Amers on the moon scientific discussion. Have Americans been to the moon? Why did you need additional shooting in terrestrial conditions

Landing 12 astronauts on the moon remains the most great achievement US aerospace agency NASA. During these landings, astronauts collected samples of the lunar soil, videotaped and photographed the satellite, conducted experiments on its surface, planted flags, and then returned home. But in the end, none of the missions of the Apollo program, which were carried out for many weeks, did not lead to the fact that mankind could permanently gain a foothold on the Earth's satellite. And now, more than 45 years after the last manned landing on the Moon, on the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, America finally has enough reason to return to that gray ball that looks like Swiss cheese. .

Scientists and entrepreneurs from around the world believe that a habitable base on the moon could be an ideal springboard for space missions to deep space. It could be used as a space gas station, incredible space telescopes could be built there, and the base could be used as a platform to prepare humanity for the colonization of Mars. The work carried out on the lunar base will solve many scientific mysteries related to the nature of the origin of the Earth and its satellite. After all, the Moon may one day turn into a separate economic hub, possibly related to the same area of space tourism.

“A permanent research station on the moon will be the next logical step in conquering solar system. And we are almost ready to make it, without killing anyone, ”shared in a conversation with Business Insider.

“Then, it’s true, we have to come up with and develop a bunch of other things before we can go any further.”

Most astronauts and cosmonautics experts, the newspaper writes, agree that the biggest difficulties that have kept humanity from continuing to explore the moon for more than four recent decades, turned out to be outrageously very banal.

The main reason that stood in the way of any space program, especially when it came to manned missions, has always been associated with the issue of price. US President Donald Trump's March 2017 budget allotted about $19.5 billion to NASA's aerospace agency, with funding raised to $19.9 billion in 2019. In both cases, this turned out to be significantly less than what the agency was allocated in the past.

For an ordinary person, this amount may seem astronomical. But it's worth looking at the ambitious goals the US space agency has set for itself - the James Webb Space Telescope, the development of the new Space Launch System launch vehicle, missions to explore the Sun, Jupiter, Mars, the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt, and the edge Solar system - and this amount is starting to look just ridiculous. Especially against the backdrop of the US military budget, which annually receives an average of about $600 billion. One of the projects under this budget, for example, is the modernization of the US nuclear arsenal. According to experts, at least 1.7 trillion dollars will be spent on its implementation within 30 years.

“NASA received the most money in 1965. Then the share of the agency accounted for 4 percent federal budget. For the past 40 years, the country has allocated less than 1 percent of the budget to the space industry, while for the last 15 years this figure has been 0.4 percent,” said Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham in 2015.

The list of tasks included in Trump's budget includes the reincarnation of the program to return a man to the moon, as well as a manned mission to fly around Mars. But given the ever-inflating projected cost of their implementation, as well as NASA's constant delays associated with the development of the SLS launch vehicle, the allocated money may not be enough for any of these tasks. Even if the United States refuses to financially support the project of the International space station earlier than originally planned.

A 2005 NASA report gave an estimate of the cost of returning a man to the moon. To do this, over 13 years, the United States would have to spend about 104 billion dollars (133 billion today, adjusted for inflation). The same Apollo program cost American taxpayers about $120 billion by today's standards.

“Manned space missions are the most expensive undertaking. They are very difficult to implement, so it is incredibly difficult to get political support for them. And without the strong support of the government, they will remain just empty chatter, ”Cunningham said.

“NASA’s budget is too small for us to seriously start discussing all the things touched on today,” Cunningham summed up then.

Change of power

Trump has set the goal of returning Americans to "circumlunar space" by 2023. That is, approximately by the end of his presidency, if, of course, he is re-elected for a second term. Thus we come to the second big problem - the possibility of "political sabotage".

“Do you really believe everything that the president promises to fulfill by the end of his second term in office, when even the first one has not yet passed? This is just chatter, ”Hadfield commented to Business Insider.

The process of developing, creating and testing a spacecraft capable of delivering people to another planet in time can easily surpass two presidential terms. However, there is still a certain amount of predictability here: an important factor will be the readiness of the new government to follow the priorities set by the previous leader of the country.

“I would like the next president to support a budget that would allow us to carry out the space missions that we have asked for support. Whatever these missions are,” wrote astronaut Scott Kelly, answering questions from Reddit users in 2016 before Trump took office as the new US president.

As it turned out later, neither the new president nor the US Congress began to adhere to the plans and tasks set by the previous leaders. However, this was not the first time for the United States.

