Apollo: The History and The Hoax

[PhantomWolf]

Okay, so I'm going to going to be mad and slowly work on my own Apollo Hoax webpage, but I didn't want it to just end up like a clone of all the others so I am going to try and do it as the History of Apollo, then deal with each claim as it arrives in the history of the program. Below is an outline of what I currently have planned. What other claims or things would people think are necessary to cover for it?

Dreaming of the Moon:

Kennedy’s 1961 Congress Speech.

Claim: Kennedy’s decision to beat the Soviets to the Moon caught NASA unaware.
Fact: von Bruan’s work on the Saturn Rockets
Fact: NASA’s planning and announcement of Apollo missions

The Race for Space:

Claim: The Soviet Firsts
Claim: The Soviet 5:1 superiority

Fact: The Soviet Space Program
Fact: Ranger
Fact: Surveryor
Fact: Mercury
Fact: Gemini


Red Moon Lost:

Claim: No one other than the US has been through the Van Allen Belts
Claim: Soviets scientists believed you needed six-feet of lead
Claim: Soviets never planned to go to the Moon

Fact The Luna Missions
Fact: The Soviet Lander.
Fact: The Soviet attempt for the Moon
Fact: Failure of the N-1

Troubled Times:

Claim: Nixon was President and was a proven liar
Claim: Apollo was faked to divert attention from Vietnam

Fact: Apollo 1

Claim: NASA murdered the Apollo 1 crew.

Testing and Training:

Claim: The LM Prototype crashed when tested.
Claim: Training grounds used to fake missions.
Claim: LM wasn’t tested properly.
Claim: LM was poorly constructed

Fact : Apollo 3-6

To the Moon:

Fact: Apollo 7-10


One Small Step:

Fact: Apollo 11

Claim: Saturn V not powerful enough
Claim: Couldn’t get through the Van Allen Belts
Claim: They never left LEO, Blue windows prove it.
Claim: The Smoking Gun Footage of Earth
Claim: Astronauts couldn’t have gotten through the tunnel to the LM.
Claim: LM would be unbalanced and would crash.
Claim: No signal delay
Claim: No engine noise
Claim: Poor TV quality deliberate to hide things.
Claim: Astronauts couldn’t have gotten out of the hatch in the LM
Claim: No dust on landing pads
Claim: No Crater
Claim: No Stars in photos.
Claim: 250°C heat n the moon would have killed
Claim: No way to eject heat from space suit
Claim: Cis-Lunar Radiation would have killed
Claim: Space Suit would have blown up
Claim: Gloves would have been unusable.
Claim: The Flag waves in a nonexistent breeze.
Claim: No big jumps.
Claim: Motion is like footage slowed down.
Claim: non-parallel shadows
Claim: Shadow lengths wrong.
Claim: Back lighting and fill lights
Claim: Missing Crosshairs
Claim: No Photos of Armstrong.
Claim: The CSM couldn’t have gotten back to Earth.

The on-going Mission:

Fact: Apollo 12

Fact: Apollo 13

Fact: Apollo 14

Fact: Apollo 15

Claim: LRV tires would have popped
Claim: Photo shows “C” on rock and ground.
Claim: No flame on take off.

Fact: Apollo 16

Fact: Apollo 17

Claim: Same backgrounds, different foregrounds.


The Legacy of Apollo:

Claim: We haven’t been back because we never went.
Claim: The rocks weren’t gathered on the moon

Fact: Laser Range Reflector Corner Cubes
Fact: Items we have because of Apollo


Gone but not forgotten:

Claim: The Apollo blueprints were destroyed.
Claim: Why can’t we see the Apollo debris on the Moon?


The Coming Return:

Fact: Russians fly me to the Moon for $100 million.
Fact: Future Missions in 2018

[margamatix]

phantomwolf said:

The Coming Return:

Fact: Russians fly me to the Moon for $100 million.
Fact: Future Missions in 2018

These are claims, not facts.

[PhantomWolf]

margamatix said:

phantomwolf said:

The Coming Return:

Fact: Russians fly me to the Moon for $100 million.
Fact: Future Missions in 2018

These are claims, not facts.

No, claims referance Hoax claims. They are listed under fact even through they are yet to be realised because they are planned to actually happen.

[margamatix]

Well all right, we could have....

Claim. The footage below shows Charlie Duke being pulled up on a wire.

And then you could give the url for the footage so that people could decide for themselves.

[echnaton]

PhantomWolf,

Great idea. Putting the claims in the context of the history timeline will be a great contribution to the effort. I look forward to reading it as your idea develops.

