Buzz Aldrin

Chapter 1 · 1930 – 1947 The Aviator’s Son

Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. was born on January 20, 1930, at Mountainside Hospital in Glen Ridge, New Jersey; his parents lived in neighboring Montclair, west of New York City. Aviation already ran in the family. His father, Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr., had been an Army aviator in the First World War, then assistant commandant of the Army’s test pilot school at McCook Field, Ohio, from 1919 to 1922. He left the Army in 1928 to become an executive at Standard Oil. His mother’s name was Marion Moon. Moon: the chance of names did things well.

“Buzz”

The boy had two older sisters, Madeleine and Fay Ann. It was Fay Ann, a year and a half older, who gave him his nickname: as a little girl she could not pronounce “brother” and said “buzzer,” soon shortened to “Buzz.” The nickname stuck; in 1988 he made it his legal first name.

He was a good student, with an A average. He played football; in 1946 he was the starting center of Montclair High School’s undefeated state champion team.

Navy or Army

His father wanted him to attend the Naval Academy at Annapolis, the school for naval officers. He enrolled him at a nearby preparatory school, the Severn School, and even secured him an appointment to the Academy from a New Jersey senator. But the boy had other ideas. He suffered from seasickness and saw ships as a distraction that would keep him from airplanes. He faced down his father and asked him to have the appointment changed to the Military Academy at West Point, the Army’s officer school, in New York State. He entered it in 1947.

Sources: English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin” (birth, hospital, parents, father’s career, sisters, origin of the nickname and the legal name in 1988, school results, football in 1946, Severn School, seasickness, choice of West Point, entry in 1947; tertiary source, drawing notably on Aldrin’s autobiographies). The remark on his mother’s name and the Moon is the author’s.

Chapter 2 · 1947 – 1953 West Point and Korea

At West Point Buzz Aldrin did brilliantly. He finished first in his class in his plebe year. He was also an excellent athlete, a pole vaulter on the academy track team. In 1950 he traveled with a group of cadets to Japan and the Philippines to study the military government policies of General MacArthur. During the trip the Korean War broke out. On June 5, 1951, he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering, third in his class.

Fighters Rather Than Bombers

The top graduates could choose their assignment. He chose the Air Force, which had become a separate service in 1947 and did not yet have its own academy. He learned to fly T-6s in Florida. Once, attempting an aerobatic maneuver, he suffered a grayout, a partial loss of vision caused by acceleration, and recovered only about 2,000 feet above the ground. His father advised him to fly bombers: commanding a crew teaches leadership and opens better career prospects. The son chose fighters. At Nellis Air Force Base, near Las Vegas, he learned to fly the F-80 and then the F-86 Sabre, which, like most jet fighter pilots of the day, he preferred.

Sixty-Six Missions

In December 1952 he was assigned to the 16th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, based at Suwon, south of Seoul. He flew sixty-six combat missions in F-86 Sabres. On May 14, 1953, a few miles south of the Yalu River, he shot down a first MiG-15; Life magazine published, on June 8, his gun-camera footage of the enemy pilot ejecting. On June 4, 1953, he shot down a second after a series of scissor maneuvers, sighting by hand because his gun sight had jammed. He saw the pilot eject, without knowing whether his parachute had time to open. For his service in Korea he received two Distinguished Flying Crosses and three Air Medals.

His year in Korea ended in December 1953; the fighting had stopped. The future astronaut was twenty-three. He had learned, in a fighter cockpit, what it means to join another aircraft in flight and get behind it. Ten years later, that would be the subject of his thesis.

Sources: English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin” (first in plebe year, pole vault, 1950 trip, graduation on June 5, 1951 and class rank, choice of the Air Force, T-6 training, grayout, father’s advice, Nellis, F-80 and F-86, 16th Squadron at Suwon, 66 missions, MiGs shot down on May 14 and June 4, 1953, Life of June 8, 1953, decorations, end of the combat tour; tertiary source). The link between air combat and orbital rendezvous is the author’s remark.

Chapter 3 · 1954 – 1963 The Rendezvous Thesis

After Korea, Buzz Aldrin was an aerial gunnery instructor at Nellis, then, in December 1954, aide-de-camp to the dean of faculty of the brand-new Air Force Academy. On December 29, 1954, he married Joan Archer, a graduate of Rutgers and Columbia; they would have three children. From 1956 to 1959 he was a flight commander flying F-100 Super Sabres, aircraft armed with nuclear weapons, at Bitburg Air Base in West Germany.

