On July 20, 1969, two earthlings, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landed in their Apollo lunar module in the Moon's Sea of ​​Tranquility. And the beginning was given on September 12, 1961, when US President John F. Kennedy in his speech announced to the country and the world that before the end of this decade, America would land a man on the moon. Soviet Union(the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite and the flight of the first cosmonaut) the leadership of the United States, the country with the most powerful economy and leading positions in engineering and technology, could not allow another sensitive defeat.
It must be admitted that the head of the USSR, Khrushchev, received from US President Kennedy a proposal for a joint program of landing on the moon, but, suspecting an attempt to find out the secrets of Soviet rocket and space technology, or for some other reason, he refused.
Today, looking back, one is amazed at the scope and excellent organization of the huge complex of events carried out. Of course, only a very rich country with a colossal industrial potential, talented engineers and capable managers could afford this. The great advantage of the USA over the USSR was the creation of NASA. In the Soviet Union, the functions of NASA were dispersed between ministries and specialized departments of the Central Committee of the CPSU, i.e. the level of organization and coordination of work was at a rather low level.
Since 1961, Rangers have been flying to the Moon in the USA. The Ranger program was a series of US unmanned space missions to explore the moon in 1961-1965, testing various trajectories of approach to the moon and the first US attempt to obtain images of the moon from close range. The devices transmitted images of the Moon until the moment of impact. Each Ranger had six TV cameras: two F-channel cameras (full) with different viewing angles and 4 P-channel cameras (partial). The last image was taken between 2.5 and 5 seconds before impact from a height of about 5 km for channel F, and between 0.2 and 0.4 seconds before impact from a height of about 600 m for channel P.

Spacecraft Ranger (1961-1965) (NASA)

The first flights of the Rangers were unsuccessful. It was not until Ranger 7, launched on July 28, 1964, that the first high-resolution images of the lunar sea were transmitted. He reached the Moon on July 31st. The first image was taken from a height of 2110 km. 4308 high quality photos were transmitted during the last 17 minutes of the flight. The last image before the collision had a resolution of 0.5 meters. After 68.6 hours of flight, Ranger 7 crashed into the area between the Sea of ​​Clouds and the Ocean of Storms (later called the Mare Cognitum). The last two flights of Rangers 8 and 9 were also successful, performed in February-March 1965.
To determine the degree of meteorite danger in! 965, 3 launches of Pegasus satellites were carried out. Developed under the guidance of NASA. To put the satellites into orbit, test launches of the Saturn I experimental launch vehicles were used. During launch, the satellite (in the folded position) was inside the mock-up of the main unit (crew compartment + engine compartment) of the Apollo spacecraft. In orbit, the ship model was dropped and the “wings” of the satellite unfolded (span 29.3 m). Each wing of the satellite consisted of 7 panels, on the panel adjacent to the central section of the satellite, which is half as long as the others, 16 meteor particle detectors were mounted (8 on each side), on the remaining six - 32 detectors (16 on each side).
Pegasus in a "packed" form.

To carry out a project to map the surface of the moon and select a landing site, NASA announced a competition for the production of a spacecraft, which was won by Boeing Co. She produced 8 vehicles, of which only 5 were sent to orbit the moon, and the rest were used for testing. The design of all devices was the same, with minor modifications.
All 5 missions in 1966-1967 were successful, and 99% of the lunar surface was photographed with a resolution of 60 m or better. The first 3 missions were launched into low inclination orbits, while missions 4 and 5 were launched into high polar orbits. Lunar orbiter 4 photographed the fully visible side of the moon and 95% of it reverse side, and Lunar Orbiter 5 completed the far side survey and acquired medium (20 m) and high (2 m) resolution images for 36 selected regions of the Moon.

Lunar Orbiter (NASA). High and medium resolution cameras are visible in the center.
In addition to cameras, a radio beacon was installed on the Lunar orbiter to study the gravitational field of the Moon and meteor particle detectors, which made it possible to find out how many meteors future Apollo missions would encounter on their way to the Moon.

The program of unmanned vehicles "Surveyer" was carried out to work out a soft landing on the Moon. In total, 5 successful landings were made with two emergency landings. With the help of a panoramic television camera, which was equipped with all the Surveyors, about 86,500 images of the surface of the Moon, the sun and planets were obtained after landing on the Moon.

Surveyor apparatus.

The Surveyor-6 apparatus, after working in one place, flew a few meters to the side and again gently landed on command from the Earth. Surveyors 3, 4 and 7 were equipped with a grab bucket for scooping soil.

At the same time, astronauts were being trained on Gemini two-seat spacecraft specially designed for training purposes. In the course of the program, rendezvous and docking methods were worked out; for the first time in history, docking of spacecraft was carried out. Several spacewalks were made, records of the duration of the flight were set. The total flight time under the program was more than 41 days. The total time of spacewalks was about 10 hours. The experience gained during the Gemini program was used in the preparation and implementation of the Apollo program.

Two Gemini spacecraft in orbit. The picture of one of them was taken from the second one.

On January 10, 1962, NASA released plans to build the Saturn C-5 launch vehicle. Five F-1 engines were to be installed in the first stage, five J-2 engines in the second stage, and one J-2 engine in the third. S-5 was supposed to put a payload weighing 47 tons on a trajectory to the Moon.
The Saturn-5 rocket remains the most lifting, most powerful, heaviest and largest of the rockets created so far by mankind that put a payload into orbit - the brainchild of the outstanding rocket designer Wernher von Braun, it could put 141 tons into low Earth orbit and on the trajectory to the Moon 47 tons of payload (65.5 tons together with the 3rd stage of the carrier). "Saturn-5" was used to implement the program of American lunar missions (including with its help the first landing of a man on the moon was carried out on July 20, 1969)
In early 1963, NASA finally chose the scheme for a manned expedition to the Moon (the main ship remains in orbit around the Moon, while a special lunar module lands on it) and gave the Saturn C-5 launch vehicle a new name - Saturn-5.

Saturn 5 at launch.

The high power F-1 engines on the first stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle were originally developed by Rocketdyne in response to a 1955 US Air Force request for a very large rocket engine. However, NASA, created during this period of time, appreciated the benefits that an engine of such power could bring, and awarded Rocketdyne a contract to complete its development. Testing of F-1 components began as early as 1957. The first fire test of a fully assembled test F-1 was made in March 1959.

Installation of F-1 engines on the S-IC stage of the Saturn-5 launch vehicle.

Especially for testing engines, expensive stands were created, which made it possible to fine-tune the engines so that there were no slightest failures during the launch of spacecraft. This is something that the Soviet Union could not afford, it is a very expensive pleasure. But the savings on testing is also costly: all four of the huge H-1 rockets crashed. By chance it didn't work out.

Fire testing the F-1 engine at Edwards Air Force Base.

Seven years of development and testing of the F-1 engines revealed serious problems with the instability of the combustion process, which sometimes led to catastrophic accidents. Work on fixing this problem was initially slow, as it appeared intermittently and unpredictably. Ultimately, the engineers developed a technique for detonating small explosive charges (which they called "bombs") inside the combustion chamber while the engine was running, which allowed them to determine exactly how the operating chamber responded to pressure fluctuations. Designers could now quickly experiment with different nozzle heads to find the most sustainable option. They worked on these tasks from 1959 to 1961. In the final design, the combustion in the engine was so stable that it could self-extinguish artificially induced instability in a tenth of a second.

Wernher von Braun proudly poses in front of his brainchild.

The J-2, Rocketdine's liquid propellant rocket engine (LPRE), was an important part of NASA's Apollo program - five engines were used in the second stage of the Saturn V and one engine was used in the third stage. At the time of creation, it was the most powerful engine that used liquid hydrogen and oxygen as fuel components. The high energy and technical performance of this engine served as one of the components of the success of the Apollo mission.

J-2 engine.

A distinctive feature of the J-2 at the time of its creation was the possibility of its reactivation, which was used on the third stage of the S-IVB of the Saturn-5 lunar rocket. This feature of the engine made it possible first to complete the payload launch into a low reference orbit, and after a while, to accelerate to the Moon.

In the Apollo program, the main manufacturers of space technology were: - a three-stage Saturn V launch vehicle, (111 meters high and 10 meters in diameter), built by Boeing (first stage), manufacturer North American Aviation ( engines and second stage) and Douglas Aircraft (third stage). North American Aviation also provided a team to maintain the modules, while the Grumman Aircraft Company designed the lunar lander. IBM, MIT, and General Electric provided tools and equipment.

An overhead view of the Launch Complex 39 area shows the vertical assembly building (center), with the launch control center to the right.
To master this new rocket, a new center was built at the Kennedy Space Center for $ 800 million - Launch Complex No. 39. It includes a hangar for four Saturn V rockets, a vertical assembly building (3,664,883 m³); a transportation system from the hangar to the launch pad with the ability to move 5440 tons; 136-meter mobile service system and control center. The construction began in November 1962, the launch sites were completed by October 1965, the vertical assembly building was ready in June 1965 and the infrastructure after 1966. From 1967 to 1973, 13 vehicles of the series “ Saturn V.

The ship "Apollo" consisted of two main parts - connected command and service compartments, in which the team carried out most flight, and the lunar module, designed for landing and takeoff from the moon of two astronauts.
The command compartment was developed by North American Rockwell (USA) and has the shape of a cone with a spherical base. Base diameter - 3920 mm, cone height - 3430 mm, apex angle - 60°, nominal weight - 5500 kg.
The command compartment is the mission control center. All crew members during the flight are in the command compartment, with the exception of the landing on the moon. The command compartment, in which the crew returns to Earth, is all that remains of the Saturn V-Apollo system after the flight to the Moon. The service compartment carries the main propulsion system and support systems for the Apollo spacecraft.
The command compartment has a pressurized cabin with a crew life support system, a control and navigation system, a radio communication system, an emergency rescue system and a heat shield.

The command and service compartments of the Apollo in lunar orbit.

The Apollo lunar module was developed by Grumman (USA) and has two stages: landing and takeoff. The landing stage, equipped with an independent propulsion system and landing legs, is used to lower the lunar spacecraft from the Moon's orbit and soft landing on the lunar surface, and also serves as a launch pad for the takeoff stage. The takeoff stage, with a pressurized crew cabin and its own propulsion system, after completion of research, starts from the surface of the Moon and docks with the command compartment in orbit. The separation of steps is carried out using pyrotechnic devices.

Lunar module on the surface of the moon.

Apollo 7, launched on October 11, 1968, was the first manned spacecraft under the Apollo program. It was an eleven-day flight in Earth orbit, the purpose of which was complex tests command module and command-measuring complex.
Initially, the next manned flight under the Apollo program was supposed to be the maximum possible simulation of the operating modes and conditions of flight to the Moon in Earth orbit, and the next launch was supposed to conduct similar tests in lunar orbit, making the first manned flight around the Moon. But at the same time, the USSR was testing the Zond, a two-seat manned spacecraft Soyuz 7K-L1, which was supposed to be used for a manned flight around the moon. The threat of the USSR overtaking the United States in a manned lunar flyby caused the project leaders to reshuffle flights, despite the fact that the lunar module was not yet ready for testing.
On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 was launched, and on December 24, it entered the orbit of the moon., having made the first manned flight around the moon in the history of mankind.
Apollo 9 was launched on March 3, 1969, during this flight, an imitation of a flight to the moon in earth orbit was made. Some NASA experts, after the successful flights of Apollo 8 and Apollo 9, recommended using Apollo 10 for the first landing of people on the moon. NASA management deemed it necessary to preliminarily conduct another test flight.
On May 18, 1969, Apollo 10 was sent into space., in this flight to the moon, a "dress rehearsal" for landing on the moon was held. The ship's flight program provided for all the operations that were to be carried out during the landing, with the exception of the actual lunar landing, stay on the Moon and launch from the Moon.
On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 launched. On July 20, at 20 hours 17 minutes 42 seconds GMT, the lunar module landed in the Sea of ​​Tranquility. Neil Armstrong descended to the surface of the Moon on July 21, 1969 at 02:56:20 a.m. Greenwich, having made the first landing on the moon in the history of mankind.
Apollo 12 was launched on November 14, 1969, and on November 19 the second landing on the moon was carried out.
Apollo 14 launched on January 31, 1971. On February 5, 1971, the lunar module landed.
Apollo 15 took off on July 26, 1971. The lunar module landed on July 30
Apollo 16 launched on April 16, 1972. The lunar module landed on April 21
December 7, 1972 - launch of Apollo 17. On December 11, the lunar module landed. Collected 110.5 kg of lunar rocks. During this expedition, the last moon landing to date took place. The astronauts returned to Earth on December 19, 1972.

