Difference between revisions of "Moon Hoax"

Revision as of 07:08, 31 January 2010

NASA image AS11-40-5903, cropped from the bottom and the sides but not from the top

Moon Hoax (or Apollo Hoax) is a view that no man really landed on the Moon in 1969–1972 during the Apollo programme. Those who think so (called here Moon sceptics) say that the Apollo astronauts did not walk on the Moon, but NASA lied to the world by filming everything on Earth and fabricating evidence such as rock samples. Some Moon sceptics dispute also the authenticity of the Skylab orbital station.^[1]

Questioning man's way to the Moon is almost an absolute taboo in scientific circles.^[2] But in the Internet, the combat^[3] between NASA defenders and Moon sceptics goes on, with public support for the latter growing.^[4] An official admission of a hoax would likely have the most grave consequences for NASA, the USA, and all people and organisations involved in space exploration worldwide. This would also challenge the future manned Moon and Mars missions.^[5]

Rationale

On 12 April 1961, the USSR sent the first man into space – Yuri Gagarin.^[6] Six weeks later, U.S. President John F. Kennedy promised a manned Moon landing by 1969 to win the battle of systems and impress the world with technical superiority:^[7]

Moon sceptics say that NASA had to fake the Moon landings due to serious technical problems, insoluble for these eight years, which deadline however had to be met by all means. The USA could not afford to lose the Moon race.^[8] Bill Kaysing (see below) suggested that during the 1960s, they (NASA) said "if you can't make it, fake it".^[9] And in 2004, President George W. Bush gave not eight but sixteen years for a manned return to the Moon,^[10] albeit the technologies for it should have already been developed forty years ago.^[11]

Origins and history

The term "Moon Hoax" sprang up in 1835 from six consecutive New York Sun newspaper articles, written probably by the "Sun" reporter Richard Locke, about alleged discoveries of life on the Moon by astronomer Sir John Herschel through "a telescope of vast dimensions and an entirely new principle".^[12]

Since the twentieth century, the term "Moon Hoax" has been used only in regard to the Apollo Moon landings. Doubts about their authenticity appeared first in December 1968 when Apollo 8 was launched.^[13] And the almost perfectly executed odyssey of Apollo 11 seemed unreal to some who believed it to be a hoax, contrived for mere publicity.^[14]

The first book on the subject (Did man land on the Moon?) was written by the mathematician James Cranny in 1970.^{[15][16](2:52–3:03)} The suggestive scenes in the films Diamonds are forever by Guy Hamilton (1971)^[17] and especially Capricorn One by Peter Hyams (1978, about a hoaxed flight to Mars in a spacecraft that looks the same as the Apollo craft)^[18] gave a powerful boost to the popularity of the hoax theory, coinciding with the increased distrust in official U.S. reports after the Watergate scandal.^{[3][19][20][21]} And today, a sequel to "Capricorn One" is in the "deep development stage", said Navid McIlhargey, senior vice president with New Regency Productions in Los Angeles.^[22]

In 2006, the Apollo era slow-scan TV and telemetry data tape reels were declared missing.^[23] The question of what happened to the tapes "stuck in the craw" of the Moon doubters.^[24] And in 2009, NASA revealed that the tapes were erased.^[25][26]

Public opinion

There are entire subcultures within the USA and substantial cultures around the world that strongly believe that the Moon landings were faked. This view is taught in Cuban schools and wherever else Cuban teachers are sent (Nicaragua, Angola, etc.).^[27][28][29]

Poll results

On 14 June 1970, Knight Newspapers conducted a poll of 1721 people in six U.S. cities and found that more than 30% were "suspicious of NASA's trips to the Moon" with the number rising to 54% in some Afro-American areas.^{[3][30](pp. 3, 5)[31]} And on 4 November 2002, the Italian daily Corriere della sera reported that 68% of the non-white American population do not believe NASA.^[32] The following table lists a score of public opinion survey results. The "sceptics" column shows the percentage of people who doubt or deny that men walked on the Moon.

