Nation in brief: Chrysler workers approve contract

United Auto Workers members passed a four-year contract agreement with Chrysler LLC on Saturday despite significant dissent from some workers, the union said.

The union said 56 percent of production workers and 51 percent of skilled trades workers voted for the pact. The percentages voting in favor were much higher among clerical workers and engineers represented by the union.

The new contract covers about 45,000 active workers at Chrysler and more than 55,000 Chrysler retirees and 23,000 surviving spouses. It will expire on Sept. 14, 2011.

WASHINGTON

Missile-defense test a success

The military shot down a Scud-type missile in another successful test of a new technology meant to knock down ballistic missiles in their final minute of flight, the Missile Defense Agency said Saturday.

A ship off Kauai fired a target missile at 9:15 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time Friday, or 12:15 a.m. PDT Saturday. Minutes later, soldiers with the U.S. Army’s 6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade launched an interceptor missile from Kauai that destroyed the target over the Pacific, according to the agency.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.

Building named for Armstrong

Although he typically shuns attention, former astronaut Neil Armstrong on Saturday addressed a crowd at the dedication of a new engineering building named for him at Purdue University, his alma mater.

Armstrong, the first person on the moon, said the faculty, not the building’s name, would make it valuable.

“We dedicate this building today, but by itself, it cannot impart knowledge. It requires people,” Armstrong, 77, told a crowd of about 350 who gathered for the dedication.

Armstrong, who graduated from Purdue in 1955 with a degree in aeronautical engineering, gained international fame when the Eagle, Apollo 11’s lunar module, landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.