Moon landing

Moon landing conspiracy theories claim that some or all elements of the Apollo program and the associated Moon landings were hoaxes staged by NASA, possibly with the aid of other organizations.

The most notable claim of these conspiracy theories is that the six crewed landings (1969–1972) were faked and that twelve Apollo astronauts did not actually land on the Moon. Various groups and individuals have made claims since the mid-1970s that NASA and others knowingly misled the public into believing the landings happened, by manufacturing, tampering with, or destroying evidence including photos, telemetry tapes, radio and TV transmissions, and Moon rock samples. Moon-landing conspiracists focus heavily on NASA photos, pointing to oddities in photos and films taken on the Moon.

1. In some photos, the crosshairs appear to be behind objects. The cameras were fitted with a Réseau plate (a clear glass plate with a reticle etched on), making it impossible for any photographed object to appear in front of the grid. Conspiracists often use this evidence to suggest that objects were “pasted” over the photographs, and hence obscure the reticle.
2. Crosshairs are sometimes rotated or in the wrong place.
3. The quality of the photographs is implausibly high.
4. There are no stars in any of the photos; the Apollo 11 astronauts also stated in post-mission press conferences that they did not remember seeing any stars during extravehicular activity (EVA). Conspiracists contend that NASA chose not to put the stars into the photos because astronomers would have been able to use them to determine whether the photos were taken from the Earth or the Moon, by means of identifying them and comparing their celestial position and parallax to what would be expected for either observation site.
5. The angle and color of shadows are inconsistent. This suggests that artificial lights were used.
6. There are identical backgrounds in photos which were allegedly taken miles apart. This suggests that a painted background was used.
7. The number of photos taken is implausibly high—up to one photo per 50 seconds.
8. The photos contain artifacts like the two seemingly matching “C”s on a rock and on the ground. These may be labeled studio props.
9. A woman named Una Ronald (a pseudonym created by the authors of the source) from Perth, Australia, said that she saw a Coca-Cola bottle roll across the lower right quadrant of her television screen that was displaying the live broadcast of the Apollo 11 EVA. She also said that several letters appeared in The West Australian discussing the Coca-Cola bottle incident within ten days of the lunar landing.
10. The 1994 book Moon Shot contains an obviously fake composite photo of Alan Shepard hitting a golf ball on the Moon with another astronaut.
11. There appear to be “hot spots” in some photos which look as though a large spotlight was used in place of the Sun.
12. Who filmed Neil Armstrong stepping onto the Moon?
    The Apollo TV camera as it was mounted on the side of the Lunar Module
13. The astronauts could not have survived the trip because of exposure to radiation from the Van Allen radiation belt and galactic ambient radiation (see radiation poisoning and health threat from cosmic rays). Some conspiracists have suggested that Starfish Prime (a high-altitude nuclear test in 1962) formed another intense layer on the Van Allen belt.
14. Film in the cameras would have been fogged by this radiation.
15. The Moon’s surface during the daytime is so hot that camera film would have melted.
16. The Apollo 16 crew could not have survived a big solar flare firing out when they were on their way to the Moon.
17. The flag placed on the surface by the astronauts fluttered despite there being no wind on the Moon. This suggests that it was filmed on Earth and a breeze caused it to flutter. Sibrel said that it may have been caused by indoor fans used to cool the astronauts, since their spacesuit cooling systems would have been too heavy on Earth.
18. Footprints in the Moondust are unexpectedly well preserved, despite the lack of moisture.
19. The alleged Moon landings used either a sound stage or were filmed outside in a remote desert with the astronauts either using harnesses or slow-motion photography to make it look like they were on the Moon.
20. The Lunar Modules made no blast craters or any sign of dust scatter.
21. The second stage of the launch rocket or the Lunar Module ascent stage or both made no visible flame.
22. The Lunar Modules weighed 17 tons and made no mark on the Moondust, yet footprints can be seen beside them.
23. The air conditioning units that were part of the astronauts’ spacesuits could not have worked in an environment of no atmosphere.
24. There should have been more than a two-second delay in communications between Earth and the Moon, at a distance of 250,000 mi (400,000 km).
25. Typical delays in communication were about 0.5 seconds.
26. The Parkes Observatory in Australia was billed to the world for weeks as the site that would be relaying communications from the first moonwalk. However, five hours before transmission they were told to stand down.
27. Parkes supposedly had the clearest video feed from the Moon, but Australian media and all other known sources ran a live feed from the United States.