Lunar Flag Assembly

The Lunar Flag Assembly (LFA) was a kit containing a flag of the United States designed to be planted by astronauts on the Moon during the Apollo program. Six such flag assemblies were planted on the Moon. 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, 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 in Houston, Texas. Six of the flags were ordered from a government supply catalog and measured 3 by 5 feet (0.91 by 1.52 m); the last one planted on the Moon was the slightly larger, 6-foot (1.8 m)-wide flag which had hung in the Mission Operations Control Room in the Manned Spacecraft Center for most of the Apollo program.

In January of 1969, President Richard M. Nixon set an international tone for the Apollo program in his inaugural address:

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, discussed within NASA, of having the astronauts plant a United Nations flag on the first landing. Acting NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine appointed a Committee on Symbolic Activities for the First Lunar Landing on February 25, which he instructed 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 was "taking possession of the moon" in violation of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. The committee considered several options, including leaving the UN flag, a United States flag, a set of miniature flags of all nations, and another commemorative marker on the surface. The committee recommended leaving the U.S. flag along with a commemorative plaque bearing the inscription: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind." The memorial would be attached to the Lunar Module descent stage and left on the Moon.

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