A Friend Who Wrote

In his squadron was Ed White, a year behind him at West Point. White went off to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Michigan and wrote encouraging Aldrin to do the same. In 1959, through the Air Force Institute of Technology, Aldrin entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, intending to earn a master’s degree. His professor of astrodynamics, the science of spacecraft motion, was Richard Battin, one of the future designers of the Apollo navigation system.

He enjoyed the coursework and decided to pursue a doctorate instead. He chose a subject with his future in mind: he hoped it would help him be selected as an astronaut, even though it meant forgoing test pilot school, then a prerequisite. His thesis was titled Line-of-Sight Guidance Techniques for Manned Orbital Rendezvous. It studies how a pilot aboard a spacecraft can join another vehicle in orbit by relying on what he sees and on simple calculations. He earned his doctor of science degree in astronautics in January 1963, according to Wikipedia; the official history of Gemini dates the thesis to 1964.

The dedication expresses his hope: he dedicated the work to the crews of the country’s present and future manned space programs, in the hope that it would contribute to their exploration, and wished he could join them in their exciting endeavors.

In the Service of Gemini

After his doctorate the Air Force assigned him to the Gemini Target Office in Los Angeles. There he worked with Lockheed to improve the maneuvering capabilities of the Agena, the target vehicle that Gemini spacecraft would have to reach and dock with in orbit. He was then posted to NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston to integrate military experiments into Gemini flights.

Sources: English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin” (Nellis, aide to Don Zimmerman, marriage of December 29, 1954, Bitburg 1956-1959, Ed White, MIT in 1959, Richard Battin, choice of the doctorate, thesis title, January 1963, dedication, Gemini Target Office, Lockheed, Houston; tertiary source); B. C. Hacker and J. M. Grimwood, On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini, NASA SP-4203, 1977, notes to chapter XII (thesis dated 1964). Battin’s role in Apollo navigation belongs to general history. The dedication is summarized.

Chapter 4 · 1962 – 1966 “Dr. Rendezvous”

In 1962 Buzz Aldrin applied to NASA’s second group of astronauts. He was rejected: he was not a test pilot. He asked for a waiver, which was refused. On May 15, 1963, NASA opened a new selection, this time to applicants with either test pilot experience or 1,000 hours in jet aircraft. Aldrin had more than 2,500 hours, 2,200 of them in jets. On October 18, 1963, he was named one of the fourteen astronauts of the third group.

The First Doctor

He was the first astronaut with a doctoral degree. Together with his expertise in orbital mechanics, it earned him from his fellow astronauts the nickname “Dr. Rendezvous.” Wikipedia notes that he was aware the nickname was not always intended as a compliment. After initial training each new astronaut was assigned a field of expertise; his were mission planning, trajectory analysis and flight plans.

Selling the Concentric Rendezvous

In 1963 and 1964, the official history of Gemini relates, Aldrin worked hard at selling the project office and flight operations on a concentric rendezvous. The target would be launched into a circular orbit 298 kilometers high, the spacecraft into a lower elliptical orbit. Being closer to Earth, it took less time to circle the globe and could catch up for rendezvous. In the spring of 1965, with Dean Grimm of the Manned Spacecraft Center’s Flight Crew Support Division, he worked out the procedures the pilots would follow for the final rendezvous maneuvers. The Gemini VI crew ran fifty complete rendezvous simulations; their notes, discussed with Aldrin and the others, were incorporated into charts to be carried in flight. With other engineers, Aldrin would co-author the official summary of onboard rendezvous operations in Gemini.

An Idea on an Air-Bearing Table

He also thought about how astronauts would move outside the spacecraft. For Gemini IX the Air Force was preparing an astronaut maneuvering unit, a rocket backpack. Its small thrusters worked in pairs, forward and back, up and down, but not to the side, which worried the engineers. On a training trip to California, Aldrin suddenly got an idea; he tested it on his next visit to the Dallas plant building the unit. Mounted on the training machine on an air-bearing table, he showed that by first turning to the side with small bursts, one could then move sideways with the forward and backward thrusters.

