In Their Own Words: Apollo Astronauts say "We Went to the Moon"

By Nancy Atkinson - November 7, 2008 at 4:12 PM UTC | Missions
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Someone approached me recently and wanted to ask about how the US faked going to the Moon back in the 1960's and 70's. I was so shocked, appalled and dumbfounded, I really didn't know what to say. I just directed them to

Phil Plait's Moon Hoax Hoax info

. Then I wondered, what do the

Apollo astronauts

say if someone asks them the same question? Now I know. I just finished watching

"In the Shadow of the Moon,"

a documentary of the Apollo era presented by Ron Howard, directed by David Sington (*correction). It's a wonderful film with fantastic and rare footage along with interviews of several of the Apollo astronauts. I highly recommend it! And the end, as the credits are rolling, each of the astronauts responds to an unsaid question about the those who think this greatest adventure in human history was a hoax:

Mike Collins: "I don't know how I would grab someone by the collar who didn't believe and shake them and somehow change their mind." And later Collins added, "I don't know two Americans who could have a fantastic secret without one of them blurting it out to the press. Can you imagine thousands of people being able to keep this secret?"

Charlie Duke: "We've been to the moon nine times. If we faked it, why did we fake it nine times?"

Alan Bean: "Some of the tabloids are saying that we did this in a hanger in Arizona. Maybe that would have been a good idea!" (meaning, it would have been a lot safer)

Dave Scott: "Any significant event in history, somebody has had a conspiracy theory one way or the other about it."

Gene Cernan: "Truth needs no defense. Nobody,

nobody

can ever take those footsteps that I made on the surface of the moon away from me."

And Buzz Aldrin said this on a the

UK TV show, "Where Are They Now:"

"I'm an honest person. If I tell you I was on the moon and you choose not to believe it, forget it."

The next time someone approaches me, I'll be better prepared. And I can hardly wait for the

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's

launch early next year. LRO will carry a powerful camera into low orbit over the Moon's surface. While its primary mission is not to photograph old Apollo landing sites, it will probably photograph them, many times, providing the first recognizable images of Apollo relics since 1972.

The spacecraft's high-resolution camera, the LROC, or Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, has a resolution of about half a meter. That means that a half-meter square on the Moon's surface would fill a single pixel in its digital images.

Apollo moon rovers are about 2 meters wide and 3 meters long. So in the LROC images, those abandoned vehicles will fill about 4 by 6 pixels.

Check out "In the Shadow of the Moon" website.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com