It has been more than 50 years since humanity first set foot on the moon.
And ever since, conspiracy theories that the landing was faked have been rife.
While none of these theories have any grounding in reality, that hasn’t stopped them from spreading like wildfire.
Now, as NASA delays its highly anticipated return to the moon to 2026, social media has once again been flooded with claims that man has never visited our lunar satellite.
The delayed missions have even led some sceptics to claim that ‘they can’t figure out how they did it the first time’.
It has been more than 50 years since humanity first set foot on the moon. And ever since, conspiracy theories that the landing was faked have been rife. Despite appearing to be waving in the wind, the flag taken by the Apollo 11 seen here with Buzz Aldrin is held up by a metal rod and is hanging crumpled in the Moon’s low gravity
As NASA delays its eagerly anticipated return to the moon to 2026, social media has once again been flooded with claims that man has never visited our lunar satellite
The delayed missions have even led some sceptics to claim that ‘they can’t figure out how they did it the first time’
‘They’re never going to fake another “moon landing”, one user wrote. ‘Artemis II or III will end in “disaster” and “human spaceflight” will be postponed indefinitely…’
Citing safety concerns, NASA announced that Artemis II, which will complete a lunar fly-by, has been delayed until September next year.
Meanwhile, Artemis III, which will once again put astronauts on the moon, won’t now take place until September 2026.
These sudden and unexpected delays have ignited a wave of conspiracy theory content on X (formerly Twitter).
One commenter wrote: ‘The way you guys are preparing to land on the moon again it seems like it’s the 1st time you are actually planning moon Trip.’
Another wrote: ‘It seems like they can’t figure out how they did it the first time.’
And another added: ‘They’re never going to fake another “moon landing”‘.
The moon landing conspiracy claims that America never completed the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
Rather, conspiracy theorists believe that NASA faked footage in a studio here on Earth, which was broadcast to people around the world.
The motivation was allegedly the US’s desperation to win the space race, but some wilder theories claim that it was faked because the moon does not exist or is flat.
Strangely, these theories also frequently claim that the moon landing footage was directed by Stanley Kubrick who had released 2001: A Space Odyssey the previous year.
These ideas have once again resurfaced on social media following the NASA delays, with one commenter writing: ‘Nasa is a hoax, Moon landing was a hoax, Kubrick fingerprints everywhere.’
Another X user, using the name The Flat Earther, wrote: ‘It seems that NASA is now so incompetent that they are unable to stage another fake moon landing, despite having access to superior CGI’.
One X user even called the Moon landing ‘one of the biggest frauds in human history’ and shared supposed ‘behind the scenes’ footage of the Moon landing filming.
However, as X’s community notes feature pointed out, this footage was actually from the 2018 film, First Man, starring Ryan Gosling.
The moon landing conspiracy claims that America never completed the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969
Conspiracy theorists believe that NASA faked footage in a studio here on Earth, which was broadcast to people around the world
One X user even called the Moon landing ‘one of the biggest frauds in human history’ and shared supposed ‘behind the scenes’ footage of the Moon landing filming
Of course, none of these theories have any truth to them.
When the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon, the crew did more than just walk around and take pictures.
They also placed a retroreflector array on the moon’s surface consisting of 100 glass prisms that function like a giant mirror.
This allows observatories on Earth to bounce lasers off the moon and accurately determine the distance between the two.
These mirrors still function to this day, allowing anyone to easily test this for themselves.
Besides this, the landing was actually observed live by astronomers on Earth.
At the Jodrell Bank radio telescope in Cheshire, Sir Bernard Lovell and his team accurately recorded the precise path of the lunar lander.
On the recordings of the radio signals, which still exist in the Jodrell Bank archives, you can even see the moment that Neil Armstrong took manual control of the craft.
If you’re still not convinced, then you only need to look at the flimsy evidence offered by the conspiracy theorists.
One of the most common conspiracy claims is that the shadows in a photo taken by Neil Armstrong are not parallel.
But even on Earth it is easy to observe situations where two parallel lines do not appear parallel.
This is the radio information from the Joderell Bank telescope which shows the exact moment that the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon
To debunk this myth all you need to do is go outside when the Sun is low and you can see this effect for yourself.
Another common claim made by conspiracy theorists focuses on an image of Buzz Aldrin saluting the American Flag.
