NASA whistleblower claims 'alien presence' that followed Buzz Aldrin was edited out of Moon photos
Prepare to have another supposed alien conspiracy theory blown wide open, with wild claims that NASA has been hiding proof of extraterrestrials for the past 57 years.
While there's been plenty of fanfare about mankind's return to the Moon with the Artemis program, it's easy to forget we've not set foot on its surface since Eugene Cernan and the rest of the Apollo 17 crew headed there in 1972.
Our interest in aliens was recently piqued again, with former President Barack Obama grabbing headlines.
President Donald Trump vowed to release all the government's files on aliens, UFOs, and UAPs, although there's been a mixed response to what we've seen so far.
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Away from declassified Pentagon records about waves of UFO sightings and renowned ufologist Dr. Steven Greer saying we're about to usher in a new chapter for the human race with all these supposed revelations, one NASA whistleblower has gone even further by claiming the Apollo missions have been hiding aliens from us for decades.
The strange stories of the Apollo missions
Speaking to YouTuber Jesse Michels (via the Daily Mail) on the American Alchemy podcast, physicist Maaneli “Max” Derakhshani maintains that the Apollo missions of the '60s and '70s captured photographic proof of aliens and then edited them out before release to the public.
Pulling a photo from the Lunar and Planetary Institute archive that NASA has managed since the 1970s, Derakhshani pointed to Apollo 14's Ed Mitchell standing on the surface of the Moon and explained: "You see his long shadow stretched out and...essentially the lunar sky is completely black in this version. You zoom in everywhere, it's completely black.
“However, if you look at the 'March to the moon' version of that same frame, which is managed by Johnson Space Center and Arizona State University, there is a blue orb in the lunar sky very clearly. It's very obvious above Mitchell."
Another story involved Cernan and fellow Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt's photos, with one appearing to show three blue lights in the sky. When enhanced, the image could mean that they're attached to something larger.
NASA's declassified files suggest a 'special investigation' might've been opened due to speculation over the lights, with another snap leading to theories that Apollo 17 had captured proof of an "insectoid-type probelike metallic object."
Skeptics like astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson suggest these are simply cosmic rays, but according to Derakhshani, the odds of them appearing this way are statistically 'very improbable'.
Neil Armstrong's 'telepathic' message and Buzz Aldrin's 'sighting'
The pair go on to discuss wild stories about Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Apollo 17's Cernan apparently receiving 'telepathic' messages about not going to the Moon or not returning, which they go on to say is why the program ended in 1972.
Michels expanded: "There are all these apocryphal stories of Neil Armstrong telling similar stories in Washington DC saying, 'We were told not to come back to the moon.':
This leads to Apollo 14's Edgar Mitchell's apparent telepathic connection and claims that aliens 'followed' their rocket all the way to the Moon.
Similarly, Michels referred to Buzz Aldrin's supposed sighting from Apollo 11, which has been reported as the astronauts being followed. The pair say that Aldrin's story has changed over the years, with Derakhshani adding: "It seems very likely, very obvious that Buzz knows more than he can say publicly."
In a 2014 Reddit AMA, Aldrin reiterated: "It was not an alien. Extraordinary observations require extraordinary evidence."
There's also the infamous Aldrin interview with Conan O'Brien that many say has been misconstrued as him saying the Moon landing was 'faked'. Either way, Derakhshani is convinced that NASA is skewing the narrative.
A separate interview between Ross Coulthart’s "Reality Check" program and Derakhshani had the former claim that NASA is hiding alien structures on the surface of the Moon. Earlier in 2026, Derakhshani argued that NASA is blurring images of 'technosignatures' that are up to 30 meters high and 100 meters long, passing them off as geological features. He maintains that the probability that artificial structures exist on the Moon is more than 50%, with NASA cautious about returning to the Moon because it's afraid of what it'll find.
While all of the above is largely relegated to rampant speculation and conspiracy theories, all eyes are on Artemis IV and whether the human race is getting its own real-life Disclosure Day.