[Kiwi]

Have you also got JFK's speech at Rice University? There are 7 minutes 14 seconds of it on the DVD, "The Dish."

Two excerpts:

0:09:08 "This year's space budget is three times what it was in January 1961, and it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight years combined. That budget now stands at five billion four hundred million dollars a year — a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year."

0:09:40 "Space expenditures will soon rise some more from 40 cents per person per week, to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman and child in the United States."


I haven't watched it recently, but think it's in that speech that he mentions the spacecraft having new alloys that haven't yet been invented. I've often wondered if that came true.

[Al Johnston]

I think you're right: IIRC he follows it up by joking that the temperatures in the rocket engine will be "almost as hot as it is here today".

[PhantomWolf]

This is from the transcript:

To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. This year's space budget is three times what it was in January 1961, and it is greater than the space budget of the previous 8 years combined. That budget now stands at $5,400 million a year-a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year. Space expenditures will soon rise some more from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman, and child in the United States, for we have given this program a high national priority even though I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us. But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, reentering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun - almost as hot as it is here today - and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out, then we must be bold.

I'll link be trying to link to as many clips as I can find. I've already been Image hunting for the Soviet side of the story. I figure by showing some of both sides of the space race it will undermine the idea of "the soviets knew they couldn't do X."

[PhantomWolf]

Okay First page is up here

There isn't a lot, just a quick blurb, but still comments and critics are welcomed.

[Kiwi]

I've just found the transcript of Kennedy's speech at Rice University, Houston, on 12 September 1962.
www.jfklibrary.org/j091262.htm

More interesting excerpts:

"Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were "made in the United States of America" and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union.

"The Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the the 40-yard lines.

"Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tiros satellites have given us unprecedented warnings of hurricanes and storms, and will do the same for forest fires and icebergs.

"We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.

"To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead."


PhantomWolf: I think you've got a good idea there. Many hoax-believers know very little about the history of space exploration and how it all unfolded. That's why it's so easy for them to believe in a hoax -- they're basically clueless.

But don't write a lot -- remember that their brains are small and can't take much! We've all seen recently how a hoax-believer can't understand simple, straightforward explanations and describes them all as "a stream of nonsense."

Another good statistic could be that of yearly launches, both successful and failures. I recently read in the Encyclopedia Astronautica of Wallops Island in the U.S. celebrating its 3,000th launch, and that was away back on 24 March 1959.

[Sticks]

Sorry to rain on the parade, but the domain name is a wee bit complicated.

Can you get a better domain name for this ?

[PhantomWolf]

sticks said:

Sorry to rain on the parade, but the domain name is a wee bit complicated.

Can you get a better domain name for this ?

I'm currently piggy backing it on my game's site since I have unlimited spce and bandwidth for it. Once I hve it developed and all the mistakes out of it, I'll consider moving it to it's own site.

[Bob B.]

Doing it chronologically is a great idea, PhantomWolf. I notice that you mention the Vietnam War thing. That claim really falls apart when you look at the timing of events. Here's what I wrote in my Web page:

The hoax advocates like to point out that the timing of the Apollo missions almost exactly corresponded with the war in Vietnam. Let us take a closer look at this argument. It is important that we not look at when the Apollo missions actually occurred, but rather, when the planning for those missions took place. Although work on Apollo began years earlier, the start of the moon race is widely considered to be John F. Kennedy's speech to congress in May 1961, while the first U.S. ground combat forces did not enter Vietnam until March 1965. Apollo 18, the last Apollo mission to be scrapped, was cancelled during the summer of 1970, while the last U.S. ground forces did not leave Vietnam until March 1973. That's 1961-70 for Apollo and 1965-73 for Vietnam. It is obvious that NASA plans were made years in advance of events in Vietnam. Planners could not have possibly anticipated the timing of future events, yet the hoax advocates would have us believe so.

In addition to your detailed refutations, it might be nice to provide a timeline showing significant developments. When you see it all layed out this way it makes Bart Sibrel's claims look really silly.

