known as Buzz Aldrin
born Jan. 20, 1930, Montclair, N.J., U.S.
U.S. astronaut.
He graduated from West Point and flew 66 combat missions in the Korean War. In 1963 he received a Ph.D. from MIT and was chosen as an astronaut. In 1966 he joined James A. Lovell, Jr. (b. 1928) on the four-day Gemini 12 flight. Aldrin's 512-hour walk in space proved that humans can function effectively in the vacuum and weightlessness of space. In July 1969, on the Apollo 11 mission, he became the second human to walk on the Moon.