NASA Coverage of Neil Armstrong Service at National Cathedral
“NASA will provide special live programming of the public memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral to honor the life and career of astronaut Neil Armstrong at 10 a.m. EDT, Thursday, Sept. 13.” Replay of the service.
National Cathedral Memorial for Neil Armstrong; Burial at Sea, earlier post
NASA photos from the service
How Neil Armstrong inspired a POW, John McCain, Washington Post
“Once in a while, the Vietnamese unwittingly let a little good news slip by. One evening, Hannah played a clip of a speech by a prominent American opponent of the war. It was a quick, throwaway line in a long list of diatribes about the war and the president. But we all caught it. The quote was something like: “President Nixon can put a man on the moon, but he can’t end the war in Vietnam.”
Yes, that was news to us, arriving years after the successful Apollo 11 mission.”

Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member 🖖🏻

5 replies on “Neil Armstrong Memorial”

  2. Does anyone know what religion Armstrong was? His mother was very religious but publicly stated that Neil had “strayed from Christ.”  He once referred to himself as a “deist” then in NASA Apollo 11 PAO inquiry logs he was listed as “agnostic.”  He had an interest in Eastern philosophies. Just wondered about all the Christian references during the memorial, if he changed his faith or it was his family’s request?

  3. As I sat in the National Cathedral, I wondered what Neil would have thought of his own memorial service.  Probably a bit uncomfortable with all the pomp, ceremony and misty eyes, but happy to hear all the humbling retrospectives and anecdotes.  One quote attributed to Neil Armstrong that I had never heard:  Asked for the umpteenth time what it was like to walk on the Moon, he replied something like “All things considered, I’d rather be flying.”  Had a chosen a traditional burial site, that would have been the perfect epitaph for his tombstone.

    Eric Fischer
    Pittsburgh, PA 

  5. Thanks.  That sounds like something that would appeal to an engineer. I also like the quote from the Dalai Lama, who said, to paraphrase, if science ever disproves a tenant of Buddhism, then Buddhists are to follow the science. Interestingly, as a child, the Dalai Lama enjoyed taking things apart to see how they worked as well as looking through telescopes. Who knows what he might have become in a different culture.

    No matter what, the humility, dignity, love of pure engineering/flight, and mentoring of young people proves that Neil Armstrong was a very spiritual person, no matter what his personal beliefs.

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