NASA Officials and Astronauts Tour Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building

At the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA officials and Apollo astronauts tour the refurbished Operations and Checkout Building, newly named for Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon.
Viewing the Orion crew module stacked on top of the service module from left, are Kennedy Center Director Bob Cabana, Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. The building’s high bay is being used to support the agency’s new Orion spacecraft, which will lift off atop the Space Launch System.

Orion is designed to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before, serving as the exploration vehicle that will carry astronauts to deep space and sustain the crew during travel to destinations such as an asteroid or Mars. The visit of the former astronauts was part of NASA’s 45th anniversary celebration of the moon landing.

As the world watched, Neil Armstrong and Aldrin landed in the moon’s Sea of Tranquility aboard the lunar module Eagle on July 20, 1969. Meanwhile, crewmate Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia. Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett