The Space Race, In Your FACE

My family and I went camping with another family. As we sat around the fire one evening, the other family’s father mentioned being skeptical of the moon landing. (He was born in the late 1970s, and this happened when he was near forty and I was about thirty-five.) Intrigued at meeting a “Moon Landing Is A Hoax” person in real life, I asked what made him question it.

Him: “The more I look into it and research it, I just don’t see how we could have made it to the moon back in the 1960s.”

Me: “So, you’re only unsure about Apollos 11 and 12, not 14 through 17?”

Him: “What are you talking about?”

Me: “The other times we went to the moon.”

Him: “Other times?”

Me: “Apollo 11 and 12 happened in 1969. Apollo 13 was in 1970 but didn’t make it. Apollos 14, 15, 16, and 17 made it to the moon like 11 and 12.”

Him: “Really?”

Me: “…Yeah. There were ten other Apollo missions, preparing for the eleventh mission to the moon. Apollo 1 is famous for all the astronauts dying on the launchpad when the shuttle caught fire. And before the Apollo missions, there were the Mercury and Gemini ones. Part of the Space Race.”

Him: “So… the movie Apollo 13 happened?”

The talk kinda petered out after that. But I very much question the “research” he did if he didn’t realize there were sixteen other Apollo missions, let alone five other moon landings.