Table of Contents

Cover: Gene Cernan during his third moonwalk, Apollo 17, December 1972. NASA image AS17-140-21391. The image has been cropped and the sky has been extended digitally to fit the book layout. Credit: NASA.

Dispelling doubts about the Moon landings,
celebrating courage and ingenuity

(over 759,000 page views and counting)

This book and its updates are made possible by your donations.

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About this book

Copyright notice

About the author

Donations and donor list

Preface

Acknowledgments

Free distribution

Units of measurement and terminology

Comments, corrections and updates

In Memoriam

Chapter 1. Race for the Moon

1.1 Balance of terror
1.2 The Soviets lead
1.3 The US catches up
1.4 The first human being in space
1.5 Apollo gets up to speed
1.6 The real conspiracy: secret Soviet moonshots
1.7 Dress rehearsals, then the real thing
1.8 Post-Apollo explorations

Chapter 2. How we went to the Moon

2.1 The Saturn V rocket
2.2 The Apollo spacecraft
2.3 Crucial maneuvers
2.4 Fiery return
2.5 The true cost of Apollo

Chapter 3. The best evidence of the Moon landings

3.1 Documentation
3.2 Cross-checking: the radio delay
3.3 An impossibly airtight conspiracy
3.4 The silence of the Soviets
3.5 Voices from the Moon
3.6 Moon rocks
3.7 Mirrors on the Moon
3.8 Photographs of the vehicles left on the Moon
3.9 Evidence, but not proof
3.10 Japan’s 3D Moon maps
3.11 Telltale moondust
3.12 The size of the alleged soundstage
3.13 The Moon walk proves the moonwalks
3.14 Attempted simulations in movies
3.15 An impossible feat

Chapter 4. Moon hoax beliefs and believers

4.1 How many people believe these theories?
4.2 Healthy doubt versus misinformed paranoia
4.3 Wide but shallow media coverage
4.4 Media misdirection
4.5 A truly unbelievable journey
4.6 Origins and history of Moon hoax theories
4.7 Bill Kaysing, grandfather of Moon hoax proponents
4.8 Capricorn One and other “Moon hoax” movies
4.9 Ralph Rene
4.10 Fox TV’s Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?
4.11 2002, the year Buzz made contact
4.12 Other notable hoax proponents
4.13 The four fundamental hoax scenarios
4.14 None of the experts have doubts

Chapter 5. Alleged photographic anomalies

5.1 Apollo still photography: a quick primer
5.2 Why are there no stars in the photographs?
5.3 Why is the flag blowing in the wind on an airless Moon?
5.4 How could the flag change position when the astronauts were back inside the spacecraft?
5.5 Why are objects in shadow so strangely well-lit?
5.6 Why aren’t the shadows parallel?
5.7 Why do the astronauts cast shadows of different lengths?
5.8 How come the shadow of the LM reaches the horizon?
5.9 Why is there no flag shadow in the salute photograph?
5.10 How come the spacecraft casts an impossibly huge shadow?
5.11 How can all the photographs be so perfect?
5.12 How come there are photos of the landing site without the Lunar Module?
5.13 Why do the visors show reflections of studio lights?
5.14 How can the camera crosshairs be behind objects?
5.15 How come there’s a letter C on a rock?
5.16 How come the backpack antenna appears and disappears?
5.17 How come Aldrin looks like he’s standing in a spotlight?
5.18 Shouldn’t backlit photos shot in a vacuum just show silhouettes?
5.19 How come Apollo 11’s boulder field isn’t in the photos?
5.20 Why are the tracks of the Moon car missing?
5.21 How come NASA has published retouched photographs?
5.22 How come the EVA photo of Michael Collins is fake?
5.23 How could the astronauts take so many photos in such a short time?
5.24 Why is this astronaut’s shadow missing?
5.25 Why is the United States marking on the LM so bright?
5.26 Why do Aldrin’s boots shine in shadow? Are they lit by a spotlight?
5.27 Why is this photo of the LM on the moon so obviously fake?
5.28 Why is there a sharp dividing line between the foreground and the background?
5.29 Does this spacewalk photo show the reflection of the movie set in the astronaut’s visor?
5.30 Why is there a fake photograph of Alan Shepard on the Moon?
5.31 Why is there a man in a waistcoat in a photo taken on the Moon?
5.32 How come famous photographers claim that the Apollo photos are fake?

