Buzz Aldrin on July 20, Aldrin and Armstrong entered "Eagle", and began the final preparations for lunar descent. At 17:44:00 "Eagle" separated from the "Columbia". Collins, alone aboard "Columbia", inspected "Eagle" as it pirouetted before him to ensure the craft was not damaged, and that the landing gear was correctly deployed. Throughout the descent, Aldrin called out navigation data to Armstrong, who was busy piloting the "Eagle". Five minutes into the descent burn, and above the surface of the Moon, the LM guidance computer (LGC) distracted the crew with the first of several unexpected alarms that indicated that it could not complete
Buzz Aldrin a parachute to open. For his service in Korea, he was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses and three Air Medals. Aldrin's year-long tour ended in December 1953, by which time the fighting in Korea had ended. Aldrin was assigned as an aerial gunnery instructor at Nellis. In December 1954 he became an aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Don Z. Zimmerman, the Dean of Faculty at the nascent United States Air Force Academy, which opened in 1955. That same year, he graduated from the Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. From 1956 to 1959 he flew F-100 Super