National Cathedral Memorial for Neil Armstrong; Burial at Sea
NASA To Honor Neil Armstrong at National Cathedral
“NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and other dignitaries will attend a public memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral to honor the life and career of astronaut Neil Armstrong on Thursday, Sept. 13. The memorial will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed online by the agency’s and National Cathedral’s websites.”
Keith’s 6 Sep 7:45 am EDT update: Sources are reporting that Neil Armstrong will be buried at sea – the date is still TBD. More to follow.
It’s not appropriate for any of us to question the decision to bury Neil at sea, but I was hoping some day to pay homage at his grave site. Indeed, a cemetary burial site might have been visited by many thousands, perhaps millions of people hoping to make some kind of personal connection to this remarkable and historic figure. This would have been especially important to those of us who never got to meet Neil Armstrong in person.
His decision strikes me as extraordinarily fitting. Neil Armstrong was never motivated to be the center of attention about anything. He understood that his legacy was something independent of him as a person. In this way, I think a burial site, under a stone where perhaps millions of people could pay their respects to his body would be distasteful to him. If what they wanted was some kind of personal connection with him as a lunar explorer, what better way to do it than, as his heirs suggested, just giving a wink to the Moon. If there was a place his memory should be associated with, he might have felt, it sure isn’t a rock at Arlington Cemetery. It’s another rock. Yes, this decision was very much in character, and I admire that.
Except I am sure that if his last wishes were to be buried in the Sea of Tranquility (sort of “at sea”), the US would have foot the bill to do so (at some un-specified time in the future).
I find it hard to imagine a burial plan that would have been more distasteful to him. Not so much having his remains interred on the Moon, but the god-awful pains needed to get them there. His body would be in a morgue for years, and then someday the public would get treated to viewing a cosmic hearse, with all the press coverage (and exasperation about the cost) that could be mustered. Then when you winked at the Moon, you wouldn’t be winking at his accomplishment, but at his remains, and the burial bill. Ick.
The nice thing about a sea burial is that it’s quietly done by the military, confidentially, and out of sight of the public. All that’s left of him is the memory.
May this be a lesson to the other astronauts, as Armstrong’s whole life should have been
Yes and no.
He was a naval aviator first. Makes sense burial at “sea”.
He was very unassuming, and wouldn’t have wanted any kind of spectacle at all.
However, from what I know of the man, the metaphoric dimension of being a naval aviator and the Sea of Tranquillity definitely would have appealed to him, sans other.
Clearly he knows how we’ll all remember him.
See it a few times a month in my telescope routinely. Same one that I used to view when he and Buzz landed.
That’s naive and simplistic. There is no question that Neil Armstrong would have been delighted to be laid to rest in the Sea of Tranquility. But the issue isn’t where his body ends up, but rather what beyond-the-call efforts would have been required to send it there. Neil Armstrong would have been appalled to see his body be shipped there, on some gigantic rocket, as some national spectacle, with huge arguments over cost and need. (And suppose the mission failed!) The metaphoric dimension of all of that would not have appealed to him in the least. That picture would not have served his legacy, and more importantly, would not have served the legacy of the accomplishment.
Perhaps the next lunar visitors could have brought an offering of his ashes to the lunar surface, but I kind of doubt if Armstrong would even have been comfortable with the spectacle of that. Although ocean burial is indeed appropriate to a naval aviator, I strongly suspect that’s why he wasn’t cremated.
I can see the Sea of Tranquility with my naked eye. And I wink at it.
I’m sure that the USN would be happy to bury Neil Armstrong at the North Pole.
I am not going to get into who my sources are – suffice it to say they are authoritative: all of Neil Armstrong’s ashes will be buried at sea. There won’t be any left to be taken to the Moon – or anywhere else.