The Truth Behind The Moon Landings Conspiracy
Theories…

MOONSPIRACY REAL OR
FAKE?
 
 
 

Shocking Conspiracy Series

 
Phil Coleman
 
Copyright © 2017.

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limits all liability arising from this work to the fullest extent of the law.

Introduction
Recently I had the privilege of speaking to a man of 71 who saw the
film on TV of the Apollo 11 landing on July 20, 1969. He was at the
time a young man who was a student at university studying science
and mathematics.
He remembers the black-and-white images of that event very well.
He describes what he saw as a seminal moment in his life.
He recounted how everything seemed very slow and how some of
those who he was with said," this is so boring." He said he felt
inspired when he heard the words of Armstrong about one small step
for man and one huge step for mankind.
It sent a shiver down his spine and brought tears to his eyes.I too
was deeply touched personally when I heard what was written on the
plaque they left on the lunar surface.
This said in simple words that man first came to the moon in July
1969 and came in peace for all humanity.
I think we all yearn for peace and this extraordinary gesture, such a
long way from our planet, so frequently driven by hatred and war,
summed up all our yearnings.
My friend recounted how during his childhood and adolescence he
had followed the space race with fascination and excitement.
The launch of Sputnik, how his parents had bought him a balloon toy
modeled after the Sputnik, the Vanguard failures, the flight of Yuri
Gagarin, the suborbital flight of Alan Shepard, John Glenn's orbit on
Friendship 7 and all the many space exploits leading up to July 20,
1969.
The tragic death of Grissom and two others in 1967 was mentioned
as a source of sadness.
This same sadness was felt by anyone who watched the explosion
which destroyed the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.
Such sadness returned when the space shuttle Columbia
disintegrated on reentry to the atmosphere in 2003.
He said that the Space Race had made a pleasant escape from the
ever-present threat of the Cold War which hung over the whole world
like a wet blanket.
A wet blanket which every so often got very worrisome when there
was a crisis such as the Cuban missile drama in 1962.
We discussed the fact that apparently many people doubted whether
the events shown rather indistinctly on an old television in 1969 had
ever occurred.
The man said there may be doubters of this but he was not one of
them. He felt that the doubts raised were ridiculous.
Probably done to make money for those who espoused them.
He said he had his doubts about 9/11 and about Pearl Harbor but
none whatsoever about the Moon landing. In his opinion, the Moon
landings were the real deal.
He deeply applauded the actions of astronaut Buzz Aldrin who
punched conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel for calling him a liar and
coward.
Apparently, Aldrin who flew 66 combat missions in Korea and shot
down 2 enemy planes found that accusation a bit rich.
My conversation with this man stopped at this point with me thanking
him for sharing his thoughts about the events of half a century ago.
Events, which still reverberate within him. My parents have passed
away so I cannot question them about the Moon landings however
they never expressed any doubts to me that the Moon landings
might be hoaxes.
As an author, I have to keep an open mind. This book will have a
look at the evidence for and against the Moon landings.
It will be up to you the reader on the basis of what you read in this
book and elsewhere to decide.
 
If you Google you will get many hits on flying saucers and
astronauts. It would seem that there are astronauts who are as
convinced as many others that there are alien civilizations out there.
There are estimates that the number of civilizations to be as high as
100 million. Given the vast size of the universe, it is no wonder that
there is confusion as to the number of civilizations there may be out
there.  No one really knows.
If you check these sites you will find unconfirmed reports of Apollo 11
astronauts, Armstrong and Aldrin, seeing UFOs during the first
Apollo mission to the moon.
There are conversations from various Apollo landings from the
astronauts to central control and back again which have been
construed by some people as evidence of an unknown civilization
that has been on the Moon.
I will not be investigating this seriously in this book. As with the moon
landings, I have to keep an open mind.
It is very unlikely that humanity is alone in the cosmos. Many books
have been written and many side scientific papers published about
this. This book only mentions these phenomena in passing.
This book considers conspiracy theories, what they are and why they
occur.
It has a look at the backdrop to the whole Moon program, which was
the Cold War. It outlines the Space Race of which the Apollo
landings were the final episode then it moves on to the question of
whether the moon landings were faked or whether they actually
occurred.
It concludes with an examination of the future space travel of
mankind.
Onto chapter 1.


What Are Conspiracy Theories?

There are a vast number of websites dealing with a plethora of such
theories. We shall propose in this chapter that this fact and the
existence of Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter have made
conspiracy theories far more prevalent and widely believed today
than ever before but first.
What are conspiracies? A conspiracy is when two or more people
get together and collude in order to commit an act, which is illegal,
immoral or secret.
Criminal acts are often the result of conspiracies. Security agencies
such as the CIA and KGB concoct plans, which have to be
confidential and are continually conspiring.
Companies usually desire to maintain commercial confidentiality but
often employ people to infiltrate the confidentiality of others and in so
doing act conspiratorially which means participate in a conspiracy.
Most people have been involved in mild conspiracies such as two
children who collude to raid their parents' liquor cabinet. There are
other conspiracies committed by governments which may or may not
be successful. Here are two conspiracies, which were very
successful.
The location of the D-Day landings: Long before June 6, 1944, the
Allied Supreme Command had decided to invade France in
Normandy and devoted all their planning to this end. They were very
determined that the opposing Nazis would not know this.
The Nazis were certain that the invasion would occur in the Pas de
Calais region of France which was much closer to Britain.
Although the invasion was not immoral it was certainly secret. The
Germans did not realize they were wrong until it was too late.
The rapprochement between China and the USA: For some time
before President Nixon's stunning visit to China in February 1972,
there had been secret meetings between diplomats of these two
great countries.
The planning for the visit whose consequences are still being felt
was very secret. There was a conspiracy, even if it was not for
immoral reasons.
Some conspiracies do go wrong though.
Gulf of Tonkin Incident: The Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964
involving US Navy ships and the North Vietnamese, was a strange
incident.
President Johnson of the USA used it as a pretext for a massive
increase in the American involvement in the Vietnam War. Planning
for this involvement had been underway previously and kept secret.
This was a conspiracy, which resulted in the only defeat that the
USA has had in a war. It was a disaster.
 Watergate: The Watergate conspiracy is regarded as the largest
political scandal anywhere in the world.
Basically, it involved a conspiracy between President Richard Nixon
and some of his top aides to get subordinates to break into the US
Democratic Party's national committee headquarters in the
Watergate complex in Washington in 1972.
The intruders were caught and over the next two years, the extent of
the conspiracy was discovered. This discovery led to the resignation
of President Nixon in 1974.
Kathleen Kane: In 2016 the Attorney General of Pennsylvania
Kathleen Kane was convicted on a number of charges including
perjury and criminal conspiracy.
She had leaked information for a grand jury in order to discredit a
political rival. She was caught and lied about what she had done
however her downfall was decided by a jury thus ending a brilliant
career.
What are Conspiracy Theories?  There are many definitions of
what a conspiracy theory is.
The best I have found is the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. It is a
good idea to read their definition. 
A conspiracy theory is a belief that things should not be taken at face
value. The reason being that there are very powerful people or
forces who are directing events for their own reasons such as
financial gain or power.
Conspiracy theories have always existed. Perfect examples are the
ideas promoted by the Nazis that the Jews were responsible for
Germany's defeat in World War 1 and what the Nazis believed was
the decay and ruin of the Aryan race.
Another was that promoted by the Communists that every wrong
thing in society could be attributed to monopoly capitalists who
controlled everything and masterminded oppression, poverty, and
war so as to reap profits.
Another far more widespread belief is that there is a fallen angel
called Satan who is the unseen ruler of the Earth and all who live in it
and is responsible for all evil.
This belief is at the root of most religions.
What Are Some Widely Believed Conspiracy Theories?  The
murder of the US President JF Kennedy is officially believed to be
the work of a lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.
This explanation is seen as a coverup by many who see the
President's death as the result of the machinations of either the
Cubans, the Mafia, the Teamsters, Vice President Johnson or the
Illuminati.
Princess Diana, divorced wife of Prince Charles, was killed in a
motor smash with her lover Dodi Fayed in a car driven too fast by
Henri Paul, a security official of Fayed.
Since then Diana's death has been blamed on conspiracies involving
the British Secret Service MI6, the Royal Family, and the Illuminati.
On September 11, 2001, passenger planes seized by Arab terrorists
belonging to Al Quaeda crashed into the Twin Towers in New York.
As a consequence of this President Bush justified an invasion of Iraq
which caused much trouble throughout the world.
This event has led to countless conspiracy theories most of which
allege official coverups. Once again the Illuminati feature among
possible conspirators.
 Who Or What Are The Illuminati?  The Illuminati actually existed
and were a secret society which was founded in Bavaria in the 18th
century. They were banned during that time and later blamed for the
French Revolution.
Since then they are alleged to have been responsible for most wars,
revolutions, atrocities and catastrophes.
They have metamorphosed, in the minds of their believers, into a
sinister group who wish to build a New World Order.
This group of people is alleged to include the Kennedys, the Onassis
family, the Rothschilds and even Angela Jolie and Lady Gaga.
Some of the people believing in this conspiracy allege that members
have to commit blood sacrifices.
It is believed by some adherents that such famous people as
Michael Jackson, John Lennon and Elvis were killed by the
Illuminati.
The Illuminati are alleged to have various symbols which include
such things as 666, a double lightning bolt which was the SS Nazi
symbol, the pentagram, and the skull and crossbones.
Another symbol of the Illuminati is claimed to be the all-seeing eye
on the pyramid which is featured on the US dollar.
Why Do Conspiracy Theories Spread So Quickly? Conspiracy
theories seem to be more prevalent these days. If you go into any
bookshop you will see books and magazines which question and
contradict the official version of many things.
Any surfing of the Internet will produce thousands and thousands of
similar such refutations of orthodoxy.
In 2016 the Americans elected a man as president who seems to
believe in such theories. Conspiracy theories are especially
prevalent when people feel threatened and they find that others,
particularly those in power give voice to their fears.
There is solid research to show that although the belief in conspiracy
theories is not more now than it was half a century ago the rate at
which conspiracy theories form is much quicker. The cause of this is
new technology.
There are countless millions of people throughout the world using
their smartphones and tablets to put pictures and videos of events
online, in other words, they are supplying news.
There are probably, even more, people exchanging opinions and
views with one another on this news.
The combination of these two phenomena, unheard-of in human
history before, has led to the proliferation of conspiracy theories that
is seen nowadays.
What causes Conspiracy Theories? The phenomenon of
conspiracy theories has been the subject of many scientific studies.
Many of these reach the conclusion that there is in human nature a
desire to search for patterns.
Some of the greatest scientific and mathematical achievements can
be attributed to this.
Programmers working in artificial intelligence create code which
does exactly that on things called perceptrons which look for
patterns.
Their search for these is reinforced by the use of rewards and
punishments so that the execution of the code is similar to the
training of a dog.
Once people see a pattern then the next step is to presume that this
pattern is the result of an agent who created the pattern.
This behavior had great value in evolution and in the early days of
mankind when humanity was in the hunter-gatherer phase.
A noise that was heard by an early human might just be the wind or
it could be a saber tooth tiger.
The safest course of action was to always presume a saber tooth
tiger was responsible.
The noise was the pattern and the saber tooth tiger the agent in this
particular case.
Like the programmer successfully coding his or her artificial
intelligence program the response has been programmed into our
DNA.
Nowadays we find our agents in the form of the government, the
Illuminati, the deities of religion and other things once we have seen
a pattern.
Nowadays we all have good reason to be suspicious of the actions
of government, big business, bureaucracies, academia etc.
It is quite natural to see one of them as an agent rather than accept
the explanation they give.
Can any harm result from Conspiracy Theories? Most conspiracy
theories are harmless nonsense.
If someone chooses to believe that the Illuminati are behind the ills
of this world in order to establish World Government then such a
belief is probably harmless.
Unfortunately, not all conspiracy theories can be dismissed as
harmless nonsense.
There is a theory that vaccines cause autism.
This theory insists that children are being injected with a poison that
could cause them to have autism.
The reason that this is done is to make profits for the drug
companies, which produce the vaccine and have influenced the
government to force the vaccines upon an unwary public.
As a consequence of this belief, many parents prevented their
children from being vaccinated. There is solid research to show that
autism is not caused by vaccines.
However, if a child is not vaccinated against measles or some of the
other diseases which he or she could be vaccinated against they
could well lose their lives.
No parent wants that for their son or daughter. The effect of
withholding vaccination from them puts them in much greater danger
than if they were vaccinated.
This is a clear-cut case where belief in a conspiracy is harmful.
Is The Moon Landing The Subject Of  Conspiracy Theories? To
those who believe the Moon landings were real they represent the
summit of human achievement.
The Extraordinary organization, brilliant technology, great courage,
indeed the Moon landings represent everything good and noble that
mankind is capable of.
Others though do not believe the landings took place. They believe it
was impossible in 1969 to send and land a man on the Moon.
They are sure NASA faked the landings by making films purportedly
showing something that did not occur.
They believe that NASA did this under directions from the
government who wanted to convince the world that America had
better technology than Russia.
They are certain there has been a cover-up of the facts for at least
half a century. Yes, the Moon landing is the subject of conspiracy
theories.
Amazingly the Illuminati have been insinuated into this by some but
most see a more mundane reason.
The reason that the government would want to do this is the Cold
War. The next chapter will discuss this extraordinary episode in
history.


