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U.S. Flags On The Moon

U.S. flags on the Moon
Current condition of six U.S. flags on the Moon
The scraps that didn't go
Claims of manufacturing the flags on the moon
Other flags once on the Moon

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Six Flags on the Moon (NASA)

U.S. flags on the Moon

Apollo 11

Apollo 12

Apollo 14

Apollo 15

Apollo 16

Apollo 17

There are six U.S. flags on the moon planted by the Apollo astronauts (Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17). I don't believe any of the unmanned U.S. probes have planted flags.
Joe McMillan, 28 Feb 2001

The problems of flying a flag in the vacuum of space are fairly obvious. Most people know that the U.S. flags planted on the moon were made of cloth or nylon and were rigged with a wire along the top and/or bottom so that they looked like they were "waving." It is rumored that the Apollo 11 flag was actually knocked down by the dust kicked up by the exhaust of the lunar module, and is currently lying in the Lunar dirt.
Josh Fruhlinger, 17 Nov 1996

I recall seeing a film of one of the Apollo Lunar Module lift-offs where the camera was aimed out the window. Upon launch from the lunar surface, you could clearly see the U.S. Flag spin on its staff and was waving briskly in a direction pointing away from the rocket blast. There was no indication that the pole or flag were dislodged by the exhaust. I presume, therefore, that the flags left by the Apollo astronauts were all left standing after the departure of the LM.

That does not mean to say that the flags are there today. I work two blocks south of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum where a major exhibit is a LM on a simulated lunar surface, complete with astronaut mannequin and flag. The flag, which was similar to those used in the 1969-1971 lunar missions, has only been at the site since the museum's 1976 opening, and already it is quite noticeably faded. Here, the sun's rays are filtered by miles of atmosphere and the plexiglass roof of the museum. I dare say that the unfiltered UV rays hitting the lunar surface have fully destroyed all the flags left by the Apollo crews by now.
Nick Artimovich, 18 Nov 1996

After I saw the movie Apollo 13, I read several books about the Americans going to the moon, and I remember reading about this little-known episode. I can't remember exactly which book it was in, but it was either in an official NASA history or in Moonshot by astronauts Deke Slayton and Alan Shepard, so I would consider this much more than a rumor.
Dean Tiegs, 19 Nov 1996

I remember watching a television special on the lunar landings and one of the astronauts (Buzz Aldrin, I think) mentioned that he actually saw the flag fall as they were lifting off and that they had decided that mentioning this on their return would have been bad PR (Public Relations).
Nathan Augustine

In 1992, I gave a paper at the NAVA meeting in San Antonio entitled "Where No Flag Has Gone Before: Political and Technical Aspects of Placing a Flag on the Moon" [pff94a]. NASA has since published the paper as a contractor report (NASA CR-188251) [pff92b]. The NASA version of the paper includes some of the engineering drawings for the lunar flag assembly. A shortened version of this paper was published on an American space magazine called "Final Frontier," July/August 1994 issue, pages 94-95 [pff94].
Annie Platoff

Current condition of six flags on the Moon

Here's an official publication from NASA regarding the current status (as of 2012) of the U.S. flags on the moon: www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/ApolloFlags-Condition.html
Esteban Rivera, 20 August 2014

The scraps that didn't go

From www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/science/space/18moon.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

"Flag Soared to the Moon, but Not Bids for 3 Scraps"
by DOUGLAS QUENQUA
Published: July 17, 2011 NEW YORK TIMES

They were three fabric scraps trimmed from the flag later planted on the moon by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 mission. They never made it to the moon, but rather were discarded in a trash bin and recovered by Thomas Moser, a NASA engineer. And now - mounted to a poster with a nice photograph, and signed by Mr. Armstrong himself - they have sold for $45,000.

A segment of the lunar flag, lower left, from the famed flag planted on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, sold for $45,000.

The price was less than Mr. Moser had hoped for. As the featured attraction in an auction of space memorabilia in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 9, the flag pieces had been offered for a minimum of $100,000. When the highest bid - about $50,000 - fell far short of that, Mr. Moser and the auction house changed plans and instead offered the scraps to the highest bidder in a private sale.

