Astronaut Buzz Aldrin did not admit Moon landing was ‘prank’

A video of legendary Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin has racked up more than a millions views in social media posts that falsely claim it shows him admitting the 1969 Moon landing was “just a prank”. Aldrin made the comments as a joke during a 2011 comedy sketch on an American TV show.

“Edwin Buzz Aldrin admits the moon landing was just a prank,” reads Indonesian-language text overlaid on a TikTok video , uploaded on June 10, 2023.

Aldrin is the last surviving member of the Apollo 11 mission, in which he became the second person to set foot on the Moon after Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969.

“Let’s look at the photo. You say that’s me? OK. Check out the name badge,” Aldrin says in the 35-second clip, which has been viewed with more than 18,000 times.

“It says ‘Aldrin’. Looks like you’re right, but notice the helmet. Can you see my face? No. This is a secret I’ve been keeping for almost half a century. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and I pulled off humanity’s first extraterrestrial prank.”

Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on August 26, 2023

The video has garnered an additional 1.6 million views after it was shared in similar posts elsewhere on TikTok here and here, on SnackVideo here and here, and on Facebook.

However, the claim is false.

A reverse image search on Google found the original video in a YouTube post, titled: “Fan Correction: Buzz Aldrin Admits To History’s Greatest Prank | CONAN on TBS” (archived link).

It was posted by Team Coco, the official YouTube channel of American TV host Conan O’Brien, on August 14, 2013.

[embedded content]

The video was part of a segment that poked fun at fans who spotted errors on O’Brien’s now-discontinued show “Conan” on US-based broadcaster TBS (archived link).

Aldrin’s video was made in response to a fan who said that O’Brien had mistakenly identified Aldrin as the first person to walk on the moon.

In the video, Aldrin was invited to playfully defend O’Brien’s error by joking that he was actually the first man to land on the moon and not Armstrong. He said just before leaving the space flight, he had switched space suits with Armstrong as a prank.

Audiences’ laughters could be heard in the video as they listened to Aldrin’s joke.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (left) and the original video from Team Coco (right):

Screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (left) and the original video from Team Coco (right)

Aldrin also showed a crudely edited picture of his face on Armstrong’s space suit, holding a sign that says: “IT’S ME, BUZZ!”

Screenshot of photoshopped picture of Buzz Aldrin showed at Conan O’Brien’s comedy sketch

AFP previously debunked false claims surrounding the Moon landing here and here.