I said I’d do these “Nine Space Oddities”, but this one is so painfully face!palm I barely feel it’s worth expending the effort. Nevertheless, carry on regardless. We’re on number three.

3. “One NASA picture from Apollo 11 is looking up at Neil Armstrong about to take his giant step for mankind. The photographer must have been lying on the planet surface. If Armstrong was the first man on the Moon, then who took the shot?”

Firstly, the assumption that the “photographer must have been lying on the planet surface” seems as odd one. If you look at the video…

It doesn’t seem likely that someone would be flat on the surface pointing a camera at Armstrong. Surely, if that were the case, the shot would only have captured his boots rather than his entire body?

Also, why does the conspiracy theorist assume that someone – a human being – needs to be pointing a camera for that camera to work?

The answer is a simple “because conspiracy theorists need to defy logic to make their “points” stick”, but we’ll step that aside and just get on with explaining who filmed Armstrong’s first step. Firstly, here’s a sketch of the lunar module design and the compartments included in it:

Lunar Module blueprint for the initial lunar landings.

As ever, click to enlarge. The circled area is the point denoting the placement of the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly, and it’s in here we find the answer to the initial question.

Here’s a closer look at the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly (from now on referred to as MESA) and what it contains:

The interior of the MESA

Inside the MESA was a television camera, and it is this camera that provided the pictures we have all seen so often of Armstrong’s historic first steps on the moon.

However, the pictures clearly show that the MESA (for more on the MESA, this website has everything you could possibly want to know) was stored inside of the LM – so how did it get to be outside and ideally positioned? Well, before Armstrong actually descended the ladder, he swung out an arm with the camera attached to the end.

This was no secret, it was even mentioned in the press kit for the Apollo 11 mission:

A screenshot of part of the Press Kit for Apollo 11.

Quick Explanation

• Once the hatch was open, Armstrong reached out and swung out the arm from the MESA.
• At the end of the arm was a still camera, pre-focused on the descent ladder.
• This camera filmed the “first step”.

Please Note

• The diagrams used above – the Lunar Module and the MESA – are only applicable to the initial landings. The MESA and LM’s were later heavier and featured more components on the later missions. (They still included the television camera, though).
• The press kit is courtesy of the Lunar Surface Journal