Written by Cigpapers
Photos, Captions and Videos by Watt Tyler
NASA Apollo Moon Landing – did they make it or did they fake it?
On the 20th July 1969 NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) claimed to have landed the first men on the Moon (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin) with their Apollo 11 mission. NASA claimed to have made another five manned Moon landings ( Apollo Missions 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17) with Apollo 17 being the final mission landing on 7th December 1972. NASA still claims a total of 12 American astronauts walked on the Moon. All the alleged Moon landings used the Saturn V rocket system. The total cost of the Apollo missions is estimated at £203 billion in 2013 US dollars.
NASA was established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and became operational on 1st October 1958.
NASA gives the distance from the centre of Earth to the centre of the Moon as 239,000 miles. Since the Earth has a radius of about 4,000 miles and the Moon’s radius is roughly 1,000 miles, that leaves a surface-to-surface distance of 234,000 miles. The total distance traveled during the alleged missions, including Earth and Moon orbits, ranged from 622,268 miles for Apollo 13 to 1,484,934 miles for Apollo 17. It is accepted by the majority of People that the Apollo Moon landings were genuine, however the Cuban School National Curriculum and a growing number of sceptics claim the Apollo missions were faked. Even though this blog in no way alleges that Nazi war criminals faked the Moon landings we did find these 20 amazing facts:
1. Wernher von Braun:
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun (March 23, 1912 – June 16, 1977) was a German rocket engineer and space architect. He was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany during World War II and, subsequently, in the United States. He is credited as being the “Father of Rocket Science”. In his 20s and early 30s, von Braun was the central figure in the Nazis’ rocket development program, responsible for the design and realization of the V-1 and V-2 combat rockets during World War II.
One of von Braun’s V-2 Nazi rockets from World War Two. Firing these on a civilian population was a war crime.
Werner von Braun’s SS number was 185,068 and his Nazi Party membership number was 5,738,692, he ended the war as a SS Major. After the war, he and some select members of his rocket team were taken to the United States as part of the then-secret Operation Paperclip.
Wernher von Braun in 1941. If it hadn’t been for Operation Paperclip von Braun and his team would almost certainly have faced war crime charges at Nuremberg for their role in the V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks on England during World War Two.
Operation Paperclip involved the USA taking a large number of German scientists, technicians and other staff to the USA after the war. The USA also appropriated about 300,000 German scientific patents.
Werner von Braun with American President John F Kennedy.
Former Nazi “Peenemunde” V-1 assistant Kurt H. Debus – who went on to become the first director of the Kennedy Space Center – helped develop the Saturn V rockets (designed in part after their V-1 Nazi rockets)
Kurt H Debus became the first Director Of John F Kennedy Space Centre.
Werner von Braun in Florida with the Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo 11 Lunar Mission in 1969.
2. Die Frau im Mond (The Woman in the Moon) Film:
In 1929 a German filmmaker called Fritz Lang released a silent film called Die Frau im Mond (The Woman in the Moon). The film’s technical adviser on the film was Herman Oberth, considered to be one of the three founding fathers of rocketry. Assisting Oberth on the film project was one of his brightest students, teenager Wernher von Braun.
The totally unnecessary vertical construction of the spaceship in a specially built hangar is the same in the film Die Frau im Mond and the Apollo Missions.
A decade-and-a-half later, both Oberth and von Braun would be scooped up through Operation Paperclip and brought to America to work on the Apollo Missions, whose choreography just happened to very closely match that of the fake Moon launch Oberth and von Braun had crafted forty years earlier.
Another still from the 1929 film.
Maybe it’s just a coincidence that a 1929 silent German film had the same rocket technology as 1960s/70s American Moon landings.
The grand opening of the massive hangar doors and the excruciatingly slow roll-out of the upright rocket ship from the hangar to the launch pad are the same in the 1929 film and the Apollo Missions.
Both the film (Die Frau im Mond) and the Apollo Missions also both had the famous countdowns and the cheering, patriotic crowds.
Cheering crowds during the countdown in the 1929 film.
Screenclip from the silent film “Die Frau im Mond”.
The 1929 silent film Die Frau im Mond had a storyline that was a cross between Apollo Mission 11 (first alleged man on the Moon) and Apollo Mission 13 (aborted Moon landing after an oxygen tank allegedly exploded).
Not Jim Lovell on Apollo Mission 13 but actually the 1929 film “Die Frau im Mond”.
The 1929 silent film Die Frau im Mond and the 1960s/1970s Apollo Missions both had the same team of technical advisers.