Chapter 6. Alleged video and film anomalies

6.1 Apollo video and movie technology: a quick primer
6.2 Why does the flag flutter on the airless Moon?
6.3 Who was already outside to televise Armstrong’s first steps?
6.4 Who stayed behind to shoot the liftoff from the Moon?
6.5 Were the astronauts lifted by wires when they fell?
6.6 Does video show the astronauts’ wires catching the light?
6.7 Why did the astronauts only make such low jumps?
6.8 Is the “Moontruth” video an outtake from the fake TV broadcast?
6.9 How come Kubrick’s widow, Buzz Aldrin and others have confessed on film?
6.10 How could NASA conveniently “lose” the tapes of the first Moon landing?
6.11 Does never-before-seen footage show astronauts faking the view of Earth from deep space?
6.12 Why is there no exhaust from the LM’s ascent rocket engine?
6.13 Why did Apollo 11 transmit color TV from space but not from the Moon?
6.14 Why does the Moon look the same in two different places? Recycled Moon sets?
6.15 Is this video found footage from the movie set where the Moon landings were faked?

Chapter 7. Alleged technological anomalies

7.1 If we could go to the Moon with 1960s technology, why haven’t we ever gone back?
7.2 How come the Russians didn’t even try? Did they know it was impossible?
7.3 Weren’t 1960s computers too primitive?
7.4 How is it possible that everything went so smoothly?
7.5 Why do a rendezvous in lunar orbit, which makes no sense?
7.6 Why don’t we just point a telescope at the landing sites?
7.7 How come nobody sends probes to take pictures of the landing sites?
7.8 How could the large Moon buggy fit inside the small Lunar Module?
7.9 How could Apollo get to the Moon, if it didn’t reach escape velocity?
7.10 Do Russian calculations show that the Saturn V wasn’t powerful enough?
7.11 How could the tiny LM climb back from the Moon?
7.12 How could the Lunar Module be so stable?
7.13 How come the astronauts didn’t unbalance the tiny LM?
7.14 How come the LM simulator was so unstable that Neil Armstrong crashed it?
7.15 How come all the technical problems suddenly vanished?
7.16 Why is there no engine noise in the Moon landing audio?
7.17 How could a Lunar Module made of tinfoil withstand temperature extremes so well?
7.18 Why don’t the boot prints on the Moon match the spacesuit shoes?

Chapter 8. Alleged physical anomalies

8.1 How come the Van Allen radiation belts didn’t kill the astronauts?
8.2 If the Van Allen belts weren’t a problem for Apollo, why does NASA need to test the new Orion spacecraft?
8.3 How come astronaut Terry Virts said that we can’t go to the Moon?
8.4 How come deep space radiation didn’t kill the astronauts?
8.5 Shouldn’t X-ray radiation in space have fogged the films?
8.6 Wouldn’t the camera films have melted or frozen on the Moon?
8.7 Wouldn’t sunlight outside on the Moon have burned or boiled the astronauts’ faces?
8.8 How come meteoroid showers didn’t kill the astronauts?
8.9 How could the astronauts have changed film magazines outside on the Moon?
8.10 Isn’t it impossible to cool an astronaut in a vacuum?
8.11 How come there’s no blast crater under the LM’s engine?
8.12 How could the timing of the lunar liftoff footage be so perfect despite the signal delay?
8.13 Why are Apollo 11‘s footpads clean while later missions have dusty ones?
8.14 How can there be no dust at all on Apollo 11’s LM footpads?
8.15 How can the astronauts’ footprints be so sharp?
8.16 Wasn’t the lunar module hatch too narrow?
8.17 How come the pressurized spacesuits don’t look like they’re inflated?
8.18 How could the astronauts still send TV to Earth when their directional antenna wobbled?

