Half a century has passed since Nasa launched its spectacular missions to the Moon, broadcasting the first of its six to millions around the world in 1969. But since then, conspiracy theorists have poured endlessly over the footage, photography and details around the expeditions, claiming they never took place at all. And this phenomenon has become more widely-believed in recent years; a 2019 YouGov poll found that one in six British people agreed with the statement: “The moon landings were staged.”

Hoax claims first gained traction in 1976 when German-American writer Bill Kaysing self-published a book entitled, We Never Went to the Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle, in which he stated that there was only a 0.0017 per cent chance scientists could plot a safe moon landing, and that the Apollo 11 craft could not have withstood the intense heat of the Van Allen radiation belt (a giant area of magnetically trapped, highly energetic charged particles that surround the Earth) as it was fired into space.

Kaysing also claimed that after the craf blasted off into orbit, it simply waited up there, circling the planet for hours, whilst the rest of the world watched scenes that were painstakingly crafted in a television studio in Area 51. He also points to photos of the astronauts during an interview on their return, arguing that had they really gone to space, they’d look more “excited”.

Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Show all 8 1 /8 Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Flag waves but there is no wind on the moon The theory goes that as the flag is waving in the wind, it must have been on earth as there is no wind on the moon. If it were on the moon it would simply droop. The truth is that it is not waving, rather it is being held in place by a telescopic pole running through the top of the flag and it is crumpled as it had been screwed up for days en route to the moon Nasa Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Boot doesn't match the boot print It is suggested that this picture of a boot print on the moon is fake because it does not line up with the tread of this boot from Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit. That’s right, it doesn’t NASA Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Boot doesn’t match the boot print The print does however match that of the outer boots, the ones worn by the Apollo crew when walking on the moon. And while we’re at it: the print is from Buzz Aldrin, not Armstrong. NASA Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories No stars in outer space? Why are there no stars in sight when this picture was taken on a rock in outer space that has no atmosphere? Answer: camera settings. In order to capture this photo in direct sunlight, the camera would have to have a very narrow aperture and the shutter would only stay open for a minuscule amount of time. This means that the camera will not take in the light of the distant stars, only that of the much nearer, brighter sun. NASA Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Astronauts couldn’t survive the radiation belts The Van Allen belts are regions of extremely high energy charged particles are trapped in the earth’s magnetic field. The conspiracy theory goes that the astronauts could not possibly survive exposure to this level of radiation. NASA Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Astronauts couldn’t survive the radiation belts Professor Anu Ojha of the National Space Centre answers: ‘Firewalking. If you’ve ever done firewalking, you’ll know the one thing you don’t do is linger around in the middle of the firepit. You cross as quickly as you can... as long as you walk across quite quickly, looking at the thermal conductivity of your feet, you are not going to have enough thermal energy going into the soles of your feet to burn you. You’re absolutely fine. Just don’t hang around in the middle! In a similar way, the transit time through the Van Allen radiation belt right at the beginning of the Apollo voyages was incredibly short. Travelling through the Van Allen radiation belt if you are going fast enough – which you need to be if you’re going to the Moon – is no problem whatsoever.’ AFP/Getty Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Shadows aren’t parallel - must be a lighting set-up These two shadows are pointing in separate directions, hence they must be lit by two separate lights in a studio set-up rather than the single-point source of the sun. NASA Debunked: Moon landing conspiracy theories Shadows aren’t parallel - must be a lighting set-up No, this is simply a matter of perspective. The moon’s surface is not flat and so the shadows are not projected perfectly parallel. This question would have never been asked if we could see the beginning of the shadows, which would all align with the same vanishing point. NASA

It’s worth considering how Kaysing’s moon landing theories have spread so rapidly in an age before the internet, and how this widely-believed phenomenon has come to influence the 21st century concept of fake news and the right-wing agenda.

When Kaysing published his controversial book, American faith in the government was at an all-time low. In 1969, classified government documents known as the Pentagon Papers were leaked to the New York Times and proved that President Lyndon Johnson had knowingly misled the US public into believing the government had a political mandate to engage in the Vietnam War. Then the Watergate political scandal from 1972-1974, led to the resignation of president Nixon and further eroded public faith in the US government. And all this occurred during the height of the Cold War, in which the US and the Soviets invested heavily in media propaganda to position themselves as global superpowers. The “space race” between the two nations was a competition to see who owned the best technology and would therefore be first to walk on the Moon.

Conspiracy theories can be a powerful way to challenge the efficacy of institutional power, but often they are also a way of affirming long-held beliefs (known as confirmation bias), or attempting to comfort ourselves during chaotic, difficult-to-digest incidents. As Christopher French, a professor of psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London explains in a Scientific American article. “As a species, one of our greatest strengths is our ability to find meaningful patterns in the world around us and to make causal inferences. We sometimes, however, see patterns and causal connections that are not there, especially when we feel that events are beyond our control.”

Moon landing denial continues to permeate popular discourse, but these theories are now increasingly linked to far-right ideologies. In 2001, Fox News aired a documentary called Did We Land on the Moon?. And in 2018, the University of Cambridge released the findings of the largest ever cross-national study conducted on conspiracy theories, and found a direct correlation between conspiracy theories and populist politics.

Voting for Brexit and Trump was found to be associated with a wide range of conspiratorial beliefs, with researchers uncovering that these groups are more likely to believe climate change is a hoax, vaccines are harmful, and that illuminati-style groups rule the world. They also found that 33 percent of British and French people believe their governments are obscuring the truth about immigration and that many also supported a theory known as “the great replacement” which posits that Muslim immigration is part of a plan to make Muslims the global majority.

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In 2018, US basketball player Steph Curry revealed that he lacked faith in the likelihood of the moon landings being real. His comments sparked a media backlash and resulted in a request from Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly to “DM him” to discuss. The two ended up meeting and recording their conversation for a podcast, and Curry apologised to Kelly for doubting the missions. The astronaut accepted the apology but stressed that giving weight to unsubstantiated conspiracy theories can have dangerous, societal consequences. "What happens is, then, when people believe those things, they believe the other things that are more important, like climate change not being real, and vaccines [causing autism], and 9/11 being a government conspiracy theory” Kelly commented.

The legacy of the moon landings extends far beyond proven technological advances and scientific progress – it has also birthed a whole host of non-believers and right-wing thinkers whose distrust and suspicion of government forces continues to shape our social and political landscape to this day.