On the laser ranging - we put a retroreflector on the moon. If we shine a laser from earth to the moon and look for a reflection from the rr, that will be different from a return from a shiny rock, it will have many times higher luminance. Also the return will come from the exact spot where we placed the reflector. Since anyone on earth (any nation) can perform that test, it separates any chance of a fake US claim from ground truth data anyone can validate.

On the laser ranging - we put a retroreflector on the moon. If we shine a laser from earth to the moon and look for a reflection from the rr, that will be different from an return from a shiny rock, many times higher luminance. Also the return will come from the exact spot where we placed the reflector. Since anyone on earth (any nation) can perform that test, it separates any chance of a fake US claim from ground truth data anyone can validate.