Fwd: Armstrong honored on 45th anniversary of moon landing

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: July 22, 2014 10:22:40 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Armstrong honored on 45th anniversary of moon landing

 

Armstrong honored on 45th anniversary of moon landing

07/21/2014 02:15 PM 

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, command module pilot Mike Collins and Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell joined NASA dignitaries and Neil Armstrong's family Monday to rename the historic Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center in honor of the first man to walk on the moon.

Seated on a podium before an unfinished Orion capsule scheduled for its maiden test flight later this year, Aldrin and Collins shared memories of Armstrong and enjoyed a live feed from the International Space Station where Expedition 40 commander Steve Swanson and flight engineer Reid Wiseman added their own congratulations.

Neil Armstrong's family was on hand Monday at the Kennedy Space Center to dedicate NASA's historic Operations and Checkout Building in honor of the first man on the moon. Left to right: Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, Neil Armstrong's sons Rick and Mark, Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin and Apollo 11 command module pilot Mike Collins. (Credit: William Harwood/CBS News)

"These are heroes that I've had my entire life, known these names every day I've lived," said Wiseman, an F-14 carrier pilot who was born in 1975, six yeas after the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. "I just want to say an enormous thank you. Thank you for putting our country on this path that we remain on today. Without you gentlemen, I wouldn't be up here today. So my dreams came true, thanks to them."

Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins took off for the moon aboard a Saturn 5 rocket on July 16, 1969. While Collins remained behind in lunar orbit, Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon 45 years ago Sunday -- July 20, 1969 -- and became the first humans to walk on another world. Armstrong famously described his first "small step" on the cratered surface as "one giant leap for mankind."

Armstrong died Aug. 25, 2012, at the age of 82. Earlier this year, NASA renamed its flight research center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in honor of the first moonwalker and on Monday, the agency officially renamed the Kennedy Space Center's iconic spacecraft processing facility the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building.

Built in 1963 for the Apollo moon program, the "O&C" building was used to process two-seat Gemini capsules and later the command modules and lunar landers that went to the moon.

The building also houses NASA's "crew quarters," a suite of motel-like rooms where astronauts stayed during training in Florida and where they spent their final nights before flight, suiting up and then departing for the launch pad in heavily attended "walkout" photo ops.

After the Apollo program wound down, NASA used the building for the Skylab space station program, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the space shuttle program and component testing for the International Space Station.

The building currently is being used to assemble the first Orion capsule, a Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft that NASA hopes will carry astronauts on eventual flights beyond the moon and, eventually, to Mars. The vehicle currently being outfitted is scheduled for an uncrewed test flight in December.

"It's altogether fitting that today we rename this facility the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building," said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. "Throughout his life he served his country as an astronaut, an aerospace engineer, a naval aviator, a test pilot and a university professor, and he constantly challenged all of us to expand the boundaries of the possible.

Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, left, shares memories with command module pilot Mike Collins during a ceremony renaming the Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center in honor of Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong. (Credit: William Harwood/CBS News)

"He along with his crewmates, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, are a bridge from NASA's historic journey to the moon 45 years ago to our path to Mars today."

Mark and Rick Armstrong, the astronaut's two sons, shared stories about their father with Mark thanking a throng of space center workers "for this tremendous honor."

"This Orion vehicle behind us is truly impressive, and it is our hope that the new name that graces this facility will inspire those that work here for many, many years to come."

Aldrin, the second man on the moon, praised his commander, saying Armstrong was "one of the best, certainly the best test pilot, I feel, that was selected for the NASA program."

Collins agreed, pointing out that Armstrong was unique even among super achieving astronauts. Like many pilots, Collins said, Armstrong built model airplanes. "But he also built a wind tunnel. How many kids do that?"

"That powerful, powerful combination of curiosity and intelligence propelled him to the top of his profession," Collins said. Then, speaking to the men and women who work in the building today, Collins said Armstrong would "enjoy prowling around this building, every nook and cranny."

"More than anyone else I have known, I felt he had an intuitive grasp of flight machinery and its complexity and of the intricate knowledge required by you in the jobs that you perform here daily," Collins said.

Armstrong "would not have sought this honor, that was not his style," Collins added. "But I think he would be proud to have his name so closely associated with this, the heart and the soul of the space business."