I shared with you the information that I "dug up" and systematized. At the same time, he has not become impoverished at all and is ready to share further, at least twice a week. If you find errors or inaccuracies in the article, please let us know. My e-mail address: [email protected] I'll be very thankful.

First, I'll show you some of my favorite Apollonian shots. And these are not layouts, as you might think. NASA claims these pictures were taken on the moon. Yes, yes, I did not make a reservation, on the very Moon that you can see almost every night. Well, at least those who sometimes look up to the sky can see.

The right side of the AS11-36-5399 image deserves to be shown separately.

How did it happen that a brand new lunar module, assembled in a "clean room", which had just passed factory tests, turned into such a clumsy, dirty and under-assembled Apollo 11 lunar module?

It was assembled by crooked American workers led by bum managers, and the lunar module itself was developed by inexperienced and lazy American engineers who didn’t even bother to hide the wires under the panel? Or is it something else?

How do you, gentlemen, explain this?

No comment...

(Without translation)

Markus worked as a professional photographer in the 60s and, like most, did not hesitate to fly to the moon, until someone said to him casually: "Ah, the moon landings? So they are fake!" He was very surprised by this, took an album of pictures of "Apollo" and began to look at them, but did not notice anything suspicious. And only in the 90s, with the advent of the Internet, when the entire array of information became available, he began to analyze photographs more carefully and then immediately began to notice many inconsistencies. He says that the context in which they were shot is important for analyzing images. Here, for example, 8 pictures below. If you say that they were filmed with a digital camera in a studio on Earth, then nothing special, most would have coped.

In the program, he also notes the complete absence of traces of radiation on the film, shows the battery compartment, which will get very hot in the sun and lose capacity.

Marcus asked these questions to NASA and got no answers.

In another radio interview on "The Stench of Truth" Marcus Allen says something new and interesting.

(Without translation)

According to Marcus, when astronauts began flying on shuttles in the 1980s, during spacewalks, while on the shadow side of orbit, they reported that their fingers were very cold. At first, they did not believe them - after all, they flew before, and went into space, and this did not happen. Installed sensors and tested. It turned out that after entering the shade, the temperature in the fingers of gloves really drops very quickly. Many skeptics still believe that the Apollos did not fly to the Moon, but instead remained in Earth orbit. But in this case, they were obliged to know about such an effect as freezing hands in gloves, because. there was supposedly a similar experience in Earth orbit, and there were no complaints.

This once again confirms the already established fact that the Apollos did not even fly into Earth's orbit, and the first manned flight into space was made by the United States in 1981. April 12, on the Day of Soviet Cosmonautics.

The moon is a good place. Definitely deserves a short visit.
Neil Armstrong

Almost half a century has passed since the flights of the Apollo spacecraft, but the debate about whether the Americans were on the moon does not subside, but becomes more and more fierce. The piquancy of the situation is that the supporters of the "lunar conspiracy" theory are trying to challenge not real historical events, but his own, vague and error-ridden idea of ​​them.

Lunar epic

Facts first. On May 25, 1961, six weeks after Yuri Gagarin's triumphant flight, President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech to the Senate and House of Representatives in which he promised that before the end of the decade, an American would land on the moon. Having suffered a defeat at the first stage of the space "race", the United States set out not only to catch up, but also to overtake the Soviet Union.

The main reason for the backlog at that time was that the Americans underestimated the importance of heavy ballistic missiles. Like their Soviet colleagues, American specialists studied the experience of German engineers who built A-4 (V-2) missiles during the war, but did not give these projects serious development, believing that long-range bombers would be enough in a global war. Of course, the Wernher von Braun team, taken out of Germany, continued to create ballistic missiles in the interests of the army, but they were unsuitable for space flights. When the Redstone rocket, the successor to the German A-4s, was modified to launch the first American ship"Mercury", she was able to lift it only to a suborbital height.

Nevertheless, resources were found in the United States, so American designers quickly created the necessary “line” of carriers: from Titan-2, which launched the Gemini two-seat maneuvering ship into orbit, to Saturn-5, capable of sending the Apollo three-seat spacecraft » to the moon.

redstone

Saturn-1B

Of course, before sending expeditions, it was necessary to carry out colossal work. Spacecraft of the Lunar Orbiter series carried out detailed mapping of the nearest celestial body - with their help, it was possible to identify and study suitable landing sites. The Surveyor series landers have made soft landings on the moon and transmitted beautiful images of the surrounding area.

