A British engineer reveals that he made Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin put a British flag on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.
The engineer wanted to incorporate some Britishness to the mission. Thus, he made sure that the astronauts brought something to the moon, which will "give Brits a bit of credit."
Sneaky Move Makes History
In an interview with the BBC One's The One Show, Keith Wright from Nottingham details how he made it happen.
"We were working on the experiments that the astronauts were going to put on the lunar surface," Wright recalls. Armstrong and Aldrin came in to do some test runs with him.
Wright explains that there were two supporting devices that held the solar panels folded during the transit to the moon. The three of them signed their names on it, and Wright thought of putting "UK." Ultimately, he added a little Union Flag drawing.
Wright recalls Armstrong to be very relaxed and even a little comical. They were so focused on their work that things just seemed normal back then. Thinking about it afterward made him realized that he did get the astronauts' signatures.
Who Is Wright?
Wright hails from England and worked at the de Havilland engine company. In there, he was tasked to work on the Blue Streak rocket. In 1967, he and his young family moved to the United States.
He got a job as an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center, where he worked on the 1969 Apollo space missions.
The Apollo 11 mission was watched by approximately 500 million people. Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon's surface, particularly on the Sea of Tranquility, followed by Buzz Aldrin. The duo planted the United States flag and subsequently set up the device that contained the British flag doodle.
