Still Bouncing Lasers Off The Moon Right Now

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Apollo 11, 14, and 15 placed laser retroreflector arrays on the lunar surface.

[00:00:05]>> [music] >> Any observatory with a sufficiently powerful laser can bounce a beam off those exact coordinates and receive a return signal.

[00:00:13]>> [music] >> This has been done continuously since 1969 by observatories in France, Italy, Japan, >> [music] >> and the United States.

[00:00:23]The reflectors are there.

[00:00:25]Tonight, [music] if you had the equipment, you could confirm it.

[00:00:29]NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has photographed all six landing [music] sites at high enough resolution to see the descent stages, equipment, and the tracks left by astronauts and the lunar rover.

[00:00:42]The tracks are still there.

[00:00:44]The moon has no wind.

[00:00:46]The evidence is not ambiguous. It is not a matter of competing interpretations.

[00:00:50]We went.

[00:00:52]So, why doesn't that settle it?