Allegations from alleged NASA whistleblowers suggest that the space agency altered photographs from lunar missions to conceal evidence of alien encounters. Physicist Maaneli Derakhshani presented claims on the "American Alchemy" podcast that astronauts from the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s encountered UFOs and extraterrestrial intelligence, but were instructed to maintain silence.
Derakhshani, who studies anomalies on the lunar and Martian surfaces, stated that comparisons of archived NASA photos reveal alterations. He cited an Apollo 14 photograph featuring astronaut Ed Mitchell, where one version from the Lunar and Planetary Institute shows a black lunar sky, while a version from the "March to the Moon" archive includes a distinct blue orb above Mitchell.
Further claims involve astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first human on the moon, reportedly receiving telepathic warnings from extraterrestrials not to return. Similar alleged confessions from Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt have also surfaced. Cernan reportedly told a Japanese NASA museum curator that he received a telepathic message stating, "We don’t really want you here."
During the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, photos were taken that reportedly showed three solid blue lights in the lunar sky. NASA's description of one such image noted that an investigation was opened by experts who believed the lights could be part of a large physical object. Other images from the same mission captured what appeared to be blue metallic streaks that, when enhanced, resembled insectoid objects with faint engine trails. Skeptics, such as astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, have attributed such phenomena to cosmic rays, but Derakhshani contends the statistical probability of this explanation is low given the solid, round nature of the lights.
Ken Johnston Sr., a former NASA astronaut trainer and Apollo backup pilot, has also allegedly claimed he was ordered to destroy early Apollo negatives containing anomalies. Derakhshani stated that Johnston saved some of these potentially incriminating photos and released them online.
These revelations emerge as NASA prepares for the Artemis program, with Artemis III aiming to land astronauts on the moon by 2028, marking the first lunar landing since the Apollo era. NASA and the Pentagon continue to deny the discovery of proof of alien life, despite releasing declassified UFO files under the Trump administration's disclosure initiative.