* Authenticated by Apollo 15 Command Module pilot, Alfred M. Worden in 2010
By Duncan Mlanjira
The Malawi flag went to the moon aboard the 1971 Apollo 15 in the spacecraft ’Endeavour’ and remained in the command module during the lunar orbit phase of the flight.
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This was authenticated by Apollo 15 Command Module pilot, Alfred M. Worden in 2010 when the flag was auctioned for sale by NASA.
In the Certificate of Authenticity, Worden said Apollo 15 was the fourth manned lunar landing, carrying for the first time a lunar rover and a Scientific Instrument Bay in the service module.
“The flight was launched on July 26 and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on August 7, 1971 — logging flight time of 295.2 hours and a distance of over 1.4 million miles.
“Dave Scott and Jim Irwin explored the region of Hadley Rille for three days while I conducted scientific experiments in orbit.
“On return to Earth, I performed a 38 minute Extra Vehicular Activity (Spacewalk) to recover film that had been exposed during the flight.”
Astronaut Worden
Worden adds that Apollo 15 has been declared the most scientific flight in the Apollo series.
A report on NASA website says Dave Scott and Jim Irwin deployed the US flag on the surface of the moon.
The first flag of rising sun of black, red and green of independent Malawi was adopted on 6 July 1964 that represented the dawn of hope and freedom for the continent of Africa.
According to Wikipedia, the 31 rays of the sun represent that Malawi was the 31st African nation at the time of its independence when the countries in Africa were gaining independence from European rule.
The black represents the indigenous people of the continent, the red symbolizes the blood of their struggle, and the green represents nature.
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