Obama honors Apollo 11 astronauts

The United States President Barack Obama honored Apollo 11 astronauts in a special function organised at the Oval Office. The special function was attended by Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins and by the newly sworn NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Deputy Administrator Lori Garver.
“We are confident that they are going to be doing everything that they can in the decade to come to continue the inspirational mission of NASA,” Obama said, referring to the new NASA leadership.Obama recalled sitting atop his grandfather’s shoulders in Hawaii as an 8-year-old boy to welcome home the Apollo crew with a waving flag. Obama awaits the results of a top-to-bottom review of the manned space program due by the end of August that could overhaul the scope, budget and timetable for manned exploration after retirement of the shuttle fleet in 2010.