* German astronaut Prof. Dr. Ulrich Walter noted that the percentage of sceptics increased from 36% in 2002 to 44% just two years later.^[4]

NASA's response

Brian D. Welch (1958–2000), NASA's Director of Media Services (1998–2000),^[56] said in an 1997 interview with Sky TV News:^{[57](p. 68)[58](48:13–48:46)}

When Fox TV aired Bruce Nash's^[59] film "Conspiracy theory: Did we land on the Moon?" in 2001,^[60] NASA added hoax theory rebuttal pages on their website.^[61][62][63] They also wrote "suggestions for science teachers"^[64] on how to refute the hoax claims using NASA's Lunar Sample Disk Kits.^[65]

In 2002, NASA hired their veteran, former rocket scientist, MSNBC News space consultant and analyst, journalist (and as it turned out later, China's Moon programme sceptic)^[66] James Edward Oberg (born 1944).^[67][68] For a fee of $15,000, his job was to write a book intended to challenge those who claim the Apollo Moon landings were a hoax.^[35] But NASA soon cancelled the project, declining to give the reasons for this. It is understood that the decision resulted from the bad publicity that followed the announcement of the project. NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said criticism that NASA was displaying poor judgement and a lack of confidence in commissioning the book caused the agency to abort it. Others commented that making the Oberg's book an official NASA publication would actually give a certain credibility to the hoax theory.^{[69][70][71][72]} For example, then NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said:^[69][73]

After NASA's decision to cancel the book, Oberg said that ignoring the problem "just makes this harder" and stated that he still intends to write it as an unofficial publication, depending on successfully arranging new funding sources. He gave the book the working title of "A pall over Apollo". But as of 2009, no such book is known to have been published by him yet,^[28][73][74] albeit the influential Israeli daily Haaretz ("The Land") wrote that he did get the $15,000 from NASA.^[75] Moon sceptic Yuri Mukhin (see below) claims that Oberg had passed the text of the unreleased book for use by the voluntary NASA helpers.^{[76](p. 251)} Oberg had indeed announced that he will issue the book in an informal manner.^[77]

NASA defenders

Nonetheless, with the advent of the Internet, unofficial websites appeared worldwide that aim to refute the sceptics' objections. Thus NASA's intention turned out to be carried out by others' hands, in an unofficial manner. So NASA evaded the initial promise and thus escaped responsibility, leaving the world public in a deep bewilderment.^[78]

Some of the most notable NASA defenders are:

• Prof. Dr. Harald Lesch, German astrophysicist.^[79][80]
• Dr. Igor Rurikovich Suslov, Russian doctor of physical-mathematical sciences of the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering in Obninsk.^[81]
• Dr. Michael Linden-Vørnle, Danish astrophysicist.^[82]
• Dr. Philip Cary Plait, American astronomer who runs the website BadAstronomy.com.^[63][83]
• Dr. Vladislav-Veniamin Friedrichovich Pustynski, native-Russian-speaking Estonian astrophysicist, lecturer, and teacher in Spanish of Jewish origin who defends NASA in various web forums under the alias "7-40" (or similar) and others.^[84][85] Pustynski is a member of the International Astronomical Union.^[86]
• Abduldaem Al-Kaheel, Syrian mechanical engineer, researcher in the Scientific Miracles of the Qur'an and Sunnah, author of forty books, and webmaster of the Kaheel7 website.^[87][88]
• Alberto Farid Char Bonilla, Chilean psychologist and amateur astronomer, webmaster of the Austrinus website.^[89]
• Alexander Yevgenyevich Markov, Russian engineer who collected a special library about the Apollo programme and Wernher von Braun and published a series of articles about them.^[90]
• Ali Murat Güven, Turkish journalist and columnist of the Yeni safak ("New dawn") conservative daily.^[91]
• Chan Kihung, Hong Kong Space Museum assistant curator.^[92]
• Dirk H. Lorenzen, German astrophysicist, writer, and member of the executive board of the German Association of Science Journalists.^[93][94]
• Guillermo O. Descalzo, Argentinean manager and rocket modeller, webmaster of the website of the same name.^[95]
• James V. Scotti, American astronomer from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona.^[96]
• Jay Windley, American engineer who runs the website Clavius.org.^[63][97]
• Keith Mayes, British amateur astronomer, author of the book Science, the Universe and God (2004), and webmaster of the TheKeyboard.org.uk website.^[98]
• Marcus Haas, German physicist and webmaster of the website of the same name.^[99][100]
• Masashi Yokoyama, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Junya Terazono, and Tatsuya Honjo, Japanese NASA defenders of the Association for Sceptical Investigation of Supernatural (ASIOS).^[101]
• Matteo Negri, secretary of the Italian amateur astronomers group Columbia and webmaster of the Siamo andati sulla Luna ("We went to the Moon") website.^[102]
• Matthias Lipinski, German NASA defender and webmaster of the Apollo Projekt website.^[103]
• Neil Atkinson, English geologist and webmaster of the www.Apollo-Hoax.co.uk website.^[104]
• Paolo Attivissimo, Italian NASA defender and webmaster of the website of the same name.^[105]
• Pavel Gabzdyl, Czech astronomer.^[106]
• Robert A. Braeunig, American engineer, amateur astronomer, and webmaster of the Braeunig.us website.^[107]
• Ronaldo Rogério de Freitas Mourão, Brazilian astronomer.^[108][109]
• Svetoslav Dimitrov Alexandrov, Bulgarian NASA defender and webmaster of the Cosmos.1.bg website.^[110]
• Uwe Rexin, German NASA defender and webmaster of the Mondlandung website.^[111]
• Visanu Euarchukiati, Thai Astronomical Society deputy secretary.^[112][113]
• Vladimir Nikolaevich Pavlyuk, Russian aviation equipment engineer who defends NASA in web forums under the alias "Stary" (the old man).^[114]
• Yuri Donatovich Krasilnikov^[115][116] (physicist and programmer)^[117] and Vyacheslav Yatskin (programmer),^[118] Russian NASA defenders, authors (or mostly translators from English, according to Yuri Mukhin – see below)^{[76](p. 251)} of the 327 KB long Skeptik.net/conspir/moonhoax.htm article.^[119]
• The Maximum programme on the Russian NTV.^[120]
• The MythBusters, Australian TV programme^[121] (also translated on the Russian TV3 channel).^[122]
• The Wikipedia editors who put a great deal of effort into defending NASA, categorising the Moon hoax view as "conspiracy theory", "pseudo-science", "pseudo-history", "denialism", etc.^[123]

In 2009, NASA spokesman John Yembrick wrote that "amateurs are stepping in and arguing on behalf of astronauts and scientists who are too professional to defend themselves."^[63]

Moon sceptics or "conspiracy theorists"?

Moon sceptics are often labelled "conspiracy theorists" (e.g. by Roger Launius, senior curator at the National Air and Space Museum at the U.S. Smithsonian Institution) but they disagree. For example, Bart Sibrel (see below) said:^[22]

The Norwegian psychologist Floyd Rudmin writes that "conspiracy theory" is a powerful pejorative label, meaning paranoid, nutty, marginal, and certainly untrue. Its power is that it discounts a theory by attacking the motivations and mental competence of its advocates. By labelling an explanation of events "conspiracy theory", evidence and argument are dismissed because they come from a mentally or morally deficient personality, not because they have been shown to be incorrect. Calling an explanation of events "conspiracy theory" means, in effect, "We don't like you, and no one should listen to your explanation."

