Buzz Aldrin Times", Aldrin supported a manned mission to Mars and which viewed the Moon "not as a destination but more a point of departure, one that places humankind on a trajectory to homestead Mars and become a two-planet species." In August 2015, Aldrin, in association with the Florida Institute of Technology, presented a master plan to NASA for consideration where astronauts, with a tour of duty of ten years, establish a colony on Mars before the year 2040. Aldrin was awarded the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal in 1969 for his role as lunar module pilot on Apollo 11. He was
Space rendezvous maneuvering thrusters to adjust its orbit to match that of its twin. The initial separation distances were in the range of , and slowly diverged to thousands of kilometers (over a thousand miles) over the course of the missions. In 1963 Buzz Aldrin submitted his doctoral thesis titled, " Line-Of-Sight Guidance Techniques For Manned Orbital Rendezvous." As a NASA astronaut, Aldrin worked to "translate complex orbital mechanics into relatively simple flight plans for my colleagues." The first attempt at rendezvous was made on June 3, 1965, when US astronaut Jim McDivitt tried to maneuver his Gemini 4 craft to meet