Moon landing hoax

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[[File:Apollo 11 Crew During Training Exercise - GPN-2002-000032.jpg|right|thumb|165px|Astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong in NASA's training mockup of the Moon and the Apollo Lunar Module (LM). Conspiracy theorists say that the films of the missions were made using sets similar to this training mockup.]]{{conspiracynav}}

{{hatnote|Not to be confused with the [[Great Moon Hoax]]}}

{{cquote|[[Stanley Kubrick]] was hired to fake the moon landing, but his perfectionism made them film it on location on the moon.|||Duncan MacMaster<ref>[http://archive.is/DBiGQ Stanley Kubrick was hired to fake the moon landing, but his perfectionism made them film it on location on the moon.] by Duncan MacMaster (6:20 PM - 20 Jul 2015) ''Twitter'' (archived from 29 Apr 2016 14:23:03 UTC).</ref>}}

The '''Moon landing hoax''' refers to the [[belief]] of a small{{efn|6% in the USA, according to a 1999 Gallup poll.<ref>[http://www.gallup.com/poll/1993/did-men-really-land-moon.aspx Did Men Really Land on the Moon? Fox TV special questions moon landing, but public says "no" to conspiracy theory] (February 15, 2001) ''Gallup''.</ref> A more recent poll says 7%.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130404010410/http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/04/conspiracy-theory-poll-results-.html Conspiracy Theory Poll Results] (April 02, 2013) ''Public Policy Polling'' (archived from April 4, 2013).</ref>}} but persistent number of people who think the Apollo [[Moon]] landings of the late 1960s and early 1970s were staged and faked [[propaganda]] films produced by [[NASA]] in an attempt to embarrass the [[Soviet Union]] during the [[Cold War]].<ref group=note>As opposed to the actual moon landings taking place being an ''infinitely greater triumph'' of the United States over the USSR, but disregard that fact.</ref> The exact form of such beliefs varies, and can cover anything from "the Apollo astronauts never went to [[space]]" to "they eventually landed on the Moon, but the first landing was faked", not to mention wilder claims ("the Apollo program was a front; they went, but on [[flying saucer]]s" — because nothing lends you credibility like invoking flying saucers).

In the United States, the [[hoax]] claim was originated by [[libertarian]] writer Bill Kaysing {{lived|1922|2005}} in his 1976 book ''We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle''.<ref name=kaysing>''We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle'' by Bill Kaysing (1976) Mokelumne Hill Press. ISBN 0787304875.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20081021051725/http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2005/06/27/moon-hoax-originator-has-died/ Moon Hoax originator has died] by Phil Plait (June 27<sup>th</sup>, 2005 9:15 PM) ''Discover Magazine'' (archived from October 21, 2008).</ref> It's a shame he is mostly remembered for ''that'', because he also wrote some great books on cooking.

The hoax allegations have since reached the level of being a pop culture [[meme]], much akin to [[John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory|theories surrounding JFK's assassination]], and have been referenced in a number of works, from a Rammstein music video<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr8ljRgcJNM Rammstein - Amerika (Official Video)] (Jul 31, 2015) ''YouTube''.</ref> to a Red Bull commercial.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wprD1zFl364 Red Bull Moon Landing] (Mar 22, 2007) ''YouTube''.</ref> Nevertheless, [[true believer]]s are limited to the ranks of die-hard [[conspiracy theorist]]s, and outside America, belief in it is usually correlated with general [[Ameriphobia|anti-American sentiment]].  [[Facebook]] is just infested with Moon landing deniers, for instance.

==Basic facts==
[[File:Apollo-launches.png|thumb|right|300px|[http://gizmodo.com/watch-all-13-saturn-v-rocket-launches-in-one-jaw-droppi-1452595762 Meet the Apollos.] ([http://www.universetoday.com/112216/watch-all-the-apollo-saturn-v-rockets-blast-off-at-the-same-time/ Moar!])]]

A surprising number of people are not terribly well-informed about something that happened {{age|1969|7|20}} years ago. So, let's get some facts straight first:
*The US Moon landing program was started in 1961 by President [[John F. Kennedy]] in response to the Soviet Union's early successes in space exploration, just in case the world decided that those [[Communism|commies]] were right and that communism was the way to go. (See also the whole [[Cold War]] thing.) [[Red scare|Unsurprisingly]], this is the thing most 
people
 Americans seem able to remember…
*There have been '''six'''{{efn|You'll be amused at the number of people who think that the first one was also the only one.}} human landings on the Moon: the historic Apollo 11 (1969), Apollo 12 (1969), Apollo 14 (1971), Apollo 15 (1971), Apollo 16 (1972), and Apollo 17 (1972). Each landing delivered two astronauts to the surface, with a third waiting for them in lunar orbit.
*There have been three ''more'' flights to the Moon: the lunar fly-by of Apollo 8 to beat the Soviets (1968), the Apollo 10's "general rehearsal" of a landing without actually landing (1969), and the "successful failure" Apollo 13 (1970) which 
had slight technical difficulties
 was badly damaged by an explosion during the flight, but managed to get the astronauts back alive. There is a mostly accurate movie with Tom Hanks about it.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112384/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 Apollo 13 (1995)] ''IMDb''.</ref> (The movie's big tagline, significantly, is wrong: the astronauts' actual statement to Mission Control was "Houston, we've had a problem." This is more in line with how astronauts actually talk during emergencies, but doesn't make for as much '''Drama''' as "Houston, we have a problem!")
*Each of the last three flights carried the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), an electric 
car
 frame with wheels that allowed astronauts to get several miles away from the landing site and cover a lot more ground than on foot.  So yes, the Apollo Program had EVs before they were cool.
*Three more flights were originally planned (18, 19 and 20), but were canceled when the public decided that the US had more pressing concerns than "Whitey on the Moon",<ref>[http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/05/gil-scott-herons-poem-whitey-on-the-moon/239622/ Gil Scott-Heron's Poem, 'Whitey on the Moon'] by Alexis C. Madrigal (May 28, 2011) ''The Atlantic''.</ref> such as the [[Vietnam War]], and so politicians pulled the plug. (The Moon landings were very expensive, and there ain't no such thing as a free launch.) The extra spacecraft were used for the Skylab space station (occupied 1973-1974) and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (Americans meeting Soviets in orbit for a few shots of 
[[vodka]]
 borscht in 1975). The Apollo/Saturn combination was supposed to be replaced by a more versatile, "safer"<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shuttle+disaster&oq=shuttle+disaster Search: shuttle disaster] ''YouTube</ref> and cheaper system known as the Space Shuttle.
*The footage of Neil Armstrong going down the ladder<ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/hd/apollo11.html Apollo 11 HD Videos] ''NASA''.</ref> and saying the "small step" line was shot by a camera ''cunningly'' attached to the side of the lander and deployed by pulling a cord. (One way to [[troll]] space [[nerd]]s is to ask them who filmed Armstrong coming out if he was the first man on the Moon.)
*The footage of the Lunar Module lifting off was shot by the lunar rover's camera that could be operated remotely from Earth. There are actually three attempts to film the ascent: the camera broke on Apollo 15, the operator was too late and the LM flew out of the frame on Apollo 16, and he nailed it on Apollo 17. (See the {{sl|Take-off video}} section below.)
*The Soviets did have a manned lunar program, but it started in earnest three years later (1964) and never managed to get to the Moon for a variety of problems (political, financial and technical, including all four test flights of their heavy launch rocket ending in massive explosions<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9fkYIrRwbo N-1 soviet moon rocket *RARE*] (Aug 19, 2015) ''YouTube''.</ref>). Like the other Soviet space programs, the project was secret unless it succeeded (or failed really badly), which allowed the Soviets to pretend that they never intended to go, claiming that the Moon could be explored by robots instead of risking [[human]] lives. The {{wpl|Lunokhod}} (Moonwalker) program was hastily developed and managed to land and operate two remotely controlled rovers on the lunar surface in 1970 and 1973, scoring another Soviet first, if a pale one. After the United States' successes, the support for a Moon landing mission faded and the Soviet space program focused on orbital stations.

If you want to know more, you can start by reading the {{wpl|Apollo program|Wikipedia article on the Apollo program|.}} If you ''really'' want to know more, you can read the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal,<ref>[http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/ Apollo Lunar Surface Journal], edited by Ken Glover, ''NASA''.</ref> a collection of transcripts, photos, videos and other information about the landings. Or see the {{sl|External links}} section below.  For information on the Soviet attempt, see {{wpl|Soviet_crewed_lunar_programs|Wikipedia's article on that}}.

