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Buzz Aldrin's bootprint in the lunar soil, Apollo 11, July 1969
Buzz Aldrin's bootprint in the lunar soil, Apollo 11, July 1969. Photo: NASA · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
Science & space · 1969 – 1972 · and since

Moon Landing Hoax Claims

Established1969 CE – 2009 CEMission Control, Houston, Texas, USA

Six crewed landings, 382 kilograms of rock, mirrors still on the Moon and photographs from orbit. The hoax claim has nowhere to stand.

Between 1969 and 1972, six NASA Apollo missions landed twelve astronauts on the Moon. They brought back 382 kilograms of lunar rocks and soil — some 2,200 separate samples — that laboratories around the world still study. Apollo crews left retroreflectors that observatories bounce lasers off to this day, and in 2009 NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed the landing sites, showing the descent stages and even the astronauts' tracks.

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How to read the labels

EstablishedSupported by strong, converging evidence.
ContestedEvidence exists but qualified scholars disagree.
UnresolvedThe question is open; evidence does not settle it.
LegendComes from myth, literature or tradition, not physical evidence.
SpeculativeA hypothesis with little direct evidence so far.

Hero image: Buzz Aldrin's bootprint in the lunar soil, Apollo 11, July 1969. Photo: NASA · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons. Evidence labels describe the written claims, not the image. Version 1 · updated 2026-10-22.