Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin stable:

Discovery

Aldrin

Armstrong

Retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, was recovering in a New Zealand hospital Friday after being medically evacuated from the South Pole while on a tourist trip, his management said.

Aldrin, 86, was “evacuated on the first available flight out” after experiencing health problems, said a statement from Antarctic tour operator White Desert.

It said Aldrin – later found to have fluid on his lungs – was flown out after his “condition deteriorated”, describing the move as “a precaution.”

An update on Aldrin’s website said he was taken to Christchurch, New Zealand, where he was receiving hospital treatment.

“(He) currently has fluid in his lungs but is responding well to antibiotics and being kept in overnight for observation,” it said.

“His condition is stable and his manager, who is currently with him, described him being in good spirits.”

Aldrin’s management also tweeted a photograph of the spaceman smiling and looking alert in his hospital bed.

His illness in the remote frozen continent sparked a 4,400 kilometre (2,700 mile) mercy dash. First, the US National Science Foundation dispatched a humanitarian medical flight to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

From there, another flight took Aldrin to McMurdo Station on the Antarctic coast, and then to New Zealand, where he arrived at 4:25 am local time Friday.

“After a gruelling 24 hours we’re safe in New Zealand,” his manager Christina Korp tweeted.

In 1969, Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became the first men to walk on the Moon, as part of the Apollo 11 mission.

Armstrong stepped out of the lunar module first, uttering the now famous words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Aldrin, clad in a bulky white spacesuit, hopped out next.

“Beautiful, beautiful. Magnificent desolation,” Aldrin said on July 20, 1969.

In recent years, he has authored books for adults and children and advocated establishing a permanent human colony on Mars.

Aldrin is an avid user of Twitter, and tweeted in recent days about his trip to the South Pole.