Word by Matt de Neef, The Conversation
Apollo 50: International Cooperation in space
21.08.2023 - 11:47 / theunconventionalgardener.com / Emma Doughty
When it landed on the Moon, the Eagle lunar lander bore a plaque inscribed with the message “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” But Armstrong and Aldrin planted an American flag on the Moon. Initially it was thought that a United Nations flag would be better, because it wouldn’t imply that the US was claiming possession of the Moon – the United Nations Treaty on Outer Space prevents any territorial claims. So the flag-raising was strictly a symbolic activity, but Congress amended NASA’s appropriations bill to prevent astronauts from placing flags of other nations, or those of international associations, on the Moon during missions funded solely by the United States.
Erecting a flag in low gravity was an interesting technical problem for NASA’s engineers, and thrusting it into the lunar surface proved very difficult for the astronauts. The flag’s apparent motion has long been a topic of contention for conspiracists who think the lunar landing was faked, but their arguments have been well and truly debunked.
The lunar landing is seen as the moment in which the US won the space race, knocking the Soviets back into their rightful secondary place. What’s less well known is that just 10 days after making his famous announcement that the US would reach for the Moon, President Kennedy reached out to the Soviet Union with the idea of making it a joint mission. Nikita Khrushchev declined the offer, but there are suggestions that he had warmed up to the idea by the time it was repeated in September 1963. However, fate would intervene – Kennedy was assassinated shortly afterwards, and Khrushchev was ousted from office. And so it was an American flag that was
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