Buzz Aldrin Born in Montclair

Summary

Buzz Aldrin was born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. on January 20, 1930, in Montclair, New Jersey. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and served as an Air Force fighter pilot during the Korean War. Aldrin later earned a doctorate in astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his research focused on orbital rendezvous. NASA selected him as an astronaut in 1963. On Gemini 12 in 1966, he performed extended spacewalks that helped demonstrate practical methods for working outside a spacecraft. In July 1969, Aldrin served as lunar module pilot on Apollo 11. After Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, Aldrin became the second person to walk on the Moon. He left NASA in 1971 and later retired from the Air Force. In subsequent decades he wrote, lectured, and advocated continued human exploration of space.