Somehow, millions of conspiracy theorists dubbed ‘moon truthers’ continue to insist the moon landing – one of humankind’s greatest achievements – was a hoax.
Well, astrophysicist Sierra Casten isn’t having any of it, and in a recent TikTok video lay waste to one of conspiracy theorists’ favourite examples of ‘proof’ that the whole thing was a setup: the fact that the flag planted on the moon looks as though it’s waving, despite there being no wind on the moon.
Casten brilliantly begins the clip by saying: “The only reason you could still believe the moon landing was fake is because you crave the attention,” before delving into some cold, hard facts.
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Watch the full video below:
Poking fun at one of moon truthers’ favourite catchphrases, Casten quips: “‘Woah, woah, woah, but the flag, it’s wavy!’” before adding: “Spoiler alert. No it’s not.”
The TikToker continued: “There’s a metal pole holding up the top, because without it, it would look really sad since there’s no wind on the moon.”
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Casten further explained: “While trying to extend the metal rods that hold the top of the flag, they got stuck, and they couldn’t come out all the way that they were supposed to.
“So what you’re seeing here, that looks like the flag waving in the wind, is actually just bunched up material.”
Casten also brought up the ‘but the boot and the footprints don’t match’ argument, telling her followers: “Literally, a five second Google search could have told you that they wear something called over-shoes, which go over the shoe of their boot.”
Images of astronauts’ over-shoes then flashed up on the screen, with Casten continuing: “Here’s an example of an astronaut wearing one on the moon, and as you can clearly see, they have the same tread on the bottom of their boot as the footprint.”
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Despite the fact that it took 400,000 NASA employees and contractors to help Neil Armstrong safely set foot on the moon back on 20 July 1969, the idea the moon landing was a hoax is one of the most talked about conspiracy theories of all time.
Theories that the whole thing was a hoax were first started by Bill Kaysing, a former employee of Rocketdyne, one of the companies that helped design the Saturn V rocket engines.
In 1976, Kaysing published a pamphlet called We Never Went to the Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle, in which he laid out ‘evidence’ the moon landing was staged.
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According to The Guardian, the self-published brochure contained nothing more than ‘grainy photocopies and ludicrous theories’, but nonetheless, Kaysing’s insinuations gathered pace.
Aisha Nozari