He was confirmed as pilot on Gemini 12, the last Gemini mission and the last chance to prove methods for extra-vehicular activity (EVA). 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 co-ordinate in space. 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. Because test pilot experience was no longer a requirement, this was the first selection for which he was eligible. His initial application to join the astronaut corps was rejected on the basis of having never been a test pilot that prerequisite was lifted when he re-applied and was accepted into the third astronaut class.Īldrin during Gemini 12 with the Earth reflecting off his visorĪldrin and Jim Lovell after the Gemini 12 missionĪldrin walks on the surface of the Moon during Apollo 11.Īldrin was selected as part of the third group of NASA astronauts selected in October 1963. If only I could join them in their exciting endeavors!" 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. His graduate thesis was "Line-of-sight guidance techniques for manned orbital rendezvous", the dedication of which read, "In the hopes that this work may in some way contribute to their exploration of space, this is dedicated to the crew members of this country’s present and future manned space programs. In 1963 Aldrin earned a doctor of science degree in astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He flew F-100 Super Sabres as a flight commander at Bitburg Air Base, Germany, in the 22d Fighter Squadron. Subsequent to 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 United States Air Force Academy, which had recently begun operations in 1955. 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. He flew 66 combat missions in F-86 Sabres and shot down two Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 aircraft. Air Force and served as a jet fighter pilot during the Korean War. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Military careerīuzz Aldrin graduated third in his class at West Point in 1951, with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. Aldrin made it his legal first name in 1988. The nickname "Buzz" originated in childhood: the younger of his two elder sisters mispronounced "brother" as "buzzer", and this was shortened to Buzz. After graduating from Montclair High School in 1946, Aldrin turned down a full scholarship offer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and went to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He is of Scottish, Swedish, and German ancestry. 7 Criticism of NASA's 2003 return-to-moon objectivesĪldrin was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, to Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Sr., a career military man, and his wife Marion (née Moon).
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