Commotion: Statements From the Sixth Man To Walk on the Moon
The Claim
Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the Moon, has revealed that aliens have visited the Earth and that NASA has long been aware of these visitations
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Emerging story
On April 27th, the paranormal website Anomalien published an article claiming that the sixth man to walk on the Moon, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, had revealed information about extraterrestrial contact with the Earth.
It claimed that Dr. Mitchell had made these statements to Kerrang! Radio. Transcripts from the interview reveal that Mitchell told the show’s host that, “the UFO phenomenon is real, although it’s been covered up by governments for quite a long time.” He went on to state that the supposed Rowell space crash was real and that the visiting aliens were peaceful.
These claims were then reposted on a number of conspiracy theory websites. A Facebook post of the Anomalien article became popular, gaining over 1,500 reactions along with hundreds of comments and shares. A range of other Facebook users have also shared the claims since Anomalien posted their original article.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar classifies this information as commotion for two reasons: 1. It is true that Dr. Edgar Mitchell made these comments, but it was in 2008, meaning they are not newsworthy. 2. NASA states that there is no evidence that aliens have visited the Earth.
Conspiracy theorists claim that NASA is covering up the truth. There are strong reasons to doubt Mitchell’s statements, even if he was the sixth man to walk on the Moon. Mitchell has a history of making statements that are pseudoscientific. For instance, he claimed that during his space missions, he conducted experiments in telepathy. He also later revealed that he had kidney cancer which was cured long distance by someone named Adam Dreamhealer. Mitchell died in 2016 at the age of 85.
The Anomalien article does mention that the astronaut interview comes from 2008, but this is not apparent in the Facebook post, which likely caused many online to believe that Mitchell’s comments were new.
Some respected experts, such as the Harvard University Professor Avi Loeb, have stated that aliens have visited the Earth. Others, such as the only astronaut to have flown aboard every U.S. space shuttle, Story Musgrave, says that there is not enough evidence to support the claim that aliens have visited the Earth.