Chapter 9. Other alleged anomalies

9.1 Why did the astronauts have guilty looks on their faces and shun public appearances?
9.2 Did Neil Armstrong hide from the media out of guilt?
9.3 How come NASA refuses to deal with the hoax allegations?
9.4 How come the lunar astronauts won’t face the doubters?
9.5 How come NASA’s Apollo documents aren’t available?
9.6 How is it possible that the Saturn V blueprints have been lost?
9.7 Why is there no delay in the Apollo communications?
9.8 How come the Moon rock donated to Holland is fake?
9.9 Was astronaut Grissom killed to keep him quiet?
9.10 Was NASA whistleblower Thomas Baron murdered?
9.11 Isn’t it suspicious that ten astronauts died in freak accidents?
9.12 Why has Wernher von Braun’s name been removed from German schools?
9.13 How come Neil Armstrong once spoke of removing “truth's protective layers”?

Chapter 10. Alternative realities

10.1 Were the Soviets bribed to keep quiet?
10.2 Were the Apollo Moon rocks faked?
10.3 Did Stanley Kubrick shoot the fake footage?
10.4 Did the Apollo astronauts never leave Earth orbit?
10.5 Did the radio and TV signals come from space, but not from the Moon?
10.6 Were the alleged mistakes left in on purpose by whistleblowers?
10.7 Were the Moon rocks actually meteorites collected in Antarctica by Wernher von Braun?

Chapter 11. UFOs and Moon landings

11.1 Are there UFOs in Apollo photographs?
11.2 Did Buzz Aldrin see a UFO?
11.3 Did Apollo 20 secretly recover an alien spaceship?
11.4 Did the astronauts find alien structures on the Moon?
11.5 What about astronaut Ed Mitchell’s UFO claims?
11.6 Did a lie detector test confirm the astronauts’ UFO sightings?
11.7 Were giant UFOs photographed in front of the Moon during Apollo 9?
11.8 Was alien music heard during Apollo 10 and kept secret?

Chapter 12. How to debate a Moon hoax believer

12.1 One word of advice
12.2 If you really want to debate
12.3 Questions for hoax believers

Chapter 13. Real secrets of the Moon landings

13.1 Aldrin’s pause on the LM ladder
13.2 Suspicious pad corrosions and emissions
13.3 Smuggling on the Moon: the Sieger covers
13.4 Secretive commemorations
13.5 Naked women on the Moon
13.6 The President’s speech in case of Moon disaster

Chapter 14. Remembering the fallen

14.1 Michael James Adams
14.2 Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel B. Clark, Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool and Ilan Ramon
14.3 Charles Arthur Bassett II and Elliot McKay See, Jr.
14.4 Valentin Bondarenko
14.5 Roger B. Chaffee, Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom and Ed H. White
14.6 Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev and Vladislav Volkov
14.7 Theodore Cordy Freeman
14.8 Edward Galen Givens, Jr.
14.9 Gregory Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Francis “Dick” Scobee and Michael J. Smith
14.10 Vladimir Komarov
14.11 Robert H. Lawrence, Jr.
14.12 Clifton Curtis Williams, Jr.

Chapter 15. References

15.1 Public photo archives
15.2 Technical reference sites
15.3 Technical books and documents
15.4 Biographies
15.5 Moon-related items, documents and memorabilia for purchase
15.6 Books by Moon hoax proponents
15.7 Websites supporting Moon hoax theories
15.8 DVDs, videos and TV shows supporting hoax claims
15.9 Parodies that hoax proponents believe are true
15.10 Books with rebuttals to Moon hoax claims
15.11 Neutral or debunking DVDs, videos and TV shows
15.12 Moon hoax debunking sites

