“Humans landed on the Moon six times between 1969 and 1972, and twelve astronauts walked on its surface.”

• NASA's Apollo program records document six successful crewed lunar landings: Apollo 11 (July 1969), Apollo 12 (November 1969), Apollo 14 (February 1971), Apollo 15 (July-August 1971), Apollo 16 (April 1972), and Apollo 17 (December 1972) — exactly six, all within 1969-1972.
• Each landing mission had a two-person surface crew while a third astronaut remained in lunar orbit, yielding 6 x 2 = 12 individuals who walked on the lunar surface: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin; Pete Conrad and Alan Bean; Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell; David Scott and James Irwin; John Young and Charles Duke; Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. No astronaut walked on the Moon twice, so the count of 12 distinct people is exact.
• Physical evidence independent of NASA testimony supports the landings: 382 kg of returned lunar samples distributed to and analyzed by laboratories worldwide and published in peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Proceedings of the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference); retroreflector arrays left by Apollo 11, 14 and 15 are still used today for lunar laser ranging by observatories in the U.S., France and elsewhere.
• Independent orbital imaging by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (from 2009 onward) resolves the Apollo descent stages, equipment and astronaut foot tracks at all six landing sites; India's Chandrayaan-2 orbiter and Japan's SELENE/Kaguya mission have also imaged Apollo site features.
• Contemporaneous independent tracking: the Soviet Union, the UK's Jodrell Bank Observatory and Australian stations (Honeysuckle Creek, Parkes) tracked and received Apollo transmissions in real time; no Cold War adversary ever disputed the landings.
• Fact-checking organizations including Snopes and AFP Fact Check have repeatedly reviewed and rejected Moon-landing-hoax claims, affirming the six landings and twelve moonwalkers.

• No credible evidence contradicts the claim. Moon-landing denial material exists online but has been debunked for decades and rests on misreadings of photographic lighting, flag motion in vacuum, and radiation-belt transit times.
• Minor pedantic caveats only, which do not make the statement false: Apollo 13 (1970) was a seventh landing attempt that failed and returned without landing, so 'landed six times' refers to successful landings; and nine crewed Apollo missions reached the Moon in total (including orbit-only Apollo 8, 10 and 13), so 24 astronauts traveled to the Moon while 12 walked on it.

99/100 — the lab’s own confidence in the score above, not a second reading of the claim.

NASAgov · 97 · NASA NSSDC (Apollo mission and landing site data)gov · 96 · NASA Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office (lunar sample curation)gov · 96 · Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, Arizona State Universityedu · 94 · Snopesfactcheck · 88 · Encyclopaedia Britannicaother · 85 · Jodrell Bank Observatory, University of Manchesteredu · 90 · U.S. Naval Observatory (lunar laser ranging background)gov · 88

• NASA's Apollo mission histories identify six crewed lunar landing missions: Apollo 11 and 12 in 1969, Apollo 14 and 15 in 1971, and Apollo 16 and 17 in 1972; Apollo 13 was intended to land but did not.
• NASA's list of people who have walked on the Moon names exactly twelve astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Gene Cernan, and Harrison Schmitt.
• NASA/NSSDCA landing-site records list six Apollo lunar landing sites corresponding to Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17.
• The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal preserves mission records, transcripts, photos, and EVA documentation for the six lunar surface missions, consistent with two moonwalkers per landing mission.
• NASA's lunar sample curation records describe Apollo-returned lunar samples from the landing missions, supporting that Apollo crews operated on and returned material from the lunar surface.
• FactCheck.org has reviewed and rejected moon-landing-hoax claims, citing physical, photographic, documentary, and third-party evidence that Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon.

• No substantive evidence from reliable scientific, government, or fact-checking sources contradicts the statement as written.
• A possible source of confusion is that Apollo 13 traveled to the Moon in 1970 but did not land; that does not undermine the claim because the claim counts only successful human landings.
• Moon-landing-hoax allegations exist, but reputable fact-checkers and the documentary/physical record do not support them.

99/100 — the lab’s own confidence in the score above, not a second reading of the claim.

