Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin has escaped criminal prosecution for punching a conspiracy theorist who wanted him to swear on a Bible that he really did walk on the moon in 1969.
Los Angeles County prosecutors declined to file a misdemeanor battery charge against the 72-year-old ex-astronaut, who said he was defending himself and his stepdaughter when he clocked 37-year-old Bart Winfield Sibrel outside a Beverly Hills hotel on Sept. 9.
Sibrel - who made TV documentaries and films debunking the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969 - videotaped the incident for a new film.
He submitted the tape to Beverly Hills police and asked that assault charges be filed against Aldrin.
Beverly Hills police said witnesses came forward during the investigation saying they saw Sibrel aggressively poke Aldrin with a Bible and that Sibrel had lured Aldrin to the hotel under false pretenses so he could interview the space hero.
Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Ratinoff said the videotape showed Sibrel following Aldrin on the street with a Bible and calling him a "thief, liar and coward."
When the ex-astronaut struck Sibrel once in the face with his fist, Sibrel turned to his camera crew and asked: "Did you get that?" Ratinoff said.
The district attorney's office decided not to file charges because Sibrel sustained no visible injury and did not seek medical attention, and because Aldrin had no previous criminal record, she said.
Sibrel claims his new film proves that the Apollo 11 astronauts faked footage of their 1969 voyage to the Moon to fool the Soviet Union into thinking the United States had won the space race.
Aldrin was the second man to take a walk on the Moon, following Neil Armstrong on to the lunar surface, a feat recorded on grainy black-and-white film footage and transmitted around the world.