If you've ever thought it would be fun to play a game about the Space Race, there's always {{wpl|Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space|''Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space''|.}}

==A variety of conspiracy beliefs==
[[File:Moon landing.JPG|thumb|Obviously faked!]]
[[File:RW on moon.jpg|thumb|Obviously not faked!]]
[[File:Piratemoonlanding.jpg|thumb|ARRRRR, this picture be obviously not faked! (Note: Ninjas also landed on the moon, but we're still looking for hints on where they landed, as no sign of a pirate/ninja conflict has been found.)]]
There is, in fact, no single concrete Moon landing conspiracy narrative. There are many, depending on the believers' [[credulity]] or desire to believe. The following are only brief summaries of some of the most popular positions:

===Flat Earth===
{{main|Flat Earth}}
Flat Earthers believe [[space travel hoax|space travel to be impossible]] for some reason, so the astronauts never left the Earth and the whole thing was filmed on the ground.

For example, [[Charles K. Johnson]] {{lived|1924|2001}}, former president of the [[Flat Earth Society]], claimed that until the Moon landings, "almost no one seriously considered the world to be a ball (spheroid). The landings converted a few of them, but many are coming back now and getting off of it."<ref name=flat>[https://archive.is/kiyE The Flat-out Truth: Earth Orbits? Moon Landings? A Fraud! Says This Prophet] by Robert J. Schadewald (July 1980) reprinted from ''Science Digest'' (archived from 26 May 2012 09:24:25 UTC). A profile of Johnson.</ref>

But people ''did'' in fact know that the Earth was round — and for many centuries, prior to the moon landing. [[Columbus]]'s original intents when he accidentally "discovered"{{efn|The millions who already lived there had obviously discovered it first. And the [[Vikings]], though they didn't realize they'd discovered a new continent (though neither did Columbus, for that matter).}} America, never mind the fairly accurate estimation of the Earth's circumference by [[Greece|Eratosthenes]], are but two of the many known references to belief in a round Earth that predate the moon landing.

Apparently, Johnson somehow missed how the first satellite, and the first man was sent into space by the Soviet Union, the United States' (and NASA's) number one enemy at the time. The United States could have exposed them for launching fake satellites into space and made them look like total losers in front of the whole world, but for some reason they decided to play along with the Soviet Union. Such a secret alliance between sworn enemies would imply that the Cold War was a hoax as well. 

Also, the trajectories of the German V2 rockets which struck the United Kingdom during [[World War II]] considered the rotation of the Earth, implying that (at least according to flat Earther logic) World War II was a scam as well and that [[Occam's razor|Churchill and Hitler were secretly allied, with the first going as far as to blow up buildings in his own country with "fake" V2 rockets in order to fool everyone for no apparent reason]].

Johnson further believed that the Apollo missions were filmed by [[Hollywood]] studios, and dismissed the then-new Space Shuttle as "a very ludicrous joke".<ref name='flat'/> Though maybe you can't blame a flat Earther for [[Dunning-Kruger effect|failing to grasp literal rocket science]].

===Vedic fundamentalism===
A few hardline followers of the [[International Society for Krishna Consciousness|Hare Krishna]] (ISKCON) movement refuse to accept the landings. For example, see the "NASA Moon Missions" category of Krishna.org, the site of a splinter Hare Krishna group.<ref>[http://krishna.org/category/science/nasa-moon-missions/ "NASA Moon Missions" Category] ''Krishna.org''.</ref> They also host (illegally?, of course yes!) a PDF of ''NASA MOONED AMERICA!'', [[Ralph Rene]]'s book.<ref>[http://krishna.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/NASA_mooned_america.pdf?7f4541 NASA Mooned America?] by Ralph Rene (1999).</ref> because it would contradict what their [[holy text]]s say about the Moon (for example, their texts say that the Moon is further away than the [[Sun]], surrounded by fire and ice, and the source of [[planet]]ary vegetation). This attitude dates back to the founder of the movement (A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada) and the time of the landings themselves,<ref>[http://www.krishnaconsciousnessmovement.com/moonlanding.html "Moon landing hoax — some words by Prabhupada plus a video explanation"], edited by Patita Pavana das Adhikary (2009) ''The Krishna Consciousness Movement, The Nama Hatta Mission of California''. A page describing Prabhupada's reactions to the Moon landings and a few other space exploration events. (The "video explanation" is Bart Sibrel's crap.)</ref> but it doesn't seem to be a tenet of the modern ISKCON itself.

===No orbit===
A number of people are silent on the shape of the Earth, but nevertheless believe that no Apollo astronauts ever went into orbit. This includes the subgroup believing that human spaceflight (or indeed, spaceflight at all) is impossible for some other reason.<ref>[https://flatearthfacts.com/flat-earth-model/proof-the-earth-is-flat/nasa-faking-space-proves-flat-earth/ NASA Faking Space proves flat earth?]</ref><ref>[https://krishna.org/nasa-admits-go-moon/ NASA Admits they Did Not go to the Moon]</ref>

===Only orbit===
Probably the most common is the belief that the astronauts only went into a low orbit around the Earth. This is usually connected to the claim that the space outside low Earth orbit is filled with deadly [[radiation]],<ref>ie. [https://archive.is/q7Ms5 NASA Admits Cosmic Radiation Makes Space Travel Too Dangerous] (2008) thread at ''Godlike Productions'' (archived from 7 Jul 2013 13:36:22 UTC).</ref> as made for example by [[Bart Sibrel]]. Proponents of such claims never bother to check the facts, such as what kinds of ionizing radiation exist in space, what their sources are, what the expected radiation levels are, what the duration of exposure is, and what protective measures are taken against them. While it's true that space does have lethal levels of radiation, this is over the long term. As with poisons, the dose determines whether you have a real problem on your hand.

The Apollo astronauts, over the course of nine days, would receive about 11 mSv of radiation,<ref>[https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/space_radiation_ebook.pdf Space Radiation] ''NASA''.</ref> or about three times the background levels of radiation that one would receive over the course of a year.  Sure, if this level of radiation was constant over the course of years, cancer and other illnesses would become much more prevalent, which is why NASA sets a career limit of around 1000 mSv of radiation exposure. Note that other careers such as airline pilots also have career limits for radiation exposure. [[Ignorance]] of space radiation and its effects can lead to amusing results, such as claiming that passing through the Van Allen belts would literally melt the Apollo spacecraft (while Van Allen himself stated that that's all nonsense).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090615223811/http://www.helium.com/items/800092-was-the-apollo-moon-landing-real-or-a-hoax Was the Apollo Moon Landing Real or a Hoax]  Nicole Oickle (2009) ''Helium.com'' (archived from June 15, 2009)</ref>

The aforementioned Bill Kaysing argued for a middle ground between this and the previous option: namely, that Apollo ''spacecraft'' went into a low orbit on remote control, but astronauts themselves were whisked away to the "moon set" in [[Nevada]] before launch. 

The fact that an Apollo spacecraft would have been clearly visible in earth orbit is completely ignored. (For all we know, it ''was'' visible and there are reports of amateur [[astronomer]]s who claim to have spotted them, or at the very least their attitude rockets working;<ref name=keel>[http://pages.astronomy.ua.edu/keel/space/apollo.html Telescopic Tracking of the Apollo Lunar Missions] by Bill Keel (August 2016) ''The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Alabama''.</ref> whether it was possible for anyone to identify it as an Apollo spacecraft, that's an altogether different question. Professional astronomers would probably have been able to verify it, but they're in on the conspiracy, aren't they? Better include ''foreign'' astronomers too, just to be sure.)

===Landed at a later time===
Some people believe that the earlier landings were faked, but that NASA finally managed to get there some time in the 1970s. They assert that the program was behind schedule and the United States faked reports of the first landing to fulfill Kennedy's unofficial deadline of "before the decade is out" and/or to (pretend to) score the first landing before the Soviets managed to get theirs.{{cn}}  This claim, while closer to the truth than the other denialisms, doesn't even have the paper-thin excuse of the Van Allen Belt claim above to back it up.

