Aldrin accused of throwing punch in moon row

Beverly Hills police are investigating a complaint that retired astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin punched a man in the face after being asked to swear on a Bible that he had been to the moon.

Bart Sibrel, 37, claims the former Apollo 11 crew member punched him and ran off after he tried to interview him outside the Luxe Hotel on Rodeo Drive.

Aldrin, 72, had left the hotel by the time police arrived and was not interviewed, said Beverly Hills Police Lieutenant Joe Lombardi.

Sibrel, who does not believe Aldrin or anyone else has ever walked on the moon, said he was trying to confront Aldrin about his 1969 lunar mission when he was attacked.

The independent filmmaker from Nashville, Tennessee, told the Los Angeles Times that he plans to sue the former astronaut for civil damages.

But another Beverly Hills police officer, Lieutenant Gary Gilmond, said they had heard conflicting versions of the incident.

Aldrin was just defending himself after being repeatedly poked with the Bible, his lawyer Robert O’Brien said.

“He was forced to protect himself and his stepdaughter when he was aggressively confronted,” O’Brien said.

And Sibrel had a different story.

“I never poked him, never physically touched the guy,” he said.

Both sides said there is a video that will back up their version of the events.

Aldrin was the second man to walk on the moon, a feat recorded on grainy black-and-white film and transmitted around the world on July 20, 1969.

Sibrel said he has tried to get six astronauts to swear on the Bible that they had been to the moon, but none would do it.

He claims to have discovered Nasa archive footage showing that the Apollo 11 crew placed a transparency of the Earth in front of their space capsule window and video-taped it to simulate a journey to the moon.

And he has made a 37-minute video called A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon, which accuses Nasa of a carrying out an elaborate hoax.

Gilmond said Aldrin went to the hotel thinking that he was going to be interviewed by a Japanese educational TV station, and had no idea Sibrel would be there.

“Mr Aldrin then left the interview when he found out what it was all about, but was followed by Mr Sibrel,” Gilmond said.

“Mr Sibrel poked Mr Aldrin repeatedly with the Bible, telling him to repent, and pushing the Bible in his face.”

Although the astronaut did hit Sibrel, Gilmond said, the filmmaker was apparently not injured.

The Beverly Hills officers who came to the scene were “biased” against him, Sibrel complained to the newspaper.

“A couple of police when they arrived were already calling me a liar, and they had not even talked to me yet,” he said.

Citing his journalistic credentials, Sibrel said he had worked for two years at a Nashville TV station, WSMV.

But station news director Mark Shafer said Sibrel “only worked for the station as a part time editor for two months eight or nine years ago, and he has no right whatsoever to claim any association with our news organisation.”

At Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said: “We have a lot of respect for Buzz Aldrin, but he no longer works for us. The only thing I can tell you is we did land on the moon, and this incident has nothing to do with Nasa at all.”