Former US Prez Nixon's video announcing 'failure' of Apollo 11 goes viral; Know the truth

The Apollo 11 mission was celebrated across the world as a giant leap for humankind when NASA astronauts landed on the Moon and returned to Earth safely. The mission was fraught with risks so a contingency speech was also prepared for the then US President Richard Nixon which was obviously never delivered.

However, a video of President Nixon delivering the contingency speech has now surfaced on the internet in which he hails Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin for sacrificing their lives in search of truth and understanding. Nixon can be heard saying the brave astronauts know that there is no hope for their recovery.

“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace, will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice,” Nixon reads the statement.

So, why did Nixon read the speech when the mission was successful? The answer is - he didn’t. The MIT’s Center for Advanced Virtuality created a “deepfake” video titled “In Event of Moon Disaster” to educate the public about the world of deepfakes. The immersive project invites people into this alternative history and asks everyone to consider how new technologies can bend, redirect and obfuscate the truth around us.  

Watch the video here:

The video was premiered in November 2019 but it was circulated again on the 51st anniversary of the moon landing. D. Fox Harrell, director of the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality, said in a statement that media misinformation is a longstanding phenomenon but it has been exacerbated by deepfake technologies. He said that the ease of disseminating content online makes it a crucial issue of our time.

“With this project, our powerfully talented XR Creative Director Francesca Panetta is pushing forward one of the center’s broad aims: using AI and technologies of virtuality to support creative expression and truth,” said Harell.

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