Claudel: You really should understand, however, that there are a great many people, people who are as cognizant as you are of the empire of lies that engulfs us all, who are not prepared to count Apollo and the rest of the space program as one more stone on the mountain of deception.
Thanks, Claudel. You are, no doubt, a sincere individual, who speaks honestly according to his own lights. And I am aware that many people are aware of “the empire of lies that engulfs us all.”
But still, there is a huge gap in our thinking about the Apollo Project.
That your “tight-lipped” brother was one of a dozen who worked on the command module of Apollo 11 is impressive and extremely interesting to me. Does he ever open up to you on the subject? Why is he so “tight-lipped?”
I will say again that I am not a scientist, an aerospace engineer, or a person connected in any way with the space industry, either directly, or through family ties. But about one particularly vocal forum member, the same can not be definitively stated. I have asked Stanley twice to reveal his possible ties to NASA and the aerospace industry. He has thus far not replied.
I am not saying that Stanley does not have knowledge of the Apollo Program and of the technology surrounding it. But he does infer that his knowledge is indisputably correct, and superior to that of his opponents, who are merely conspiracy nutters who rely 100% on Youtube videos for their information. I would remind Stanley and others that there are plenty of qualified scientists and engineers who either dismiss Apollo as an utter hoax, or who have grave doubts about it.
You’re right, I have made up my mind. The only thing that gives me the briefest pause are the testimonies of some still living Apollo astronauts who will swear on a stack of Bibles that they went to the moon.
That is the human factor, and one not so easily dealt with. Human beings are extremely complex creatures, subject to all kinds of behavioral conditioning and vicissitudes throughout life. It would be entirely possible, in my mind anyway, to channel lies through individuals, who under normal conditions, are impeccably honest, for whom any lie is anathema.
But even in that pool of Apollo astronauts, there are those individuals who seem to give the lie to the testimonies of others among them.
Astronaut Gus Grissom, for example. On several occasions he expresses what can only be interpreted as (almost) total disdain for the Apollo Project. He has no confidence in the program at all, it seems. He even hangs a lemon on his lunar module simulator to show his disgust. One month before the Apollo 1 launch(?), in January of 1967, he’s a dead man, along with two of his companions. Gosh, that’s suspicious!
Neil Armstrong becomes, allegedly, the first man to set foot on the moon in Feb. of 1969. Armstrong comes back, gives a rather brief NASA-sponsored interview to the press, along with his two companions on the flight. All of them seem nervous and ill at ease. Thereafter, until his death in 2005, Armstrong makes himself as invisible as possible, and, we understand he suffers from bouts of mental illness. So also does his partner, Buzz Aldrin, by his own admission.
Then, to top it all off, this hero of the century, rather than be buried in Arlington, VA, where most such military heroes are interred, his ashes are scattered over the Pacific. This is just strange!
Then there’s James Irwin, commander of the Apollo 15 lunar module. He has a history of heart problems, admittedly. But in early August, 1991, not many days before his death, he phones Bill Kaysing, staunch moon landing denier, and says they need to talk. He asks Kaysing to call him back later on what Irwin considers a more secure phone line. Kaysing figures that the man wants to get something off his chest. But two or three days later Irwin is dead and no conversation takes place between the two men. How propitious, some might argue.
It is rumored that Apollo 12 astronaut Pete Conrad wants to go public on the fake moon landings back in 1999, the 30
th anniversary of that mission. He never does. Conrad is killed in a motorcycle accident one week before the event. Very weird!
Again, Claudel, almost everything I’ve read, heard and viewed about the Apollo Missions leads me to believe that they really never happened. But the human angle must be factored in. There are some puzzling, not fully explained, human responses for which I have no answer yet, unless one wants to pursue the Manchurian Candidate angle.
But some of the elliptical remarks made by certain NASA officials in recent times serve as clinchers for me. I understand plain English. And in plain English they tell me that 1) all the Apollo technology has been lost and can’t be recovered; and 2) NASA has never gotten a manned space craft out of lower earth orbit. End of story for me.