Fact Check

Buzz Aldrin Admits Apollo 11 Moon Landings Were Fake

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin admitted the Apollo 11 moon landing was staged on a movie set?

Published Nov. 9, 2014

Claim:

Claim: Astronaut Buzz Aldrin admitted the Apollo 11 moon landing was staged on a movie set.


FALSE


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, November 2014]


Is it true that Buzz Aldrin admitted the Apollo 11 moon landing was fake? Sounds unlikely...

 

Origins:   In November 2014, the Huzlers web site published an article recycling the old conspiracy theory that the moon landings were fake events staged on movie sets, claiming Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin had recently admitted to such:



It is being reported that the Apollo 11 missions, which landed men for the first time on the moon, was in fact fake.

One of the astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, confirmed that the Apollo 11 missions were "fake" and that the videos of the mission are simply showing a setup that was created to simulate how the moon and space would look. "Apollo 11 was not real, none of it was" Buzz Aldrin said in a video he recorded confessing to the Apollo 11 hoax, "I am ashamed to say this but I cannot hide it anymore, it was a setup, like the ones they use in Hollywood films, back in the 60's, the U.S. was competing with the Soviet Union to achieve space flight supremacy, which was known as the "space race". We were afraid the Soviets would beat us to the moon so we decided to fake the moon landings of Apollo 11 to say we were greater than the Soviets" concluded Buzz.


Shortly thereafter links and excerpts referencing this article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered the item mistaking it for a genuine news report. However, that article was just a spoof from Huzlers, a web site that offers users the ability to "Create your own news prank and trick your friends by sharing it" and has a history of publishing fabricated news stories (such as one about pop star Justin Bieber's admitting to being bisexual and one about the 2014 Super Bowl being rigged). The Huzlers site also carries a disclaimer on its pages noting that "Huzlers.com is a combination of real shocking news and satire news to keep its visitors in a state of disbelief."

Last updated:   9 November 2014

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.