The Cold War

 
“I grew up during the Cold War when everything seemed very tenuous. For many years,
right up until the fall of the Berlin Wall, I had vivid nightmares of nuclear apocalypse.”
—Justin Cronin

The Germans launched a carefully planned invasion of Poland on

September 1, 1939,  and so began World War II.
Russia, or the USSR as it was then, also invaded Poland on
September 17, 1939, and seized the eastern half of that tragic
country.
A country that has been the subject of so many invasions over the
centuries.
The Soviets invaded Poland because of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact
of August 1939. In this pact, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia
agreed on the mutual invasion.
In reality, Russia invaded Poland as they needed as much territory
between them and the Germans as they could get.
They realized the Nazis would eventually invade them.
For similar reasons they absorbed the three small countries,
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, adjacent to them on the Baltic Sea in
early 1940, and also launched an attack on Finland in 1940.
On June 22, 1941, after conquering most European countries the
Germans, at last, launched a massive attack on the USSR.
For nearly six months the German army or Wehrmacht could not be
stopped. The Russians suffered millions of casualties.
However, the Russians repulsed the Germans during December
1941 in the battle of Moscow.
In that same month Hitler, the German dictator, declared war on the
USA. This was to prove a fatal error for the Nazi regime.
The Nazis renewed the offensive against the Russians in 1942 with
spectacular victories. The Russians were in full retreat.
However they recovered and inflicted a catastrophic defeat on the
Wehrmacht (German Army) in the battle of Stalingrad.
At the end of 1942, the Nazis were retreating, both in Russia and
North Africa.
The Germans suffered another very serious defeat in the battle of
Kursk during mid-1943 and were never again on the offensive on the
Eastern Front against the Russians.
All they could do was retreat and suffer defeat after defeat as they
did so. For another two years or so the war continued until Hitler
committed suicide and the Germans surrendered in May 1945.
During their conquest of the Nazis, the USSR had taken over the
countries of Eastern Europe. The Russians forced these countries to
turn communist and the Iron Curtain fell over Europe.
What is called the Cold War between the communists and the West
began.
The Cold War was not a war in which the armed forces of the Soviet
Bloc and the West clashed but a state of hostility none the less.
The only actual shooting wars were by proxy in the Korean War, in
colonial wars and revolutions, often, but not always started by the
Communists, against corrupt regimes, such as the Batista regime in
Cuba.
There were some incidents which seemed to threaten war such as
the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis of
1962 and wars in the Middle East. However, actual war between the
West and the Soviet Bloc never happened.
Germany was completely smashed by invasion and by bombing. The
USSR set up a communist regime in East Germany.
The biggest German city, Berlin, was surrounded by this communist
state. The isolated democratic enclave in the middle of a communist
dictatorship was a major problem for the communists.
The USA, the UK and France were to have free access to West
Berlin. The Russians tried to stop this by imposing a blockade of
Berlin in 1948.
The blockade was lifted by a huge Allied airlift. The Cold War
deepened, as China became Communist in 1949.
The Russians were terrified the USA would use the atom bomb
against them. The atom bomb had brought the war against Japan to
a close in August 1945.
The Russians as a result of spying and a massive effort acquired the
atom bomb in 1949.
At the end of the Second World War in Europe, the Allies found that
the Germans were far more advanced in rocketry than Britain, the
USA or the USSR.
They had devastated parts of London in 1944 with the V1 rocket and
had developed a weapon of far greater potential with the V2 rocket.
The Americans were deeply impressed and immediately took as
much of the German rocket program back to the USA as possible.
As well as actual rockets they took as many German rocket
scientists as they could.
One of these scientists, Wernher von Braun, played a key role in the
development of what became the US space program.
The operation to bring the German rocket program to the USA was
called Operation Paperclip. In some cases, a blind eye was turned
on war crimes these people may have committed.
All combatants on the battlefield had used rockets with great and in
some cases devastating effect during the war.
The British and Canadian armies used the Land Mattress rocket
launcher in the final stages of World War II.
The United States army had little use for rocket launchers except for
a few rocket launchers mounted on tanks however their navy used
them with great effect to bombard Japanese positions in the Pacific
War.
The Japanese used them in the later stages of the Pacific war in the
Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.
The Russians used the Katyusha rocket launcher which was called
the Stalin organ against the Germans from 1941 onwards until the
end of the end of the war.
The Germans also had a rocket launcher which was similar to the
Katyusha and they often used it.
During the Second World War, the Germans developed a very
powerful flying bomb called the V1. The V1 obviously came before
the V2. Its effect was far more serious for the British than the V2.
The Germans rained thousands of V1 bombs upon London and
caused a lot of damage as a result. The V1 was the precursor of the
cruise missiles, which are used in the 21st century.
Like the V1 the cruise missile does not go terribly fast but is very
accurate and also very devastating. Both the Americans and Russia
have deployed them with great effect in Syria.
The Americans saw great possibilities of equipping huge rockets with
atomic payloads if the German V2 could be developed and improved
further.
This motivated their actions in moving the German rocket program to
the USA as soon as possible.
The Russians also saw this possibility and as a consequence there
developed a continuing improvement in rocketry on both sides that
saw both the USA and the USSR develop what are called ICBM
rockets.
ICBM stands for intercontinental ballistic missile. These missiles
were developed so that they could not only be launched from land-
based silos but also trains and even nuclear submarines.
Not only did the Americans and Russians have these but also the
British and French. The rockets were improved to the extent that one
missile could carry several atomic warheads.
Missiles with this capability were called MIRVS. MIRV stands for
multiple independent reentry vehicles.
Another factor in the Cold War was the relationship between
Communist China and the Soviet Bloc. The Chinese worked
independently of the other countries and acquired the atomic bomb
in 1964 and a nuclear missile in 1966.
Although the relationship of both the West and the USSR with China
is of great importance in the Cold War it had little impact on what
follows.
Another crucially important factor in ending the Cold War was the
complete collapse of communism throughout the world during the
period of the 1980s and early 1990s.
Although of great importance this event occurred long after 1969,
which was the year of the Moon landing, alleged or otherwise.
As this book is about the Apollo moon landing and whether or not it
occurred some readers may wonder why a chapter has been
devoted to the Cold War.
The Apollo enterprise was extremely expensive and it is unlikely it
would have occurred had it not been for the Cold War.
It was the Cold War that provided the rationale for what is called the
Space Race between the USA and Russia.
If it had not been for this tension between the West and the Soviet
bloc it is unlikely that the Apollo missions would ever have occurred.
The Cold War kept on providing justifications such as the building of
the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the South East Asian
Wars for the Space Race.
Both America and Russia saw their exploits in space as
demonstration of the superiority of their technology. Both saw the
Space Race as a way of proving to the world that their social system
was best.
In the end, the outcome of the Cold War was not decided by the
Space Race but by other things.
It has been said that the outcome was decided because 'blue jeans
and the Beatles' were far more appealing to the youth of the Soviet
Bloc than class war, ethnic music and promises of a golden future,
which never came.
The next chapter will describe the history of and what happened
during the Space Race.