Sources: English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin” (rejection of 1962, criteria of May 15, 1963, flying hours, selection of October 18, 1963, first doctor, the nickname and how it was meant, field of expertise; tertiary source); B. C. Hacker and J. M. Grimwood, On the Shoulders of Titans, NASA SP-4203, 1977, chapters XI, XII and XIII (concentric rendezvous in 1963-1964, 298 km orbit, collaboration with Dean Grimm in spring 1965, 50 Gemini VI simulations, charts, idea tested in Dallas on the air-bearing table; in the notes, Kramer, Aldrin and Hayes, “Onboard Operations for Rendezvous,” Gemini Summary Conference, NASA SP-138, 1967).

Chapter 5 · 1966 The McDonogh Pool

On February 28, 1966, astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett, assigned to fly Gemini IX, were killed in an air crash. Their backups took their place, and Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin, who were to back up Gemini X, became on March 21 the backups for Gemini IX. Under the rotation scheme, that put them in line for the last flight of the program. On June 17, 1966, NASA announced that Lovell and Aldrin would fly Gemini XII.

The Spacewalk Problem

Gemini had demonstrated rendezvous and docking in orbit. But spacewalks posed a problem no one fully understood. Eugene Cernan on Gemini IX and Richard Gordon on Gemini XI had been exhausted by their tasks outside. Michael Collins on Gemini X had done better, perhaps because of the order in which he did things. The last flight had to supply an answer: a review board recommended devoting the final EVA period to a basic investigation of fundamentals, through repeated, easily monitored and calibrated tasks.

The Air Force maneuvering unit, which was to have flown on Gemini XII, was pulled out on September 23. Aldrin, who had once worked in the Air Force experiments office in Houston, was disappointed at its loss, and concerned about what would take its place. It was decided he would begin with a standup exercise in the open hatch before moving on to more strenuous activity.

Under Water

For training, NASA changed methods. Until then, weightlessness had been simulated in aircraft flying parabolas: a few seconds of floating each time, then a long rest, which encouraged doing tasks quickly, whereas in space they had to be done slowly and deliberately. In water, by contrast, the body floats for as long as needed, and moving in a viscous, buoyant fluid is very much like moving in a pressurized suit in a vacuum. On September 12, 1966, in the pool of the McDonogh School near Baltimore, where mockups of the Gemini spacecraft and the Agena had been submerged, Aldrin became the first astronaut to use neutral buoyancy to train for a spacewalk. He returned in October, less than a month before the flight.

Handholds were added too. The Gemini IX spacecraft had nine restraints; Gemini XII would have forty-four. At the rear of the spacecraft, slipper-shaped foot restraints, called the “golden slippers,” were to let the astronaut work without drifting.

Sources: B. C. Hacker and J. M. Grimwood, On the Shoulders of Titans, NASA SP-4203, 1977, chapters XIII and XIV (deaths of See and Bassett, Lovell and Aldrin as Gemini IX backups on March 21, 1966, announcement of June 17, fatigue of Cernan and Gordon, Collins’s success, the board’s recommendation, removal of the maneuvering unit on September 23 and Aldrin’s reaction, standup EVA first, limits of parabolic flights, advantages of underwater training, extra restraints, “golden slippers”); J. Uri, “55 Years Ago: Gemini XII Closes Out a Successful Program, Paves the Way for Apollo,” NASA, 2021 (McDonogh pool, first neutral-buoyancy training on September 12, 1966, return in October); English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin” (date of February 28, 9 then 44 restraints; tertiary source).

Chapter 6 · November 11 – 15, 1966 “The End”

On November 11, 1966, Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin walked in their suits toward the elevator of Pad 19 at Cape Kennedy. On their backs hung two signs: “The” and “End.” This was the last flight of the Gemini program. An hour and a half after the Agena, their Titan rocket lifted off.

A Rendezvous by Hand

As they approached the target, the spacecraft’s radar went erratic. Its readings became so intermittent that the onboard computer refused to accept them. The rendezvous would have to be completed with the backup charts, the very charts Aldrin had helped develop. The official history of Gemini puts it this way: the pilot who was sometimes called “Dr. Rendezvous” now had a chance to see if his doctoral studies at MIT and his simulator training were really practical in space. He pulled out an experimental manual sextant to sight the target and did the computations; Lovell flew. They docked with the Agena on the third revolution.

