Fact Check-Interview clips do not show Buzz Aldrin saying moon …

An online video combining clips from three Buzz Aldrin interviews do not show him saying the first moon landing was faked, but users are sharing the video as though Aldrin “admits” that Apollo 11 did not land on the moon.

An example of a tweet including the text “’Buzz Aldrin’ Admits the moon landing was FAKE!” can be seen (here).

The moon landing took place on July 20, 1969, with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin emerging from the Apollo 11 Lunar Module and taking the first human steps on the lunar surface. Photographs from the mission can be seen (here), , (here) , (here).

In the circulating video, however, Aldrin’s remarks are taken out of their original context and truncated to suggest he is describing the Apollo 11 mission as never having happened.

The first clip was excerpted from a Q&A with Aldrin at the Oxford Union in 2015 (see the 30:17 timestamp) (youtu.be/HV_bD3xQG9Y). When asked by an audience member what “the scariest moment of the journey” was, Aldrin responds, “Scariest? It didn’t happen. It could’ve been scary.”

Aldrin recounts looking at the floor of the lunar module, and amid the dust, “there was something that didn’t look like it belonged there,” referring to a “broken circuit breaker” (see the 33:45 timestamp).

He explains how pushing the circuit breaker with a pen sent the necessary power to an engine that ultimately helped the crew return to Earth (see the 35:48 timestamp).

The second clip shows Aldrin at the 2015 National Book Festival, where a young girl interviews him about space (see the 7:10 timestamp here). When asked why nobody has “been to the moon in such a long time,” he responds, “because we didn’t go there, and that’s the way it happened.”

The version on social media cuts off Aldrin going on to explain that “we need to know why something stopped in the past if we wanted to keep it going” (see the 7:45 timestamp). He says that money is a factor, as more money is needed for new space equipment and resources “instead of keep doing the same thing.”

The last clip shows Aldrin interviewed by Conan O’Brien in 2000, discussing animations used by broadcasters during coverage of the module landing, and TV broadcasts intercutting these animations with audio, but not video, because there was no one present on the moon’s surface to have filmed the landing itself (see the 1:29 timestamp) (here).

Reuters Fact Check has previously explained the context of Aldrin’s remarks in the Conan O’Brien interview in detail (here).

Reuters has also previously debunked claims that the moon landing was faked (here), (here), (here).

A spokesperson for Buzz Aldrin did not respond to requests for comment.

VERDICT

Misleading. The spliced clips from interviews with Buzz Aldrin do not show him saying that the 1969 moon landing was faked or didn’t happen.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts (here).