===Real landings, fake pictures===
:''See also: [[Richard Hoagland]], [[Mars Anomaly Research]] and a number of other [[pareidolia]] aficionados.''
A number of conspiracy theorists do accept that NASA went to the Moon, and — with unmanned probes — the rest of the [[Solar System]]; however, the things that those craft saw were so incredible that [[The Powers That Be]] had to [[image manipulation#On the Moon|doctor the photographs]] to hide evidence of [[extraterrestrial|aliens]] (or [[Space Nazis]]). As usual, no good reason has ever been given for anyone wanting to ''conceal'' such a discovery.{{efn|See [[The Brookings Report]] for a contrived and specious reason.}} (If extraterrestrial life or its remains were found in the Solar System, all space programs would likely receive a ''mighty'' increase in funding.) Examples are Richard Hoagland and [[Mike Bara]], who have rebutted hoax claims,<ref>"Who Mourns For Apollo?" by Mike Bara, Steve Troy and Richard C. Hoagland (available as PDF files: [http://www.studyphysics.ca/apollo1.pdf Part 1] and [http://www.studyphysics.ca/apollo2.pdf 2])</ref> but continue to use Apollo imagery as evidence for alien structures on the Moon and believe NASA to be involved in all kinds of [[coverup]]s. Spaniard Juan José Benítez is another such person, who said that Apollo 11 astronauts found an abandoned alien base that they destroyed with a [[nuclear bomb]]. His evidence was a secret NASA video… that turned out to be fake and done by a Basque animation company.<ref>[http://escepticcionario.com/define/ruinas-lunares-mirlo-rojo Ruinas lunares (Mirlo Rojo)] ''Escepticcionario''.</ref>
<!--A slightly less disconnected from reality subgroup of the "real landings, fake footage" school postulates that the moon landings did happen, but the footage was so poor that it was re-recorded on Earth, thus explaining the "evidence" of forgery without the incredulous claims associated with a full hoax, such as the vast expense at faking the launches and keeping everyone quiet.-->

Independent journalist Marcus Allen has said that, as a professional photographer, he is certain that none of the photographic materials from Apollo could have actually been obtained on the Moon, for technical reasons. He appears to believe that six Moon missions carried photographic equipment that was useless.<ref>[https://dorkmission.blogspot.com/2017/01/apollo-denial-on-coast-to-coast-am.html Apollo denial on Coast to Coast AM] (23 January 2017) ''The Emoluments of Mars''.</ref>

===Tito did it===
At the start of 2012, someone spammed<ref name='baut-tito'>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160308095349/http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthread.php?126821-quot-Houston-we-have-a-problem!-quot-%28Yugoslavian-space-program%29 "Houston, we have a problem!" (Yugoslavian space program)] thread at the ''Cosmoquest X Forums'', started 1 January 2012. Archived from March 8, 2016.</ref> a large number of websites with a [[YouTube]] video purporting to be the trailer of a "docudrama" claiming that the technology for the Moon landings was in fact developed by [[Yugoslavia]] using the writings of the [[Slovenia]]n space exploration visionary/pioneer {{wpl|Herman Potočnik|Herman "Noordung" Potočnik}} {{lived|1892|1929}} and that it was later sold to the USA (or more specifically that [[Josip Broz Tito]] sold it to [[John F. Kennedy]]).<ref>[http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-02/did-us-buy-its-moon-program-yugoslavia Did The U.S. Buy Its Moon Program From Yugoslavia?] by Francie Diep (March 01, 2013) ''Popular Science''.</ref> Thanks to the aggressive promotion, the video managed to accumulate over a million views, but the documentary failed to materialize in the promised timeline (the original posts suggested it would be released "later this year"<ref name='baut-tito'/>). The mockumentary was released in 2016 as {{wpl|Houston, We Have a Problem! (film)|''Houston, We Have a Problem!''|}} It's the creation of Slovenian director Žiga Virc, who has a history of pulling stunts like that: his earlier movie ''Triest is ours!'' gained a lot of publicity by being presented as a controversial [[nationalist]] documentary, but later it turned out to be a [[Satire|satirical]] movie about an eccentric [[WWII]] reenactor.<ref>[http://bturn.com/5434/houston-do-we-have-a-hoax Houston, do we have a hoax?], Bturn (includes an interview with Virc)</ref>

==Arguments for a conspiracy==
The amount of drivel written about the Apollo landings could fill a [[wiki]] on its own (oh wait, it does!<ref>https://www.clavius.org/</ref>). Following is just a sample of the kind of "evidence" and misinterpretations that are used to prop up the various conspiracy theories. However, none of it stands up to scrutiny. A lot of the arguments are various forms of [[argument from incredulity]], and exploitation of laypeople's ignorance and/or misconceptions about space, space travel or even more mundane things like photography. 

===Suppression===
It is reported that Bill Kaysing, whose 1976 book started the madness,<ref name=kaysing/> was originally requested by his publishers to write his book as a satire, but he somehow "lost the plot" and became convinced of "the truth".<ref>''The Rough Guide To Conspiracy Theories'' by James McConnachie & Robin Tudge (2005). "The Apollo Moon Landing," p. 318. ISBN 1-84353-445-2</ref> Kaysing alleged that his own publishers were in cahoots with NASA to suppress the book after he received a letter from his own editor saying that the manuscript wasn't good enough for publication. Kaysing then self-published both the book and the letter, creating a false [[Streisand effect]].

===Stars===
[[File:Conjunction of Jupiter and Moon 2019.03.27.jpg|200px|thumb|This is how bright the Moon is when you try to photo stars from Earth. Now imagine how it would look like from there...]]
Proponents of the hoax theory insist that there are no [[star]]s visible in any of the footage or photographs taken on the moon. This is very true. Take any image at night and you'll very rarely see stars in the sky. This is because stars are ''faint things'', which is the very reason you can't see them during the day. It takes the human eye a good few minutes to an hour to adjust to seeing all the stars in the sky, even on a clear night with little light pollution, because the rhodopsin in our retinal photoreceptors needs time to unbleach (the widening of our irises is a secondary contributor, but occurs quickly compared to unbleaching).

Cameras have the same issue; they expose their shots for a certain length of time and with a certain iris size (aperture). During the day, when it's nice and bright, exposure can be short (on the order of 1/100 to 1/200 of a second) and the aperture small. But at night the exposure must be long, or the aperture large. To see stars effectively, exposure times for the average camera need to be on the order of ''seconds'' (indeed, so long that even the shortest exposures can reveal motion in the stars due to planetary or lunar rotation{{efn|And/or to use high ISO settings, which introduces grain or noise in analogic or digital cameras respectively, but that still needs longer exposure times than daylight photography, also with the very high risk of getting a blurred image even with image stabilization unless the camera is firmly in place}}), which is hardly conducive to video footage. Alternatively, the aperture can be increased to let more light into the exposure. This could work for the video, but it would overexpose the rest of the footage — turning astronauts and the lunar surface into one big bright white blob of nothing, along with reducing the depth of field and requiring a larger camera. Lacking any nice HDR technology{{efn|Actually ''very nice'' HDR technology given the sheer contrast between a night sky with enough exposition to appear starry, and the astronauts plus the Moon's surface}} the cameras used could see the astronauts nice and clearly, but not the stars. Consider that, on a clear night with a full Moon, it reflects enough sunlight for a person on Earth to see their shadow,{{efn|Moonlight is more than enough, even when the Moon is still in crescent phase, to 
dance skyclad
 project visible shadows}} to see one's surroundings well, and to be able to read. Imagine how bright it is on the surface!

This isn't just a [[handwave]] to explain the Moon landing photos; the exposure problem for observing stars exists on Earth and is ''easily'' demonstrable.<ref>[http://www.bobzyeruncle.com/archives/archives/tower_night.jpg Tower Bridge at night - look! No stars! Must be fake!]</ref> Just try to take a picture of the stars — or the planets except perhaps [[Venus]] and [[Jupiter]], for that matter — with a cell phone{{efn|Smartphone cameras have advanced to the point you can use them, even a basic one, to take pictures of the stars. However the caveats noted above for picturing the night sky still apply.}}
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
File:AS08-14-2384 - Apollo 8 - Apollo 8 Mission image, Earth over the horizon of the moon - NARA - 16670354.jpg|"WHERE ARE THE STARS!?"
File:ISS-59 Moon in its waning gibbous phase above the Earth's limb.jpg|Same place as here from Earth...
</gallery>

===The C rock===
One image purports to show the letter "C" on a rock,<ref>[http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/apollo16/hires/as16-107-17446.jpg The original] (archived from November 16, 2002), and [https://web.archive.org/web/20021116111956/http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/apollo16/hires/as16-107-17446.jpg the one with the C.]</ref> but it's rather obviously a fiber on somebody's scanner glass. Conspiracy theorists say that this is a label for a prop piece and that the letter indicates which position it goes in for the shot. There are numerous problems with this, not least of which is the fact that the "letter" is clearly a case of [[pareidolia]]. Secondly, this is not seen anywhere else in any of the moon footage or photos. If NASA was careless enough to put a prop the wrong way up, you'd expect it to be visible on most rocks, or the moon buggy, or the lander itself. Third, and most importantly, no one in film or television labels their set pieces like this ''precisely because such labels might be seen if the director picks a new angle to shoot from''.

