Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin (; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American engineer, former astronaut, and fighter pilot. As lunar module pilot on the Apollo 11 mission, he and mission commander Neil Armstrong were the first two humans to land on the Moon. Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Aldrin graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1951, with a degree in mechanical engineering. He was commissioned in the United States Air Force, and served as a jet fighter pilot during the Korean War. He flew 66 combat missions and
Buzz Aldrin that was a dead end, as it would be Gemini 13 which did not exist; the last scheduled mission in the program was Gemini 12. But the February 28, 1966, deaths of the Gemini 9 prime crew, Elliot See and Charles Bassett, in an air crash, led to Lovell and Aldrin being moved up one mission on March 21 to backup for Gemini 9, which put them in position as prime crew for Gemini 12. They were officially designated its prime crew on June 17, 1966, with Gordon Cooper and Gene Cernan as their backups. Initially, Gemini 12's mission objectives