Where is the american flag on the moon
Man on the moon 50 years later: The flag
[Music]
I'm David Kerley at the Smithsonian Air
and Space Museum where we are marking 50
years since man landed and walked on the
moon in a lander just like this one one
of the most iconic images from the moon
is the one you just saw Buzz Aldrin's
standing next to that American flag and
there is quite a story about that flag
how it got on the LEM and to the moon
back in 2003 our colleague at the time
Lisa stark had the story Neil Armstrong
was first out followed by Buzz Aldrin
two hours and 32 minutes walking on the
moon collecting rocks conducting
experiments and planting the American
flag I didn't know all the details about
how to put it together but I didn't
figure that putting two sticks together
was going to be that difficult in fact
it was nearly a disaster the flag story
begins a few short months before the
lunar module touched down that's when
NASA made the decision to put an
American flag on the moon it was
controversial there was a UN treaty that
banned any country from claiming the
moon as its own so this was to be a
symbolic gesture I was not to talk to
speak to anyone about it Tom Moser a
young NASA engineer was drafted to help
with the clandestine project the flag
was the easy part
straight from a government catalogue
$5.50
but where to put it number one it cannot
go in the command module because there's
not room number two it cannot go in the
lunar module because there's not room
for it it wound up on the ladder from
the lunar module folded just so with a
collapsible flagpole and a telescoping
arm to hold the flag out straight like
this the only way to make the flag fly
on the windless surface of the moon but
it didn't work as planned it would not
extend because
the telescoping rod had a coating on it
that it caused it to gall if you will or
to to weld it stuck
so the inventiveness of humans rather
than leaving that in an awkward position
we kind of spread out the flag over the
whole part of it and put that artistic
touch on it and so the flag appears to
be waving in the breeze conspiracy
theorists say that's evidence man never
landed on the moon
but they did now so like the mistakes so
much you designed all the rest of the
lunar flags to look just like this one
because that flag was store-bought the
experts believe that the Sun has
bleached out all the colors but it's
still there
more on the moon landing and moonwalk 50
years ago here on ABC News live I'm
David Kerley
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