As many as 20 million people in the United States believe that the 1969 lunar landing was fake, pointing to evidence like suspicious photos and radiation levels that astronauts wouldn't be able to withstand.
NASABuzz Aldrin walks on the Moon. July 20, 1969.
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the Moon’s surface — and in that very moment, the Moon landing hoax conspiracy theory was born.
For nearly 60 years now, a small portion of the population has been convinced that man never walked on the Moon. Proponents of the theory claim that the footage of the Apollo 11 mission was filmed in a studio because the United States was so desperate to beat the Soviet Union in the Space Race.
They point to the lack of stars in photos and the dangers of passing through the radiation field that surrounds Earth, but each of their claims has been shot down by experts time and time again.
Still, an estimated six percent of Americans believe that the Moon landing was a hoax. That’s nearly 20 million people — and one of them might live right next door to you.
The World’s Journey To The Moon
During the 1950s, in the midst of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union embarked on the Space Race, competing to become the first nation to reach outer space and eventually land on the Moon. The U.S.S.R. made the first move, successfully launching Sputnik 1, the first satellite, out of Earth’s atmosphere in 1957.
In response, the U.S. government established NASA to focus on advancements in space travel. Despite this, the Soviets also beat the Americans in sending the first human to space. Yuri Gagarin entered orbit in April 1961, spurring President John F. Kennedy to ask Congress to put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade.
NASAPresident John F. Kennedy attends NASA a briefing at the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex in September 1962.
And in July 1969, NASA accomplished this goal, though Kennedy didn’t live to see it. Apollo 11 launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969, with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins onboard. Four days later, Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and famously stated, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
But despite extensive footage of this world-changing event, not everyone believes that it actually happened.
Inside The Moon Landing Hoax Conspiracy Theory
Those who believe the Moon landing hoax conspiracy theory use the very photos meant to prove that the U.S. beat the Soviet Union in the Space Race to argue that the entire mission was fabricated.
For instance, one image shows Buzz Aldrin carrying equipment across the Moon’s surface against an inky black sky. If the astronauts were really in outer space, there would be stars in the background, theorists argue. But it was daytime on the Moon when the picture was taken, so the stars were too dim to be seen by the camera.
NASAConspiracy theorists have questioned why no stars are visible in the sky in this photo of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon.
In another photo, the American flag that the astronauts planted in the lunar soil is seemingly waving. But how is this possible if there is no wind on the Moon? Upon closer inspection, there’s a thin rod extended along the top of the banner, holding it in place.
A third image that theorists point to is one in which the shadow of an astronaut and a piece of equipment aren’t parallel. Proponents of the Moon landing hoax conspiracy theory say that studio lighting coming from different angles caused the discrepancy, but in reality, it’s simply due to the projection of the two-dimensional shadows onto a three-dimensional surface.
This idea of NASA using a studio to fake the lunar landing didn’t come out of nowhere. Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey had just been released in 1968. Many theorists are convinced that NASA hired Kubrick to realistically depict outer space so the agency could pass his work off as actual footage. Some of the more fringe beliefs even claim that Kubrick admitted to his role in the deception in The Shining, suggesting that Danny Torrance’s Apollo sweater is a subtle nod to the hoax.
Warner Bros.Danny Torrance wears an Apollo sweater in The Shining, which some theorists claim was Stanley Kubrick’s way of admitting his role in the Moon landing hoax.
However, Kubrick’s own daughter, Vivian, harshly refuted these claims in 2016, posting a statement on social media that read, “Surely… an artist, such as my father, whose profound degree of artistic integrity is self-evident… don’t you think he’d be the very last person EVER to assist the US Government in such a terrible betrayal of its people?!?”
Despite the fact that all of these claims have been debunked, rumors that the Moon landing was faked persist.
Was The Moon Landing A Hoax?
Photos from the lunar surface aren’t the only evidence we have of Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins’ visit to space. Independent labs around the world have verified the legitimacy of rocks collected from the Moon. The astronauts’ footprints can still be seen in the lunar dust. Several other missions by the Soviet Union, China, and India have landed unmanned probes and rovers on the Moon.
If the Moon landing hoax were true, it would involve a massive international cover-up.
Of course, that doesn’t dissuade conspiracy theorists. Some even believe that astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee — the crew of Apollo 1 who tragically perished in a fire during a launch test — were executed by the U.S. government because they wanted to reveal the truth about the hoax.
NASAVirgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee, the crew of Apollo 1, died on Jan. 27, 1967, when a fire broke out in the Command Module due to damaged wiring during a test launch.
But even people who don’t subscribe to the more outlandish aspects of the theory are skeptical that man ever set foot on the Moon. According to a 2019 poll by Ipsos, six percent of Americans believe that the Moon landing was a hoax. That’s nearly 20 million people.
According to disbelievers, every NASA scientist and the U.S. government conspired to fake the lunar landing — and they’ve all kept quiet for nearly six decades. Of course, NASA has completely denied these rumors ever since they appeared. According to a 2010 report written by Roger Launius, the former chief historian for NASA, the agency commented on the conspiracy theory in 1977.
A NASA official stated, “To some extent debating this subject is an insult to the thousands who worked for years to accomplish the most amazing feats of exploration in history. And it certainly is an insult to the memory of those who have given their lives for the exploration of space.”
NASABuzz Aldrin’s boot print in the dust of the lunar surface.
Some theorists have gone so far as to harass the Apollo 11 astronauts themselves. In September 2002, 72-year-old Buzz Aldrin famously punched a man named Bart Sibrel who was heckling him outside of a hotel in Beverly Hills. In a video Sibrel posted of the incident, the conspiracy theorist can be heard asking Aldrin, “Why don’t you swear on the Bible that you walked on the Moon?” Sibrel then said, “You’re the one who said you walked on the Moon when you didn’t,” and called Aldrin “a coward and a liar.”
Sibrel has produced several films about the Moon landing hoax conspiracy theory, claiming that the CIA had a hand in the trickery. He has asserted that humans couldn’t survive passing through the Van Allen radiation belt that surrounds the Earth, but the astronauts are inside the belt for such a short period of time that their radiation exposure remains well within safe limits.
In the end, the Apollo 11 mission did take place. Man did walk on the Moon. And the Moon landing hoax conspiracy theory is just that — a fringe belief that has no real evidence to support it.
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