US bids farewell to Neil Armstrong

Americans bid farewell yesterday to Neil Armstrong, the first man to take a giant leap on to the moon.

The powerful of Washington, the pioneers of space, and the everyday public crowded into the Washington National Cathedral for a public interfaith memorial for the very private astronaut.

Armstrong, who died last month in Ohio at age 82, walked on the moon in Jul 1969.

“He’s now slipped the bounds of Earth once again, but what a legacy he left,” former treasury secretary John Snow told the gathering.

Apollo 11 crewmates Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins and Mercury astronaut John Glenn were among the about 2,500 people in the cavernous cathedral.

A moon rock the Apollo 11 astronauts gave the church in 1974 is embedded in one of its stained glass windows.

“You have now shown once again the pathway to the stars,” Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon said in a tribute to Armstrong.

“As you soar through the heavens beyond even where eagles dare to go, you can now finally put out your hand and touch the face of God.”

Cernan was followed by a slow and solemn version of the song Fly Me to the Moon by singer Diana Krall.

Nasa administrator Charles Bolden, a former astronaut, said Armstrong’s humility and courage “lifted him above the stars.” He read a letter from President Barack Obama saying, “the imprint he left on the surface of the moon is matched only by the extraordinary mark he left on ordinary Americans.”

Armstrong commanded the historic landing of the Apollo 11 spacecraft on the moon Jul 20, 1969.

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