Chapter 16. Apollo by the numbers

16.1 Apollo landing sites
16.2 The Apollo missions
   16.2.1 AS-201, 26 February 1966
   16.2.2 AS-203, 5 July 1966
   16.2.3 AS-202, 25 August 1966
   16.2.4 Apollo 1 (AS-204), 27 January 1967
   16.2.5 Apollo 4 (AS-501), 9 November 1967
   16.2.6 Apollo 5 (AS-204R), 22-23 January 1968
   16.2.7 Apollo 6 (AS-502), 4 April 1968
   16.2.8 Apollo 7 (AS-205), 11-22 October 1968
   16.2.9 Apollo 8 (AS-503), 21-27 December 1968
   16.2.10 Apollo 9 (AS-504), 3-13 March 1969
   16.2.11 Apollo 10 (AS-505), 18-26 May 1969
   16.2.12 Apollo 11 (AS-506), 16-24 July 1969
   16.2.13 Apollo 12 (AS-507), 14-24 November 1969
   16.2.14 Apollo 13 (AS-508), 11-17 April 1970
   16.2.15 Apollo 14 (AS-509), 31 January-9 February 1971
   16.2.16 Apollo 15 (AS-510), 26 July-7 August 1971
   16.2.17 Apollo 16 (AS-511), 16-27 April 1972
   16.2.18 Apollo 17 (AS-512), 7-19 December 1972
   16.2.19 Skylab, 1973-74
   16.2.20 Apollo-Soyuz, 15-24 July 1975
16.3 Apollo astronauts
16.4 The Saturn V/Apollo spacecraft
16.5 Moon rocks
16.6 Photographs
16.7 The Moon and the Earth

Updates, corrections and statistics

Updates

In October 2018 I converted the entire book to HTML and posted it to this website. Due to time constraints, I will no longer be updating the paper and EPUB editions, which will remain available on Amazon and elsewhere. I‘ve reorganized figure numbering to allow faster updating and additions without having to worry about manually renumbering all the figures and figure references in a chapter.

In December 2018 I also revised the online book extensively, adding lots of material from the Italian edition and fixing the numbering of the figures. This is a complicated process and therefore the numbering may be a bit ratty and some section-to-section links might be broken. If you spot anything, let me know. Thank you for your patience.

I’ve introduced a few typographical fixes, such as proper apostrophes (’) instead of “computer” apostrophes ('), and tweaked the stylesheet for clarity.

I’ve changed all occurrences of manned to a more gender-neutral crewed, except where I am quoting someone’s exact words or referring to an organization that has or had manned in its name (e.g., the Manned Spaceflight Center).

I’ve also reduced the number of footnotes, including as many as possible in the body of the text.

I’ve fixed a few UK/US English inconsistencies, such as sunburned/sunburnt. I’m British, but I’ve used US English spelling rules in the book because I know that otherwise I’ll get heaps of mail complaining about my “misspelling” of colour, metre, tranquillity and so on. Brits, instead, will cringe and bear politely.

Corrections and fixes

Chapter 1, “Race for the Moon”: I’ve corrected explodes dishearteningly on the pad, in front of a television audience of millions to explodes dishearteningly on the pad because there is some doubt among historians as to whether the Vanguard TV3 footage was broadcast live on TV or not.

Section 1.3, ”The US catches up”: I've corrected the date of the GRAB-1 launch to 22 June, 1960 from July 5 because this is the date reported by the Smithsonian and Encyclopedia Astronautica. June 22 was the date when the first signals were received.

Section 1.7, “Post-Apollo Explorations”: I’ve added China’s Chang’e 3/Yutu soft landing on the Moon, which occurred in 2013 shortly after I had published the first edition.

Section 5.4, “How could the flag change position when the astronauts were back inside the spacecraft?”: I corrected the sentence “its shadow can be seen in photo AS14-66-9339, but no longer in photo AS14-66-9339” to “its shadow can be seen in photo AS14-66-9325, but no longer in photo AS14-66-9339”, as the first photo reference number was wrong. Thank you, Martin, for spotting that typo.

