It's official - US did land on moon

The US moon landings, as any good conspiracy theorist knows, were staged on a movie set by Americans eager to outstrip the Russians in the space race. You can tell because the flag they plant there ripples in a gust of wind, because the film-makers forgot to include stars in the night sky and because Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have never spoken about their lunar adventures.

But in a move the doubters will surely dismiss as just another plank in the conspiracy, Nasa has finally been goaded into responding. The space agency is to launch a publication setting out the evidence that the 1969 Apollo landing really did take place, Nasa's former chief historian told the Guardian yesterday, in response to a flood of questions from school students and their teachers. "Hardcore conspiracy theorists," Roger Launius said, "are not the audience - nobody believes you can convince them of anything. But teachers are always saying they were asked in class and want to know how to respond."

The missing stars are easily dealt with: the photographs in question also show Earth, a huge patch of brightness hard to combine on the same exposure with dimmer flickering lights. Awkwardly for those who see evidence of deception, Armstrong and Aldrin have both spoken of the mission.

The rippling flag is explained as follows: the astronauts had to twist the flagpole to insert it into the moon's surface, and doing so caused it to ripple. In the absence of any atmosphere, the rippling continued long after they had moved away.

Mr Launius said he was of two minds as to whether the monograph - which will be written by aeronautics engineer James Oberg - might end up giving the urban legends more credibility.

Queries surged after the Fox television network ran a programme last year called Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?, and the issue re-emerged two months ago when the leading proponent of the theory, filmmaker Bart Sibrel, confronted Mr Aldrin, 72, at a hotel in Beverly Hills. When he demanded that the astronaut swear on a Bible that he had walked on the moon, Mr Aldrin opted to punch Mr Sibrel in the face.