Most people know Buzz Aldrin as the second man to set foot on the moon, but he has had a remarkable life beyond that accomplishment. He is a West Point graduate, an Air Force pilot, and an MIT-trained engineer. He was born on January 20, 1930, and today is his birthday. Check out these 5 interesting tidbits about the life of this famous explorer.
1. Buzz Aldrin Was Given An Award For His Service In Combat During The Korean War
On January 20, 1930, Edwin Eugene Aldrin was born in Montclair, New Jersey. His father, Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Sr., was a pilot in the Army who fought in both World Wars. His mother, Marion, was born with the maiden name "Moon".
he had a long and successful career with NASA, he flew F-86 Sabre Jets in the Air Force's 51st Fighter Wing for 66 combat missions in Korea. In just one month, his unit shot down 61 enemy planes and brought down another 57. Aldrin himself shot down two enemy planes and was given the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service.
2. Buzz Aldrin Went To The Moon To Take Communion
On July 19, 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar lander landed in the Sea of Tranquility on the moon. Aldrin and Neil Armstrong had to wait several hours before they could get out of the spacecraft. Aldrin used the time to do communion for himself.
Aldrin got permission from the Webster Presbyterian Church in Texas, where he was an elder, to take bread and wine into space. Later, he wrote that because the moon's gravity is only one-sixth that of Earth, the wine "curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup." He asked people to think about the moment in their own way through mission control, but later he said he should have tried for a more inclusive celebration.
3. Buzz Aldrin Ate Food On The Moon, Too
Aldrin got out of the Eagle lunar module 19 minutes after Armstrong did, and the two of them spent the next two hours collecting rocks, taking pictures, and setting up scientific experiments. During their work, they ate the first meal ever eaten by humans on the moon. Rita Rapp, a food scientist at NASA, had worked hard to come up with this meal. But it still sounds like a college dorm menu: sugar cookie cubes, bacon cut into squares, a fruit drink, and coffee.
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4. Buzz Aldrin Has Been In Space For About 12 Days
Aldrin has been in space for 289 hours and 53 minutes, and he has spent almost eight hours of that time outside a spacecraft. When he spent 5.5 hours outside the Gemini 12 spacecraft in 1966, he set a record for the length of a space walk. During the Apollo 11 moon landing, Aldrin and Armstrong were outside of the lunar module for two hours and 31 minutes.
Because of what he has done, Aldrin is sometimes the target of people who think the moon landing was faked. In 2002, Aldrin punched a man who didn't believe the moon landing happened. The man tried to press charges, but a judge said Aldrin had started the fight.
5. Buzz Aldrin Was Up For An Emmy Award
In 2020, Aldrin and Collins were nominated for an Emmy for their footage from the Apollo 11 moon landing, which was used in the CNN documentary Apollo 11. The two astronauts lost to the people who made the movie The Cave for National Geographic.
Aldrin's IMDb page lists some of the awards he has won in the past, like the Jules Verne Award for promoting the spirit of exploration and the Society of Camera Operators Award for developing and achieving photography in space.
Read Also: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin Became the First Men to Walk on the Moon on This Day in 1969