Section 8.8, “It’s impossible to cool an astronaut in a vacuum”: I’ve corrected a typo: use self-contained is now used self-contained. 

Section 9.7, “Why is there no delay in the Apollo communications?”: I’ve added a response to a recent conspiracist claim that Spacecraft Films’ DVDs lacked the expected transmission delay.

Section 16.3, “Apollo astronauts”: Sadly, I’ve had to update this section to record the deaths of some Apollo astronauts. I’ve also corrected a typo which made it appear that John Young had flown on Apollo 6 (it was actually Apollo 16).

Statistics

These are screenshots from this book’s all-time statistics, taken on 6 June 2023, as provided by Google. I apologize for the charts being in Italian: that’s the default language of my Google account and I was unable to quickly convince Google to show the stats in English.

Overview

The charts begin in May 2010 because that’s when I created this site to promote what was then an e-book and paperback project. After its migration to a fully online version in November 2018, traffic picked up quite remarkably. The highest peak, unsurprisingly, came in July 2019, around the 50th anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon.

Origin of page views

I’m not surprised by Italy’s fourth place, despite the book being in English, since I’m fairly well-known as a journalist and radio show host there. What really surprises me is that Ukraine is the third source of page views in all the world. It seems that Ukrainians are very keen to find out about a part of world history that maybe they experienced through the censorship of the Soviet Union.

Most popular posts

This chart is dominated by a decades-old topic, the Van Allen belts, and by a more recent and very popular news story about alleged fake Moon rocks found in a Dutch museum (spoiler: they were an artist’s prank).

Most popular search keywords

The most popular search keywords are all related to moon hoax and debunked in their various permutations. Semalt.com is a search optimization service which somehow crept into this chart. I have no idea why; I don’t use any SEO services.

Return to Table of Contents

In Memoriam

This book wishes to honor those who paid the highest price in order to reach and extend the new frontier, sometimes in secret and often without being remembered even as a footnote of history. The story behind each one of the names that follow is given in the Remembering the fallen chapter.

May we never forget that anyone who denies the Moon landings is sullying the memory of these brave people, of their families and of everyone who worked hard for the exploration of space.

Michael J. Adams

Michael P. Anderson

Charles A. Bassett II

Valentin Bondarenko

David M. Brown

Roger Chaffee

Kalpana Chawla

Laurel B. Clark

Georgi Dobrovolski

Theodore C. Freeman

Edward G. Givens, Jr.

Virgil “Gus” Grissom

Rick D. Husband

Gregory Jarvis

Vladimir Komarov

Robert H. Lawrence, Jr.

Christa McAuliffe

William C. McCool

Ronald McNair

Ellison Onizuka

Viktor Patsayev

Ilan Ramon

Judith Resnik

Francis “Dick” Scobee

Elliot McKay See, Jr.

Michael J. Smith

Vladislav Volkov

Ed White

Clifton C. Williams, Jr.

Ad astra per aspera.

NEXT: Chapter 1. Race for the Moon

Comments, corrections and updates

This book is a work in progress. Apollo’s science and documentation are still being studied today and new Moon probes are providing updates and new opportunities for cross-checking that are included here as they become available.

Also, conspiracy theorists concoct new “evidence” and claims all the time, so you might find that a specific claim hasn’t yet been debunked specifically in this book. You might also find mistakes or typos. If so, let me know by e-mail at paolo.attivissimo@gmail.com, so that the next edition of this book will be updated and corrected.

The changes introduced in the various editions are listed here.

NEXT: In Memoriam

Units of measurement and terminology

Throughout this book, all measurements are given in both metric units and US customary units. Unless otherwise specified, mile is understood to reference a statute mile and ton is understood to be a metric ton (1,000 kg). Some rounding may be introduced to avoid unnecessarily pedantic conversion results; e.g., 100,000 feet will be converted to 30,000 meters instead of 30,480. Also, idiomatic expressions such as a couple of inches or a few feet, which suggest a very approximate measurement, will not be converted.

