Why do so many people still think the Moon landings were faked?

In 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon for the very first time. This event was so grand that over 600 million people from around the world tuned in to watch it on their televisions. This mission was possible because of the hard work of roughly 400,000 people, including NASA scientists, engineers, researchers, and support staff, as well as the astronauts. 

But even so, a share of the public believes that it never happened. Some even believe that the whole thing was staged. Here’s a look at where that idea came from and why it has stuck around for so long.

Bill Kaysing worked for Rocketdyne between 1956 and 1963. At that time, the company helped design the engines for the Saturn V rocket. These are the same engines that carried the Apollo crews toward the Moon. His doubts began as "a hunch, an intuition."

In 1976, he self-published a pamphlet titled “We Never Went to the Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle”. He insisted that the landing was filmed in a TV studio, and many of the claims that circulate today trace back to him.

Kaysing also pointed out a few details in the Apollo pictures. He shared that there are no stars in the sky and there’s no blast crater under the landing module. And the shadows look odd. 

But each of his points has an explanation. There are no stars because of camera exposure times, which means how long the camera collects light. The missing crater has to do with how thrust behaves in a vacuum, the airless space around the Moon. And the shadows reflect how moon dust bounces light.

Another reason for Kaysing's doubt was how far behind the US was at the start. When the Soviets launched Sputnik 1 in October 1957, the American space program was close to nonexistent. NASA was founded in 1958. 

“It’s well documented that NASA was often badly managed and had poor quality control,” he told Wired in 1994. “But as of 1969, we could suddenly perform manned flight upon manned flight? With complete success? It’s just against all statistical odds.”

When the Apollo missions returned to Earth’s surface, they also brought with them 382 kg of Moon rock across six missions. Russia, Japan, and China have corroborated the landings. On top of that, images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show tracks the astronauts left in the moon dust. 

Commenting on this, Roger Launius, a former chief historian of NASA, said, “The reality is, the internet has made it possible for people to say whatever the hell they like to a broader number of people than ever before.” He added, “And the truth is, Americans love conspiracy theories. Every time something big happens, somebody has a counter-explanation.”