Featured Image Credit: NASA
Moon conspiracy theories are resurfacing after NASA's Artemis II Mission was announced to be delayed a second time.
With the Artemis II launch soon approaching, anticipation has been building for what will be the first crewed journey beyond low Earth orbit and the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Carrying NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen, the four-man crew is preparing for a 10-day fly around the Moon and back.
However, things haven't gone according to plan.
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Poor weather initially forced NASA to postpone the critical wet dress rehearsal for the Space Launch System from its 29 January window, pushing the launch back to 8 February.
However, during the most recent rehearsal of the SLS (Space Launch System), engineers detected hydrogen leaks at the launch pad.
The team also reportedly ran into audio communication issues and discovered that the cold weather was interfering with some of their cameras. In response, NASA has announced that the earliest possible launch date for Artemis II has been pushed back to March.
But the series of delays of NASA's first Moon mission in over 50 years has triggered a series of conspiracy theories.
AJ Gentile, who hosts the podcast The Why Files, brought up claims of a mysterious radio transmission from the Apollo 11 mission that allegedly mentioned the crew reporting sightings of extraterrestrial beings observing their arrival.
According to the story, as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin approached the Moon, they switched to a private medical frequency during a radio blackout.
During this time - where NASA claims no official records exist - Armstrong and Aldrin allegedly reported to mission control that they witnessed beings 'parked' in a crater.
"The story is they switch over to the medical channel and said, 'They're here. They're on the crater, and they can see us,'" Gentile explained during an appearance on The Tucker Carlson Show on Monday (2 February).
Despite the tales circulating for 57 years, there is no verified evidence that the Apollo 11 crew ever used the backup radio channel, nor has the US government or Pentagon declared any proof of UFOs or extraterrestrial beings.
To add to the mystery, Gentile also pointed out that former CIA psychics and respected astronauts have also suggested NASA has been hiding something on the Moon since missions ended in 1972.
He cited the late Ingo Swann, a renowned 'remote viewer', who claimed during a 1975 psychic session to have seen towers, structures and human-like aliens on the Moon's far side.
"Two of them pointed in my direction," he wrote in his book Penetration: The Question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy. "How could they do that… unless… they have some kind of high psychic perceptions, too?"
Later on in the podcast, Gentile added that Apollo 14 Edgar Mitchell also publicly stated his belief that UFOs were real.
"Every astronaut has seen strange things in space. Edgar Mitchell is on record as saying UFOs are real. This is the sixth man to walk on the moon. This is not a kook. This is an American hero. So something's clearly going on up there," Gentile declared during the podcast.
When asked whether he thought the original Moon landing was staged, Gentile said he believed it was genuine. However, he admitted feeling uneasy about the questions, given how many official records from that historic mission have inexplicably vanished over the years.
