Born on January 20, 1930 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Buzz Aldrin is the astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on the first manned lunar landing in history the Apollo 11. He also became the second person to set foot on the moon, following Neil Armstrong. The son of a career military man, Aldrin is of Scottish, Swedish, and German descent. He got his nickname Buzz when the younger of his two elder sisters mispronounced “brother” as “buzzer” – later shortened to Buzz, which he made his legal first name in 1988. Aldrin graduated from Montclair High School and later went to the US Military Academy at West Point, turning down a full scholarship from the MIT. He graduated third of his class with a degree in mechanical engineering. He served as a jet fighter pilot during the Korean War, flying 66 combat missions in F-86 Sabres, later appointed dean of faculty at the US Air Force Academy. He earned his Sc. D in Astronautics from MIT. He was selected as part of the third group of NASA astronauts in 1963. On July 20, 1969, he was the second astronaut to walk on the moon after Neil Armstrong. He retired in March 1972 after 21 years of service. In 2003, he published an article critical of NASA in the New York Times. In 2010, he was announced as one of the contestants on the tenth season of Dancing with the Stars.