The Space Race

Today's space rockets are among the greatest of humanity's many
achievements. They result from the work and development of many
thousands of years.
Currently, rockets are the only means we have of going into space.
In the second decade of the 21st-century, efforts are afoot to change
this, as you will find out in the last chapter.
When were the first rockets?  By 100 A.D., the Chinese had
gunpowder. They used this to power the first rockets.
It is doubtful if the first Chinese dabblers in rocketry had any idea of
how their innovation would affect world history hundreds and
thousands of years into the future.
 
The first military use of rockets was by the Chinese who stuck these
rockets onto arrows, which were fired by archers.
It did not take long to find arrows were not necessary and rockets
were on their way.  Their uptake was not universal or guaranteed at
this stage.
During the earlier part of the thirteenth century, there was a war
between the Mongols and the Chinese. In one battle, the Mongol
were defeated by the Chinese who used a lot of these simple
rockets.
For historians of rocketry, this was a display of their potential,
although it is doubtful that the combatants in that ancient battle
realized this.
As is so often the case with weapon systems, the Mongols made
rockets for their own use and it was probably from them that
Europeans initially learned about rockets and their potential as a
weapon.
During the next two hundred years, developments in rocketry were
seen in a number of European countries, including Italy, France, and
England.
Newton established his Three Laws of Motion in the final part of the
seventeenth century. His laws completely described force and
motion in situations of low speed.
These laws were the scientific foundation of modern rocketry. With
these laws, rockets could be developed in a systematic way.
Development took place all over Europe for use in war. They were
used to great effect by the British against the United States in the
1812 war. The rockets used had great success in devastating
American strongholds.
Until the end of the First World War, there was no major role for
rockets in the bloody battles of that dreadful combat as high-power
artillery was far more effective in inflicting damage on enemies.
They were first used by the French in the battle of Verdun in an air to
ground role. The British used them against German airships but
these were not particularly successful.
It was in Russia in 1898 that a man called Tsiolkovsky with great
foresight made the suggestion of space exploration using rockets.
A short while later it was he who suggested the use of liquid fuel for
rockets. If that were used the distance the rocket traveled could be
greatly increased.
In the early twentieth century, there was a brilliant American named
Robert Goddard who had a great interest in rockets. He did much
work with them and as a result of his efforts, the capabilities of
rockets were greatly improved.
The Second World War saw rockets come to be seen as a powerful
weapon. The Germans suffered a great shock in 1941 when the
Katyusha rocket system called Stalin organ was used by the
Russians in the Battle of Moscow.
These proved to be formidable weapons; the Germans were so
impressed that later they developed and used similar weapons.
In their island-hopping campaigns of the Pacific War, the Americans
used rocket systems of this type fired from landing craft.
With much larger rockets the Germans were well ahead of the Allies
and built a powerful rocket called the V2. Sadly for them, it appeared
too late in the war to prevent their defeat.
Wernher von Braun, the leader of the program that developed them,
went on to lead the space program of the Americans during the
1950s and 1960s.
As World War II ended the Cold War began. This featured the
world's two great superpowers fronting against each other.
From the late 1950s onwards space became another area of this
competition. Each country made every effort to prove that its
technology, its military, and its economic system was better.
By the middle of the 1950s, the Cold War was a major feature of life
in most countries. It was driven by an arms race and the ever-
increasing threat of atomic weapons, and by spying between the two
systems.
These tensions were prevalent throughout the period 1946-1989.
They were made worse by such events as the Berlin wall in 1961,
the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and the Vietnam War.
On October 4, 1957, a Russian missile launched Sputnik the first
artificial satellite and the first object made by man placed into the
Earth's orbit. This day marked the beginning of what is called the
Space Race.
The leadership of the USA was shocked by this and introduced
many changes to their education system. One of these changes was
an innovation called the New Maths.
The New Maths was a peculiar idea promoted by some
educationists. It was believed that if primary school and secondary
school students were taught abstract algebra and other advanced
concepts then they would be able in the future to compete with the
Russians.
This idea was adopted over the next couple of decades throughout
the Western world and was a total disaster.
The launch of Sputnik was a very frightening surprise to the
Americans. They realized that rockets of the type, R-7, which had
launched Sputnik might be used to launch nuclear warheads against
the USA and her allies.
It was very important that the Americans did not get for too far
behind the Russians.
In 1958 America launched its first satellite, which was called Explorer
1. It was built by the US Army under the direction of the German
rocket scientist Wernher von Braun.
During 1958 President Eisenhower set up NASA, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration.
President Eisenhower also set up a means by which orbiting
satellites could be used to get intelligence on what the Russians and
their allies were doing.
In 1959 the Russians managed to land their first vehicle onto the
moon. It was called Lunar 2.
In April 1961 the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first
person to orbit the Earth traveling in a spacecraft that was called
Vostok 1.
It was not until 1961 that the Americans were able to put a man into
space. A man called Alan Shephard, who ventured into space on
May 5 of that year, although he did not go into orbit, did this.
Later in May 1961, President Kennedy stated that the United States
would land a man on the moon before the end of that decade. The
program to build the lunar landing system was called Project Apollo.
In 1962 John Glenn, who eventually became a senator and died in
December 2016, became the first American to actually orbit the
Earth.
He was the fifth person in space. He did so in the Friendship 7
spacecraft.
From 1961 until 1964 the budgets of NASA was increased by 500%.
There were as many as 34,000 NASA employees and 375,000
employees who were working on some aspect of the space program
in America.
Apollo had a very serious setback in 1967 when three astronauts
were killed when a spacecraft set on fire during a launch simulation.
During this time the lunar landing program of the Soviet Union
proceeded very slowly, due to internal debate over its importance
and the death in January 1966 of its chief engineer who was called
Sergei Korolev.
Slowly but surely the Americans pulled ahead in the Space Race. In
December 1968 Apollo 8 became the first manned space mission to
orbit the Moon.
Apollo 8 was launched from the huge facility that NASA had
developed in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Finally, in mid-July, 1969 the US astronauts Michael Collins, Edwin
Aldrin and Neil Armstrong launched from Cape Canaveral on Apollo
11 and successfully made a landing on the lunar surface, in other
words, the Moon.
With this landing, the United States was victorious in the Space
Race.  A race that had begun with the launch of Sputnik in 1957.
The Russians made four unsuccessful attempts to launch lunar
landing craft between 1961 and 1972. There was a Launchpad
explosion in July 1969 that was very serious.
After the lunar landing in 1969 there were another five landings then
the emphasis of the space program became shuttles, satellites,
unmanned flights into space and space stations.
It is only recently that a return to the Moon has been suggested.
The next chapter examines the actual Moon landing. It briefly runs
over the events leading up to this landing. A landing that many
believe never took place.


