FLAGS FLY AT HALF-MAST ACROSS THE USA FOR NEIL ARMSTRONG FUNERAL

Flags flew at half mast across the United States on Friday in memory of astronaut Neil Armstrong, as family and friends attended a private funeral. Photo/AFP AFP

Posted Friday,
August 31 2012

Flags flew at half mast across the United States on Friday in memory of astronaut Neil Armstrong, as family and friends attended a private funeral in Ohio for the first man to walk on the moon.

Loved ones and fellow astronauts of Armstrong, who died Saturday aged 82, gathered at a club in the Cincinnati suburb of Indian Hill to pay their final respects, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on its Cincinnati.com website.

"Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon paved the way for others to be the 'first' to step foot on another planet," said Charles Bolden, head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

"We have an obligation to carry on this uniquely American legacy," added Bolden, himself a former astronaut, at the funeral, according to a text released by NASA in Washington.

"A grateful nation offers praise and salutes a humble servant who answered the call and dared to dream."

The late-morning funeral was by invitation only, reflecting Armstrong's own intensely private nature. A public memorial is planned for September 12 in Washington.

On Monday, in a White House proclamation, US President Barack Obama ordered that flags on all US government premises be lowered to half mast Friday to mark Armstrong's funeral.

His order applied to the Stars and Stripes on the top of the White House, all public buildings, military posts, naval stations and US naval ships at sea anywhere in the world, as well as at US embassies and consulates.

Armstrong, who grew up in rural Ohio and flew in the US navy before joining the US space program, became a world hero when he set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969.

The Apollo 11 commander was decorated by 17 countries and received a slew of US honors, but was never comfortable with his fame and shied away from the limelight.

Earlier Friday in Cincinnati, lunar astronauts James Lovell and Eugene Cernan helped launch a charity in Armstrong's honor at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Armstrong's family had already requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the charity, known as the Neil Armstrong New Frontiers Initiative, which it founded.

Lovell was commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 that aborted its mission and returned to Earth after an oxygen tank exploded in space, while Cernan was in December 1972 the last of the 12 men to have walked on the moon.