The Lunar Orbiter spacecraft carefully mapped the moon, determining the places of future landings of astronauts

The Surveyor spacecraft studied the Moon directly on its surface; parts of the Surveyor-3 apparatus were taken and delivered to Earth by the crew of Apollo 12

In parallel, the Gemini program developed. After unmanned launches, on March 23, 1965, the Gemini 3 spacecraft was launched, which maneuvered, changing the speed and inclination of the orbit, which at that time was an unprecedented achievement. Soon the Gemini 4 flew, on which Edward White made the first spacewalk for Americans. The ship worked in orbit for four days, testing orientation systems for the Apollo program. On Gemini 5, which launched on August 21, 1965, electrochemical generators and a radar designed for docking were tested. In addition, the crew set a record for the duration of their stay in space - almost eight days (the Soviet cosmonauts managed to break it only in June 1970). By the way, during the Gemini 5 flight, the Americans first encountered negative consequences weightlessness - weakening of the musculoskeletal system. Therefore, measures were developed to prevent such effects: a special diet, drug therapy and a series of physical exercises.

In December 1965, the Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 ships approached each other, simulating a docking. Moreover, the crew of the second ship spent more than thirteen days in orbit (that is, the total time of the lunar expedition), proving that the measures taken to maintain physical fitness are quite effective during such a long flight. On the Gemini-8, Gemini-9 and Gemini-10 ships, they practiced the docking procedure (by the way, Neil Armstrong was the commander of the Gemini-8). On Gemini 11 in September 1966, they tested the possibility of an emergency launch from the Moon, as well as a flight through the Earth's radiation belts (the ship rose to a record height of 1369 km). On Gemini 12, the astronauts tried out a series of manipulations in outer space.

During the flight of the Gemini 12, astronaut Buzz Aldrin proved the possibility of complex manipulations in outer space.

At the same time, the designers were preparing for testing the "intermediate" two-stage Saturn-1 rocket. During her first launch on October 27, 1961, she surpassed in thrust the Vostok rocket, on which Soviet cosmonauts flew. It was assumed that the same rocket would launch the first Apollo 1 spacecraft into space, but on January 27, 1967, a fire broke out at the launch complex, in which the crew of the ship died, and many plans had to be revised.

In November 1967, tests began on the huge three-stage Saturn-5 rocket. During the first flight, she lifted the command and service module of Apollo 4 into orbit with a mock-up of the lunar module. In January 1968, the Apollo 5 lunar module was tested in orbit, and the unmanned Apollo 6 went there in April. The last launch due to a failure of the second stage almost ended in disaster, but the rocket pulled the ship out, demonstrating good "survivability".

On October 11, 1968, the Saturn-1B rocket launched the command and service module of the Apollo 7 spacecraft with the crew into orbit. For ten days, the astronauts tested the ship, carrying out complex maneuvers. Theoretically, "Apollo" was ready for the expedition, but the lunar module was still "raw". And then a mission was invented that was not originally planned at all - a flight around the moon.

The flight of the Apollo 8 spacecraft was not planned by NASA: it was an improvisation, but it was carried out brilliantly, securing another historical priority for American astronautics.

On December 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 spacecraft, without a lunar module, but with a crew of three astronauts, set off for a nearby celestial body. The flight went relatively smoothly, but before the historic landing on the moon, two more launches were needed: the Apollo 9 crew worked out the procedure for docking and undocking the spacecraft modules in near-Earth orbit, then the Apollo 10 crew did the same, but already close to the Moon . On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin set foot on the moon, proclaiming US leadership in space exploration.

The crew of the Apollo 10 spacecraft held a "dress rehearsal", completing all the operations necessary for landing on the moon, but without landing itself

The lunar module of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, named "Eagle" ("Eagle") goes to land

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the Moon

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moon landing was broadcast via the Parkes Observatory radio telescope in Australia; the original records of the historical event were also preserved and recently discovered there

Then new successful missions followed: Apollo 12, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, Apollo 17. As a result, twelve astronauts visited the Moon, conducted reconnaissance of the area, installed scientific equipment, collected soil samples, and tested rovers. Only the crew of Apollo 13 was unlucky: on the way to the Moon, a tank of liquid oxygen exploded, and NASA specialists had to work hard to return the astronauts to Earth.

Theory of falsification

On the spacecraft"Luna-1" was installed device to create an artificial sodium comet

It would seem that the reality of expeditions to the moon should not be in doubt. NASA regularly published press releases and bulletins, specialists and astronauts gave numerous interviews, many countries and the world scientific community participated in the technical support, tens of thousands of people watched huge rockets take off, and millions watched live TV broadcasts from space. Lunar soil was brought to Earth, which many selenologists were able to study. International scientific conferences were held to understand the data that came from the instruments left on the moon.

But even at that eventful time, there were people who questioned the facts of landing astronauts on the moon. A skeptical attitude towards space achievements manifested itself as early as 1959, and the probable reason for this was the policy of secrecy pursued by the Soviet Union: for decades it even concealed the location of its cosmodrome!

Therefore, when Soviet scientists announced that they had launched the Luna-1 research apparatus, some Western experts spoke in the spirit that the communists were simply fooling the world community. Experts foresaw the questions and placed a device for evaporating sodium on Luna-1, with the help of which an artificial comet was created, with a brightness equal to the sixth magnitude.

Conspiracy theorists even dispute the reality of Yuri Gagarin's flight

Claims also arose later: for example, some Western journalists doubted the reality of Yuri Gagarin's flight, because the Soviet Union refused to provide any documentary evidence. There was no camera on board the Vostok ship, the appearance of the ship itself and the launch vehicle remained classified.

But the US authorities have never expressed doubts about the authenticity of what happened: even during the flight of the first satellites, the National Security Agency (NSA) deployed two observation stations in Alaska and Hawaii and installed radio equipment there capable of intercepting telemetry that came from Soviet devices. During Gagarin's flight, the stations were able to receive a television signal with the image of the astronaut transmitted by the onboard camera. Within an hour, printouts of individual frames from this broadcast were in the hands of government officials, and President John F. Kennedy congratulated Soviet people with outstanding achievement.

