Welcome to our website

This site was created to offer an accurate, rigorous scientific analysis of the Apollo lunar missions, debunking the Moon hoax claims that every day try to overshadow one of mankind's greatest achievements. Our pages tell the story of the technical and intellectual challenge that, between the 1960s and the 1970s, took man to the Moon. This work is dedicated, with admiration and respect, to those who made the feat possible: to the astronauts and their families, to the technicians, to the scientists and to all those who gave their lives for scientific progress. Our goal is to keep the dream of space exploration alive and protect the knowledge gained over the centuries, so that mankind can keep looking toward the stars.

Ad astra per aspera ... through hardships to the stars!
Matteo Negri - Author and webmaster

Yes, we went to the Moon: a scientific analysis of the data

Hello everyone! I am Matteo Negri, administrator of this site, author of this analysis, a member of CICAP (the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Pseudosciences) and director, together with my friend Davide Andreani , of the Occhiobello Municipal Planetarium run by the Gruppo Astrofili Columbia. A lifelong enthusiast of astronomy and astronautics, in my spare time I do science outreach on these subjects, both for the association I have the honor of belonging to and during the shows at our planetarium. Lately, browsing the internet, I have come across more and more websites and forums claiming that some independent researchers have found alleged evidence proving overwhelmingly that man never went to the Moon. The world of print is no exception and, in my opinion, it too has been affected by these theories. There are in fact several books on the subject which, according to some, are so complete and exhaustive that, if read and spread, they would make NASA a laughingstock. Driven by my innate need to dig deeper, and so as not to behave like the Ptolemaic scholars who, absolutely convinced of their theories, refused to look through Galileo's telescope, I thoroughly analyzed the deniers' websites and also spent, very badly in my opinion, some of my money to get hold of a copy of the "best-known" book, sold around the world as "the" decisive proof of the much-acclaimed lunar farce. After a careful, analytical reading, I consider the book a general collection of disconnected theories, with fragmentary pieces of information that are not necessarily related, lacking the sound technological approach that an "aerospace technician" (as the author described himself before his much-publicized resignation) would have been able to present.

But with this analysis I do not want to judge anyone; on the contrary, unlike so many others, I want to show how, in a few minutes and with a minimum of knowledge of the "space" element and of the ordinary laws of physics, hasty claims and shaky theories can be dismissed.

Below you will find the answers to every Moon hoax question, explained in the words of science in a simple, understandable way ...
Enjoy your reading! 

The articles of our scientific analysis ...

A close look
at the Moon

The Moon, Earth's only natural satellite, is not at all the reassuring, nearby neighbor that the two-dimensional pictures in school books often suggest. It orbits at an average distance of about 384,400 kilometers, a gap so vast that it could hold, side by side, all the ... READ MORE

Inside the
Apollo program

Before we start nitpicking the "data" put forward by conspiracy theorists as the "irrefutable proof of the Apollo program lunar conspiracy", we must carefully analyze the historical context in which the events took place and become familiar with the concepts, terms, support facilities, and ... READ MORE 

The disastrous
Apollo 1 fire

On January 27, 1967, America's relentless march toward the Moon came to a brutal halt on Launch Complex 34 at Cape Kennedy, turning a routine test into the most painful engineering lesson in aerospace history. The Command Module meant for the first crewed mission became a ... READ MORE 

Genesis
of a delusion

The whole gigantic, noisy and profitable edifice of Moon landing denial, an industry of doubt that for decades has fed authors, self-styled researchers and producers of sensationalist documentaries, did not come from a secret investigative report or from the deathbed confession of a ... READ MORE 

First of all,
good to know ...

