U.S. ASTRONAUT Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin
NASA	Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., better known as Buzz Aldrin, was born in 1930. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. and became an air force pilot and colonel. He flew 66 combat missions in the Korea conflict and later served in West Germany. He earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge in orbital mechanics. Later that year NASA recruited him to be an astronaut. On Nov. 11, 1966, he joined James Lovell on the four-day Gemini 12 flight. Aldrin's five-and-a-half-hour walk in space proved that man is able to function effectively in space, and he set the record for the longest space walk ever. Apollo 11 was his next mission. Aldrin piloted the lunar landing module on this moon mission with Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins, that launched on July 16, 1969. Four days later, Armstrong and Aldrin landed near the edge of Mare Tranquillitatis on the lunar surface. Aldrin became the second man to step foot on the moon. Aldrin retired from NASA in 1971 to head the Aerospace Research Pilots' School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.. In March 1972 he retired from the Air Force to enter private business. Sources: NASA, Congressional Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Contemporary World Issues: Space Exploration