Soviet military specialists working at the Scientific and Measuring Station No. 10 (NIP-10), located in the village of Shkolnoye near Simferopol, intercepted data from the Apollo spacecraft during the entire flight to the moon and back

The Soviet intelligence did the same. At the NIP-10 station, located in the village of Shkolnoye (Simferopol, Crimea), a set of equipment was assembled to intercept all information from the Apollos, including live TV broadcasts from the Moon. Aleksey Mikhailovich Gorin, head of the interception project, gave an exclusive interview to the author of this article, in which, in particular, he said: “A standard drive system in azimuth and elevation was used to point and control a very narrow beam. Based on information about the place (Cape Canaveral) and the launch time, the flight path of the spacecraft was calculated in all areas.

It should be noted that during about three days of flight, only occasionally did the beam pointing deviate from the calculated trajectory, which was easily corrected manually. We started with Apollo 10, which made a test flight around the moon without landing. This was followed by flights with the landing of the Apollo from the 11th to the 15th ... They took quite clear images of the spacecraft on the Moon, the exit of both astronauts from it and travel on the surface of the Moon. Video from the Moon, speech and telemetry were recorded on appropriate tape recorders and transferred to Moscow for processing and translation.

In addition to intercepting data, Soviet intelligence also collected any information on the Saturn-Apollo program, as it could be used for the USSR's own lunar plans. For example, scouts monitored missile launches from the Atlantic Ocean. Moreover, when preparations began for the joint flight of the Soyuz-19 and Apollo CSM-111 spacecraft (ASTP mission), which took place in July 1975, Soviet specialists were admitted to official information on the ship and rocket. And, as you know, no claims were made against the American side.

The claims came from the Americans themselves. In 1970, that is, even before the completion of the lunar program, a pamphlet by a certain James Cryney "Has a man landed on the moon?" (Did man land on the Moon?). The public ignored the pamphlet, although it was perhaps the first to formulate the main thesis of the "conspiracy theory": an expedition to the nearest celestial body is technically impossible.

Technical writer Bill Kaysing can rightfully be called the founder of the "lunar conspiracy" theory.

The topic began to gain popularity a little later, after the release of Bill Kaysing's self-published book We Never Went to the Moon (1976), which outlined the now "traditional" arguments in favor of conspiracy theories. For example, the author seriously claimed that all the deaths of the participants in the Saturn-Apollo program were associated with the elimination of unwanted witnesses. It must be said that Kaysing is the only one of the authors of books on this topic who was directly related to space program: From 1956 to 1963, he worked as a technical writer for Rocketdyne, which was in the process of designing the super-powerful F-1 engine for the Saturn V rocket.

However, after being fired “of his own free will,” Kaysing begged, grabbed any job and probably did not have warm feelings for his former employers. In a book that was reprinted in 1981 and 2002, he claimed that the Saturn V rocket was a "technical fake" and could never send astronauts on an interplanetary flight, so in reality the Apollos flew around the Earth, and television broadcasts were using unmanned aerial vehicles.

Ralph Rene made a name for himself by accusing the US government of rigging the moon landings and orchestrating the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The creation of Bill Kaysing was also initially ignored. He was brought to fame by the American conspiracy theorist Ralph Rene, who posed as a scientist, physicist, inventor, engineer and science journalist, but in reality did not graduate from any higher educational institution. Like his predecessors, Rene published the book How NASA Showed America the Moon (NASA Mooned America!, 1992) at his own expense, but at the same time he could already refer to other people's "studies", that is, he looked not like a lone psycho, but like a skeptic in searching for truth.

Probably, the book, the lion's share of which is devoted to the analysis of certain photographs taken by astronauts, would also have gone unnoticed if the era of TV shows had not come, when it became fashionable to invite all kinds of freaks and outcasts to the studio. Ralph Rene managed to get the most out of the sudden interest of the public, since he had a well-spoken tongue and did not hesitate to make absurd accusations (for example, he claimed that NASA deliberately damaged his computer and destroyed important files). His book was repeatedly reprinted, and each time increasing in volume.

Among the documentaries devoted to the theory of the “lunar conspiracy”, outright hoaxes come across: for example, the pseudo-documentary French film “The Dark Side of the Moon” (Opération lune, 2002)

The theme itself was also asking for a film adaptation, and soon there were films with a claim to documentary: “Was it just a paper moon?” (Was It Only a Paper Moon?, 1997), What Happened on the Moon? (What Happened on the Moon?, 2000), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon, 2001, Astronauts Gone Wild: Investigation Into the Authenticity of the Moon Landings, 2004) and the like. By the way, the author of the last two films, film director Bart Sibrel, twice molested Buzz Aldrin with aggressive demands to confess to deception and in the end received a blow in the face from an elderly astronaut. A video of this incident can be found on YouTube. The police, by the way, refused to start a case against Aldrin. Apparently, she thought that the video was faked.

In the 1970s, NASA tried to cooperate with the authors of the "lunar conspiracy" theory and even issued a press release debriefing Bill Kaysing's claims. However, it soon became clear that they did not want a dialogue, but they were happy to use any mention of their fabrications for self-promotion: for example, Kaysing sued astronaut Jim Lovell in 1996 for calling him a “fool” in an interview.

However, what else to call the people who believed in the authenticity of the film "The Dark Side of the Moon" (Opération lune, 2002), where the famous director Stanley Kubrick was directly accused of filming all the astronaut landings on the moon in the Hollywood pavilion? Even in the film itself, there are indications that it is fiction in the mockumentary genre, but this did not stop conspiracy theorists from accepting the version with a bang and quoting it even after the creators of the hoax openly admitted to hooliganism. By the way, another “evidence” of the same degree of reliability has recently appeared: this time, an interview with a person similar to Stanley Kubrick surfaced, where he allegedly took responsibility for falsifying the materials of lunar missions. The new fake was exposed quickly - it was made too clumsily.

