Apollo mission remnants can be seen by the Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter When astronauts first touched down on the moon in 1969
as part of NASA's Apollo 11 mission — and for every Apollo
mission that followed — they left behind evidence that they'd
been there, some intentional and some necessary. The most iconic
of these were six American flags, all of which were thought to
have been destroyed by the harsh conditions on the lunar service
or at least knocked over my now. As it turns out, all but one
are still standing. Photographs taken by NASA's Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) satellite show that five of the
flags are right where we left them. The first one, by Apollo
11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, was blown down by the lift-
off thrust from their lunar lander as it left the moon's surface
to reunite with the orbiting command module. The LRO images also
show objects such as the lunar rovers used by some Apollo
missions, and even the tire tracks they left behind. One of the
most intriguing aspects of th