Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin Receives an Overdue USAF Honor
A pollo 11’s lunar module pilot, Buzz Aldrin, is the sort of guy who takes your breath away a true-blue, no-excuses, tell-it- like-it-is living definition of an Amer- ican patriot. First in his West Point plebe class, graduating third, and a distinguished athlete, he later flew 66 combat missions in the Korean War, shot down two MIGs (one on camera), and later flew with nuclear weapons under his wings from Germany. Comfortable with edgy flying, he attempted the first-ever “double Immelmann” in a T-28 Trojan that is, a steep dive, then a half-loop upward, flipping inverted and did it twice, passing out the second time. He regained consciousness 200 feet off the deck, pulled back the stick, and
landed safely. Later, his F-86 Sabre’s fuel tank froze open over Korea; nearly crashing, he overrode the system manually and landed safely. He called it all luck. Applying to NASA’s fledgling astro- naut program, Buzz got rejected. No matter; he completed his PhD at MIT in astronautical engineering, the physics of orbital rendezvous. Still in the Air Force, he reapplied to NASA, and this time got it. When prime crewmen for Gemini 12 died, Buzz and Jim Lovell suddenly fleeted up to prime. Destiny stepped in, connecting dots somewhere in the ether. Lovell and Buzz with his PhD in orbital rendezvous were expected to prove the workability of
orbital rendezvous, docking with an Agena drone in space. On their approach, a major problem arose. The docking computer failed. This meant scrapping a vital mission or finding another way to allow the Apollo missions, which aimed for the moon. Buzz innovated, using his PhD thesis, math, and stars; he overrode the system and docked Gemini 12 with Agena manually. Now, things sped up. Buzz was selected for Apollo 11, with Neil Armstrong and Mike Collins. The three headed for the moon. Overrid- ing abort alarms between lunar orbit and the surface, Buzz and Neil set down in the lunar module with less
continued on page 42
40 • AMAC Magazine
Powered by FlippingBook