On July 16, 1969, a rocket called Apollo 11 was launched from a NASA facility in Florida, with a goal to land the first man on the moon. The landing of Apollo 11 marked an important time in history, and the entire thing was televised. Somehow, in the midst of it all, this led people to believe that the moon landing was an act that NASA, along with other organizations, had fabricated to gain more popularity. The question is, even though the landing was shown live, why do people still proceed to deny the moon landing, 50 years later? 

In the summer of 2009, the 40th anniversary of the moon landing took place, and with it emerged a small population of people who believed it was fake. As the history of Apollo 11 recedes into the background of history, the belief that it was all staged grows stronger. 

 According to an article from the Smithsonian museum, “Air and Space,” the majority of the people who don’t believe in the moon landing are either too young to remember it or have very little trust for any higher power, ie… the government. The reasoning behind this mistrust comes from the belief in previous government scandals, a lack of scientific education and that everything they see on the internet is true. 

As someone who has personally been to NASA before, the fact that these young people deny the Apollo 11 adventure is humorous to me. After touring NASA, it’s easy to tell that the technology they have is so advanced, it’s hard to believe they have never been to the moon. The facility even has a special moon rock on display, as well as rovers and live footage from space where there are currently people doing missions in the space station. 

On the day of the rocket launch of Apollo 11, people were crowded around the launch pad in Florida, saw the crew board the rocket and then witnessed it shoot off into space. I feel that it would be especially hard to fool all the people watching from the launch that day, because of this, it’s almost impossible that the moon landing could have been fake. 

Another fact to add to the decent piles of information I have conjugated already is the emotion that the crew showed as they launched and landed. Even as an actor, it’s difficult to show the perfect emotion that is needed to make a scene feel real, and the reactions of the astronauts of Apollo 11 was that of pure joy and happiness as they landed safely on the moon, something that couldn’t have easily been faked. 

I still believe that the moon landing is completely and utterly real. I see nothing that could change my mind and in my opinion, I think that the people who refuse to believe it are not educated enough in the space science field. The crew of astronauts have accomplished so much with this task that I feel if they had faked it, the news would have come out eventually in the past 50 years.