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Aldrin, 86, was visiting the South Pole as part of a tourist
group when his condition deteriorated, the company White Desert
said in a statement.
He was evacuated on the first available flight out of the South
Pole to McMurdo Station, a nearby U.S. research base, under the
care of a doctor, and his condition was stable, the company
said. McMurdo is on Ross Island, just off the coast of
Antarctica.
The company's statement, which was posted on the website of a
tourism trade group, did not specify the ailment.
A former fighter pilot, Aldrin stepped on the moon about 20
minutes after Neil Armstrong took the historic first step on
July 20, 1969.
Their moonwalk as part of the Apollo 11 lunar landing was
watched by a then-record television audience of 600 million
people.
The U.S. National Science Foundation, which manages the U.S.
Antarctic Program, said Aldrin would eventually be evacuated to
New Zealand.
(Reporting by David Ingram in New York; Editing by Bernadette
Baum)
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