Hiding operation

In 2007, science journalist and popularizer Richard Hoagland co-authored the book Dark Mission with Michael Bara. secret history NASA" (Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA), which immediately became a bestseller. In this hefty volume, Hoagland summarized his findings on the "cover-up operation" - it is allegedly carried out by US government agencies, hiding from the world community the fact of contact with a more advanced civilization that has mastered solar system long before mankind.

Within the framework of the new theory, the “lunar conspiracy” is considered as a product of the activities of NASA itself, which deliberately provokes an illiterate discussion of the falsification of the moon landings so that qualified researchers disdain to deal with this topic for fear of being branded as “outcasts”. Under his theory, Hoagland deftly adjusted all modern conspiracy theories, from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to "flying saucers" and the Martian "sphinx". For his vigorous activity to expose the "cover-up operation", the journalist was even awarded the Ig Nobel Prize, which he received in October 1997.

Believers and non-believers

Supporters of the "lunar conspiracy" theory, or, more simply, "anti-Apollo" are very fond of accusing their opponents of illiteracy, ignorance, or even blind faith. A strange move, given that it is the “anti-Apollo” people who believe in a theory that is not supported by any significant evidence. In science and jurisprudence operates Golden Rule: an extraordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence. The attempt to accuse the space agencies and the world scientific community of falsifying materials of great importance to our understanding of the universe must be accompanied by something more significant than a couple of self-published books produced by a resentful writer and self-obsessed pseudoscientist.

All many hours of footage of the lunar expeditions of the Apollo spacecraft have long been digitized and are available for study.

If we imagine for a moment that in the United States there was a secret parallel space program using unmanned vehicles, then we need to explain where all the participants in this program have gone: the designers of the “parallel” technology, its testers and operators, as well as the filmmakers who prepared kilometers of films of lunar missions. We are talking about thousands (or even tens of thousands) of people who needed to be attracted to the “lunar conspiracy”. Where are they and where are their confessions? Suppose they all, including foreigners, swore to remain silent. But there should be piles of documents, contracts, orders with contractors, relevant structures and landfills. However, apart from nit-picking some NASA public materials, which are really often retouched or presented in a deliberately simplified interpretation, there is nothing. Nothing at all.

However, the “anti-Apollonists” never think about such “trifles” and insistently (often in an aggressive form) demand more and more evidence from the opposite side. The paradox is that if, by asking "tricky" questions, they themselves tried to find answers to them, then this would not be a big deal. Let's take a look at some of the more common claims.

During the preparation and implementation of the joint flight of the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft, Soviet specialists were admitted to the official information of the American space program

For example, "anti-Apollo" people ask: why was the Saturn-Apollo program interrupted, and its technologies were lost and cannot be used today? The answer is obvious to anyone who has even a general idea of ​​what was going on in the early 1970s. It was then that one of the most powerful political and economic crises in US history occurred: the dollar lost gold content and was devalued twice; the protracted Vietnam War was draining resources; youth embraced the anti-war movement; Richard Nixon is on the verge of impeachment in connection with the Watergate scandal.

At the same time, the total costs of the Saturn-Apollo program amounted to 24 billion dollars (in terms of current prices, we can talk about 100 billion), and each new launch cost 300 million (1.3 billion in modern prices) - it is clear that further funding has become prohibitive for the waning American budget. The Soviet Union experienced something similar in the late 1980s, which led to the inglorious closure of the Energiya-Buran program, the technology of which was also largely lost.

In 2013, an expedition led by Jeff Bezos, founder of the Internet company Amazon, lifted fragments of one of the F-1 engines of the Saturn V rocket that delivered Apollo 11 into orbit from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Nevertheless, despite the problems, the Americans tried to squeeze some more out of the lunar program: the Saturn-5 rocket launched a heavy orbital station"Skylab" (three expeditions visited it in 1973-1974), a joint Soviet-American flight "Soyuz-Apollo" (ASTP) took place. In addition, the Space Shuttle program, which replaced the Apollos, used the Saturn launch facilities, and some technological solutions obtained during their operation are used today in the design of the promising American SLS carrier.

Work crate containing moonstones in the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility

Another popular question: where did the lunar soil brought by the astronauts go? Why is it not being studied? Answer: it has not gone away, but is stored where it was planned - in the two-story building of the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility, which was built in Houston (Texas). You should also apply there with applications for soil study, but only organizations that have necessary equipment. Each year, a special commission reviews applications and grants between forty and fifty of them; on average, up to 400 samples are sent out. In addition, 98 samples with a total weight of 12.46 kg are exhibited in museums around the world, and dozens of scientific publications have been published on each of them.

Pictures of the landing sites of the Apollo 11, Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 spacecraft taken by the main optical camera LRO: the lunar modules, scientific equipment and the "paths" left by the astronauts are clearly visible

Another question in the same vein: why is there no independent evidence of visiting the moon? Answer: they are. If we discard the Soviet evidence, which is still far from complete, and the excellent satellite photographs of the landing sites on the moon, which were made by the American LRO apparatus and which the "anti-Apollonists" also consider a "fake", then the materials presented by the Indians (the Chandrayaan-1 apparatus) are quite sufficient for analysis. ), the Japanese (Kaguya) and the Chinese (Chang'e-2): all three agencies officially confirmed that they had found footprints left by the Apollo spacecraft.

"Moon Deception" in Russia

By the end of the 1990s, the “lunar conspiracy” theory also came to Russia, where it gained ardent supporters. Its wide popularity, obviously, is facilitated by the sad fact that very few historical books on the American space program are published in Russian, so an inexperienced reader may get the impression that there is nothing to study there.

The most ardent and talkative adherent of the theory was Yuri Mukhin, a former engineer-inventor and publicist with radical pro-Stalinist convictions, who was noticed in historical revisionism. He, in particular, published the book "The Selling Girl of Genetics", in which he refutes the achievements of genetics in order to prove that repressions against domestic representatives of this science were justified. Mukhin's style repels with deliberate rudeness, and he builds his conclusions on the basis of rather primitive distortions.