In past eras, other pejorative labels like "heresy", "witchery", and "communism" also worked like this. The charge of "conspiracy theory" is not so severe, but in its way much worse. Heresy, witchcraft, and communism at least retain a sense of potency, designating ideas to be feared. "Conspiracy theory" implies that the ideas and their advocates are simple-minded or insane. Such labels implicitly define a community of orthodox believers and try to banish or shun people who challenge orthodox beliefs. Community members sympathetic to new thoughts may shy away from them and join in the shunning in fear of being tainted by the pejorative label.^[124]

Besides "conspiracy theorists", Moon sceptics are also called "fringe theorists",^[125] "refuters"^[126] (assuming that they hold the burden of proof, which they, e.g. Alexander Popov, deny – see below), and "deniers"^[63] (associating them with the Holocaust deniers).^[127] And Julian W. Scheer (1926–2001), NASA's Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs (1963–1971)^[128] stated:^{[60](41:43–41:51)}

Conversely, NASA defenders are called "NASA hiwis"^[129] and "Pro-Apollo nutters" ("PANs") by Moon sceptics Yuri Mukhin^{[76](p. 251)} and Sam Colby,^[130] respectively (see below).

The following funny theses are popular in the Russian Internet community:

Major Moon sceptics

Some of the most notable Moon sceptics are listed below.

Bill Kaysing

William Charles Kaysing (1922–2005), American writer who was head of technical publications at Rocketdyne (the company which built the F-1 engines used on the Saturn V rocket) from 1957 until 1963, when he became a freelance writer.^[133][134] In 1974,^[135] Kaysing published his book We never went to the Moon,^{[30][136](ch. 17)} starting the Moon hoax movement.

Kaysing (and others, including Sibrel – see below) claimed that, according to a Rocketdyne company report from the late 1950s,^[107] the chance of a successful landing on the Moon was calculated to be 0.0017%. Kaysing said in particular that the F-1 rocket engine used in the first stage of the Saturn V was too unreliable:^{[30](p. 9)}

Kaysing stated that the supposedly Moon-bound Apollo astronauts did not even go into orbit. He suggested a "coalition between governments at the highest level" to conceal, among other things, the Moon hoax.^[135]

Bart Sibrel

Bartholomew Winfield Sibrel (born 1965),^[137] American filmmaker and investigative journalist, created the following documentary films:^[138]

1. A funny thing happened on the way to the Moon (2001)^[139]
2. Astronauts Gone Wild (2004)^[140]
3. Apollo 11 press conference (2004)^[141]
4. Apollo 11: Monkey business: False photography unedited (2004)^[142]
5. Apollo One accident report (2007)^[143]

Sibrel says that "A successful manned mission to the Moon offered a wonderful, pride-boosting distraction for the near revolt of the citizens of America over 50,000 deaths in the Vietnam War",^[144] with lunar activities stopping abruptly and planned missions canceled, around the same time that the USA ceased its involvement in Vietnam.^[145]

In his film Astronauts gone wild,^[140] Sibrel asked nine Apollo astronauts to swear an oath on the Bible that they did go to the Moon, of which three did so.^[146] When Sibrel asked Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin to swear such an oath, he refused. Sibrel called him "a coward and a liar and a thief"^[73][147] and got a punch in the face.^[63] The police investigated the incident but filed no charges.^{[137][148][149]}

Stanislav Pokrovsky

Stanislav Georgievich Pokrovsky (born 1959)^[150] is a Russian candidate of technical sciences and General Director of a scientific-manufacturing enterprise Project-D-MSK.^[151]

In 2007, he studied the filmed staging of the first stage (S-IC) of the Saturn V rocket after the launch of Apollo 11.^[152] Analysing it frame by frame, he calculated the actual speed of the Saturn V rocket at S-IC staging time using four different, independent and mutually verifying methods. With all of them, the calculated speed turned out to be at maximum half (1.2 km/s) of the declared one at that point (2.4 km/s). He concluded that due to this, no more than 28 tonnes could be brought on the way to the Moon, including the spacecraft, instead of the 46 tonnes declared by NASA, and so a loop around the Moon was possible but not a manned landing on the Moon with return to the Earth.^{[153][154][155][156]}