===Lunar paparazzi===
[[File:Aldrin Apollo 11.jpg|thumb|right|250px|If you look carefully in the reflection of Buzz Aldrin's visor, it is possible to see Neil Armstrong taking the photo… but wait! He isn't holding up a camera, so how could he be taking the picture? It must be fake!]]
[[File:Apollo12Visor.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Alan Bean, Apollo 12. Note the camera attached to his chest. The guy reflected in his visor is "Pete" Conrad.]]
One would expect that, if the photo of Buzz Aldrin were fake, the visor would be reflecting a full film crew complete with ''their'' cameras. Of course, the simpler explanation is to look at the cameras used on the Apollo missions. Unlike technology we use down on Earth, NASA's equipment has to be specialized for use in space and for operation while wearing a space suit. So holding up a compact camera, peering through the viewfinder and snapping away like you're on a holiday just isn't a sensible option. The cameras used were attached to the chest of the suit,<ref>[http://www.myspacemuseum.com/apollocams.htm The Cameras of Apollo] ''My Space Museum'' (archived from November 19, 2006).</ref> as can be seen in that very photo of Aldrin. Despite the restricted ability to aim the cameras (shooting from the hip, as it were), it's still possible to take very good images, particularly once they had been selected, processed and cleaned up. This explains why we keep repeatedly seeing the same few "great shots" despite there being several thousand photos taken on the moon.

Another argument used by hoax supporters is that the pictures are simply too ''good'', indicating that they were taken by professional photographers, and not just some test pilots galloping around the Moon. But one must remember that these were no holiday snaps; NASA equipped their astronauts from the beginning with the finest cameras available, generally 70mm Hasselblads (much larger film frame than a standard 35mm SLR, hence much greater detail), modified for semi-automatic operation with 150-shot film magazines and further optimized for the lunar environment — and again, enough photos were taken that NASA could pick and choose the best ones to publicize.<ref>[https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11-5903history.html A Brief History of AS11-40-5903] by Eric M. Jones (2005) ''NASA''. Jones gives an account of how a very famous photograph was improved in the lab.</ref>

In fact, the sheer number of exposures taken on the Moon has been used in the [[Gish Gallop]] of evidence in favor of a hoax. With the EVAs (extravehicular activity) on the Moon lasting 4834 minutes and 5771 photos taken, some people seem incredulous that the astronauts managed to do anything but take photos during their time on the lunar surface.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20181224160958/http://www.apfn.org/apfn/moon.htm "Was the moon landing fake?"] (04/11/2013) ''American Patriot Friends Network'' (archived from December 24, 2018).</ref> These figures are highly misleading, not least because the presence of ''two'' astronauts immediately doubles the amount of time spent on the Moon. Next, ask any professional photographer and they'll tell you that if you get under 5000 images from nearly 6000 minutes of their time you need to fire your photographer and get a new one.{{efn|For comparison, the average wedding photographer will take around 1,500 shots through the course of the day. Even assuming they work all day, that's 1,500 shots in about 400 minutes. Then the ''really'' expensive ones work as a duo and can take 4,000 shots without breaking sweat. And of course, anyone who has been to a sufficiently sized party will immediately notice a couple of hundred pop up on [[Facebook]] the next day, and it's not like everyone spent every second of the night posing for photos, right?}} It takes about a second to take a photo, many done in batches and also done while they were working — so it wasn't a case of traveling halfway across a lunar crater to take the shots and then traveling all the way back to the other side to do the work. Really, this is beyond silly.

===Take-off video===
[[File:Apollo 15 Television Camera.JPG|thumb|right|The GCTA and the high-gain antenna on Apollo 15's Lunar Rover. ''On the moon''.]]
The video of the Apollo 17 lunar module taking off (technically, only the ascent stage takes off) often puzzles people, because the camera tilts up to follow it in flight, implying that someone was there operating the camera,<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOdzhQS_MMw Last Humans on the Moon] (Aug 24, 2006) ''YouTube''.</ref> much to the delight of conspiracy nuts. In [[reality]], the lunar rover had a television camera, the {{wpl|Apollo TV camera#RCA J-Series Ground-Commanded Television Assembly (GCTA)|Ground-Commanded Television Assembly}} (GCTA), and it could receive remote control commands from an operator on Earth, which was used to shoot the launch. There are other examples of the GCTA panning and zooming "on its own" when both astronauts are in the frame, away from its controls. It was also used to look around the landing site after the ascent stage has departed ([http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/a17v_1880403.mpg MPEG video]).

Another common twist of the claim is that the camera movement in the video appears to have "perfect timing," following the module closely despite the signal delay between the Earth and the Moon. This is easily explained: the take-off time was known in advance and the operators were able to plan ahead, taking into account the signal delay, the camera tilt speed and the angular velocity of the ascent stage. In addition to that, the Apollo 17 clip was the ''third'' (and final) try: the first mission to carry the Lunar Rover and the GCTA was Apollo 15, but the camera broke and couldn't tilt up, so it captured only the moment of the launch;<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUgKprYiu6E Apollo 15 Lunar Liftoff Lunar Rover Camera] (Feb 2, 2009) ''YouTube''.</ref> on Apollo 16 the camera worked correctly, but the lunar module flew out of the frame due to a miscalculation (the astronauts had parked the lunar rover on the wrong spot). "Third time's the charm", indeed. The camera system operator, Ed Fendell, became briefly famous among space buffs because of his spectacular last-chance success.

===Shadows===
[[File:Mutliple shadows.JPG|thumb|right|Holy crap, this picture must be faked!]]
In some shots, astronaut shadows appear to be cast in different directions. Conspiracy buffs with little-to-zero understanding of how light works claim that this is proof of two light sources, or artificial lighting; if they were really on the Moon there would only be one light source, the Sun. However, anyone with even a vague knowledge of reality knows that multiple light sources create ''multiple shadows'' for each object and yet ''do not'' create one shadow that points in a different direction. The different orientations of the shadows are due to uneven ground and perspective illusions. This was the first in a series of refutations by ''[[MythBusters]]''.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wym04J_3Ls0 "Faked Photos" myth #1] (Aug 28, 2008) "NASA Moon Landing" episode of ''MythBusters'' (2008) via ''YouTube''.</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
File:Apollo 11 AS11-40-5961HR.jpg|"WHY ARE THE SHADOWS CONVERGING!?"
File:Koh Samui, Beach 2, Thailand.jpg|Because of perspective...
</gallery>

===Image bleed===
For various purposes, photographs from the Moon feature black crosshairs (technical name, ''fiducials'') at regular intervals. In some images, the crosshairs appear ''behind'' parts of the image.<ref>[https://archive.ph/QwgDw OMG FAKE]</ref> This suggests, to the mind of the conspiracy hack, that the images have been tampered with, much in the style of Photoshop disasters. However, careful examination of this shows that only very bright white areas seem to cover the crosshairs.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20180105092706/http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/Graphics-Other/PSCI/ApolloImage2.jpg Not so simple now, is it?]</ref> This is a very well known optical and image processing phenomenon where the bright white areas bleed across the exposure, covering the crosshairs as the image was captured. In fact, higher-quality scans of the same photos, which involved better processing techniques, showed the crosshairs intact.

