Miami, United States: Buzz Aldrin, the 86-year-old retired US astronaut who was among the first men to walk on the Moon, has been evacuated from the South Pole for medical reasons, the National Science Foundation said Thursday.

The request to evacuate Aldrin, who was described as an “ailing visitor,” was issued to the NSF by a private tourism firm named White Desert, a statement said.

A humanitarian medical evacuation flight was dispatched to NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, and would take Aldrin to New Zealand “as soon as possible.”

No details about Aldrin’s condition were released, and NSF said it “will make additional statements about the patient’s medical condition only as conditions warrant.”

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