“The Eagle has landed.”

It was July 20, 1969, and at those four words NASA’s mission control erupted into cheers of joy. The Eagle was the name given to the lunar module that carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon, where they became the first men to set foot there in all of human history.

Pretty heady stuff. Neil Armstrong’s famous words “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” the incredible images taken on the surface of the moon and the U.S. flag that stood there so proudly have become an epic part of the human story.

If you actually believe the story, that is. Many people think the moon landing was actually faked, and there are lots of different theories swirling around this particular event in history. What really happened on that day, and who really knows the truth? Examine the theories, and draw your own conclusions about the moon landings and all the people and events who were connected to them.

These troubling conspiracy theories about the moon landing suggest something so sinister and so massive in scale, the whole of humankind would have to be tricked for it to work. Is that exactly what happened?

15. The Improbable Turnaround

If you look just at NASA history and only at NASA history, it’s really difficult to believe they managed to get a man to the moon — much less three. In 1968, Neil Armstrong almost died in a botched test of the Lunar lander. Early Apollo missions attempting to get to the moon were disastrous. But by 1969, somehow the whole program came together and three guys went all the way to the moon and back. The last person went to the moon in 1972, and no one has ever been there since.

No one else has even come close to achieving the technology it would take to get to the moon — not even Russia, who was in the Space Race with the U.S. And since technology usually moves forward and not backward, doesn’t it seem unlikely that the moon landing ever happened?

Conspiracy theorists say yes, for this and lots of other reasons.

14. Stanley Kubrick Directed It

Fans of the theory that the entire moon landing was a hoax say that the Kubrick film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” made in 1968, proves that the technology existed to create a moon-like set the very next year…and that’s just what NASA did. Theorists say the government recruited Kubrick to film the falsified moon landing. Since the only footage of the event has been provided by NASA, as no one else was present, it’s impossible to verify the authenticity of the moon landing footage through a second source. However, Stanley Kubrick’s daughter has spoken out about this very theory. Vivian Kubrick wrote an open letter on social media calling this idea a “grotesque lie” about her father.

13. The Moving Flag

The flag is a sore point for conspiracy theorists everywhere, and it’s often held up as irrefutable evidence that the moon landing was faked. Space is a vacuum, and there is no airflow. However, in the footage of the moon landing the flag appears to be waving. You know, the way it would be waving if this whole thing was filmed up in the Hollywood Hills, as some believe. NASA says that the flag was moving because astronaut Buzz Aldrin was moving it. He was adjusting the flag as he planted it on the surface of the moon, and this caused the fabric of the American flag to wave — as if in a breeze. A wire was inserted into the fabric to keep the flag stiff, which gives it the appearance of being unfurled in the wind.

12. All Landings Happened Under Nixon

All 6 moon landings occurred during the Nixon Administration, which automatically makes them seem suspect. Nixon is the country’s most disgraced President, and the only to ever resign from the position. The implications are clear: Nixon lied about Watergate, so he lied about the moon, too. But Nixon is long gone from the White House. It’s been decades since he stepped into a helicopter and retired from public service. He certainly could not have faked 6 different moon landings without help, and by now at least one of his supporters would have come forward with their story — or slipped up and told it to the wrong person. It’s hard to swallow the idea that so many people would continue to stand behind Nixon’s lies after all this time, if indeed he truly orchestrated the entire moon landing hoax.

11. Aliens Live There Now

Why hasn’t anyone gone to the moon since 1972? Say all the jazz about Congressional funding that you want. Conspiracy theorists know the truth: there are aliens there. Some people who have studied moon photographs have pointed to inconsistencies and anomalies that they believe are actually alien structures. One theory holds that the real reason the U.S. stopped sending men to walk on the moon was because a group of aliens told us to stop it under threat of violence…or full-scale annihilation.

When viewing news stories and media of the day, it does seem odd. The Space Age was all the rage in the 1960s, and everyone had eyes on the stars. Science fiction was a popular art form, “Star Trek” was inspiring dreams around the world — and the United States was sending men to the moon. Then all of a sudden, we stopped. Everything cooled in 1972, and suddenly the Space Age was essentially over. NASA’s Nuclear Research Reactor Facility was closed and in the ’80s, they sent no one into space. Unmanned vehicles were studied in the 1990s, and satellites were launched in lieu of people.

What the heck happened? Theorists say that advanced aliens drew a virtual line and told us not to cross it. If that is true, we haven’t.

10. Hollow Moon

The currently commonly-accepted theory about the moon’s existence is pretty simple. Maybe too simple? Scientists say that once upon a time, a huge object the size of the planet Mars struck the Earth. An enormous chunk of Earth broke away and got caught up in the planet’s orbit. That’s the moon. But some say that moon defies known logic, and that it can’t possibly be a natural space object. The sheer size of Earth’s moon defies all reason — it’s too big for a planet of this size. And when struck, the moon makes a ringing noise like a bell. That means, some say, that the moon is actually hollow — and not naturally made. So what’s inside? An alien civilization, perhaps?

We on Earth never see, and never will see, a significant portion of the moon while we stay on Earth. The dark side of the moon is never visible to people on Earth because of a phenomenon known as synchronous rotation. We only see 59 percent, or so, of the moon. That’s all we will ever see unless we go into space and look at the other 41 percent. This knowledge alone can inspire a dozen conspiracy theories about what might really be hiding on the moon and why it’s really there.

