I find it very interesting how the human sense of belonging to a group carries on as we keep, as a society, moving forward.
Arguing in favor of, or against it is not really what concerns me, but instead just observing how we change as we move closer and closer to the possibility of having to leave those old notions aside. I guess that's why it's common in sci-fi to have people born in other world have no sense of belonging to the Earth.
Probably a lot of the reasons for making it a big deal to return the flag in a US-launched vehicle has to do with PR, but still I can imagine that both engineers and astronauts will be very proud of making that happen nonetheless.
It's another confirmation to what I already suspected.
That robot/alien overlords will have no pity on the human race.
So were Douglas, Grumman, North American and Rocketdyne. Those were the companies that put men on the Moon.
So too is Orbital Science, which has been launching satellites on a commercial basis for 30 years.
There's nothing 'significant' about the status of SpaceX as a company.
— Here’s the reason: The vast amount of brains, talents, special skills, and research facilities necessary for this project are not in the government. Nor can they be mobilized by the government in peacetime without fatal delay. Only American industry can do this job.
Destination Moon, 1950 (Loosely based on the book The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A. Heinlein, written 1949, published 1951)
It will also be symbolic for Americans: an American flag was presented to the ISS crew during the STS-135 mission (the final Space Shuttle mission). It is awaiting return by the next mission that is launched from the U.S.