In the photo, the flag can be seen cheerily waving, but of course there is no wind on the moon – so how is this possible?
The answer is, in fact, very obvious.
A closer examination of the flag in the photo clearly shows that there is a metal pole keeping it held up.
The flag is crumpled after being stored for four days en route and remains wrinkled precisely because there is no wind and little gravity on the moon.
Finally, conspiracy theorists point out that all the pictures of the Moon fail to show any stars in the sky.
If the image were taken on the Moon, shouldn’t the lack of atmosphere result in a fantastic starry sky?
However, anyone who has ever tried to take a picture of the sky at night will know this isn’t the case.
Conspiracy theorists claim that the non-parallel lines in this photo taken on the Moon by Neil Armstrong prove it was taken under studio lights, however, this same effect occurs on Earth any time the sun is low in the sky
While you cannot see any stars in this image of Buzz Aldrin, this is due to a constraint on the photographic technology which cannot simultaneously show the bright lunar surface and dim stars
You will notice that the astronauts and vehicles are brightly lit by the Sun because they are taken in the lunar day.
To capture any clear images of the lunar surface, the camera needed a low aperture and fast shutter speed, which means that stars simply wouldn’t show up on film.
It might seem odd that a 50-year-old conspiracy would still gain such an explosive reaction.
However, Dr Daniel Jolley, a social psychologist at the University of Nottingham, told MailOnline that this theory has survived because of three key ingredients – a perceived powerful actor, a hidden agenda, and a motive.
In this case, NASA is the actor which is perceived as being too powerful, covering up its failures is the hidden agenda, and the motive is to win the space race.
‘It really ticks off those three ingredients,’ Dr Jolley explained.
‘Because it fits in with the context of people distrusting the government at the time [of the landing] and because it’s a big event it really hit a nerve.’
At the time of the moon landings, many people had begun to distrust the government.
Dr Jolley says that the Moon landing conspiracy may have been born out of people trying to make sense of the world while dealing with this radical distrust.
He said: ‘It all comes out of that place of suspicion. If there is this one bad group trying to harm you, then there’s probably another group trying to do the same thing.’
This also explains why so many of the commenters on X sharing conspiracies about the Moon landing also promote anti-vax and flat Earth conspiracies.
‘You don’t just necessarily distrust scientists, you probably distrust many different people so these conspiracies align together because of this central worldview,’ Dr Jolley said.
Pictured, the crew of Artemis II, which was supposed to take place in 2024. Victor Glover (second from left) is the first person of colour selected for a moon trip, while Christina Koch (second from right) is the first woman. They have been chosen alongside Reid Wiseman (left) from Baltimore, Maryland and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen (right)
Likewise, Professor Karren Douglas, a Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Kent, told MailOnline that conspiracy theories arise when people’s psychological needs are frustrated.
Professor Douglas said: ‘People are looking for ways to understand what is going on and looking for ways to cope with difficult situations and unexpected and upsetting information.
‘A simple explanation is also often not very appealing. People assume that a big event must also have a big or more sinister cause, which is why conspiracy theories can be appealing in many cases.’
However, while they might seem curious and even entertaining, Dr Douglas also warns that these theories can be dangerous.
She added: ‘Conspiracy theories have consequences, and can affect people’s, intentions and behaviours.
‘Conspiracy theories historically have been linked with prejudice, extremism, genocide, risky health behaviour, climate denial, and more recently some quite disturbing behaviour.’
NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the moon in 2026 as part of the Artemis mission
Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the moon in Greek mythology.
NASA has chosen her to personify its path back to the moon, which will see astronauts return to the lunar surface by 2026 – including the first woman and the next man.
Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, was the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the moon and Mars.
The uncrewed flight, which successfully launched in November last year, travelled more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the moon and back to Earth. It splashed down in the Pacific Ocean in December 2022, 25-and-a-half days after launch.
Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, was the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the moon and Mars. This graphic explains the various stages of the mission
Orion stayed in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station, while it also returned home faster and hotter than ever before.
It will now be followed by Artemis II, a manned mission which is scheduled for launch next year.
The crew will fly around the moon and back to prepare for Artemis III, which NASA is targeting as the mission to return humans to the lunar surface.
Eventually NASA seeks to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon by 2028 as a result of the Artemis programme.