In 2008, Pokrovsky also claimed to have determined the reason why a higher speed was impossible – problems with the Inconel X-750 superalloy used for the tubes of the wall of the thrust chamber of the F-1 engine,^[157] whose physics of high-temperature strength was not yet studied at that time. The strength of the material changes when affected by high temperature and plastic deformations. As a result, the F-1 engine thrust had to be lowered by at least 20%. With these assumptions, he calculated that the real speed would be the same as he had already estimated (see above). Pokrovsky proved that six or more F-1 engines (instead of five) could not be used due to the increased fuel mass required by each new engine, which in turn would require more engines, and so on.^{[155][156][158][159]}

Pokrovsky claims that his Saturn V speed estimation is the first direct proof of the impossibility of the Apollo Moon landing.^[151] He says that fifteen specialists with scientific degrees (e.g. Alexander Budnik)^[160] who reviewed his paper, of which at least five aerodynamics experts and three narrow specialists in ultrasonic movement and aerosols, raised no objections in principle, and the specific wishes and notes they (e.g. Vladimir Surdin)^[161] did have could not change his results significantly even if followed.^[162][163] Pokrovsky compares his own frame-by-frame analysis of the filmed Saturn V flight to the frame-by-frame analysis of the filmed Trinity nuclear test (1945) done by the Soviet academician Leonid Sedov who created his own blast wave theory to estimate the then top secret power of the explosion.^[164]

See also author's note below.^[165] Pokrovsky's findings about the rocket speed were later confirmed by Alexander Reshnyak and Alexander Popov (see below).

Alexander Popov

Alexander Ivanovich Popov (born 1943) is a Russian senior research associate, doctor of physical-mathematical sciences and the author of more than 100 scientific works and inventions in the fields of laser optics and spectroscopy.^[166]

Helped by more than forty volunteers, most of which with scientific degrees,^[167] he wrote the book Americans on the Moon – a great breakthrough or a space afair? (Moscow, 2009).^[168][169] In it, Popov placed the burden of proof on NASA,^[167] and denied all Moon landing evidence, dividing it to five groups:

1. Visual (photo, film and video) material that can successfully be made on Earth, in cinema studios.
2. Obvious counterfeits and fakes, when visual material from ordinary space flights on Earth orbit is presented as Moon material.
3. Space photos, attributed to the astronauts but which by that time could already be made and were made by space robots, including American ones.
4. Devices on Moon (e.g. light reflectors) – by that time both American and Soviet automatic "messengers" had sent on Moon several tens of similar devices.
5. Unfounded, unprovable claims, e.g. for about 400 kg of soil, overwhelming part of which NASA keeps safe and gives only grams for checking.

Thus he concluded that the NASA claims on Moon landings are left unproven, and pursuant to science rules, in the absence of trustworthy evidence, the event, in this case the American Moon landings and their loops around the Moon, cannot be considered real, that is, having taken place.^[11] He also confirmed Pokrovsky's results for the speed of the Saturn V at S-IC staging time (see above), giving a still lower value of 0.9 km/s.^{[170](pp. 230–233)} Popov accused the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee of trading the 1970s Détente for covering up the U.S. Moon hoax and stopping the Soviet Moon programme.^[171]

Yuri Mukhin

Yuri Ignatievich Mukhin (born 1949), Russian opposition politician, publicist, writer, engineer, former metallurgist, manager and inventor. He has written the books The Moon affair of the USA (2006)^[172] and The Moon affair, or Where were the Americoses? (2009)^[76] in which he examines the differences in the Soviet and U.S. lunar soil found out by Western researchers, refutes the arguments of the NASA defenders, and accuses the U.S. establishment for plundering the money paid by the American tax payers for the Moon programme. Mukhin states that the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee was blackmailed by the USA that if the USSR denounces the Moon hoax, the U.S. will denounce the Soviet partocracy before his people, revealing that Khrushchev had killed Stalin and Beria.^{[76](pp. 124–126)}

