NASA officials dedicated the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., in honor of the first man to set foot on the Moon. The flight research center, previously named after the late Hugh L. Dryden, former NASA deputy administrator, took Armstrong’s name during a May 13 ceremony, according to an Edwards release. “Hugh Dryden was considered an aeronautical genius who pushed the boundaries of high-speed flight beginning in 1931,” said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden at the ceremony. “His organizational leadership was at the root of Neil Armstrong’s most spectacular flight achievements from the X-15 to his 1969 first footsteps on the Moon,” said Bolden. Members of Armstrong’s family and Dryden’s family attended the ceremony, states the release. A law that President Obama enacted in January re-designated the center, which had carried Dryden’s name for some 38 years. As part of the name change, the Western Aeronautical Test Range at Edwards became the Dryden Aeronautical Test Range. Armstrong, a naval aviator, died in August 2012 at age 82. (Edwards report by Rebecca Amber)
Three of four congressional committees with influence over defense policy have voted to change the official name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War—but final approval of the Pentagon rebrand is months away and not yet assured.