Every big event, like the recent launch of the Artemis II spacecraft for a trip around the Moon, brings out some of the predictable kooks to claim the whole thing is faked. It happened with the Apollo landings, and the attempts to reveal those as fake are still going on - and they aren't fake. There are even people out there still claiming the Earth is flat, which is just about as credible as claiming the Apollo landings were faked. Some of these people are looking for attention, some of them are on social media engagement farming, and some are likely just daffy.
Now, it's Artemis II's turn. The launch was not, of course, faked. It's very real. Here's why, and I'm going to tell you.
First: Millions of people watched the launch live. Thousands were there, seeing it first-hand. Their accounts are all over, and it's not likely that whoever would be behind any such massive conspiracy would hire or otherwise convince thousands of real-life observers to make something up about the launch. And not all the observers were on the ground; satellites caught images of Artemis's exhaust plume.
Daytime satellite view of Artemis II’s moon mission launch off Florida’s Space Coast shows the bright exhaust plume spreading east over the Atlantic from near Cape Canaveral. Incredible look from above at a historic mission. pic.twitter.com/LdEo0BHbrM
— Texas Storm Chasers ⚡ (@TxStormChasers) April 1, 2026
Airline passengers also spotted the exhaust plume. And, they took photos.
Passengers on a commercial flight captured the launch of Artemis II on camera
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 2, 2026
The plane happened to pass near the launch trajectory at the exact moment of liftoff, giving passengers a rare view of the rocket launch right from their windows.pic.twitter.com/8Bewtm8aFg
One podcaster, watching the launch, actually went to some lengths to prove he wasn't standing in front of a green screen.
Conservative podcast host broadcasting from the Artemis II launch in Florida took a moment to show wacko conspiracy theorists that he really was on-site for the historic moment.
“Go touch the grass, it looks like a greenscreen,” streamer Michael Knowles said Wednesday while reading a viewer’s comment.
“Fine, you know what fine!” he said. “I need to prove to you that this is real!”
Knowles then took of his microphone and headphones and left his streaming stage for the lawn behind him.
A viewer demanded I touch the grass behind me to prove it wasn’t CGI on a green screen. pic.twitter.com/XRDJhluMBY
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) April 2, 2026
Props to Mr. Knowles for going the extra mile; personally, I would have ignored the demand.
Read More: Breaking: NASA's Artemis II Rocket Blasts Off for Inspiring Moonshot
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Second, there are thousands, probably tens of thousands of people involved with this mission. Setting up a fake convincing enough to fool the entire planet would likewise involve thousands of people. Any one of these people could assemble some proof of shenanigans and take it to the media, ensuring themselves everlasting fame and fortune. None did. Nobody showed up on Joe Rogan's podcast, or on The View, or on any legacy media or any other outlet. Did the people behind the fake pay all these thousands of people off? Are they brainwashed? Or, as Occam's Razor would suggest, the whole thing, the Artemis II launch, really happened?
These conspiracy theories manage to evade any semblance of logic. They did so on the matter of the Apollo landings, and they are doing so again here.
Of course, an event like this, something huge, something impressive, something that makes us proud to be American, brings all the real kooks to the yard. But this one may be my favorite.
This picture from Artemis II is about as real as the moon landing.
— Jesus Loves You ✞ (@Jesus365x) April 3, 2026
Well, sure. The moon landings - there were more than one - were real. And guess what? You can find photos, taken recently, of what was left behind on the Moon by the Apollo missions.
India's Chandrayaan-2 orbiter did what many thought impossible: it photographed NASA's Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 landing sites from 100 km above the Moon.
— Dreams N Science (@dreamsNscience) March 31, 2026
Top: Apollo 11 (Tranquility Base) – the descent stage still sitting where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in 1969.… pic.twitter.com/o0qQocrXgF
Is India in on the conspiracy? How did NASA pull that off?
But then, not all the kooks are denying that, say, the Apollo missions didn't happen - just that they didn't matter, because white men.
Sky News Reporter says that the Apollo missions to the Moon didn't represent humanity because "Apollo was all white men..."pic.twitter.com/xuvLEeWFOu
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 2, 2026
Well, who didn't see that one coming?
There are always people who, for whatever reason, will try to cast doubt on a great event - or a horrible event. My advice? Don't let it distract from the great thing America is doing right now. (Oh, I know, I know, they took along a token Canadian. So what? It's a NASA mission.) We're going back to the moon. This is the first step, a sort of proof of concept. And, yes, we've been there before. We're the only ones who have been there before. Because America.