9. The Execution of Three Astronauts

Some say that NASA is willing to go to any lengths to protect the secret that we never landed on the moon. There are theorists who have suggested that the deaths of Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee were actually orchestrated by the U.S. government. These men were executed because they were ready to spill the beans on the whole fake moon landing plan.

A terrible fire burned through the craft before Apollo 1 ever got off the ground, killing all three astronauts trapped inside. Gus Grissom was a member of the Mercury Seven astronauts and had serious concerns about the Apollo program, concerns he voiced before his death. NASA said they discovered problems due to this accident, and fixed them.

Theorists say the three men were killed because Grissom was talking too much. In 1999, Scott Grissom suggested that his father had been murdered.

8. What’s With the Radiation?

The sun can actually kill you even if you stay on Earth. It causes skin cancer, makes you look more wrinkled and it’ll even burn out your eyeballs if you stare at it. The closer you get to the sun, the more dangerous it is. And the closer you get to the sun, the closer you get to the Van Allen belts. NASA describes them as “donuts of seething radiation that surround Earth.” And theorists say these belts are impassible and too dangerous for human beings. Had the astronauts gone to the moon, the radiation would have killed them.

NASA says this isn’t so, and that because of the short amount of time astronauts were on the moon they were exposed to very little radiation — about the same as getting an X-ray. They were protected from the worst of it with lunar shields. Theorists don’t buy it.

7. The Mysterious “C Rock”

The “C rock” has been a thorn in NASA’s side and one of the favourite arguments of moon landing conspiracy theorists. In one photo released by NASA, there is a rock sitting on the surface of the moon that very strongly appears to be marked with the letter C. This, theorists say, is irrefutable evidence that the whole darned thing is a Hollywood set. Some thoughtless stagehand turned the rock the wrong way after looking at the mark, which told the stagehand where to place the rock on set. NASA has blamed low-quality photos, shadows and even film error (a misplaced hair) on the mysterious marking.

6. Starless, Starless Skies

Obviously the moon landings were faked because there are no stars in the photos. This is a quick claim from theorists, and it’s one that NASA has quickly dismissed. They blame the sun reflecting off the surface of the moon, which everyone knows it does do, for being bright enough to block the stars. With the bright sunlight illuminating the moon as it is known to do, the stars become so dim in the background that they don’t even register. This is such a simple explanation that it’s difficult for some to believe, and many consider it further evidence that the moon landing is fake and everything we’ve been told about space is a lie.

5. The Lunar Module Looks Kinda Crappy

The famous lunar module that took two men to the moon really doesn’t look like much. This ramshackle collection of tinfoil and tape doesn’t even look as good as some of the most generic sets from the original “Star Trek” series. It’s really easy to start doubting the validity of the moon landing when you get a look at this thing. NASA defends itself by explaining that the module was designed to make just two trips in an airless, low-gravity environment, so it honestly didn’t need much of a structure. What you’ve got are Kapton and Mylar foils that protect the stuff inside from the sun’s heat, and that’s really all you need…they say.

4. Shadows and Light

Theorists studying the NASA photographs of the first successful moon landing mission, Apollo 11, say that the light and shadows just don’t match with the moon’s reality. They hold this up as irrefutable proof that the moon landing was faked with Hollywood-style special effects. The shadows go in different directions in the photos, and some objects appear to have more than one shadow. This clearly indicates that there were two light sources, which means to theorists that this is a film set and not the surface of the moon. NASA refutes this by saying that everyone is right: there are more than two light sources. The sun of course is the source of light in our near space, but don’t forget the moon itself — it reflects light to become a second source.

3. The Unheard Communication

The moon landing was televised for the world to see and watched by millions. But some say the viewers didn’t get to hear everything, even if they got to see everything from the moon landing. UFO followers say there is raw audio of the moon landing event that reveals the truth: there are aliens out there, and NASA knows it. They say that a strange series of communication took place between Buzz Aldrin and NASA headquarters. Theorists say that Aldrin said they found “visitors” on the moon, along with “installations.” They say that Aldrin reported to seeing other spacecraft. The tape in question is garbled and hard to make out, and its authenticity is impossible to verify.

2. So, The Earth is Flat

The entire moon landing, in fact the whole space program itself, was designed to propel a scientific untruth that many governments have been perpetrating for centuries: that the Earth is round. Flat Earth truthers understand that the Earth is flat, and that’s why the moon landing couldn’t happen and didn’t happen. Hundreds of people believe the Flat Earth theory, and they believe that the U.S. and Russia discovered the truth when they launched rockets into space in 1961. That’s when the Antarctic Treaty was struck and space was deemed “off limits” to everyone. NASA began faking everything at that point to maintain the belief that the Earth is round. They’re doing this as a secret money-funneling scheme. All those billions that NASA doesn’t really use go right back into other government programs.

1. Why Fake It?

The year was 1957. WWII was long over, and the makeup of the world was different with new global powers leading the way. The U.S. and the USSR were caught up in a bitter Cold War. And then, the Soviet Union achieved the impossible: they launched Sputnik, the first man-made object, into Earth’s orbit. Suddenly, the Soviet Union was the most advanced country in the world. The U.S. did not like the looks of it.

America retaliated with its own satellite, Explorer I, in 1958. President Eisenhower created NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Space Race was on. The Soviets actually started sending people into space to orbit Earth, and of course the U.S. had to try to do the same. That’s when JFK made his historic announcement in 1961: the U.S. would put a man on the moon.

Then, the U.S. supposedly did just that. It ended the Space Race and proved American dominance, which is just what America wanted to do during the Cold War. Theorists say the U.S. faked their space achievements to put fear into Russia and send a message to the world.