Flag on the Moon

Photo Size: 8" x 10" - Remastered Silver Halide Photo - Suitable for Framing

Plane Type: Saturn V Rocket

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. The problems of flying a flag in the vacuum of space are fairly obvious. Only the flag planted by the first men on the moon, Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, is not erect. Back when the two men took off from the lunar surface, Aldrin noticed the flag was blown over by the exhaust from their spacecraft's engine during liftoff.

The Condition of the flags now according to Lunar Scientist Paul Spudis:
For forty-odd years, the flags have been exposed to the full fury of the Moon’s environment – alternating 14 days of searing sunlight and 100° C heat with 14 days of numbing-cold -150° C darkness.  But even more damaging is the intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the pure unfiltered sunlight on the cloth (modal) from which the Apollo flags were made.  Even on Earth, the colors of a cloth flag flown in bright sunlight for many years will eventually fade and need to be replaced. So it is likely that these symbols of American achievement have been rendered blank, bleached white by the UV radiation of unfiltered sunlight on the lunar surface.  Some of them may even have begun to physically disintegrate under the intense flux.