According to this CNN article 6% of Americans think that the moon landings were a hoax, a proportion which fills the internet with videos and articles explaining how NASA faked the landings, their points ranging from a radiation level on the moon that would be lethal to the astronauts to the flag impossibly waving to lack of stars in the night sky.
However, I’ve never seen a proponent of the hoax theory explain that the Soviet Union never even suggested to the world that it was all a nonsense. They weren’t stupid people when it came to space, they’d put the first satellite and man in space and had a vested interest in exposing a hoax. The space race was still ongoing, not to mention the overall backdrop of the Cold War. Why wouldn’t they expose the lies of their capitalist enemy? What a coup it would be for the communists.
An interview with Khrushchev’s son Sergei shows the reaction of the Soviets, from indifference to annoyance.
The only thing I can think of is that the conspiracy somehow extended to the leadership of the Soviets, meaning the entire Cold War was a sham, meaning this hoax would need to have been planned since World War II with the cooperation of the USSR. Either that, or they just didn’t think about the political background at the time. How do they explain this rather large Red elephant in the room? If you yourself believe that the Apollo missions were a hoax, what’s your take on it?
The guys behind Gagarin, Sputnik and Luna 2 were fooled by something jackholes on the internet figured out for sure? That’s as much of a hole in the idea as the notion that the Soviets wouldn’t have spilled the beans.
The confusion here arises because the Moon landing was real, but the footage was faked at a sound studio in Burbank. This was done to cover up the real purpose of the Apollo program – to sell Tang to the Selenites in exchange for velcro and digital-watch technology.
I know this doesn’t answer the OP, but the moon landings are as close to dead as any CT gets. Google it, and for every non-ironic CT site there are about a dozen debunking the alleged anomalies.
6% of people holding this view says it all. By comparison polls on the proportion of YECs generally return about 40-50%.
There are a lot of dumb people. How do people who believe Obama is not a citizen explain the Bush Administration, with all its investigative resources and ruthlessness, not saying a word as he was nominated, elected, and sworn in?
The reaction of the USSR is one of the arguments that I have used against moon landing deniers the few times I have tried to debate them. I point out that the Soviets could have easily determined that no transmissions were coming from the moon. They could have easily passed this information along to other parties with a better reputation in the world media who could confirm their findings.
This either yields an “Oh, yeah” from a beginning moon denier or even broader conspiracy theories that go so deep there is no point in continuing the discussion.
Why are moon hoax and truther stuff so popular when there have been real conspiracies with real documentation and actual results? The Florida voter purge of 2000 and the various efforts described by Sharlet concerning The Fellowship and The Family are well documented, yet no one seems to care.
That was good enough to bookmark and go back to really explore
The Soviets would have trounced us, we would have become the laughing stocks of the world. They had similar technical abilities and would have monitored the whole Apollo program, for very good Military and Diplomatic reasons, in great detail. Astronauts and Cosmonaut have spent time together, I am sure stories have been told, intricate questions would be asked, BS would have been called. A pilot of that grade would be very hard pull the wool over his or her eyes. Thanks for the OP I now have an excellent hammer with to remove batshitness:D
