The Debate about NASA Moon Landing and Apollo 11 Being a Hoax

Do you genuinely believe NASA landed a spacecraft on the moon? Moon landing conspiracy theories claim that the Apollo 11 moon landing did not happen, but despite all scientific evidence debunking aforementioned suggestion, various theories still continue to linger around. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a competition to see who had the best technology in space. The Space Race began when both countries announced that they would soon be launching satellites into orbit. After many years of experiments, test flights, and training the Apollo 11 spacecraft was launched into space on July 16, 1969. The Apollo 11 spacecraft launched from Cape Kennedy, carrying Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin into an initial Earth-orbit. On july 20, 1969, an estimated 650 million people watched the televised broadcast as Neil Armstong took his giant leap for mankind. The Apollo moon landing mission was a real event in history, but still many people don't believe that it happened.

Numerous people have their doubts on the moon landing because of the many different artifacts they find strange. One theory that people believe is that the moon landing is fake because the flag looks like it is flapping in the wind. If you look at the pictures from the Apollo 11 mission you can see that the flag has a rippled effect to it, which makes it look like it is moving. People say, since there is no wind on the moon, how can it be flapping? The truth is, it is not actually flapping. It is studied that there is no wind on the moon because of the tenuous atmosphere. The flag isn't an ordinary flag. “The flag was specially made to have a rippled effect and make it look like it’s waving in the wind” (Little). The flag had a horizontal rod on the inside to make it stick out from the flagpole. Other articles say the flag claimed to be fluttering due to vibrations. The flagpole is light, flexible aluminium and continues to vibrate after the astronauts let go, giving the impression of blowing in the wind. Researchers claimed the “flag was fluttering simply because vibrations caused the aluminum shaft to vibrate longer than it would on earth” (Administrator). This theory was easily debunked due to the various evidence provided.

Another reason people believe that the moon landing is fake is because you cannot see the stars. On earth we always see the stars brightly in the night sky but in space the sky always appear balck at night. The sky on the moon is black and the reason is not because it was night, but because there is no atmosphere to spread the daylight the way it does on earth. Author John Borland stated that, “In space, or on the moon, there's no atmosphere to spread the light around, and the sky will appear black at midday” (Borland). People also said that because nasa was more interested in taking pictures of the scenery, that “The relatively dim stars in the background didn't register in any of the shots” (Hamer). The stars were not visible due to the fact that the camera couldn't capture them not because it was a hoax.

It has been almost 50 years since the first crewed moon landing, why did we stop traveling to the moon. Even though the previous Apollo missions were successful the White House originally planned to cancel the Apollo program after Apollo 15. Apollo 16 and 17 managed to go ahead as planned, but NASA was facing too many obstacles to continue with the manned lunar missions. The program was predicted to run from 2005 to 2025 but it only ran until 2009 and was officially shelved by President Obama in 2011. The estimated cost for the entire 20 year duration of the program was around $230 billion. It was a difficult estimate to come up wit since they did not have the equipment they needed. “When Obama took office he declared that it was too expensive, too delayed and lacking in innovation” (Kerrigan). Ever since 1972 there has not been interest or money to put towards manned moon missions. When the Apollo missions first started NASA received almost 5% of the U.S. Federal Budget, today it receives just 0.4%. Also, “The Apollo 17 mission preceded a major oil crisis,that had many questioning the need to divert valuable funds and effort into space exploration” (Little). “The Apollo 17 mission preceded a major oil crisis,that had many questioning the need to divert valuable funds and effort into space exploration” (Little). After the Apollo 17 mission there was massive oil spill on the coast of Santa Barbara, this is also a reason why we haven't gone back to the moon.