Did We Go (Back) To The Moon? Michael Knowles Investigates Artemis II
Michael Knowles investigates NASA's Artemis II, contrasting the 1969 Apollo 11 landing with modern conspiracy theories like Bill Casing's 1979 claim of a $30 billion Soviet hoax fueled by missing stars and waving flags. After visiting Cape Canaveral and witnessing the rocket, Knowles remains skeptical of green screen allegations despite acknowledging that theorists will endlessly scrutinize footage for discrepancies. Ultimately, the episode suggests that while doubt persists online, the historical evidence supports the reality of lunar exploration, yet the debate over authenticity continues to thrive in the digital age. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories00:09:26
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NASA is going back to the moon.
Or, depending on your particular perspective, NASA is attempting to go to the moon for the first time.
As the Artemis II launches into deep space and bangs a Yui around the moon, we will take a trip down memory lunar lane and consider why we are so fascinated by Earth's favorite pet rock.
Since ancient times, man has looked up to the moon and thought, what is that?
Why is it different shapes sometimes?
And I wonder if I could get up there and walk on it.
Then, in the 1950s, American scientists and foreign communists figured out how to use rockets to explode our way into space.
We began to race the Soviets, and while they got into orbit first, we set our sights on a higher, rockier goal.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
In 1969, NASA launched Apollo 11, the first mission to put men on the moon.
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins were strapped to the top of a Saturn V rocket, then hurled toward the moon using six and a half million pounds of kerosene and liquid hydrogen fuel.
Four days and 13 hours later, Armstrong set foot on the surface.
That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
We went back five more times with Apollo 12, 14, 15, and 17.
13 had a little bit of trouble, so they didn't land, but they did get a movie out of it.
Astronauts did experiments, played golf, and a couple of times they even brought a moon buggy with them.
It was at that point that everyone looked around and thought, okay, I think we're probably good with this for a while.
Big budgets and waning public interest ultimately shut down the Apollo program.
Journeys to the moon changed from a lofty future goal to a thing of the past.
America had won the space race.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became household names.
Everyone seemed to look back fondly at the time the United States defied the odds and accomplished what man had dreamt of for millennia.
But the whole experience was so incredible that some people began to doubt that it was credible.
I believe that we didn't go to the moon.
So there was a documentary that came on on Fox.
You might not have looked into it.
I have.
No one went to the moon.
I don't think we did.
I think it was fake.
In 1979, a former naval officer named Bill Casing wrote a book subtly titled, We Never Went to the Moon America's $30 Billion Swindle.
Four years after the final Apollo mission, Casing claimed that NASA simply did not have the technology required to make it to the moon, that the entire operation was an elaborate anti Soviet propaganda hoax.
A small group of Americans began to examine the story closer and started to notice that some things seemed a little strange.
Why aren't there any stars in the photos?
Do shadows appear from multiple light sources?
Why does the flag look like it's waving when there is no air on the moon?
One theory answered all of these questions.
The landing was fake.
It was filmed in a movie studio, possibly directed by Stanley Kubrick.
The conspiracy theories percolated for years among small numbers of weirdos, mocked by polite society, which was delighted to gobble up the government slop story that they had been fed, as the doubters would have it.
The conspiracy theorists had an Apollo 8 moment of their own.
The invention of the internet.
I'm at the center of the web.
In theory, I can pull in information from any other point at the speed of light.
All of a sudden, the people asking questions about starless skies and wavy flags found an audience of millions of people eager to listen to them.
People started making whole online careers out of questioning the truth of the Apollo missions.
Why don't you swear in the Bible that you walked on the moon?
Please.
You're a coward and a liar.
and a thief.
Then some other people made careers out of debunking those people.
Then a slightly smaller group of people made still smaller careers debunking the people who were doing the debunking.
People began to take sides.
If you thought they were faked, you're an idiot.
If you thought they were real, you're a bigger idiot and probably Jewish.
Everyone claimed secret knowledge.
Esoterica abounded.
Which brings us to today.
Artemis II took astronauts to deep space.
Around the moon and back, paving the way for future manned missions to the surface.
To many, this is a grand return, a triumphant message that we still possess the skill and audacity to travel beyond this goodly frame, the Earth, into and beyond the brave oar hanging firmament, a mission that sets the stage for the future of space travel.
Others, however, will never be satisfied.
Every frame will be analyzed, every assumption questioned, every discrepancy will be evidence of another grand conspiracy.
Whoever you are, whatever you believe, everyone was waiting for this moment.
Unfortunately, NASA rejected my application to join the mission and see the evidence firsthand.
But they did invite me to come to Cape Canaveral for the launch.
I will admit, even though I am pretty Apollo-pilled, you know, I think it happened, I have gone down the internet rabbit holes.
Now, of course, the question is just, where are they going to ditch that rocket ship, you know, so that they can pretend to go to the moon and, you know, I don't know, get on a boat or something?
No, I'm joking.
I'm joking.
I think that's real.
There have been several multi-hour long blocks in which I was convinced that the whole thing was a big hoax.
I made it my duty not just to report, but to investigate.
For the benefit of all mankind, I would use my access to try to answer the truth of this supposed launch.
Hey, what's up?
What's going on?
I arrived and immediately set out to inspect the rocket up close, at which point NASA informed me that I would be stationed three and a half miles away.
Something about safety or whatever.
Suspicious?
Well, call me what you will.
Just don't call me late for dinner.
At the very least, I saw. and felt a very large rocket go very high in the air.
If anything is going to the moon, I am confident that it is that.
From my first-hand experience, I thought the case was closed.
And then I opened X. Look at this.
They're escaping.
They're inside.
I enjoyed watching it.
Michael, go touch the grass.
It looks like a green screen.
Okay, you know what?
Fine.
You know what?
Fine.
I did not intend to take any hard lines on this subject today.
This may come back to bite me.
When the truth of the universe is hopefully revealed to me after the particular judgment.
But I think that those guys and that lady and that Canadian went to the moon.
And that is very, very cool.
We're so used to the general incompetence and perfidy of our decadent, degenerate culture that we doubt that people can do important, impressive things.
It's hard to believe because it is incredible.
Some, apparently, will never be convinced.
Once we have the moon base up and running, there will be.
Twitter sleuths breaking down the doors of every movie studio, which is fine by me because Hollywood is Gomorrah by the sea.
In the meantime, though, America is going back to the moon.