For example, in 2004, the Bush administration challenged NASA to develop new program, which would replace the aging Space Shuttle program. In addition, the agency was tasked with figuring out how to return to the moon. This is how the Constellation program was born, in which it was planned to land astronauts on the moon using the new Ares heavy-class launch vehicle, as well as the Orion spacecraft.

Over five years, NASA has spent $59 billion developing, building, and testing equipment for the program. After Barack Obama took the presidency, the new government that came with him produced a report arguing that the US space agency had failed to correctly estimate the cost of the Constellation program. As a result, Obama closed the program and signed a new one aimed at developing a new Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle.

Having come to power, Trump did not abandon the SLS program, but he changed the main priorities. Instead of the asteroid landing proposed by Obama and his administration, Trump wanted to return a man to the moon, and also take up missions related to the exploration of Mars.

This private change of direction for NASA was not without consequences. The United States lost about $20 billion on this, as well as years of wasted and lost time.

“I am very disappointed with such slow attempts to do something else. As for the future, I have no hopes. I’ll just be watching to see what happens next,” said American Apollo 8 astronaut James Arthur Lovell in an interview with Business Insider in 2017.

Buzz Aldrin (the second person to walk on the moon) back in 2015 expressed the hope that the decision to return to the moon would be made on Capitol Hill.

“America's leadership and consistency in doing things that no other nation can do inspires the world. We demonstrated this 45 years ago. I don't believe we're going to stop there," Aldrin said in a prepared speech.

The real driving force behind the government's drive to return to the Moon is the will of the American people, who voted for this government and helped shape policy priorities. However, with regard to the study of the moon, notes Business Insider, the public interest in this topic has always been, if not indifferent, then not as bright as it might seem.

Even at the height of the Apollo program, after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the lunar surface, only 53 percent of Americans believed that the program was worth the money that was spent on it. In most other cases, interest in the Apollo program among the American population has always remained well below 50 percent.

Today, 55 percent of Americans believe that NASA should make returning to the Moon a priority, but only a quarter of those people believe that this task should be the most important task for the US space agency (according to June polls). At the same time, 44 percent of the population believes that sending astronauts to the moon is generally a pointless task and should not be done.

Support for the Mars manned mission program is surprisingly higher, with 63 percent of the population saying NASA should make this a priority. At the same time, 91 percent of people consider it important to continue and expand programs for observing and repelling space threats (asteroids, meteorites, etc.).

Challenges outside of politics

Political wrangling over NASA's space missions and the agency's budget isn't the only reason people haven't returned to the moon yet. Our satellite is a real death trap 4.5 billion years old. She cannot be underestimated. She will not forgive any weakness. She will simply kill anyone who dares to approach her without being prepared.

Its surface is covered with craters and razor-sharp rocks that make it difficult to land. Before the historic moon landing, the US government spent billions of dollars developing, launching, and delivering spacecraft to the Moon so that they could map the surface well enough to help space mission planners find the safest place to land Apollo 11.

“There is no doubt that if we are going to move even further, especially if we are talking about moving beyond the moon, we will need new spacecraft and rockets. In terms of capabilities, we are now closer to the pre-automobile era, ”said Hoffman.

Many astronauts would like to visit the Moon. And this only plays into the hands of people like Jeff Bezos, who Lately began to actively advertise in Washington his plan to build the first lunar base with the help of the New Glenn rocket being developed by his Blue Origin company. In April of this year, he announced that his company "is going to take all heavy industry off the Earth, leaving only light industry on it."

Musk has also been talking for a long time about how the BFR (Big Falcon Rocket) booster under development by SpaceX will make flights to the moon regular and affordable for many. And according to all the same "many", SpaceX will be able to get to the moon even before NASA and Blue Origin.

“My dream is that one day the Moon will become part of the economic sphere of the Earth, like geostationary and low Earth orbit is now,” Hoffman said.

"Space geostationary orbit is part of our daily economy. One day, I think, the moon will also become the same part. And for this it is worth working and making efforts.”

Other astronauts also have no doubt that humanity will return to the moon and begin the exploration of Mars. It's just a matter of time.

“I think that eventually people will return to the moon and then start conquering Mars. It probably won't happen in my lifetime. But I hope that these attempts will be successful,” said Arthur Lovell.

On July 21, 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon. However, to this day one can hear the opinion that the landing of the Americans on the moon is a great hoax.

The "lunar conspiracy" theory

In 1974, American Bill Kazing's book We Never Flew to the Moon saw the light of day. It was the beginning of the spread of the "lunar conspiracy" theory. Caseing had good reason to bring up this topic, since he worked for Rocketdyne, which built rocket engines for the Apollo program.

