Buzz Aldrin, the second man to ever walk on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission, visits campus Sept. 28 to talk with grandparents of current Elon students about his experiences during the historic lunar landing. Details…
Aldrin, 77, makes his Elon appearance as part of Family Weekend and
will talk at 4:30 p.m. in the McCrary Theatre in the Center for the
Arts. His visit coincides with the release of a critically acclaimed
film on the lives of the Apollo astronauts.
“In the Shadow of the Moon,” a Ron Howard documentary that won a World
Cinema Audience Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, opens this
month in theaters across the country. Aldrin was one of 10 Apollo astronauts to
share his memories on camera with filmmakers.
Born in Montclair, N.J., Aldrin attended West Point and graduated with
honors in 1951, according to his Web site. He flew dozens of combat
missions in the Korean conflict, where he shot down two enemy planes.
NASA selected Aldrin as one of its astronauts in 1963. Six years later,
Aldrin, who earned his doctorate in astronautics from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, joined Neil Armstrong in exploring the Sea of
Tranquility on the Moon.
Since his retirement from NASA and the Air Force, Aldrin has founded
his own rocket design company, along with a nonprofit organization that
works toward “opening the doors of space tourism for all people.”