Flag Day is June 14 and it reminds me of one of the most famous
“stars and stripes” in history – the one left on the Moon by the
Apollo 11 crew in 1969. I remember clearly that day when, as a
teenager, I watched with my family as the flag was planted on
the lunar surface. It brought chills to us all. It was only
later that many people began to wonder why the flag appeared to
be waving as if catching a breeze. How could a flag move where
there is no wind, people wanted to know. But there is a simple
explanation. NASA engineers, who must have had premonitions of a
flag hanging limply in one of the most historic scenes ever
captured on film, designed the Moon flag, and all subsequent
ones, with a horizontal bar that allowed them to “fly” without
the benefit of a breeze. I guess if you’re clever enough to land
a man on the Moon, you’re clever enough to make a flag stand up
horizontally. You can see a replica of one of these flags – and
see for yourself how it “waves” without wind – in the Lunar
Module display in