NASAgov · 98 · NASAgov · 98 · NASA National Space Science Data Centergov · 98 · NASA Apollo Lunar Surface Journalgov · 97 · NASA Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Officegov · 96 · FactCheck.orgfactcheck · 90

• NASA's official historical and mission archives confirm that six crewed Apollo missions successfully landed on the Moon: Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17, taking place between July 1969 and December 1972.
• Mission logs and historical records document exactly 12 astronauts walking on the lunar surface, with two astronauts descending to the Moon per successful landing (starting with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and ending with Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt).
• Physical evidence includes 382 kilograms (842 pounds) of lunar rocks and soil brought back to Earth, which have been extensively studied by independent geologists and scientists worldwide, proving their non-terrestrial origin.
• Modern independent observation, such as images captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and orbiters from other nations (like India's Chandrayaan-2), clearly show the Apollo lunar descent modules, rover tracks, and astronaut footprints left at the landing sites.
• Scientists worldwide still bounce lasers off the retroreflector mirrors left on the lunar surface by the Apollo astronauts to measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

• There is no credible scientific, historical, or empirical evidence against this claim.
• Decades of conspiracy theories have alleged the Moon landings were staged in a studio, citing perceived anomalies in photographs (e.g., missing stars, non-parallel shadows, waving flags). However, every one of these claims has been comprehensively debunked by physicists, photographic experts, and independent fact-checkers as misunderstandings of space environments, lighting, and vacuum physics.

100/100 — the lab’s own confidence in the score above, not a second reading of the claim.

NASAgov · 100 · Smithsonian National Air and Space Museumedu · 98 · Snopesfactcheck · 95

• NASA states that the Apollo program had six successful lunar landing missions and that a total of 12 astronauts walked on the Moon.[10][13]
• NASA’s Apollo program page lists the lunar landings from Apollo 11 through Apollo 17, excluding Apollo 13, which was aborted, matching the claim that humans landed on the Moon six times between 1969 and 1972.[10]
• NASA’s Moon walkers page says Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were the first of 12 human beings to walk on the Moon, directly supporting the second half of the claim.[4]
• Britannica states that twelve American astronauts walked on the Moon during the six successful lunar landing missions of the Apollo program.[2][6]

• The wording ‘Humans landed on the Moon six times between 1969 and 1972’ can be read as six separate human landings, but the accurate historical detail is six successful Apollo missions that landed astronauts on the Moon; Apollo 13 did not land.[10][13]
• The claim does not specify ‘American astronauts,’ and all 12 Moon walkers were American Apollo astronauts, so the statement is accurate only in the Apollo context rather than as a broader statement about all humans or all lunar programs.[2][6]
• If interpreted to mean six total crewed missions to the Moon of any kind, the phrase is incomplete because Apollo 13 traveled to the Moon but did not land, and Apollo 7/8 were crewed missions in the broader Apollo program that did not land.[10][13]

97/100 — the lab’s own confidence in the score above, not a second reading of the claim.

NASAgov · 98 · NASA Sciencegov · 98 · NASAgov · 95 · Encyclopaedia Britannicaother · 88 · Encyclopaedia Britannicaother · 88

• NASA Apollo program records document six successful crewed lunar landings: Apollo 11 (20 July 1969), 12 (19 November 1969), 14 (5 February 1971), 15 (30 July 1971), 16 (21 April 1972) and 17 (11 December 1972).
• Twelve astronauts performed EVAs on the surface (two per landing): Armstrong, Aldrin, Conrad, Bean, Shepard, Mitchell, Scott, Irwin, Young, Duke, Cernan and Schmitt.
• 382 kg of lunar rocks, core samples and soil were returned and independently analyzed by laboratories worldwide; the samples show unique isotopic, mineralogical and cosmic-ray exposure signatures inconsistent with terrestrial or meteoritic material.
• Laser retroreflectors deployed by Apollo 11, 14 and 15 remain in use for lunar laser ranging by observatories on multiple continents.
• NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, ISRO Chandrayaan and CNSA Chang'e imagery resolve descent stages, rover tracks, experiment packages and astronaut paths at the documented coordinates.
• The missions were tracked in real time by the Soviet Union, Jodrell Bank, independent radio amateurs and other national facilities during the Cold War.

• Conspiracy claims that the landings were filmed on a sound stage, based on misreadings of photographs (no stars, 'waving' flag, non-parallel shadows) and alleged technological impossibility; these have been explained by vacuum physics, camera exposure and contemporary engineering records.
• Assertions that Van Allen belt radiation would have been lethal, contradicted by the actual measured crew dosimetry, the chosen high-inclination trans-lunar trajectories and spacecraft shielding.

99/100 — the lab’s own confidence in the score above, not a second reading of the claim.

NASA NSSDCgov · 97 · NASAgov · 95 · Lunar and Planetary Instituteedu · 92 · Encyclopaedia Britannicaother · 90 · NASAgov · 94