Apollo Moon Mission Flags Still Standing - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.

NASA sent multiple missions to the moon between 1969 and 1972. All of the Apollo missions that successfully landed on the moon left an American flag on the surface. According to ABC, all of the flags except for the very first one, left there by Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, are still flying and casting shadows on the moon’s surface. Aldrin reported that the Apollo 11 flag was blown over by the exhaust from the engines during their takeoff from the moon.

Arizona State University professor, and lead scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, Mark Robinson, said that he was “a bit surprised that the flags survived the harsh ultraviolet light and temperatures of the lunar surface, but they did.” The flags have likely experienced fading, along with wear and tear over the years. NASA says that that camera is sending back the highest resolution photos ever taken in space from an unmanned spacecraft. Along with pictures, it has been recording temperatures and radiation levels while orbiting the moon for over three years.