The Moon Landing

We have seen that as World War II ended it was realized by both the
USA and the USSR that the Germans were far more advanced than
any of the Allies in the development of rockets that could be used in
war.
The Americans who were developing the atomic bomb, something
the Russians probably did not know, saw enormous possibilities in
the putting of such a bomb on a V2 rocket and were very keen to get
their hands on the V2 for this purpose.
Realizing that their erstwhile ally was now their enemy both countries
actively recruited German scientists and engineers who had worked
on the Nazi rockets. The American effort to do so was called
Operation Paperclip.
 
In this operation, 1600 Germans were brought to the USA and put to
work developing rockets, which might be used for military purposes.
The Russians also actively recruited German scientists and
engineers and took 2200 of them at gunpoint back to the Soviet
Union.
The Germans who went to America were put to work in the New
Mexico desert at the White Sands testing ground further developing
the V2 rocket. The project to develop the V2 in America was called
Project Hermes.
The first V2 firing was on April 16, 1946, and some 60 flights later
the last of the V2 flights was launched on October 29, 1951. It was
found that rocket components which were stored for long periods
deteriorated so many of those brought to the USA from Germany
were unusable.
The Americans learned while experimenting with the V2, how to
manufacture their own rockets. They also learned much else that
would be of inestimable importance in the decades, which followed.
They had greatly improved on the original V2's, which came from
Germany.
From this project arose a series of US rockets that included the
Corporal, the Redstone, the Aerobee and the Atlas. It was realized at
this time that the conquest of space would be a powerful way of
demonstrating the superiority of a social system.
In 1952 the International Council of Scientific Unions named the
period of July 1, 1957, until the end of 1958 as the International
Geophysical Year as a result of strong solar activity during that
period.
In October 1954 this same union called for the launching of artificial
satellites to perform various activities. The commission wanted
satellites to map the surface of the earth.
During July 1955 President Eisenhower announced plans to launch
an American satellite. The rocket chosen was the Vanguard rocket in
preference to the Redstone rocket, which was primarily being
developed for military purposes. In 1957 the Soviets launched
Sputnik 1 and the space race began.
The Americans tried to launch Vanguard but it failed miserably on
both the first two times it tried to put satellites into orbit.
An alternative was found in the Explorer project, which was headed
by Wernher von Braun and involved the Redstone rocket which had
been designed under his leadership. Wernher von Braun had tried to
get this rocket adopted at the time the decision was made to go with
the Vanguard.
The Vanguard program was continued and was successful on three
occasions. There was a total of eleven attempted launches.
In January 1958 the Americans finally launched a satellite with the
Explorer 1 aboard a Juno rocket. Explorer 1 was used to do some
very important scientific research.
Explorer 1 discovered magnetic radiation belts around the Earth that
were named after the brilliant scientist James Van Allen. Explorer 1
stayed in orbit until 1970.
The details of the Space Race were set out in the previous chapter.
It was pointed out that the launching of Sputnik galvanized American
efforts in space.
In addition to the renewed efforts they made in space, there were
concomitant changes in other spheres such as education. As was
mentioned these were not as successful as in space.
The Americans who were to fly into space were called astronauts,
Russians were called cosmonauts. These words were terms derived
from Argonaut.
The astronauts were a very elite group of men. President
Eisenhower decided that the military could provide all the men who
were to travel to space.
From the initial group of less than 100 outstanding candidates, only
seven were chosen. The seven chosen did not include the three who
eventually went to the Moon on Apollo 11.
Many astronauts were trained in a special astronaut school run by
Chuck Yeager. Yeager was an amazing military pilot.
He was a veteran of World War II during which war he shot down 11
German planes. Later he flew in combat both in Korea and Vietnam.
In addition, he was a test pilot who was the first person to fly faster
than the speed of sound in a level flight. He also piloted a test rocket
plane with near fatal consequences.
Of the three who went to the Moon on Apollo 11, all were fighter
pilots with two, Armstrong and Aldrin, being veterans of the Korean
War. They both had outstanding records in that war.
President Kennedy was elected in 1960 and initiated the program to
land an American on the moon by the end of the 19 Sixties in May
1961.
This gave rise to the Apollo program that had its first launch in
October 1961 of a Saturn rocket. He announced the decision to
initiate the program which led to the Moon landing before a joint
session of Congress.
Kennedy was under great pressure to demonstrate that the USA
could catch up to the Soviet Union in space. The Russians had
consistently been ahead of the Americans in space up to this point.
The Americans did not realize at this time that this success could not
possibly last.
He also needed something positive to counter the very bad publicity
he was getting over a disastrous military setback, the failed Bay of
Pigs invasion of Cuba.
As a consequence, we can say that Cold War considerations played
an extremely large part in the making of this momentous decision
and announcement.
Saturn rockets were to be the first stage of all of the subsequent
Apollo missions. The first payload was just water.
There followed many tests of various facets of the program. The
rockets used were Saturns of increasing size and power.
The reason for this is that the heavier the payload the bigger the
rocket required. In order to develop the speed to escape the Earth's
gravitational pull a very large quantity of fuel has to be taken.
The weight of fuel required is an important factor in calculating the
size of rockets.
During this sequence of tests, there was a terrible tragedy on
January 21st, 1967. In this disaster the Apollo command module,
which was being tested exploded into fire, killing the astronauts Gus
Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Ed White.
As we shall see in the next chapter some believe their death was no
accident. They are convinced it was murder authorized by people in
high positions of authority.
They did this in order to prevent the astronauts from revealing the
Apollo program to be a gigantic fraud.
Despite this tragedy, the Apollo program continued leading to three
missions testing Apollo before the trip to the Moon in July 1969.
Apollo 8 took men around the Moon in the command module, which
was the part of Apollo containing humans.
Apollo 9 tested the lunar module in an Earth orbit. The lunar module
was to make the descent to the moon from the command module.
Apollo 10 was the dress rehearsal before the actual landing. In this
mission, the lunar module descended to about 8.4 miles from the
surface of the moon.
The command module, called Columbia, was one of three parts of
the Apollo spacecraft which were projected into space by the huge
Saturn rocket. It housed the astronauts.
Apollo also contained the lunar lander or module, which was called
Eagle and the service module. The service module contained the
engine and the consumables for the trip.
Finally, we come to the actual Moon landing. On July 16, 1969, at
9:32 AM Apollo 11 launched from the Kennedy space Center at
Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Collins, Aldrin and
Armstrong as crew. Armstrong was the commander.
Scores of thousands of people physically witnessed this
extraordinary event in Florida as it unfolded.
Six hundred million more watched on television, the largest TV
audience for any event up to that time. An audience not exceeded
until Prince Charles wed Princess Diana in 1981.
The flight took 76 hours and covered 240,000 miles as the Apollo
traveled from Earth to the Moon. Apollo moved into orbit about the
moon on July 19. At 1:46 PM on July 20 Aldrin and Armstrong left
Apollo in a craft called the lunar module, named Eagle.
There was a computing system on board Eagle. The computing
power of modern smartphones far exceeds that onboard the Eagle.
The computing file of the guidance system was a tiny 64kb!
Two hours later the Eagle descended to the moon and alighted in an
area of the Moon called the Sea of Tranquility. After landing
Armstrong broadcast to Mission control in Houston," the Eagle has
landed."
Six hours later Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module and
descended via a ladder.
Millions of people were watching on TV at the moment when he
stepped down onto the lunar surface and said his famous words,
"that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
A short time later he was joined by Aldrin. They planted the flag of
the USA, performed some scientific experiments and spoke with
President Richard Nixon. About three hours later they returned to the
lunar module.
The lunar module was about one and a half tons in weight. It was in
two stages, one a descent stage, the other an ascent stage.
Armstrong and Aldrin slept on the surface of the Moon inside the
module and on the next day they returned to Apollo.
Armstrong and Aldrin were on the Moon for 21 hours including two
and a half hours on the lunar surface.
On July 22 Apollo began its return to Earth.  On reentry, the material
of the outer shield burnt up as the craft was entering the Earth's
atmosphere. This was quite deliberate and was done in order to
protect those inside the capsule.
The three astronauts splashed down in the Pacific on July 24, 1969.
On the return, all three astronauts were held in quarantine for 21
days.
The reason for this was the unlikely event that during their visit to the
Moon they had been infected in some way, which would spread a
contagion to humanity.
Following this mission, there were another five successful moon
landings and another, which was aborted due to technical problems.
The longest lunar landing was Apollo 17. The astronauts were
Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt. They stayed on the lunar
surface for three days.
The Apollo program that successfully landed men on the Moon was
very expensive. In today's dollars, the cost was around $100 billion.
It was also very labor intensive and employed at least 400,000
people. Since late 1972 no human being has been to the moon.
Many people believe that the events described in this chapter never
took place and that human beings have never been to the moon.
They believe that the entire program to put humans on the moon
never occurred. They believe there was a conspiracy to convince the
world that an event had occurred when in fact it had not.
This will be looked at in detail in the next chapter.