As arguments confirming the staging of flights to the Moon, the author draws attention to the incidents of "lunar photographs" - the unevenness of shadows, the absence of stars, the small size of the Earth. Keyzing also cites NASA's lack of technological equipment at the time of implementation. lunar program.

The number of supporters of the "lunar conspiracy" grew rapidly, as did the number of revelations of a manned flight to the moon. So David Percy - a member of the British Royal Photographic Society - has already made a more detailed analysis of photographs provided by NASA. He argued that in the absence of an atmosphere, the shadows on the Moon should be absolutely black, and the multidirectionality of these shadows gave him reason to assume the presence of several sources of illumination.

Skeptics also noted other strange details - the waving of the American flag in vacuum conditions, the absence of deep funnels that should have been formed during the landing of the lunar module. Engineer Rene Ralph brought up an even more compelling argument for discussion - in order to prevent astronauts from being exposed to radiation, spacesuits had to be covered with at least 80 cm of lead!
In 2003, the widow of American director Stanley Kubrick, Christiane, added fuel to the fire, who stated that the scenes of the landing of the Americans on the moon were filmed by her husband in Hollywood pavilions.

About the "lunar conspiracy" in Russia

Oddly enough, but in the USSR no one seriously questioned the Apollo flights to the moon. In particular, in Soviet press after the first landing of Americans on the moon, materials appeared confirming this fact. Many Russian cosmonauts also spoke about the success of the American lunar program. Among them are Alexei Leonov and Georgy Grechko.

Alexey Leonov said the following: “Only absolutely ignorant people can seriously believe that the Americans were not on the moon. And, unfortunately, this whole ridiculous saga about shots allegedly fabricated in Hollywood began precisely with the Americans themselves.

Truth, Soviet cosmonaut did not deny the fact that some scenes of the Americans' stay on the Moon were filmed on Earth in order to give the video report a certain sequence: “It was impossible, for example, to film the real opening of the hatch of the descent ship on the Moon by Neil Armstrong - there was simply no one to film it from the surface!”

Confidence of domestic experts in success lunar mission primarily due to the fact that the process of the Apollo flights to the Moon was recorded by Soviet equipment. These are signals from the ships, and negotiations with the crew, and a television picture about the exit of astronauts to the surface of the Moon.

In the event that the signals came from the Earth, this would be immediately exposed.
Pilot-cosmonaut and designer Konstantin Feoktistov in his book “The Trajectory of Life. Between yesterday and tomorrow,” writes, in order to reliably simulate a flight, it would be necessary “to land a television repeater on the surface of the Moon in advance and check its operation (with transmission to Earth). And in the days of simulating the expedition, it was necessary to send a radio repeater to the Moon to simulate the radio communication of Apollo with the Earth on the flight path to the Moon. Arranging such a hoax, according to Feoktistov, is no less difficult than a real expedition.

Also, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the “lunar conspiracy”, calling in an interview “complete nonsense” the version that the United States faked the landing on the moon.
However, in modern Russia revealing articles, books, films continue to be published about the impossibility of technically carrying out such a flight, they are also scrupulously analyzed and criticized by photos and videos of the “lunar expedition”.

Counterarguments

NASA admits that they are bombarded with so many letters with this or that argument proving the falsification of flights that they are not able to fend off all attacks. However, some of the objections can be discarded, knowing the elementary laws of physics.

It is known that the location of the shadow depends on the shape of the object casting them and on the surface relief - this explains the unevenness of the shadows in the lunar photographs. Shadows converging at a far point are nothing more than a manifestation of the law of perspective. The idea of several light sources (spotlights) is untenable in itself, since in this case each of the illuminated objects would cast at least two shadows.

The visibility of the banner fluttering in the wind is explained by the fact that the flag was mounted on a flexible aluminum base, which was in motion, while the upper crossbar was not fully extended, which created the effect of a wrinkled canvas. On Earth, air resistance quickly extinguishes oscillatory movements, but in an airless environment, these movements are much longer.

According to NASA engineer Jim Oberg, the most convincing evidence that the flag was set on the Moon is the following fact: when astronauts passed near the banner, it remained absolutely motionless, which would not be the case in the earth's atmosphere.

The fact that the stars in the daytime on the moon will not be visible, astronomer Patrick Moore knew even before the flight. He explains that the human eye, like the lens of a camera, simply cannot adjust to both the illuminated surface of the Moon and the dim sky at the same time.
It is more difficult to explain why the lander did not leave funnels on the lunar surface or, at least, did not disperse the dust, although NASA experts motivate this by the fact that during landing the device greatly slowed down and landed on a sliding trajectory.
Probably the most compelling argument of the conspiracy theorists is that the ship's crew simply could not overcome the Van Allen radiation belt surrounding the Earth and would burn alive. However, Van Allen himself was not inclined to exaggerate his theory, explaining that the passage of the belt at high speed did not threaten the astronauts.
However, it remains a mystery how the astronauts escaped from the powerful radiation on the surface of the Moon in fairly light spacesuits.

