From the news agency that once brought you talk of a “demon shark” comes more quality scientific reporting. On Monday, Fox News tweeted something that questions whether or not the Apollo 17 moon landing was faked.
“You be the judge: Skeptics say picture debunks moon landing,” the outlet tweeted out with a story on a new conspiracy theory.
The conspiracy theory in question — which, of course, Fox is quick to dismiss early on in the piece — involves a YouTube video that allegedly “proves” NASA’s 1972 mission to the moon is fake. The video’s uploader, whose username is Streetcap1, presents a picture they claim shows a stagehand in one of the astronaut’s visors.
In fact, about 21 seconds into the video, the uploader claims an astronaut isn’t wearing a spacesuit at all. Because reasons.
“What we appear to have here is a figure of a human not wearing a spacesuit, circa early ‘70s … Apollo 17 photograph,” Streetcap1 says in the video. “There was some dispute back in 2009 of the legitimacy of these photos.”
Fox can try and distance itself from this obviously absurd idea all it wants, but it seems Streetcap1 is loving all the newfound attention.
Screenshot via YouTube
It takes only a cursory Google search to prove Streetcap1’s idea wrong. Space writer Jason Major has already pointed out the man in the visor is very clearly LM pilot and geologist Harrison “Jack” Schmitt reflected in Commander Gene Cernan’s visor.