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's Race Into Space of the mission launches, and new multiplayer modes. The developers worked to maintain historical accuracy, including all the actual major space hardware and several alternative proposals that were considered at the time, but did make some compromises and simplifications in the name of game balance and avoiding complexity. They also consulted Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who gave permission for his name to be used for the game. "Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space" has two sides, the United States and the Soviet Union, unlike "LIFTOFF!" which supported up to four (the other two sides in "Liftoff!" were Europe and Asia).