When we talk about historic photographs, plenty of them come to mind — but one stands out above all the rest. Which one are we talking about? The unforgettable photo of the American flag planted on the Moon, next to Buzz Aldrin. Armstrong and Aldrin descended to the lunar surface inside the lunar module, while Collins stayed alone in orbit around the Moon aboard Columbia.
Aldrin stepped out of the Eagle after Armstrong. By the time this photo was taken, both had already been working on the surface for a while.
When Was It Taken?
July 20, 1969. NASA officially dates the photograph to that day — though there's a small catch when it comes to the exact time.
The precise moment is recorded in Mission Elapsed Time (MET), the time elapsed since launch. For this photograph, that reads MET 110:10:33 — meaning 110 hours, 10 minutes and 33 seconds after liftoff.
Apollo 11 launched on July 16, 1969, at approximately 13:32 UTC. Doing the math, that places the |photo at:
- July 20, 1969, 10:42:33 PM Houston time (CDT), or
- July 21, 1969, 3:42:33 AM UTC
Why Does the Flag Look Like It's Waving?
This is probably the most interesting part. There's no atmosphere on the Moon, so there's no wind that could make a flag wave. So why does it look like it's flapping?
Because the flag was specifically designed to look extended. NASA fitted a horizontal rod along the top of the pole, which was meant to keep the flag unfurled in the lunar vacuum. The problem was that the telescoping rod didn't extend all the way.
Armstrong later explained that they tried to extend it fully but couldn't. That's why the fabric stayed partially folded, with the creases visible in the photograph. So it isn't waving in the wind — it's essentially frozen in the exact position it was left in.
What Camera Did They Use?
The camera was a lunar-surface Hasselblad loaded with 70mm film. It wasn't an ordinary Hasselblad — it had been specially modified to work in lunar conditions.
For this photograph, the >Apollo 11 photo catalog lists the following:
- Mission: >Apollo 11
- Magazine: 40
- Frame: 5875
- Film: color
- Focal length: 60mm
- Subject: Aldrin + flag
- Camera: lunar surface Hasselblad
The full identifier is AS11-40-5875, which breaks down as: AS11 for Apollo 11, 40 for the film magazine, and 5875 for the frame number.
And There's Something Even Crazier
Even though the photo looks like a carefully staged image, everything happened pretty fast. Armstrong and Aldrin were working. They planted the flag. Armstrong stepped back a few paces. Aldrin got into position. Armstrong raised the Hasselblad. Click.
This photo isn't really about the landing on the lunar surface — it's about the extraordinary pace of human progress: in just a couple of centuries, we went from sailing wooden ships to conquering a world beyond our own.