I realise I have to post something for July AND to commemorate Apollo 11 landing on the moon 39 years ago yesterday. Were any of you wrapped in swaddling clothes watching it in the early hours of the morning like I was in Liverpool?
What an incredible achievement – and what an unbelievably sad sequel that nothing happened afterwards.
What really gets me irritated is the number of people who are reacting to me mentioning the Apollo landings by saying, “yeah…IF they landed!”
What kind of dozy walliness is this? I have never understood what the original hoax nutters stood to gain from all this lunatic self-contradictory doubt casting that they indulge in.
I also fail to understand the appeal it seems to have.
The only excuse I can think of is a basic ignorance of the situation at the time and a total ignorance of the Apollo programme and what it entailed.
In the most charitable of analyses, the “hoax” would have had to include hundreds of astronauts, technicians, engineers and sundry experts none of whom have ever come out with an exclusive confession nor has any been left posthumously.
I mean do these HBs (hoax believers) dispute the fact that the Apollo missions just went to the moon or that they actually landed in some cases?
If it’s the first case, it would mean they are saying that Apollo 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 were all faked, as all of them circumnavigated the moon one way or another!
If we’re just talking about landing then it’s "only" Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17.
That’s such a lot of hoaxing!
Anyhow to read some sense about all these wild conspiracy “theories” I would recommend:
Moon Base Clavius
and Phil Plait’s
BadAstronomy
Meanwhile, happy anniversary Apollo 11!
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7 comments:
I remember being worried about having to watch them die on TV if they couldn't take off again.
I am not fond of Americans generally but you have to admire the Apollo programme and the astronauts themselves, their achievements uniquely deserve the adjective awesome.
Have you seen this little talk by the way ?
Large Hadron Collider
Ive just found my notes on the 'Shadow of the Moon Documentary' - the note-taking being part of an experiment to see how much I forget and how quickly. There is a beautiful self-depreciating remark there by Alan Bean. My note quotes him as saying " I always thought of myself as one of the more fearful astronauts". I like the sound of him.
Thanks for the Hadron link, McDuff. Do you think it is deliberate that it's an anagram of hard-on??
Hi Anji! never thought of that so clearly. I wonder if they would have televised it??
I see physics still manages to excite you Phil.
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