October 1957 - Soviets launch Sputnik I, the first artificial Earth satellite.
January 1958 - USA launches Explorer I, the first American satellite. Van Allen Radiation Belts are discovered.
July 1958 - NASA is created by the signing of the National Aeronautics and Space Act.
March 1959 - USA conducts the first static firing of a full stage developmental F-1 engine.
October 1959 - Soviet Luna 3 probe returns the first pictures of the Moon's far side.
July 1960 - NASA announces "Apollo" as the name of its planned moon landing program.
January 1961 - John Kennedy becomes president of the United States,
April 1961 - Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space.
May 1961 - Alan Shepard become the first American in space.
May 1961 - John Kennedy announces as a national goal a moon landing before the end of the decade.
August 1961 - Soviets complete first manned flight over one day duration.
October 1961 - USA conducts first test launch of the Saturn 1 launch vehicle.
February 1962 - John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth.
May 1963 - Last Mercury mission is launched, first US manned flight over one day.
November 1963 - John Kennedy is assassinated, Lyndon Johnson becomes US president.
January 1964 - USA conducts first test flight of the S-IV second stage.
February 1964 – USA’s Ranger 6 probe impacts moon on target but no pictures are returned.
May 1964 - USA launches the first 'boilerplate' Apollo spacecraft into orbit.
July 1964 – USA’s Ranger 7 impacts the Moon and returns over 4,000 pictures. Mission is followed by Ranger 8 and 9.
October 1964 - Soviets launch Voskhod 1 carrying the first multi-person crew.
March 1965 - Alexei Leonov becomes the first person to walk in space.
March 1965 - USA launches the first of its two-man Gemini missions. First onboard computer; first piloted spacecraft to change its orbit.
June 1965 - Ed White becomes the first American to walk in space.
August 1965 - Gemini 5 becomes the first spacecraft to use fuel cells for electric power. USA surpasses USSR in total space man-hours.
December 1965 - Gemini 7 sets new space flight duration record (13.77 days). Gemini 6 & 7 perform the first space rendezvous.
January 1966 – Soviet Luna 9 performs the first successful soft landing on the Moon.
February 1966 - USA conducts a test of the Apollo command module heat shield.
March 1966 - Gemini 8 performs to first docking of two space vehicles (with Agena target).
April 1966 – Soviet Luna 10 attains the first successful lunar orbit.
June 1966 – USA’s Surveyor 1 performs a soft-landing on the Moon. Mission is followed successfully by Surveyors 3, 5, 6 and 7.
June 1966 - Gene Cernan performs 127 minute space walk.
July 1966 - USA conducts a test flight of the S-IVB stage.
July 1966 - Gemini 10 sets manned altitude recond (763 km).
August 1966 – USA’s Lunar Orbiter 1 enters orbit and returns photos of the surface. Mission is followed by Lunar Orbiters 2 through 5.
September 1966 - Gemini 11 attains new altitude record (1,369 km); first automatic computer-guided reentry.
November 1966 - Edwin Aldrin records over 5.5 hours of EVA during final Gemini mission.
January 1967 - A fire in the Apollo 1 command module kills astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee during a ground test.
April 1967 - Soyuz 1 becomes first Soviet manned space flight in over two years; Vladimir Komarov dies due to a parachute failure.
October 1967 - USSR performs the first rendezvous of two Soviet spacecraft (unmanned).
November 1967 - Apollo 4 conducts the first unmanned test launch of the Saturn V launch vehicle.
January 1968 - Apollo 5 performs the first unmanned test of the lunar module in Earth orbit.
March 1968 – Soviets perform Zond mission check-out.
April 1968 - Apollo 6 conducts the second test launch of the Saturn V.
September 1968 – Soviet Zond 5 performs a circumlunar flyby and returns to the Indian Ocean; biological samples are included.
October 1968 - Apollo 7 becomes first manned Apollo flight; testing of command and service modules is completed.
December 1968 - Apollo 8 performs the first manned flight to the Moon; 10 lunar orbits are completed.
January 1969 - Soviets perform the first docking of two piloted spacecraft.
January 1969 - Richard Nixon becomes president of the United States,
February 1969 - First test launch of the Soviet N1 rocket ends in failure.
March 1969 - Apollo 9 performs the first piloted test flight of the lunar module.
May 1969 - Apollo 10 tests the lunar module in lunar orbit, descending to within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface.
July 1969 - N1 rocket explodes on the launch pad effectively ending the Soviet moon program.
July 1969 – Soviets attempt a lunar sample return mission but soft landing fails.
July 1969 - Apollo 11 performs the first manned landing on the Moon.


EDIT: Made corrections as noted by others (see following discussion).
EDIT: Added new items to list.

[LunarOrbit]

phantomwolf said:

I'm currently piggy backing it on my game's site since I have unlimited spce and bandwidth for it. Once I hve it developed and all the mistakes out of it, I'll consider moving it to it's own site.

Would you be interested in maybe joining forces with me? I've got a domain... apollohoax.net... but no patience or writing ability to actually make content for it.

Let me know if you think that's a good idea.

[Sticks]

Sounds like a plan to me