Rare footage shows how hard astronauts find it to walk on the Moon

When the Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon in 1969, everyone looked on in awe.

The still images of astronauts standing proudly beside the American flag are as iconic as the ‘one small step for man’ trope.

But what we didn’t see is just how hard it actually is to walk on the Moon.

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We’ve heard how astronauts come back from space as ‘different people’, but we know very little about the reality of how they get from A to B on the Moon.

Trying to grip onto the rock’s hard surface whilst battling a lack of gravity and a heavy astronaut suit is no mean feat.

Little wonder it’s so hard to become an astronaut.

But the above NASA footage, shared to X by Sahil Bloom, sheds some light on what it was like for the astronauts, albeit quite comical.

Think of the clips as a ‘bloopers’ reel or outtakes from the televised Moon landing because of how funny it is.

Although falling isn’t a great thing to happen, because there’s a lack of gravity on the Moon, astronauts don’t hit the ground with any force.

The gravity on the Moon is much weaker than it is on Earth – that’s why astronauts slowly bob around on the surface and take the odd tumble.

Undoubtedly funny to watch, aerospace technologist James McBarron admitted that he was concerned about the first Moon landing and that when the astronauts fell, how they might ‘not be able to get back up’.

“The suit wasn’t that mobile, and it was a known concern. As it was, on later missions we did have several crew members who fell, but they were able to get up. It just took a little dexterity and creativity,” McBarron explained when speaking to Universe Today.

That explains why they used a hopping and walking method to make their way around the Moon’s surface.

They needed to be careful, though, as if they got too carried away, they’d end up falling over.

It transpires walking on the Moon is harder than it looks.