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NASA Names Historic Building After Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong

NASA honored the late moonwalker Neil Armstrong on Monday by putting his name on a historic building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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/ Source: The Associated Press

NASA honored one of its most famous astronauts on Monday by renaming a historic building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Operations and Checkout Building now bears the name of Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, who became the first man to walk on the moon 45 years ago this week.

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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. Michael Collins, who orbited the moon as Armstrong took his historic steps on July 20, 1969, said he had a "powerful combination of curiosity and intelligence" along with an intuitive grasp of the complexities of flight machinery. "Neil probably liked hangars better than office buildings, but he was certainly good in either venue," Collins said. The O&C Building 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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— The Associated Press