Moon landing conspiracy laid to rest

It's easy to invent a conspiracy theory and sometimes it is difficult to disprove convincingly.

Last Monday we celebrated the 40th anniversary of man's greatest achievement and perhaps man's greatest adventure - leaving the earth and walking on another world.

On July 16, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were strapped in at the top of the largest rocket that ever flew - the 363-foot tall Apollo Saturn V. Their mission was Apollo 11 and it was to be the first moon landing.

As the rockets ignited with a force of 7.5 million pounds the rocket weighing six million pounds accelerated on a plume of flames and a sonic boom to reach earth orbit. It then fired towards the moon where Armstrong and Aldrin landed on July 20.

In recent years sceptics have questioned whether this was all faked. They questioned why stars were not seen in photos taken on the moon, why the flag shook and why there were multiple shadows in some photos. Experts have disproved the claims but niggling doubts remained.

Recently my committee and the US embassy hosted the last man to land on the moon, Senator Harrison Schmitt. It was inevitable that someone would mention the conspiracy theory and Schmitt responded firmly, explaining the inaccuracies in the conspiracy claims.

Finally the conspiracy theory was unreservedly disproved on July 17 this year. The NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken images of the Apollo landing sites in unprecedented detail that clearly show the Apollo landing craft on the moon.

I hope that these photos don't fuel a new conspiracy theory that these images show proof that an alien life form inhabits the moon...