This page, linked off the above mentioned Wikipedia article, is actually a pretty interesting read on the engineering challenge of shipping a flag to the Moon i

This page, linked off the above mentioned Wikipedia article, is actually a pretty interesting read on the engineering challenge of shipping a flag to the Moon in such a manner that people in space suits could unpack it and set it up. http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/flag/flag.htm http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/flag/flag.htm The first U.S. flag on the moon was deployed by Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin during their historic EVA on 20 July 1969 (at 4 days, 14 hours and 9 minutes mission-elapsed time). The flag was seen worldwide on live television (Fig. 6). At their technical crew debriefing, Armstrong and Aldrin reported few problems with the deployment. They had trouble extending the horizontal telescoping rod and could not pull it all the way out. This gave the flag a bit of a "ripple effect," and later crews intentionally left the rod partially retracted.