Astronauts honored at Hall of Fame dinner

Ron Alvey/Staff Astronauts Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, left, Neil Armstrong, right, the first man on the moon, talk about the Apollo 11 mission and the upcoming 40th anniversary of the historic event on July 20, 2009. Aldrin and Armstrong were participating in the National Aviation Hall of Fame President's Dinner Friday evening, July 17 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

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By Thomas Gnau, Staff Writer Updated 11:39 AM Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Dayton-area history was made at the National Aviation Hall of Fame Learning and Research Center on Friday, July 17.

That’s when 12 Apollo program astronauts were saluted with the hall’s 2009 Milton Caniff “Spirit of Flight” Award at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

The award, offered annually for achievement in advancing aviation, was presented at the hall’s President’s Dinner three days before the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Friday’s event likely marked the first time so many Apollo astronauts were under one local roof at one time. At one point in the evening, Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin posed next to an F-100 fighter display.

“I always like to see airplanes and airplane drivers,” he said. “All we need is to put rockets on them and they can go a little higher.”

The assembled astronauts marveled at what it took to escape Earth’s gravity and reach the moon.

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, recalled how little fuel the lunar module had left when it landed for the first time on the moon’s surface. “We had about two minutes in fuel left to make that landing,” he said.

The hall also will enshrine four new members today, July 18, including the late Edward White II, who died in the 1967 Apollo 1 fire.

The hall’s Class of 2009 also includes Eileen Collins, U.S. Air Force test pilot and first female shuttle commander; Russell Meyer Jr., former Cessna Aircraft Co. chief executive; and the late Jimmy Stewart, a World War II bomber pilot and actor. The ceremony will be at the Dayton Convention Center, 22 E. Fifth St.

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