NASA Names Building For Neil Armstrong 52
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.
"to Mars" (Score:2)
>> 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.
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My point is that making it to Mars implies "ability to make it to the moon." Writing "the Moon and Mars" is like saying that my truck can pull "a string of beer cans and my 26-foot boat".
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not really factual, we've not begun to address the issues serious Mars trip entails.
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Re:Why not something important? (Score:5, Informative)
A good many things have been named after him already, including over a dozen schools, an asteroid, a moon crater, and a new engineering hall at Purdue (his alma mater.)
http://www.universetoday.com/5... [universetoday.com]
Re:Why not something important? (Score:4, Interesting)
What on earth (intended) could be more suitable?
He was at the forefront of operations during his active career as an astronaut, and now he has checked out.
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What a joke this nation has become
Indeed. Students aren't even taught basic critical thinking skills to be able to identify crackpot conspiracy theories. I hope you're joking. But in case you're not, please explain why the Soviet Union (and over 30 other countires) congratulated us after tracking us to the moon and back. Were they participating in a conspiracy to make themselves look bad?
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More importantly, the size and scale of the conspiracy would have to be massive. Tens of thousands of people worked on the program would have to be fooled. How many hundreds of thousands of people would have to work to keep ten thousand people fooled or not divulging? Neil deGrasse Tyson said it best [youtube.com] in that only 3 people knew about Bill Clinton's sex scandal yet it got out. Also it would have cost the US government more money to create a hoax than it would to actually go to the moon. And they would have
Poor Buzz (Score:1)
He's not going to get a building named after him ever...
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Buzz Lightyear already had several movies made about him! The Toy Story series started in the 90s! Slashdotters sure have gotten slow/ignorant lately. I blame beta.
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Pauly Shore.
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NASA already renamed the Dryden Flight Research Facility (NASA's part of Edwards in California) after Armstrong
not sure why this was marked down (unless all of us tired of hearing same complaints). I remember the hoopla about renaming DFRC and politicians on the house floor giving glowing speeches of Armstrong, and then later that day they cut the NASA budget $600 million.
It seems to me Neil would want that NASA facility to remain under Hugh's name. Armstrong flew the X-15 but it was Dryden who was instrumental in creating the X-15 program.
Who Was Hugh Dryden and Why Should We Care? (page 163)
http://history.nas [nasa.gov]
Corporate sponsors ? (Score:2)
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.
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If it would get some more cash for NASA to do real science independent of the nitwits we call Congress I'd put up with it...
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As someone that works at KSC (Score:2)
The real name of the building is M7-0355. This is most likely just going to involve a little sign in the lobby.
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The real name of the building is M7-0355. This is most likely just going to involve a little sign in the lobby.
We've a 'Jean Batten Airport' down here in NZ. People still call it Auckland Airport.
(Who was Jean Batten? She invented the leather strap used on ships to secure loads: hence "batten down the hatches". Not sure why they named an airrport after her)
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http://www.phrases.org.uk/mean... [phrases.org.uk]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J... [wikipedia.org]
What, NASA doesn't sell there building naming righ (Score:1)
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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 ;).
Re:What, NASA doesn't sell there building naming r (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
NASA names building after astronaut (Score:2)
Interesting only if the building were on the moon (Score:2)
It wasn't even a new building, they just changed the name of an existing one.
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NA-0355?
Armstrong Building?
Neil Building?
Armstrong Operations & Checkout?
Neil Operations & Checkout?
Operations & Armstrong Checkout?
Operations & Neil Checkout?
Who knows? It doesn't say anywhere.
And yes - I did RTFA.
No disrespect, but for crying out loud - if you report on something, do it properly.
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Better - a picture.
http://download.gannett.edgesu... [edgesuite.net]
Armstrong was a cool dude (Score:3)
His biography First Man [amazon.com] 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?
A trend? (Score:1)
Foxconn named one of their factory buildings "Giant Leap" after some employees decided to skip the elevator.
Remembered? Nobody asked him (Score:3)
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.
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