Gazing at the moon

A little forgotten in the heated debate is that the astronauts, after each successful descent, installed laser rangefinders on the Moon. At the Texas McDonald Observatory, for several decades, directing a laser beam at the corner reflector of lunar installations, specialists received a response signal in the form of flashes, which was recorded by highly sensitive equipment.
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight, the LRO automatic interplanetary station took a whole series of pictures at the landing sites lunar modules, fixing presumably the remains of the equipment of the American crews. Later, photographs were taken from more high resolution on which you can see traces from the all-terrain vehicle and even, according to NASA, the chains of traces of the astronauts themselves.
However, pictures taken by disinterested parties inspire more confidence. Thus, the Japanese space agency JAXA reported that the Kaguya apparatus discovered possible traces of the Apollo 15 presence. A member of the Indian Organization space research Prakash Chauhan said that the Chandrayaan-1 lander received an image of a fragment of the lander.
However, only a new manned flight to the moon can finally dot the “and”.

Each nation individually and all of humanity as a whole strives only forward to conquer new horizons in the development of the economy, medicine, sports, science, new technologies, including the study of astronomy and the conquest of space. We hear about big breakthroughs in space, but have they really happened? Did the Americans land on the moon, or was it just one big spectacle?

suits

Having visited the “US National Air and Space Museum” in Washington, anyone who wants to make sure that the American spacesuit is a very simple dressing gown, sewn in haste. NASA claims that the spacesuits were sewn at a factory for the production of bras and underwear, that is, their spacesuits were sewn from the fabric of shorts and they supposedly protect against the aggressive space environment, from radiation that is deadly for humans. However, maybe NASA has really developed ultra-reliable suits that protect against radiation. But why then was this ultra-light material not used anywhere else? Not for military, not for peaceful purposes. Why was help not provided with Chernobyl, albeit for money, as American presidents like to do? Well, let's say perestroika has not yet begun and they did not want to help the Soviet Union. But, after all, for example, in 79 in the USA at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, terrible accident reactor block. So why didn't they use durable spacesuits developed using NASA technology to eliminate radiation contamination - a time bomb on their territory?

Radiation radiation from the Sun is detrimental to humans. Radiation is one of the main obstacles to space exploration. For this reason, today all manned flights take place no further than 500 kilometers from the surface of our planet. But the Moon has no atmosphere and the level of radiation is commensurate with open space. For this reason, both in a manned spacecraft and in a spacesuit on the surface of the Moon, the astronauts had to receive a lethal dose of radiation. However, they are all alive.

Neil Armstrong and the other 11 astronauts lived an average of 80 years, and some are still alive today, like Buzz Aldrin. By the way, back in 2015, he honestly admitted that he had not been to the moon.

It is interesting to know how they were able to survive so well when a small dose of radiation is enough to develop leukemia - a cancer of the blood. As you know, none of the astronauts died of oncology, which raises only questions. Theoretically, it is possible to protect yourself from radiation. The question is, what protection can be sufficient for such a flight. Calculations by engineers show that to protect the astronauts from cosmic radiation, the walls of the ship and the spacesuit at least 80 cm thick, made of lead, are needed, which, of course, was not. Not a single rocket can lift such a weight.

The suits were not just hastily riveted, and they were missing the simple things necessary for life support. So in the spacesuits used in the Apollo program, there is no system for the withdrawal of waste products. The Americans, either throughout the flight with plugs in different places, endured, did not write or poop. Or everything that came out of them they immediately processed. Otherwise, they would simply suffocate on their excrement. It's not that the system of excretion of waste products was bad - it was simply absent.

Astronauts walked on the moon in rubber boots, but it's interesting to know how they did it if the temperature on the moon ranges from +120 to -150 degrees Celsius. How did they get the information and technology to make shoes that are resistant to wide temperature ranges? After all, the only material that has the necessary properties was discovered after flights and began to be used in production only 20 years after the first landing on the moon.

official chronicle

On the vast majority satellite images NASA's lunar program does not show stars, although they are abundant in Soviet satellite images. The black empty background in all the photos is due to the fact that there were difficulties with modeling starry sky and NASA decided to completely abandon the firmament in their images. At the time of the installation of the US flag on the moon, the flag was fluttering under the influence of air currents. Armstrong adjusted the flag and took a few steps back. However, the flag did not stop waving. The American flag fluttered in the wind, although we know that in the absence of an atmosphere and in the absence of wind as such, a flag cannot wave on the Moon. How could astronauts move so quickly on the Moon if gravity is 6 times lower than on Earth? An accelerated view of the astronauts' jumps on the Moon shows that their movements correspond to those on Earth, and the height of the jumps does not exceed the height of the jumps under the conditions of Earth's gravity. You can also find fault with the pictures themselves for a long time in the difference in colors and minor blunders.