===The footprint===
It has been pointed out that the famous photograph of Buzz Aldrin's footprint on the lunar surface does not match the sole of the space suit, thus proving the moon landing was “fake.” Moon landing hoaxers forget that the Apollo 11 astronauts wore heavy "over boots" or "moon boots" that they used during their lunar walk, whose soles do match.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Link |first=Devon |title=Fact check: Moon landing conspiracy theory misrepresents lunar footprint |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/09/17/fact-check-moon-landing-conspiracy-theory-misrepresents-footprint/8380230002/ |access-date=2023-09-12 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}</ref>
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
File:Apollo 11 bootprint.jpg|Aldrin's footprint.
File:AS11-40-5880 (21039138323).jpg|Aldrin comparing it with his boot.
File:Apollo AS11-40-5866.jpg|Photograph showing the sole of the boots.
</gallery>
A more sophisticated argument is that the hard silhouettes of the moon footprints are impossible on a dry dusty surface, comparing them to photographs of footprints on beaches and deserts. So those footprints are only possible on a moist surface. The thing is, moon dust is not sand. The texture of {{wpl|lunar regolith simulant}} is compared with "{{wpl|fumed silica}}" and "cake flour with jagged edges". So this argument is refuted by walking on flour.<ref>{{{{Cite web |title=Can You Make Footprints in Moon Dust—Vacuum Chamber Dust Experiments |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NaETRAKois |access-date=2023-09-12 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{{{Cite web |title=Lacey might be the only place on earth to get moon dust - KING 5 Evening |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsHfelDgksA |access-date=2023-09-12 |language=en}}</ref>

===The flag===
The US flags planted during the Moon landings visibly shake while being handled. This is claimed to be evidence of wind, and therefore proof that it was filmed on Earth on a soundstage, rather than in the vacuum of space. 

In fact, and very counter-intuitively, the vacuum of space is exactly why you can see it wave the way it does. When surrounded by air, the flag would be subject to air resistance, and so, while it would flap in a strong wind, it would also settle down very quickly as the air buffers against its motion. In space, where there is no air to prevent this, any slight movement of the flag will continue until the friction of the material alone slows it down.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuTkTWh8NmE Stock Video Footage of an Israeli flag waving in the breeze filmed in Israel at 4k with Red.] (Aug 27, 2011) ''YouTube''. Here's a video of how a flag waves in the breeze, there are notable differences in the motion compared to how the flag on the moon "flaps."</ref> The American flag on the Moon, on the other hand, can only be seen to wave and move while the astronauts are handling it directly and for a bit thereafter.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxpecER2hmU Apollo 11 astronauts plant flag on the moon on July 20, 1969] (Jul 19, 2019) ''YouTube''.</ref> The motion comes not from any wind, but from their movements while positioning it. This gives the material a large kick of kinetic energy and, very importantly, ''there is no air resistance to slow it down''. When on its own and not touched for a significant portion of time it doesn't move, as expected. This is seen with most flapping material on the Moon footage, which is often cited as proof of a forgery, but in each case the material is reacting exactly how one would expect it to react in a near vacuum and with a fraction of the Earth's [[gravity]]. Oh, and if it was filmed on a soundstage, why would there be wind?{{efn|Wind on a hypothetical soundstage—especially if it was strong enough to keep the flags out fully—would also have disturbed the dust layer on the ground, and ruffled the astronauts' space suits.}}

''MythBusters'' cleverly demonstrated the effect by waving a flag in a vacuum chamber, comparing motion with air around it and then under vacuum. This shows the exact behaviour of the material seen on the moon footage.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhab86KoVjU Mythbusters Moon Hoax Flag Flapping] "Vacuum Myths" myth #2, "NASA Moon Landing" episode of ''MythBusters'' (2008) via ''YouTube''.</ref> Cloth effects simulators used in computer graphics and animation specifically have functions to simulate air resistance in order to get a fully realistic motion from the simulation — otherwise the simulations spit out exactly the motion observed on the moon. There is also a slight bit of [[common sense]] at play here because we're used to living in a 1 atm environment, where flags move because some wind is blowing them about. No one, in their everyday lives at least, sees material waving in a vacuum without the air resistance, so we don't have any experience with which to compare the moon footage. So when the flag is seen moving in any way, it's attributed to the presence of air, not the lack of it, as is the case when the motion is examined more closely.

Deniers with especially low intelligence see the ruffled bottom and middle of the flags in still pics and say aha, how could it be blowing in the wind?!  Of course, the footage clearly shows the top of the flag is held up by a boom coming off the flagpole; the top of the flag sticks out straight, while the rest is ruffled because the flag material below the boom is a fairly stiff material that never smoothed out completely when the astronauts unpackaged it. If you look closely in the videos, the "rippling" of the flag doesn't really move, as it would if it were flapping in a wind.

===Van Allen belts===
{{cquote|The recent [[Fox News|Fox TV show]], which I saw, is an ingenious and entertaining assemblage of nonsense. The claim that radiation exposure during the Apollo missions would have been fatal to the astronauts is only one example of such nonsense.|||{{wpl|James Van Allen}} himself<ref>{{Cite web |title=How NASA Worked Around Earth's Radiation Belts to Land Apollo 11 on the Moon |url=https://thewire.in/the-sciences/apollo-11-van-allen-radiation-belts-translunar-injection |access-date=2023-08-24 |website=The Wire}}</ref>}}

A common argument against the landings is the areas of radiation surrounding the Earth, originating from solar wind trapped by Earth's magnetic field, known as the {{wpl|Van Allen radiation belt||.}} Many people claim that it is impossible to pass through these areas alive, and hence there is no way anyone could have reached the moon.

One flaw with this reasoning is the sort of radiation found in the Van Allen belts. The radiation is comprised solely of charged particles originating from the Sun's corona, primarily [[proton]]s, [[electron]]s and alpha particles ([[helium]] nuclei). These are trivially easy to shield against; alpha particles can be stopped by a sheet of paper, and electrons (beta particles) by a few millimetres of aluminum. Gamma radiation is not so easy to stop, but it is notably absent from the Van Allen belts. Additionally, despite the energy of the particles, there are very few of them.

But the main issue is that the belts are not completely enclosed shells. During the Apollo missions, with the exception of Apollo 14, the astronauts completely missed the inner belts and went through thinner parts of the outer belts at high speed to minimise exposure.<ref>[https://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/tour/AAvan.html The Van Allen Belts] ''NASA''.</ref>

===No dust or blast crater!===
Another common objection is for deniers to say the lack of a blast crater, and no dust covering the lander pads, shows it was filmed in a studio.

There is no blast crater under the LM for several reasons:
# It takes far less thrust to soft-land in 1/6 gravity
# The astronauts cut the engine 5 feet off the ground (which you can get away with in 1/6 G)
# In a vacuum, rockets don't form an exhaust plume, because the exhaust immediately spreads out in all directions

The other bit ignores how dust works in a vacuum.  Dust billows up into clouds on Earth because the moving air holds it up for a while before it settles, like how objects in a glass of water can be buoyed above the bottom for a while before settling down.  With no air, dust particles fly directly away from the point of force and fly in ballistic paths.  Most of the dust would have landed before the LM touched the ground, and it would have landed ''away'' from the lander.  Dust settled on the lander feet would, ironically, have been possible evidence of fakery.

===We didn't have the technology!===
Our technology hasn't progressed uniformly since 1969.  While computer technology has obviously made leaps and bounds over what we had then (and this is what deniers are generally thinking of), the technology you need to go to the Moon is mostly propulsion and protection from vacuum, and that hasn't changed all that much.

While today's computers would make it ''easier'' to do a Moon landing (and the Artemis Program is designing hardware with up-to-date computers for that reason), there's no reason we couldn't do it without them.  In particular, there are two reasons why the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was sufficient for the job:
* It was custom-built for NASA to do a specific job (navigation), and NASA had the money to sink into this to do it right
* Most of the actual navigational computation was done in big computer banks on Earth, and relayed to the AGC

===It was all CGI!===
This one is contradictory with the previous claim, yet often deniers will make ''both'' claims without seeing the issue.

This one is also easy to answer: CGI simply didn't exist in the 70s.  It did exist 15 years later, but have you seen it?  (Look up the music video for Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" to get some idea.)

===Look at those mountains, they're just 50 feet away! So fake===
This goes back to how we judge distance to faraway objects on Earth.  Here, we can get some idea how far away a mountain range is because with the light going through more air, it gets a telltale faint haze.  But with no air, distant objects look crystal-clear, and appear close-up to our eyes.  This tripped up the astronauts on a number of occasions.

A similar thing is to blame for claims of "How can the horizon be just 100 feet away?"  Well the horizon ''is'' closer on a smaller body, but also, again, you can't really tell how far it is because there's no haze to judge by.

