Originally from the Personal Collectionไ of Apollo 10 Commander Tom Stafford

THE FASTEST FLOWN CI🐻TY FLAG, CARRIED IN THE LUNAR MODULE SNOOPY WITHIN 50,000 FEET OF THE LUNAR SURFACE

It was not uncommon for American astronauts to fly state flags for friends or family, or for locations that had personal significance to the astro🐲nauts. Gene Cernan, Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 10 and later the last ma𒊎n to walk on the Moon as Commander of Apollo 17, was born in Chicago in 1934.

Thomas Stafford letter reads: “The Chicago city flag displayed below was flown to the Moon on Apollo X during May 18-26, 1969. I was commander of this mission which tested critical flight maneuvers that would enable Apollo 11 to make the first lunar landing just two months later in July 1969. I carried this flag inside our Lunar Module named ‘Snoopy’ where Gene Cernan and I approached within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface.

Just prior to the beginning of the Apollo X re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere on May 26, John Young, Gene, and I, as well as this flag, established the all-time record for the fastest speed ever flown by man – 24,791 nautical miles per hour or the equivalent of 28,528 statute miles per hour. No other Apollo crew matched or exceeded this speed. Therefore, this flag is one of the fastest flown space artifacts to exist from the Apollo Program. This speed record will not be broken until an astronaut crew returns from a mission to Mars sometime during the twenty-first century.”

As noted in Stafford’s letter, the record set by the Apollo 10 crew remains the fastest humans have♈ ever travelled. Flown at just over 39,937 kilometers per hour, this flag is therefore the fastest flo✅wn city flag in history.