Lunar soil

During the lunar missions under the Apollo program, a total of 382 kg of lunar soil was delivered to Earth and soil samples were donated by the US government to leaders different countries. True, without exception, the regolith turned out to be a fake of terrestrial origin. Part of the soil mysteriously simply disappeared from museums, another part of the soil after chemical analysis turned out to be terrestrial basalt or meteorite fragments. So BBC News reported that a fragment of lunar soil, stored in the Dutch museum Rijskmuseulm, turned out to be a piece of petrified wood. The exhibit was handed over to Dutch Prime Minister Willem Dries, and after his death, the regolith went to the museum. Experts doubted the authenticity of the stone back in 2006. Finally, this suspicion was confirmed by an analysis of the lunar soil, carried out by specialists from the Free University of Amsterdam, the conclusion of the experts was not comforting: a piece of stone is a fake. The American government decided not to comment on this situation in any way and simply hushed up the matter. Also, similar cases occurred in Japan, Switzerland, China and Norway. And such embarrassments were resolved in the same way, regoliths mysteriously either disappeared or were destroyed by fire or the destruction of museums.

One of the main arguments of the opponents of the lunar conspiracy is the recognition by the Soviet Union of the fact that the Americans landed on the moon. Let's analyze this fact in more detail. The United States was well aware that it would not be difficult for the Soviet Union to come out with a refutation and provide evidence that the Americans had never landed on the moon. And there was plenty of evidence, including material. This is the analysis of the lunar soil, which was transferred by the American side, and this is the Apollo 13 apparatus caught in the Bay of Biscay in 1970 with full telemetry of the launch of the Saturn 5 launch vehicles, in which there was not a single living soul, there was not a single astronaut. On the night of April 11-12, the Soviet fleet lifted the Apollo 13 capsule. In fact, the capsule turned out to be an empty zinc bucket, there was no thermal protection at all, and its weight was no more than one ton. The rocket was launched on April 11, and a few hours later on the same day, the Soviet military finds a capsule in the Bay of Biscay.

And according to the official chronicle, the American apparatus circled the Moon and returned to Earth supposedly on April 17, as if nothing had happened. Soviet Union at that time he received irrefutable evidence of the falsification of the moon landing by the Americans and he had a fat ace up his sleeve.

But then amazing things began to happen. In the midst of cold war When a bloody war was going on in Vietnam, Brezhnev and Nixon, as if nothing had happened, meet like good old friends, smile, clink glasses, drink champagne together. History remembers this as the Brezhnev thaw. How can one explain the completely unexpected friendship between Nixon and Brezhnev? In addition to the fact that the Brezhnev thaw began quite unexpectedly, behind the scenes, there were chic gifts that President Nixon made personally to Ilyich Brezhnev. Thus, during his first visit to Moscow, the American president brings Brezhnev a generous gift - a Cadillac Eldorado, assembled by hand on a special order. I wonder for what merits at the highest level Nixon gives an expensive Cadillac at the first meeting? Or maybe the Americans were indebted to Brezhnev? And then - more. At the next meetings, Brezhnev is presented with a Lincoln limousine, followed by a sports Chevrolet Monte Carlo. At the same time, the silence of the Soviet Union about the American lunar scam could hardly be bought for a luxury car. The USSR demanded to pay big. Can it be considered a coincidence that in the early 70s, when the Americans allegedly landed on the moon, the construction of the largest giant, the KAMAZ automobile plant, began in the Soviet Union. Interestingly, the West allocated billions of dollars in loans for this construction, and several hundred American and European automobile companies took part in the construction. There were dozens of other projects in which the West, for such inexplicable reasons, invested in the economy of the Soviet Union. Thus, an agreement was concluded on the supply of American grain to the USSR at prices below the world average, which negatively affected the well-being of the Americans themselves.

The embargo on the supply of Soviet oil to Western Europe was also lifted, we began to penetrate into their gas market, where we are still successfully operating. In addition to allowing the US to do such a lucrative business with Europe, the West essentially built these pipelines itself. Germany provided a loan of more than 1 billion marks to the Soviet Union and supplied large-diameter pipes, which at that time were not being produced in our country. Moreover, the nature of warming demonstrates a clear one-sidedness. The US is doing favors to the Soviet Union while getting nothing in return. Amazing generosity, which can easily be explained by the price of silence about the fake moon landing.

