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By Max Towey
We recently asked The Current newsletter audience if they believe the Apollo 11 Moon landing actually took place. The majority of respondents answered yes, but a surprising number said no – especially younger readers.
Danny from Maine wrote, “No, we absolutely did not land on the Moon. 1. Buzz Aldrin recently has made multiple claims that we never went. 2. The Van Allen radiation belts that astronauts cannot cross to get to the Moon. 3. The rippling flag. What breeze in space is blowing the flag around? 4. Nixon spoke to them on a landline..? Wtf?”
His first point is easily debunked, but the rest? Whether or not easily debunked, they’re widely held among Gen Z and Millennials.
Surveys, including one this year from EduBirdie, have found that upwards of 25% of Gen Zers don’t believe the Apollo 11 Moon landing took place. A more comprehensive University of New Hampshire survey from 2021 found that roughly 50% of Gen Z and 45% of Millennials either question or don’t believe it. They think the mission that employed hundreds of thousands of people and cost hundreds of billions of dollars in modern money was fabricated.
You might instinctively assume that the skeptics are either trolls or uneducated. But that’s not the case; some research suggests Moon landing skeptics tend to be more educated than the “sheeple” who believe it. Take, for example, these texts from a Harvard friend with whom I jousted about conspiracy theories a few months ago.
He wrote: “The Moon landing was fake 100%. Bro they were just f***ing around in Area 51 lol. There are too many things that happened that aren’t possible.” I pushed back, and then he countered, “There were like 30 findings [in a Netflix doc] that proved it was fake. Have humans gone back to the Moon??”
Alternative media, which often thrives on conspiracy theories, has supercharged this line of thinking. Earlier this month, Candace Owens, one of the ten most popular podcasters in the world right now, declared that the Moon landing was “fake and gay and CIA.” She laughed off the idea that it was possible, specifically highlighting the absurdity of Nixon calling the astronauts before cell phones.
Given that conspiracy-minded podcasters have a monopoly on Apollo 11 discourse, we thought we might interview Dr. Phil Plait, aka the Bad Astronomer, and grill him with the “anomalies” Apollo 11 truthers often cite. Plait has a PhD in astronomy from the University of Virginia and has published several books on related subjects. He was the perfect person for us to interview on the Apollo 11 landing. Here is a transcript of our exclusive conversation, edited lightly for clarity and brevity.
Max T: Before we go into some of the classic doubts, the one I hear the most now – including from smart friends – is this: Why haven't we been back to the Moon since the Apollo missions? If we were able to go then, you’re telling me we can’t go back now with vastly better technology?
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Editor’s Note
So there’s the take of a leading astronomer (and Moon Landing believer). Do you all buy it? Did we go to the Moon? Or is it all one big hoax? Let us know by replying to this email.
And check out our latest stories below if you’ve missed them:
Thanks for reading. We’ll be back with more tomorrow.
—Max and Max
