Some of the conspiracy nuts seem to think that the Soviets simply admitted defeat because of political reasons. The Soviets knew we didn’t make it to the moon, but if they called us on it then it would start World War III, or the Soviets didn’t think the world would believe them, stuff along those lines.
I’ve heard the grain shipment thing before too.
And of course they think that the “evidence” from recent probes is all fabricated, so even that doesn’t convince them.
The Soviets were leading in the early 60s, but towards the end of the 60s they were definitely playing catch-up. They had an awful lot of problems with their N1 rocket, like it tended to explode, which isn’t too healthy if you want to stick a man on top of it. Admittedly, though, a lot of N1 problems were due to infighting among the various teams after Sergey Korolyov’s death, though infighting about how the N1 should be designed negatively affected the project long before that.
If the Soviets created a conspiracy theory it would have been quickly and effectively debunked by the West. This debunking would also put a whole lot of suspicion about all Soviet claims of space achievements and started a disinformation war not worth fighting.
Not to mention the Soviet program was pretty damned dangerous. I believe one rocket claimed at least 100 lives on the ground. Starting a conspiracy theory like this would have brought more inquiries into the Soviet program. I think claiming the Americans cant do it, but they can with their accident prone N-1 would have been extra unbelievable.
I hope you have a better argument than that.
The whole concept of faking a moon landing is a *government *thing. If the Russians busted us, do you think the same government that fakes the landing is going to say “Ooops, busted by the commies. Folks, that Kruschev and his guys caught us red (snicker) handed. We’re sorry.” Sheesh. I don’t have a dog in this fight, and I can believe either side of the fake landing thing, but I don’t care. But your argument is pretty, pretty lame. Imagine how much US propaganda got into the average Russkie’s newspapers and radios, and you can just imagine how much of their ‘revelations’ would be swallowed by an American.
I was expecting something like the satellite views of my house. Kinda disappointed in the recent pictures. Maybe the astronauts should have walked out the words “hi mom” on the Moon.
Another conspiracy theory is that the NASA people conspired with their Soviet equivalents, to fool both of their respective governments, hyping up the ‘space race’, thus keeping the money flowing into their agencies, high profile jobs for themselves, etc.
Maybe not quite as wacky – some would say that the military & military contractors from both the US and the Soviets played that game for decades.
You’re behind the times. It’s been recently discovered that by 1950 the Bavarian Illuminati gave way to the Rosicrucians, who started Korea/Vietnam and held power until between 1998-2001, when the Gnomes of Zürich took over. Another faction may have seized power recently, but I’ve been out of the loop ever since my new-and-improved tinfoil hat came in (shiny side out! shiny side out!) so I wouldn’t know.
And I still contend the real conspiracy is that the Moon doesn’t exist at all. Check the skies on August 20th, and see if you can find a Moon. You’ll be shocked!
Continuing on that analogy, I would say that the manned moon landing was only one discipline, albeit a rather prestigious one. I don’t understand why being first with a manned moon landing would “win” the space race. In fact, the Soviet Union was first with many achievements, which could be mapped to winning other disciplines. Or was this goal somehow decided in advance to be the ultimate victory? I think it’s fair to say that both the USA and the USSR made great progress in space exploration, but I don’t see it as something that is possible to “win”.
Maybe somebody who lived during that time can enlighten me? Were the goalposts really set in advance? Or is the victory merely claimed by the USA since the other player had to bow out due to various reasons, and thus USA remained the last with a “first”.
There are countless challenges left. I think claiming that somebody has won can only slow down progress. Mars is next?
Did you know that OJ even figures into the nutty conspiracies? He was framed for murder because his movie Capricorn One proved the moon landing was faked!
Exactly. It’s like asking the birthers, “Why did the McCain campaign let Obama get away with not ‘proving’ his citizenship?” That to me is the most convincing argument against their theories.