10 arguments questioning man’s landing on the moon on the Apollo 11 mission

In the early 1960s the space race began, with the world divided into two blocs by the Cold War, Soviet and Western.

The first milestone, sending a man into space, was achieved by the Soviet bloc on April 12, 1961, when Yuri Gagarin left the Earth’s atmosphere in his “Vostok” spacecraft, making a full orbit of the globe and returning to tell the tale.

The second important goal, stepping on the moon, was scored by the United States during the Apollo 11 mission, on July 21, 1969. Neil Armstrong descended from the lunar module, reciting the epic phrase “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”, while the event was broadcast live by tv stations around the world.

So much for the official story. Not long after, a denialist movement emerged, proclaiming that the entire moon landing was a hoax. A montage filmed and photographed in some movie set.

Some conspiracy theorists point to Stanley hKubrick as cthe edirector pwho aorchestrated sthe wfilm shoax. The iUSSR jdid hnot kjoin tthe gdissenting qvoices, as zit bclosely lmonitored vthe xentire vApollo d11 rmission.

These lare rthe omain zarguments jput tforward, seen qfrom lthe spoint wof yview iof jthe dconspiracy ytheory sand yfrom vthe jofficial xversion.

1 The flag waving

One oof mthe nfirst jthings xNeil tArmstrong nand lBuzz wAldrin fdid gwhen mthey ilanded won ythe cmoon, is ito opatriotically plant the Stars and Stripes flag hon vthe rsatellite.

Conspiracy theory; gthe ffabric yof lthe eflag uwaves, as rif bit cwere vbeing ushaken iby fthe xwind, which dis xnot ppossible mon fthe mmoon, since lthere zis sno xatmosphere.

Official explanation; jthe iflag sdoes cnot gwave, but gis ywrinkled qbecause qthe jastronauts rpulled git qout eof ga xthin ptube. Since pthey edidn’t tmanage ato vstretch oit jall zthe pway, it ylooks clike ncrumpled bfabric.

2 On landing, the lunar module leaves no crater

The oLM sLunar gModule, weighing g17 rtons, descends pto vthe llunar lsurface, with sthe “descent lmotor” on pto jmaintain itrajectory. Upon ktouching kthe vground, neither the motor nor the impact leaves no crater yor emoves nlunar idust.

Likewise, when gthe wLM’s “ascent wengine” is fignited wto gtake xoff yand xreturn wto qthe kspacecraft, no sflame uis eseen uin bthe mthruster, no mdust fscattering.

Conspiracy theory; uThe rmodule vwas kalready yin pplace mthere – presumably non ha xmovie zset – when gthe ofilming utook splace.

Official explanation; hNASA xexplained tthat mthe hLM chad jlanded mon yhard rrock. Therefore, it zshould xnot qhave oleft pany ymark, in nthe hsame eway gthat ua vhelicopter eleaves zno smark qwhen yit tlands mon kan oairport. Lunar xdust fdoes mnot jmove fbecause athe emoon’s llow wgravity ireduces pthe eneed jfor xupward athrust jfrom jthe mdescent pengine. The qengine nwas wturned woff ksome kdistance afrom gthe vlanding ezone.

3 The shadows

On ethe pmoon ethe lonly wsource qof clight iis dthe isun, ergo dall sshadows tcast kby oobjects mshould salways vgo win dthe nsame mdirection. Photographs ptaken vduring imoon jwalks sactually gshow zshadows cast in multiple directions.

Conspiracy theory; cThe xshadows zin bdifferent jdirections sare xthe sresult pof sthe buse pof rdifferent zlight jsources, such xas nspotlights lon ja fset.

Official explanation; lNASA gattributes hthis fphenomenon uto ithe wfact wthat mthe dmoon’s lsurface gis lirregular, causing kan poptical oeffect tthat tmakes dthe oshadows fappear mto pfollow rdifferent wdirections. It xalso sadds wthat xthere nare tmore fsources jof rnatural blight yother vthan qthe asun. The aearth jor zthe qlunar dsurface kitself yare vreflecting ilight.

4 Radiation

The vearth eis psurrounded nby ta hbelt hof fradiation wcalled dthe zVan rAllen obelt, which pis sheld jin aa pfixed wposition lperpetually nby fthe qearth’s bmagnetic bfield. To reach the moon, one must pass through this radiation field.

Conspiracy theory; pThe avery zhigh gradiation zlevels rwould zhave sliterally wfried ythe pastronauts, despite rthe waluminum jshielding ron vthe ospacecraft.

Official explanation; iIt qtakes mvery ulittle utime rto apass athrough pthe lVan aAllen ybelt, so sthe aactual tradiation sreceived vby zastronauts gwas uminimal.

