As we near the 50th anniversary of the moon landing this year, conspiracy theorists are being even more vocal in their assertions that the Apollo 11 mission - crewed by astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins - was faked. Now Bart Sibrel, a documentary filmmaker who was infamously punched by Aldrin after confronting him in public, claims that he has proof that the whole event was a hoax.

Sibrel claims that he has documents containing a list of 15 government personnel who were allowed access to the alleged fake moon landing - as well as the clandestine operation's name. Sibrel has not named his source, who purportedly feared for his life, and asked him to keep the information secret until a decade after his death.

Watch the moment Buzz Aldrin punched Bart Sibrel in the video below:

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In a recent interview with British tabloid newspaper The Sun, Sibrel stated: "This conspiracy is the most symbolic of government arrogance. It was totally 100 percent contrived - none of it is true - yet they held ticker-tape parade for these guys and gave them congressional medals of honor. It was a needless lie really just done for no reason other than arrogance and greed. And it makes a sucker out of every American who believes it is true."

Buzz Aldrin plants the US flag on the Moon:

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He added: "What the United States government is claiming is that they sent astronauts one thousand times farther than they can send them today, with fifty years older technology and on the very first attempt, with all of NASA containing one-millionth the computing power of a cell phone. The alleged moon landings are the only technological claim in the entire history of the world that was not far surpassed fifty years later."

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According to Sibrel, alleged photographs of the moon landing show evidence of being doctored. Sibrel points to pictures of the shadows on the moon which can apparently only be recreated in a studio by electrical light. He also believes that the Van Allen belt is too radioactive for humans to pass through and survive.

Check out the astronauts struggling to cope with the low lunar gravity:

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Sibrel continued: "If it were not for people’s emotional attachment to the alleged moon landings, this fifty-year unrepeatable claim, also with only one-thousandth the distance capable five decades later, would also be easily recognized as the fraud that it sadly is. This truth is being deliberately repressed to hide the enormous and arrogant corruption of the federal government."

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So was the moon landing faked? Most experts believe not, and have debunked the claims of conspiracy theorists with scientific refutations. However, so long as the American people distrust their own government, these theories will continue to proliferate... which means that it might be a long time before we hear the end of them.

Filmmaker punched by Buzz Aldrin has 'proof' the moon landing was '100% contrived'