3. America Versus Russia In The Space Race:
After World War Two America and Russia entered in to an arms race and a space race. Until the Apollo Moon landings Russia had beaten the Americans in every “first” in the space race:
May 15, 1957 – The Soviet Union tests the R-7 Semyorka, the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile.
October 4, 1957 – The Soviets launch Sputnik 1, Earth’s first manmade satellite.
November 3, 1957 – A dog named Laika becomes the first animal to enter Earth orbit aboard the Soviet Sputnik 2.
January 2, 1959 – The Soviet Luna 1 becomes the first manmade object to leave Earth’s orbit.
September 13, 1959 – After an intentional crash landing, the Soviet Luna 2 becomes the first manmade object on the Moon.
October 6, 1959 – The Soviet Luna 3 provides mankind with its first look at the far side of the Moon.
August 20, 1960 – Belka and Strelka, aboard the Soviet Sputnik 5, are the first animals to safely return from Earth orbit.
October 14, 1960 – The Soviet Marsnik 1, the first probe sent from Earth to Mars, blasts off.
February 12, 1961 – The Soviet Venera 1, the first probe sent from Earth to Venus, blasts off.
April 12, 1961 – Yuri Gagarin, riding aboard the Soviet Vostok 1, becomes the first man in Earth orbit.
May 19, 1961 – The Soviet Venera 1 performs the first ever fly by of another planet (Venus).
August 6, 1961 – Gherman Titov, aboard the Soviet Vostok 2, becomes the first man to spend over a day in space and the first to sleep in Earth orbit.
August 11 & 12, 1962 – The Soviet Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 are launched, the first simultaneous manned space flights (though they do not rendezvous).
October 12, 1964 – The Soviet Voskhod 1, carrying the world’s first multi-man crew, is launched.
March 18, 1965 – Aleksei Leonov, riding aboard the Soviet Voskhod 2, performs the first space-walk.
February 3, 1966 – The Soviet Luna 9 becomes the first probe to make a controlled, ‘soft’ landing on the Moon.
March 1, 1966 – The Soviet Venera 3, launched November 16, 1965, becomes the first probe to impact another planet (Venus).
April 3, 1966 – The Soviet Luna 10 becomes the first manmade lunar satellite.
October 30, 1967 – The Soviet Cosmos 186 and Cosmos 188 become the first unmanned spacecraft to rendezvous and dock in Earth orbit. The United States will not duplicate this maneuver for nearly four decades.
January 16, 1969 – The Soviet Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 become the first manned spacecraft to dock in Earth orbit and the first to exchange crews.
November 17, 1970 – The Soviet Lunokhod 1, the first robotic rover to land on and explore an extraterrestrial body, lands on the Moon. Twenty-seven years later, the United States lands it’s very first robotic rover on Mars.
December 15, 1970 – The Soviet Venera 7 becomes the first probe to make a soft landing on another planet (Venus).
April 19, 1971 – The Soviet Salyut 1 becomes the world’s first orbiting space station.
August 22, 1972 – The Soviet Mars 2 becomes the first probe to reach the surface of Mars.
On April 14, 1961, two days after Gagarin’s historic flight, a panicked President Kennedy reportedly inquired of NASA what goal in space America might be able to attain before the Soviets. According to legend, President Kennedy was told that America’s best hope to beat the Russians was with a manned Moon landing. At Rice University on September 12th, 1962 President Kennedy made the following speech setting the goal of the Moon landings by the end of the 1960s:
4. NASA Has Lost All Data, Blueprints And Records From The Apollo Missions:
Following Freedom Of Information requests in America NASA admitted it had lost all their original video footage of the Apollo Missions. Unfortunately, it isn’t just the video footage that is missing. Also allegedly beamed back from the Moon was voice data, biomedical monitoring data, and telemetry data to monitor the location and mechanical functioning of the spaceship. All of that data, the entire alleged record of the Moon landings, was on the 13,000+ reels that are said to be ‘missing.’ Also missing, according to NASA and its various subcontractors, are the original plans/blueprints for the lunar modules. And for the spacesuits and lunar rovers. And for the entire multi-sectioned Saturn V rockets.
NASA have lost all records of the Apollo Missions – that’s 700 cartons altogether.
5. The Apollo A7L Space Suits Used In The Apollo Missions:
The Space Suits used in the Apollo Missions were the A7L design.International Latex Corporation, which was best known as the manufacturer of Playtex bras and girdles, was awarded the contract. Hamilton Standard was awarded the contract to design and build the life-support packs known as PLSS units. All designs and blueprints for the A7L space suits have been lost.
