Buzz Aldrin shot down two MiG-15 aircraft. After earning a Sc.D. degree in astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aldrin was selected as a member of NASA's Astronaut Group 3, making him the first astronaut with a doctoral degree. His doctoral thesis was "Line-of-Sight Guidance Techniques for Manned Orbital Rendezvous", earning him the nickname "Dr. Rendezvous" from fellow astronauts. His first space flight was Gemini 12 during which he spent over five hours on extravehicular activity (EVA) outside the spacecraft. Aldrin set foot on the Moon at 03:15:16 on July 21, 1969 (UTC), nine minutes after Armstrong first touched the surface,
Buzz Aldrin were two crashes at Edwards, of an A-7 Corsair II and a T-33. No lives were lost, but the aircraft were destroyed, and their loss was attributed to insufficient supervision, which placed the blame on Aldrin. In February 1972, General George S. Brown paid a visit to Edwards and informed Aldrin that the school was being renamed the USAF Test Pilot School, and the astronaut training was being dropped. With the Apollo Program winding down, and Air Force budgets being cut, the Air Force's interest in space diminished. Aldrin elected to retire on March 1, 1972, after 21 years of