VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: NASA Faked Moon Landing in Vegas Desert

Posted on: July 15, 2024, 08:11h. 

Last updated on: July 15, 2024, 09:56h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas.

This Saturday marks 55 years since NASA fooled most of the world into thinking that humans walked on the Moon. In 2019, a study conducted for C-SPAN found that 6% of respondents and an alarming 11% of millennials actually believe this asshattery.

An unidentified asshat (right) appears in a video he shot of what he seems to believe is where the first Moon landing was staged. (Images: NASA, left, and X/Twitter)

Some conspiracy theorists believe that the monumental Apollo 11 Moon landing was filmed on a Hollywood movie soundstage by director Stanley Kubrick while others believe that all six Moon landings were staged in the desert.

Neil Armstrong descends a ladder to become the first human to walk on the Moon. (Image: NASA)

Like timeshare salespeople on the Strip, this one never seems to go away.

One video currently circulating on X/Twitter claims to show a hub of tourist activity for the frighteningly gullible near Las Vegas.

It’s a spot, the post claims, where many believe the hoax was perpetrated because a hill in the background happens to resemble one in a moon landing photo from Apollo 17.

Another recent video purports to feature scenes of the faked moon landing filmed in the Nevada desert and recently released by WikiLeaks.

“Explain this, defenders,” announces the X/Twitter account @truthscant in a post linking to the video.

In fact, thousands of recent social media posts, YouTube videos, and Reddit threads recycle this and other old conspiracy theories for new audiences, keeping them in the cultural conversation.

Most posit previously (and thoroughly) answered questions such as how the famous American flag planted by astronaut Neil Armstrong could ripple in the wind when the moon has no atmosphere, why the sky had no stars, and who the hell took the photo of Armstrong descending the ladder to become the first human on the moon.

The 1978 film “Capricorn One,” about a faked mission to Mars, went a long way, in the unstable minds of many, toward proving how easily it all was accomplished. (Image: IMDB)

Not Over the Moon

The people behind the disinformation, including FOX TV, which in 2001 produced and aired a “documentary” called “Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?” refuse to let facts of any kind stand in their way.

These facts include the recollections of the astronauts and 400K scientists and engineers who toiled to make Apollo 11 happen, the moon rocks the astronauts brought back to Earth, and the high-def photos taken in 2011 by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the footprints and flags left by all six Apollo missions on the Moon.

By the way, you have to hand it to NASA for going as far in covering up its staged Moon landings as planting fake evidence of them on the Moon itself!

As Armstrong himself wrote in 2007: “It would have been harder to fake it than to do it.”

Apollo 11 Crew Was in the Vegas Desert

Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins did leave their footprints in the desert 100 miles northwest of Vegas. But that’s only because they visited the Nevada Test Site (now known as the Nevada National Security Site) as part of their training for the Apollo 11 mission.

Approaching Sedan Crater at the Nevada Test Site in 1965 are, from left, astronauts Dick Gordon, Buzz Aldrin (barely visible behind Gordon), Dave Scott, Neil Armstrong, and Rusty Schweikart. (Image: nnss.gov)

During their three-day visit in February 1965, they practiced observing and collecting rocks from the lunar surface, discerning volcanic features from impact craters, and safely circumnavigating the rims of those craters.

Incidentally, the flag’s “ripples” were caused when Armstrong and Aldrin bent its frame while digging it into the ground. The camera’s exposure wasn’t long enough to capture faint starlight. And the photo of Armstrong descending the ladder was a still from a video taken by a camera mounted on the descent module. It was activated by a cord pulled by Armstrong.

Oh, and WikiLeaks never released any faked moon-landing footage. The majority of the aforementioned video was taken from a behind-the-scenes look at “Capricorn One.”

Then again, of course, we would claim all this. We’re secret government agents!

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. To read previously busted Vegas myths, visit VegasMythsBusted.com. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.