The Space Shuttle missions are a fraud perpetrated on the American public as part of a conspiracy by NASA and a shady group of Hollywood moviemakers.

This is the claim of Nevada-based UFO author and militia leader William H Carpenter. In a forthcoming book, Space: the phony frontier, he lays out his evidence for what he calls "history's greatest con-trick". It is, he says, nothing more than a way of funneling tax money to California's super-rich film directors.

Much of Carpenter's evidence depends on an analysis of photographs taken during the alleged space missions.

"For a start," says Carpenter, "the lighting is all wrong. In space, with no atmosphere to reflect light, anything in shadow should be completely black. But you can clearly see details."

He goes on: "Another clear give-away is that there are no birds in any of the launch pictures. Cape Canaveral — or Kennedy Space Center, if you must call it that — is on the coast, so you'd at least expect a few gulls. But nothing." When it was pointed out that some NASA pictures do, in fact, have birds in them, Carpenter's response is a simple, "Photoshop."

Other tell-tale signs, says Carpenter, include:

• The lack of stars in pictures taken in orbit. Stars are really bright in space, contends Carpenter. This was also a mistake made in the faked moon missions, but NASA had even less excuse with orbiting Shuttle missions where there's no bright surface to affect the exposure.
• Photos and film footage taken on one 'mission' are sometimes used again, supposedly taken on later flights. "It's sloppy and condescending," says Carpenter. "I guess they think that all Shuttle missions look the same to the general public. And actually, they sort of do."
• Astronauts performing so-called EVAs, or space walks, would be fried by the sun. "We're told all the time that everyone on Earth would be burnt to a crisp if it wasn't for the ozone layer," asserts Carpenter. "And those NASA 'spacemen' are supposedly flying above the atmosphere."
• Images of the Earth allegedly taken from the Shuttle are clearly snapped by high-flying aircraft. Many of the images may have been stolen from Google Earth.

The craft seen blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center, in orbit around the Earth and landing back on NASA's runways, is actually a model just three feet long, Carpenter claims.

NASA simply does not have the technology to build a real Shuttle, he says. "It's impressive trickery," he says, "but the kind of thing that Hollywood does every day. In fact, NASA is working with a secretive cabal of movie directors to perpetrate this fraud on the American public. That's where all the federal money goes — not to Houston and Florida, but LaLa Land."

He added: "Think about it. We now know for a fact that the so-called Moon missions were faked. The evidence is overwhelming. And without the technology and experience that the Apollo missions were supposed to have given NASA, there's no way they could have developed the Shuttle. It's simple logic."

"I've had these NASA images subjected to scientific analysis by top experts at Kodak, and they concur." The World Inquisitor was able to track down one of Carpenter's sources, who denied that he works for Kodak but admitted that his Melbourne, Florida gift shop does indeed sell Kodak film.

NASA declined to comment. On hearing this, Carpenter commented: "What more proof do you need?"

He concluded: "There is one detail that really clinches it, the fatal mistake NASA made in all this fakery. Take a look at pictures of the Shuttle in orbit. In particular, look closely at the so-called robotic arm. You'll see writing on it, and do you know what it says? It says 'Canada'. Amazing, isn't it? What the hell would Canadians be doing in space?"