Buzz Aldrin will visit Israel later this year. Photo: NASA.

JNS.org – Forty-six years after becoming the second man to walk on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin will take his first steps in the Holy Land later this year.

Aldrin, 85, will be attending the International Astronautical Federation’s (IAF) annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Jerusalem in October, the IAF announced Thursday.

Much like his mission to the Moon, Aldrin is following in the footsteps of former colleague Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, who visited Israel in 2007 and met with children at the National Science Museum in Haifa. Armstrong died in 2012.

Founded in 1951, the IAF hosts the conference in various countries each year. The theme of this year’s conference is “Space—The Gateway for Mankind’s Future” and will draw the world’s leading space experts as part of various panel discussions and workshops.

“Many of Israel’s high-tech companies, with their diverse space industrial facilities, space technology, expertise, and know-how, have much to offer to the international space community,” the IAC’s local planning committee in Jerusalem said in a statement.

“Israel’s academia and research institutions represent the cutting-edge of research, technology, development, and space exploration, which will be available for IAC participants to experience, gain first-hand knowledge, and discover,” added the committee.