New York buries three astronauts in paper; Nixon pins on the nation's highest civilian honor
Three weeks after Neil Armstrong's boot print went into the lunar dust, New York City gave Apollo 11 a welcome it had given only a handful of times before, for kings and conquering generals. On August 13, 1969, Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin rode through Manhattan under a blizzard of shredded paper thrown from office windows along the parade route. That night in Los Angeles, President Richard Nixon presented all three with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a state dinner, the government's formal answer to a feat most Americans had only watched on television.
Kennedy had promised a moon landing before the decade's end back in 1961, and the parade and the medal ceremony were the country making good on that promise in public. Nixon's ceremony made the achievement official government business, placing the astronauts on the same civilian honor roll as diplomats and scientists.
QHow long were the astronauts kept isolated from the public before this parade?
The Apollo 11 crew spent the weeks after splashdown under strict medical quarantine, a precaution against the remote possibility they had brought back unknown lunar microorganisms. NASA doctors had no way to be certain the moon was biologically inert, so Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin were sealed away from family and press alike before ever appearing at a public event. The August 13 parade was effectively their reintroduction to open-air American life, the first time crowds could see them in person rather than through a quarantine window or a television screen.
QWhat rank does the Presidential Medal of Freedom actually hold among American honors?
The Presidential Medal of Freedom sits at the very top tier of United States civilian recognition, sharing that highest rank with the Congressional Gold Medal, which is awarded by legislative action rather than presidential authority. It is not a military decoration and carries no combat requirement; recipients are chosen for meritorious contributions to national security, world peace, or significant cultural and public achievement. Nixon's decision to award all three astronauts the medal placed them alongside scientists, diplomats, and civic figures rather than military honorees.
QWhat came right after the parade and medal ceremony for the crew?
The two honors on August 13 were the opening leg of a much longer circuit. Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin were sent on a world goodwill tour immediately afterward, carrying the moon landing to foreign capitals still absorbing the same broadcast footage Americans had watched weeks earlier. The world tour that followed took the moon landing to capitals far beyond American borders.
