Apollo 11 Flown American Flag

Eight days in July

Apollo 11 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 a.m. Eastern time on July 16, 1969, carrying commander Neil Armstrong, command module pilot Michael Collins and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin. On July 20 the lunar module Eagle landed at Tranquility Base in the Sea of Tranquility. About six hours later Armstrong stepped onto the surface, watched by an estimated 600 million people, roughly a fifth of the world's population.

Armstrong and Aldrin spent about two and a half hours outside. Among their tasks was planting a 3-by-5-foot flag that cost $5.50, on an aluminum pole that pushed only about seven inches into the lunar soil. Aldrin later reported that rocket exhaust knocked it over when Eagle lifted off.

Collins stayed in orbit aboard the command module Columbia, the only part of the spacecraft that came home. It splashed down in the North Pacific on July 24, 1969, and is preserved at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. This flag made the whole trip inside it.

A flag you can hold in one hand

Not every flag on Apollo 11 went down to the surface, and the crew carried personal mementos too: Armstrong's personal kit in the lunar module, for example, carried wood and fabric from the Wright brothers' 1903 Flyer. This flag is a 6-by-4-inch silk U.S. flag with clear nylon stitching around the border, carried to the Moon and back aboard Columbia between July 16 and 24, 1969.

Mission-flown flags are a staple of space collecting. What sets this one apart is where it spent the following half century: with Armstrong himself, the first person to walk on the Moon, and then with his family. It has one storage fold at the upper right and is otherwise in excellent condition, sealed and numbered by an independent authentication service.

From the Armstrong family to auction

Neil Armstrong died on August 25, 2012, in Fairfield, Ohio, at 82. His family later worked with an authentication service to inventory, encapsulate and evaluate the items he had kept. The first sale from the Armstrong Family Collection, held November 1-3, 2018, offered nearly 1,000 items and brought $5,276,320. Its top lot was the Apollo 11 lunar module's identification plate at $468,500, and the largest U.S. flag Armstrong carried, measuring 17.75 by 11.5 inches, sold for $275,000, then a record for a space-flown flag.

This much smaller flag came up in a space exploration auction held November 12-13, 2021, with a statement of provenance signed by Armstrong's sons, Rick and Mark. It sold on November 12 for $275,000, 10 times its estimate. That was the highest price ever paid for a small-size flag, and it equaled the price of the far larger Armstrong flag three years earlier.

It led a sale that totaled $2,919,183. Other Armstrong Family Collection pieces in the same auction included fabric from the Wright Flyer at $125,000 and an Apollo 11 Robbins medallion at $106,250.

A souvenir of the farthest trip

Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, in Washington Township, Ohio, joined NASA's second astronaut group in 1962, flew Gemini 8 in 1966 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom after Apollo 11.

The flag he planted on the Moon was knocked flat by Eagle's exhaust as the astronauts left. The flags that came home are the ones people can hold, and this one, kept by the man who made the first footprint, is among the closest of them to the event itself.

The numbers

Launch

July 16, 1969, 9:32 a.m. EDT, Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center

Crew

Neil Armstrong (commander), Michael Collins (command module pilot), Buzz Aldrin (lunar module pilot)

Landing

July 20, 1969, 20:17:40 UTC, Tranquility Base

Moonwalk

About 2 hours 31 minutes; watched by an estimated 600 million people

Splashdown

July 24, 1969, North Pacific Ocean

Columbia today

National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.

Timeline

1. Aug 5, 1930

   Neil Armstrong is born in Washington Township, Ohio.

2. Sep 13, 1962

   Armstrong is selected in NASA's second astronaut group.

3. Mar 16, 1966

   Armstrong commands Gemini 8.

4. Jul 16, 1969

   Apollo 11 launches from Kennedy Space Center with this flag aboard Columbia.

5. Jul 20, 1969

   Eagle lands at Tranquility Base; Armstrong and Aldrin plant a full-size flag on the surface.

6. Jul 24, 1969

   Columbia splashes down in the North Pacific, bringing the flag home.

7. Aug 25, 2012

   Armstrong dies in Fairfield, Ohio, at 82.

8. Nov 1, 2018

   The first Armstrong Family Collection auction opens; it totals $5,276,320, and a larger Armstrong flag sells for $275,000.

9. Nov 12, 2021

   This 6-by-4-inch flag sells at auction for $275,000, a record for a small-size flag.

The world in 1969

• Jan 12, 1969

  The New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III.

• Jan 20, 1969

  Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th president.

• Feb 9, 1969

  The Boeing 747 makes its first flight from Everett, Washington.

• Jun 28, 1969

  The Stonewall riots begin in New York City.

• Aug 15, 1969

  The Woodstock festival opens in upstate New York.

• Nov 10, 1969

  Sesame Street premieres.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Apollo 11 Flown American Flag is number 96 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (98 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The full-size flag Armstrong and Aldrin planted on the Moon cost $5.50; its aluminum hardware cost $75.
• That surface flag only went about seven inches into the ground and was blown over by Eagle's exhaust at liftoff.
• This 6-by-4-inch flag sold for exactly the same price as a 17.75-by-11.5-inch Armstrong flag three years earlier.
• Armstrong's personal kit on the Moon carried pieces of the Wright brothers' 1903 Flyer.
• The flag's provenance statement is signed by Armstrong's sons, Rick and Mark.