The Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta held an event over the weekend designed to answer nagging questions about whether Neil Armstrong ever walked on the moon. While the number of people who might doubt the Apollo space program is likely tiny, museum officials - and NASA -take the situation seriously enough to respond.
Andrea Waugh is an education specialist at the Armstrong Air and Space Museum. She says the so-called conspiracy theory about Armstrong's moon landing is not new but was rekindled by a program on Fox Television in 2001.
The Fox program titled "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?" aired early in 2001 and caused such a stir that NASA made a number of attempts to respond. Yet today on their website, NASA addresses "The Great Moon Hoax" with a science news program that says, "Moon rocks and common sense prove Apollo astronauts really did visit the moon."
Andrea Waugh says the Internet helps spread the word about the Moon Hoax. She says several sites raise questions about -among other things - whether it was technically possible 40 years ago for the U-S to send a rocket to the moon. and bring the astronauts safely back to earth.
Waugh is not aware of Neil Armstrong having any official response for those who question his walk on the moon. But she says, at the conclusion of the museum's Saturday exhibit, audience response was positive. W augh says, the Armstrong Air & Space Museum might repeat the program designed to disprove the notion that the U-S Apollo program was a hoax. In the meantime, she recommends reading any biographies by astronauts and others in the Apollo program or visiting NASA-dot-gov.