I know mechanical engineers focused on building lenses and sensors for cameras aka "instruments" aboard the ISS. After launch, when the instrument is operating, the team evaluates the data from that camera. They receive actual data, streams of it, for years.
I also know people who work on the communication devices that get fixed to cubesats. With cubesats you typically have ~60 cubesats launch off one rocket since each one is only about the size of a microwave. Once the 60ish cubesats are ejected, they are still flying very close to one another in a "cloud". One team's cubesat needs to be located out of the cloud, and there is commonly some struggle to ensure that operators on the Earth can control it properly.
After launch, the antenna guy is responsible for communication working, and the camera sensor guy is responsible for the incoming images. Even the low-level employees typically have invested years of their lives building one tiny part of a satellite; they are heavily invested in making sure it works as designed. What does this have to do with moon landings? If a modern satellite doesn't turn on or produce data as expected and designed, lots of bottom-level engineers would figure it out very quickly. The Apollo missions were no different.
Industries like aerospace in the US build machines that work. When they don't work, rockets blow up on the launch pad, or crash into Mars. They are not like sociology journals that can be infiltrated by James Lindsay in a few months.