Fact Check: NASA Never Admitted Moon Landing Was a Hoax

In a flurry of social media activity last December, conspiracy theorists claimed that NASA had finally admitted what they had long suspected: that the agency never actually landed on the moon. The viral claim, which spread rapidly across platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, declared that “NASA just dropped the mother of all bombshells” by confessing “we didn’t go to the moon.”

The posts included a 12-minute video allegedly detailing this earth-shattering admission, along with an article that essentially transcribed the video’s content. For decades, moon landing deniers have insisted that the 1969 Apollo missions were elaborate hoaxes filmed on Earth, and this purported confession seemed to vindicate their suspicions.

However, a thorough investigation has found no evidence to support these claims. In fact, NASA has consistently maintained the authenticity of the Apollo moon landings and recently reaffirmed this position in direct response to public figures questioning the missions.

The video and article making these sensational claims notably failed to provide any concrete evidence of NASA’s supposed confession. Neither source cited when or where this “bombshell” admission occurred, nor did they include any clips, quotes, or screenshots documenting such a statement from the space agency.

A closer examination of the images used in the video’s thumbnail revealed their misleading nature. One image came from a 2013 NASA news conference on commercial space transportation initiatives, where the moon was mentioned only in the context of future exploration. The other image was even more dubious – it originated from a 2008 Swedish National Debt Office advertisement and had no connection whatsoever to NASA.

The closest recent event that could have been misinterpreted was a September 2025 news conference held by NASA’s Artemis II crew. During this event, mission commander Reid Wiseman stated, “This is the first time we’re going to send humans to the moon and [have] humans in low-Earth orbit.”

While this statement could be taken out of context, Wiseman was clearly referring to the unprecedented scenario of having astronauts traveling to the moon simultaneously with others orbiting in low-Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station. The ISS has hosted astronauts continuously since November 2000, long after the Apollo moon landings concluded in 1972.

Far from denying previous moon landings, NASA has actively defended their authenticity. On October 30, Sean Duffy, NASA’s acting administrator, directly addressed celebrity Kim Kardashian’s expressed skepticism about the moon landings in a post on X, stating unequivocally: “we’ve been to the Moon before… 6 times!”

The fabricated story originated from The People’s Voice, a rebranded version of News Punch, an outlet with a documented history of spreading misinformation. This organization has been the subject of numerous fact-checks for publishing false claims across various topics.

The persistence of moon landing conspiracy theories highlights the challenge scientific institutions face in an era of widespread misinformation. Despite overwhelming evidence supporting the reality of the Apollo missions – including thousands of photographs, hundreds of hours of video footage, 842 pounds of moon rocks analyzed by scientists worldwide, and testimony from hundreds of thousands of workers involved in the program – a small but vocal minority continues to doubt one of humanity’s greatest achievements.

NASA’s current Artemis program aims to return humans to the lunar surface by the end of the decade, building upon the legacy of the Apollo missions rather than disavowing them. These upcoming missions may provide new opportunities to address persistent misconceptions about space exploration and lunar travel.