The Agena’s main engine had shown a pressure drop shortly after launch; mission control decided not to use it to climb higher. Instead, a slight change of orbit was made: the next morning, November 12, the spacecraft’s path crossed the band of totality of a solar eclipse over South America, which the crew photographed through the windows.

“Man! Look at That!”

Then Aldrin opened the hatch. He stood in the opening, in near speechless awe: “Man! Look at that!” He worked slowly and deliberately, with rests. He installed a handrail to the Agena for the next day and photographed hot stars in the ultraviolet. At one point he thought he saw stars in daylight, before realizing he was watching a garbage bag he had just cast loose. He mounted a camera on the edge of the hatch, pointed at himself, and took pictures: according to NASA historian John Uri, these were the first selfies ever taken during a spacewalk.

The next day came the main event: the umbilical EVA, to see whether a man could do useful work in a vacuum. He followed the handrail to the Agena and attached a hundred-foot tether. He slipped his feet into the “golden slippers” at the rear of the spacecraft and found they held him well enough to let him relax completely. He torqued bolts, cut metal, connected and disconnected cables. Once a bolt and washer slipped free; he captured them, one in each hand. Lovell asked him over the intercom if he was playing orbital mechanics. “Yes. I had to do a little rendezvous there.” A dozen two-minute rest periods kept him from tiring. On the way back to the hatch he wiped the command pilot’s window. “Hey, would you change the oil, too?” Lovell asked.

A third, standup EVA served for more photography and for jettisoning unneeded equipment. In all, Aldrin spent more than five hours outside, five hours and forty-eight minutes according to John Uri, a record. The durations of the individual EVAs vary among the sources.

“Flawless Performance”

On November 15, after fifty-nine revolutions, the spacecraft made an automatic reentry and splashed down in the Atlantic a few miles from the carrier Wasp. The flight had its failures, but, the official history concludes, what was remembered was Aldrin’s flawless performance during the well-planned extravehicular periods. He would attribute his success to neutral-buoyancy training, a method still in use today, and to adequate restraint systems. The spacewalk problem had been solved, just in time for Apollo.

Sources: B. C. Hacker and J. M. Grimwood, On the Shoulders of Titans, NASA SP-4203, 1977, chapter XIV (“The” and “End” signs, radar, backup charts and the sentence on “Dr. Rendezvous,” sextant, Agena problem, “Man! Look at that!”, stars in daylight, “golden slippers,” bolt and washer, exchanges with Lovell, the window, third EVA, automatic reentry, “flawless performance”); J. Uri, “55 Years Ago: Gemini XII…,” NASA, 2021 (docking on the third revolution, eclipse, ultraviolet photography, first selfies, 100-foot tether, durations and total of 5 h 48, splashdown near the Wasp, success attributed to underwater training); English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin” (twelve two-minute rests; tertiary source). The diverging durations are set out in the “Sources and Method” appendix.

Chapter 7 · 1967 – 1969 Who Goes Out First?

On November 20, 1967, NASA announced new crews. Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin were named as backups for an Earth-orbital Apollo mission. The year 1968 upended everything: the second crewed Apollo flight was sent around the Moon, and Armstrong’s team became the backup crew for that mission, Apollo 8.

Musical Chairs

In the summer of 1968, Michael Collins, of the Apollo 8 prime crew, needed surgery for a bone spur on his spine. Lovell took his place. Aldrin moved, on the backup crew, from lunar module pilot to command module pilot. The official history calls it a round of “musical chairs.” In late 1968, with Collins recovered, chief astronaut Donald Slayton reshuffled the team: Armstrong commander, Collins command module pilot, Aldrin lunar module pilot. On January 9, 1969, NASA formally announced the crew of Apollo 11, the first to attempt a lunar landing if the two preceding flights succeeded.

According to Wikipedia, Slayton had first offered Armstrong the option of replacing Aldrin with Lovell, since some thought Aldrin difficult to work with. Armstrong thought it over for a day, then declined: he had no issues working with Aldrin, and thought Lovell deserved his own command.

