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Why the U.S. Flag On Moon Has Ripples 81

Why Does the U.S. Flag on Saturn V rocket. the wind. Ironically, that famous picture of Buzz
The flag would be left on the moon along Aldrin posing next to the flag is often cited as
the Moon Have Ripples? with a plaque that reads: "Here men from the evidence by conspiracy theorists as proof the
planet Earth first set foot upon the moon, July mission to the moon was a hoax.
1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind." They claim the rippled flag could not
By Gina Treadgold
have actually been on the moon since there is no
Unfurling Glitch breeze on the moon. The flag's waves, they
It was a top secret project mandated by Congress
argue, were created by a breeze in some top
in the spring of 1969. The job: Figure out how to
Tom Moser was watching the famous lunar secret NASA stage set depicting the moon's
fly the U.S. flag on the moon during the historic
landing from home with his family and friends surface.
Apollo 11 mission.
on July 20, 1969, along with millions of people
The success or failure of the project
depended on a small team of engineers at the around the world. He recalls holding his breath Flag Politics
until the Lunar Module touched down.
Johnson Space Center, including Tom Moser,
"I watched Neil Armstrong go down the There were political implications as well,
then a young design engineer at the Johnson
ladder … it looked like he fell, I thought he had according to Anne Platoff, a historian who wrote
Space Center.
caught his spacesuit on the ladder, that it had about the Apollo 11 flag in a paper, Where No
"Someone in Congress said make it
ripped his suit open, and that was the end of Flag Has Flown Before. She explains the United
happen, but it had to be done quietly, because
manned space flight and it was all my fault," he Nations had passed a treaty stating "outer space,
putting a U.S. flag on the moon was politically
said. including the moon and other celestial bodies is
sensitive," said Moser, who is now retired.
The ladder did not fail, the flag did not not subject to national appropriation."
snag Neil Armstrong's suit and Armstrong did The United States would not and could
Bought Off the Shelf
not fall. He just skipped the last step, jumped to not claim the moon. Instead, raising the flag
the moon's surface, and said those memorable would be a symbol of the single-minded pursuit
Flying a flag on the moon wasn't simple. First,
words: "That's one small step for man, one giant that began with President John F. Kennedy's
NASA officials would have to side-step a United
leap for mankind." pledge to Congress on May 26, 1961:
Nations treaty that bans the national
The flag was deployed at 4 days, 14 "I believe this nation should commit
appropriation of outer space or any celestial
hours and 9 minutes into the mission and it itself to achieving the goal before this decade is
bodies. wasn't easy. out, of landing a man on the moon and returning
It also involved tricky technical issues In Edgar M. Cortwright's book, Apollo him safely to the earth. No single space project
that no one had dealt with before. Where do you
Expeditions to the Moon, astronaut Buzz Aldrin in this period will be more impressive to
put it on the lunar module to protect it from the
recalled what happened when he and Neil mankind, or more important for the long range
elements, for example? And how do you make it
Armstrong tried to set the flag up. exploration of space, and none will be so
easy for an astronaut to locate and deploy?
"It took both of us to set it up and it was difficult or expensive to accomplish."
The flag was encased in a heat resistant
nearly a public relations disaster," he wrote, "a Now there are six U.S. flags on the lunar
tube attached to the ladder of the lunar module.
small telescoping arm was attached to the surface, left by the crews of each Apollo
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin could simply
flagpole to keep the flag extended and mission. Each flag was deliberately designed
detach it after they descended to Tranquility perpendicular. As hard as we tried, the telescope with the same flaw to prevent the horizontal
Base. wouldn't fully extend. Thus the flag which telescoping rod from fully extending.
The design team flew out to the Kennedy
should have been flat had its own permanent So when astronauts from the United
Space Center just days before the launch. At 4
wave." States, or another nation, return to the moon,
a.m. on July 16, 1969 — the morning of the
The wrong coating had been applied to they will still find the rippled flag flying at
launch — the team mounted the flag to the
the telescoping rod, so it wouldn't fully extend, Tranquility Base. []
Lunar Module of Apollo 11 as it sat atop a
which is why the flag looks like it is waving in