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,
Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr. a reservist until he retired from the Air Force Reserve with the rank of colonel on 1 May 1956. He later became a consultant to the manned space flight safety director of the NASA. Aldrin died in San Francisco, California, on 28 December 1974, while he was visiting his daughter there, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was survived by his sister, two daughters, and son, Buzz Aldrin. His wife Marion suffered from depression and killed herself in 1968. He is commemorated by the Edwin E. Aldrin, Sr. Award, which is presented to an Air Force Institute of