Would You Believe They Put A Man On The Moon, page-198

Guest Post by Dan Fournier


For those unfamiliar with Werner Von Braun, he was a brilliant aerospace engineer – the brains behind the development of the Saturn rockets used in the Apollo launches.

Over the past several decades, there has been a lot of debate regarding many aspects of the moon missions. A tremendous amount of money, blood, sweat, and tears have flowed into the Apollo program and other related projects.

Much pressure had been placed on the U.S. Government to ensure success – especially amidst the backdrop of the Space Race and larger Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Over the course of this colossal undertaking, it became apparent that some serious problems and challenges needed to be overcome. Many were overcome, but other major problems persisted.

A three and a half hour 2017 documentary entitled American Moon (available on YouTube, Brighteon, and Odysee) outlined many of these problems along with a significant amount of anomalies – particularly in the Apollo moon missions. In the lengthy film, they disprove not only the debunkers (those who disprove the deniers) but also some of the deniers themselves regarding their false or flawed claims.

American Moon is meticulously well documented with original (official) NASA photographs, films, interviews, technical documents, and so forth, and presented in a clear and understandable way for the average Jane or Joe.

Over 40 extremely well-formulated questions are presented and addressed to NASA itself as well as the greater debunker community. I have yet to locate a source which addresses all these key points; and this, despite nearly five years having elapsed since the documentary film came out.

I certainly invite the reader to spend the three and a half hours to view this film; for, after doing so, you will never see the moon landing in the same light.

I will only cite a few of the key questions that were put forward in this film.

The first one relates to one of the most critical aspects of space flight, namely that of the dangers of radiation that are present beyond our planet, namely the Van Allen radiation belts. The belts protect our planet from harmful radiation originating from the sun and outer space.

Van Allen radiation belts, source: NASA

Here’s a simplified image to get a better idea of the range of these belts from Earth:

Screenshot from American Moon (at the 01:00:20 mark)

The problem, here, as pointed out in the film, is that modern scientists, including NASA Orion engineer Kelly Smith for that matter, have explained that no human could penetrate either of the two (inner & outer) belts without being exposed to high-energy radiation and cosmic rays which would biologically cause serious damage, if not death. In the March 1959 edition of Scientific American, the following was noted:

“The discovery [of the Van Allen radiation belts] is of course troubling to astronauts; somehow the human body will have to be shielded from this radiation, even on a rapid transit through the region.”

More recently, NASA Orion engineer Kelly Smith stated the following when talking about the Van Allen radiation belts [emphasis added]:

“We must solve these challenges before we send people through this region of space.”

In American Moon (around the 01:11:20 mark), NASA astronaut and commander Terry Virts says the following [emphasis added]:

“The plan that NASA has is to built a rocket called SOS which is a heavy-lift rocket; it’s something much bigger than what we have today. And it will be able to launch the Orion capsule with humans on board … to destinations beyond earth orbit. Right now, we can only fly in earth orbit. That’s the farthest that we can go. This new system that we’re building is gonna allow us to go beyond and hopefully take humans into the solar system to explore. So, the moon, Mars, asteroids, there’s a lot of destinations that we could go to…”

Further in the film, Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean responded the following when asked about whether he had suffered any ill effects from having passed through the Van Allen belts:

“No. Now, I’m not sure we went far enough out to encounter the Van Allen radiation belts. Maybe we did.”

One would think that as a crew member from Apollo 12 – the second mission to land on the moon – he would know about the location and existence of these belts through which he passed through.

Strange.

Very strange.

What is also rather puzzling is the fact that NASA admits they lost the telemetry data related to the Apollo 11 moon mission.

The Chief Flight Director for the Gemini and Apollo programs Gene Krantz (who was portrayed by Ed Harris in the 1995 film Apollo 13) admitted that NASA had lost the original tapes containing the telemetry data (alternate video link here). When asked by documentary filmmaker Aron Ranen about the tapes, Krantz stated the following:

“I haven’t seen anything that indicates the telemetry data is even in existence. And, as I said, even if we had it, we don’t have the machines to play it back.”

Ranen, the creator of the 2005 film Did We Go? then went to NASA’s Goodard Space Center and spoke with archivist Dr. David Williams who further asserted:

“We’ve been unable to track it down. We don’t know where this telemetry data ended up. And we don’t know what path it may have taken. So, unfortunately I’m afraid I can’t give you much of a clue as to where this data ended up and whether it still exists or not.”

So, let’s be clear folks here for a minute. The data that recorded what was perhaps the single most important event in human history has completely disappeared. Really? No backup copies have been made? And it would be “impossible” to re-create machines to play it back on?

Absurd.

While it is certainly possible that these tapes have indeed disappeared, the whole affair is rather questionable and pitiful, to say the least.

The American Moon documentary further outlines anomalies related to the lunar module (LEM), telecommunications (between the earth and the moon), photographs & photography, cameras, videos, shadows, cosmic radiation, extreme temperatures, and more.

A large part of the documentary focuses on photographs taken and published by NASA. The producer of the documentary hired several top photographers in the world (who worked in the field during that period) to examine and analyze the official photos taken on the surface of the moon.

These photography experts all pointed out many impossibilities found in them.

For the most part, they disproved that the photographs could have been taken on the surface of the moon if the only main source of light was emanating from the Sun; they decisively contend that the photographs were produced on a set with artificial lighting. This segment is presented with meticulous detail and analysis which makes it extremely difficult to refute the assertions from the experts.

