Finally, a Russian scientist puts an American conspiracy theory to rest

One of the most resilient conspiracy theories in the US is that America never landed on the moon. Ever since 1969, when spaceflight Apollo 11 landed on the moon, various individuals and groups have claimed that NASA faked the moon landing as well as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon and planting the American flag there. They say the photos and videos of moon landing were all staged like a film production. The conspiracy theory has thrived on the internet, refusing to die despite persistent debunking by scientists and media.

Finally, a statement from a scientist from Russia, a rival space power and now an inimical force, can put this conspiracy theory to rest since the conspiracy theorists won't be able to find Russia's interest in confirming the truth of the moon landing. The US is the only country so far to land humans on the moon. Luna 25, Russia's first lunar mission, failed in 2023 when it aimed a soft landing on the Moon's South Pole but crashed on the Moon and was lost. Both India and China have successfully landed craft on the moon.

What the Russian expert says

Yury Borisov, the head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, has said that Russian scientists examined a sample of lunar soil handed over by the United States. "As for whether Americans were on the Moon or not, I have only one fact. I looked into this matter. They once gave us a sample of the lunar soil delivered by the astronauts during that expedition. An examination by our Academy of Sciences confirmed that it is exactly lunar soil," Borisov said in the State Duma on Wednesday after being asked by an MP about US astronauts' landing on the Moon, Russian news agency Interfax reported.

“According to the expertise of our Academy of Sciences, the lunar soil turned out to be lunar indeed,” Borisov reassured lawmakers, insisting that the samples were analyzed in numerous countries, not just the USSR, RT reported.

The Soviet Academy of Sciences and NASA signed an agreement on scientific and technical cooperation in 1971. After that, they exchanged lunar soil samples delivered to Earth by the Luna 16 Soviet uncrewed space mission and by the U.S. spaceships Apollo 11 and Apollo 12.

Borisov's statement is important because last year, a former head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, had expressed doubt whether the US Apollo 11 mission really landed on the Moon in 1969, saying he had yet to see conclusive proof. RT reported last year that Rogozin said in a post on his Telegram channel that he began his personal quest for the truth “about ten years ago” when he was still working in the Russian government, and that he grew skeptical about whether the Americans had actually set foot on the moon when he compared how exhausted Soviet cosmonauts looked upon returning from their flights, and how seemingly unaffected the Apollo 11 crew was by contrast.

Rogozin said he sent requests for evidence to Roscosmos at the time. All he received in response was a book featuring Soviet Cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov’s account of how he talked to the American astronauts and how they told him they had been on the Moon. The former official wrote that he continued with his efforts when he was appointed head of Roscosmos in 2018. However, according to Rogozin, no evidence was presented to him. Instead, several unnamed academics angrily criticized him for undermining the “sacred cooperation with NASA,” he claimed.

The Chinese whispers

Last month, the return of China's Chang'e 6 probe to Earth bearing rock-and-soil samples from the little-known far side of the Moon, following a 53-day mission, reignited old conspiracy theories about NASA's Apollo moon landings. The feat set off a torrent of misinformation targeting the US that researchers said reflected their bitter competition in space.

AFP's fact-checkers debunked a litany of Chinese-language posts suggesting NASA's historic mission in 1969 was staged as well as posts misrepresenting decades-old photos from subsequent landings.

"There is undeniably a great power rivalry in space between the US and China, and any kind of misinformation about the activities by either country is concerning," Saadia M. Pekkanen, from the University of Washington, had told AFP. "It is yet another way that the potential for space diplomacy can be negated in the geopolitical competition between the two countries."

When China's National Space Agency released a photo of a stone-made Chinese flag erected on the Moon's far side by Chang'e-6 in early June, users on social media platform X compared it with an image of NASA astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt standing next to a US flag on the lunar surface in 1972.

Posting to tens of thousands of followers, they falsely suggested the Apollo 16 mission must have been staged because Schmitt's cloth flag was pictured being "blown" by the wind -- despite NASA's explanation that it used a horizontal bar to hold it upright.

"Beijing sometimes lets anti-American sentiments and false information run rampant on the Chinese internet, to allow for an escape valve for domestic tensions, and to modulate Chinese citizens' views," Isaac Stone Fish, chief executive of China-focused data company Strategy Risks, had told AFP. "Allowing conspiracy theories on the US moon landing to fester may reflect insecurity on Beijing's part on the space race between China and the United States."

(WIth inputs from agencies)