For nearly four decades, the official history of NASA's Apollo missions ceased with Apollo 17 in 1972 — the final manned mission to the Moon. But according to one of the greatest and most cryptic conspiracy theories of the space era, that wasn't the end. Rumors of a secret Apollo 20 mission have puzzled UFO buffs and seekers of truth for decades. And what did this mission supposedly find out? Not rocks and dust — but an old alien spaceship buried on the back side of the Moon.
A Mission That "Never Happened"
Formal NASA records do not mention an Apollo 20. The space program terminated the mission after Apollo 17 because of budget reductions and changing priorities. Nevertheless, in 2007, a guy who went by the alias William Rutledge appeared on the web with a disturbing tale.
Purporting to have been an astronaut, Rutledge claimed to have been on board Apollo 20, which was a combined American-Soviet mission launched in August 1976 — four years after Apollo 17. The mission, he claimed, was to explore a giant spacecraft found in earlier missions to the Moon, specifically Apollo 15, which supposedly took bizarre photos of a cigar-shaped object in the Moon's Delporte crater.
Rutledge posted a series of videos on YouTube purporting to be from the mission: jerky images of a spacecraft descent, close-ups of a derelict alien vessel, and even the corpse of a humanoid creature, preserved and partially buried in the ship.
The Alien Girl: "Mona Lisa"
One of the most chilling facts from Rutledge's account was that they found a female alien inhabitant within the craft. The crew, he reported, discovered a gorgeous humanoid creature, whom they affectionately referred to as Mona Lisa. She was born with six fingers, obviously not human, and seemed to be in suspended animation.
Rutledge said she was "biomechanical," half-alive, with a thin coat of a wax-like material on her skin. He said they recovered her body to Earth to study it.
Real Evidence or Elaborate Hoax?
The grainy videos and bizarre photos made public by Rutledge were rapidly debunked by skeptics. Numerous critics cited inconsistencies in illumination, mismatched lunar landscape, and objects that appeared suspiciously as if low-budget sets.
NASA, for its own part, has always said there was no such mission. No official record, astronaut journals, or launch records exist to indicate that Apollo 20 ever lifted off — much less went to the back of the Moon.
Nevertheless, the videos and Rutledge's meticulous (and tenacious) account have ensured that the theory has survived. Others believe that the government conspired to cover up Apollo 20's existence to avoid widespread panic over the revelation of intelligent extraterrestrial life.
Why Would NASA Hide This?
Conspiracy theorists state that any true evidence of extraterrestrial life would have been deemed too destabilizing to be released to the public. During the Cold War, they maintain, secrecy was the highest priority — and a cooperative U.S.-Soviet expedition bringing back extraterrestrial technology would have been among the most closely guarded in history.
Others propose the Apollo program was all a cover for further space exploration and that missions after Apollo 17 went on in complete secrecy.
The Legacy of Apollo 20
Whether you're a believer in William Rutledge or not, the Apollo 20 myth has become an integral part of UFO history. It has sparked documentaries, books, and countless arguments on the internet. Mainstream science rejects it as fantasy, but most still wonder: What if it's real?
If nothing else, Apollo 20's tale reminds us of how
much of the universe is still unexplored — and how easily fact and fiction
become obscured in the darkness of space.
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