Around the time of the scientifically disastrous Fox documentary debunking the lunar landings, an essay / article was published and reprinted which claimed the landings were faked. At the end of the article, the “writer” David Milne wrote a point-by-point list of what they termed “11 space oddities” that required explanation.

Well, who am I to deny?

I will be examining the full article in time, but for the moment, we’ll go through the 11 points. I’m splitting this into each part for length, as I’m going to try and give a detailed explanation of each point – because somebody should.

1. “Apollo 14 astronaut Allen Shepard played golf on the Moon. In front of a worldwide TV audience, Mission Control teased him about slicing the ball to the right. Yet a slice is caused by uneven air flow over the ball. The Moon has no atmosphere and no air.”

Firstly: correct, the moon has no atmosphere, no air and is in fact a mere vacuum which operates in one sixth gravity. Fantastic. Really, if the article had cut out the first part of the sentence, there would be no problem at all.

Instead, they preface their scientific fact with a load of nonsense. Let’s investigate.

The referenced astronaut is Alan B Shepard. Here he is:

Alan B Shepard

It’s nice to see that the writer spent so much time researching that they forgot how to spell Al Shepard’s name, by the way. Alan Shepard was the first American in space, but was later grounded due to an inner ear condition called Ménière’s Disease. You can find out more about the problem at this website, but it essentially is a problem which causes balance and hearing disturbances. Shepard was grounded, and moved into the planning side of things, becoming Chief of the Astronaut Office for project Gemini.

Following experimental surgery, Shepard was able to place himself back on the flight rotation. He was approved as Commander of Apollo 14 (January 31st – February 9th 1971). He, along with his Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell, landed on the moon aboard lunar module Antares.

At this point, it’s necessary to inject a little about Shepard’s character. While a talented pilot, he was somewhat difficult to get along with. In his book Carrying The Fire, Michael Collins alludes to the fact that Shepard was involved in numerous business dealings of which space was only one. He was somewhat gruff and difficult to talk to, but nevertheless hugely respected. By putting himself on the flight rotation, some feathers had been ruffled among the astronaut office who had experience flying Gemini and wanted a shot at the moon. Shepard, while a space veteran, had only 15 minutes flying time in Freedom 7 on his CV.

Anyway. On the moon, Shepard – a keen golfer – attached the head of a Wilson six iron to the handle of a lunar sample scoop. He then proceeded to “play golf on the moon”. He hit a few balls, and Mission Control did indeed tell him one shot looked “like a slice”. Here’s an incredibly blurry shot of him doing so:

Blurry footage from the Apollo 14 camera, showing Al Shepard's golf "slice".

Shepard laughed in response and returned by saying the ball had gone “for miles and miles”.

You see, the problem is the writer of this article has taken a joke and turned it into scientific proof. All of this happened, but Al Shepard was being wound up by Mission Control. Being a prickly character who was proud of his golfing ability, it was a chance Mission Control couldn’t pass up. It was a joke, nothing more, and the article even says Mission Control “teased” him – though conveniently they ignore Shepard’s response.