 

© 2014 William Harwood/CBS News

 

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NASA Names Historic Operations Building for 1st Moonwalker Neil Armstrong

By Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com   |   July 21, 2014 04:09pm ET

Robert Cabana, the director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, presides over the July 21, 2014 ceremony to rename the center's historic Operations and Checkout Building for astronaut Neil Armstrong. Seated from left to right: Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator; Armstrong's sons Rick and Mark; astronaut James Lovell and Apollo 11 crewmates Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Credit: collectSPACE.com/Robert Pearlman View full size image

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA on Monday (July 21) paid tribute to the first man to walk on the moon by naming a building at its Florida spaceport where work is being advanced to send astronauts to Mars.

The "Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building" at NASA's Kennedy Space Center added the late astronaut's name to the historic facility where he, his crew mates and their Apollo 11 spacecraft were readied for a launch to the moon 45 years ago this past week. Today, the building is being used to ready Orion, NASA's next-generation space capsule being developed to send astronauts beyond Earth orbit for the first time since the Apollo lunar landings.

"It is altogether fitting that we rename this facility," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said during a ceremony held inside the Operations and Checkout (O&C) building, where hundreds of space workers gathered. "Armstrong was not only the first man to set foot on the moon... he challenged all of us to expand the boundaries of the possible."

"He, along with his crew Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, are a bridge from NASA's historic journey to the moon 45 years ago, to our path to Mars today." [Apollo 11 Moon Landing at 45: Complete Coverage]

A plaque and spacesuit display have been added to the lobby of the Operations and Checkout building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to honor the building's new namesake, Apollo 11 moonwalker Neil Armstrong.
Credit: collectSPACE.com/Robert Pearlman

View full size image

Bolden was joined at the ceremony by Aldrin and Collins, as well as Armstrong's backup commander, James Lovell, and Armstrong's sons Rick and Mark. During the event, Bolden presented Kennedy Space Center director Robert Cabana with an Apollo 11 patch that the astronauts carried to the moon in 1969 and then inscribed for the first crew to fly to Mars.

"We present this patch because it's here where the Mars 1 crew will lift off on America's next bold mission," Bolden stated. "We salute Neil Armstrong and his crewmates for blazing a path that is leading us all the way from the first footprints on the moon to, very soon, the first footprints on Mars."

Armstrong, who famously declared his first small step on the moon a "giant leap for all mankind," died in 2012 at the age of 82.

"Neil's spirit lives on in these halls, in our hearts, and now his name will be a constant reminder of where we've been and that in his words 'our opportunities are unlimited,'" Cabana said.

In addition to updating the signs identifying the facility, a plaque and a spacesuit display in the building's lobby also pay tribute to the O&C's new namesake. Mark Armstrong also presented the center with a painting of his father from his days as an astronaut.

"On behalf of the Armstrong family, I would like to thank you for this tremendous honor," Armstrong's youngest son Mark said. "It's our hope the name that graces this facility will inspire those who work here for many years to come."

The five-story-tall O&C building, which was originally titled the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building at its opening in 1964, housed the quarters where the astronauts stayed while at the Kennedy Space Center prior to their launch.

"Since 1965, the Operations and Checkout building has been the final stop for America's astronauts before they embarked on their space journeys," Cabana said. "Like all the others, the crew of Apollo 11 left their mark, not only on the moon, but here in this building."

The building also included the high bay where the Apollo command, service and lunar modules were tested for flight before being stacked atop the Saturn V rocket.

The O&C's crew quarters were used throughout the Apollo program and for the subsequent Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and space shuttle flights. In the early 1980s, the facility's high bay was used to support the European Spacelab modules that flew on the shuttle.

The Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building is in use today to assemble NASA's Orion spacecraft as the space agency prepares to embark on its "next giant leap" in space exploration, sending astronauts out to an asteroid and Mars. The facility is, at present, assembling the Orion capsule that will launch this December on the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1).

"I very much like that [Armstrong's] name will be on this building," Collins remarked. "He wouldn't have sought this honor, that was not his style, but I think he would be proud to have his name so closely associated with the heart and the soul of the space business."

"On Neil's behalf, thank you for what you do every day."

 

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