49 Fun Facts About Buzz Aldrin

Which first name was Buzz Aldrin given at birth?

Edwin. Born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., he answered to his childhood nickname for so long that as an adult he made Buzz his legal first name.

Aldrin's nickname Buzz came from his sister's attempt to say which word?

Brother. His sister Fay Ann couldn't manage the word and called him 'buzzer' instead, and the family trimmed that down to Buzz.

In which state was Aldrin born?

New Jersey. He grew up in Montclair, where the middle school he once attended was renamed Buzz Aldrin Middle School in 2016, with Aldrin there to see it.

Aldrin played centre for his high school's unbeaten 1946 state champions in which sport?

Football. He had given the game up in his junior year to pull his grades up, then went back as a senior and helped his school through a perfect season.

From which academy did Aldrin graduate third in the class of 1951?

West Point. The Air Force Academy didn't open until 1955, so a top West Point graduate like Aldrin could choose an Air Force commission instead of an Army one, and he did.

In the 1910s, Aldrin's father studied physics under which rocket pioneer?

Robert Goddard. Aldrin's father was his student at Clark University, and half a century later the son rode liquid-fuelled rockets, Goddard's invention, all the way to the lunar surface.

Which magazine printed Aldrin's gun-camera pictures of an enemy pilot ejecting from his MiG?

Life. The picture weekly ran the frames from his first kill soon after the dogfight, so Aldrin's name reached millions of readers long before anyone knew him as an astronaut.

Which American jet fighter did Aldrin fly in his dogfights with MiG-15s?

Sabre. Aldrin's father wanted him in bombers for the command experience, but he held out for fighters and got the F-86 Sabre.

Which squadron mate of Aldrin's in West Germany became the first American to walk in space?

Ed White. After leaving Germany for graduate school he wrote urging Aldrin to follow, the push that sent Aldrin back to the classroom and on toward NASA.

From which university did Aldrin earn his doctorate in astronautics?

MIT. He enrolled for a master's degree, found he enjoyed the work and stayed on for a doctorate, dedicating his thesis to the astronauts he hoped to join.

What nickname did fellow astronauts give Aldrin because of his doctoral thesis?

Dr. Rendezvous. He knew it wasn't always meant as praise, but when Gemini 12's radar failed he guided the link-up himself with a sextant and charts he had helped write.

Why was Aldrin's first application to NASA in 1962 rejected?

He was not a test pilot, and NASA refused him a waiver. A year later it dropped the rule for pilots with enough jet hours, and Aldrin was picked at the next try.

What did Aldrin push into a broken circuit breaker so the engine could be armed for lift-off from the Moon?

A felt-tip pen. His backpack had snapped the switch off the breaker that armed the ascent engine, so Aldrin pressed the pen into the hole, and Houston confirmed a good circuit.

In which lunar 'sea' did Aldrin and Armstrong land in July 1969?

Sea of Tranquility. Probes had shown it to be flat and smooth, yet the computer steered Eagle toward a crater ringed with boulders and Armstrong had to fly past it by hand.

What preparation method, new for Gemini 12, helped Aldrin succeed at spacewalking?

Underwater training. NASA had no suitable pool of its own yet, so Aldrin rehearsed on a mock-up of the spacecraft sunk in the swimming pool of a private school in Maryland.

Which addition to Gemini 12 eased Aldrin's spacewalks?

Handholds and footholds. Anchored by them, Aldrin spent a record five and a half hours outside over three spacewalks and showed that astronauts could do real work there.

What celestial event did Aldrin and his Gemini 12 commander photograph from orbit?

A solar eclipse. When a planned climb to a higher orbit was scrapped over an engine fault, the crew used smaller thrusters to meet a total eclipse over South America and shot it through the windows.

Which Apollo 11 crewmate circled the Moon alone while Aldrin and Armstrong walked on it?

Michael Collins. Cut off from all radio contact each time he passed behind the Moon, he wrote that he felt not fear or loneliness but 'awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation'.

What role did Aldrin hold on Apollo 11?

Lunar Module pilot. Despite the title, Armstrong did the flying on the way down while Aldrin stood beside him reading out their height and speed.

Who commanded Gemini 12, with Aldrin as his pilot?

Jim Lovell. He and Aldrin were only a backup crew until the men due to fly Gemini 9 died in a plane crash, a reshuffle that moved them up to the programme's final flight.

Leaving Eagle, what did Aldrin joke he mustn't do?

Lock the hatch. Aldrin pulled the door nearly shut, 'making sure not to lock it on my way out', and Armstrong laughed and called it a good thought; Aldrin reached the surface nineteen minutes after him.

What two-word phrase did Aldrin use to describe the lunar landscape, later the title of his memoir?

Magnificent desolation. At the foot of the ladder he first said 'Beautiful view'; the famous phrase came seconds later, answering Armstrong's 'Magnificent sight out here'.

What private religious act did Aldrin perform on the Moon?

He took communion, with bread and wine from his Presbyterian church. NASA, sued by an atheist over Apollo 8's Bible reading, had told him to keep his radio remarks general.

On the flight home, Aldrin broadcast a verse about 'the moon and the stars' from which book of the Bible?

Psalms. In the crew's last television broadcast before splashdown he quoted Psalm 8: 'When I consider the heavens ... what is man that Thou art mindful of him.'

Why do most famous Apollo 11 photos of an astronaut on the Moon show Aldrin?

