A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon
Encyclopedia
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon is a 2001 documentary written, produced, and directed by Nashville, Tennessee
-based filmmaker and investigative journalist Bart Winfield Sibrel
. Sibrel is a critic of the United States
space program and proponent of the theory that the six Apollo lunar landing missions between 1969 and 1972 were hoaxes perpetrated by the US Government. The name was taken from a 1966 book of humorous anecdotes by people involved in the space program.
s and the launch of the Saturn V
rockets.
Bart Sibrel claims that NASA perpetrated a fraud, because of the perception that if the United States could put a man on the moon before the Soviet Union
did it would be a major victory in the Cold War
, since the Soviets had been the first to achieve a successful space launch (Sputnik in 1957), the first manned space flight (Vostok 1
in 1961), and the first spacewalk (Voskhod 2
in 1965).
Bart Sibrel also claims that the life-threatening events that occurred during the Apollo 13
mission were actually manufactured by the government to force people to pay attention to the space program. He suggests that this is proven by the claim that a number of viewers called the television
networks complaining that coverage of the second lunar mission, Apollo 12
, was interrupting repeats of the I Love Lucy
program, saying: "it became clear that for the taxpayers, once was enough".
The 47-minute documentary primarily focuses on the Van Allen belts, areas of intense radiation circling the Earth
, as a major reason that Sibrel believes it was impossible for a manned spacecraft to land on the moon. Bart Sibrel also presents what he claims is official NASA footage, shot over the course of three days, that was not meant for public release. In this footage, the crew of Apollo 11
: Neil Armstrong
, Michael Collins
and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin
are, according to Sibrel, staging part of their mission to make it appear that they were 130,000 miles from Earth. The illusion was allegedly perpetrated thus: a color camera was placed at the rear of the capsule, anything that could produce light was deactivated, and an insert was placed on the window to create a false terminator
. Sibrel's allegation here is that it took three days for the astronauts to perfect their filming techniques rather than travel to the moon. Moreover, he contends that there is "Earthshine" clearly visible in the window after the lights were turned back on and that this proves that Apollo 11 was in low Earth orbit.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon also examines the still photographs and points out what it claims are anomalies, such as non-parallel shadows, to support the assertion that multiple artificial lighting sources were used; sped-up video footage of the astronauts walking on the lunar surface and lunar rovers driving on the surface are also used to advance the theory they were actually filmed on Earth and slowed down to simulate the moon's lower gravity. The lack of visible stars is another point stressed by Bart Sibrel.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon was narrated by a British
stage actress named Anne Tonelson. Bart Sibrel himself makes no appearance in the film. He does appear prominently in the similarly toned Fox Television Network special, Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?
Bart Sibrel also alleges that the "Star Wars
" Strategic Defense Initiative
was far simpler than the government claimed it was, and that tests were artificially manipulated to, according to the Government Accountability Office
, fool the Soviets about U.S. military readiness.
film is that the claim that video views of Earth
were actually filmed through a small hole to give the impression that Apollo 11
was not in low earth orbit. "Bart has misinterpreted things that are immediately obvious to anyone who has extensively read Apollo history and documentation or anyone who has ever been inside an Apollo Command Module
or accurate mockup," says McDade.
Sibrel has also gained some national exposure as an astronaut stalker. In one infamous incident Sibrel asked Buzz Aldrin
to put his hand on a Bible and swear that he walked on the moon and when Aldrin refused, Sibrel called Aldrin a coward, liar and thief, spurring Aldrin to punch Sibrel in the jaw.
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
-based filmmaker and investigative journalist Bart Winfield Sibrel
Bart Sibrel
Bart Winfield Sibrel is a Nashville, Tennessee-based filmmaker who advances the conspiracy theory that the six Apollo Moon landings between 1969 and 1972 were hoaxes. He has filmed two documentaries on the subject: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon and Astronauts Gone Wild.-Dealings...
. Sibrel is a critic of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
space program and proponent of the theory that the six Apollo lunar landing missions between 1969 and 1972 were hoaxes perpetrated by the US Government. The name was taken from a 1966 book of humorous anecdotes by people involved in the space program.
Overview
Sibrel believes that there were numerous insurmountable scientific and technical problems which made it improbable that men could land on the moon and return to Earth safely. Further, he believes that certain anomalies and inconsistencies in NASA's records of the landings point to a hoax, and that the space race was actually a race to develop armaments, citing a 95 percent similarity between the technologies that allowed the launch of intercontinental ballistic missileIntercontinental ballistic missile
An intercontinental ballistic missile is a ballistic missile with a long range typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery...
s and the launch of the Saturn V
Saturn V
The Saturn V was an American human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs from 1967 until 1973. A multistage liquid-fueled launch vehicle, NASA launched 13 Saturn Vs from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida with no loss of crew or payload...
rockets.
Bart Sibrel claims that NASA perpetrated a fraud, because of the perception that if the United States could put a man on the moon before the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
did it would be a major victory in the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, since the Soviets had been the first to achieve a successful space launch (Sputnik in 1957), the first manned space flight (Vostok 1
Vostok 1
Vostok 1 was the first spaceflight in the Vostok program and the first human spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961. The flight took Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut from the Soviet Union, into space. The flight marked the first time that a human entered outer...
in 1961), and the first spacewalk (Voskhod 2
Voskhod 2
Voskhod 2 was a Soviet manned space mission in March 1965. Vostok-based Voskhod 3KD spacecraft with two crew members on board, Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov, was equipped with an inflatable airlock...
in 1965).