David Percy

David S. Percy, British TV producer and expert in audio-visual technologies and member of the Royal Photographic Society, is coauthor, along with Mary Bennett (see below) of the book Dark Moon: Apollo and the whistle-blowers^[57] and director of the documentary film What happened on the Moon? (2000).^[58] He is the main proponent of the "whistle-blowing", arguing that the errors in the NASA photos in particular are so obvious that they are evidence that insiders are trying to "blow the whistle" on the hoax by deliberately inserting errors that they know will be seen.^[173][174]

Other Moon sceptics

• Prof. Dr. Krassimir Ivandjiiski (born 1947), Bulgarian doctor of economics and professor in geopolitics and international relations. In 2008, his monthly analytical newspaper Strogo Sektetno published a series of articles on the Moon Hoax, based on the ideas of Alexander Popov (see above).^[175]
• Prof. Dr. Li Zifeng, Chinese geologist, member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Petroleum Society of Canada.^[176][177]
• Prof. Dr. Takahiko Soejima (born 1953), Japanese political scientist and writer, member of the International Political Science Association, founder and president of the Soejima National Strategy Institute, and author of the book 1962–1972: Apollo 11 has never been to the Moon (2004).^[178]
• Prof. Federico Martín Maglio (born 1959), Argentinean higher educator and webmaster of the FMM education website.^[179]
• Dr. David Groves, British physicist and holographic computer image analyst who analysed some NASA photos. He said that he can pinpoint the exact point at which the artificial light was used in the NASA photo AS11-40-5866.^[180] Knowing the focal length of the camera's lens and having an actual boot, he and David Percy (see above) have calculated (using ray-tracing) that the artificial light source is 30 ± 6 cm to the right of the camera.^{[58](35:14–36:46)[181][182][183]}
• Dr. Shrikant N. Devdikar, Indian doctor and webmaster of the Shriworld website.^[184]
• Dr. William L. Brian II,^[185] American engineer and author of the self-published book "Moongate: suppressed findings of the U.S. space program" (1982). He claims that "the film speed was adjusted to slow down the action to give the impression that the astronauts were lighter than they actually were".^[186][187]
• Alexander Garrievich Gordon (born 1964), Russian radio and TV host, journalist, actor, and film director. Author of the film The Americans haven't been on the Moon (1997).^[16]
• Alexander Valeryevich Reshnyak (born 1973), Russian engineer^[188] who confirmed Pokrovsky's results on the Saturn V speed (see above) using a method of his own.^[189]
• André F. Mauro (born 1964), Brazilian film director and writer, author of the book O homem não pisou na Lua ("Man did now set foot on the Moon"), and webmaster of the Show da Lua website.^[2][190]
• Anne Tonelson (died 2006), British stage actress who was living in Nashville and narrated the documentary film A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon by Bart Sibrel (see above).^[191]
• Arkady Velyurov, Russian webmaster of the Pepelatsy website.^[192]
• Aron Ranen, director of "Did we go?", co-produced with Benjamin Britton and selected for the 2000 "New Documentary Series" Museum of Modern Art, New York City, the 2000 Dallas Video Festival Awards and the 2001 Digital Video Underground Festival in San Francisco. He received a Golden Cine Eagle and two fellowships from the National Endowment for Arts.^[146][193]
• Bill Wood, American scientist with degrees in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and a space rocket and propulsion engineer who has worked with McDonnell Douglas and engineers who worked on the Saturn V rocket. He attended David Percy's documentary film What happened on the Moon? (see above).^{[58](17:20–18:15)}
• Borislav Lazarov, Bulgarian radio host, journalist and director of the documentary film To the Moon and back (2007).^[194][195]
• Charles T. Hawkins (born 1962), author of How America faked the Moon landings (2004, ISBN 9780974940540) in which he presents the ideas of Sam Colby (see below).^{[196][197][198]}
• Clyde Lewis (Louis Clyde Holder, born 1964), American radio talk show host.^[21]
