, with Armstrong and command module pilot Michael Collins. During the descent to the Sea of Tranquility on July 20, Aldrin called out altitude and velocity readings while Armstrong flew the lunar module Eagle to a landing with less than a minute of usable propellant remaining.[2]
Before the moonwalk, Aldrin, an elder at Webster Presbyterian Church in Texas, privately took communion using a kit his church had prepared, making the bread and wine the first food and drink consumed on the Moon. NASA did not publicize the ceremony, wary after a lawsuit over the Apollo 8 crew's reading from Genesis.[1][2]
Aldrin followed Armstrong onto the surface and spent about two hours outside, deploying the seismometer and laser reflector experiments, collecting samples, and testing locomotion in one-sixth gravity. Many of the mission's most reproduced photographs, including the visor portrait taken by Armstrong, show Aldrin. After returning to Earth on July 24, the crew received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and toured 23 countries.[1][2]
Missions
| Mission | Dates | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 12 | November 11-15, 1966 | Pilot | Record 5.5 hours of EVA; manual rendezvous after radar failure |
| Apollo 11 | July 16-24, 1969 | Lunar module pilot | Second person on the Moon |
Struggles and recovery
Aldrin returned to the Air Force in 1971 as commandant of the test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base, a poor fit that ended with his retirement from the service in 1972 after 21 years. The years after Apollo brought clinical depression and alcoholism, which he described with unusual frankness in his 1973 memoir "Return to Earth" and again in "Magnificent Desolation" (2009). He has said he took his last drink in October 1978, and he later became an advocate for mental health and addiction recovery.[1][2]
Mars advocacy and the Aldrin cycler
From the 1980s onward Aldrin turned his rendezvous expertise toward Mars. In 1985 he proposed what is now called the Aldrin cycler: a spacecraft placed on a trajectory that repeatedly swings between Earth and Mars without major propulsive maneuvers, so that crews could ride a large, well-shielded vehicle between the planets while smaller craft handle departures and arrivals.[1][3]
He founded the ShareSpace Foundation to promote science education and space access, wrote a string of books including "Mission to Mars" (2013), and in 2015 joined the Florida Institute of Technology to establish the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute, promoting his "Cycling Pathways to Occupy Mars" plan. He has testified before Congress repeatedly on space policy, generally urging that NASA treat the Moon as a stepping stone toward permanent settlement of Mars, a goal also pursued by SpaceX with its Starship program.[1][3]
Later life
Aldrin has remained a public figure well into his nineties, attending Apollo anniversaries, White House events, and launches. He married Anca Faur, an engineer and executive of his company Buzz Aldrin Ventures, on his 93rd birthday in January 2023; she died of cancer in the autumn of 2025.[4]
Following the death of Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell in August 2025, Aldrin became the oldest living astronaut, and he is one of four Apollo moonwalkers still alive, alongside David Scott, Charles Duke, and Harrison Schmitt. He turned 96 on January 20, 2026, and continues to comment publicly in support of NASA's return to the Moon.[4]
References
- Buzz Aldrin - Wikipedia.
- Buzz Aldrin | Biography, Career, Neil Armstrong, & Facts - Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- Buzz Aldrin, Ph.D. (Colonel, USAF, Ret.) NASA Astronaut (Former) - NASA.
- Oldest astronaut Buzz Aldrin turns 96 as new moon astronauts share Apollo inspirations - Phys.org (Associated Press).
- Learning How to Work in Space: Buzz Aldrin and Gemini XII - Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
