Neil Armstrong’s Name to Live on in NASA Armstrong Center Renaming Ceremony

Scheduled for May 13, a formal renaming ceremony will take place to honor the late and legendary astronaut Neil A. Armstrong. In the formal dedication ceremony the Dryden Flight Research Center will be renamed the Armstrong Flight Research Center.

The ceremony will take place on that Tuesday in May at the center’s campus at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Scheduled for 10 a.m. PDT in Hangar 4802, the press has been invited to cover the event which is expected to include comments from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Armstrong Center Director David McBride, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California who authored the resolution, and members of the Armstrong and Dryden families.



The name change of the 68-year-old atmospheric flight research facility required an act of congress and approval of the President. Both the House and Senate passed the resolution and on January 16, and was signed into law by President Obama.

In addition to his rise to global fame as the first man to step on the moon during the historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969, Armstrong was a former research test pilot who flew at the center for whom it is now named.

The previous name of the center, since 1976, was in honor of the late Hugh L. Dryden, who had been the director of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics from 1949 to 1958 (the precursor to NASA) and NASA’s first deputy administrator from 1958 until his death in 1965.