The Russian space agency Roscosmos has confirmed that the Apollo moon landings are real, despite persistent skepticism and conspiracy theories in Russia and the United States.
Some people still doubt the American moon landing, but the head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, Yuri Borisov, confirms the authenticity of lunar soil samples returned during the Apollo missions.
According to the expertise of our Academy of Sciences, it turned out that the lunar soil is really lunar, Borisov said during the session in the Russian parliament, emphasizing that NASA shared these samples with the USSR and other countries for verification.
In contrast, former Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin expressed skepticism, citing a lack of definitive evidence and criticism from unnamed Russian academics questioning the Apollo missions. He noted that these academics are concerned about complicating international relations and undermining the sacred collaboration with NASA.
Despite the USSR’s close monitoring of American missions, conspiracy theories have persisted since Neil Armstrong’s historic moon walk on July 21, 1969. Critics claim that the landings were staged to overtake the Soviet Union after Yuri Gagarin’s space flight on April 12, 1961.
Although many of these conspiracy theories have been debunked, polls show that between 5 and 20 percent of Americans still believe the moon landings were a hoax.
A 2020 survey by the Russian Center for Public Opinion Research (WCIOM) found that nearly 50 percent of Russians think the U.S. faked the Apollo expeditions, while only 31 percent believe American astronauts actually walked on the moon.
NASA’s Apollo program ended with Apollo 17 in December 1972, and it wasn’t until early 2024 that an American spacecraft landed on the moon again.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson hailed the event as “America’s Return to the Moon.” However, the Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface, has faced numerous delays, with the next manned mission not expected until 2026.