The Order of Egress

There remained a question the public would soon ask: who would set foot on the Moon first? When Houston began planning the two-man surface exploration in 1968, the planners used a 1964 concept in which the lunar module pilot emerged first. But on December 20, 1968, a procedures document listed the commander as the first to leave. On a January 1969 chart, the crew positions were crossed out and the letters A and B penciled in. On February 14, 1969, at the fifteenth lunar surface operations planning meeting, Raymond Zedekar announced that Aldrin would follow the commander to the surface, in less than the hour of the old plan, to help with the outside tasks, and would return to the lander first. The reason given was practical: the backpacks were stowed directly behind the lunar module pilot’s station, and this sequence made crew movements in the cramped cabin easier. Not until April 14 did a reporter ask the Apollo manager, George Low, who would be first out; Low replied that, from the present way they were working, the commander would get out first.

On June 27, in the middle of the night, an Associated Press reporter woke Low: the wire service had a story that Neil Armstrong had pulled rank on Buzz Aldrin. In fact, the official history notes, Armstrong was a civilian and Aldrin a colonel in the Air Force. Wikipedia reports that Aldrin had lobbied within NASA for the original procedure, finding little support among the senior astronauts who would command later missions, and cites a remark by Michael Collins that Aldrin resented not being first on the Moon more than he appreciated being second.

Sources: C. G. Brooks, J. M. Grimwood and L. S. Swenson, Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft, NASA SP-4205, 1979, chapters XI and XIII (announcement of November 20, 1967, Collins’s operation and “musical chairs,” reshuffle of late 1968, the 1964 concept, document of December 20, 1968, the January 1969 chart, meeting of February 14, 1969 and Zedekar’s explanation, Low’s answer of April 14, the AP call of June 27 and the remark on ranks); K. Mars, “50 Years Ago: NASA Names Apollo 11 Crew,” NASA, 2019 (announcement of January 9, 1969); English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin” (Slayton’s offer and Armstrong’s refusal, Aldrin’s lobbying, Collins’s remark; tertiary source).

Chapter 8 · July 16 – 20, 1969 “Contact Light”

On July 16, 1969, at 9:32 a.m. Florida time, a Saturn V rocket carried Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin toward the Moon. The three men had decided to spend the first part of the trip resting, eating and staying relaxed, to conserve their energies. On July 19, when they opened the tunnel between the command module Columbia and the lunar module Eagle, Aldrin slid through, checked out the module’s systems and wiped away the moisture on its windows, while television showed the scene to the world.

Alone

On July 20 Armstrong and Aldrin moved into Eagle. Collins stayed alone in orbit aboard Columbia. “The Eagle has wings,” Armstrong announced at separation. Aldrin turned on the landing radar, which worked properly. Throughout the descent it was he who called out navigation data to Armstrong, busy flying.

About 6,000 feet above the surface, the guidance computer set off unexpected alarms, numbered 1202 and 1201: it was signaling that it could not complete all its tasks in real time and had to postpone some. The targeted site turned out to be strewn with large boulders. Armstrong took over, flew across the boulder field and looked for a smooth spot. He asked Aldrin how the fuel was; Aldrin, too busy watching the computer, did not answer. Thirty meters above the surface, the dust kicked up by the engine formed a sheet that nearly obscured the ground. Aldrin called out the altitudes almost meter by meter; the figures he kept ticking off told Armstrong they were almost out of fuel.

Concentrating on his flying, Armstrong did not feel the first touch on the Moon and did not hear Aldrin call out “contact light,” the indicator that lights when the probes under the footpads brush the surface. The lander settled gently, like a helicopter. It was 20:17:40 universal time on July 20, 1969; about twenty-five seconds of fuel remained. “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

Communion

Shortly afterward Aldrin radioed everyone listening, whoever and wherever they might be, asking them to pause for a moment, contemplate the events of the past few hours and give thanks in their own way. A Presbyterian elder, he then privately took communion, with a kit given to him by his pastor, and read a verse from the Gospel of John. He kept the ceremony secret because of a lawsuit filed after the Apollo 8 crew’s reading of Genesis. He would later observe that the very first liquid poured on the Moon, and the first food eaten there, were the elements of communion. In 2009 he wrote that, if he had it to do over, he might not choose this Christian sacrament, since the crew had come in the name of all mankind.

