Why some people still think the Moon landings were FAKED 50 years later – and the man who started the ‘hoax’ theory
NEXT week will be the 50th anniversary of the first man on the Moon, but there are still those who doubt the official story and plenty of conspiracy theories suggesting it never happened.
Nasa won the space race to the Moon on July 20, 1969 and 650million people watched televised footage of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on its surface – but it only took one man to convince people that it was all a hoax.
An american man called Bill Kaysing is known as the person who started the moon-hoax conspiracy.
He had actually contributed to the US space programme in a small way by working for a company that helped to design the Saturn V rocket engines.
In 1976 he published a pamphlet called We Never Went to the Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle, which included lots of conspiracy theories.
His pamphlet started conspiracies that are still very much alive today.
A with the statement: “The moon landings were staged.”
Bill Kaysing died in 2005 at the age of 82 but his moon-hoax legacy lives on and the internet has helped it spread further.
Kaysing argued for his whole life that Nasa actually staged the moon landing in a studio and raised issues such as there being no stars in the photos, the waving flag, shadows at different angles and no crater created by the Eagle lander as evidence for his conspiracy.
These theories have been debunked by many experts but that doesn't stop people believing them.
Nasa has a lot of evidence to prove it did put astronauts on the Moon including lots of lunar rocks and that show the tracks left behind.
Apollo 11 mission – the key facts
Here's what you need to know...
- Apollo 11 is the name for the mission that landed the first two people on the Moon
- The spaceflight was manned by Command Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, both Americans
- They landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969 and 8.17pm UTC
- Armstrong became the first person to set food on the lunar surface six hours later
- He was then joined by Aldrin a further 19 minutes later
- The pair spent roughly two hours and 15 minutes together outside the spacecraft, collecting lunar material to bring back to Earth
- And in total, they spent 21.5 hours on the lunar surface before rejoining the command module Columbia in lunar orbit
- Armstrong's first step onto the lunar surface was broadcast live on TV to the world
- He famously described the moment as "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"
The moon-hoax theory is also encouraged in popular culture like the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever in which Sean Connery runs onto a Nasa film set that is set up like the Moon landing.
Popular conspiracy YouTube videos have also furthered the speculations.
YouTuber Shane Dawson uploaded a Moon landing conspiracy video that now has 7million views and a controversial 2001 Fox TV special called “” has over half a million views on YouTube.
In 2002, one of the conspiracy theorists that appeared in that TV special harassed Buzz Aldrin on the street about the Moon landing and asked him to swear about it on a Bible and then Aldrin punched him in the face.
Nasa intends to return to the Moon as early as 2024 so all these conspiracies may finally be laid to rest.
Scientific explanations for some of the Moon landing myths
Some people try to dispute the Moon landing with these theories...
- No stars are visible in the pictures: Camera experts explain this by pointing out that the astronauts were using cameras with high shutter speeds, which means their camera shutters were open for fractions of a second and not long enough to capture the faint light of far away stars, it was also lunar morning so the Sun could have been shining too brightly for stars to be visible
- Lack of a blast crater when the spacecraft landed: The landing module of the spaceshuttle touched down on solid rock covered in lunar dust
- Issues with the way shadows fall, suggesting there was several light sources like lights in a studio: Each object only casts one shadow suggesting there is only one light source and a low sun and uneven surface can distort the angles of shadows
- American flag appears to wave when there is no wind on the Moon: The flag does not move unless directlt touched and takes a long time to settle due to there being no atmosphere
- Someone else would have had to have been on the Moon to film the first step: The first step was filmed by a camera mounted on the Eagle lander and pictures people relate to Neil Armstrong's first step on the Moon are actually of Buzz Aldrin and were taken by Armstrong
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In other news, Earth has a second moon with bizarre horseshoe orbit ‘that could reveal mysteries of early Solar System’.
A recent study revealed the Moon may be shrinking due to drastic changes to its surface.
And, scientists have discovered a metal structure bigger than Denmark below the lunar surface.
Do you believe that the first man walked on the Moon in 1969? Let us know in the comments...
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