NASA’s officially released photograph of the Apollo Missions Space Suit A7L.
Conditions on the Moon are very different to Earth as there is no atmosphere. The temperature in sunlight is estimated by NASA to be 107 degrees Celsius (225 degrees Fahrenheit) and in the shade is minus 153 degrees Celsius (minus 243 degrees Fahrenheit). There is also a constant bombardment of meteoroids.“Meteoroids,” NASA states, “are nearly-microscopic specks of space dust that fly through space at speeds often exceeding 50,000 mph – ten times faster than a speeding bullet. They pack a considerable punch … The tiny space bullets can plow directly into Moon rocks, forming miniature and unmistakable craters.” There is also the problem of massive space radiation on the Moon as there is no atmosphere like on Earth to protect it.
NASA diagram of the shield it believes will be required to protect astronauts in future Moon landings from radiation and meteoroids. NASA didn’t bother with this in the 1960s and 1970s.
NASA has now stated that maintaining 100% clean-room conditions on space exploration vehicles while performing EVAs on planetary bodies is essential as even the smallest amount of dust could cripple any space ship. Their solution for future Moon landings is the “rear-entry spacesuit” which is attached to the outside of a lunar module and is climbed in to before detaching from the lunar module. The procedure is reversed to get back in the lunar module.
NASA diagram of the rear-entry spacesuit it has designed for future Moon landings. In the 1960s and 1970s NASA didn’t worry about details like clean-room conditions.
The A7L must have been a remarkable spacesuit, it was radiation proof, able to withstand 50,000 MPH meteoroids and able to switch between 107 degrees Celsius (225 degrees Fahrenheit) and minus 153 degrees Celsius (minus 243 degrees Fahrenheit) in an instant. The A7L also had a full life-support system, oxygen and human waste management. Unfortunately we can not inspect, or even recreate, these spacesuits as NASA claims it has lost all the designs and blueprints. NASA claims the spacesuits themselves were left on the Moon to save weight on the return journey.
6. The Van Allen Radiation Belts:
The Van Allen radiation belts are two regions of radiation that encircle the Earth. They are named in honor of James Van Allen, the scientist who led the team that launched the first successful satellite that could detect radioactive particles in space. This was Explorer 1, which launched in 1958 and led to the discovery of the radiation belts. There is a large outer belt that follows the magnetic field lines essentially from the north to south poles around the planet. This belt begins around 8,400 to 36,000 miles above the surface of the Earth. The inner belt does not extend as far north and south. It runs, on average, from 60 miles about the Earth’s surface to about 6,000 miles. The two belts expand and shrink. Sometimes the outer belt nearly disappears. Sometimes it swells so much that the two belts appear to merge to form one big radiation belt.In 1969-70 the Van Allen Belt was at it’s 11 year cycle peak radiation
Due to the Van Allen radiation belts no manned space craft has ever travelled more than 400 miles above the Earth’s surface, apart from the Apollo missions. On June 24, 2005, NASA made this rather remarkable admission: “NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration calls for a return to the Moon as preparation for even longer journeys to Mars and beyond. But there’s a potential showstopper: radiation. Space beyond low-Earth orbit is awash with intense radiation from the Sun and from deep galactic sources such as supernovas … Finding a good shield is important.” The Russians have calculated that to protect their cosmonauts from radiation a 4 foot (120cm) thick lead casing would be needed.
7. Shadows On Moon Photographs:
According to NASA the Apollo Moon missions carried no lighting equipment, and the only light source for Apollo photographs and videos was the sun. Despite this there seems to be at least two light sources on a number of Apollo photographs due to there being shadows cast in two directions.Here is an example of these two light source photographs:
In other photographs it appears the light source is much closer than the Sun would be:
8. The Lunar Explorer Modules:
The Lunar Explorer Modules (LEM) were the part of the Apollo missions that detached from the Command Service Modules (CSM)and descended to the Moon’s surface. The LEMs were all designed and built by Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation of New York. Even though no designs or blueprints still exist for LEMs or CSMs here is a NASA diagram of a LEM:
The LEMs had an exterior measurement of about 12 foot by 12 foot (360cmX360cm) according to NASA, with a crew compartment of about 6 foot by 6 foot by 6 foot (180cmX180cmX180cm). Due to lower gravity on the Moon it had an effective weight of about 3 tons on the Lunar surface. For the descent stage, there is the reverse-thrust rocket that allegedly allowed the craft to make a soft landing on the Moon. And then for the ascent stage a powerful rocket propels the top half of the LEM into lunar orbit. The LEM would then dock with the CSM that NASA state was orbiting the Moon at about 4,000 MPH.
