A conspiracy theory alleging that the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing was faked in a studio, citing evidence such as a waving flag and inconsistent shadows.
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the Moon. The event was broadcast live worldwide to an estimated audience of 600 million people. Yet almost immediately, conspiracy theories emerged claiming that the Moon landing was faked and the footage was filmed in a studio.
The theories were codified in Bill Kaysing's 1976 self-published book We Never Went to the Moon. Since then, the conspiracy has spread globally, especially with the rise of the internet, and surveys consistently show that a notable percentage of the population believes the landing was staged.
Skeptics point out that the American flag appears to wave in the vacuum of the Moon. In reality, the flag had a horizontal rod sewn into its top edge to keep it extended. The apparent rippling was caused by inertia as the astronauts rotated the flagpole.
Some photographs appear to show non-parallel shadows, which theorists claim indicates multiple artificial light sources. However, variations in lunar terrain and wide-angle lens distortion readily explain why parallel shadows can appear convergent in photographs.
Claims that astronauts could not have survived the deadly radiation of the Van Allen belts overlook the fact that Apollo's trajectory was designed to pass through the thinnest, least radioactive portions of the belts in a matter of minutes, keeping exposure within safe limits.
