This was not something I thought I’d ever need to talk about, but because I had to deal with a fanatic believer of many conspiracy theories, but most specifically, that the Apollo lunar landings were faked, I had to do my duty as a good teacher of the Lord to double-check the evidence. I didn’t want to double-check something I already knew to be untrue because of my life-long experience in the sciences and mountains of evidence, but the conspiracy believer, who is also a saved Christian, very strongly said there is a ton of witness testimony and evidence that the moon landings were faked.
I asked him to give me the evidence so I could evaluate it. In the first round of analysis, every piece of what was supposed to be solid “evidence,” like images and stories from the Internet, so-called astronaut recorded confessions, podcasts, and such were not from credible people, but were sources that followed the same pattern I’ve seen for many years in people who spread spiritual false teachings – they talk very confidently a whole lot about what they think they know and have analyzed, but in the end, their logic, analysis, and potential evidence, falls short of being real proof because it ends up proven untrue or only misconstrued partial truth. I talked about this in
How much can we trust Trump, His Loyalists, Elon Musk, and other Conspiracists? and
Ministry Warnings.
Examples I found in moon landing conspiracies include how Buzz Aldrin, one of the first men on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, supposedly confessed to studio fakery of the landing during an interview on Conan O’Brien. However, closer examination of the interview shows Aldrin did not confess any fakery, but conspiracists only took a few sentences out of context and shared it as proof of a confession. To date, I have not seen any credible witness testimony saying the moon landings were fake. At least, not until I looked at the work of Bart Sibrel, who the conspiracist said had the most knowledge about the faked landings.
I never heard of Sibrel, but according to his YouTube channel, he is an award winning filmmaker with decades of experience[1.1]. He seems to be known for his moon landing conspiracy documentaries, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon” (2001) and “Astronauts Gone Wild: An Investigation Into the Authenticity of the Moon Landings” (2004). I could not get free access to see his moon documentaries, so I went to his YouTube channel to look for relevant content.
After watching a few videos about his proof that the lunar landings were faked, I could see why the conspiracist I dealt with and so many others are so very fervent in believing the Apollo landings were faked. Some things really do appear to be common sense, logical proof, but the best evidence wasn’t in the long 47 minute video titled “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon - MM2”[1.2], which might be the same documentary Sibrel is known for. I found it to be full of over-presumption (jumping to bad conclusions and forcing interpretations from his own opinions) and completely insufficient proof of what he was saying was real evidence - that the astronauts were faking things, such as saying there was a “3rd Party” “CIA agent" in the audio with the astronauts telling them how to keep to a script.
Sibrel said that evidence was from an hour of film footage he got from NASA showing how the astronauts were clearly trying to take photos, talking, and conducting the mission to trick people into thinking they were half way to the moon, when Sibrel said they were only in low earth orbit of maybe 100 miles. However, he only showed one audio clip consisting of one word (a prompt to “Talk”) that may or may not have been a 3rd Party. It could have easily been one of the astronauts. We can’t tell because Sibrel did not show much else of the so-called damning film. Official audio from NASA of the same footage does not include the small audio saying, "Talk," in between NASA on the ground and the astronauts, so without anything more, it is reasonable to think that Sibrel added the clip or had falsified footage.
Sibrel's over presumptuous assumptions, which were obvious throughout the documentary, speaks very badly for his credibility. He described scenes as evidence of fakery when I did not see anything suspicious, and what might be suspicious is easily explained with logical possibilities, like Sibrel claimed the astronauts used a mask on the window to make the earth look like it was farther away at different times of day. However, what he thought was a mask was likely just a piece of equipment in the cabin or something on the space suits that passed over the window. Again, we can’t tell because the so-called “evidence” only amounted to a flash second, when he said there was an hour of film and proof of fakery, but he only shared a few minutes. Where is the rest of the damning evidence? If Sibrel was truly completely honest about proving that the Apollo missions were faked and did not have ulterior motives, I'd expect him to share the complete footage he said he got from NASA.
Then, when the camera adjusted to the light after that flash second showing a supposed mask to trick people, Sibrel notes how bright the earth looks in the window and says it fills the view. Proof again the astronauts were in low earth orbit. However, I know how cameras work. The exposure settings can completely wash out bright areas in order to keep dark areas visible. The bright light filling the window was no proof that they were in low orbit because there was no detail. We could only see a few streaks in the bright light. That should be expected because of the camera’s exposure settings, though, because that is simply how cameras work. A filmmaker like Sibrel should have that as a reasonable explanation in mind when a window in a dark cabin is blown up with light, but instead, Sibrel just pitches his low Earth orbit theory.
