EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - NASA’s Southern California flight research center is being renamed in honor of astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
The agency’s center for atmospheric flight research was designated NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center on Saturday. Armstrong was a former research test pilot at the center. He died in 2012.
The center was previously named for Hugh Dryden, who will now give his name to the center’s aeronautical test range.
Dryden was considered an aeronautical engineering genius and served as deputy administrator of NASA until his death in 1965.
U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from Bakersfield, authored the bill to rename the center located on Edwards Air Force Base. The resolution passed unanimously.
A formal public ceremony is planned for the spring.
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