The document discusses skepticism around the moon landings, with some arguing they were faked by the US government. Key evidence cited includes a waving flag seen in photos, despite the moon having no atmosphere, as well as the high quality of photos taken without viewfinders and in shadows. While experts argue vacuums allow flags to wave and cameras to capture clear images, skeptics believe the technological limitations and political pressures of the time make it plausible the landings were faked by the US to win the space race against the Soviet Union.

1. Landing on the moon Ever since astronauts first landed on the moon on July 20, 1969 there has been skepticism of whether or not we actually landed on the moon, or if it was just a government hoax. Almost everybody has an opinion on this idea and with NASA wanting to make a return to the moon and eventually Mars it has appeared again as a topic of discussion. The moon landing was designed as part of the Apollo program, which was born in the most competitive days of the space race. The space race started on October 4, 1957 when the Soviets launched the first satellite ever, Sputnik. The Cold War had just started, and America and the Soviet Union tried to top the accomplishments that the other country had made. After the Soviets launched Sputnik, America responded four months later with the launch of Explorer 1. On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth. Almost a year later, on February 20, 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth, and it was becoming clear that the U.S. was falling behind. Earlier in 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced his plans to land a human on the moon, and the U.S. realized they needed to fulfill that promise, or risk losing the space race. The fact that the U.S. was under such pressure after falling behind the Soviets in putting a man in orbit and launching a satellite are often cited as reasons why the U.S. might want to pull off a fake landing. One piece of evidence often used by people to prove the hoax is the fact that in one of the pictures, the flag appears to be waving in the wind. Skeptics say that if the moon has no atmosphere, there would be no wind, and therefore, the flag shouldn’t be waving. Experts trying to prove that the moon landings were real point out the fact that vacuums have no friction, which means that on the moon, things take longer to stop moving. The experts then go on to say, that the flag waving proves the moon landing did happen and that it’s not just a hoax. Skeptics also say that all of the pictures and video from the moon could have been easily faked. The video that was broadcast to the millions of people at home was not a direct link from the moon, but it was footage shot off of the NASA screen in Houston. The quality of the video was really low and it was hard to clearly see anything on the screen. Also, an astronaut on Apollo 14 named Allan Shepherd played golf and sliced a ball to the right, but slicing a golf ball requires air flow to change the direction of the ball, but the moon has no atmosphere. The still photos of the moon landings have also been used in the argument that the landings were faked. While the astronauts were on the moon they took hundreds of pictures. Every single picture is extremely clear and none of them are blurry. It would be almost impossible to take such clear pictures using cameras that had no viewfinder and were mounted on their chests. It would be difficult to get one clear picture, nonetheless hundreds. Also, in every single picture, the words United States and the American flag are easily seen, even if their supposed to be in the shadows. After all of the evidence is taken into consideration, it certainly is questionable whether we really did land on the moon, or if it’s just one big government conspiracy. I personally believe that we didn’t land on the moon. The United States was badly lagging in the space race, and President Kennedy had promised that we would reach the moon by end of the decade. If the United States didn’t reach the moon first, we would have lost the space race, and our reputation for being a technologically advanced nation. With so much hanging on the line, it certainly is plausible that it was faked.