by Peter L. Bosch

Created on: July 27, 2009

On July 16, 1969 the United States successfully landed on the moon giving Americans a needed distraction from the Vietnam War, and proving President Kennedy right when he declared that the U.S. could safely land a man on the moon before "this decade is out." The timing for the moon landing was all too convenient...perhaps too much. Did Stanley Kubrick really direct a fake landing? After all, if we landed on the moon in 1969, why aren't we there now? We should have a Taco Bell drive-thru on the lunar surface by now.

The majority of Americans do believe that the Apollo 11 mission was legitimate. Some believe that NASA landed on the moon, but perhaps during a later mission. Others believe all the missions were faked using a stage set and rocks from Australia. They've looked for telescope images to show evidence that man has been on the moon's surface.

Conspiracy theorists look at pictures from the Apollo 11 mission and anything else they can get their hands on to find inconsistencies. Some want to know where the stars are in the photos. All of this leads nowhere since most things can be explained away. Anyone knows that if you want to uncover a conspiracy, and a fake moon landing by the U.S. government would be as big as they come, you follow the money. This is Conspiracy Theory 101, people.

If the U.S. wanted to fake the landing, they could have done a stellar job at it. What are theorists saying, that not only was the U.S. not capable of landing on the moon, but they couldn't even generate a flawless fake video? Ask that question next time someone claims to have seen a Coke bottle in the background of a moon photograph. If you want to see if there is anything being covered, look for the money.

If this was a cover up, then where are the payoffs to the astronauts? If Buzz Aldrin has held information that could irreversibly damage the U.S.'s image and credibility, then why was he selling cars after 1969? Would anyone have been too suspicious if an American hero was taken care of? Why not set him up on a ranch somewhere where he might not slip vital information in exhange for moving a vehicle off the lot.

Although Neil Armstrong has probably done well serving roles with NASA over the years, the astronaut to have done really well financially is Alan Shepard who is the first man to go into space. He later got to walk on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission before going on to be a millionaire businessman. Or was he just the only one threatening to talk?

It appears that the twelve astronauts to have reportedly walked on the moon went on to mostly lead normal lives, with most taking on other jobs to make ends meet. It seems highly unlikely that these men are secretly the key actors to a mass deception of galactic proportions.

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