YouTube Conspiracy Theorist Alleges Apollo 17 Moon Landing Was Faked By NASA
A YouTube user claims to have evidence that NASA’s Apollo 17 moon landing was “fake,” adding to the list of conspiracy theories doubting the fact that America was responsible for putting the first men on the moon.
Three years after Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men on the moon, NASA launched the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, as astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent a shade over 22 hours on the lunar surface, while Ronald Evans stayed onboard the spacecraft and orbited the moon. This mission allowed Cernan and Schmitt to become the last men to walk on the moon, but a recent video from a YouTuber named “Streetcap1” has cast doubt on this accomplishment.
According to the Daily Mail, the video centered on a photo which allegedly shows a man described as a “stagehand” reflecting in the face visor of one of the Apollo 17 astronauts. Explaining why he sees the mission as being “fake,” Streetcap1 said that the purported stagehand was not wearing a spacesuit and was dressed in a manner that could be associated with the average young male of the early 1970s, and not the average NASA astronaut. The man was described as wearing long hair, as well as what looked to be a “waistcoat” instead of a spacesuit.
The YouTuber also referenced a “dispute” that supposedly took place in 2009, where it was also claimed that the photos from the Apollo 17 mission were fake. So far, StreetCap1’s video has gotten more than 75,000 views since it was posted on Thursday.
Conspiracy theorists claim 1972 snap from Apollo 17 mission proves the moon landing was a FAKE https://t.co/qfbB2dewb4
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) November 18, 2017
As pointed out by Mirror Online, conspiracy theorists have long contested the fact that NASA had launched missions wherein multiple astronauts were able to walk on the moon. According to these claims, America was in heated competition with Russia in the so-called “space race,” and in order to get a leg up over the Russians, NASA’s moon missions, including Apollo 11 and 17, were allegedly faked.
While there were some YouTube commenters who agreed that the man in the reflection of the astronaut’s visor could have indeed been a stagehand and that the Apollo 17 mission might have been faked, there were others who looked at the video with skepticism, offering their own explanations behind the peculiar image. One commenter, as quoted by the Daily Mail, said that the image may have been Photoshopped due to the presence of a “circular line” around the man, while another posited that the prominent shadow on the ground looks more like that of “an astronaut in a bulky suit.”
Similarly, Express.co.uk cited conspiracy theory debunker Scot Brando, who agreed that the man in a “waistcoat” was most likely another astronaut.
[Featured Image by NASA/AP Images]
