Elon Musk’s Father Doubts Moon Landing Really Happened

Did Americans really land on the Moon?

Did Americans really land on the Moon? Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk—an international investor, space and nuclear technology researcher, and entrepreneur—expressed doubts about the United States' Apollo Moon landings in 1969.

“I wonder how they could have done it. Maybe they did, but the last ten landings on the Moon, with enormous debris trails scattered there, suggest otherwise,” Errol Musk said at a press conference with TASS.

In his view, the Moon landing “is a matter of orbital mechanics.” “According to my calculations—and those of astrophysicists I’ve discussed this with—we arrive at the following conclusion: the last ten Moon landings were unsuccessful because, when we enter lunar orbit, our speed is three times faster than a bullet’s velocity. To slow down, you need so much fuel that it becomes impractical,” he explained.

He proposed imagining a retro-rocket or counteracting rocket that would need to balance this high velocity and cancel out the 3,600 miles per hour (about 5,800 km/h) speed to achieve a soft landing. The researcher clarified that to carry out the 1969 lunar expedition, approximately 29 tons of fuel would have been required.

Errol Musk believes that his son’s company, SpaceX, will need to adopt a different landing approach for the Moon. “Based on Earth’s gravity, instead of heading directly to the Moon and relying on gravity for deceleration, they could perform a so-called ‘orbit-inversion landing’—a maneuver where the spacecraft approaches the Moon, then makes a controlled turn to land,” he shared.