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Other than by human interaction, the flag never has waved on the moon. There are several reasons for this.

First, all of the flags planted on the moon had a support bar across the top to hold the flag "open" rather than hanging limply down the pole. They did this to give the flag an appearance of blowing in the wind. There is no wind on the moon.

Second, the flags did not wave without first being moved by an astronaut (such as the astronaut twisting the pole as it was planted or by brushing the flag as he moved past it). In a low-gravity vacuum the material of the flag will behave differently than it would here on earth. This behavior is often cited as "proof" that the flag was blowing in the wind, which it was not. There is no wind on the moon.

Third, the location the Apollo 11 crew (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin) planted the flag turned out to be too close to the Lunar Module (LM). The also didn't get the pole very deep into the lunar surface. When the LM lifted off Aldrin saw the flag getting blown over.

Fouth, the flags were simple nylon flags bought at a local department store by NASA, the same you can buy today just about anywhere. After more than 40 years in direct, unfiltered sunlight, unprotected from the harmful radiation of the sun (protection provided to Earth by our atmosphere, something that is notably absent on the moon) the flag has most likely disintegrated into very small pieces, possibly into dust.

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11y ago

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