Sources: C. G. Brooks, J. M. Grimwood and L. S. Swenson, Chariots for Apollo, NASA SP-4205, 1979, chapter XIV (decision to rest, opening of the tunnel and windows wiped, “The Eagle has wings,” landing radar, boulder field, the question about fuel, dust at thirty meters, altitudes called by Aldrin, “contact light,” landing, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed”); English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin” (launch time, altitude of the alarms, 1202 and 1201 alarms, landing time and 25 seconds of fuel, radio message, communion, verse from John, the Apollo 8 lawsuit, the 1970 remark, the 2009 reflection; tertiary source). Aldrin’s message and later reflections are paraphrased.

Chapter 9 · July 20 – 21, 1969 Magnificent Desolation

Six hours and twenty-one minutes after landing, Eagle’s hatch opened. Buzz Aldrin guided Neil Armstrong as he backed out with his bulky backpack: a little to the right, now more to the left, until he safely reached the porch above the ladder. Then Armstrong went down. From the window, Aldrin explained to the viewers what his commander was doing.

The Second Man

Then Aldrin asked, “Are you ready for me to come out?” Armstrong answered, “Yes.” On the porch, Aldrin commented on how roomy it was; there was no danger of falling off. He took care not to lock the hatch on his way out. He set foot on the Moon nineteen minutes after Armstrong, at 03:15:16 universal time on July 21, 1969. “Beautiful view,” he said. Armstrong replied that it was a magnificent sight. Aldrin answered, “Magnificent desolation.”

The two men tried different ways of moving: a kangaroo hop, then the more conventional mode of putting one foot in front of the other. Aldrin did so deliberately in front of the camera, to help those who would come after. They found they had to work out five or six steps in advance, not one or two as on Earth, and that the rocky soil was slippery. They planted the flag; the telescoping pole stuck, the ground was hard, and they pushed it in only 15 to 20 centimeters. Aldrin saluted the flag while Armstrong photographed him. President Nixon called them from the White House.

The Work

Aldrin deployed the scientific experiments. He looked for level spots to set them on, and found it difficult on the Moon to judge by eye whether ground was level. He could not center the leveling bubble of the laser reflector and moved on; when Armstrong came over later to photograph it, the bubble was dead center. No one had an explanation. He set up a seismometer and a solar-wind experiment. Then he drove the core tubes: the first went in about ten centimeters, then resisted; he hammered until he dented the top, without gaining more than five centimeters. The seismometer transmitted the vibrations of his hammering back to Earth.

Because Armstrong had the camera most of the time, most of the photographs of an astronaut on the Moon show Aldrin. He would explain that they only realized it back on Earth, looking over the pictures, and that they had never simulated this in training.

“Head on Up the Ladder, Buzz”

After an hour and three-quarters outside, he heard Houston’s capcom, Bruce McCandless: “Head on up the ladder, Buzz.” The first step was a long one, and the soil on his boots made the rungs slippery, but he made it. The two men hauled up the sample boxes, nearly twenty-two kilograms of lunar material. Armstrong reminded Aldrin of a small bag in his pocket; Aldrin tossed it down. It held a patch from the Apollo 1 mission, whose crew, including his friend Ed White, had died in a cabin fire, medallions honoring Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov, and a silicon disk etched with goodwill messages from seventy-three nations.

The night was hard. The cabin was dirty, noisy and too brightly lit; Aldrin slept on the floor, Armstrong on the ascent engine cover. They grew cold. They would advise later crews to adjust the cabin temperature before resting. On July 21, twenty-one hours and thirty-six minutes after landing, Eagle’s ascent stage lifted off and rejoined Collins.

Sources: C. G. Brooks, J. M. Grimwood and L. S. Swenson, Chariots for Apollo, NASA SP-4205, 1979, chapter XIV (hatch opened 6 h 21 after landing, Aldrin guiding Armstrong, commentary from the window, “Are you ready for me to come out?”, porch and hatch, “magnificent desolation,” modes of locomotion, five or six steps ahead, flag pushed in 15 to 20 cm, Nixon’s call, search for level spots, the reflector bubble, solar-wind experiment, core tubes, vibrations transmitted, an hour and three-quarters, “Head on up the ladder, Buzz,” ladder, cabin, sleep, cold, advice, 21 h 36); English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin” (time of 03:15:16 UTC, nineteen minutes, “Beautiful view,” saluting the flag, seismometer, photographs and Aldrin’s explanation, 21.55 kg of samples, contents of the memorial bag; tertiary source).

