Looking back on it, the Apollo 11 Moon
landing had a huge impact on my life. I
was only about four and a half years old
when it happened, and it's one of my
first memories that I can even remember.
I can remember vividly watching that and
it's a mind-blowing type of thing for a
four-year-old to think about, hey, they're
actually walking on the Moon that you
can look out your window and see. From
that, I read every book in elementary
school about the space program, all the
missions, all the astronauts. I knew them
better than baseball players and
football players. And that led me to
study combustion and propulsion, and I'm
fortunate to be here at Purdue working
in buildings named after three of the
Apollo astronauts. My main office is in
Chaffee Hall, named after Roger Chaffee.
There's Grissom Hall and, of course,
Armstrong Hall here at Purdue.