Sibrel also states that no human could go through the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding the earth and references very old documentary snippets from the 1950’s of how much radiation there is. He even presumes the Apollo capsule would need to have a thick lining of lead to protect the astronauts, when it was only aluminum. This is another instance of over-presumption that speaks for his lack of knowledge and simply jumping to conclusions. He doesn’t really know how much protection astronauts need in space and assumes that the radiation belt data is definite and unchanging. The reality is, the radiation in the Van Allen belts very much depends on what is coming out of the sun at the time, which changes dramatically all the time.
Despite all the problems I saw in Sibrel’s work, I did find two things that appeared to be credible evidence, maybe even undisputable, that the Apollo landings were faked. One was that he shared NASA photos from the Apollo missions where shadows were not parallel, but going towards each other (screen shots below). Sibrel argued it was definitive proof that the photos was taken in a studio with two different light sources because the sun would only make parallel shadows, all going in the same direction.


As someone well versed in how light generally works (in physics and the graphic arts), I knew Sibrel was correct. Shadows from one very far away source, like the sun, should only go in one direction. That’s what we see every day when the sun casts shadows. However, debunking articles noted that nonparallel shadows are normal when the sun is very low on the horizon. I thought that could be true but was something I never noticed, so to test the theory, I turned to 3D animation software that simulates real world physics and used a scene similar to one Sibrel pointed out (above), a long shadow from a standing object (I used a pole in my example) next to small shadows created by rocks on the ground (I used one round object in my example).
As you can see by the image I created below, it was not hard to recreate the nonparallel shadows shown in Sibrel’s irrefutable evidence. You can see the shadows are not parallel, but move toward each other which happened when a sun-like light source is put low on the horizon. So it’s true, nonparallel shadows are nothing unusual.

But then I saw one more piece of evidence that appeared credible. Sibrel shared a recorded deathbed confession from a man named, Gene (Eugene Ruben Akers), from April 12, 2020[1.3]. In the confession he shared a deathbed confession from his father, Cyrus Eugene Akers, in 2002. Cyrus was an MP (military police soldier) at Cannon Air Force Base near Clovis, New Mexico, and Gene tells the story he got from his father about how there was a “Project Slam Dunk” that used two hangers filled with sand and stone covered with cement powder so they could be used as studios to replicate the lunar landscape. Cyrus was one of three guards stationed inside at the front entrance, presumably for the hangers. They were ordered by President Lyndon Johnson to not let anyone but the Project staff come in. Johnson was there on the first day out of three days of filming from June 1 to 3, 1968 (about 13 months before Apollo 11 launched).
Cyrus also said the Apollo lunar lander was assembled for use there in the hangers and he was sworn to secrecy or risked imprisonment in Gene’s words (Sibrel says Cyrus was threatened with execution in his video description).
A year later, when Cyrus saw the Apollo 11 broadcast on TV, he cried in disbelief, knowing what he saw on TV was exactly what they filmed in the hangers. Gene, who remembered seeing the Apollo landings on TV when he was a teen, was skeptical about his father’s confession at first, but he verified that President Johnson and the Apollo astronauts, and lander were at Cannon Air Force Base on the dates his father specified. Gene also said his home was broken into after he contacted Sibrel to share his father’s confession, and he was threatened by men in black suits who said he and his family could “disappear” if he didn’t drop this project with Sibrel. So Gene was too afraid to work anymore with Sibrel, but secretly arranged to have his recorded confession sent to Sibrel after he died.
When I saw Gene’s confession, I judged it as sincere and very likely he and his father were telling the truth. Gene noted how his family was raised “by the book” or by the Bible, so how do you reconcile a credible testimony like this with everything, which ended up being uncredible and no proof at all? And why would “men in black suits” threaten Gene as well as Sibrel, which he’s publicly talked about?
Because of Sibrel’s character of arrogant over presumption, it’s easy to just say Gene and Sibrel worked together to fabricate the whole story including the CIA black suits. It adds credibility for conspiracists who love government cover-up theories. Gene’s confession came many years after Sibrel made his first conspiracy film, so Gene could just be a good actor working with Sibrel to depict a sincere believer. However, conspiracists are adamant there are other testimonies like Gene’s, though I have not seen any other credible confessions.
On YouTube, Sibrel says Buzz Aldrin made a drunken confession to someone that they faked the Apollo landings, but Sibrel only shares the testimony with a paid subscription so I could not evaluate it[1.7]. Judging Sibrel’s work so far, though, as completely insufficient proof and his character as being uncredible, I would have to dismiss this supposed Aldrin confession, though there can be a good reason it is true. Aldrin likely did conduct mission simulations or enactments at Cannon Air Force Base, but being extremely drunk as the witness said he was, how reliable is that testimony? Aldrin could have misspoke what happened, which in turn, the person who Sibrel got the testimony from could have completely misunderstood things.