This book uses non-gender specific terms, such as crewed and crewless rather than manned and unmanned, except for names of buildings and programs, in accordance with the NASA History Program Office Style Guide:

In general, all references to the space program should be non-gender-specific (e.g., human, piloted, unpiloted, robotic, as opposed to manned or unmanned). The exception to the rule is when referring to the Manned Spaceflight Center (also known as the Manned Spacecraft Center), the predecessor of Johnson Space Center in Houston, or to any other historical program name or official title that included “manned” (e.g., Associate Administrator for Manned Spaceflight).

Although I’m half British, I’ve used US English rules in this book because I know that otherwise I’ll get heaps of mail complaining about my “misspelling” of colour, metre, tranquillity and so on. Brits, instead, will cringe and bear politely.

NEXT: Comments, corrections and updates

Free distribution

You may freely copy and distribute this book in its digital editions, provided that you don’t alter it, don’t pass it off as yours and don’t print it for sale without my written permission; the details are in the Copyright notice section. I didn’t write Moon Hoax: Debunked! to become rich and famous, but to allow as many people as possible to get the facts they need to counter the arguments of conspiracy theorists. Just don’t mess with my rights.

However, writing a technical book takes time and hard work; buying manuals, DVDs and documents takes money. So if you like what you read and you feel like lending me a hand on this project, you’re welcome to:

• point out errors or unclear language and help me with research by writing to paolo.attivissimo@gmail.com,
• buy me space reference books from my Amazon.com wish list,
• donate the equivalent of a genuine Italian pizza and a good beer via my Paypal account as an incentive for me to keep on writing.

NEXT: Units of measurement and terminology

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all the people who patiently read and checked the drafts of this book and debugged them as they grew online. I am especially indebted to Luca Boschini, John H. Cato, jr, Epsilon, Cesare Guariniello, Hammer, Martin Keenan, Massimiliano Carnevale, Naomi, Razvan Neagoe, Papageno, Giuseppe Regalzi, Luigi Rosa, Claudio Severi, Linden Sims, Roland Suhr, Trystero, Tukler and Larry Turoski for their tireless fact-checking and proofreading. Any surviving mistakes are solely mine.

I am also very grateful to:

• Terry Watson (Apollo GNC), Eric Jones of the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, and to all the members of the Project Apollo online forum, for helping me through the maze of jargon and technical minutiae and for unerringly answering the bizarre questions of a fellow space geek;
• Nicola Colotti, Dario Kubler, Fabio Letta, Milco Margaroli, Rodri Van Click, Andrea Tedeschi, Luigi Pizzimenti, Roberto Crippa, Paolo Miniussi, Guido Schwartz, Lukas Viglietti and all the good people of Space Lectures, for organizing amazing encounters and interviews with Apollo astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Charlie Duke, Al Worden, Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Ed Mitchell and Walt Cunningham, with Mission Control EECOM Sy Liebergot, and with Apollo computer scientist Don Eyles;
• Diego Cuoghi, for kindly sharing his research;
• Elena Albertini, for keeping the e-book and paper editions in sync;
• my daughters Lisa and Linda, who helped me with the technical process of creating the digital edition of this book;
• my wife Elena, for her endless patience and for organizing my many public talks about the Apollo missions and this book.

I would like to thank all the donors who made it possible for me to make this book freely available online and keep it up-to-date.

This book is dedicated to my parents, who woke me up when I was six years old so that I could watch the Apollo 11 Moon landing live on TV in sleepy amazement (it was nighttime in Europe), and to my aunt Iris, who in the early 1970s gave me a copy of Peter Ryan’s enthralling account of the first Apollo missions, The Invasion of the Moon 1957-70. I never recovered from this double bite of the space bug. That dog-eared paperback is still here with me as I write these words. Its pages are fading, but the passion and wonder they have fed for all these years are certainly not.