The space agency hopes this colony will uncover new scientific discoveries, demonstrate new technological advancements and lay the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy.
Who is Victor Glover? The man set to become NASA’s first black astronaut to orbit the moon
Victor Glover (pictured) was selected as an astronaut in 2013 and became the first African American ISS expedition crewmember to live on the ISS seven years later
NASA is set to send the first-ever black astronaut to the moon.
Victor Glover, 46, was selected to take part in the space agency’s Artemis II mission — the US’ first lunar mission in a half-century.
The Pomona, California, native will be the first person of color to travel into deep space, hundreds of thousands of miles beyond the low-Earth orbiting International Space Station (ISS).
NASA officials say the diverse crew assignments signify the cultural shifts that have taken place since the original Apollo missions, which ended in 1972, at a time when white men dominated space exploration.
Glover was also the first black man to ever live on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020 and is among 15 African Americans to be selected as an astronaut.
In his esteemed career since being selected as an astronaut in 2013, Mr Glover has logged over 3,000 flight hours in 40 different aircraft.
Artemis II – which will launch in November 2024 – will see the four-man crew orbit the moon in the Orion spacecraft but not land.
Their goal is to test new technology, including heat shields that protects Orion as it travels 24,500 mph in 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit on its way back.
If successful, NASA plans to launch an expedition to land on the moon titled Artemis III. Another success would spell out a trip to Mars for NASA.
‘I wanna thank God for this Amazing opportunity,’ Mr Glover said during a new conference Monday.
‘This is a big day. We have a lot to celebrate. It’s so much more than the four names that have been announced. We need to celebrate this moment in human history.
‘Artermis II is more than a mission to the Moon and back. It’s more than a mission that has to happen before we send people to the surface of the moon. It is the next step on the journey that gets humanity to Mars.
‘This crew will never forget that.’
Mr Glover was born in 1976 in Pomona, around 30 miles east of Los Angeles.
The city is far from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, known for its high poverty rate and relatively high crime.
Mr Glover grew up in Ponoma, CA, 30 miles east of Los Angeles
He said his parents and teachers served as mentors as him growing up.
‘Early on in life it had to be my parents; they encouraged me and challenged me and held me to high standards. Outside of home, I had teachers that did the same,’ he told USA Today in 2017.
‘They all challenged me, and they encouraged me.’
Mr Glover continued that his teachers and parents urged him to go the engineering school and eventually become a test pilot — leading to him becoming an astronaut.
He graduated from Southern California’s Ontario High School in 1994, and went on to attend California Polytechnic State University, before completing his graduate education at Air University and the US Naval Academy.
‘I’m the first person in my family to graduate from college, and being at graduation with my mom and my dad and my stepdad and my little brothers and my grandparents,’ he said to USA Today.
‘That was unreal, that was cool and it was special for me.’
In 1999 he was commissioned as part of the US Navy. After completing flight training in Corpus Christy, Texas, he was ‘given his wings’ and awarded the title of pilot in 2001.
He then moved to San Diego to learn to fly the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, known as one of the Navy’s more versatile aircraft.
After spending the next two years training in Florida and Virginia, he was deployed to Iraq in 2004 for six months.
Mr Glover was working in the office of the late Sen John McCain as a legislative fellow when he was selected by NASA to become an astronaut in 2013.
NASA only selects a handful of the thousands of people that apply to be a member of the nation’s astronaut corps each year. Only 15 black astronauts have ever been selected out of 348.
A vast majority of the 41 current astronauts have a military background, like Mr Glover.
He completed his astronaut training in 2015. Three years later, he was selected to be a part of the first ever operational flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, a reusable aircraft designed by the firm Elon Musk found in 2002.
As part of that mission, he would live on the ISS from November 17, 2020 to May 2, 2021.
The nearly six-month-long stay on the station makes him the first black astronaut to inhabit it.
Jeanette Epps, 52, who was selected to be an astronaut in 2009 is set to become the second African American, and first black woman, to live on the ISS after the launch of Boeing Starliner-1 in 2024 or later.
In 2020, Mr Glover said it was an honor to be the first black person selected to the ISS.
‘It is something to be celebrated once we accomplish it, and I am honored to be in this position and to be a part of this great and experienced crew,’ he said during a news conference.
