 The university joined the rest of the world around TV receivers to watch the historic flight of Apollo 11, commanded by Purdue alumnus Neil Armstrong. Aeronautical engineering class of 1955. When I was a student, there was no space program. There was not even a vision of the space program at that time. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. I cannot think of a word besides incredible to describe the experience. It's really like encapsulate how it was to go to space. One of the things that drew me to Purdue was just like all of the different hands-on projects you can do. The work that I got to do at Zucro, designing and building and testing hardware was the first time that I'd really gotten to take a project from the initial concept stage all the way through to test. The reason I picked Purdue was because they were head and shoulders the friendliest of the universities. They offered me a mentor, they sent me all kinds of information about the dorms and the life in addition to the curriculum, and I just thought, wow, this is a place that I would be at home. I was inspired by astronauts and space exploration and I came to Purdue to be an astronaut. I literally made a decision in my life that that was what I was interested in as a child. I now confer upon you, Andrew J. Poistin, the degree of Doctor of Science. You will now be vested with the hood. What was really special is that my crewmate Scott Tingle, but also a Purdue graduate, Scott's the one that actually hooded me. We practiced three or four times before the cameras came on and then we got the collar out to put it on, and then I was like, oh, I put it on upside down, and he looked at me and goes, no you didn't. I realized that this isn't a flight to the moon, but if it were, which two men would go down to the surface of the moon? If it was this crew, I would be me and somebody else. I think I've got a couple of the greatest men in the world to work with. And tonight we're actually going to hear from two of the shuttle's astronauts. Hi, I'm Mark Polanski, Commander of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and SDS 127, third-university graduate, Class 1978. Dave Wolf, lead space walker for the mission. Also a Purdue graduate, 1978. I'm so proud to be a bowler. Why so many astronauts from Purdue? What do they do down there? You know, I don't know, maybe it's because those of us who choose to come to Purdue come because we want to. We're our bowler makers. We come with one of the finest educations we can find from any university in the country.