Bart Sibrel also claims that the life-threatening events that occurred during the Apollo 13
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...
mission were actually manufactured by the government to force people to pay attention to the space program. He suggests that this is proven by the claim that a number of viewers called the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
networks complaining that coverage of the second lunar mission, Apollo 12
Apollo 12
Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight in the American Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon . It was launched on November 14, 1969 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11. Mission commander Charles "Pete" Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L...
, was interrupting repeats of the I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
program, saying: "it became clear that for the taxpayers, once was enough".
The 47-minute documentary primarily focuses on the Van Allen belts, areas of intense radiation circling the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, as a major reason that Sibrel believes it was impossible for a manned spacecraft to land on the moon. Bart Sibrel also presents what he claims is official NASA footage, shot over the course of three days, that was not meant for public release. In this footage, the crew of Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
: Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....
, Michael Collins
Michael Collins (astronaut)
Michael Collins is a former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was Gemini 10, in which he and command pilot John Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and Collins...
and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history...
are, according to Sibrel, staging part of their mission to make it appear that they were 130,000 miles from Earth. The illusion was allegedly perpetrated thus: a color camera was placed at the rear of the capsule, anything that could produce light was deactivated, and an insert was placed on the window to create a false terminator
Terminator (solar)
A terminator, twilight zone or "grey line" is a moving line that separates the illuminated day side and the dark night side of a planetary body...
. Sibrel's allegation here is that it took three days for the astronauts to perfect their filming techniques rather than travel to the moon. Moreover, he contends that there is "Earthshine" clearly visible in the window after the lights were turned back on and that this proves that Apollo 11 was in low Earth orbit.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon also examines the still photographs and points out what it claims are anomalies, such as non-parallel shadows, to support the assertion that multiple artificial lighting sources were used; sped-up video footage of the astronauts walking on the lunar surface and lunar rovers driving on the surface are also used to advance the theory they were actually filmed on Earth and slowed down to simulate the moon's lower gravity. The lack of visible stars is another point stressed by Bart Sibrel.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon was narrated by a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
stage actress named Anne Tonelson. Bart Sibrel himself makes no appearance in the film. He does appear prominently in the similarly toned Fox Television Network special, Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?
Bart Sibrel also alleges that the "Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
" Strategic Defense Initiative
Strategic Defense Initiative
The Strategic Defense Initiative was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic...
was far simpler than the government claimed it was, and that tests were artificially manipulated to, according to the Government Accountability Office
Government Accountability Office
The Government Accountability Office is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress. It is located in the legislative branch of the United States government.-History:...
, fool the Soviets about U.S. military readiness.
Criticisms
Jim McDade, writing in the Birmingham News, characterized A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon as "full of falsehoods, innuendo, strident accusations, half-truths, flawed logic and premature conclusions." According to McDade, the "only thing new and weird" in the 47-minuteMinute
A minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle. The minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the UTC time scale, a minute on rare occasions has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second. The minute is not an SI unit; however, it is accepted for use with SI units...
film is that the claim that video views of Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
were actually filmed through a small hole to give the impression that Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
was not in low earth orbit. "Bart has misinterpreted things that are immediately obvious to anyone who has extensively read Apollo history and documentation or anyone who has ever been inside an Apollo Command Module
Apollo Command/Service Module
The Command/Service Module was one of two spacecraft, along with the Lunar Module, used for the United States Apollo program which landed astronauts on the Moon. It was built for NASA by North American Aviation...
or accurate mockup," says McDade.
Sibrel has also gained some national exposure as an astronaut stalker. In one infamous incident Sibrel asked Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history...
to put his hand on a Bible and swear that he walked on the moon and when Aldrin refused, Sibrel called Aldrin a coward, liar and thief, spurring Aldrin to punch Sibrel in the jaw.
See also
- Moon landing conspiracy theories
- Bill KaysingBill KaysingWilliam Charles Kaysing was a writer best known for claiming that the six Apollo moon landings between July 1969 and December 1972 were hoaxes...
- Ralph ReneRalph ReneRalph René was an American conspiracy theorist, small press publisher and inventor. René was a vocal proponent of the Apollo moon landing hoax theory. René's death was confirmed via a video on AOL. René's last self-published book, on the September 11 attacks, is called World Trade Center Lies and...
- Astronauts Gone WildAstronauts Gone WildAstronauts Gone Wild is a 2004 film made by Bart Sibrel, an amateur filmmaker from Nashville, Tennessee, United States who charges that the six Apollo moon landings in the 1960s and 1970s were elaborate hoaxes...
External links
- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon official website
- Radio Interview with Bart Sibrel by talk show host Chris Gerner
- Lunar Legacy - A web documentary disputing Sibrel's claims
- Aulis Online - Site of David Percy with a large list of photographic anomalies
- Another popular pro-lunar landing/Sibrel debunking website
- A critique of Bart Sibrel