Gene’s confession, though, I did see and will have to give benefit of doubt, and say that his father did witness Apollo mission recreations at Cannon Air Force Base and he did believe what he saw a year later on TV was what they filmed in the hangers. He probably did truly believe they only showed studio-only footage on the Apollo broadcasts, but I have to question how much he actually saw in the hangers and how much it actually conformed to what was shown on TV. It was over one year after the hanger filming which lasted only 3 days, and he was supposed to be guarding the entrance, after all, and not watching whatever was happening in the hangers, of which there were two, so I doubt he could see and hear everything going on in both hangers at his guard point.
I’m certain what he saw on TV was similar to what he noticed in the hangers. It is also reasonable that the Apollo mission would conduct training that exactly simulated the missions in studios set-up to be like the moon. That’s simply a part of mission training, so obviously anything Cyrus saw on TV should look similar. But Cyrus noted extra drama in the lunar landing matched the live broadcast. How can that be explained? Why the secrecy? And what about the black suits? Why should there be need of any kind of cover-up?
Maybe they didn’t want anyone to misunderstand their detailed training for fakery. Any kind of bad press would not be good for the Apollo program, especially when national reputation was on the line in competition with Russia.
Or a line of thought shared in a movie put out in 2024, “Fly Me To The Moon,” suggests NASA worked with Hollywood to make a “failsafe” plan in case Apollo 11 couldn’t make it to the moon[1.4]. They could use the footage if there were bad mission failures and save the nation’s reputation.
Or more likely, they filmed recreations and used BOTH live Apollo mission footage along with pre-recordings that Cyrus saw, especially the dramatic landing because they wanted to capture the world’s audience. Faking just some of the mission would be a reason to keep things Top Secret.
Whatever the reasons they would have filmed a mock-up of Apollo 11, the matter was classified as Top Secret for the sake of the nation’s reputation, and so black suits would be ordered to enforce secrecy. Possibly. It does not make much sense to me to have the government try and shut the mouths of people saying the moon landings were faked, especially decades afterwards, when there is so much better evidence that they happened, like the thousands of people who worked on the moon missions, as well as, 3rd Party corroboration showing the truth, which God guided me to check for.
What would that be? I knew other nations had their own moon missions and lunar obiters that took pictures of the surface of the moon. I already knew NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took photos of Apollo landing sites, but NASA would have interest in backing up their own story, so we need to find evidence from a separate party. I didn’t find any Apollo landing photos from the Russian, Chinese, European, or South Korean space agencies, and was going to give up on looking, but the Lord moved me to keep checking.
I then found that India’s Chandrayaan II Moon Orbiter had photos of at least two of the Apollo landing sites that were taken in 2021. However, the post I found was simply some images posted by a “backyardastronomyguy” (Marty McGuire) that needed to be verified (below)[1.5]. If authentic, they were good 3rd Party proofs. The Apollo 12 site shot even had the astronauts’ footprint trails visible.
Verifying authenticity could be hard, but thank the Lord, he gave me exactly what I needed because the post included a link to McGuire's page giving complete details of how he got the images directly from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)[1.6]. I went through the steps of getting an account with the ISRO website so I could download the Chandrayaan II lunar orbiter data. After I downloaded the proper files, which were the raw data files from the Chandrayaan II satellite photographs of two areas of the moon on two different days, I looked at the images.
It took quite a while because the files need a special app to display, since they are not plain, standard image files. Raw image data from modern satellites is gigantic and has much more than photo data, which is why they cannot be saved in standard image files, like jpg and png. Each Chandrayaan snapshot covers an area of 12 km long by 3 km wide (7.45 x 1.86 miles) using a resolution of 78,175 x 12,000 pixels[1.6], so the files are huge and the free app I used to view them was inefficient. Even with a high-end computer, it took a long time just to zoom and pan the images to the correct coordinates that McGuire shared for the landing sites, about an hour for both image files.
But when I got to the coordinates, I was satisfied to find the Apollo 11 and 12 landings sites where McGuire said they were. Considering how huge each satellite scan is, how many images there are, and how slow it is to go through the images, it must have taken McGuire quite a long time to find the landers, though, as an amateur astronomer, I’m sure he had a good idea where to look and in which files. My screen snapshots of the sites are below with added text labels and the landers circled.


