Moon Landing

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans on the Moon. Michael Collins orbits above.

Apollo 12: Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land within walking distance of an unmanned Surveyor probe (launched 1967), photograph it, and bring parts back to Earth.

Apollo 13: Mission aborts landing due to explosion; crew returns safely (this failure actually proves NASA wasn’t faking flawless missions).

Apollo 15: David Scott and James Irwin use the Lunar Rover for the first time.

Apollo 16: John Young and Charles Duke explore the highlands.

Apollo 17: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt (a trained geologist) perform the final Moon landing.

Content hereThe flag only moves when the astronauts twist the pole into the lunar soil or when they run past it. There is a horizontal telescoping rod that makes it look extended. In vacuum, once disturbed, the flag keeps rippling longer because there’s no air to dampen the motion. High-resolution photos and video clearly show this.

The exposures were set for bright daylight on the lunar surface (the Sun is the only light source). Stars are too dim to appear with those camera settings — exactly the same reason you don’t see stars in daylight photos on Earth.

On an uneven surface with a single light source (the Sun), shadows converge or diverge due to perspective, exactly like railroad tracks appear to converge in photos. LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) images taken 2009–present show the exact same shadow directions at each landing site.

The belts are dangerous, but Apollo trajectories passed through the thinner parts quickly (1–2 hours). Spacecraft aluminum hull + astronauts’ suits provided sufficient shielding. Measured radiation dose on Apollo 11 was about 1 rem — roughly equivalent to a year’s background radiation on Earth or a few CT scans. All crews were healthy; average age at death of the 12 Moon walkers is ~82.

The 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey (directed by Kubrick) still used obvious special-effects tricks (visible wires, matte lines, slow-motion for “low gravity”). Apollo footage has none of those artifacts. Dust kicked up by boots and rover wheels behaves exactly as it would in 1/6 g vacuum — parabolic arcs, no billowing, sticks to boots. Hollywood in 1969 could not fake that realistically.

The Lunar Module engine throttled down to ~3,000 lb thrust near the surface and was spreading over a wide area in vacuum. It blew the top layer of very fine dust radially outward, but the regolith underneath is compacted by micrometeorites over billions of years. LRO photos clearly show the blast zones and footprints around the LM.

We stopped because of money and politics. Apollo cost ~$150–200 billion in 2024 dollars; after 1970, Congress slashed NASA’s budget from 4% of federal spending to <0.5%. Vietnam War, Great Society programs, and lack of Cold-War urgency ended the program.

have been studied by thousands of geologists worldwide (including in the Soviet Union, Japan, Europe). They show cosmic-ray exposure, solar-wind isotopes, and mineral structures impossible to manufacture on Earth.

placed by Apollo 11, 14, and 15 (and Soviet Lunokhod rovers) are still used today. Observatories on Earth (e.g., McDonald Observatory, Apache Point) bounce laser beams off them routinely and measure the distance to the Moon to millimeter precision.

– Japan’s Kaguya (2008)
– India’s Chandrayaan-1 & 2 (2009, 2019)
– China’s Chang’e missions
– NASA’s LRO (2009–present)
All have photographed the landing sites, rover tracks, footprints, and discarded equipment exactly where Apollo left them.

and never called them fake — despite having every incentive to expose a hoax during the Cold War.