• David Cosnette, British webmaster of the Cosmic Conspiracies website.^[183]
• David McGowan (born 1960), American writer and contractor-constructor, "host" of the Centre for an Informed America (CIA) website.^[199]
• David R. Hook (1971–2006), Canadian comedian and musician, author of the music and lyrics of The Moon song.^[200]
• Eric Hufschmid, American software engineer^[201] and webmaster of the website of the same name.^[202]
• Gerhard Wisnewski (born 1959),^[203] German publicist and author of the films Die Akte Apollo ("The case Apollo", 2002)^[204] and Die Mond(f)lüge: Warum Menschen niemals auf dem Mond landeten? ("Why have men never landed on the Moon?", 2008),^[205] and the books "Lies in space. From the Moon landing to world domination"^[206] (in German) and its English version – "One small step? The Great Moon Hoax and the race to dominate Earth from space".^[207]
• Gernot L. Geise, German writer, author of Der größte Betrug des Jahrhunderts? Die Apollo-Mondflüge ("The greatest scam of the century? The Apollo Moon flights")^[208] and 5 other books on the subject.^[209]
• Henrik Melvang, Danish publicist, author of the video documentary film Afsløring Apollo ("Uncovering Apollo")^[210]
• Jack White, American photo historian and photo analyst known for his attempt to prove forgery in photos related to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.^[211]
• Jackie Jura, independent researcher and webmaster of the Orwell Today website.^[212]
• James J. Cranny, mathematician and author of the first book on the subject – Did man land on the Moon? (1970).^{[15][16](2:52–3:03)}
• James M. Collier (died 1998), American journalist, writer, and producer of the video-film Was it only a paper Moon? in 1997, in which he examines some mechanical issues of the Apollo Lunar Module, questioning its usability.^[213][214]
• Jarrah White, native Australian, director of the film series MoonFaker.^[146][215]
• Joe Rogan (born 1967), American comedian, actor, and long time summariser.^[216]
• John Lee, director of "Did we really go to the Moon?" and webmaster of the NASA moons USA website.^[217]
• Kevin Overstreet, American webmaster of the Bates Motel website.^[218]
• László Aranyi, Hungarian webmaster of the website of the same name and translator of the pages of Sam Colby (see below).^[219]
• Leonid Valentinovich Batsura, Russian Himmash design house lead engineer and rocket engine specialist.^[220][221]
• Marcus Allen, British publisher of Nexus magazine said that photographs of the lander do not prove that the US put men on the Moon. "Getting to the Moon really isn't much of a problem – the Russians did that in 1959 – the big problem is getting people there."^[104][222]
• Mario Kienappel, German webmaster of the Esoturio website.^[223]
• Marwa Rizk, Egyptian journalist and columnist of the Moheet on-line daily.^[224]
• Mary D. M. Bennett, British researcher and writer who coauthored David Percy's book Dark Moon: Apollo and the whistle-blowers^[57] and attended his documentary film What happened on the Moon?^[58] (see above).^[225]
• Peter Bown, senior school physics teacher and part time photographer in England.^[226]
• Philippe Lheureux, French author of Moon Landings: Did NASA lie?, and Lumières sur la Lune ("Lights on the Moon"): La NASA a t-elle menti!.^[227]
• Ralph René (1933–2008), American inventor, self-taught engineering enthusiast, and author of the book NASA mooned America (1994).^[228]
• Randy Reid, coauthor of Bill Kaysing's book We never went to the Moon (see above).^[30]
• Ronnie Stonge, British narrator of David Percy's documentary film What happened on the Moon? (see above).^[58]
• Sam Colby, webmaster of the NASA Scam website^[229] which, among the other things, provides information and photos of the site and the equipment said to be used for the hoax.^[130]
• Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswāmī (born 1939), Indian writer, poet and artist who founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, better known in the West as the Hare Krishna movement.^[33]
• Whoopi Goldberg (Caryn Elaine Johnson, born 1955), American actress, comedian, singer-songwriter, activist, and media personality.^[230][231]

