Buzz Aldrin while Command Module Pilot Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit. A Presbyterian elder, Aldrin became the first person to hold a religious ceremony on the Moon when he privately took communion. Upon leaving NASA in 1971, he became Commandant of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. He retired from the Air Force in 1972, after 21 years of service. His autobiographies "Return to Earth," (1973) and "Magnificent Desolation" (2009), recount his struggles with clinical depression and alcoholism in the years after leaving NASA. He continued to advocate for space exploration, particularly a manned mission to Mars, and developed the
Buzz Aldrin after two hours and six minutes. A third, 55-minute standup EVA was conducted on November 14, during which Aldrin took photographs, conducted experiments, and discarded some unneeded items. On November 15, the crew initiated the automatic reentry system and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, from whence they were picked up by a helicopter which took them to the awaiting aircraft carrier . After the mission, his wife realized he had fallen into a depression, something she had not seen before. Lovell and Aldrin were assigned to an Apollo crew with Neil Armstrong as Commander, Lovell as Command Module Pilot