Conspiracy theorists have bizarre explanation for why NASA has delayed trip to Moon

If you were going to the Moon, you'd want to be sure that absolutely everything was totally safe ahead of the journey.

So when NASA announced it was delaying its upcoming trip due to safety issues, many people were pleased to see safety being prioritised over schedule.

But it hasn't stopped some people thinking that actually, there's something rather sinister at play.

In fact, conspiracy theorists have come up with a bonkers reason as to why NASA might have delayed its trip to the Moon.

The chatter first started on Tuesday (9 January) when NASA announced its decision to take humans to the Moon had been pushed back to 2025 and 2026.

"Safety is our top priority, and to give Artemis teams more time to work through the challenges with first-time developments, operations, and integration, we're going to give more time on Artemis II and III," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson explained.

"So, what I want to tell you is, we are adjusting our schedule to target Artemis II for September of 2025 and September of 2026 for Artemis III, which will send humans for the first time to the lunar south pole."

Nelson added: "We are returning to the Moon in a way we never have before, and the safety of our astronauts is NASA’s top priority as we prepare for future Artemis missions."

In order to safely carry out our upcoming #Artemis missions to the Moon with astronauts, we are now targeting September 2025 for Artemis II and September 2026 for Artemis III.

Safety is our top priority. https://t.co/AjNjLo4U6E pic.twitter.com/VE74OtlUr6

— NASA (@NASA) January 9, 2024

However, some people think the reason why NASA has been forced to delay the mission is down to the fact that humans never actually stepped foot on the moon at all.

Yep, this all centres around the theory that Apollo 11 didn't touch down on the Moon back in 1969.

"The way you guys are preparing to land on the moon again it seems like it's the 1st time you are actually planning Moon Trip," one wrote on X.

Meanwhile another said: "It seems like they can't figure out how they did it the first time."

And a third wrote: "I wonder if there are engineers at NASA who are trying to recreate Apollo but come to realization that they can't and are like, 'Holy s**t. They faked it.''"

There are a number of wild conspiracies regarding humans on the Moon.

One popular theory is that the shadows in the landing photos prove that the images had been faked.

Because the shadows are not parallel, this was taken as proof that the images were not real.

However, this effect can be reproduced anywhere - even on Earth itself.

Another popular theory sees critics claiming that the iconic US flag appears to be affected by wind - which shouldn't happen in space.

But, this has also been debunked, after it was discovered that a telescopic pole has actually been set up to unfurl the flag.

In a 2019 lecture at the Royal Museums Greenwich, National Space Centre Discovery Director, Professor Anu Ojha explained: "Because it’s been set up like this, it appears to be waving in the wind."

He added that it also had a lot of wrinkles because it had 'literally been screwed up for four days' en-route to the Moon.

While we might have to wait a little longer to see humans on the Moon (again) it'll certainly be worth the wait.