It’s been 49 years since NASA astronauts took their first steps on the moon, but an enduring group of truthers continue to claim that the moon landing was fake.
A video making the rounds on Facebook is helping to boost up their claims, thanks to comments made by the second man to step on the moon, Buzz Aldrin.
The moon landing was fake? Buzz Aldrin weighs in
The rumor started after an elementary school student asked Aldrin a question.
“Why has nobody been to the moon in such a long time?” the student asked.
Aldrin’s response was… a bit confusing.
“That’s not an 8-year-old’s question. That’s my question. I want to know,” he said. “But I think I know. Because we didn’t go there. That’s the way it happened. And if it didn’t happen it’s nice to know why it didn’t happen so in the future if we want to keep doing something we need to know why something stopped in the past if we want to keep it going.”
Follow that? Aldrin’s answer isn’t easy to unpack, but he’s not saying the moon landing was fake. As Snopes pointed out, the 88-year-old astronaut was talking about the fact that the United States hasn’t sent anyone to the moon since the final Apollo mission in 1972.
The video clip — taken from a 2015 appearance in support of Aldrin’s book, Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet, is conveniently cut off to help bolster the argument that the moon landing is fake, but Aldrin goes on to say that the reason we haven’t been back to the moon in nearly 50 years because of money.
“Money. It’s a good thing. If you want to buy new things, new rockets, instead of keep doing the same thing over and over, then it’s going to cost more money,” he said. “And other things need more money too.”
Was the moon landing fake? The truth behind the conspiracy
But Aldrin didn’t say the moon landing was fake — quite the opposite, actually.
“So having achieved what the president wanted us to do … and then what thousands, millions of people in America, and millions of people around the world … You know when we toured around the world after we came back [from the moon] the most fascinating observation was signs that said ‘WE did it.’ Not just us. But we, the world,” he said.
“They felt like they were part of what we were able to do. And that made us feel very good.”
There you have it. And the next time someone tries to tell you the moon landing was fake, show them the full video. Hopefully it’ll change a few minds.
