Star Trek actor William Shatner's Chandrayaan 2 post sparks curiosity among fans, netizens say, "Did Captain Kirk Land on the Moon?"

In Star Trek: The Original Series, Kirk led bold missions throughout the galaxy and explored innumerable alien worlds, but he never set foot on Earth's moon.

Veteran actor William Shatner, best known as the legendary Captain James T. Kirk from Star Trek, recently stirred up some unexpected chatter online—this time not about interstellar voyages but about our very own Moon.

A casual post from Shatner about a calendar glitch led to an unexpected detour into space history, with fans humorously questioning whether the Starfleet captain himself had ever landed on the Moon.

It all began with a simple question Shatner posted on X (formerly Twitter):
“If it’s the end of the week, why does my phone’s calendar have the first day start on Sunday?”

In classic internet fashion, the responses quickly snowballed. One user replied with cheeky skepticism, "This is why I’m never gonna believe you landed on the moon. How could you pull that off in 1969 and you still don’t know that the first day of the week is Sunday?"

Shatner, always ready with a sharp and witty comeback, responded with a dose of scientific trivia, "Well the Chandrayaan-2 ship took some amazing photos of the lunar surface including images of 2 of the Apollo modules that were left on the surface. That was before the ship crashed adding another crater to the surface."

Well the Chandrayaan-2 ship took some amazing photos of the lunar surface including images of 2 of the Apollo modules that were left on the surface. That was before the ship crashed adding another crater to the surface. https://t.co/Won6d0TUaO

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) July 14, 2025

And just like that, the internet lit up. Fans started asking, “Wait, did Shatner actually land on the Moon?” Of course, the answer is no—but the question itself opened a delightful rabbit hole of nostalgia, speculation, and admiration.

Let's make things clear: Neither William Shatner nor his famous character Captain Kirk ever set foot on the moon. In Star Trek: The Original Series, Kirk led bold missions throughout the galaxy and explored innumerable alien worlds, but he never set foot on Earth's moon. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who made history in July 1969 as part of NASA's Apollo 11 mission, are the real-life recipients of that specific honour.

Shatner was absolutely correct when he made reference to India's Chandrayaan-2 mission. An orbiter on ISRO's (Indian Space Research Organisation) 2019 mission was able to take high-resolution pictures of the Moon's surface, including traces of previous Apollo missions.

The orbiter is still in operation and is still sending useful data back to Earth even though the lander crashed during descent.

Nevertheless, Shatner's interest in space is far more than just an on-screen persona. In 2021, he had his own real-life space moment. At the age of 90, William Shatner flew aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft, becoming the oldest human ever to travel to space.

Shatner experienced a few minutes of weightlessness and a breathtaking view of Earth during the Jeff Bezos-funded suborbital flight, which was enough to move the seasoned actor to tears. Even though it wasn't the Moon, Captain Kirk should have been proud of that moment.

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His light-hearted social media banter ultimately combined humour, science, and a dash of cosmic wonder in typical Shatner fashion. William Shatner's transformation from sci-fi icon to real space traveler is proof that fiction and reality can occasionally, quite literally, collide in orbit, even though Captain Kirk may never have set foot on the moon.

So no, Captain Kirk didn’t walk on the Moon in 1969—but if anyone ever deserved to plant a Starfleet flag on the lunar surface while delivering a rousing speech about boldly going where no man has gone before, it’s William Shatner.