Before we begin analyzing the data, I think a few important clarifications are needed. The Moon hoax theories assume that on the Moon and in space the laws of physics and chemistry in general behave in a totally different way from what happens every day here on Earth. In fact, they claim that space is ... READ MORE 

The Moon
hoax theory

Has man ever been to the Moon? No, they say! All the Apollo missions were faked because at the time NASA did not have the technology needed to carry out such a mission. Driven, however, by the need to beat the Soviets in the race to the Moon and assert US technological supremacy over the USSR, the ... READ MORE 

The suspicious
deaths

The darkest, most macabre chapter of the whole conspiracy narrative leaves behind discussions of optics and physics and ventures into the murky territory of alleged state murder. When engineering logic and photographic evidence dismantle the hoax theories, the most die-hard deniers fall back on a plot device typical of spy movies ... READ MORE 

Kubrick in the
director's chair

To understand the origin of one of the most deeply rooted urban legends of modern history, we need to look at the monumental figure of Stanley Kubrick and at the reason why conspiracy theorists have chosen him as the alleged mastermind of the space deception. Kubrick is universally recognized as one of the most brilliant ... READ MORE 

The Soviet race
to the Moon

The final blow to any denialist construction comes not from NASA's archives or from the sensors of modern orbiting probes, but from the fog of the Cold War and from the United States' fiercest, most formidable and ruthless rival: the Soviet Union. One of the most naive and recurring arguments of conspiracy theorists claims... READ MORE 

Neil Armstrong's
accident

Another recurring argument, brandished by conspiracy theorists as irrefutable proof that landing on the Moon was technically impossible, concerns the alleged deadly instability of the Lunar Module. To support this claim, deniers regularly dig up from NASA's historical archives ... READ MORE 

The Van Allen
Belts

For decades the Van Allen Belts have been one of the pillars of conspiracy rhetoric, cited as an impassable radiation barrier that should have instantly poisoned the crews of the Apollo missions. However, this claim clashes head-on with nuclear physics and  with the geophysical reality of... READ MORE 

The hostile
lunar environment

Although these observations contain a grain of truth (especially for an organism that is not properly protected), they leave out, as usual, the basic notions of physics and NASA's careful mission planning. Much has been said about the lunar temperature, which some Moon hoax theorists believe is so high that ... READ MORE 

Apollo 11:
lights in the dark

Among the most stubborn urban legends is the one claiming that an unidentified flying object (UFO) escorted Apollo 11 on its journey to the Moon. The story, which has fueled decades of UFO speculation, began on July 19, 1969, when the crew noticed a reflection ... READ MORE

Apollo 10:
space music

Another fertile ground for conspiracy speculation, halfway between the paranormal and science fiction, concerns the so-called "space music" or "radio whistles" heard by the crews of Apollo 10 and Apollo 11 while they were in orbit behind the far side of the Moon. The case only exploded in the media years later ... READ MORE

The lost
tapes

Another inexhaustible warhorse for conspiracy theorists is the famous, controversial affair of the "lost original tapes" erased by NASA. When, in 2006, the American space agency publicly admitted, after a long and frantic search, that it could not find the magnetic tapes ... READ MORE

Apollo 11:
close encounters

Besides the large crowd of deniers who stubbornly dispute the engineering feasibility of the lunar missions, as already mentioned in other chapters, there is a second and equally imaginative branch of conspiracism: the UFO faction. According to this narrative, worthy of the plot of a B-movie science fiction flick, Neil Armstrong ... READ MORE

Apollo 20
and the aliens

If the claim about aliens silently watching Apollo 11 borders on the ridiculous, be aware that there is a fringe of UFO conspiracism that has decided to venture far beyond the stratosphere of logic, landing in the pure, untouched realm of pseudo-archaeology. We are talking about the infamous and grotesque legend of Apollo 20 ... READ MORE

Authentic Apollo
radio signals

Conspiracy theorists, in order to defend the indefensible, often go as far as claiming that the historic radio communications between the Apollo astronauts and Mission Control were nothing more than audio recordings made in a comfortable studio on Earth, or at most transmissions bounced ... READ MORE

The deafening
noise

One of the most frequent criticisms from conspiracy theorists concerns the absence of engine roar in the audio recordings of the Apollo missions. According to this claim, the roar of a rocket engine should have completely drowned out the astronauts' voices, making communication impossible. This objection, however, ignores ... READ MORE 

The tinfoil
lunar module

The claim that the Lunar Module was built with "tinfoil and duct tape" is perhaps one of the most iconic and embarrassing examples of technical ignorance spread far and wide by Moon hoax theorists. Looking at the photographs taken by the astronauts on the lunar surface, conspiracy believers point ... READ MORE 

How did the LRV
reach the Moon?

