394 HISTORY OF TH1 COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



AMERICAN FLAG ON THE MOON — 1969 



When Congressman Richard L. Roudebush (Republican of 

 Indiana) offered an amendment to the NASA Authorization Act in 

 1969, requiring that the American flag and none other be implanted 

 on the surface of the Moon, the amendment was immediately accepted 

 on the House floor by Chairman Miller and Ranking Minority Mem- 

 ber Fulton. A somewhat similar amendment had been tabled in com- 

 mittee because it carried the implication that the United States was 

 establishing jurisdictional sovereignty and ownership of the Moon, 

 in violation of the 1967 space treaty. Meanwhile, Roudebush had 

 altered his amendment to indicate the implanting of the flag "is in- 

 tended as a symbolic gesture of national pride in achievement and is 

 not to be construed as a declaration of national appropriation by claim 

 of sovereignty." The amendment spurred a spirited debate over the 

 international implications involved. Roudebush argued: 



Over $23 billion in hard-earned taxpayers' money will have been spent to carry 

 out this formidable task. In all due fairness to the American taxpayer, it does not seem 

 too much to ask that our flag — Old Glory — be left on the lunar surface as a symbol 

 of U.S. pre-eminence in space to which the citizens of this Nation can refer with 

 pride. * * * History and national pride dictate that our achievements be duly com- 

 memorated. I know of no act more significant nor symbolic that would memorialize 

 our achievements than the erection of the "Stars and Stripes" on the surface of the 

 Moon. 



Fulton added that "the Russians recently sent the coat of arms as well 

 as a picture of Lenin to the surface of Venus." Symington countered 

 that the President through NASA should have the discretion to direct 

 which flags or symbols should be placed on the Moon. He commented 

 that the placing of Russian symbols on Venus was not a good example 

 to follow, because — 



I do not recall that this occasioned the general approbation of mankind. Nor did 

 I realize we were accepting lessons from that particular source in how to win the 

 hearts and minds of men. * * * Jefferson wanted us to maintain "a decent respect 

 for the opinions of mankind." What "respect" does this graceless edict demon- 

 strate for the opinions of nations which produced Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, 

 Einstein, Tsiolkovsky, and other giants in thought and deed? What star or stripe is 

 tarnished on Old Glory by a simple gesture honoring the whole history of man, his 

 collective dream, and his epic persistence without which our own continent might 

 yet be undiscovered? 



Miller and Teague pointed out that the American flag was already on 

 the Moon by being painted on the side of the Surveyor spacecraft 

 which had soft landed on the Moon, therefore there was no reason to 

 object to the Roudebush amendment. Representative Allard Lowen- 

 stein (Democrat of New York) asked whether Congress would not 