By the way, recently the famous Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who defends the Americans everywhere and everywhere in their version of the flight to the moon, confirmed that the landing was filmed in the studio. Indeed, who will film the epochal opening of the hatch by the first man on the moon, if there is no one on the moon?

Destroying the myth that Americans landed on the moon is not just a minor fact. No. The element of this illusion is interconnected with all world deceptions. And when one illusion begins to collapse after it, according to the domino principle, the rest of the illusions begin to collapse. Not only are delusions about the greatness of the United States of America crumbling. Added to this is the misconception about the confrontation of states. Would the USSR play along with its irreconcilable enemy in the lunar scam? It's hard to believe, but, unfortunately, the Soviet Union played the same game with the United States. And if this is so, then it becomes clear to us now that there are forces that control all these processes, which are higher than the states.

MOSCOW, July 20 - RIA Novosti. Famed cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who personally prepared for participation in the Soviet lunar exploration program, denied years of rumors that American astronauts were not on the Moon, and the footage broadcast on television around the world was allegedly edited in Hollywood.

He spoke about this in an interview with RIA Novosti on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the first landing in the history of mankind of US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin on the surface of an Earth satellite, celebrated on July 20.

So were or weren't the Americans on the moon?

“Only absolutely ignorant people can seriously believe that the Americans were not on the moon. And, unfortunately, this whole ridiculous epic about the allegedly fabricated footage in Hollywood began precisely with the Americans themselves. By the way, the first person who began to distribute these rumors, was imprisoned for slander," Aleksey Leonov noted in this regard.

Where did the rumors come from?

It all started with the fact that when, at the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the famous American film director Stanley Kubrick, who created his brilliant film Odyssey 2001 based on the book of science fiction writer Arthur Clark, journalists who met with Kubrick's wife asked to talk about her husband's work on the film in Hollywood studios.And she honestly said that there are only two real lunar modules on Earth - one in a museum where no filming has ever been done, and it’s even forbidden to walk with a camera, and the other is in Hollywood, where, to develop the logic of what is happening on the screen and additional filming of the landing of the Americans on the moon was made," the Soviet cosmonaut specified.

Why was studio photography used?

Alexei Leonov explained that in order for the viewer to be able to see the development of what is happening on the movie screen from beginning to end, elements of additional filming are used in any movie.

“It was impossible, for example, to film the real opening of the hatch of the descent ship on the Moon by Neil Armstrong - there was simply no one to film it from the surface! For the same reason, it was impossible to film Armstrong’s descent to the Moon along the ladder from the ship. Kubrick in Hollywood studios to develop the logic of what is happening, and laid the foundation for numerous gossip that the entire landing was allegedly simulated on the set, "explained Alexei Leonov.

Where Truth Begins and Editing Ends

“Real shooting began when Armstrong, who first set foot on the Moon, got a little used to it, installed a highly directional antenna, through which the broadcast to Earth was carried out. its movement on the surface of the moon," the astronaut specified.

Why did the American flag fly in the airless space of the moon?

“They argue that the American flag was flying on the moon, but it shouldn’t be. The flag really shouldn’t be flying - the fabric was used with a rather rigid reinforced mesh, the cloth was twisted into a tube and tucked into a case. The astronauts took with them a nest, which they first inserted into the lunar soil, and then they stuck the flagpole into it, and only then removed the cover. And when the cover was removed, the flag's cloth began to unfold in conditions of reduced gravity, and the residual deformation of the springy reinforced mesh created the impression that the flag was rippling, as if in the wind " , - Alexey Leonov explained the "phenomenon".

“It’s simply ridiculous and ridiculous to talk about the fact that the entire film was filmed on Earth. The United States had all the necessary systems that tracked the launch of the launch vehicle itself, acceleration, flight orbit correction, flight around the Moon by the descent capsule and its landing,” concluded the famous Soviet cosmonaut.

What did the "lunar race" lead to two space superpowers

“In my opinion, this is the best competition in space that humanity has ever carried out. The “moon race” between the USSR and the USA is the achievement of the highest peaks of science and technology,” Alexei Leonov believes.

According to him, after the flight of Yuri Gagarin, US President Kennedy, speaking in Congress, said that the Americans simply thought too late about what triumph could be achieved by launching a man into space, and therefore the Russians triumphantly became the first. Kennedy's message was clear: within ten years, put a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth.

