Buck Rogers, Staff Writer
Waking Times

During the cold war erathe Soviet Union and the United States were locked in an arms and technology race, each nationwanting to prove their dominance over the other, each striving to be the next reigning superpower in a world still shattered by the second world war. The Soviet’s took the lead when in April of 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin successfully orbited the earth and returned home safely. In May, president John F. Kennedy made his special message to Congress on urgent national needs, declaring America’s intention to send a man to the moon.

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space.”-President John F. Kennedy, Address to Congress on Urgent National Needs, May 25, 1961

And so we did. In 1969, under the leadership of President Nixon, the entire world watched in grainy, black-and-white awe as the ‘giant leap for mankind’ was broadcast on television sets around the globe. Neil Armstrong planted the American flag in the coarse lifeless dust of the moon, and the space race was over. America victorious. Take a look at this marvelous achievement here:

Fast forward 45 years to a much more technologically advanced and interconnected age, where ideas spread like wildfire, and questions that have gone unanswered for generations are easily put to millions of people. One person’s ideas and understanding of our world can swiftly be supplemented by the knowledge of many others, dots are easier to connect, and truth is more freelyrevealed.

Were the Apollo moon landings faked by the government to gain political advantage at a time when it was not technologically possible to land a man on the moon then bring him home safely?

Many alternative researchers and skeptics of government and cultural narratives have put together a substantial and rather captivating case that the moon landings were faked with the help of emerging television and film technologies.

They posit that the government hired acclaimed film director Stanley Kubrick to stage the landings by creating a convincing movie set in a secret location. Evidence to the support the idea that the video is indeed an elaborate forgery includes anomalies such as theappearance of multiple sources of light in the footage, the flag planted by Armstrong seems to be waving in an environment with no wind, there does not appear to be an impact crater from the lunar landing module, unexplainable objects appear in reflection on helmet visors, the unusual slow-motion effect of the astronauts walking on the lunar surface, the lack of visible stars in the background, and more.

The footage is one thing, but many point to the existence of a dangerous concentration of solar and cosmic radiation that surrounds the earth as proof that Apollo never made it to the moon.Between the earth and the moon lie what is known as the Van Allen radiation belts.

“The Van Allen radiation belts are a torus (doughnut shape) of energetic charged particles circling Earth around its magnetic equator and held in place by Earth’s magnetic field. The main belts extend from an altitude of about 1,000 to 60,000 kilometers above the surface in which region radiation levels vary. Most of the particles that form the belts are thought to come from solar wind and other particles by cosmic rays.” -Robert A. Braeunig

In order for the Apollo, or any lunar mission, to be successful, the equipment and crew aboard the spacecraft would have to be adequately shielded from exposure from the intense radiation surrounding planet earth.

Robert A. Braeunig, author of Rocket & Space Technology has put togethera compellingscientific refutation ofthe Apollo hoax theory, makingthe scientific case that the trajectory of the Apollo spacecraft allowed the vessel to avoid the highest concentrations of energy in the torus shaped Van Allen belts which do not fully encircle the earth. With the right trajectory, he purports, it would only be necessary to shield against the possibility of an unexpected increase in solar activity, something Apollo was indeed prepared for.

This makes sense and would seem to close the case, but for many the question still remains, especially so in light of the fact that there have since been no more lunar missions, and almost 50 years later NASA’s Orion mission is apparently just now trying to solve the challenge of the Van Allen belts.

In the following video clip a NASA engineer working on the Orion project explains the challenge of bringing a ship and crew into space well above low earth orbit, and beyond the radiation belts. Speaking about their effort he remarks, “we must solve these challenges before we send people through this region of space,” implying that this question had not already been solved by the research and accomplishments of Apollo.

If in the 1960’s we were able to successfully overcome the challenge of reaching the moon and beyond, then whyis it an issuenow?

In addition to the questions raised by the Van Allen belts andthe footage of the moon landings, there are many other interesting scientific and political anomalies surrounding the authenticity of the Apollo lunar missions. A quick look down this rabbit hole can easily suck you in all the way.

For a more comprehensiveview of the information supporting the theory that the moon landings were faked, take a look at the following presentation or search online for more resources. And for a reasonable refutation of someof the alternative theories on this, take a look at the work ofRobert A. Braeunig.

About the Author

Buck Rogersis the earth bound incarnation of that familiar part of our timeless cosmic selves, the rebel within. He is a surfer of ideals and meditates often on the promise of happiness in a world battered by the angry seas of human thoughtlessness. He is a staff writer forWakingTimes.com.