Did Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin touch the flag and cause the motion during Apollo 11?

1. What the pictures and NASA records actually show

Images from the Apollo 11 EVA show a flag with ripples and a partially extended horizontal support, and NASA’s documentation and later image reviews indicate the flag’s top rod did not fully extend and the fabric retained the shape made when astronauts planted it, so the apparent motion came from those placement dynamics rather than atmospheric wind ^{[6] [1] [5]}. Analyses of post‑mission orbital photography also found no standing flag in the Apollo 11 site photos taken later, supporting the view that the flag did not remain upright through launch ^{[3] [7]}.

2. What Armstrong and Aldrin did while planting the flag

Contemporaneous accounts and later NASA summaries record that Armstrong and Aldrin struggled with the lunar soil and the flag assembly: they twisted and jammed the pole into dense regolith, extended a right‑angled rod to hold the flag out, and in the process created ripples in the fabric as they adjusted its position — movements that show up as a “flapping” effect in still photos and video ^{[5] [1] [6]}. Reporting that inspects those photos closely attributes the ripples to the astronauts’ attempts to set the horizontal bar and to the stiff folds from handling rather than any environmental wind ^{[1] [2]}.

3. Engineering decisions that made the flag appear to “wave”

Because there is no atmosphere on the Moon, NASA’s engineers devised a telescoping pole with a perpendicular, right‑angled crossbar so the nylon flag would appear unfurled on camera; the crossbar sometimes failed to telescope fully and the crew could only insert the pole a few inches into unexpectedly compact regolith, so the final shape of the flag reflected how it was forced into position, including bends and creases that look like motion when seen in photographs ^{[5] [8] [2]}.

4. Astronaut testimony about the flag after liftoff

Buzz Aldrin and other mission reporting later said that the Apollo 11 flag did not survive intact forever: Aldrin reported that the flag was likely blown over by the ascent‑stage exhaust when Eagle lifted off, and Neil Armstrong reportedly saw the pole blow over during liftoff — accounts used to explain why subsequent high‑resolution imagery could not find a standing flag at the site ^{[3] [9] [8]}. Space historians and investigators treat those firsthand recollections as credible explanations for the flag’s eventual collapse ^[7].

5. Why conspiracy readings are wrong and what they get right

Conspiracy theorists point to the rippling fabric as evidence of a hoax, claiming the flag “waved” in a vacuum, but reputable debunking and technical accounts show the flag’s ripples were produced by human handling and the designed stiffening bar; skeptics who focus solely on still images ignore the engineering context and astronaut testimony that explain both the initial appearance and the flag’s later toppling ^{[4] [1] [10]}. At the same time, authoritative sources concede that the flag did not remain pristine: either human placement or the ascent exhaust (as Aldrin and others described) accounts for its current absence or collapsed state in later orbital photos ^{[3] [7]}.

6. Direct answer

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did physically handle and manipulate the flag during deployment, and those movements — plus a partially extended horizontal rod and creasing from handling — produced the apparent motion seen in photos and video; later, Aldrin and others reported that the flag was likely knocked over by Eagle’s rocket exhaust during liftoff, so the motion was not caused by wind but by astronaut activity and later by the ascent plume ^{[1] [2] [3]}.