The buyer chose to remain anonymous - even to Mr. Moser - to protect his privacy, said Michael Orenstein, who oversaw the auction for Goldberg Coins and Collectibles. Mr. Orenstein described the buyer only as an East Coast man whose interest in the flag pieces was "historical."

Mr. Moser had decided that now would be a good time to part with his memento, given the interest that surrounded the flight of the final NASA space shuttle, Atlantis, on July 8. Mr. Moser, during his 25 years at NASA, helped oversee the development of the space shuttle program, "from sketch pad to launch pad," he said by telephone.

While $100,000 had seemed reasonable for such an unusual piece of American history before the auction, Mr. Orenstein said, he conceded that the nature of the item had made it difficult to appraise. "There's nothing to compare it to, so we were flying blind," he said. "The market dictates, and it proved us wrong." For his part, Mr. Moser expressed satisfaction with the outcome. "I understand that the person who bought it is a serious flag collector and wants to preserve it," he said. "So that's cool."

A version of this article appeared in print on July 18, 2011, on page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Flag Soared To the Moon, But Not Bids For 3 Scraps.

located by Bill Garrison, 20 July 2011

NASA engineer Jack Kinzler passed away today. He designed the US flags that were left on the moon.
http://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/unsungHeroes.html

Jack A. Kinzler: The Man Who Saved Skylab
By Craig Collins

Mr. Fix It - Jack Kinzler thought of an easier way to accomplish the difficult Skylab repair mission. Nobody better illustrates the youthful, can-do exuberance of NASA's early years than Jack Kinzler. Stumped for a way to get his new model of the Mercury capsule at Langley Research Center fitted to an Atlas rocket in Cape Canaveral, the whiz kid got some rope and tied it down on a mattress-padded flatbed truck for the journey from Virginia to Florida.

For nearly 20 years, Kinzler, who never earned a four-year college degree, worked as a model-maker, tool-maker and machine-shop superintendent for the National Advisory Council for Aeronautics. He took his reputation as a fix-it man to the Space Task Group and later became chief of the Technical Services Center - an all-purpose machine and tool shop - at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Among the innovations spawned in Kinzler's shop at Johnson were the flexible rubber boot between a space capsule and its re-entry heat shield that softened ocean landings, the plaques placed on the lunar surface by each of the Apollo moon landings, and the hand-held maneuvering unit used by Ed White in the first spacewalk by a U.S. astronaut during the Gemini IV mission. Kinzler himself, dissatisfied with the plan to have an American flag displayed prominently on the side of the lunar module, devised a permanent fixture: his 3-by-5-foot freestanding flag, stowed on the underside of the module's ladder, was unfurled and driven into the moon's surface by each of the lunar landing crews, though the Apollo 12 crew was unable to deploy the telescoping bar that extends the flag outward.
Kinzler also helped design the special six-iron club head that Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard fitted to the handle of a lunar sampling scoop to make his two famous golf drives. But the achievement that earned him NASA's Distinguished Service Medal was accomplished within a period of 10 dramatic days in May of 1973.

During the launch of the Skylab Space Station on May 14, 1973, a meteorite shield prematurely deployed and created atmospheric drag, which set off a disastrous chain reaction: the meteorite shield was ripped off, along with one of the solar panels, and another solar panel was jammed partially shut by the debris. As Skylab reached orbit, it had very little power, and its laboratory area was exposed directly to solar heat. The temperature inside the laboratory would conceivably rise higher than 130 degrees Fahrenheit, spoiling the on-board film and foods and making the station uninhabitable.

The launch of Skylab's three-man crew, scheduled for the next day, was postponed as troubleshooters throughout NASA puzzled over how to salvage the $2.6 billion outpost. While many focused on the idea of repairing the shield from the outside by a spacewalking repairman, Kinzler looked for a simpler solution. "I found there was a sally port - that's a camera port, 8 inches square, right on the side of the spacecraft - where the heat shield had ripped off," Kinzler later recalled. He immediately had the thought: "Why don't we use this sally port opening to deploy something from the inside?"