Cameraman Yuri Elkhov, who participated in the filming of such famous children's films as "The Adventures of Pinocchio" (1975) and "About Little Red Riding Hood" (1977), undertook to analyze the film shots taken by the astronauts and came to the conclusion that they were fabricated. True, he used his own studio and equipment for testing, which has nothing to do with NASA equipment of the late 1960s. As a result of the "investigation", Elkhov wrote the book "Sham Moon", which was never published on paper due to lack of funds.

Perhaps the most competent of the Russian "anti-Apollo" remains Alexander Popov - Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, a specialist in lasers. In 2009, he published the book "Americans on the Moon - a great breakthrough or a space scam?", In which he gives almost all the arguments of the "conspiracy" theory, supplementing them with his own interpretations. For many years he has been running a special website dedicated to the topic, and at present he has agreed that not only the Apollo flights, but also the Mercury and Gemini ships are falsified. Thus, Popov claims that the Americans made the first flight into orbit only in April 1981 - on the Columbia shuttle. Apparently, the respected physicist does not understand that without huge previous experience it is simply impossible to launch such a complex reusable aerospace system as the Space Shuttle the first time.

* * *

The list of questions and answers can be continued indefinitely, but this makes no sense: the views of the "anti-Apollo" are based not on real facts that can be interpreted in one way or another, but on illiterate ideas about them. Unfortunately, ignorance is tenacious, and even the hook of Buzz Aldrin is not able to change the situation. It remains to hope for time and new flights to the moon, which will inevitably put everything in its place.

The truly epic debate about whether or not the Americans were on the moon revolves around several key points. This is a waving flag with no atmosphere on the moon, and various oddities with shadows in photographs, the design of a lunar car, and so on. But, perhaps, one of the most significant points is the discussion of the facts related to the lander. The gas jet escaping from the engine should not only have scattered the dust at the landing site, but should have left an impressive funnel on the lunar surface during the landing of the lunar module! But in the photographs of the "lunar expeditions" of the Americans there is nothing of the kind.

Apollo 11 Lander (NASA Archive)

Maybe there is no dust on the moon at all? Not at all. The Apollo 12 astronauts said that their feet sank deep into the dust, even had difficulty walking and had to raise their legs high. Dust stuck to shoes, space suits, items used by the astronauts. And there was no way to shake it off.

According to the astronauts, the lunar dust is similar to talc, that is, it should have scattered in all directions. At the same time, Armstrong and his colleagues said that the lander made whole dust clouds - however, nothing of the kind is observed in the "photographs from the Moon". Moreover, Armstrong even claimed that the dust began to rise when the module was below 30 meters above the surface of the moon. And what, then, was the module's engine supposed to create at the moment of landing, when the gas jet "shot" point-blank at the landing site? Moreover, we must also take into account that there is no atmosphere on the Moon, and this makes it possible to raise dust from the lunar surface even more.

Eugene Cernan on the Lunomobile (NASA Archive)

By the way, the first soft landing on the moon was carried out by the USSR: on February 3, 1966, the Soviet interplanetary automatic station Luna-9 landed on the Moon in the Ocean of Storms. The Americans, as part of their Surveyor program, achieved the same result a few months later. And here's what's interesting: during the landing, the jet of the rocket engine not only raised clouds of dust, but even threw large fragments of soil over a noticeable distance. But the "surveyers" weighed much less than the module with the astronauts, respectively, and their engine should have been weaker.

What do people who defend the official version of the landing of American astronauts on the moon say to this? Anything different. For example, for no apparent reason they say that the module flew for the last ten or even twenty meters with the engine turned off. But this is at odds with the words of Armstrong, who claimed that the engine worked until the apparatus touched the moon. But that's more! During the A-14 expedition, the module sat down, but the engine continued to work for seven seconds and, in theory, should have simply cleared and deepened the surface under it. But in the corresponding photo we do not see this. By the way, NASA reported that during the launch of the module, the force of its gas jet was so powerful that it blew off the American flag, which was several meters away. Not a weak car, is it? Why couldn't she handle the dust?

View of the lunar surface under the landing stage « Apollo 11 » (NASA archive)

By the way, another important argument of those who do not believe that the Americans were on the moon is also connected with lunar dust. Recall the design of the module. He had four racks with supports in the form of plates, to which, in turn, special probes were attached, fixing the moment of contact of the apparatus with the surface of the moon. Both probes, and racks, and supports were wrapped in foil to reflect light. The dust raised by the apparatus was partially supposed to settle on certain parts of the apparatus, for example, on the same racks and supports. And on the foil, the dust would be especially noticeable. But in the photo of the supports and racks of Apollo 11, the dust is not visible! By the way, in one of the photos released by NASA, you can see the line drawn by the probe. That is, the module, flying up to the Moon, also shifted in the horizontal direction. Thus, the probe passed through the layer of dust lying on the surface, and only then the nozzle approaches the same place. It follows from this that the gas jet was supposed to damage, “blur”, figuratively speaking, the groove left by the probe. But in the photo the line is shown very clearly.

P sedimentary module « Apollo 11 » (NASA archive)

Cursed Dust once again asks awkward questions when it comes to exploring the lunar car. The dust raised by its wheels settles for a suspiciously long time, as if the atmosphere interferes with it, but we remind you that it is not on the Moon.

These are the “dusty” riddles that the American lunar program asks us to do. Answering them is not easy, although those who believe that astronauts did land on the moon, stubbornly stand their ground. Be that as it may, but the discussion around this topic has already made many people more critical of the information that NASA disseminated. It's only the beginning!

A fragment of the film by Y. Mukhin "Maximum Lies and Stupidity"

“Under the American “pepelats” on, so to speak, the moon there is no trace of a running engine”

Part of the Apollo spacecraft, built for the US Apollo program by the Grumman Corporation for a crew of two, for the purpose of being transported from lunar orbit to the lunar surface and back. Six such modules successfully landed on the Moon in 1969-1972.