A common counter-argument that people have regarding those who claim the moon landings were faked is how could thousands of people be on board with such a hoax without there being any whistleblowers. Firstly, there have been numerous credible whistleblowers who have come out and I will reference one below.

As for the “thousands of employees” conundrum, the answer is quite simple. These thousands of employees would simply not be aware that this subset (i.e., the moon landings) of the Apollo missions were being deceptively presented. This was the case with the Manhattan Project whereby thousands of people worked on the development of the first atomic bomb without knowing about its ultimate goal. The project was carefully structured for secrecy by means of compartmentalization. Put simply, under compartmentalization, people work in their own respective groups (or, compartments) on specific tasks and are not privy to a lot of data or information about the overall project.

Accordingly, it would not have been that difficult to structure the NASA project in such a way.

In an April 12, 2020 confession, Gene Gilmore (born Eugene Reuben Akers), now deceased, appeared in a video (alternate links here, here, and here) disclosed what his father (Cyrus Eugene Akers who was stationed in Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico in 1968) had previously confessed to him on his death bed.

Mr. Akers senior was in the Military Police for over 20 years and on his death bed in 2002 he made a recording of what he had witnessed.

Gene’s father told him about project ‘Slam Dunk’ whereby there were two large hangars (at the Cannon Air Force Base) that were connected, dump trucks had delivered sand and stone, and cement powder that was applied on top of all that material to make it look like a lunar landscape.

The surprised son continued listening to his father state that in front of the airplane hangars was pull framing with large canvas tents that were concealing the inside of the staging area. Inside the staging area, on flat bed trucks was created the lunar lander that was assembled, reassembled back inside the hangars. All of the walls were painted flat black as were the ceilings.

Cyrus Eugene Akers was sworn to secrecy by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Gene then recalled that when his father saw the moon landing on television, he cried.

He said that what he witnessed on TV is exactly what they recorded in that hangar.

Mr. Akers continued his death bed confession to his son stating that there were 3 guards at the entrance of the hangar and there was a list of 15 people who could enter, no one else was allowed by order of President [Lyndon] Johnson. Gene Gilmore then stated that he had given the list to Bart Sibrel.

Gene Gilmore then enumerates the specific names of list of 15 people who had special access to the hangars which include President Johnson, Neil Armstrong, Edwin [Buzz] Alden, Werner Von Braun, Gene Krantz, James Webb, Dr. James Van Allen, among others.

Gilmore continues on with what his father had confided in him. President Johnson was there only for the first day of filming. The filming lasted for 3 days. And then, everything was dismantled to bring the hangars back to their original states.

Gilmore then states that since 2002, he verified a lot of the information his father had given him – including records from Cannon Air Force base that confirmed the presence of President Johnson and the astronauts at that time as well as the lunar lander. Apparently though, this information was subsequently removed from Cannon’s website.

Lastly, Gene affirms that his father stated had to tell somebody about the incident before he died because it was too important; but he also warned him not to ever tell anybody.

Regarding the authenticity of these testimonies, there is always the possibility that they are not entirely truthful. But people seldom lie during death bed confessions. They usually want to get truth off their chests before they meet their maker. The fact that Gene Gilmore instructed Bart Sibrel to only publish his confession after his death also adds credibility to his testimony.

As recent as Sept. 22, 2022, Lead Stories published a fact check rebuke regarding this confession video. In it, they stated that they had contacted NASA regarding the video and posted their spokesperson’s reply in the article:

“There is a significant amount of evidence to support NASA landed 12 astronauts on the moon from 1969 to 1972. We collected 842 pounds of moon rocks that have been studied by scientists worldwide for decades. From these rocks, we’ve learned that the moon was once part of the Earth, the moon is about 4.5 billion years old, and that most of the moon’s craters are caused by impact, not volcanism.”

Anyone with half a brain could tell that this reply is totally unconvincing. Why mention moon rocks? It’s as if the spokesperson thinks this provides tangible evidence of the moon landings. One would also think that NASA would have come up with a much more thoughtful and convincing argument than the absurdity stated above.

I digress.

The conclusion of the American Moon documentary shows part of the Apollo 11 astronauts post moon mission press conference. They point out that the three astronauts were totally unenthusiastic.

They were there to talk about the single most important feat accomplished by human beings and these men could barely crack a smile or convey their joy and enthusiasm about their monumental achievement. This goes without saying that it is all, indeed and utterly, extremely bizarre.

Moreover, the very apparent levels of stress shown by the astronauts as per their body language at the beginning of the press conference is somewhat mind boggling. Keep in mind that these astronauts are test pilots who have experience handling extremely stressful situations, not to mention having [purportedly] flown an extremely dangerous mission to the moon. So, relatively speaking, simply talking to the public and press about their monumental achievement should not have been so challenging and stressful for these men. Rather, it should have been a cause for celebration and pride. What is the average person to make of this?

American Moon ends with video clips of Bart Sibrel confronting each of the three Apollo 11 astronauts (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins) asking them to swear on the Bible that they walked on the moon. All three men displayed very uncomfortable stances and refused. Sibrel even offered $5,000 in cash to charity should Neil Armstrong agree, but he still refused. Buzz Aldrin actually punched Sibrel in the face when the interrogator persisted in his questioning. Even though Sibrel’s approach wasn’t particularly friendly, it remains odd that none of them agreed to do so.

As more and more inconsistencies surface regarding the Apollo moon missions along with mounting evidence which contradicts the official narrative, it is probably just a matter of time before NASA becomes obligated to admit what really happened in July of 1969. Undoubtedly, there is a lot at stake.

Will history books need to be re-written?

Time will tell.