KSC-2014-3203

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell participates in a ceremony renaming the refurbished Operations and Checkout Building for Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon. Lovell served on the crews of Apollo 8 and Apollo 13. The building's high bay is being used to support the agency's new Orion spacecraft and is the same spaceport facility where the Apollo 11 command_service module and lunar module were prepped for the first lunar landing mission in 1969. 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 ceremony was part of NASA's 45th anniversary celebration of the Apollo 11 moon landing. As the world watched, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in the moon's Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969, aboard the lunar module Eagle. Meanwhile, crewmate Michael Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia. For more, visit http:__www.nasa.gov_press_2014_july_nasa-honors-historic-first-moon-landing-eyes-first-mars-mission. Photo credit: NASA_Kim Shiflett