‘I look forward to getting up there and doing my best to make sure, you know, we are worthy of all the work that’s been put into setting us up for this mission.’
In an interview with The Christian Chronicle later that year, he said there were qualified black astronauts that should have earned the honor before him.
‘I’ve had some amazing colleagues before me that really could have done it, and there are some amazing folks that will go behind me,’ he said.
‘I wish it would have already been done, but I try not to draw too much attention to it.’
Who is Christina Koch? The first female NASA astronaut set to orbit the moon
Christina Koch is set to become the first woman to go around the moon when NASA‘s Artemis II mission takes off next year.
Christina Koch, 44, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, is set to become the first woman to go around the moon
The Grand Rapids, Michigan native, 44, is already the record-holder for the longest amount of time a woman has spent in space, 328 days, and for taking part in the first all-female spacewalk in 2019.
Selected to become an astronaut in 2013, Ms Koch said she has not followed a ‘checklist’ in order to become an astronaut — but instead chased her passions whether this be rock climbing, sailing or even learning to surf in her 40s.
She said in 2020: ‘I really don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be an astronaut.
‘For me, I learned that if I was going to be an astronaut, it was because my passions had turned me into someone that could contribute the most as someone contributing to human space flight.’
While she’s exploring space, her husband Robert will be left taking care of housework and the couple’s puppy, LBD. It is not believed that they have children.
‘Am I excited? Absolutely!’ she said at a news conference at the crew’s announcement Monday.
‘The one thing I’m most excited about is that we will carry your excitement,your aspirations, your dreams, on this mission.’
She also said: ‘We are going to launch from Kennedy space center, we are going to here the words “go for launch” on top of the most powerful rocket NASA’s ever made.’
NASA has sent a total of 355 people to space so far, of which some 55 have been women — or 15 percent. It has also sent 24 people to orbit the moon and 12 to walk on the lunar surface who were all men.
Russian Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to ever leave the earth’s atmosphere — setting off in 1937. American women did not get sent to space until 1983.
Ms Koch, however, will make history on the Artemis II mission when she completes her long-awaited trip around the moon.
She revealed her love of space in a video when she was announced as a member of the Artemis I team in 2020.
The astronaut said: ‘I am someone who has loved exploration on the frontier since I was little.
‘I used to be inspired by the night sky and throughout my career, it’s been this balance between engineering for space science missions and doing science in really remote places all over the world.
‘I loved things that made me feel small, things that made me ponder the size of the universe, my place in it and everything that was out there to explore.’
She added: ‘I didn’t necessarily live my life following check boxes of how you could become an astronaut.
‘But I followed those passions and one day I looked at what I had become and the skills I had gathered and I asked “could I sit across from a table and present myself as someone who could do this well?”. And I thought, I’m going to give this a shot.’
She went to North Carolina State University in Raleigh to get a bachelor’s and a master’s in Electrical Engineering.
She then became an Electrical Engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, before becoming a research associate for the United States Antarctic Program — living an entire year in the Arctic.
Ms Koch was one of eight selected as part of NASA’s 21st class of astronauts in 2013. After two years of training, she became a full-fledged astronaut.
Her first space flight came in 2019 when she was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) to work as a flight engineer.
She stayed up there for 328 days, taking the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman. The previous record holder, Peggy Whitson, was in space for 288 days.
While in space she also took the record for the first all-women space walk — when an astronaut gets out of a vehicle while in space — with Jessica Meir.
The pair spent seven hours and 17 minutes on the side of the ISS as they worked to replace a power controller. The walk also included a brief call with President Trump.
Upon her return to Earth in 2020, Ms Koch said she felt ‘like a baby’ who was two weeks old and working hard to hold up its head.
Back on Earth, she lives in Galveston, Texas, just outside of the Houston area.
Among her interests are backpacking, running, yoga, photography and travel.
Now she will be a part of a groundbreaking mission in NASA’s goal towards putting a man on Mars.
The Artemis II mission marks NASA’s first trip to the moon in half a century. It says it will be performed to help test kit in preparation for getting humans onto Mars.
The agency sent an empty Orion capsule around the moon last year before it returned to Earth in a long-awaited dress rehearsal.
If this latest mission goes well, then another flight to land people on the moon will be sent in 2025 — as part of tests ahead of getting people onto Mars.