Photograph of a LEM allegedly on the Lunar surface released by NASA.
NASA claimed there was no room for seats in the LEMs, but never indicated where the astronauts slept during their time on the Moon’s surface.
Close up of photograph serial number AS11-40-5922 released by NASA.
9. The Lunar Roving Vehicle:
The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) or Lunar Rover was a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo Missions ( 15,16 and 17) during 1971 and 1972. It was popularly known as the Moon Buggy.It was a fragile looking, open-space vehicle about 10 feet long with large mesh wheels, antenna appendages, tool caddies and cameras. Powered by two 36-volt batteries, it had four one-fourth hp drive motors, one for each wheel.The LRV was transported to the Moon on the Lunar Explorer Modules (LEMs) and, once unpacked on the surface, could carry one or two astronauts, their equipment, and lunar samples. According to NASA the three LRVs remain on the Moon.
LRV from Apollo 15 mission allegedly photographed on the Moon in 1971. Notice there are boot prints but no tyre tracks – did the LRV float in to this position? NASA photo serial number As15-88-11901
The first cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to Boeing was for $19,000,000 ( about $150,000,000 in 2013 US Dollars) and called for delivery of the first LRV by 1 April 1971. Cost overruns, however, led to a final cost of $38,000,000, ( about $300,000,000 in 2013 US Dollars)which was about the same as NASA’s original estimate. When questioned how the LRVs could fit in the LEMs NASA claimed that they folded in to the size of a suitcase.
The LRV could only be being unpacked in this photograph as NASA didn’t re-pack any LRVs as they were all allegedly left on the Moon. Apart from the mystery tyre tracks NASA must use some big suitcases.
NASA are planning a manned trip to the Moon in the 2020s or 2030s. They have released photographs of their prototype Lunar Rovers which will be radiation and meteoroid proof.
NASA prototype Lunar Rover for future manned Moon trips. Not as cool as the 1960s/1970s version but much safer from radiation and meteoroids.
Here is a video of the Lunar Rover on the alleged Apollo 16 mission:
Here is another good Lunar Rover video:
10.The Lunar Explorer Module Landing Sites:
The Lunar Explorer Modules (LEM) were the part of the Apollo missions that detached from the Command Service Modules (CSM)and descended to the Moon’s surface. Due to lower gravity on the Moon it had an effective weight of about 3 tons on the Lunar surface. For the descent stage, there is the reverse-thrust rocket that allegedly allowed the craft to make a soft landing on the Moon.
NASA photograph of a LEM allegedly on the Moon’s surface. As can be clearly seen no dust has been displaced by the reverse-thrust rockets which were allegedly used.
The reverse-thrust rocket system would have created a crater under the LEM landing site, and would probably have turned the dust in to a glass-like substance. In the photograph below you can’t see so much as a single grain of ‘lunar soil’ settled onto the lunar modules while they were setting down.
Another NASA photograph of a LEM allegedly on the Moon’s surface. It can again be clearly seen no dust has been displaced by the reverse-thrust rockets which were allegedly used.
11. Evidence Of Studio Lighting On Apollo Mission Photographs:
NASA has repeatedly stated that there was no artificial lighting used on the Apollo Moon landings and the only light source for videos and photographs is the Sun. However a careful study of numerous Apollo photographs would seem to indicate the use of studio lighting suggesting the “landings” were filmed and photographed in a film studio.
In one shot (AS14-64-9089) studio-lighting representing the sun is seen reflecting off a black background, a photographic effect that couldn’t happen in the blackness of space, and could only reflect off a background
In this Apollo 12 photograph there appears to be the reflection of what can only be an overhead studio light.
This Apollo 12 photograph (AS12-49-7278) shows two lens flares from overhead lighting.
The angles of the shadows in this Apollo 14 photograph (AS14-68-9486) indicate a light source just to the left of the photograph. This can’t be the Sun and can only be an artificial light.
12. The Fake Moon Rocks:
On their return from the alleged Apollo 11 Moon landing Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins toured together giving “Moon rocks” to grateful countries around the World. Altogether NASA gave over 100 countries “Moon rocks”
A “Moon rock” that turned out to be petrified wood when tested by scientists. How radioactive would a real rock from the Moon be?