Chapter 10 · July – November 1969 The Heroes’ Return

On July 24, 1969, the Columbia capsule splashed down in the Pacific. It was feared, though thought unlikely, that the astronauts might bring unknown germs back from the Moon. Divers passed them biological isolation garments before helping them into a raft. On the carrier Hornet they began a quarantine of twenty-one days.

Six Million People

On August 13, parades were held in their honor in New York and Chicago, attended by an estimated six million people. President Nixon presented them with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest American civilian award. On September 6 each was honored in his hometown: for Aldrin, a parade in Montclair, New Jersey.

Before Congress

On September 16, 1969, the three astronauts addressed a joint session of Congress, in the very chamber where President Kennedy had set, in May 1961, the challenge of landing a man on the Moon before the decade was out. Each reflected on the significance of the mission. Aldrin summed up what he took from it: “the Apollo lesson is that national goals can be met when there is a strong enough will to do so.” The astronauts thanked the representatives for their support and urged them to keep funding the space effort.

Around the World

At President Nixon’s request, the astronauts and their wives then set off on a thirty-eight-day goodwill tour, to twenty-two countries according to Wikipedia, twenty-four countries and territories according to NASA historian John Uri. The aim was to stress that Apollo 11’s accomplishment benefited all humankind and that the United States was willing to share its space knowledge. They returned on November 5, 1969.

In all, Aldrin had spent nearly 290 hours in space, nearly eight of them on spacewalks. He had become, for the whole world, the second man on the Moon.

Sources: English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin” (splashdown of July 24, isolation garments, Hornet, 21-day quarantine, parades of August 13 and six million people, Medal of Freedom, 38-day tour of 22 countries, return on November 5; tertiary source); J. Uri, “50 Years Ago: Apollo 11 Astronauts Address Congress,” NASA, 2019 (Montclair parade on September 6, session of September 16, the chamber of Kennedy’s speech, Aldrin’s quotation, 24 countries and territories, aims of the tour); NASA page “Former Astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin” (nearly 290 hours in space, nearly 8 hours of spacewalks).

Chapter 11 · 1970 – 1978 Return to Earth

After Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin was kept busy with speeches and public appearances. In October 1970 he accompanied two Soviet cosmonauts, Andriyan Nikolayev and Vitaly Sevastyanov, on their tour of NASA centers. He was also involved in thinking about the design of the Space Shuttle. But the Apollo program was coming to an end, and he saw few prospects for himself at NASA. On July 1, 1971, he returned to the Air Force.

Edwards

He had hoped to become Commandant of Cadets at the Air Force Academy; the job went to a West Point classmate. He was made commandant of the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, a third of whose curriculum was then devoted to astronaut training. Yet he had neither managerial nor test pilot experience. Relations with his superior were poor; two aircraft were destroyed in accidents, with no one killed, and the school was blamed for insufficient supervision. The job he had hoped would be enjoyable became highly stressful.

What No One Talked About

Aldrin has told the rest himself, in two autobiographies published in 1973 and 2009: a clinical depression, for which he was hospitalized, then years of struggle with alcoholism. At the time, Wikipedia recalls, mental illness carried such stigma that it could end a career and isolate a person socially. In February 1972 the Air Force dropped astronaut training at Edwards; Aldrin retired on March 1, 1972, after twenty-one years of service, as a colonel. In October 1978 he quit drinking for good. He would later try to help others struggling with alcohol.

This chapter of his life has a reach beyond his own. By telling it publicly, one of the most admired men in the world showed that coming back from a great journey can be harder than the journey itself, and that an astronaut’s mind is no less exposed than his body.

Sources: English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin” (activities after Apollo 11, cosmonauts in October 1970, Shuttle, return to the Air Force on July 1, 1971, the post he hoped for, the Edwards school, accidents, relations with his superior, depression and hospitalization, stigma, end of astronaut training in February 1972, retirement on March 1, 1972, autobiographies Return to Earth (1973) and Magnificent Desolation (2009), sober since October 1978; tertiary source). For a living person, we keep to what Aldrin himself has made public. The last paragraph is the author’s reflection.