People and organisations claimed to be involved in hoaxing

• Prof. Dr. Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (1912–1977), claimed by Bart Sibrel,^[232] Ralph René,^{[228](p. 16, 54)} and Aron Ranen^{[193](part 5, 6:14–7:21)} to be complicit in the hoax by collecting samples to be used as the basis for "Moon rocks" during his trip to Antarctica in 1967.
• Dr. Robert Rowe Gilruth (1913–2000), former director of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre,^[233] Lunar Module chief designer in Houston (see Wernher von Braun's "right hand" Ernst Stuhlinger in ^[204] at 38:09), and Apollo programme lead.^[234] Willy Brunner and Gerhard Wisnewski claim^{[207](p. 127)} that Gilruth "was the real film director of the Moon landing" ("war die engentliche Regisseur der Mondlandung").^[204](38:44)
• Colonel Frank Frederick Borman, II (born 1928), Gemini 7 and Apollo 8 flight commander who visited the USSR just before the Apollo 11 flight^[235] (as some sceptics say, to reconnoitre whether the Russians believed in the Apollo 8 orbiting the Moon and help decide if they can "swallow" a much larger Apollo 11 Moon landing hoax)^[236] and one of the Skylab programme managers.^[1][237]
• Donald Kent Slayton (1924–1993), NASA Chief Astronaut in 1968. Sam Colby^[29] and Clyde Lewis^[238] say that Slayton was one of the primary leaders of the hoax. He visited the film set of 2001: A Space Odyssey, in the UK, which he referred to as "NASA East".
• Douglas Trumbull, a visual effects designer on 2001: A Space Odyssey, is said to have lead the special effects team for the faking of the Apollo 11 and 12 missions.^[21]
• Michael J. Tuttle, claimed to have taken the job of producing fake photographs in 1994. Prior to the widespread availability of the internet, only a small subset of the photos currently in existence were seen. Sam Colby claims that many of the photos were created in the mid 1990s,^[239] and that Tuttle had admitted that to him.^[197]
• Stanley Jacques Kubrick (1928–1999) and his younger brother Raul are said to have produced much of the footage for Apollo 11 and 12.^[21] It has been claimed that in early 1968 while 2001: A Space Odyssey (which includes scenes taking place on the Moon) was in post-production, NASA secretly approached Kubrick to direct the first three Moon landings. In this scenario, the launch and splashdown would be real but the spacecraft would have remained in Earth orbit while the fake footage was broadcast as "live" from the lunar journey.
• Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (1916–2009), CBS journalist who Bill Kaysing says "was the father figure that NASA chose to essentially hype the whole project".^[135]
• William M. Thompson (1920–2002) who had written the following: "I was actually part of the team that created the faked Moon landings and I am ready to talk about them. I have physical evidence to prove that they were faked", to Sam Colby^[197] and the APFN.^[240]
• The Lookout Mountain Laboratory, claimed by David McGowan to have done the post-production on the Apollo footage after the official "deactivation" of the studio in 1969.^[199][241]

Details

Some specific issues are listed below.

General

Flight-specific

Discrepancies in NASA documents

Technological legacy

Quotes by famous people

See also

• Moon
• NASA
• Apollo programme

Notes and references

External links

Science: Science in Society: Sceptical Inquiry: Hoaxes: Lunar Landing at the Open directory project, 2 November 2009