==Arguments against a conspiracy==
===Scope of those in on the plot===
{{cquote|[W]e landed on the moon, not because it was easy, but because tricking everyone into thinking we did would be freaking impossible.|||Jake Williams<ref>[https://archive.is/8bZTQ Did man really land on the moon?] by Jake Williams (December 14, 2016) ''Quora'' (archived from 23 Dec 2016 16:53:26 UTC).</ref>}}
Tens of thousands of people worked on the Apollo project at NASA, as did a variety of contractors. There were also many people around the world working peripherally on the project, e.g. relay stations in [[Australia]] and [[Spain]].<ref>{{wpa|Third-party evidence for Apollo Moon landings}}</ref> Anyone who came forward to demonstrate that it was a hoax would have become famous and would especially not have to fear reprisals from the evil NASA agents doing that on his/her deathbed. And yet none have. David Robert Grimes published an analysis that compared the probability of maintaining conspiratorial secrecy vs. the number of conspirators and the length of time that the conspiracy has existed.<ref name=grimes>[https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147905 On the Viability of Conspiratorial Beliefs] by David Robert Grimes (2016) ''PLoS ONE'' 11(1):e0147905. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147905.</ref> To assess the likelihood of conspiracies failing to maintain secrecy, Grimes used three [[Reality|real world]] conspiracies that were later exposed and estimated the number of people with knowledge of the secrets and the length of time that the secrets were maintained: the [[NSA]] PRISM spying (exposed by [[Edward Snowden]]), the [[Tuskegee syphilis experiment]], and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] forensic scandal.<ref name=grimes/> Using this information, Grimes estimated a 95% chance failure for the Moon landing hoax within 3.68 years.<ref name=grimes/>

The Moon landings took place at the height of the Cold War, and transmissions came from the surface of the Moon. These were picked up all over the world, including by the Soviet Union, the party that would have had the greatest interest in exposing a hoax. It's easy to tell which direction a [[radio]] transmission is coming from; had NASA faked it, the Soviets would have felt it their grave historical mission to inform the whole world.

In an effort to counter this rather gaping hole in the conspiracy theory, hoax believers claim that the Soviets were bribed in secret with large grain shipments.<ref>[http://www.moonhoaxdebunked.com/2017/07/101-were-soviets-bribed-to-keep-quiet.html 10.1 Were the Soviets bribed to keep quiet?] ''Moon Hoax: Debunked!''</ref> But there are a number of reasons why this is obviously fallacious:

#It is difficult to believe that this bribe would have paid for 50+ years of silence, even after the Soviet Union ceased to exist and was replaced by a government that was happy to showcase the USSR's failings.
#It is especially difficult to believe that the information would have remained secret after the collapse of the Soviet Union—particularly since post-Soviet Russia publicized the secrets of its own lunar program, including opening up the Soviet archives to historians.
#Grain shipments were stopped in 1980 and yet the Soviets ''still'' kept silent about the Moon landings, even though it would have been a massive propaganda coup.
#It would seem patently absurd to secretly prop the Soviet Union up with vast amounts of free grain while at the same time spending even more money on a faked moonshot to ''publicly humiliate the same entity''.
#The Soviets were not the only other nation that picked up the signals.

===Direct evidence===
[[File:Moon rock 1, JSC.jpg|thumb|right|"Protons, neutrons, I ate a rock from the moon...got shocked once, shocked twice, let's see what it can do!"]]
It is frankly difficult to imagine a project for which there is ''more'' real [[evidence]] than there is for the landings:

*We have a large quantity of lunar surface samples (rocks and regolith) that was brought back by the Apollo missions. These samples resemble those brought back by Soviet unmanned missions and do not resemble anything on Earth. (Geologists can tell a rock that's spent billions of years in a waterless vacuum with no weathering apart from an Earth rock.) Many international [[scientist]]s have spent their entire careers studying the stuff. If they could prove that it did not come from the Moon, they would make [[mass media]] news stories.
*We have a vast number of photographs and video taken on the Moon.
**Close-up footage of dust being kicked up by the astronauts on the Moon or raised by the wheels of the lunar rover shows that the dust fell parabolically, as expected in a vacuum. If the landing footage was shot on Earth, the dust would puff up in the air before falling to the ground.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lacey might be the only place on earth to get moon dust - KING 5 Evening |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsHfelDgksA |access-date=2023-09-12 |language=en}}</ref>
**There are other little tell-tale signs that the footage was shot over a large area with low gravity and a near-perfect vacuum, such as the video of the "feather and hammer fall" demonstration,<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C5_dOEyAfk Feather & Hammer Drop on Moon] (Jul 5, 2006) ''YouTube''.</ref> Armstrong's five foot jump up the ladder of the Lunar Module,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgYSua-sTV8&t=25s Apollo 11 - Armstrong jumps up the ladder] (Mar 10, 2011) ''YouTube''. At time=25 seconds.</ref> etc.
*We have the spacecraft which made the journey and returned, including parts of the Surveyor 3 robotic probe<ref>[https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/blog/2012/1/surveyor-3-camera-returned-from-the-moon Surveyor 3 Camera Returned from the Moon] by Julie Cooper (January 24, 2012) ''NASA''.</ref> that were brought back by Apollo 12.
*As of 2021, four of the people who made the journey are still alive and able to testify to the fact<ref>{{wpa|List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon}}</ref> along with the thousands of people who worked on the project.
*Amateur (or ham) radio operators in the US and other countries, such as [[Italy]], are witnesses to the fact the lunar television signal could be directly picked up with antennas pointed at the Moon (the Apollo missions used [[US Armed Forces|US military]] frequencies in the UHF 225-400MHz range as well as the S band 2.4GHz range). The ''QST'' magazine, published by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), carried articles on such reception and the equipment used.<ref>[http://www.arrl.org/eavesdropping-on-apollo-11 Eavesdropping on Apollo 11] by Chris Graney, ''ARRL''.</ref> If the signals had come from somewhere other than the Moon, it would have been obvious to those picking them up.
* Amateur astronomers were also able to spot the spacecraft of the missions of the Apollo program, either when they were maneuvering in Earth orbit or during reentry.<ref name=keel/>
*Three {{wpl|Lunar Laser Ranging experiment|sets of retroreflectors}} (prisms that reflect incoming light in the direction it came from) were placed on the Moon by Apollos 11, 14 and 15 to be targets for ranging lasers. These retroreflectors have been used extensively by independent parties. Apollo 14's retroreflector was deployed February 5, 1971 and used by McDonald Observatory in [[Texas]] only seven hours later once the Moon had risen. The laser ranging [[experiment]] in particular is a difficult one for conspiracy theorists to get beyond, and it seems that this fact is what causes regulars to conspiracy websites to tell Moon hoaxers to STFU and stop being so stupid.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20181216194313/http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread385937/pg1 If the moon landing was faked, why are retro reflectors returning light?] by Quarantine (Topic started on 28-8-2008 @ 01:10 AM) ''Above Top Secret'' (archived from December 16, 2018).</ref><ref>[http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1790701/pg1?regp=bm9fMTM0NzkwNDYyNg== "Game Over for NASA Moon-Landing Hoax"] thread at Godlike Productions</ref> One argument that has been made was that of ''American Moon'' director Massimo Mazzucco, who argued that there were previous lasers that bounced from the moon before retroreflectors were placed, such as with MIT in 1962.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpuKu3F0BvY American Moon (English Version)] by luogocomune2, 15 October, 2019, ''YouTube''</ref><ref>[https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/object/GCP-00023974  However, it has to be considered that reflectors are far more accurate than surface reflections. Louis Dijour Smullin and others with optical maser, 1962] ''MIT''</ref>
*Arguments about the flag fluttering in the breeze are similarly idiotic in the light of a little [[critical thinking]]. Ignoring that there's clearly a beam coming out from the flagpole holding up the top of the flag, and ignoring that the footage shows them flopping around in ways that flags don't move here on Earth (like they're being shaken around someplace where air resistance doesn't affect them), there's another consideration. Clearly the Moon landings were filmed in a darkened building, and the flags were flapping in a strong breeze indoors? So maybe someone was blowing a big fan that never fluttered the actors'/astronauts' space suits, and didn't kick up any dust?
*Just watch the Saturn V in all its glory.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GllmG7aZHb4 Saturn V Launch Views High Speed Cams 480p] (Sep 4, 2011) ''YouTube''.</ref>

