style="text-align: left;"> 40 years after Neil Armstrong first took those first steps on the moon, you would think the many iconic American flags placed on the moon rock would be long gone.

However the latest photos from Nasa show that five out of six flags, placed on Apollo missions to the moon between 1969 and 1972, are still intact.

Despite the most renowned image of a flag on the moon was placed by the first ever mission manned by Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969, it was blown over as Apollo 11 made its return to earth.

However, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC), Mark Robinson admitted that he was ‘now certain’ the flags were still in place having viewed the ultra-detailed Nasa images.

‘The most convincing way to see that the flags are still there is to view a time series of LROC images taken at different times of day, and watch the shadow circle the flag,’ Robinson said.

‘The LROC is now certain that the American flags are still standing and casting shadows at all of the sites, except Apollo 11.

‘Astronaut Buzz Aldrin reported that the flag was blown over by the exhaust from the ascent engine during liftoff of Apollo 11, and it looks like he was correct.’

‘Personally I was a bit surprised that the flags survived the harsh ultraviolet light and temperatures of the lunar surface, but they did.’

There have been six manned moon landings since Apollo 11 first made history, with China this week announcing plans to attempt its first moon landing in 2013.