Did Man Reach the Moon?

First Name: Isabella
First Letter of Last Name: P
Age: 10
Question: Did man reach the moon?

Hello Isabella, and thanks for the question! A lot of people (both kids and adults!) will often look up at the moon and wonder: “Did men really walk on it?” And yes, some people actually think the moon landings were all faked. But let’s take a closer look. (Spoiler alert: Yes, we really did go to the moon!)

In 1969, three American astronauts (Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Michael Collins) flew in a giant rocket called the Saturn V as part of the Apollo 11 mission. They traveled all the way to the moon, where Neil Armstrong became the first human ever to walk on its surface. (He even left a footprint!) And no, we didn’t just go once—we landed on the moon six different times between 1969 and 1972 during the Apollo program (Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17).1

But today, some people think none of it really happened and say that the whole thing was all made up! And they believe the “moon landings” were actually filmed on some super-secret movie set. Why do they think that? Well, here are just a few of the claims that you might hear:

• The American flag looks like it’s waving in the wind.
• There are no stars in the photos from the moon.
• The shadows in the pictures aren’t all going in the same direction.

Yes, there are a lot of silly claims like these out there. But scientists and engineers have answered just about all of these, and they make perfect sense when you understand how things work in space. (You can even find simple explanations online or in books!)

And here’s the flip side: There’s plenty of real evidence that we did go to the moon! Here’s just a few:

• Astronauts brought back real moon rocks, and scientists around the world have studied them!
• They left special reflectors on the moon, and scientists still bounce lasers off of them today!
• We have actual videos, photos, and radio recordings from these moon missions!

But you know what’s even more convincing than awesome pictures from space and cool moon rocks? Honest men who were really there and told the truth about what happened. The Bible says that to know something is true, we need two or three good witnesses.2 And guess what? There were honorable Christian astronauts who walked on the moon: James Benson (“Jim”) Irwin, who flew on Apollo 15, and Charles Moss (“Charlie”) Duke, who flew on Apollo 16.

Both of these brave men love Jesus, have talked many times about what it was like to go to the moon, and have told others about how it made them praise God even more for his amazing creation.3 So if people want to say the moon landings were fake, then they’re not just accusing NASA of lying—they’re accusing these brothers in Christ of lying about one of the biggest things that ever happened to them—and that’s a very serious accusation!

The Bible warns us not to lie or say false things about others, especially about fellow Christians.4 If we say something false or accuse others of lying when they’re actually telling the truth, we’re breaking God’s commands (this is called sin). We need to be very careful with our words and try to always speak the truth with love in everything that we do.

Yes, men really did land on the moon! And this great achievement is one more example of just how smart and curious God made us so that we can explore and learn more about his universe. So we didn’t go to the moon by accident—we went there because of the countless hard-working people who used lots of science and made it happen!

So instead of believing silly conspiracy theories about that, let’s thank God for his incredible creation in the heavens—and for the brave men who walked on the moon and gave him the glory. And let’s pray we will have many more future opportunities to explore and discover more about the “lesser light” that God made on day four of creation week:

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day [the sun] and the lesser light to rule the night [the moon]—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. (Genesis 1:14–19, emphasis added)

Ask Your Question

Ask a parent to help you submit your space-related question to Rob Webb today! Don't forget to check back later to see if your question was chosen!

Footnotes

1. Apollo 13 was also supposed to land on the moon, but there was an accident in space, which forced the astronauts to turn back around. (Thankfully, they all made it back home safely!)
2. See Deuteronomy 19:15, Matthew 18:16, John 8:17, 2 Corinthians 13:1, and 1 Timothy 5:19.
3. With a parent’s help, you can see some of Charlie’s quotes and images in Dr. Danny Faulkner’s article (“Is the Earth Flat?”) located here: https://AnswersInGenesis.org/astronomy/earth/is-the-earth-flat. And you can also listen to a really great interview that Dr. Danny Faulkner and I had with him, located here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QBvHfX2v0Fg?si=IcmLw31jwFPUxi7G.
4. See Exodus 20:16, Psalm 34:13–14, Psalm 101:5–7, Proverbs 6:16–19, Proverbs 12:17–22, Proverbs 25:18, Matthew 12:36–37, James 4:11, and 1 Peter 2:1.