Editing Neil Armstrong (section)

==== Return to Earth ====
[[File:President Nixon welcomes the Apollo 11 astronauts aboard the U.S.S. Hornet.jpg|thumb|alt=The three crew members smiling at the President through the glass window of their metal quarantine chamber. Below the window is the Presidential Seal, and above it is stenciled on a wooden board "HORNET + 3". President Nixon is standing at a microphone, also smiling. He has dark crinkly hair and a light gray suit.|The Apollo 11 crew and President [[Richard Nixon]] during the post-mission quarantine period]]
After they re-entered the LM, the hatch was closed and sealed. While preparing for liftoff, Armstrong and Aldrin discovered that, in their bulky space suits, they had broken the ignition switch for the ascent engine; using part of a pen, they pushed in the circuit breaker to start the launch sequence.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|pp=489–490}} The ''Eagle'' then continued to its rendezvous in lunar orbit, where it docked with ''[[Command module Columbia|Columbia]]'', the command and service module. The three astronauts returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, to be picked up by the {{USS|Hornet|CV-12|6}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1969-059A |title=Apollo 11 Command and Service Module (CSM) |publisher=NASA |access-date=August 26, 2012 }}</ref>

After being released from an 18-day quarantine to ensure that they had not picked up any infections or diseases from the Moon, the crew was feted across the United States and around the world as part of a 38-day "Giant Leap" tour.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/27494178/the_logan_daily_news/ |title=Apollo 11 Crew Starts World Tour |agency=Associated Press |date=September 29, 1969 |page=1 |location=Logan, Ohio |newspaper=Logan Daily News |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> [[File:Apollo 11 ticker tape parade 1.jpg|thumb|New York City ticker tape parade, August 13, 1969]]
The tour began on August 13, when the three astronauts spoke and rode in [[ticker-tape parade]]s in their honor in New York and Chicago, with an estimated six million attendees.<ref name="LADinner">{{cite web |last=Nixon|first=Richard|title=Remarks at a Dinner in Los Angeles Honoring the Apollo 11 Astronauts |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-dinner-los-angeles-honoring-the-apollo-11-astronauts |website=The American Presidency Project|editor-last=Peters |editor-first=Gerhard |editor2-last=Woolley |editor2-first=John T.|publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara |access-date=July 20, 2019 |date=August 13, 1969}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/27531303/the_evening_sun/|title=President Offers Toast to 'Three Brave Men'|newspaper=The Evening Sun|date=August 14, 1969|page=1|location=Baltimore, Maryland|via=Newspapers.com|agency=Associated Press}}</ref> On the same evening an official [[state dinner]] was held in Los Angeles to celebrate the flight, attended by members of Congress, 44{{nbsp}}governors, the [[Chief Justice of the United States]], and ambassadors from 83{{nbsp}}nations. President Nixon and Vice President Agnew presented each astronaut with a [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]].<ref name="LADinner" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/27531557/the_honolulu_advertiser/|title=Astronauts Awed by the Acclaim|newspaper=The Honolulu Advertiser|page=1|date=August 14, 1969|last1=Smith|first1=Merriman|agency=United Press International|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

After the tour Armstrong took part in [[Bob Hope]]'s 1969 [[USO]] show, primarily to Vietnam.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|p=580}} In May 1970, Armstrong traveled to the Soviet Union to present a talk at the 13th annual conference of the International [[Committee on Space Research]]; after arriving in [[Leningrad]] from Poland, he traveled to Moscow where he met [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Premier]] [[Alexei Kosygin]]. Armstrong was the first westerner to see the supersonic [[Tupolev Tu-144]] and was given a tour of the [[Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center]], which he described as "a bit Victorian in nature".{{sfn|Hansen|2005|p=583}} At the end of the day, he was surprised to view a delayed video of the launch of [[Soyuz 9]] as it had not occurred to Armstrong that the mission was taking place, even though Valentina Tereshkova had been his host and her husband, [[Andriyan Nikolayev]], was on board.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|pp=582–584}}