Buzz Aldrin punching conspiracy theorist who accused him of faking moon landing is still as iconic as ever

A clip of astronaut Buzz Aldrin punching a conspiracy theorist has once again emerged online.

It's one of humanity's crowning achievements, but that doesn't stop many people from believing that the Moon landings were, in fact, staged to make the USSR look bad... not that the USSR needed help with that.

This is despite a wealth of evidence, including the thousands of people you'd have to swear to perpetual silence, and that Russia itself never actually disputed that the Moon landings happened.

But one conspiracy theorist got more than he bargained for when he berated astronaut Buzz Aldrin over the Moon landings.

The man was Bart Sibrel, who ambushed Aldrin outside a hotel in Los Angeles in 2002.

He repeatedly demanded that Aldrin 'swear on the Bible' that he had been to the Moon.

Despite repeated requests from hotel staff to leave he refused and follow Aldrin, who had so far remained calm throughout the incident.

But when Sibrel called Aldrin a 'liar' and a 'coward', this was too much, and the astronaut and fighter pilot punched him in the face.

ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images

If you will call a brigadier general in the US Air Force a 'liar' and a 'coward' to their face, then well, best of luck.

Ultimately, the Los Angeles County district attorney did not pursue any prosecutions against Aldrin over the incident.

A statement from deputy district attorney Elizabeth Ratinoff at the time said that the astronaut had been provoked into throwing the punch.

The statement said: “Ultimately, Sibrel called Aldrin a thief, liar and coward. Video depicts Aldrin striking Sibrel once in the face with a fist. Sibrel immediately turns to the camera crew present and appears to twice state, ‘Did you get that?’"

Ratinoff added: “Based on the totality of the circumstances it is unlikely a jury would find Aldrin guilty of a misdemeanor battery charge.”

For his part, Sibrel said that they had chosen not to prosecute Aldrin due to his celebrity status.

Jeff Vespa/WireImage

And did the encounter with Aldrin do anything to change Sibrel's mind about his theories?

Of course not.

The 'lunar truther' continued to hold the belief that the landings were all a hoax.

Evidence that landings happens includes the patterns of light on the surface of the Moon. The shadows are parallel because the light source, the Sun, is so far away.

In order to emulate this effect you would effectively need an entire wall of lasers, technology which was not available in 1969.

And once again, the USSR - the country with the most to gain from exposing a 'hoax' - never disputed the landings.

Earlier this year, India made history when the Chandrayaan program landed a probe on the previously unexplored south pole of the Moon.