Chapter 12 · 1985 – 1996 A Bus Between Two Planets

In 1985 the University of North Dakota invited Buzz Aldrin to join its College of Aerospace Sciences. There he helped develop a space studies program. That same year “Dr. Rendezvous” returned to his specialty, orbital mechanics, and proposed an idea that now bears his name: the Aldrin cycler.

The Principle

A cycler is a trajectory that regularly brings a spacecraft back near two planets, using almost no propellant, because the flybys of the planets themselves bend the path on each loop. The idea had been studied in 1969 by Walter Hollister for Earth and Venus. In 1985 Aldrin extended to Mars work he had already done for the Moon. His cycler makes a single eccentric loop around the Sun: it travels from Earth to Mars in about five months, then spends sixteen months beyond the orbit of Mars, then comes back toward Earth’s orbit. The same year, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory calculated and confirmed the existence of this trajectory.

The practical appeal is simple. A large spacecraft, once placed on this orbit, would never need to be braked or relaunched: it would pass near Earth and Mars at regular intervals, like a bus on a route. Crews would only have to board and leave it with small craft. It could carry heavy shielding against cosmic rays and solar storms, since the price of its mass would be paid only once. With twin cyclers, one would serve for the outbound trip, the other for the return.

The sources do not give exactly the same transit time: 146 days, about four months and twenty days, according to the Wikipedia article on Mars cyclers; five and a half months according to the article on Aldrin. Aldrin would pursue this research with engineers from Purdue University.

Building

In 1996 he founded a company, Starcraft Boosters, to design reusable launch vehicles. He also created a nonprofit foundation, ShareSpace, and joined the steering committee of the Mars Society, the organization that campaigns for human exploration of Mars.

Sources: English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin” (University of North Dakota in 1985, space studies program, cycler proposed in 1985, five and a half months, twin cycler for the return, research with Purdue, Starcraft Boosters in 1996, ShareSpace, Mars Society steering committee; tertiary source); English-language Wikipedia article “Mars cycler” (definition, Hollister in 1969, extension of the lunar work, loop around the Sun, 146 days, 16 months beyond Mars, confirmation by JPL the same year, radiation shielding; tertiary source). The comparison with a bus is ours.

Chapter 13 · 2003 – 2026 “A Two-Planet Species”

Buzz Aldrin never stopped arguing for space exploration. But from the 2000s on, his position grew ever clearer: the Moon, which he had walked on, must not be an end in itself. The goal is Mars.

Not Looking Back

In December 2003, in an opinion piece in The New York Times, he criticized NASA’s objectives. He worried about a planned spacecraft limited to four astronauts with little or no cargo capacity, and judged that the goal of sending astronauts back to the Moon was more like reaching for past glory than striving for new triumphs.

In June 2013, in another piece in the same paper, he supported a crewed mission to Mars. The Moon was seen there not as a destination but as a point of departure, one that would place humankind on a trajectory to homestead Mars and become a two-planet species. That same year he published a book, Mission to Mars, setting out his vision.

A Plan for 2040

In August 2015, with the Florida Institute of Technology, he presented NASA with a master plan: astronauts, with ten-year tours of duty, would establish a colony on Mars before 2040. The same year he was named chancellor of the International Space University, a school that trains space specialists from around the world.

The Last of Apollo 11

Neil Armstrong died in 2012, Michael Collins in 2021. Buzz Aldrin is the last surviving member of the Apollo 11 crew, and the oldest living astronaut. In May 2023 the Air Force gave him an honorary promotion to brigadier general. A crater on the Moon near the Apollo 11 site and asteroid 6470 bear his name.

As this book is written, in October 2026, no human being has yet gone to Mars.

Sources: English-language Wikipedia article “Buzz Aldrin,” consulted in October 2026 (New York Times piece of December 2003 and its criticisms, piece of June 2013 and its ideas, Mission to Mars in 2013, the August 2015 plan with the Florida Institute of Technology and a colony before 2040, ISU chancellor in 2015, deaths of Armstrong in 2012 and Collins in 2021, last survivor and oldest astronaut, honorary brigadier general in May 2023, Aldrin crater and asteroid 6470; tertiary source). The New York Times pieces, under copyright, are summarized.