In a sense, it was the first real spacecraft in the world, as it was only capable of moving in space, structurally and aerodynamically incapable of flying through the Earth's atmosphere.

Its development faced several obstacles, which delayed its first unmanned flight by about ten months, and its first flight took place by about three months. Despite this, in the end, this module became the most reliable component of the Apollo / Saturn system and significantly exceeded its design requirements, which was used to maintain life support and propulsion resources, allowing astronauts to be rescued after the explosion and failure of the command module systems in flight Apollo 13.

The module consists of two steps. The landing stage, equipped with an independent propulsion system and landing gear, is used to lower the lunar lander from lunar orbit and soft landing on the lunar surface, and also serves as a launch pad for the takeoff stage. The takeoff stage, with a pressurized cabin for the crew and an independent propulsion system, after completion of research, starts from the surface of the Moon and docks with the command compartment in orbit. The separation of steps is carried out using pyrotechnic devices.

takeoff stage

The lunar module takeoff stage has three main compartments: the crew compartment, the center compartment, and the rear equipment compartment. Only the crew compartment and the central compartment are sealed; all other compartments of the lunar spacecraft are not sealed. The volume of the hermetic cabin is 6.7 m³, the pressure in the cabin is 0.337 kg / cm², the atmosphere is pure oxygen. The height of the take-off stage is 3.76 m, the diameter is 4.3 m. Structurally, the take-off stage consists of six nodes: the crew compartment, the central compartment, the rear equipment compartment, the LRE mount, the antenna mount, the thermal and micrometeor screen. Cylindrical crew compartment with a diameter of 2.35 m, a length of 1.07 m (volume 4.6 m³) of a semi-monocoque design made of well-welded aluminum alloys.

Two workplaces for astronauts are equipped with control panels and instrument panels, a tethering system for astronauts (they were standing), two forward viewing windows, an overhead window for observing the docking process, and a telescope in the center between the astronauts. To reach the lunar surface, the cabin was completely depressurized, since there was no airlock. The period of autonomous existence of the module (limited, first of all, by the resource of life support systems and power supply) was about 75 hours.

Takeoff stage characteristics:

• Weight including fuel: 4670 kg
• Cabin atmosphere: 100% oxygen, pressure 33 kPa
• Water: two tanks of 19.3 kg
• Coolant: 11.3 kg of ethylene glycol-water solution.
• Temperature control: one active sublimator (heat exchanger) "water-ice".
• Orientation system engines (DSO): fuel mass: 287 kg
• Number and thrust of DSO: 16 x 445 N in four assemblies.
• DSO fuel: N 2 O 4 /Aerozine 50
• Specific impulse DSO: 2.84 km/s.
• Takeoff engine, fuel weight: 2353 kg
• Take-off engine, thrust: 15.6 kN
• Take-off engine, fuel: N 2 O 4 /Aerozine 50
• Take-off engine, pressurization system: 2 x 2.9 kg helium tanks, pressure 21 MPa
• Specific impulse: 3.05 km/s (311 "seconds")
• Takeoff thrust-to-weight ratio: 2.124
• Characteristic speed (delta V) of the takeoff stage: 2220 m/s.
• Batteries: two 28-32 volt, 296 amp-hours, silver-zinc; 56.7 kg each.
• On-board network: 28 volts direct current, 115 volts, 400 Hz - alternating current

Lunar module cabin. Directly under the pilot's workplace is a hatch for access to the lunar surface.

landing stage

The landing stage of the lunar module in the form of a cruciform frame made of aluminum alloy carries in the central compartment a propulsion system with an STL landing rocket engine.

In four compartments formed by a frame around the central compartment, fuel tanks, an oxygen tank, a water tank, a helium tank, electronic equipment, a navigation and control subsystem, a landing radar and batteries are installed.

A four-legged retractable landing gear mounted on the landing stage absorbs the impact energy of the spacecraft landing on the lunar surface by collapsing honeycomb cartridges mounted in the telescoping legs of the landing gear; additionally, the impact is softened by the deformation of the honeycomb liners in the centers of the landing heels. Three of the four heels are equipped with a flexible metal probe, directed downwards and opening like a tape measure, signaling to the crew the moment the rocket engine is turned off upon contact with the lunar surface (blue “lunar contact” lamp). The landing gear is in the folded state until the separation of the lunar ship from the command compartment; after separation at the command of the crew of the lunar ship, the squibs cut the checks at each leg and, under the action of the springs, the chassis is released and locked. As well as the takeoff stage, the landing stage is surrounded by a thermal and micrometeor protective shield made of multi-layered Mylar and aluminum. Landing stage height 3.22 m, diameter 4.3 m.

Landing stage characteristics:

• Weight including fuel: 10,334 kg
• Water supply: 1 tank, 151 kg
• Mass of fuel and oxidizer: 8165 kg
• Engine thrust: 45.04 kN, throttling 10% - 60% of full thrust.
• Fuel components: N 2 O 4 /Aerozine 50 (UDMH/N 2 H 4)
• Boost tank: 1 x 22 kg tank, boost gas-helium, pressure 10.72 kPa.
• Specific impulse: 3.05 km/s.
• Characteristic takeoff speed (delta V): 2470 m/s.
• Batteries: 4 (Apollo 9-14) or 5 (Apollo 15-17) 28-32V, 415 A-h, silver-zinc, weight of each 61.2 kg.

Lunar Module Flights (LM)

Notes

Bibliography

• Kelly, Thomas J. (2001). Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module(Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight Series). Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 1-56098-998-X.
• Baker, David (1981). The History of Manned Space Flight. Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-54377-X
• Brooks, Courtney J., Grimwood, James M. and Swenson, Loyd S. Jr (1979)