Whenever they have been tested these alleged “Moon rocks” have turned out to be fakes. Here is an article from the British mainstream media about a fake “Moon rock” :
One other point is that surely a genuine rock brought from the surface of the Moon would have been highly radioactive, and far too dangerous for public display.
13.Laser Reflectors Left On The Moon:
One piece of evidence NASA repeatedly quote is that they left laser reflectors on the Moon which are still there. NASA claim that they can prove the laser reflectors are on the Moon because they can bounce lasers off them to measure the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
Laser reflector that NASA claims it left on the Moon.
According to NASA the fact that observatories to this day bounce lasers off the alleged reflectors proves that the Apollo missions succeeded. It is perfectly obvious though that the targets, if there, could have been placed robotically – most likely by the Soviets. It is also possible that there are no laser targets on the Moon. In December 1966, National Geographic reported that scientists at MIT had been achieving essentially the same result for four years by bouncing a laser off the surface of the Moon. The New York Times added that the Soviets had been doing the same thing since at least 1963, possibly as early as 1962 or even 1961.
You might have used one of the laser room measurers that most hardware / DIY shops carry nowadays. They manage to measure the size of rooms by bouncing a laser off opposite walls without any laser reflector.
14.Onboard Computer System:
NASA claim that the onboard computer for the Apollo Missions had a memory capacity of about 72 kilobytes – that is less powerful than most modern digital watches. NASA have never clarified whether this computer was on the Command Service Module (orbiting the Moon at 4,000 miles per hour) or either part of the two-part Lunar Exploration Module. Therefore either the CSM or the LEM had no onboard computer.
1960s computers were total crap. Maybe that’s why NASA only shared one between the CSM and LEM.
The most complicated aspect of the Apollo missions was the landing of the lunar modules, which made the software program controlling that part of the mission the most difficult to design. Amazingly though, that aspect of the software design was not assigned until after most of the other programmes were 2/3 complete – and it was assigned to a twenty-two-year-old gent named Don Isles who had just recently started his very first job. According to Moon Machines, “the programme without which it would be impossible to land on the Moon … had been written almost as an afterthought by a junior engineer.”
15. Mission Control In Houston Texas:
All the Apollo missions were allegedly controlled by Mission Control at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.
Mission Control in Houston, Texas looked very impressive. However it was totally fake.
Mission Control looked like the cutting edge of 1960s technology at the time. However it has now been revealed that the staff were simply store clerks hired to pretend to be NASA scientists. A 2005 documentary entitled First on the Moon: The Untold Story, showed that Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas “was not as high-tech as it looked.” In reality, as Apollo 11 computer engineer Jack Garman tells us, “the computer screens that we looked at in Mission Control weren’t computer screens at all. They were televisions. All the letters, or characters, [they] were all hand drawn. I don’t necessarily mean with a brush, but I mean they were painted on a slide.” Jack Garman was allegedly the member of the Apollo 11 ground-crew who cleared the Eagle to land despite the fact that multiple alarms were going off.
16. NASA Claims Photos Proved The Moon Landings Happened:
NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on June 18th 2009 to photograph and map the Moon to find safe landing sites for Moon landings. NASA claims to have taken photographs of the Apollo 11 landing site and the bottom half of the LEM which didn’t return. Here are the photos that allegedly prove the Apollo missions to the Moon took place.
I can’t see anything from 500 metres up – maybe if we got closer.
As you can see from 500 metres above the Moon there is no visible sign of the bottom half of the LEM from the Apollo 11 mission.
NASA claim that these photos from 200 metres up clearly show the Apollo 11 landing site and the bottom half of the LEM.
17. Lack Of Stars:
One argument for the Apollo Moon landings being hoaxed is the total lack of stars in any of the photographic/video evidence. There are no clouds on the Moon, so stars are perpetually visible and significantly brighter than what we see through the filter of Earth’s atmosphere.
Did NASA realise it impossible to map out the exact locations of all the stars for the hoax without being rumbled, and therefore left them out? Intentionally falling back on an excuse that the quality of the photographs washes them out (an excuse they did actually give).
Some photographs are high-quality, however, and yet still no stars are shown. Certainly eerie, considering you can take pictures of stars from Earth in much lower quality and still see them.
Here is a video of Patrick Moore asking the Apollo 11 astronauts whether they could see stars from the Moon:
18. Faked Moon Walks:
Over the years there have been some serious questions raised about the film of Astronauts allegedly walking on the Moon. NASA claims the original Apollo footage has been lost but copies of it recorded by TV stations at the time are still available. One of the main criticisms is that with one sixth gravity the Astronauts don’t seem to be able to jump very high and when speeded up their jumps seem very Earthly. Also if you look how the dust is thrown up it also seems very similar to Earth which it obviously shouldn’t be.