Evidence For A Fake

Most historians regard July 16, 2009, as an important day for
humanity. Nearly fifty years have gone by since the U.S. astronaut
Neil Armstrong, closely followed by astronaut Buzz Aldrin, became
the first human beings to set foot on the moon.
Yet there are numerous people who still believe the Apollo 11 moon
landing was an elaborate fabrication and hoax. Here are some of the
claims against the landing.
Claim 1: It is possible to tell that  Apollo was almost certainly faked
on the grounds that the American banner appears to be fluttering
and waving as though "it was being blown in the wind" in recordings
and photos from the landing.
However, as far as nearly everyone knows the airless, lunar surface
has absolutely no atmosphere and hence could not possibly provide
the wind that would cause the fluttering of the Star Spangled Banner!
Claim 2: The reflections of Neil Armstrong and the lunar module
used to land on the lunar surface, the Eagle lunar lander, are  seen
with great clarity in the visor of Buzz Aldrin in one of the most
famous photographs during the July 1969 landing on the Moon.
You can easily see that Apollo was a hoax in light of the fact that
only two space travelers walked on the moon in this landing, yet in
this and other photos both can be seen. However, there is absolutely
no indication of a camera.
The question has to be asked," who took the photo?" Did it take itself
miraculously? Or was there another person present to take the
photos in a film studio? Is this evidence of a fake?
Claim 3: Dave Bowman, the main actor in the 1968 film Arthur C.
Clarke's Space Odyssey: 2001 was terribly excited in the film by the
vastness of space and the myriad of stars.
His words in the film made an indelible impression on its viewers as
to how human visitors to outer space should react.
Their disappointment was great when the Apollo astronauts did not
express themselves with the same exuberance as Bowman.
Some felt this lack of excitement was yet further proof that Apollo
was a fraud. Such arguments went along these lines.
You can see Apollo was faked because the space travelers made no
such shouts of glee while on the moon, and their photos are
strangely devoid of stars.
It is quite clear that the filming took place in a film studio as the lack
of spontaneous glee expected in such an environment is palpably
obvious.
Claim 4: The lunar lander Eagle rested gently on the surface of the
Moon in photos, which were taken quite soon after the lunar landing
on July 20, 1969.
This causes further problems for those who feel Apollo was not the
real deal. The argument goes like this.
It is easily seen that Apollo was a fake as the module rests on soil,
which has not been disturbed. On landing, Apollo should have blown
up a vast cloud of dust, which would have been obvious in the
photos yet it is conspicuously absent.
Obviously a fraud! There is no evidence of the blast, which should be
clearly evident.
Claim 5: Among the many photos from the Apollo landing are the
differentiated indentations of a boot print revealed when Buzz Aldrin
raises his leg to take a picture showing the properties of the moon's
surface.
A large number of such clear prints were featured in photos taken
during the Apollo missions as the space explorers pranced over the
moon.
These photos provide another reason for the doubt of some. The
thinking is that anyone can see Apollo was a fraud because the
space travelers' prints are far too distinct to be made on such a very
dry surface.
Prints that very much delineated could only have been made in
sand, which was wet. There is definitely no moisture on the Moon so
the astronauts must have been filmed somewhere else. Film studio?
Claim 6: As Armstrong and Aldrin departed from the lunar surface in
July 1969, they left behind parts of the Eagle, a U.S. flag, and some
other paraphernalia and tools, including, among other things, a
seismometer which they used during their short stay.
Like so many other things the astronauts did this was construed as
further evidence of deception.
It is easy to see Apollo was a fake on the grounds that with
instruments as powerful as the Hubble Space Telescope, designed
for peering into the inaccessible recesses of the Universe
researchers should be able to clearly see these artifacts scattered on
the surface of the Moon.
Despite this, no such photos have ever been taken. If the Moon
landing did take place then there should be plenty of such photos.
Where are they?
Why are there no photos? Is it because there is nothing up there to
photograph? More evidence of a hoax?
Claim 7: A picture taken during the Moon landing shows space
explorer Buzz Aldrin on the steps of the Eagle, his bent knees
indicating that he is going to move up to the next rung. 
This and other pictures are yet another cause of doubt and
construed as evidence of a fraud.
The skeptics allege evidence for Apollo being a deception since
Aldrin is surrounded by the shadow of the lunar lander, even though
he is clearly visible.
Believers in a conspiracy see that many shadows in the Apollo
photos as being very interesting and evidence that this photo was
not taken on the Moon.
The way they interpret the photo the interplay of shadows could only
have occurred with multiple light sources. A situation that could not
possibly occur on the Moon.
A situation that is far more likely occur in a more terrestrial setting
such as film studio?
Claim 8: When close to the Eagle, Buzz Aldrin was setting up an
apparatus for the collection of particles originating from the sun,
some strange lights appeared in the photos of him.
The disbelievers see more evidence in this of a hoax as they claim
such lights were reflections coming from the lights of the film studio
where the Moon landing was faked.
They ask "What are these lights?"
Claim 9: If an astronaut wishes to reach the Moon, then the space
explorers have to pass through something of great potential danger
called the Van Allen radiation belt. This belt goes around the Earth
and is definitely very dangerous.
The Apollo missions to the moon were the first ever endeavor of
mankind in which living people were transported through the belt.
Conspiracy theorists are sure that the belt would have subjected the
astronauts traveling to the Moon to fatal levels of radiation, in spite of
the layers of aluminum covering both the inside and outside of the
spaceship.
Why weren't the astronauts fried as they passed through the Van
Allen belt? There is no Van Allen Belt in a film studio!
Claim 10: Many films that were shown of the astronauts on the
moon show them bounding in ways that are not earthly.
In order to explain this the skeptics have shown that if you take the
film of the landing on the Moon and increase the speed by 250%
then the space explorers will appear to be moving in Earth's gravity.
The doubters claim that NASA must have used such techniques.
The great leaps of the space travelers are attributed to hidden links
and wires Some photos are claimed to show these.
The ability to get earthly movement by adjusting a film's speed and
the carelessly concealed wires prove a hoax!
Claim 11: A prominent photo among the many f photographs from
the lunar landings shows a rock with the letter C on it!
The letter seems to be perfectly symmetrical, very unlikely in nature,
which usually produces rocks whose markings are rarely of such
symmetry.
The skeptics see the stone as a film prop, marked with the C by
people associated with the production of the hoax. They say
someone carelessly put it in a situation where its revealing nature
was visible to all. Someone carelessly kicking it over to reveal a
massive deception!
Claim 12: Conspiracy theorists assert that acclaimed filmmaker
Stanley Kubrick was hired by the US government to film fakes of the
first three Moon landings.
There are two main branches of this hypothesis:
(1) This alleges that Kubrick was approached after the 1968 release
of his production 2001: A Space Odyssey (released in the year 1968,
which was one year before the first lunar landing), after NASA was
amazed by the authenticity of the film's space scenes.
(2) Another theory is that Kubrick was approached by NASA to film
the lunar landing considerably before this and that the film 2001: A
Space Odyssey was a dress rehearsal for what he eventually did. 
Is there any proof to back up such extraordinary claims?
In The Shining which was another Kubrick picture, it is claimed that
there are some secret messages by Kubrick to the world discreetly
informing the world of his part in the fraud.
One of the most revealing is a shirt, worn by a child in a single
scene, which says Apollo 11. There are other hints that he is alleged
to have subtly insinuated into this film.
 
In this film, the fact that a room number was 237 was seized on as
further evidence of Kubrick's complicity.
The distance from the Earth to the Moon is 238000 miles. Divide that
by 1000 then subtract 1 and you have 237!
Finally in 2015 more than 15 years after Stanley Kubrick's passing
away in 1999 a video came to light in which Kubrick supposedly
concedes that the NASA Moon landings were fraudulent.
T. Patrick Murray, a movie producer, says three days before
Kubrick's demise in March 1999 he conversed with Kubrick about
this.
In order for this discussion to occur, he had to sign an 88-page Non
Disclosure Agreement to keep the substance of the meeting secret
for a long time.
There is a transcript from the meeting of Murray with Kubrick, during
which the 2001 Space Odyssey Director confessed on camera that,
"All the moon landings were hoaxes, and that I was the individual
who filmed them."
As proof or evidence, a recording of the words spoken between
Murray and Kubrick has been put on the Internet as well as a video
in which an actor pretending to be Kubrick in the interview is shown.
Claim 13: One of the photos of an astronaut shows a peculiar object
hanging down in a reflection of the astronaut's helmet. Skeptics
claim that this reflection indicates a wire or rope suspending a studio
light.
There is another intriguing conspiracy which has been disseminated
by some. While these people accept the veracity of the Moon
landings they see the Moon landings as part of the scheme to
impose a World Government by the Illuminati who seek to establish
a New World Order.
Much importance is attached to the fact that Buzz Aldrin is supposed
to have conducted a Masonic rite on the moon.
This strange belief is mentioned only in passing as the purpose of
this book is to present the history of the Apollo project and the claims
for and against it being a fraud.
The next chapter will show how these claims are rebuffed by those
who have no doubt that the Moon landings were real.