Among the many logical short circuits plaguing the denialist narrative, one of the most frequent and superficially intellectual concerns the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), the famous electric off-road vehicle used on the last three Apollo missions. The conspiracy argument, based as always on an observation ... READ MORE

The missing
LM crater ...

Another alleged irrefutable proof that the lunar landings were faked lies, according to conspiracy theorists, right under the belly of the Lunar Module. Looking at photographs of the various landing sites, deniers triumphantly point out the total lack of a blast crater under the nozzle of the DPS descent engine ... READ MORE

The missing
stars ...

Let's start with the much-discussed "anomalous" photographs that the astronauts supposedly brought back from their missions on the lunar surface. One thing conspiracy theorists strongly contest is the total absence of stars. In fact, they say, the almost complete lack of atmosphere on our natural satellite would be ... READ MORE

The converging
shadows

Let's continue our scientific analysis by carefully examining the alleged "problem" of anomalous or converging shadows which, according to conspiracy theorists, would undermine the authenticity of all the photographs of the Apollo program. According to deniers, in fact, the shadows on the lunar surface should be perfectly ... READ MORE

The gray
shadows ...

Another alleged anomaly, brought up with stubborn frequency by conspiracy theorists, concerns the lighting and in particular the color and density of the shadows in the historic photographs taken on the lunar surface. The denialist objection rests on a syllogism that seems logical but is scientifically ... READ MORE

The shadowless
flag ...

One of the most iconic controversies raised by Moon hoax rhetoric concerns the photographic record of Apollo 11, in particular frames AS11-40-5874 and AS11-40-5875, which show Buzz Aldrin next to the American flag. According to supporters of the staging... READ MORE

The anomalous
horizon ...

Something much discussed and acclaimed by conspiracy theorists, often exploited by television shows hunting for sensationalism, is the alleged anomaly of the lunar horizon in the photographs of the Apollo missions. From their perspective, the line separating the ground from the black of space would be suspiciously too ... READ MORE

The anomalous
gravity

Another tottering pillar of conspiracy disinformation, often presented as definitive proof of a cinematic fraud, concerns the alleged "anomalous gravity" visible in the footage of the Apollo missions. According to deniers, the astronauts' clumsy, seemingly floating movements are nothing more than the trivial result of ... READ MORE

The anomalous
footprints

Among the most iconic and universally recognized images of the whole space epic, a place of honor undoubtedly goes to the famous photograph of the print left by Buzz Aldrin's boot on the soil of the Sea of Tranquility. That shot, taken almost by chance to document the mechanical properties of the soil, is... READ MORE

The fake
Moon rocks

Another trench in which conspiracy theorists love to barricade themselves, defying decades of worldwide scientific literature, concerns the authenticity of the rocks brought back to Earth by the crews of the Apollo missions. "Have you ever seen these so-called Moon rocks?" they often ask provocatively, implying that they are specimens ... READ MORE

The impossible
LM lift-off ...

Another iconic scene that has unleashed the paranoid imagination of conspiracy theorists is the television footage of the Lunar Module ascent stage lifting off from the surface of our satellite. Faced with these images, deniers usually ask two triumphant questions, convinced they have exposed the whole... READ MORE

The too-perfect
missions ...

Conspiracy theorists often claim, with fake statistical rigor, that it is mathematically impossible for six landings out of seven to have gone perfectly, without any kind of accident. They argue that nature is always on the side of entropy and that, applying Murphy's Law, if a complex space mission ... READ MORE

The introverted
astronauts ...

