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NASA Names Building For Neil Armstrong
An anonymous reader writes A building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where Apollo astronauts once trained, was named in honor of astronaut Neil Armstrong. Armstrong, who died in 2012, was remembered at a ceremony as not only an astronaut, but also as an aerospace engineer, test pilot, and university professor. NASA renamed the Operations and Checkout building, also known as the O&C, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been the last stop for astronauts before their flights since 1965. It was also used to test and process Apollo spacecraft. Currently, it's where the Orion spacecraft is being assembled to send astronauts to an asteroid and later to Mars.
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- NCommander
>> to enable human flight to the vicinities of the Moon and Mars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_%28spacecraft%29)
I hope someone realizes that there's an order of magnitude in there somewhere.
Like a Battleship or Airport?
I'm surprised Obama allowed this. There are already too many buildings named after dead white guys.
He's not going to get a building named after him ever...
Foolowed. Obviously consider 7hat right
they rename things that already had perfetly good names.
Rather than putting economic policies in place that will help in black communities and fighting the teachers unions to get better teachers into majority-black schools Democrats push to rename streets, buildings, highways and bridges after Martin Luther King Jr.
Rather than actually doing ANYTHING conservative, modern establishment Republicans try to distract their supporters by pushing to rename things "Ronald Reagan" (as in "Mount Reagan", Reagan Airport, the Reagan Building, etc.)
Rather than getting off their butts and getting rid of all the unneccessary paperwork, managers, bureaucrats, political activities (Earth day, "Muslim outreach", diversity activities, etc) and focusing on the fact that NASA cannot even launch a MONKEY into space today, it's time to ... (you guessed it) ... rename a building. The O&C Building HAD a perfectly acceptable name that said what it was. Additionally, NASA already renamed the Dryden Flight Research Facility (NASA's part of Edwards in California) after Armstrong several months ago. Oh, they went to pains to point out that they were re-naming the actual test range (the dirt, airspace, radars, etc) after Dr Hugh Dryden (they had previously renamed the facility from its original name to the Dryden name... so, you see, these re-namings only last until a new renaming is needed to distract the public).
Keep watching and reading the PR they are cranking out with their right hands and do not notice what they are doing (or not doing) with their left hands.
This December, NASA will launch a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Canaveral (the Air force base just south of KSC) with an empty dummy Orion capsule on top and attached to a dummy (non-functional) service module for a several hours long test flight. They will want everybody to see this as the first flight of their new "deep space" manned spacecraft. Sadly, this capsule will be incapable of even carrying a chimpanzee and keeping it alive. It won't even be carrying a test dummy. The Obama administration has cancelled the contracts for service modules and instead is hiring the Europeans to build exactly TWO service modules so that some day in the future one or two more test flights (the 1st of which will have to be unmanned due to the untested euro service module) can be flown. NASA has no REAL solid plans (with allocated budgets, assigned engineers, etc) to use Orion with people (or even moneys) aboard within the next decade.... even though they have been developing it for NINE YEARS and have pumped BILLIONS into this Block3 Apollo capsule joke. They have not yet even designed the life support system for it yet. NASA started the Gemini program in 1961 and by 1966 (FIVE years later) they had flown ten manned missions and ended the program!!! Orion does not even properly fit atop any rocket they will launch it on because it was sized (in diameter) to go atop the Ares I rocket (which Obama cancelled). The capsule was originally designed to carry 6, but ended up too heavy for Ares I to lift (too heavy even for the Delta IV Heavy that will be used this winter to lift it with any people or cargo inside) so even if used in a manned configuration, it will likely only ever carry 4 (even though the original 1960's vintage Apollo capsule could be outfitted to hold 5 (it was configured that way once for a Skylab rescue mission that ended up not needing to be flown).
Couldn't NASA find a generous corporate sponsor to shell out some $$$ to have their name on the side of a building or rocket ?
Stupid companies pay for namespace on sports facilities why not take advantage of the side of the gantry.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
The real name of the building is M7-0355. This is most likely just going to involve a little sign in the lobby.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
What, NASA doesn't sell there building naming rights to the highest bidder?? that might be a few million towards a moon landing or another robot to mars.......or a CEO bonus....
Jack of all trades,master of none
Slow news day?
It wasn't even a new building, they just changed the name of an existing one.
Why doesn't NASA ignore the celebrity bullshit and name buildings after the people they did the real work of getting man into space and onto the moon, the Scientists and Engineers. NASA you want more scientists and engineers, than stop bloody giving them a back seat to the monkey in the cockpit, grrr ;).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Neil is dead, I don't think he wants you to name anything for him. You can, however, name something after him...
Renamed it to what? I'm having a hard time trying to find the new name of the building.
His biography First Man is a great read. Armstrong seemed like a classic "Right Stuff" guy; I'm sure the book paints him in a positive light but after reading it I couldn't think of anyone else I would want to be the first person to set foot on the moon in the name of humanity.
I think a better tribute from NASA would be to get us back to the moon. Maybe they could name the first permanent settlement there after him?
What part of "not only an astronaut, but also as an AEROSPACE ENGINEER, TEST PILOT, and UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR" did you not read in the summary? Nobody worked harder than the early astronauts to get man into space and they were all engineers or scientists. A test pilot is in reality a flying engineer.
The three Orion spacecraft are going to be called: God country and apple pie.
Foxconn named one of their factory buildings "Giant Leap" after some employees decided to skip the elevator.
Table-ized A.I.
Remembered for being a hero, an astronaut, a pioneer, but not, apparently, for the deeply humble and private man he was later in life.
Armstrong would NEVER have wanted a building named for him, never in a million years. He'd be absolutely furious. NASA knows this and this whole thing is a big fat stick in his eye for wanting his privacy. They never forgave him for that. This is their revenge: his name on a big, ostentatious building. The only thing worse than this would be naming something Armstrong Base.
Sig for hire.
Why do you Americans have such difficulty with prepositions?
The building was named AFTER Neil Armstrong.
I did not know Neil was dead :(
Yes... I live under a rock.
I can't speak for whether Armstrong would like seeing something named after him or not. However, I can say that the "Armstrong Base" exists, just not by that specific name. NASA officially renamed their Dryden Flight Research Center to the Armstrong Flight Research Center on March 1, 2014. See http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dr... for some info. The test range there will still be named after Dryden though.
should read
"It has been the last, small, step for astronauts before their flights..."