Evidence Against A Fake

This chapter reproduces each claim against the landing and how it
was/is rebutted. It is noteworthy that NASA does not stoop to defend
itself against claims of fraud and even murder.
The repudiations of the conspiracy theorists' claims are done by the
many millions of people all over the world who are absolutely
convinced that the Apollo missions and the Moon landings did occur.
To a man and woman, they see the claims of the conspiracy
theorists as a slander on mankind's greatest achievement, often for
pecuniary reasons.
Claim 1: The flag could not flutter if there were no atmosphere.
 
Rebuttal: There have been many rebuttals of this. Here are three:
(1) The 'fluttering' was the result of vibrations resulting from actions
of the astronauts. The lack of an atmosphere accentuated these.
(2) The flag was contained in a slender, cylindrical tube. As it was
unfurled it rippled and the small lunar gravity did not damp this as it
would on Earth.
(3) The planting of the pole made of aluminum started the pole
shaking which caused the flag to wave.
Claim 2: Who took the photos of the two astronauts? No one else
was supposed to have been on the lunar surface with Armstrong and
Aldrin.
 
Rebuttal: There is only one explanation and that is that the cameras
were actually mounted on the chests of the astronauts.
All photos taken on the lunar surface by the astronauts were by
these cameras or by cameras put on the Moon by the astronauts to
take photos.
Claim 3: The 'lunar sky' is devoid of stars. Surely this is not so!
Rebuttal: For two reasons this claim is easy for defenders of the
Moon landing to refute:
(1) The surface of the moon reflects light to such an extent that stars
would be difficult to see. For the same reason if the sky is looked at
during night in a city very few stars can be seen as the city lights
drown out most stars.
On Earth, it is necessary to go to a rural region or a wilderness to
see the full panoply of stars.
(ii) Photos taken by the astronauts used very fast exposure settings.
Such settings would make it impossible for the stars to be seen.
Claim 4: Where is the crater that Eagle should have made? Where
is the dust it should have blown as it landed?
Rebuttal: The idea that a landing space vehicle will alight with a
large jet of fire was at that time in the middle of the twentieth century
an invention of the entertainment industry.
When the Eagle landed it did not hover and as it landed it greatly
reduced its emission. This is in complete contrast to the landing of
the Space X Falcon, which landed on a barge while still emitting a
powerful flame in 2017.
Claim 5: The very precise boot indentations on the 'lunar surface'
would only be possible in wet sand. How can this be possible on a
lunar surface completely devoid of water.
Rebuttal: Moondust, known more correctly as regolith, is a finely
ground powder. Under the microscope, it has a similar appearance
as the ash of a volcano.
A foot on this will leave a very exact imprint, which would remain for
a long time due to the lack of atmosphere on the Moon.
Claim 6: Why it that we haven't any photos of the detritus left by the
astronauts on their alleged 'lunar flights' taken by the powerful
telescopes now available? Is there nothing to photograph?
Rebuttal: Even with our most powerful telescopes, including the
Hubble, nothing smaller than a house is visible on the lunar surface.
Further proof of the Moon landing is afforded by photos taken by the
unmanned Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2015, which shows
remnants of the earlier flights.
In addition, photographs taken by other countries' satellites have
provided proof of the Apollo landings. 
Claim 7: A photo of Aldrin on the steps from Eagle to the Moon
indicate multiple light sources of the types found in film studios! Is
this further evidence of a hoax?
Rebuttal: Yes there were multiple light sources but they did not
come from a film studio. Among these were:
(1) light from the Sun
(2) light reflected from Earth
(3) light reflected from Eagle
(4) light reflected from the astronauts' suits.
 
In addition
The surface of the Moon is not flat and as a result, there may be
multiple shadows.
Claim 8: The strange lights seen in one of the photos of Aldrin were
reflections of film studio lights.
When close to the Eagle, Buzz Aldrin was setting up an apparatus
for the collection of particles originating from the sun, some strange
lights appeared in the photos of him.
The disbelievers see more evidence in this of a hoax as they claim
such lights were reflections coming from the lights of the film studio
where the Moon landing was faked.
Rebuttal: The rebuttals to this are in two forms:
 
(1) It is implausible to imagine that NASA, if they had faked the Moon
landings by spending millions of dollars on films, would make such
an error as releasing a photo showing studio lights.
(2) The lights are something called lens flares. Lens flares are an
annoying phenomenon caused by what is called light scattering.
The effect is the creation of bright, pentagonal shapes in the photo
whose sides depend on characteristics of the camera's lens.
Those familiar with the workings of film studios would know of the
problems caused by lens flares!
Claim 9: Why weren't the astronauts killed by passage through the
Van Allen Belt? Surely if the Apollo landings weren't faked they
would have been!
Rebuttal: The astronauts were only within the Van Allen Belt for a
very short time. This time was not long enough for them to receive
more than harmless amounts of radiation.
Claim 10: The movements of the astronauts on the moon were as a
result of cameras being slowed and the jumps seen were created by
hoisting using cables, some of which are visible.
This was very careless on the part of the film studio where the
'missions' were filmed!
Rebuttal: The movements of the astronauts on the lunar surface
were what would be expected from basic Newtonian mechanics and
there were no cranes and cables needed to achieve the very high
leaps and bounds seen.
Claim 11: It is impossible for a rock with a perfect letter C to occur in
nature! Its presence shows that a prop was carelessly left on the
floor of the film studio where the Moon landings were filmed!
Rebuttal: The letter only appeared in one photo and could be a hair.
Furthermore, there are many rocks on Earth with more amazing
shapes on them than the letter C. Shapes which are just as
symmetrical.
It is not surprising that a lunar rock might have a C on it.
Claim 12: What about Stanley Kubrick's confession?
Rebuttal: The family of Stanley Kubrick totally refuted the allegation
that he helped make a fraudulent lunar landing film for NASA.
The family says the story that the film producer T Patrick Murray
interviewed him on his deathbed where he made a confession that
he had helped NASA create a film showing a false Moon landing
was a complete untruth.
The announcement of Kubrick's participation in the massive fraud
was made just after NASA had claimed to have found the booster
rocket of Apollo 16.
By making the claim of a fake film attention would be drawn away
from this discovery. If this was the reason for the release of the
'confession' then it was pathetic.
Claim 13: One of the photos of an astronaut shows a peculiar object
hanging down in a reflection of the astronaut's helmet. Skeptics
claim that this reflection indicates a wire or rope suspending a studio
light.
What was this mysterious object?
Rebuttal: It is a strange fact that no one knows and as it is nearly
fifty years ago we will probably never know.
One thing is for certain is that it was not a studio light!
This debate about the veracity of the Moon landings has been going
on for a long time.
The defenders of the belief that the landings occurred offer these
points as incontrovertible proof that the Apollo program was real.
(1) The USSR, the arch enemy of the USA in the Cold War and the
Space Race, did not dispute it.
(2) The vast number of photos, which were taken of a nonterrestrial
vista
(3) The 382 kg of rock samples the astronauts brought back. These
were not meteorites. No lunar meteorites were found until the 1980s.
The rock samples were identical to those obtained by the Soviet
Union through unmanned expeditions.
(4) The huge number of people who worked on the program. This is
very significant as Dr. Robert David Grimes of Oxford University has
devised an equation which predicts the time that a conspiracy can
remain secret.
The equation is based on standard differential equations. It can be
made more complicated with adjustments.
An equation emerges that cannot be solved analytically. However
approximate solutions can be found using graphical or numerical
methods.
From the point of view of the layperson, the results of the
deliberations of Dr. Grimes are that the more people who are
involved in a conspiracy then the shorter the time that the conspiracy
will remain secret.
In the case of the moon landing, hundreds of thousands of people
were involved in the Apollo enterprise. 
Using the equation of Dr. Grimes we can arrive at the conclusion that
if the Apollo program was a vast conspiracy then it would have
remained secret for less than four years!
(5) The fact that there were nine Moon missions, not just one. The
missions were witnessed by countless thousands in Florida and by
millions via TV.
Will we ever know for sure whether the conspiracy theorists are
right?
The next chapter will try to answer this question.


Will We Ever Know For Sure?