Here is one video out of many showing these flaws in the footage:
19. Stanley Kubrick And Front Screen Projection:
Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was a jewish American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor who did much of his work in the United Kingdom. Stanley Kubrick is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential directors of all time. His films are noted for their unique cinematography, attention to detail in the service of realism, and the evocative use of music.
Stanley Kubrick in 1971.
What is Front Screen Projection?
Kubrick did not invent the process but there is no doubt that he perfected it.Front Screen Projection is a cinematic device that allows scenes to be projected behind the actors so that it appears, in the camera, as if the actors are moving around on the set provided by the Front Screen Projection.The process came into fruition when the 3M company invented a material called Scotchlite. This was a screen material that was made up of hundreds of thousands of tiny glass beads each about .4 millimeters wide. These beads were highly reflective. In the Front Screen Projection process the Scotchlite screen would be placed at the back of the soundstage. The plane of the camera lens and the Scotchlite screen had to be exactly 90 degrees apart. A projector would project the scene onto the Scotchlite screen through a mirror and the light would go through a beam splitter, which would pass the light into the camera. An actor would stand in front of the Scotchlite screen, and he would appear to be inside the projection.
How “Front Screen Projection” works.
In Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey Kubrick uses “Front Screen Projection” in several scenes.
Scene from Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) using the “Front Screen Projection” technique.
The same scene with a line showing the set and the background Scotchlite Front Projection Screen.
In the example above of “Front Screen Projection” the part under the line is a stage set and the part above is a screen. Looking at the Apollo Mission photos below the same technique seems to have been used.
A still photograph from the Apollo 17 Mission.
The same photo from Apollo 17 with a line showing where the back of the set looks to be.
Another photo from Apollo Mission 17.
The same photo from Apollo Mission 17 with a line indicating where the set seems to end and the Scotchlite Front Projection Screen begins.
Here is an extensive study of Apollo imagery by photo analyst Jack White BA:
20. Return Trips To The Moon:
In 2005 NASA started their Constellation Programme (abbreviated CxP) to put men back on the Moon. They originally planned to get a man on the Moon by 2028 ( over three times longer than in the 1960s ) but soon pushed that date back to 2035.
On June 24, 2005, NASA made this rather remarkable admission: “NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration calls for a return to the Moon as preparation for even longer journeys to Mars and beyond. But there’s a potential showstopper: radiation. Space beyond low-Earth orbit is awash with intense radiation from the Sun and from deep galactic sources such as supernovas … Finding a good shield is important.” The Russians have calculated that to protect their cosmonauts from radiation a 4 foot (120cm) thick lead casing would be needed.
In 2010 the Constellation Programme was put on the back-burner, due to insurmountable technical problems, after around $50 billion had been spent on it. NASA could have obviously used the 1960s Apollo designs if they hadn’t all been lost.
If NASA Did Fake The Moon Landings: Why? Where? How? Who?
Why? If NASA did fake the Moon landings the obvious reason is that after John F Kennedy stated that America would put a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s America couldn’t really back down. They would probably not have realised before about 1963 that it was impossible, and by then they had gone through 10s of billions of Dollars of taxpayers money. The loss of prestige, both at home and abroad, could have even brought down the American military/industrial complex and the American elite.
Where? If NASA did fake the Moon landings then the fake footage could have been shot at many locations, and probably more than one. NASA had its own recreations of the Moon surface and such places as Area 51, Lauren Canyon in Hollywood or even the set of Space Odyssey: 2001 could all have easily been used.
How? Faking the Moon landings would have been a lot easier than actually making the Moon landings. Everything the public saw on Earth would have been real apart from the Astronauts would have left the Saturn V rocket secretly before take off. The empty Saturn V rocket would have blasted off empty and fallen back to Earth, while NASA reported that the CSM and LEM were on their way to the Moon. After that all NASA had to do was bounce the fake transmissions off the Moon back to Earth. For the return “splashdown” they could have simply dropped the CSM from a helicopter or transport plane.
Who? The favourite suggestion for who directed the Apollo footage, if it was fake, is obviously Stanley Kubrick who made several references to the Apollo Missions in his other films. Another intriguing possibility is that director Roman Polanski was either involved or knew too much and a lot of his troubles, including the murder of Sharon Tate, are linked to the Apollo Missions.