Vatican ‘rewrites’ history claiming Tintin first on moon

A CERTAIN Belgian boy reporter named Tintin was the first to reach the moon, the Vatican newspaper joked yesterday, as the world marked 40 years since the Apollo 11 lunar landing.

US astronaut Neil Armstrong “was not the first human to tread on the surface of the moon”, Osservatore Romano teased. “It was the famous Tintin, who took off from the secret space base of Sbrodj, in Syldavia.”

The intrepid hero of Belgian artist Herge’s beloved comic-book series flies to the moon along with the cantankerous Captain Haddock, the eccentric Professor Calculus and Tintin’s faithful dog, Snowy, in “Destination Moon.”