On Jan. 20, 1930, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin was born in New Jersey. After graduating from West Point and serving as a fighter pilot in the Korean War, Aldrin completed his Ph.D. at MIT in 1963. When he was selected for NASA’s third astronaut group later that year, he became the first astronaut with a doctorate.
In 1966, during Gemini 12, Aldrin completed NASA’s first successful spacewalks; he would also play a key role in establishing procedures for EVAs, as well as spacecraft rendezvous and docking. Then, on July 20, 1969, Aldrin became the second person to step onto the surface of the Moon, following Neil Armstrong, as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 11. In total, he spent over 21 hours on the lunar surface and, across the two missions, nearly 290 hours in space. He resigned from NASA in 1971 and retired from the Air Force in 1972.
