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While the rest of the world commemorates 50 years since man landed on the moon – Chester Flat Earth Group is marking the anniversary of NOT going to the moon.

It’s a minority view but this week the group is handing out leaflets in Eastgate Street that define their mission as ‘dedicated to bringing about flat earth awareness’.

Vic Button, from Farndon , does not believe Neil Armstrong really stepped foot on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.

“It’s the 50th anniversary of not going to the moon,” said Vic, who is best known for Button’s Electrical stall in Chester Market now run by his son. Now in his 70s, Vic has only become a flat earther in recent years.

His comrades are twins Chris and John, who do not wish to give their surnames for fear of a backlash from round earthers.

Chris said of the moon landings: “So my understanding is that it was all staged to create an illusion to the masses, we are talking about the world here. It was all staged, the whole event, to make people think that we live on a globe, that there’s a far distant universe out there.”

But why would the establishment promote this falsehood? For Chris it’s a form of control.

He explained: “Some people have put the idea out there that it’s to hide God because a lot of flat earthers see NASA as being Satan, for example. But I don’t believe in God at all. So for me the moon landings are there to give people a sense of false hope because it offers people hope in that we can go to distant planets, we can conquer Mars and go and live on Mars and this that and the other. It’s just giving people a dream, something to dream about.”

But how does the group explain the existence of images showing the Apollo 11 landing site? For the flat earthers all space pictures are fakes.

John said: “There was an image online published of the artefacts but they are just dots, just little black patches. You work for a newspaper you should know what you can do with photos. You won’t find a genuine authentic photograph that hasn’t been manipulated in a magazine. I can understand why they have the globe earth because it creates jobs. Look at NASA, aerospace, satellites, propulsion, books, films.“

It's clearly nonsense but even scientist and national treasure Professor Brian Cox, a staunch critic of flat earth theories, is regarded as part of this all encompassing conspiracy.

“He’s paid to do a job,” claims John. “He thinks he’s giving people hope.”

Chester resident Henry Halligan couldn’t walk past the flat earthers without passing comment.

“It’s just something I felt I had to intervene on,” said Henry, who works as a bartender at Opera Grill and admits he’s not from a scientific background. But he was perplexed by the group’s claim the curvature of the earth could not be proved.

“You can prove it yourself. If you go in a plane and go high enough you will see the curvature of the earth.”

John’s counter claim is the aircraft window ‘distorts the view’.

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