In 2009 the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched by NASA
for unmanned exploration of the moon.
In 2010 NASA flew the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) near
parts of the moon where Apollo 12, 14 and 17 had landed.
One of the objections to the possibility of successful Moon landings
was the nonexistence of photographs of the landing sites from
powerful telescopes such as the Hubble.
Defenders of the landings had pointed out that photos obtained from
any distant camera would not have enough resolution to pick out the
remnants of the Apollo missions from the environment in which they
lay.
By flying LRO close to the Moon the cameras onboard the space
vehicle had enough and sufficient resolution to verify that these
missions had indeed taken place and left something behind.
By adjusting the orbit of the LRO the resolution, which permitted the
discernment of these remnants was obtained.
The LRO would normally orbit the Moon at an altitude of 31 miles or
52 km however by making these adjustments the LRO flew as low as
13 miles or 22 km.
The LRO still orbits the moon and recently found an Indian
spacecraft called Chandrayaan-I which had been lost for eight years.
 
Doubters of the Apollo landings could well say, that as the Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched by NASA, the photos they
have produced of the Moon landings are fakes.
They could claim these photos are just a continuation of the fraud.
They could claim completely correctly that the photos could easily be
made with modern computer packages such as Photoshop.
It used to be said that the camera does not lie. In the hands of a
good camera technician equipped with Photoshop, lies are quite
possible.
Many are the glamorous film star who has been shocked to see her
photo in the gutter press or online kissing someone she does not
even know. She is another victim of this skill
What might allay any doubts of the Apollo landing would be
photographs taken of any remnants by a completely independent
source.
Such evidence is often referred to as third-party evidence. Is there
any third-party evidence?
The Selene Luna probe of 2008 which was launched by the
Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency took photos which served
to confirm the Apollo landings.
Although the cameras on that mission did not have enough
resolution in their cameras to see hardware there were photos of the
blown moon dust caused by the landing of Apollo 15.
These photos are exactly like those taken by Apollo 15 itself.
 
The Indian lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1, which was rediscovered by
the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, one also recorded the same
disturbance and photos of it were sent before contact was lost with it.
The Chinese, no fans of the Americans, with their Chang-2 mission
in 2010 also reported seeing evidence of the Apollo landings.
Doubters may well say that the Japanese, Indians, and Chinese are
in on the conspiracy and hence they will not accept these
photographs as evidence at all.
Photographs are not enough! Some physical evidence might allay
their doubts.
Will we ever see independent evidence of the Apollo landings
assuming they took place? We may yet see the indisputable
evidence.
 
It has been reported a German mission is about to check further
whether there is physical evidence of the Apollo Lunar visits.
A group called Part Time scientists (PTS) will send a pair of
unmanned rovers to explore the area where Apollo 17 is believed to
have landed.
In order to prepare for this mission, PTS has worked with the Audi
motor company to devise the rovers.
The reason they are doing this is to compete for the Google Lunar X
prize. This is a prize offered by the Google company for a
competition involved in landing vehicles on the Moon.
The flights will take place on a space X rocket. Further mention must
be made of space X.
The American visionary and entrepreneur Elon Musk founded
SpaceX in 2002. It has successfully developed the Falcon rocket and
the Dragon spacecraft.
It has lofty goals including a return to the Moon and the colonization
of Mars. More will be said on this in a later chapter.
Once on the Moon the German rover will go to where Apollo 17
landed. It will also carry out some scientific tests.
Apollo 17 is of particular interest to some conspiracy theorists that
believe that the lunar landings did take place but Apollo 17 was the
last as it involved a meeting with alien beings who were not from the
planet Earth.
This belief is of course in contrast to the majority of conspiracy
theorists who believe that no Apollo landings were ever carried out
or the fringe group who believe that the landings were part of the plot
by the Illuminati to establish a New World Order!
We won't dwell on this as the Illuminati seem to everywhere from
pop concerts to the Moon. They have been blamed for everything
from the rises of Hitler and Communism to the death of Michael
Jackson!
In the next chapter, we will look at the future of space travel and
developments that may well see trips to the Moon become possible
for those who wish to go there and are wealthy enough to do so.
When and if such travel becomes commonplace then if there are
still, or ever were, Apollo landing sites then it is certain that visits to
these sites will be high on the list of places for lunar tourists to visit.
 
At the present time, NASA is not keen for others to go to the sites
where the Apollo landings were. This negativity has further inflamed
the suspicions of those who suspect cover-ups and frauds.
It is unfortunate that NASA is adopting this posture as it attracts
suspicion. Perhaps the reason for the wish that others do not go to
the sites is that they desire to make scientific measurements there
and see how much has changed in 50 years.
They need a site, which is undisturbed.
Those with suspicion about their motives will say their purpose is to
plant material there. The purpose being to make people believe the
Apollo missions occurred.
Even if lunar tourism does not become a reality there may be other
reasons for mankind to return to the Moon. It is to be hoped that
these reasons are not military.
Space is supposed to be demilitarized. Treaties were signed during
the Cold War to prohibit the militarization of space.
There was an Outer Space Treaty in 1967 and a Moon Treaty in
1979. Unfortunately now with the extreme economic importance of
satellites, the disappearance of the Soviet bloc and the rise of cyber
espionage and crime completely new circumstances exist.
The rise of the militarization of space is quite possible.
Even if there is no human return to the Moon for military reasons
there may well be commercial ones.
What about the commercial exploitation of the moon? There are a
number of learned people such as Professor Ian Crawford of London
speculating on possible riches in the lunar soil.
One of the holy grails for the energy of the future is fusion and one
method of achieving fusion is an isotope of helium called helium-3.
This is believed to be abundant on the Moon. It is also believed that
the lunar surface, so often the recipient of hits by meteors, will be a
source of platinum group elements, which are very valuable.
No matter what the reason it is almost certain, barring catastrophe,
that human beings will visit the Moon in the future and when they do
so the question of whether the Apollo Landings occurred should be
forever answered.
The Moon landings will never be verified for some. No matter what is
done their position will always be one of disbelief.
Such people can be compared to the believers in a flat Earth, a
Universe aged only a few thousand years or a Sun that goes around
the Earth.
However, most people who have beliefs one way or the other will
have those beliefs confirmed or discredited in the future.


Future Of Space Travel

Satellites: these played a major role in the Space Race from its start
until its conclusion in 1969. The space race really began on October
4, 1957, when the Russians, or Soviets as they were then usually
known, launched Sputnik 1.
Sputnik 1 was the first orbiting object that had ever been launched
by human beings.
Sputnik 1 moved in an elliptical path around the earth. It only
weighed 83.6 kg or 183.9 pounds and only had a radius of about 30
cm or a foot.
Its only function was to broadcast beeping noises. One orbit of the
Earth took about 98 minutes.
 
Since that time about 8000 satellites have been put into orbits of
varying types and heights and for a huge variety of reasons.
Some move in an orbit that is called a geostationary orbit, which
means they move in such a way that they are always above the
same place on Earth.
Most of the 8000 satellites are no longer in orbit and have
disintegrated or fallen to the earth. Of the 8000 there are about 3000
still in the heavens.
On a clear night, it is possible to see evidence of them. They appear
as silently moving stars. Most of these satellites are not operational.
In other words, they do nothing except constitute what has been
called space junk. 
 
About 900 are still working, with about half of those still working
coming from the USA.
Since the tiny beginnings of Sputnik 1, the size and weight of
satellites have greatly increased.
Terrestar-1, which was launched in 2009, has wings of a length of
about 32 m or 106 feet. It is a communications satellite. 
No less than 58 countries have satellites, although they usually were
taken into orbit by the rockets of other countries.
Only 10 countries have actually launched satellites, although there is
a consortium of European countries who have used Arianne rockets
in order to launch them.
Are any trips to the moon or the planets planned? If you Google
along these lines you will encounter nothing more than speculation
with estimates of decades before this may occur.
Rocketry has now become the province of private enterprise with a
very large number of companies throughout the world getting
involved in this field.
When private enterprise gets involved in anything then things often
happen, particularly if there is money to be made.
There is talk of paid travel around the moon with tickets costing
millions and millions of dollars. Prominent in this group of space
entrepreneurs is Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group of
companies.
In the last chapter, the ambitions of the Space X company were
mentioned.
SpaceX is an American company founded in 2002 by Elon Musk. Its
achievements include the Falcon rocket, which successfully landed
in 2017 on a barge after launching and the Dragon spacecraft.
Among its future goals are a return to the Moon and eventually the
colonization of Mars.
In the last years of his rule, President Obama made predictions of
trips to Mars during the 2030s. He mused about a collaborative effort
with the Russians.
With a new president who seems to have an unusually positive view
of the Russians for a US President, this may possibly occur.
Some of the private organizations mentioned before have talked of
one-way trips to the Red Planet resulting in the establishment of
colonies there.
Presumably once there they would build spaceships with which to
return to Earth.
A survey found that there were two hundred thousand people who
would be happy to participate in a one-way trip to Mars. The urge to
explore and venture to places unvisited is alive and well in humanity.
The desire to be part of a great adventure, something bigger than
any individual, is very much a part of many, if not most, people.
How Long Does It Take To Travel To Mars? It takes about 150 to
300 days in order to travel from Earth to the red planet Mars.
This variability results from factors such as the launch speeds of the
rocket, the alignment of the two planets, and the length of the trip
needed in order to traverse the vast distance separating earth from
Mars.
 