NEXT: Free distribution

Preface

Half a century ago mankind first set foot on the Moon. Many of us, including myself, experienced that extraordinary moment as amazing news that filled the papers and magazines and gave us an unforgettable, sleepless night spent gazing at the ghostly live television pictures that reached our homes from another world.

Today, however, to a growing number of people that memorable achievement is literally history: blurred, distant, known only through second-hand stories and often reported tiredly and superficially by mainstream media. Even today, going to the Moon is still an incredible, mythical and unreal challenge, and the idea that we went there in the 1960s – and then stopped going – is, for many, understandably hard to accept.

I offer this book to anyone who honestly seeks to understand what really happened and rightly demands answers to his or her reasonable doubts. To hardcore Moon hoax believers, those who are impervious to any argument and think that they have it all figured out, I offer only my pity. They are unable to enjoy this amazing adventure, which is one of the few peaceful endeavors for which the twentieth century stands a chance of being remembered as something more than a heartbreaking series of wars, devastations and genocides.

However, this book is not just a pedantic refutation of a set of eccentric claims. It’s a celebration of a moment in time that can never be equaled or repeated. Yes, there will be other destinations, other missions, other landings on distant worlds, but the Moon landing of July 1969 will be forever mankind’s first contact with another world. It will always be the first time that humanity proved, albeit for a brief moment, that it is capable of crawling out of its fragile cradle.

What an incredible privilege it is to be alive in that unique, minuscule slice of history in which all this happened, and to be able to personally thank, talk and shake hands with those who accomplished a voyage that for countless centuries was merely a dream beyond the power of even the mightiest king, emperor or pharaoh. To walk on the Moon. This book is my small homage to the courage and ingenuity of all those who contributed to turning that dream into reality. In peace, for all mankind.

NEXT: Acknowledgments

Donation and donor list

You can read the full text of Moon Hoax: Debunked! for free, but if you fancy encouraging me to update it and extend it, or just offering me a pint of beer to say thanks, who am I to stop you?

If you like, I’ll include your name/nickname/company name in the list of donors below. Please note that if you want to be mentioned in this list, you must give me explicit permission and you need to specify how you want to be mentioned. If you don’t, your donation will remain anonymous.

A quick legal note: making a donation does not entitle you to any rights on the content of my book other than those already given to you automatically by its Creative Commons license; I try to answer all e-mails, regardless of whether they’re from a donor or a non-donor. All donations are duly reported to the tax authorities of Switzerland, the country where I live.

Thank you!

Donors

Many donors have asked to remain fully anonymous: here are the ones who have given me permission to be mentioned at least in partially anonymized form. To each and every one, thank you and ad astra!

Afsi

Alessandro Marco Galli

alex*

andrea.t*

dan.b*

laschip

NEXT: Preface

About the author

Paolo Attivissimo (right) with Buzz Aldrin (left), one of the first two astronauts to land and walk on the Moon. Credit: Andrea Tedeschi Photography (www.andreatedeschi.ch).

I’m Paolo Attivissimo, a British-Italian science journalist specialized in research into conspiracy theories, hoaxes and urban legends. I’ve written or coauthored over a dozen books on computers, the Internet and other subjects such as 9/11 conspiracy theories, UFOs and science-related mysteries in Italian.

I live near Lugano, Switzerland, where I work for Swiss National Radio (RSI) and as a consultant for RAI, Mediaset and other Italian-language radio and TV networks.

I’m a contributor to NASA’s Apollo Lunar Surface Journal and I often act as translator for the Apollo astronauts when they visit Italy.

As a lifelong space enthusiast, for me Moon Hoax: Debunked! is a labor of love as well as a good excuse to delve into the fascinating human and technical details of mankind's greatest journeys of exploration. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

NEXT: Donations and donor list

Copyright notice

The original text of this book is (cc) 2013-2023 by Paolo Attivissimo. Some rights reserved.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

In summary, you are free to share this work by copying, distributing and transmitting it, under the following conditions:

– Attribution. You must attribute the work to its author, Paolo Attivissimo, and you must refer to the site MoonHoaxDebunked.com as the source of this work, but not in any way that suggests that the author endorses you or your use of the work.

