False: A photo of Wernher Von Braun on the moon proves the moon landing was fake.

Context

A Facebook post with over 18,000 views shared various misleading and conspiratorial photos about NASA and the moon landing. One photo allegedly shows Wernher Von Braun walking on the moon and has the caption, "Nothing to see here, just Wernher Von Braun walking on the moon." The photo implies that the moon landing was fake.

In Fact

The photo of Von Braun has been misrepresented and is not evidence that the 1969 moon landing was fake. A reverse image search found the photo with captions linking to the newspaper United Press International (UPI). The caption above the photo states, "Dr. Von Braun strolled through an exact replica of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission after officially opening the exhibition at Atlanta's South Eastern Fair." This was also confirmed in a fact check by Snopes in 2020, which stated that the photo was taken at Atlanta's Southeastern fair and dated September 1969, while the moon landing occurred in July of the same year. There is no evidence this photo depicts the actual moon landing or proves that the moon landing was filmed on a set.

Another photo in the Facebook post shows Von Braun's grave and attributes the psalm on the headstone to a confession that the Earth is flat because it mentions the "Firmament." In the Flat Earth Theory, a common belief is that the Earth is surrounded by a dome or firmament, which would prevent space flight. However, there is no evidence to support this, and there is substantial evidence of spacecraft and satellites being launched into space. There is also no evidence the psalm is a secret confession.

According to NASA, Von Braun is a controversial figure; before joining NASA, he was a member of the Nazi party and an SS officer who helped develop German missiles. However, after the war, he eventually became the director of the Marshall Space Flight Centre and worked on projects that helped create rockets for space flight. Nothing suggests he was involved in a conspiracy to fake the moon landing, or that he believed the Earth was flat.

As mentioned in a 2019 Vox article, the moon landing conspiracies started with a self-published book in 1976 by Bill Kaysing – widely considered the father of moon landing hoax theories – titled "We Never Went to the Moon." Moon landing conspiracies have continued to gain widespread traction over the decades. A common claim is that the moon landing was staged on a film set, and this claim connects to other known conspiracy theories. For example, New World Order conspiracies allege it was faked by nefarious secret societies, and the Flat Earth Theory claims it was faked to cover up that the Earth was flat. Logically has previously found the claim that the moon landing was staged in Hollywood to be false.

The Verdict

The photo of Von Braun does not prove that the moon landing was faked. The photo was taken at a moon landing replica in Atlanta's Southeastern fair in September 1969. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.