How fast do we need to go in order to travel in space? There are
certain speeds, which have to be attained in order to do certain
things in space.
These are called cosmic velocities. The first cosmic velocity is the
speed needed in order to get into orbit around the earth. This is 7.9
km/s.
The second cosmic velocity is a much greater speed. This is the
speed required to break free of the Earth's gravitational field. It is
11.2 km/s.
The next and third cosmic velocity is that required to break free from
the gravitational pull of the solar system. This is about 42 km/s.
The final or fourth cosmic velocity is the speed which must be
attained if you wish to leave the Milky Way.
This is a huge speed. It is 320 km/s or 192 miles a second.
How fast can rockets go? So far we have made rockets, which can
propel objects to the furthest reaches of the solar system.
Rockets are capable of great speeds but in order to reach them, they
have to carry ever-increasing amounts of fuel.
This is a massive problem, which puts limits on the possible speed,
which can be reached by a rocket using our existing technologies.
The largest possible speed for a rocket has been estimated at about
36,000 mph or 16.7 km/s.
Will rockets take us to deep space? It would seem that if we
consider the previous sections on cosmic velocities and the
maximum possible velocities of rockets then using our current
technologies to travel beyond outside the Solar System is
impossible.
A completely different technology or approach will be needed.
Before we consider travel beyond the Solar System it would probably
be best to achieve travel to the other parts of the Solar System.
The decisions necessary to get the vast sums of money in order to
carry this out may be deferred so that attention and resources can
be brought on major problems on our own planet such as renewable
energy and global warming.
The previous program to land someone on the Moon was as we
have seen a child of the Cold War. It is doubtful that there would
have been a Space Race without the spur of that.
 
The Distances between Stars and the speed of light: The distance between stars is
measured in light-years. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year.
Light travels at 300,000 kilometers per second (186,000 miles per second). Space is so
vast  that you would need to travel about 100000 light-years  to cross our galaxy, the Milky
Way.
Earth is about 30000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way.
The speed of light is a natural limit to speed according to Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
Traveling at the speed of light is impossible but it is theoretically possible to travel near the
speed of light.
If you do so though some strange things happen. If you were traveling for one year near the
speed of light when you returned to Earth you would find that thousands of years would
have passed while you were away.
Despite this frightening fact it is clear that if we really wish to travel beyond our solar system
travel close to the speed of light will be essential.

Is any research being done to make a vehicle which could travel

at speeds near that of light? If interstellar travel is carried out it will
not be in rockets. They will never be able to take us to the stars!
It is possible, in the laboratory, for particles to be accelerated to
speeds near that of light but so far our spacecraft have not even
come close.
Many ideas are being trialed though. One could see a Mars trip in
three days rather than the 150 minimum using rockets.
The momentum of light photons would provide the thrust. The
photons would come from huge lasers stationed on Earth and they
would beat against sails on the space vehicle.
Although this sounds odd it has actually been done on a small scale
but needs scaling up.
Yet another weird sounding idea is the impossible EM Drive. It
shouldn't work but does. Scientists are playing with it.
It seems to completely contradict Newton's Third Law however it
works. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this.
No less an authority than Stephen Hawking, brilliant and world
famous British mathematician, has stated that a mission to Alpha
Centauri, the nearest star of the solar system, is possible within a
generation.
He has joined forces with NASA to pursue this lofty scheme. His
clarion call to us is a summons for this great leap into the cosmos
and a reminder that it is our nature to fly.
The name given to the spaceship he and NASA envisage for
interstellar travel is the nano-starship. As currently seen it could
travel at one-fifth the speed of light.
One possible propulsion system involves what are known as Lorentz
forces.
The person responsible for this extraordinary idea is an American
professor from Cornell University called Mason Peck. He has
received a grant to investigate this.
Wormholes? As we have seen movement near the speed of life
through the immensity of space completely alters what we would
expect as regards time. A possible method of traveling through time
and space is using things called wormholes.
If the theory is right, we would have a means of enormously reducing
vast journeys involving enormous lengths of time across the universe
to practicable times.
Wormholes are predicted by Einstein's general relativity theory.
Presuming they actually exist then their possible use is fraught with
danger.
Einstein himself, as early 1935, postulated passages through space-
time by the use of wormholes.  A wormhole has two spheroidally
shaped mouths, joined by a throat.
Their existence has been mathematically predicted however their
discovery has not yet occurred. A means of locating them would be
the unusual behavior of light as a result of gravity in the
neighborhood of a wormhole.
Traveling through one would not be as simple as entering a channel.
Wormholes are predicted to be incredibly small and very unstable.
The illustrious British scientist Stephen Hawking has discounted their
possible use.
Interstellar travel is said to be a generation away. Perhaps travel to
the furthest stars may be possible but at the moment apart from
suggestions to use wormholes how this could be possible has not
been theorized.
Perhaps we need to concentrate on manned flight to the planets of
our solar system and in a generation turn attention to traveling to the
nearest stars.
Once that is done we may know enough to travel to the ends, if they
exist, of the universe.


Summary
Conspiracy theories arise in many ways and forms. Modern
technology combined with human nature mean that such theories
arise more quickly than in the past.
The principal focus of this book has been on the conspiracy theories,
which arose as a result of the American Moon landings in the late
1960s and early 1970s.
These conspiracy theories can be divided into two categories:
(1) Those which accept the veracity of the Moon landings but
associate all sorts of cover-ups such as involvement of the Illuminati
or contact with aliens.
(2) A belief held by a much greater number of people  that the Moon
landings never took place.
It is to the last conspiracy theory that most attention has been given.
The Moon landing must be viewed through the prism of the Cold
War. That strange conflict dominated the world for more than four
decades.
The Moon landings are unlikely to have occurred without the Cold
War.
The feeling of success that the Americans enjoyed as a result of
these landings, whether real or not, helped to affirm the success in
their minds of their way of doing things and of their social system.
The Moon landings were viewed by countless millions of people who
were given the unmistakable message that America had superior
technology in comparison to that of the Russians.
 
The Moon landings were part of the Space Race. A race, which
began in 1957 when the Russians launched Sputnik 1.
The rockets and technology for these landings had their origin in the
V2 rockets of the Nazis in World War II.
This technology was being developed by both the Americans and
Russians, predominantly for military purposes in order to carry
nuclear warheads that would devastate the cities of the other side in
the Cold War.
The rockets used in the Space Race were developed from rockets
which had military purposes.
In America, a succession of rockets was developed under the
leadership of Wernher von Braun from Germany. He was put in
charge of the program whose aim was to put a man on the Moon in
less than a decade.
Huge rockets called Saturns were developed for this purpose. They
were carefully tested and in the late 1960s were ready for primetime.
A series of tests were administered where every facet of the final
Moon landing was tested. On July 20, 1969, two American
astronauts descended to the lunar surface and won for America the
Space Race.
Shortly after the Apollo program finished in 1972 claims started to
emerge that the Moon landings were fake.
Evidence for this fake was seen in flags that flapped, nonexistent
stars, shadows which were all wrong and many other possible
reasons, which were advanced.
 
It was claimed that Stanley Kubrick, the famous filmmaker, had
confessed in a mysterious video when he was near death that he
had been hired by NASA in order to make a film of the Moon
landings.
As already mentioned some other conspiracy theories did accept
that the Moon landings were real but saw the involvement of a
shadowy group called the Illuminati.
Others saw aliens concerned about human invasion of their domain.
Each of these 'pieces of evidence of conspiracy' has been
debunked. Often the debunking has been done, not officially, but by
the many millions of people who revere the astronauts.
They see the successful achievement of the program to land them
on the Moon as an expression of what humanity is capable of when
it turns its efforts to something worthwhile, instead of cruelty and
destruction.
NASA has provided photographs of Apollo landing remnants, as
have others.
A trip by Germans to an Apollo site is planned. The controversy as to
whether the Moon landings actually occurred will probably never be
solved until man returns to the Moon.
Will mankind ever return to space? There are plans for commercial
flights to the Moon.
There have been suggestions of a trip to Mars in the 2030s.
Travel into deep space beyond the solar system is impossible using
modern technology. The technology that might make such travel
possible is still being developed.
Even if it existed travel to the furthest reaches of the Milky Way
would still be impossible. Or is it?
Wormholes, postulated by Einstein, may provide a solution to the
problem of reaching these distant places.
Such a distinguished scientist as Stephen Hawking thinks that this is
not possible but given the extraordinary ingenuity of the human race,
some way of doing this will probably be found.


Conclusion
Space and Space Travel are huge and fascinating subjects.
In the years 1946-1972 they were an ever present part of human life.
Since then there have been many unmanned missions into space
but no manned flight except in orbit around the Earth.
Things seem to be different now. We may return to the Moon. There
is talk of travel to Mars in a few decades. Travel to other stars within
a generation.
We are at the brink of a new age of discovery.
It is to be hoped that the resources to enable this discovery will be
found. It is vital for the survival of our species that we stop fighting,
stop doubting and resume exploring!
Good Luck and God bless.