The American Flag on the Moon

How the American Flag got placed on the Moon

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin raised an American flag on the landing site of the Eagle module, after they took their first steps on the Moon. 

Every Apollo crew after them did the same.

But the story is a complex mix of engineering, politics and patriotism.

For most Americans, watching the American flag raised anywhere, is a powerfully emotional experience. 

Images of our American flag planted on the Moon takes the patriotic emotion to a whole new level. 

America was the first to place a man on the Moon. And that gave us the accelerated head start on space exploration. 

What would we find? What would we learn? And, what would it mean to future generations?

It took a team of scientists and a major feat of engineering to plant the American flag on the Moon on July 20, 1969. 

According to the account of Annie Platoff, University of California, Santa Barbara librarian and leading expert on the Apollo program’s placing the flags on the lunar surface:

“The flag on the Moon is a great illustration of the fact that in space, nothing is simple. For me, the flag on the Moon is an excellent example of something that seems very, very simple, but once you really start thinking about it, you realize its very complex.” 

Any flag would fly freely in Earth’s atmosphere, but in space, due to the lack of atmosphere, gravity and wind, the whole idea of displaying a waving flag became a bit complicated. 

The flag, was as simple as it could get. 3’x5’ nylon, ordered from a standard government supply catalog. Cost: $5.50. Normally, a flag is attached to a hoist at the bottom and top of the flag. Vertical section closest to the pole, of course.
 
Jack Kinzler is the NASA engineer who designed and built the first flagpole that would be planted on the Moon. He was given just 3 months to solve the problems that a regular flagpole would create in space, namely how big they were and how heavy they were. 

To make the flag appear to be waving, became the next challenge. Kindler’s design also had to take into consideration the bulky spacesuits that precluded the astronauts from reaching higher than 66” or bend lower than 28”, therefore, he built the whole thing out of 1-inch anodized aluminum tubing, which weighed less than 10 pounds and cost $75.00 in 1969.

The Lunar Flag, is anchored to the pole only at the bottom, held in place by a horizontal crossbar at the top, onto which the flag would be slid onto as it would a curtain on a rod.

The Lunar Flagpole has 3 parts. 2 vertical sections and a horizontal crossbar hinged at the top of the upper vertical section. One astronaut used a rock sampling hammer to pound the lower vertical section into the ground, the other astronaut raised the telescoping crossbar to a 90-degree angle with the vertical section and clicked it into place. Then it took both, to slide the upper part into the lower section. 

Once up, the flag appeared to be flying due to the following factors:
  • The flag was tightly folded, so the wrinkles created the appearance of waving.
  • The astronauts were working in pressurized space suits and cumbersome gloves, which caused the flag to bunch up in places, adding to the illusion of a waving flag.
Getting the flag to the Moon, proved to be a challenge as well. According to Platoff, the Apollo 11 and 12 flags were stored on a ladder of the lunar module. They had to be protected from an environment where, without adequate thermal protection, the flag would have incinerated by the heat of the engines as they were fired up to slow down and land the module. 

Therefore, a metal shroud was built, that went around the apparatus and the ladder, and then insulating blanket material was added. On subsequent missions, the flag was kept in a storage compartment outside the lunar module, which was already thermally protected, where other equipment and tools were kept.

It was determined that on every Apollo landing, an American flag would be planted.

To date, there are 6 American flags planted on the moon.
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