Apollo Lunar Landings — Conspiracy?

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen 

On 20 July 1969, the Lunar Module Eagle of Apollo 11 touched down on the surface of the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin walked on it with Collins was waiting in orbit in the Columbia command module. At least, that is what they want you to think.

Almost everyone accepted the narrative, and the Soviet Union offered reluctant congratulations to the Americans. Later, some people began saying that the six successful lunar landings never happened. It was all a conspiracy, and the landings were filmed on a soundstage on Earth.

Edwin Aldrin by US flag on moon (PD), WikiComm / NASA, (PD), usage does not imply endorsement of site contents

Also on 20 July 1969, the USSR failed with their Luna 15 effort. It was a probe that was supposed to land, get samples, and return them to Earth. It crashed. The Soviets did have some contributions to space exploration over the years, but not that time. (For reference, their Luna 9 in 1966 was the first spacecraft to land on the moon without crashing.) As a nine-year-old buckaroo, I was concerned that the Soviet spacecraft would interfere with or even destroy the LEM, not understanding that they simply wanted prestige in being first to get samples and bringing them back.

The conspiracy theories tie into something I have said in a few places: I believe people want to feel special, above other people. Some have to belong to the right sect or religion, support the right political party (note the maniacal bitterness of Democrats with Trump Derangement Syndrome), certain esoteric occult philosophies, the right "race," and other ways people can think of themselves as special or better than others.

Skeptics about the lunar landings — they're smarter than us — have increased in recent years despite the ease of debunking their claims. Interestingly, things like geocentrism (the debunked old view that the universe revolves around Earth) and the Flat Earth stuff are gaining followers, and their pseudoscience, too, is easily refuted. Mayhaps the resistance to logic by moon landing conspiracists could be called Globe Earth Derangement Syndrome.

It is rather distressing that there are biblical (young Earth) creationists among those conspiracists, and frankly (mind if I call you Frank?), it is embarrassing. They eschew reason and evidence, and dig in their heels with rescuing devices (and showing lack of knowledge about photography, light, physics, and other things). Some of those efforts to keep the conspiracies going are...truly bizarre.

Perhaps the most outrageous idea to me is that thousands of people in NASA and other organizations were in on the conspiracy. There's an old saying: "Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead." People let secrets slip, possibly even seeking fame and fortune, or having a few too many drinks. Every once in a while, people confess to secrets (including murders) because they cannot live with the burden. And we're supposed to believe the claim that many people are walking around singing with the Go-Gos, "Our Lips are Sealed?"

Also, these conspiracists who are professing Christians are defaming astronauts who are Christians. Microfilm Bibles went to the moon, Apollo 15's Dave Scott placed a Bible on the lunar rover, and there have been Christians in the space programs past and present. Old son, you need to repent of calling them liars, because you are the liar because of your unsubstantiated claims!

Just wondering if the atheistic communists were also a part of the flat Earth and space exploration conspiracies, hmm? Or the ChiComs? Or several other nations?

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy gave his commitment to the lunar program, Project Apollo, pledging that America would be the first nation to land a man on the moon and return him safely. And in 1962, Kennedy delivered his iconic “we choose to go to the moon” speech at Rice University,1 further declaring that America would put boots on the lunar surface by the end of the decade—a defining moment in American history.

Kennedy giving the address at Rice University on the nation’s space effort (source: NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

This declaration happened shortly after the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin took flight to be the first man in space, which also helped fuel (pun intended) the American space program to get to the moon. This was also around the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and this bold initiative was seen as the best opportunity to establish technological superiority. Simply put, the space race between the Americans and the Soviets was really a race to the moon, and President Kennedy wanted to get there first—no matter the cost.

To read the rest, jet over to "Did Man Really Land on the Moon?"