===Photographic evidence from later missions===
[[File:Apollo11-LRO-March2012.jpg|thumb|LRO image of the Apollo 11 landing site, November 2011, from 15 miles above the surface. The descent stage of the LM is visible, as well as the trails of regolith disturbed by the astronauts and the experiment packages they left on the surface.<ref>[http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/484 Resolution? A Stark Beauty All Its Own] ''Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, Arizona State University''. 25 cm/pixel of the same image.</ref>]]
In 2007, the [[Japan]]ese probe SELENE (a.k.a. Kaguya) started mapping the lunar surface. The resolution of its cameras was not enough to image directly the leftover Apollo hardware, but it did spot an area of lighter regolith on an Apollo landing site that could have been caused by its engine.<ref>[http://wms.selene.darts.isas.jaxa.jp/selene_viewer/en/observation_mission/tc/tc_007.html Apollo 15 Landing Site (3/4)], JAXA/SELENE {{dead|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> Its data was used to create 3D reconstructions of lunar terrain that matched pictures made by the Apollo astronauts.<ref>[http://wms.selene.darts.isas.jaxa.jp/selene_viewer/en/observation_mission/tc/tc_008.html Apollo 15 Landing Site (4/4)] and [http://wms.selene.darts.isas.jaxa.jp/selene_viewer/en/observation_mission/tc/tc_010.html Apollo 17 Landing Site (2/3)], JAXA/SELENE {{dead|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>

In 2009, the [[India]]n moon orbiter Chandrayaan-1 took photographs of the Apollo 15 landing site and lunar rover tracks.<ref>[http://gizmodo.com/5352410/indian-probe-takes-clear-photo-of-apollo-15-hopefully-smashing-conspiracy-theories-forever/all Indian Probe Takes Clear Photo of Apollo 15, Hopefully Smashing Conspiracy Theories Forever] by Jesus Diaz (9/04/09 12:30AM) ''Gizmodo''.</ref>

Also in 2009, NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to map the Moon's surface in unprecedented detail.<ref>[http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1905344,00.html U.S. Shoots for the Moon, This Time to Stay]by Jeffrey Kluger (June 18, 2009) ''TIME''.</ref> Even before the launch, it was pointed out that the resolution of its cameras would allow, for the first time, a spacecraft to image the Apollo landing sites in sufficient detail to see the descent stages of the Lunar Modules that were left behind. The LRO has imaged the sites at least four times:
*The first images were taken in July 2009, shortly after the LRO reached Moon orbit, but before it had settled down in its proper mapping orbit.<ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html LRO Sees Apollo Landing Sites] (Jul 17, 2009) ''NASA''.</ref>
*In 2009 the LRO imaged several human-made objects on the lunar surface, including both the Apollo missions and the Soviet rovers (including the Lunokhod 2 rover, which had been "lost" for 30 years). The debris left behind by the astronauts is visible and identifiable as clearly artificial. Also visible are the double tracks of the rovers, Soviet and American.<ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc-20100708-apollo16.html Apollo 16: Footsteps Under High Sun] (Apr 3, 2019) ''NASA''.</ref><ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc_200911109_apollo11.html LRO Gets Additional View of Apollo 11 Landing Site] (Nov 9, 2009) ''NASA''.</ref>
*On the 6<sup>th</sup> of September 2011, NASA released even higher quality photographs taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter after it had been lowered from 50 km above the moon's surface to just 25km.<ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.html NASA Spacecraft Images Offer Sharper Views of Apollo Landing Sites] (Sep 5, 2011) ''NASA''.</ref><ref>[http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/454-Skimming-the-Moon.html Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera: Skimming the Moon] by Mark Robinson (September 06, 2011 07:00 UTC) ''Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, Arizona State University''.</ref>  In these photographs, even the trails of disturbed regolith left by the astronauts are visible, showing up as dark lines.
*In mid-2012 LRO scientists confirmed that all but one of the American flags are still standing.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19050795 Apollo Moon flags still standing, images show] (30 July 2012) ''BBC''.</ref> (The Apollo 11 flag was set up too close to the LM and was knocked over when the ascent rocket fired.) 

And in 2013, [[China]]'s Yutu rover landed on the moon, the first rover to do so since Lunokhod 2. The footage taken from the surface is so blatantly consistent with Apollo's that it's adding insult to injury.<ref>[http://www.universetoday.com/107369/stunning-change-3-lunar-landing-video-gives-astronauts-eye-view-of-descent-touchdown/ Chang’e-3 Lunar Landing Video gives Astronaut Eye View of Descent & Touchdown] by Ken Kremer (December 20, 2013) ''Universe Today''.</ref> Of course all of the above do not count if you are one of those conspiracy theorists who think ''all'' the world's space agencies are in NASA's payroll or just fronts of the latter.

===Operational arguments===
For versions of the moon hoax conspiracy theories that allow for the achievement of manned orbital missions (i.e., NASA could send astronauts into space, just not safely land them on the moon and return them to Earth), a host of unanswerable questions arise when considering mission control operations. Because mission control stations and personnel prior to the "fake" Moon landings were for the most part identical to those during the supposedly fake Moon landings, the question arises as to whether the mission control people (as seen on TV) were "in on it" and simply pretending to control a manned landing on the moon. Of course, none of those mission controllers have ever admitted to having faked the moon landing, and there are huge amounts of documentation concerning the mission data they observed in order to control this "fake" mission.

If one considers that mission control personnel were not in fact "in on it", an even harder-to-explain scenario arises: was there some other hidden group of fake mission controllers feeding the real mission controllers data that appeared to be a real moon mission? Given the primitive nature of digital computers at the time, this scenario requires a vastly complicated "mission" to provide the real mission controllers with an overall set of data capable of precisely mimicking a lunar landing, such that experienced mission controllers would not notice any contradictions or gaps in the fake mission data. Moreover, vast amounts of electronic cabling linking the two mission control centers would have had to be installed, and in such a way that the real mission control engineers would not be able to detect them. Remember too that, even with a fake moon mission, there was of course an actual Saturn V rocket launch, so real mission control consoles would have had to have the capability to switch from the real rocket launch data feeds to the fake mission data feeds from the secret mission control operation. And what about Apollo 13?  Was Mission Control fed fake data about a mission that screwed the pooch and had to be (supposedly) slingshotted around the Moon, with a different flight profile, and was it then given elaborate false puzzles about how to conserve enough electricity for reentry and adapt the LM's CO<sub>2</sub> scrubber to the capsule's spare replacement cartridges?

To date, however, there has been no evidence (direct or even circumstantial) to indicate the existence of a second secret mission control group. One must conclude, therefore, that all of the mission controllers were in on the hoax and that none of them have ever come forward to admit their complicity, a possibility with a likelihood approaching zero after {{age|1969|7|20}} years.<ref name=grimes/>

The kind of studios that would have been needed to simulate a moonscape (actually several of them given that the Apollo missions landed on different places of the Moon, from the rather flat of Apollo XI to the mountainous one of Apollo XV) would have been both really big and able to simulate the lunar conditions, most notably low gravity and vacuum, which very especially in an epoch with no CGI would have been ''ludicrously'' expensive, and of course no trace of such studios has even appeared and no [[Hollywood]] personnel who would have worked there has decided to tell the Truth™.

And what about the contractors? NASA didn't build its own equipment, it was all built by contractors: North American, Grumman, and so on. Were they kept in the dark? If so, NASA would have to go to substantial effort to fake its tests and launches of the equipment for the benefit of its builders, who kept tabs on how it performed so they could make changes NASA demanded.  Was it just the higher-ups of those companies who were in on it, and their employees kept out? That still leaves the problem of the contractors having to create equipment that could fly in space and do the things required, with elaborate fakery to make it look like NASA was using it and testing it in various ways.  Or were they all in on it? That would come to hundreds of thousands of people (four hundred thousand people involved in one way or in another in the Apollo program, according to some estimations), '''all''' of whom would have had to be kept quiet, and ''all'' of whom have managed to keep quiet all these years.