Armstrong usually held the camera, so in the best-known picture from the mission, a full-length portrait of Aldrin, the commander appears only as a reflection in the visor.

What does Aldrin claim to be the first person ever to do on the Moon?

Urinate on the Moon. He used the collection bag inside his suit at the foot of the ladder, and has joked that it is one lunar first nobody has ever disputed.

Which president phoned Armstrong and Aldrin on the lunar surface?

Richard Nixon. Speaking from the Oval Office to two men standing beside their flag, he told them it 'certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made'.

Why was Aldrin's Apollo 11 crew sealed in a trailer after splashdown?

Moon germs. NASA feared lunar microbes, so the crew lived in a converted Airstream and then a sealed laboratory until 21 days after they first touched lunar dust, and nobody fell ill.

Which aircraft carrier recovered the Apollo 11 crew?

USS Hornet. Its helicopter was lowered to the hangar deck so the crew could walk straight into a sealed trailer, and that November the same carrier picked up Apollo 12.

After leaving NASA in 1971, Aldrin became commandant of what?

The USAF Test Pilot School, at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The post brought him no peace: battling depression, he retired from the Air Force the following year.

At what rank did Aldrin retire from the Air Force in 1972?

Colonel. More than fifty years later, in May 2023, the 93-year-old was made an honorary brigadier general at a ceremony at Los Angeles Air Force Base.

What was the title of Aldrin's 1973 autobiography?

Return to Earth. Its frank account of depression and alcoholism became a 1976 television film, with Cliff Robertson calling on Aldrin to talk through the script before playing him.

Which everyday job did Aldrin take in the 1970s, only to prove hopeless at it?

Selling cars. At a Cadillac dealership in Beverly Hills he was, by his own account, a terrible salesman who never sold a single car, though he did get to drive a nice one.

What did Aldrin, 72, do when a Moon-hoax filmmaker called him a coward?

Punched him. Bart Sibrel had lured Aldrin to a Beverly Hills hotel and jabbed him with a Bible, demanding an oath that the landings were real; prosecutors watched the tape and filed no charges.

What did Aldrin say the 'UFO' seen by the Apollo 11 crew most likely was?

A piece of their rocket. The crew decided it was one of the panels shed when they pulled away from the upper stage; a 2005 documentary cut that part, and a UFO legend was born.

In 2016, at 86, Aldrin became the oldest person on record to reach which place?

The South Pole. Altitude sickness cut the visit short and he was flown out to a hospital in New Zealand, where the doctor who treated him was named David Bowie.

What is the Aldrin cycler?

A Mars transfer trajectory. Worked out by Aldrin, it is an orbit that loops past Earth and Mars over and over, so a ship left on it could ferry crews between them on very little fuel.

Which animation studio named its toy space ranger after Aldrin?

Pixar. Toy Story's spaceman was Lunar Larry, then Tempus and Morph on the drawing board, before the film-makers settled on Buzz Lightyear in Aldrin's honour.

With which rapper did Aldrin record 'Rocket Experience' for the landing's 40th anniversary?

Snoop Dogg. Quincy Jones and Talib Kweli pitched in too, and the proceeds from the track and its video went to ShareSpace, Aldrin's space-education foundation.

Who plays Neil Armstrong opposite Corey Stoll's Aldrin in First Man?

Ryan Gosling. The film stirred a row before it even opened: Senator Marco Rubio called it 'total lunacy' that it never shows Armstrong and Aldrin planting the American flag.

Which actor portrayed Aldrin in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon?

Bryan Cranston. In the Apollo 11 episode his Aldrin argues with Armstrong after the two crash a simulated Moon landing instead of aborting it.

How did Aldrin spend his 93rd birthday?

Getting married. Aldrin wed his long-time partner, Anca Faur, at a small ceremony in Los Angeles and told his followers the pair were 'as excited as eloping teenagers'.

In which animated series did Aldrin voice himself on a space shuttle flight with the show's bumbling dad?

The Simpsons. Reminded in 'Deep Space Homer' that he was the second man on the Moon, he shoots back 'Second comes right after first', a line he later used as a chapter title in a book of his own.

What fraternal organisation's flag did Aldrin carry to the Moon?

The Freemasons. Two months after the flight Aldrin took the handmade silk flag to the Scottish Rite's headquarters in Washington, the House of the Temple, where it is still kept.

Which pastime, first tried off Tripoli in 1957, has Aldrin called one of his great passions?

Scuba diving. He made his first dive with his fighter squadron while posted to Libya for gunnery practice, and in his eighties he was still at it, exploring a shark-filled hotel lagoon in Dubai.

Which film franchise gave Aldrin a cameo as himself in its 2011 instalment?

Transformers. In Dark of the Moon he greets the robot leader Optimus Prime and 'reveals' that Apollo 11's secret job was to inspect an alien ship that had crashed on the far side.

Which now-famous picture did Aldrin take on the Moon?

His own bootprint. Engineers wanted to see how the dust packed under an astronaut's weight, so Aldrin pressed his boot into clean ground and shot it; the frames became a symbol of the landing.

How much time in total did Aldrin spend in space across his two missions?

About 12 days. He flew only Gemini 12 and Apollo 11, and the moonwalk that made his name took less than three of those 290 hours.

What was the name of the Apollo 11 command module that waited in lunar orbit for Aldrin and Armstrong?

Columbia. The name nodded to Jules Verne, whose moonship in an 1865 novel also left from Florida, a parallel Armstrong pointed out in the crew's last broadcast on the way home.