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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. Seven such flag assemblies were sent to the Moon, six of which were planted (the exception being the one carried on Apollo 13 which had to abort its landing due to a serious spacecraft failure). 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 . 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 ; the last one planted on the Moon was the slightly larger, -wide flag which had hung in the Mission Operations Control Room in the Manned Spacecraft Center for most of the Apollo program.
==Political background==
In January of 1969, President Richard M. Nixon set an international tone for the Apollo program in his inaugural address:
This stirred discussion within NASA of the idea of having the astronauts plant a United Nations flag on the first landing.〔Richard Nixon, "Inaugural Address, January 20, 1969," in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon -- Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President 1969 (Washington, D.C.: USGPO, 1971).〕〔George M. Low, memo to Director of JSC, 23 January 1969, on file at the JSC History Office.〕 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 () 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.〔T. O. Paine, NASA Acting Administrator, memo to Associate and Assistant Administrators and Center Directors, 25 February 1969, on file at the NASA Headquarters (HQ) History Office; George M. Low, memo to Director of JSC, 23 January 1969, on file at the JSC History Office; Willis H. Shapley, NASA Associate Deputy Administrator and Chairman of the Committee on Symbolic Activities, memos to Dr. Mueller of the Apollo Program Office, 19 April 1969 and 2 July 1969, and memo to the Administrator of NASA, n.d., on file at the NASA HQ History Office; Leonard Jaffe, Director for Space Science and Applications Programs, memo to the Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications, 13 March 1969, on file at the NASA HQ History Office.〕 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", attached to the Lunar Module descent stage which would be left on the Moon.
Some Americans anticipated possible controversy over planting the United States flag on the Moon, since territorial claims to any extraterrestrial body were prohibited by the Outer Space Treaty. But since it was made clear the United States had no intention of making a territorial claim to the Moon, no serious controversy materialized. In fact, the United States Congress passed a bill in November 1969, stating "the flag of the United States, and no other flag, shall be implanted or otherwise placed on the surface of the moon, or on the surface of any planet, by members of the crew of any spacecraft ... as part of any mission ... the funds for which are provided entirely by the Government of the United States. ... this act is intended as a symbolic gesture of national pride in achievement and is not to be construed as a declaration of national appropriation by claim of sovereignty", signed into law by President Nixon.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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