"This was a very true step of the great politician - he united and rallied the American nation to achieve this goal. Huge funds for those times were also involved - 25 billion dollars, today, this is, perhaps, all fifty billion. The program included a flyby of the moon, then the flight of Tom Stafford to the point of hovering and selection of a site for landing on Apollo 10. Sending Apollo 11 already provided for the direct landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Michael Collins remained in orbit and waited for the return of his comrades, " - said Alexei Leonov.

18 Apollo-type ships were made to prepare for landing on the moon - the whole program was implemented perfectly, except for Apollo 13 - from the engineering point of view, nothing special happened there, it just failed, or rather, one of the fuel cells exploded , the energy weakened, and therefore it was decided not to land on the surface, but to fly around the Moon and return to Earth.

Alexei Leonov noted that only the first flight around the moon by Frank Bormann, then the landing of Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon and the story of Apollo 13 remained in the memory of the Americans. These accomplishments have brought the American nation together and made every individual empathize, walk with fingers crossed, and pray for their heroes. The last flight of the Apollo series was also extremely interesting: American astronauts no longer just walked on the Moon, but traveled on its surface in a special lunar car, making interesting photographs.

In fact, it was the peak of the Cold War, and in this situation, after the success of Yuri Gagarin, the Americans simply had to win the "moon race". The USSR then had its own lunar program, and we also implemented it. By 1968, it had already existed for two years, and even the crews of our cosmonauts were formed for a flight to the Moon.

On censorship of the achievements of mankind

"The launches of the Americans as part of the lunar program were broadcast on television, and only two countries in the world - the USSR and communist China - did not broadcast these historical footage to their peoples. I thought then, and now I think - in vain, we simply robbed our people "The flight to the moon is the property and achievement of all mankind. The Americans watched Gagarin's launch, Leonov's spacewalk - why couldn't the Soviet people see it?!", laments Alexei Leonov.

According to him, a limited group of Soviet space specialists watched these launches through a closed channel.

“We had military unit 32103 on Komsomolsky Prospekt, which provided space broadcasting, since there was no TsUP in Korolev then. The Americans set up a television antenna on the surface of the moon, and everything they did there was transmitted through a television camera to Earth, several repetitions of these television broadcasts were also made.When Armstrong stood on the surface of the moon, and everyone in the USA clapped, we are here in the USSR , Soviet cosmonauts, also crossed their fingers for good luck, and sincerely wished the guys success, "recalls the Soviet cosmonaut.

How was the implementation of the Soviet lunar program

"In 1962, a decree was issued, signed personally by Nikita Khrushchev, on the creation spaceship for flying around the Moon and using the Proton launch vehicle with an upper stage for this launch. In 1964, Khrushchev signed a program for the USSR to carry out a flyby in 1967, and in 1968 - landing on the moon and returning to Earth. And in 1966, there was already a decree on the formation of lunar crews - a group was immediately recruited for landing on the moon," Alexei Leonov recalled.

The first stage of the flyby of the Earth satellite was to be carried out with the help of the launch of the L-1 lunar module by the Proton launch vehicle, and the second stage - landing and returning back - on the giant and most powerful N-1 rocket, equipped with thirty engines with a total thrust of 4.5 thousand tons with the weight of the rocket itself about 2 thousand tons. However, even after four test launches, this super-heavy rocket did not fly normally, so it had to be abandoned in the end.

Korolev and Glushko: the antipathy of two geniuses

"There were other options, for example, using a 600-ton engine developed by the brilliant designer Valentin Glushko, but Sergey Korolev refused it, since he worked on highly toxic heptyl. Although, in my opinion, this was not the reason - just two leaders , Korolev and Glushko - could not and did not want to work together.Their relationship had its own problems, especially personal nature: Sergei Korolev, for example, knew that Valentin Glushko had once written a denunciation against him, as a result of which he was sentenced to ten years. Having been released, Korolev found out about this, but Glushko did not know that he knew about it," said Alexei Leonov.

A small step for a man, but a giant leap for all mankind

NASA's Apollo 11 spacecraft on July 20, 1969, with a crew of three astronauts: Commander Neil Armstrong, Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Aldrin, and Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, became the first to reach the Moon in the USSR-US space race. The Americans did not pursue research tasks in this expedition, its goal was simple: to land on the Earth's satellite and return successfully.

The ship consisted of a lunar module and a command module that remained in orbit during the mission. Thus, of the three astronauts, only two went to the moon: Armstrong and Aldrin. They had to land on the moon, collect samples of the lunar soil, take pictures on the Earth satellite and install several instruments. However, the main ideological component of the trip was still the hoisting of the American flag on the moon and the holding of a video communication session with the Earth.

