I had a flat mate who was convinced that the Moon lnadings never happened. He'd clearly watched some DVD or Youtube documentary on this. I could tell because his reasoning behind this was based upon assumptions he'd never bothered to research, it relied heavily on the fact that people rarely know all the facts, it showed a very basic understanding of the circumstances surrounding the Space Race and a willingness to believe that the US is at the centre of every nefarious activity that has gone on since, well the end of the First World War.

He presented me with various ideas that he could only half remember from the convincingly deep tones of a voice over. Something about the stars being absent in the photgraphs, the foot prints, the flag and their movement on the surface. All these things can be easily explained away if one was so inclined (which he clearly wasn't), despite my best efforts.

Something he could never explain properly however: the basis for this whole thing is that the US was in a race against the Soviet Union to land a man on the moon. It all comes down to the Soviet Union.
So why was it so important to land on the moon, I ask. Well, it's to do with prestige, beating the Russians, showing the power of capitalism etc.
Right. Firstly, why did the Russians not think of this? Is it because the Americans are naturally more dishonest - that's original. Secondly, was it really that important? Did the world need to see this display of power to convince them that capitalism was better than the form of government used in the USSR? I don't think so - and frankly, the people to whom this MAY have mattered, I doubt if landing on the Moon would have mattered much to them anyway.

Another thing about the Soviet Union: if it were to be believed that the US never landed on the moon - that it was all a hoax, it was filmed in a basement somewhere and that it was a massive cover up. If none of it was real, but it made it look as if the US had beaten the USSR and now dominated Space and won over the hearts and minds of the world... if that did happen - what the HELL were the Russians up to? Did they not notice that nobody went to the moon? Did their satellites not detect the lack of an Apollo 11 rocket that escaped the Earth's atmosphere, broke into pieces, landed on the Moon while another piece orbited, rejoined again and flew back to Earth? If this was such a rat race as the theory suggests, do you not think that the Ruskies would have jumped at the slightest chance to make the US look silly? But they didn't, and the Russians actually had stuff orbitting the Earth while the Moon landing's were suppossed to have happened. They kept schtum about it.

In which case, maybe THEY were involved too...

If there's anyone who happens to find the fake moon landing story plausable, please can you explain this to me.