Kinzler quickly sent technicians on three errands: driving to a Houston sporting-goods store to buy four telescoping fishing poles; acquiring a 24-foot square of parachute silk; and ordering an 8-inch diameter tube from the metal shop. Kinzler built his prototype - a parasol that could be pushed through the camera port and unfurled by activating springs and telescoping tubes - and demonstrated it to higher-ups on the floor of a space center hangar. "It laid right out on the floor," Kinzler said. "Talk about impressive. They said, 'That's it!'"

After docking with the space station on May 26, the crew of Skylab 2, Pete Conrad, Joseph Kerwin, and Paul Weitz, entered the laboratory and inserted a slender 4-foot long container into the camera port. They pushed through the shield, an aluminized 24-by-28-foot Inconel parasol, and deployed it. The temperature inside soon dropped to 70 degrees, and the crew began its scheduled experiments in relative comfort.

Kinzler's greatest source of pride was that the parasol was conceived and executed almost entirely by government employees. "We stayed awake and worked for six solid days, around the clock," he said. "We had a hundred employees working on this thing, and we did everything. We made all the parts. We demonstrated how it's to be done. And we completely pulled that thing off without any outside help."
Dave Fowler, 4 March 2014

Claims of manufacturing the flags on the moon

Actually, there is no way to prove which company made the flags or which person made them. But we could add some information about claims that have been made.
Annie Platoff, 23 May 2015

Dolores Black
On "Fox TV", 30 May 2009, Ray Collins introduced Dolores Black, the woman who sewed the flag put on the moon by Neil Armstrong on 20 July 1969. Ms. Black then worked in Milwaukee for Eder Flag Manufacturing Co. in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. A secret well-kept by Ms. Black and her boss was that she signed the flag by sewing her name on the inner seam. The video footage and its transcript are available on Fox TV Tampa Bay website: www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/scitech/space/moon_flag_lady_052909.

Dolores Black was already introduced on 8 September 2008 by "Bay News 9", as "the second Betsy Ross" (sic). She refuted the conspiracy theory that the moon landing was fake: "She says pictures of the flag that make it look like it's blowing in the wind when there is no wind is exactly how she created it. Black says she sewed a nylon lining into the flag so that it would withstand the conditions on the moon and hold its shape better. She says there was also a pole across the top which made the flag stand out when there was no wind to blow it."
www.baynews9.com/content/36/2008/9/8/380464.html - transcript, TV footage no longer available

As reported by Vin Mannix, "The Bradenton Herald", 27 May 2009, Dolores Black, now aged 82, is being honored by an art exhibit at Manatee Community College, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. She gives more details on the flag manufacturing: "Black usually took three hours to make a flag. She was given two weeks for this one. It was made of double-faced nylon with embroidered stars and a lining for reinforcement."
www.bradenton.com/vin_mannix/story/1465349.html (no longer available)
Ivan Sache, 1 June 2009

Phyllis J. San Antonio
I have important and historic information on the history of the Apollo 11 flag deployed on the moon by Neil Armstrong. I know who the actual company was and persons who manufactured the Apollo American Flag that is on the moon. The company was Olymipic Embroidery owned by Phyllis J. San Antonio who is survived by her sisters Rose and Louise San Antonio of Long Branch New Jersey. Her obituary: Phyllis J. San Antonio.
Kim Bailey, 23 May 2015

Other flags once on the Moon

image by Ralph Kelly, 17 June 2009

This photograph is of the Australian flag that was carried to the moon. I actually used the photograph in my lecture to the ICV in Cape Town ("Filibuster:the century long Australian flag debate" ) with the comment "A flag that had travelled to the Moon and safely returned could not be changed."

The information about the flag I provided in a footnote was: "A 4x6 inch flag was carried to the Moon on Apollo 11, which, together with a fragment of moon rock was "presented to the people of the Commonwealth of Australia by Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America." Hilary Golder, Documenting a Nation, Australian Archives, Canberra, 1994, page 44

I also remember seeing the same display case with a South African flag in one of the museum displays we saw at the ICV17.

Ralph Kelly, 17 June 2009