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– No derivative works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. You may, however, translate it into any language and distribute the translation with the same licensing terms as this original.

and with the understanding that:

– Waiver. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get written permission from the copyright holder.

– Other rights. In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license: your fair dealing or fair use rights; the author’s moral rights; rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.

– Notice. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.

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The author, Paolo Attivissimo, has a good faith belief that the quotations from literary and artistic works of other authors made in this work are within the limits of fair practice as defined by Article 10 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

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Photo credits: All photographs of Apollo hardware and missions are courtesy of NASA unless otherwise noted. “PA” designates the author (Paolo Attivissimo). Cartoons are © Moise and are used with permission. All pictures are believed to be used to the extent allowed by fair use. Should any copyright issues arise, please contact the author, Paolo Attivissimo, by e-mail at paolo.attivissimo@gmail.com or by post at the following address: via Prati Botta 16B, CH-6917 Lugano Barbengo, Switzerland.

NEXT: About the author

You've heard the “moon hoax” claims. You know they're wrong. But can you explain why?

Now you can.

Finally, there’s a no-nonsense, fact-filled e-book that debunks “moon hoax” claims. It’s called, rather predictably, Moon Hoax: Debunked!, and it’s free (supported by your donations). You can read the entire book now online.

I’ve written this book not only for open-minded doubters, to dispel their understandable questions about what is even today an incredible series of voyages, but also for space enthusiasts, who will find concise, plain-language but technically accurate answers that they can offer to their doubtful friends and use to quash the quibbles of conspiracy theorists. This information may come in handy especially for anyone giving talks about space.

Moon Hoax: Debunked! is based on my Italian-language book on the same subject, which is also fully available online and likewise donation-supported.

You can read the full, updated Moon Hoax: Debunked! online for free, but bear in mind that every donation is an encouragement for me to write more books like this and to keep this one up to date. Past donations have allowed me to produce the freely downloadable documentary Moonscape, which presents the Apollo 11 landing and EVA using restored and resynchronized original audio, photos, TV and film. So please try this book, and if you like what you read, feel free to click the button below to make a donation of your choice.

Dispelling doubts about the Moon landings,
celebrating courage and ingenuity

Start reading the latest online version

What’s in the book

The first part of Moon Hoax: Debunked! begins with Race for the Moon, a quick primer on the historical background of the Moon race, followed by How We Went to the Moon, a description of the hardware and the events of a typical Apollo Moon mission. Then there's a chapter that provides a detailed explanation of the best evidence of the Moon landings and a chapter covering the origins and popularity of the various hoax theories.

The rest of the book is dedicated to a point-by-point debunking of the main “moon hoax” claims and common misconceptions regarding the Moon landings, divided by category: alleged anomalies in photographs and in video and film footage, technological and physical anomalies, and other miscellaneous claims.

There’s also a chapter on how to argue with a Moon hoax believer and one covering the various UFO claims related to the Moon landings.

Finally, you will find a chapter that shows how the Apollo missions don't need conspiracy theories to be a fascinating story. For example, did you know how close to failure each flight actually came? Did you know that pictures of Playmates were smuggled to the Moon to prank the astronauts? Or that there was a secret Soviet plan to land a Russian on the Moon before the US?

The book is also an opportunity to explore the technology of the space race: not only the rocketry but also the analog photography, film and television technology used to provide the visual record of the Moon missions.

What about the previous EPUB/Kindle/printed edition?

The 2013 edition of Moon Hoax: Debunked! is still available on Amazon Kindle and as paperback here, but I will no longer be updating it in print. The only edition I will be publishing from now on is the online one (the one you’re looking at now) because I don’t have enough time to write and also manage multiple editions and keep them synchronized, so I have to make a choice. Sorry!

NEXT: Copyright notice