China plants its flag on moon before return trip to Earth - New York Post

More than a half-century after US astronauts first planted the Stars and Stripes on the moon, China replicated the feat — though unmanned — by unfurling its red flag on the lunar surface.

But the highlight before leaving the surface was what the space administration called the first real Chinese flag on the moon — a five-star, red banner made from fabric, according to the Global Times of China.

The country’s national flag made its moon debut in December 2013 during the country’s first lunar landing.

“An ordinary national flag on Earth would not survive the severe lunar environment,” team member Cheng Chang told the Global Times

Chinese officials recalled the iconic images sent back to Earth from the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left behind the first American flag on the moon

“Yesterday’s memory is still fresh and clear, when the US astronauts stepped outside their cabins and planted the first flag in human history, an American national flag, on the moon in 1969,” Song Zhongping recalled