The Apollo 11 and 12 landers are clearly visible in the satellite photos. And furthermore, I will share zoomed in screenshots and also share a NASA Apollo 12 photo showing the lander, astronaut Charles Conrad Jr., and Surveyor craft to compare with the Chandrayaan II photo of the landing site (below). You can see NASA’s photo (second photo) shows Conrad Jr. and Surveyor inside a large crater with the Apollo 12 lander in the background on the top ridge of the crater. This matches their positions in the top-down view of the Chandrayaan photo (3rd photo with arrows pointing to lander and Surveyor; Note, my zoomed in photo focuses on the crater area so the most visible footprint trails leading to the top left from the lander in McGuire’s image are not visible).



Everything matches as it should and I got the images directly from India’s space agency and not someone who could have simply Photoshopped some images and posted them, like too many images of “proof” that conspiracists use. Unless you can prove McGuire is an insider at India’s space program or maybe even a hacker that changed their data, most people would consider this extra proof from a non-NASA entity and from a different country enough to prove the Apollo missions were successful, not to mention all the other evidence and testimonies that they were authentic. I’m also sure the Chandrayaan II orbiter has photos of other Apollo mission sites as well. Someone just needs to take the time to find them in the huge amount of satellite data.
I thought 3rd Party proof might make the fervent conspiracist I talked to think a little more about what he believed, but when I shared what I found with the Chandrayaan II data, he only got enraged and said, “You can’t trust any scientists! Anybody could fake moon images!” And so that ended my discussion with this person. It is regretful that people will use conspiracy excuses to reject any and every valid piece of truth and evidence that contradicts what they believe, but that is the reaction I’ve come to expect from those who are brainwashed by false beliefs and false teachings.
Truly, spreading lies of any kind, not just spiritual teachings is accursed as Apostle Paul said (Galatians 1:8-9). It is something the Lord has shown me again and again through decades of ministry searching throughout the fields of God’s people. Their beliefs in lies truly have them chained by the devil to do his will, just as Paul said in 2 Timothy 2 (2 Timothy 2:24-26), so heed that Satan, the Father of lies (John 8:44) holds power in them and the people who believe them. A sorrowful truth that unfortunately, brainwashed conspiracist believers use themselves to try to rebuke those who try to correct them with the actual truth.
I share all this with you so that perhaps you may come out of the devil’s grip of whatever falsehoods you hold on to. Committing too far into lies will have you cursed
(see more about how lies and false teachings brainwash believers in Light Within), so I remind to not rashly jump to conclusions about what you think is true or fact, but instead maintain all temperance, objectiveness, and righteous judgment, and try to understand that things are often not as they may seem. May the chains of lies and darkness be broken from you in the name of Mashiach Yeshua. Amen.
And as I urged in
the last update for God's Alarm, I will say to stop all false preaching and spreading of conspiracies, like faked lunar landings. What good are you really doing with it and all these much disproven things? Focus instead on saving souls by Christ and the New Covenant and helping those in need of help. It is not good to keep to the path of false teachers, and spreading lies really harms you and those you love. It does little good if conspiracists truly have proof of atrocities, like child abuse and trafficking, as they say, but then all they do is talk of it.
If it is good and true evidence, why aren't they acting to use it and put the people behind bars? If it is true evidence of great harm against another and you do nothing to truly stop it, then you also break God's commands saying to love your neighbor and not stand idle as they come to great harm (Leviticus/Vayikra 19:16, 19:18; Matthew 19:19, 22:39, 5:43-44; Mark 12:31-33; Luke 10:27; Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:13-14; James 2:8).
References
[1.1] Bart Sibrel. "Bart Sibrel". YouTube.com. Retrieved 2025 Jan. 28.
<https://www.youtube.com/@BartSibrel1/videos>
[1.2] Bart Sibrel. "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon - MM2". YouTube.com. Retrieved 2025 Jan. 28.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xciCJfbTvE4>
[1.3] Eugene Ruben Akers. "Moon Landing Fraud - Deathbed Confession - MM16". YouTube.com. Retrieved 2025 Jan. 28.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu5Z75ji3aU>
[1.4] Jeff Spry. "Is there a 'true' story behind the fake Apollo moon landing in 'Fly Me to the Moon?'". 2024 Jul. 20. Retrieved 2025 Jan. 28.
<https://www.space.com/fly-me-to-the-moon-fake-moon-landing-true-story>
[1.5] Marty McGuire. "ISRO Chandrayaan2’s photos of Apollo 11 & 12 landing sites". Reddit. 2024 Jan. 28. Retrieved 2025 Jan. 28.
<https://www.reddit.com/r/ISRO/comments/167hcnz/isro_chandrayaan2s_photos_of_apollo_11_12_landing/?rdt=41713>
[1.6] Marty McGuire. "".
<https://www.backyardastronomyguy.com/apollo-isro>
[1.7] Bart Sibrel. "Buzz told this man the moon landing truth". YouTube.com. Retrieved 2025 Jan. 28.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aspFuy9i8Hw>