Conspiracy theories have run rampant over the decades following NASA’s historic Apollo missions to the surface of the Moon.

Based on twisted or misunderstood evidence, they argue that NASA somehow faked its groundbreaking lunar landings, tampering with evidence or faking TV broadcast footage in a studio to mislead the public.

Despite being debunked time and time again, a startling proportion of the public still hold onto these claims. According to a 2022 survey, an outrageous ten percent of respondents said they agreed with conspiracy claims that NASA faked the Moon landings.

Today, 53 and a half years after Apollo 17, the last crewed Moon landing, NASA is counting down for its Artemis 2 crewed lunar mission tonight. It’s a historic moment that also happens to take place on a highly unusual date: April Fools’ Day, which could give some of the most foolhardy individuals out there ammunition to hold on to their skewed views.

Futurism reached out to NASA for comment on the unfortunate timing, but hasn’t heard back. (In all fairness, its publicity department may have its hands full ahead of today’s launch.)

Fortunately, there’s an astronomical amount of evidence to suggest the space agency’s imminent launch is not, in fact, an ill-conceived and ludicrously expensive April Fools’ gag.

The Space Launch System rocket is already being fueled up at Launch Complex 39B, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It’s the same complex that was used to launch Apollo-era Saturn V rockets between 1969 and 1972.

The crew of four astronauts has suited up for launch, and could be seen waving to the cameras Wednesday afternoon ahead of their journey to the launch pad.

The plan is to spend the next ten days traveling to and then around the Moon, which will involve a slow perigee raise maneuver to gain enough altitude for “trans-lunar injection” by their Orion spacecraft’s main engine, a boost that they will need to cover the hundreds of thousands of miles of deep space between the two worlds.

If everything goes according to plan, the crew is poised to break the record for the farthest anybody has ever traveled from Earth, an exciting milestone ahead of even more ambitious missions down to the lunar surface in the coming years.

If anything, the wealth of footage, including iPhone videos this time around, we will be enjoying throughout this week’s and subsequent journeys — camera and broadcasting tech have come a very long way since the Apollo era — it’s likely conspiracy theorists will struggle to hold on to their belief that NASA is pulling the wool over their eyes.

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