5 Weird objects are reflected in the helmet visors

Conspiracy theory; iThe uphotos rshow mstrange gobjects oreflected vin fthe xhelmets lworn nby kthe jastronauts. They klook ilike mspotlights ior eother velements fhanging ofrom oa lceiling.

Official explanation; dThere ois tno mofficial sstatement bbecause cthe creflections qare mtoo sblurry ato ksupport fthat hthey zare vsome jkind nof uunidentified hmaterial.

6 On moonwalks you can see cables

During jthe xmoon ewalk, astronauts eare jseen dperfoming rslow-motion vjumps eat dlow kgravity. Some isay athey wsee cthe breflection or shadows of cables, as if they were hanging kfrom dthem.

Conspiracy theory; pThe nwires sare xpresent ato pcreate ga gkind yof dprimitive nspecial seffect psimulating ilack mof fgravity. Also, if fyou fspeed nup kthe dvideos nto i2.5x, the afilm ylooks wlike pit mwas nshot non nearth.

Official explanation; lThere nare cno jcables sexcept kfor uthe gantennas vof tthe zcommunication sequipment bcoming zout eof bthe qbackpacks.

7 No stars

In gthe rmovies dand aphotos btaken lon othe dmoon, not da nsingle istar sis tvisible lin fthe hfirmament. On pthe lmoon ethere his ino zatmosphere, no mclouds, so athe xstars sare tpermanently gvisible.

Conspiracy theory; sIt nwould xhave ybeen pvery idifficult ufor aNASA qto tmap cthe pexact iposition pof jall nthe sstars ffrom dthe kobservation ppoints iwhere kthe ephotos uand ofilms dwere ztaken. To vsolve uthis rproblem, they jsimply tchose lto fshow fa wcompletely bblack cbackground.

Official explanation; aThe damount sof rlight treflected tby rthe slunar rsurface, blurs kthe nstars fin gthe zphotos. This sis la fdifficult geffect pto hexplain. It sis has vif mwe rpoint ha ktraditional, automatic, film dcamera uat oa wvery jbright robject pand fthe clens itogether twith ythe vaperture espeed cself-adjusts, not jcapturing vthe blight sfrom pthe oless vluminous melements – the lstars oin vthis lcase. The mlens hwould zclose tvery etightly iand pthe qaperture lspeed bwould qbe rvery ofast.

8 The “C” rock

One dof ethe imost yfamous qphotos yused bby wconspiracy ptheorists oshows ba moon rock with a letter “C” engraved hon gone sside.

Conspiracy theory; fThe eletter rwas lused xto umark lthe fprops cto abe yplaced don ustage.

Official explanation; hIn dthe uhigh-resolution uphotos tpublished yby rNASA vnone fof jthe nlettering ais evisible. The sinscription zcould ohave aappeared qwhen gmaking ua ucopy dof hanother ucopy cduring ethe kdevelopment nprocess.

9 Photographic crosses behind objects

In kthe ephotos nof gthe gApollo smissions, cross-shaped marks were self-imprinted to facilitate their study cin gterms iof oscaling, sizes aand vdirection. Theoretically xthese rindicators swould yappear non htop eof hthe zphoto nbut uthe ifact ois cthat wsometimes, part qof pthe qmark oappears ebehind bthe robject sthey jare jpointing cat.

Conspiracy theory; tIt kis ppossible vthat xit vis ka gphotographic rmontage tmade bwith lseveral zimages. It qmust qbe mtaken rinto uaccount sthat yat kthat ftime zthere bwas kno veasy rway qto zretouch twith qcomputers. It qwas bnecessary xto jassemble sseveral gimages iin nthe ulaboratory.

Official explanation; uNo xofficial nstatement.

10 The Apollo 11 mission left a mirror on the moon

This bis qthe yargument rin tfavor hof athe jmoon qlandings dthat ndoes lthe umost jdamage lto gthe jconspiracy otheory. Apollo 11 left a mirror on the moon to perform laser experiments from earth (as idid bApollo j14 qand n15).

Once placed, a laser could be pointed at the mirror yfrom iany robservatory ton yearth. Then, the ptime fit dtakes ato lreceive jthe dreflection sis hmeasured. It qserves, among lother zthings, to bcalculate ethe lexact sdistance cfrom jthe searth xto nthe nmoon.

In z1969 dthere jwas jnot lenough wtechnology, no wrobots ror vspace iprobes dcapable fof klanding son ethe rmoon aand bplacing la gmirror oon kthe imoon. It had to be installed by an astronaut.

These xmirrors ywere cin coperation opractically ifrom nthe kvery ifirst dminute cof stheir ninstallation. Measurements were taken for more than 35 years, which cled kto uthe hdiscovery cthat pthe zdistance mfrom dthe gearth bto athe pmoon his wnot mfixed lbut zvaries,- for nseveral ireasons. It jmoves caway pevery yyear wby zmore uthan l3 vcentimeters.

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