==Conclusions==
{{cquote|People love conspiracy theories… they are very attractive. But it was never a concern to me because I know one day somebody is going to go fly back up there and pick up that camera I left.|||Neil Armstrong in 2012<ref>[http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/25/neil-armstrong-last-interview Neil Armstrong's last interview: rare glimpse of man and moon mission: Astronaut rarely gave interviews but regaled Australian audience in May with Apollo 11 memories and worries about Nasa] by Paul Gallagher (25 Aug 2012 18.30 EDT) ''The Guardian''.</ref>}}
Given the overall context of the Moon landings and that of the Space Race with the Soviet Union, there are many, many reasons why people would come forward to conclusively prove that the landings were faked: [[political]] gain, [[Money|monetary]] gain, pure fame, and so on. Disproving the landings by a first-hand account, or evidence (such as a sneaky photograph of the studio used or something more concrete) would be relatively simple. However, this still flies in the face of what is known. Human-made objects are still on the Moon and transmissions came ''from'' the Moon; there is no "faking" this.<ref>[http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread749360/pg1 Apollo Moon Landings a Hoax? Then Read This] by Frira (Sep, 5 2011 @ 10:00 PM ) ''Above Top Secret''. Someone on the Above Top Secret forums tries to get across the absurdity of the scale of the fraud these people believe in.</ref>

If we assume a conspiracy exists, we need to know what it involves. Given the number of people that would need to be paid off (or killed<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20180313162240/http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/collections/moon_landing_conspiracy_theories Moon landing conspiracy theories] ''BBC'' (archived from May 13, 2018).</ref>) to stay silent, the effort required to pull the wool over the USSR's eyes (and the eyes of other countries who were watching), the ground-based fakery – rockets, launches, control rooms – fakery such as moon rocks and the photography and video taken from the moon: wouldn't it seem more logical and far simpler to just '''go to the moon'''?

==See also==
*[[Moontruth.com]], a parody of the hoax allegations that is [[Poe's Law|sometimes presented as an actual "proof" of a hoax]]
*[[Farouk El-Baz]]
*[[Brian O'Leary]], a NASA astronaut often claimed as supporting the hoax claims
*[[Lost cosmonauts]]

===Proponents===
A non-exhaustive list, in strictly alphabetical order:
*[[Above Top Secret]]
*[[Mike Bara]] —but only for the purposes of the Science (LOL) Channel's appalling series [https://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/truth-behind-the-moon-landing/full-episodes/nasa-nazi-conspiracy ''Truth Behind the Moon Landing'']
*[[James H. Fetzer]] (in tandem with his buddy Jack White)
*[[Candace Owens]]<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220828031034/https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/1487107786609676289 Now for some light-hearted fun. What’s the one “conspiracy theory” that no matter what anyone says you believe is true. Mine is that the moon landing in 1969 was completely faked. Just nothing about it makes sense. Especially NASA “accidentally erasing” the original footage.] by Candace Owens (4:58 PM · Jan 28, 2022) ''Twitter'' (archived from August 28, 2022).</ref><ref group=note>[[Crank magnetism|How thoroughly unsurprising.]]</ref>
*[[Ralph René]] 
*[[Bart Sibrel]] (known mostly for being punched in the face by [[Buzz Aldrin]])
*[[Jack White]] (responsible for a lot of the content on Aulis.com)
*[[Jarrah White]] (active mostly on YouTube)

{{otherlang
|fr=Moon hoax (français)}}

==External links==
*{{wpl|Moon landing conspiracy theories|Wikipedia's article}} is good on the rebuttal.
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GFAwvT92-M How I Know we went to the Moon] Presenting Positive Evidence for the Apollo Moon Landings. Yes, it's long, there's lots of evidence!
*[http://www.clavius.org/ Moon Base Clavius] – Jay Windley's website is probably the most detailed debunking of Moon hoax claims on the internet; ''MythBusters'' [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1728117/ used him as a consultant] for their "NASA Moon Landing" episode 
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060409115529/http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm Did we Land on the Moon? A Debunking of the Moon Hoax Theory], Robert A. Braeunig's ''Rocket and Space Technology'' (archived from April 9, 2006)
*[http://darryl-cunningham.blogspot.com/2010/07/moon-hoax.html Darryl Cunningham Investigates: The Moon Hoax], a rebuttal to common hoax claims in comics format
*[http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/NOT_faked/ Astronomer Jim Scotti's page on the "controversy"] 
*[http://www.thekeyboard.org.uk/Did%20we%20land%20on%20the%20Moon.htm Thekeyboard.org on the "hoax"]
*[http://www.braeunig.us/space/pdf/lunar_landing.pdf A vintage 1977 NASA press release on the subject] (PDF)
*[http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm?list45245 NASA page explaining how the Moon rocks really did come from the Moon]
*[http://onebigmonkey.com/apollo/CATM/catmall.html Clouds Across the Moon], a site showing that images of Earth taken on Apollo missions match weather satellite images taken at the same time
*[http://pseudoastro.wordpress.com/category/apollo-moon-hoax/ Posts dealing with hoax claims] on the [[Exposing PseudoAstronomy]] blog
*[http://io9.com/meticulous-visual-recreation-of-moon-landing-shows-it-w-1636757909/ Visual Recreation of Moon Landing by NVIDIA Shows it Wasn't a Hoax]
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425571/combined ''The Truth Behind the Moon Landings''], Channel 5 documentary broadcast in 2003 (if you'd like a full-length debunking)
* [https://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/truth-behind-the-moon-landing/full-episodes/nasa-nazi-conspiracy ''Truth Behind the Moon Landing''], Science Channel series starting May 2019
*If you have a question or you need more information about some claim, you can ask on the [http://www.apollohoax.net/forum/ ApolloHoax.net forum] or in the [http://cosmoquest.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?19-Conspiracy-Theories Conspiracy Theories] section of the former [[Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum]]. There you can find the authors of some of the websites above and other knowledgeable people.

===General information about the Apollo program===
*[http://history.nasa.gov/afj/ Apollo Flight Journal]
*[http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/ Apollo Lunar Surface Journal]
*[http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/index.cfm Lunar Rocks and Soils from Apollo Missions], NASA's Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office (includes a catalog of all the samples)
*[http://www.apolloarchive.com/ The Project Apollo Archive], a non-official site that nevertheless contains a lot of interesting material, including extensive image galleries
*[http://ntrs.nasa.gov/ NASA Technical Reports Server] (NTRS) hosts a lot of scanned documents dating back to the Apollo era
*[http://apollo.sese.asu.edu/ABOUT_SCANS/index.html Apollo Image Archive]

===Responses to the Fox Network special===
These are responding to the ''[[Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?]]'' [[schlockumentary]], produced by Bruce Nash, which first aired on February 15, 2001 on [[Fox News]]
*[http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html Fox TV and the Apollo Moon Hoax], [[Phil Plait]]'s review on the old ''Bad Astronomy'' website
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20180102073134/http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/ConspiracyTheoryDidWeGototheMoon.htm Analysis of photographs used in the program] by [[Steven Dutch]], University of Wisconsin geologist (archived from January 2, 2018)

===Parodies===
*''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0344160/ Opération lune]'' (English title: ''Dark Side of the Moon''), a [[French]] mockumentary often confused for a hoax-supporting movie, especially by people who don't speak English or French and have seen only a dubbed version (and, sadly, by some people who speak English or French but lack any [[critical thinking|critical]] faculties).
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umEpXKdTm5k Misbegotten Moon] – a video that makes fun of much of the [[logic]] of conspiracy theories, and the techniques used by conspiracy theory "exposé films."
*[http://xkcd.com/1074/ Moon Landing], [[xkcd]]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6MOnehCOUw ''That Mitchell and Webb Look'''s moon landing sketch]
*[http://www.theonion.com/articles/july-21-1969,10515/ The only appropriate reaction to the Moon landings.] (Yes, you can buy a [http://store.theonion.com/p-4741-holy-shit-man-walks-on-fucking-moon.aspx framed copy.])
*''Operation Avalanche'' (2016) — a fake documentary about the "fake" Moon landing<ref>[https://www.wired.com/2016/09/operation-avalanche-nasa-fake-documentary-fair-use/ How Do You Make the Fake NASA Documentary Operation Avalanche? Hire a Really Good Lawyer] by Angela Watercutter (09.16.16 7:00 am) ''Wired''.</ref>

==In a nutshell==
<center>
{{#ev:youtube|zhp-FTYSGe8}}
</center>

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|2}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|90%}}

[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:Denialism]]
[[Category:Moon]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]
[[Category:Spaceflight and space exploration]]

Categories: Conspiracy theories, Denialism, Moon, Pseudohistory, Spaceflight and space exploration