NASA Quits Moonlanding Hoax Book

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Nasa pulls Moon hoax book

Apollo crew, Nasa

Not heroes but actors, claim the theorists

By Dr David Whitehouse

BBC News Online science editor

The US space agency (Nasa) has cancelled the book intended to

challenge the conspiracy theorists who claim the Moon landings were a

hoax.

 

Nasa declined to comment specifically on the reasons for dropping the

publication, but it is understood the decision resulted from the bad

publicity that followed the announcement of the project.

 

Criticism that Nasa was displaying poor judgement and a lack of

confidence in commissioning the book caused it to abort the project,

agency spokesman Bob Jacobs said.

 

Astronaut on moonwalk, Nasa

Oberg will still write the book

Nasa had hired aerospace writer Jim Oberg for the job on a fee of $15,000.

 

He says he will still do the work, although it will now be an

unofficial publication with alternative funding.

 

The book will deliver a point-by-point rebuttal of the theory that the

Apollo landings were faked in a movie studio, to convince the world

that the US had beaten the Soviets to the Moon.

 

It will attempt to explain why in still and video footage of the

landings, no stars can be seen in the Moon sky, why a flag appears to

ripple on the atmosphere-free satellite and why shadows fall in

strange directions - all "facts", conspiracy theorists say, point to a

hoax.

 

Some commentators had said that in making the Oberg book an official

Nasa publication, the agency was actually giving a certain credibility

to the hoax theory.

 

(Or NASA realized the folly of hoaxing evidence to hide the

moonlanding hoax)