The launch of the ship was watched by US President Richard Nixon and German rocket scientist Hermann Oberth. A total of about a million people watched the launch at the cosmodrome and mounted observation platforms, and more than a billion people watched the television broadcast, according to the Americans, around the world.

Apollo 11 launched to the moon on July 16, 1969 at 1332 GMT and entered lunar orbit 76 hours later. The command and lunar modules were undocked about 100 hours after launch. Despite the fact that NASA intended to land on the lunar surface in automatic mode, Armstrong, as the expedition commander, decided to land the lunar module in semi-automatic mode.

The lunar module landed on the Sea of Tranquility on July 20 at 20:17:42 GMT. Armstrong descended to the lunar surface on July 21, 1969 at 02:56:20 GMT. Everyone knows the phrase that he uttered when he stepped on the moon: "This is one small step for a person, but a giant leap for all mankind."

Aldrin also landed on the moon 15 minutes later. The astronauts collected the necessary amount of materials, placed the instruments and installed a television camera. After that, they planted an American flag in the field of view of the camera and held a communication session with President Nixon. The astronauts left a commemorative plaque on the moon with the words: "Here, people from planet Earth first set foot on the moon. July 1969 new era. We come in peace on behalf of all Humanity."

Aldrin was on the moon for about an hour and a half, Armstrong for two hours and ten minutes. At the 125th hour of the mission and the 22nd hour of stay on the Moon, the lunar module was launched from the surface of the Earth's satellite. The crew splashed down on the blue planet about 195 hours after the start of the mission, soon the astronauts were picked up by the aircraft carrier that came to the rescue.

On July 21, 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon. However, to this day one can hear the opinion that the landing of the Americans on the moon is a great hoax.

The "lunar conspiracy" theory

In 1974, American Bill Kazing's book We Never Flew to the Moon saw the light of day. It was the beginning of the spread of the "lunar conspiracy" theory. Caseing had reason to bring this up because he worked for Rocketdyne, which built rocket engines for the Apollo program.

As arguments confirming the staging of flights to the Moon, the author draws attention to the incidents of "lunar photographs" - the unevenness of shadows, the absence of stars, the small size of the Earth. Keyzing also refers to the lack of technological equipment of NASA at the time of the implementation of the lunar program.

About the "lunar conspiracy" in Russia

Oddly enough, but in the USSR no one seriously questioned the Apollo flights to the moon. In particular, in the Soviet press, after the first American landing on the moon, materials appeared confirming this fact. Many Russian cosmonauts also spoke about the success of the American lunar program. Among them are Alexei Leonov and Georgy Grechko.

True, the Soviet cosmonaut did not deny the fact that some scenes of the Americans' stay on the Moon were filmed on Earth in order to give the video report a certain sequence: “It was impossible, for example, to film the real opening of the hatch of the descent ship on the Moon by Neil Armstrong - there is simply no one from the surface was to be removed!

The confidence of domestic experts in the success of the lunar mission is primarily due to the fact that the process of the Apollo flights to the Moon was recorded by Soviet equipment. These are signals from the ships, and negotiations with the crew, and a television picture about the exit of astronauts to the surface of the Moon.

Also, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the “lunar conspiracy”, calling in an interview “complete nonsense” the version that the United States faked the landing on the moon.
Nevertheless, in modern Russia, revealing articles, books, films continue to be published about the impossibility of technically carrying out such a flight, they are also scrupulously analyzed and criticized by photos and videos of the “lunar expedition”.

Counterarguments

The visibility of the banner fluttering in the wind is explained by the fact that the flag was mounted on a flexible aluminum base, which was in motion, while the upper crossbar was not fully extended, which created the effect of a wrinkled canvas. On Earth, air resistance quickly dampens oscillatory motions, but in an airless environment, these motions are much longer.

Gazing at the moon

A little forgotten in the heated debate is that the astronauts, after each successful descent, installed laser rangefinders on the Moon. At the Texas McDonald Observatory, for several decades, directing a laser beam at the corner reflector of lunar installations, specialists received a response signal in the form of flashes, which was recorded by highly sensitive equipment.
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight, the automatic interplanetary station LRO took a whole series of images at the landing sites of the lunar modules, fixing presumably the remains of the equipment of the American crews. Higher resolution photographs were later taken that show footprints from the rover and even, according to NASA, trails of footprints from the astronauts themselves.
However, pictures taken by disinterested parties inspire more confidence. Thus, the Japanese space agency JAXA reported that the Kaguya apparatus discovered possible traces of the Apollo 15 presence. And an employee of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prakash Chauhan, said that the Chandrayaan-1 device received an image of a fragment of the lander.
However, only a new manned flight to the moon can finally dot the “and”.