The personality of the Apollo astronauts is often described by conspiracy rhetoric as introverted, evasive and inexplicably reserved. Deniers interpret this alleged isolation as the symptom of an unspeakable psychological stress, the guilt of men forced to hide from the public so as not to ... READ MORE

The suspicious
photos ...

Before taking the scalpel to the individual images, it is essential to dismantle the biggest and most ironic paradox on which the whole denialist narrative rests: the myth of the infallible photographic archive! According to the leading conspiracy theorists, NASA's clumsy directors scattered glaring mistakes all over the set ... READ MORE

Earth-based
telescopes

This is the classic claim of people who have no idea how a telescope works! The fact that these instruments can detect and photograph objects billions of light years away, which are immense and very bright, does not mean that they can also detect objects left on the lunar surface ... READ MORE

The proof of the
LRRR mirrors

Of all the scientific experiments deployed on the lunar surface during the Apollo program, the Lunar Laser Ranging Retro Reflector (LRRR) is an extraordinary exception: it is the only one still working today, passive but relentlessly precise, and it is physical proof ... READ MORE

What modern
probes show ...

The stubbornness with which conspiracy theorists reject the physical evidence of the landings often leads them to ask a seemingly naive but suspicious question: if NASA astronauts really left dozens of tons of equipment on the Moon, why don't astronomers simply point the ... READ MORE 

What Chinese
probes show ...

The stubbornness of Moon landing denial today runs into an insurmountable obstacle, represented not by NASA's historical archives but by the technological achievements of the nation that is the United States' main geopolitical and economic rival: the People's Republic of China! With the launch of the ambitious program ... READ MORE 

Independent
confirmations ...

As proof that the Moon is not a Hollywood set sealed up and forgotten in the 1970s, our satellite has recently become the stage of a true rebirth of space exploration, a new renaissance that is literally crowding the lunar surface with international hardware. Besides the formidable ... READ MORE 

Far-fetched
conspiracies ...

With this analysis I certainly do not presume to convince those who have chosen to blindly embrace the conspiracy faith, but I sincerely hope to give those looking for rational answers the tools to understand how baseless the denialist narratives about these epic missions are ... READ MORE 

Important
considerations

After the successful conclusion of the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, crewed lunar exploration came to a definitive end and, since then, our satellite has never again seen human beings tread its dust. Conspiracy theorists often raise this historical fact as alleged proof of fraud ... READ MORE 

Final
conclusions ...

The baseless bar talk surrounding the Apollo program is not just a matter of technical errors; it smears the good name of thousands of people who, starting from nothing, achieved an unprecedented technological miracle. This is the real heart of the matter! We live in a society where more and more ... READ MORE 

Further
reading

Another great classic of conspiracy rhetoric is the accusation that NASA has classified the Apollo mission data or denied the public access to it. According to this narrative, the alleged inaccessibility of the original documents (or the fact that they are reserved for "a chosen few") would be the smoking gun of the conspiracy ... READ MORE

Site rules
and disclaimer ...

All rights to the content on this website are reserved. It was our intention to keep sharing it with our readers under a Creative Commons license, just as we have done for the past 23 years. However, unpleasant events that have occurred recently have forced our staff to restrict ... READ MORE 

The Artemis paradox: why is it so hard to go back to the Moon?

The Artemis paradox is today one of the conspiracy believers' favorite weapons for pointing the finger at NASA's current difficulties. Many wonder how it is possible that in 1969 we went to the Moon with the technology of a pocket calculator and in just eight years of development, while today, with supercomputers and advanced materials, the Artemis program seems constantly bogged down in delays, failed tests and postponements. This seemingly logical question actually hides a deep ignorance of how technology, economics and, above all, safety standards evolve. One point many forget is that the physics of going to the Moon has not changed! It is still the same! So the challenges faced in the past are still there and the same problems of that era must be tackled, the only difference being that today we are no longer willing to accept the risks and compromises of 1969 ... READ MORE