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,
Grand Marshals of the Rose Parade actress Shirley Temple Black holds the runner-up position, having been grand marshal three times in 1939, 1989 and 1999, the latter year where she shared this honor with astronaut Buzz Aldrin, baseball player Jackie Robinson (who was also the first ever posthumous grand marshal) and film producer David L. Wolper. On May 9, 2014, Louis Zamperini was selected as the Grand Marshal for the 2015 Tournament of Roses Parade, though he would die of pneumonia two months later, and six months before the parade was set to begin. Rather than select a new Grand Marshal, the Tournament announced that it