USS Hornet (CV-12) 27 March 1967. She reached Japan exactly a month later and departed the Sasebo base on 19 May for the war zone. She operated in Vietnamese waters throughout the first half of 1967. "Hornet" recovered the astronauts from the first moon landing mission, Apollo 11, on 24 July 1969. President Nixon was on board to welcome the returning astronauts back to Earth, where they lived in quarantine aboard "Hornet" prior to transfer to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Houston. The first steps on Earth of returning moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, with Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, are marked
Buzz Aldrin 18, 1963. This made him the first astronaut with a doctoral degree. Combined with his expertise in orbital mechanics, it earned him his nickname from his fellow astronauts. "From the outset," Walter Cunningham, a fellow member of the 1963 group, recalled, "Buzz was referred to as 'Dr. Rendezvous' because of his obsession with rendezvous in space." Aldrin was aware that it was not always intended as a compliment. Jim Lovell and Aldrin were selected as the backup commander and pilot respectively of Gemini 10. Backup crews usually became the prime crew of the third following mission, but in this case