As NASA delays its moon landing yet AGAIN, conspiracy theories are reignited online – as one sceptic questions ‘what is NASA hiding and why?’

NASA has delayed its Artemis moon landing yet again – reigniting hundreds of conspiracy theories across social media. 

The US space agency blamed ‘technical issues’ for pushing back its planned return to the moon in 2026 until at least mid-2027. 

Sceptics, moon landing deniers, and flat Earthers rushed to social media to claim that NASA couldn’t return to the moon since it never went there in the first place.

Some asked why the US was now having such a hard time reaching our lunar satellite when this was possible multiple times in the 1960s.

Others even suggested that NASA was simply preparing to fake the Artemis mission as well. 

On X, (formerly Twitter), one commenter questioned: ‘What is NASA hiding and why?’ 

Another added: ‘All these delays lead to conclusions that moon landings by humans were an elaborate prank by both US and Russia.’

And one simply wrote: ‘NASA has never been on the moon.’

Yesterday, NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced that the Artemis moon missions would be delayed due to safety concerns about the re-entry vehicle.

Artemis II, which would have put a group of astronauts in orbit around the moon, has been delayed from September 2025 until no earlier than April 2026.

Likewise, the Artemis III moon landing has now been pushed back from 2026 until mid-2027 at the very earliest.

NASA maintains that the delay is to allow critical changes for cre safety. 

However, many on social media have reached their own conclusions.

For some conspiracy theory advocates, the new wave of delays was taken as confirmation that NASA must have faked all six of the original Apollo moon landings.

On X, one commenter wrote: ‘NASA is the greatest farce and lie in the history of the world. 

‘Fake moon landing, firmament.’

For most of the conspiracy theorists, the main reason for this belief is the fact that NASA now appears to be struggling to achieve something which was supposedly possible over 50 years ago.

In their view, NASA’s delays prove that the space agency never had the capability to conduct a moon landing in the first place.

One sceptic wrote: ‘NASA stopped making any progress the moment they lied to the world about having landed on the moon. Notice how they’ve done nothing since the hoax?’

‘I don’t really understand why we’re having such a hard time doing something that we did about 60 years ago,’ another added.

And one questioned: ‘NASA has postponed going to the moon again, do you believe we ever got there before when they can’t seem to do it now with all of the new technology?’

However, one detail which seems to divide many of the moon landing deniers is whether NASA’s Artemis mission would also be a fake.

Some more hopeful sceptics suggested that, while the Apollo missions were a hoax, NASA was now legitimately attempting a moon landing.

One commenter wrote: ‘For the 1st time in history it could be a real Moon landing with humans, this time not a fake one as 50 years ago.’

Yet some die-hard sceptics maintained that NASA still has no intention of going to the moon but would, instead, fake the Artemis landing in 2027.

A commenter wrote on X: ‘Yeah right! NASA ARTEMIS is a snore and they can’t even land on the moon because it’s all a giant hoax.’

Another added: ‘Be aware NASA is preparing to fake the Artemis mission with a lot of it based on the fraud of Apollo.’

In reality, the real reason for NASA’s delay is due to an investigation into the safety of the Orion crew capsule which will return the astronauts to Earth.

In 2022, the Artemis I mission completed an uncrewed test of the capsule, and found that the heat shield which protects the craft on re-entry had become unexpectedly charred.

Due to the immense speed of re-entry from the moon, Orion uses a method called ‘skip entry’ in which it bounces along the atmosphere boundary like a stone on water.

This helps the craft slow down from 25,000 mph (40,200 kmph) to about 325 mph (523 kmph) before the parachute unfurls but generates temperatures in excess of 2,760°C (5,000°F).

NASA’s investigation found that a material used to coat the heat shield called Avcoat failed because it did not allow enough gasses to escape as it was heated.

Avcoat is designed to partially wear away during re-entry but because it wasn’t sufficiently permeable, the pressure created by heated gasses cracked the heat shield and big chunks broke away.

Although the temperature inside Orion would have remained comfortable and safe had the crew been aboard, NASA isn’t taking any chances with its flagship mission.

These delays bring the mission closer to the original goal of 2028 which NASA had in place before then Vice President Mike Pence unexpectedly announced a new target of 2024 during Donald Trump’s first presidency.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Mr Nelson said: ‘The Artemis campaign is the most daring, technically challenging, collaborative, international endeavour humanity has ever set out to do.

‘We need to get this next test flight right. That’s how the Artemis campaign succeeds.’