Lunar Flag Assembly
The nylon flags were hung on telescoping staffs and horizontal bars constructed of one-inch anodized aluminum tubes.
The flags were carried on the outside of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM), most of them on the descent ladder inside a thermally insulated tubular case to protect them from exhaust gas temperatures calculated to reach 2,000 °F (1,090 °C).
The assembly was designed and supervised by Jack Kinzler, head of technical services at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston, Texas.
Building on President John F. Kennedy's 1961 plan to land a man on the Moon in the 1960s and bring him safely back to Earth, in January 1969 President Richard Nixon set an international tone for the Apollo program in his inaugural address:[1] As we explore the reaches of space, let us go to the new worlds together – not as new worlds to be conquered, but as a new adventure to be shared.This inspired an idea within NASA to have astronauts plant a United Nations flag on the first landing.
[3] Acting NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine created the Committee on Symbolic Activities for the First Lunar Landing and appointed Willis Shapley as the chair on February 25.
Paine instructed the committee to select symbolic activities that would not jeopardize crew safety or interfere with mission objectives; that would "signalize [sic] the first lunar landing as an historic forward step of all mankind that has been accomplished by the United States", and that would not give the impression that the United States, like colonial powers raising flags to mark territorial claims, was "taking possession of the moon" in violation of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.
"[3] Some Americans anticipated possible controversy over planting the United States flag on the Moon, since the Outer Space Treaty prohibited territorial claims to any extraterrestrial body.
[6]About three months prior to the July 1969 Apollo 11 mission, Robert Gilruth, director of the MSC and a member of the Committee on Symbolic Activities, still needed to select someone to design the flag assembly.
Inspired by the memory of his mother hanging curtains during his childhood, Kinzler came up with the idea of inserting a horizontal pole through a hemmed pocket in the top of the flag to support it.
Due to the heat of the exhaust from the descent engine, temperatures were calculated to be 250 °F (121 °C) for most of the landing, however they would increase to 2,000 °F (1,090 °C) during the final 13 seconds at touchdown.
[16] Buzz Aldrin reported that the Apollo 11 flag, placed about 27 feet (8.2 m) from the centerline of the Eagle landing craft, was blown over by the blast of the rocket exhaust during takeoff.
[12] Pete Conrad and Alan Bean, the crew of Apollo 12, had trouble with the latch mechanism which was supposed to keep the supporting pole horizontal, so the flag they deployed drooped at an angle.
Because of issues the Apollo 15 crew had deploying experiments, the flag planting happened later in the mission than intended;[13] at the end of the second EVA[20] rather than the first.
Astronauts David Scott and James Irwin had practiced on Earth how to arrange themselves, the flag, and the Lunar Roving Vehicle around the LM for the best photography.
Some experts theorize that the colors of some flags may have faded to white due to sunlight and space radiation, or that the fabric might have disintegrated entirely.
