Three secretaries had been sent out to buy 3x5-foot nylon flags for the Apollo Mission during their lunch hours. After they had returned, they realized that they had all purchased their flags at Sears! Annin was the official flag supplier for Sears at the time so this story seems to confirm that the flag had been manufactured by Annin.
NASA did not want an advertising campaign based upon the fact that a commercial product had been used by the astronauts, and in a press release the agency only said, "The Stars and Stripes to be deployed on the Moon was purchased along with several others made by different manufacturers at stores in the area around the Manned Spacecraft Center near Houston.In order to attach the flag properly to its aluminium staff it was necessary to remove the binding and labels. For this reason the name of the manufacturer cannot be determined."
It took three months to engineer the lunar flag. To compensate for the lack of an atmosphere on the lunar surface, the flag assembly included a horizontal crossbar to give the illusion of a flag flying in the non-existent breeze. It was designed to weigh as little as possible, and when it was complete, it weighed only 9 pounds and 7 ounces.
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