Buzz Aldrin on Dancing with the Stars: Week 2

Posted By Emily Lakdawalla

2010/03/30 09:01 CDT

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Former Red Rover Goes to Mars Student Astronaut Abigail Fraeman, who is now a first-year graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis working with Ray Arvidson on spectroscopy of Mars and its Moons, is reporting weekly on Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin's performance on the ABC reality show "Dancing with the Stars." Thanks, Abby! --ESL

by Abigail Fraeman

It's the second week of ABC's television program Dancing with the Stars, which means two things: (1) Someone will be getting the boot from the competition on Tuesday night, and (2) Our favorite rocket man had a second chance to prove to judge Bruno Tonioli that he could dance without looking like he was still wearing his moon boots.

This week, Buzz Aldrin and his partner Ashly Costa performed a tender and charming Foxtrot to the 1950's classic "Fly Me to the Moon." Wearing a tuxedo and sparkly silver bow tie, Aldrin began the dance with a salute and ended it in front of an American flag reminiscent of the one he'd planted on the Moon 41 years ago. Once again, the crowd was ignited by Buzz's dance and launched out of their seats to give the astronaut a standing ovation. The judges praised Aldrin as an inspiration, but only awarded him 12 points out of a possible 30 points for his dancing skills. This score leaves Aldrin with a two week combined total of 26 points.

The first eliminated contestant will be revealed Tuesday night after all of the viewer votes from the past two episodes are tabulated. Even though the judges' scores have left Aldrin in last place, a strong audience vote would allow him to fly through to the next round of the competition. Aldrin reminded us in an interview before his dance that he has nowhere to go but up, and Buzz Aldrin is certainly a champion when it comes to going up.