Buzz Aldrin, Second Man to Walk on the Moon, Marries at Age 93

Buzz Aldrin, the legendary astronaut of Apollo 11 fame, married his longtime girlfriend Dr. Anca Faur at the age of ninety-three. Aldrin is renowned for being the second man to step foot on the moon in 1969.

Faur, aged sixty-three, has worked closely with her now-husband since 2019, when she took a position at Buzz Aldrin Ventures LLC. She is currently the Executive Vice President of the company.

Of the twelve humans to set foot on the moon, Aldrin is among the remaining four who are still alive.

Buzz Aldrin and Anca Faur marry

The retired NASA astronaut announced the marriage to fans on Twitter alongside two pictures from the wedding.

“On my 93rd birthday & the day I will also be honored by Living Legends of Aviation I am pleased to announce that my longtime love Dr. Anca Faur & I have tied the knot,” he said. “We were joined in holy matrimony in a small private ceremony in Los Angeles & are as excited as eloping teenagers.”

The pictures which accompanied the post showed Aldrin wearing a suit, adorned with a medal and Air Force badge beside his new wife, Faur, who is wearing a lace dress and carrying a bouquet of flowers.

This is not the first time that the moon-walking astronaut has been married. In fact, he has been married three other times. The first marriage was to Joan Ann Archer in 1954. The pair remained together for two decades before divorcing.

He was then married to Beverly Van Zile from 1975 to 1978 and to Lois Driggs Cannon between 1988 and 2012. Aldrin has three children—James, Janice, and Andrew—from his first wife, Joan Ann Archer, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

On my 93rd birthday & the day I will also be honored by Living Legends of Aviation I am pleased to announce that my longtime love Dr. Anca Faur & I have tied the knot.We were joined in holy matrimony in a small private ceremony in Los Angeles & are as excited as eloping teenagers pic.twitter.com/VwMP4W30Tn

— Dr. Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) January 21, 2023

Career

Aldrin is best known for his career with NASA as an astronaut, but, before venturing into space, he was a successful pilot in the US Air Force.

He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1951 and earned a commission as a jet fighter pilot in the US Air Force. He served in the Korean War, where he completed sixty-six combat missions and shot down two MiG-15 fighter aircraft.

In 1959, Aldrin enrolled as a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He completed his doctoral thesis in 1963, titled Line-of-Sight Guidance Techniques for Manned Orbital Rendezvous.

Aldrin was selected by NASA for the astronaut corps in 1963. His previous application the year before had been rejected because he did not meet the threshold for the minimum number of hours as a test pilot. When he was selected, however, he become the first NASA astronaut to hold a doctoral degree.

During his time at NASA, Aldrin specialized in mission planning, trajectory analysis, and flight plans. His first spaceflight was in 1966 as part of the Gemini 12 mission. During this time, he completed three extravehicular activities (EVAs).

In 1969, Buzz Aldrin embarked on the Apollo 11 mission as the lunar module pilot together with Neil Armstrong acting as commander and command module pilot Micahel Collins. During the mission, Aldrin and Armstrong became the first two humans to ever step foot on the moon.