On this page: Plum Brook Station Closure Standby Years Demolition of the Sites [3] The station included several large test facilities besides the reactor, including liquid hydrogen facilities for development and testing of the Centaur upper stage. The alleged Moon landings used either a sound stage or were filmed outside in a remote desert with the astronauts either using harnesses or slow-motion photography to make it look like they were on the Moon. In 2013, SpaceX tested the 5.2-meter fairing for its Falcon 9 rocket there. The Moon rocks also share the same traits as Soviet samples.[169]. Why was this fact never dicussed [sic] in the press or by the astronauts? [115][116] Apollo 11 data tapes containing telemetry and the high-quality video (before scan conversion from slow-scan TV to standard TV) of the first moonwalk are also missing. There are, however, a few nonrocket B-2 bookings lined up for 2015. NASA responds to Bill Kaysing's book, We Never Went to the Moon, by identifying one of his claims of fraud regarding the lack of a crater left on the Moon's surface by the landing of the lunar module, and refuting it with facts about the soil and cohesive nature of the surface of the Moon. [28] The Soviet Union tracked the Apollo missions at the Space Transmissions Corps, which was "fully equipped with the latest intelligence-gathering and surveillance equipment. [23] Indeed their article on space exploration describes the Apollo 11 landing as "the third historic event" of the space age, following the launch of Sputnik in 1957, and Yuri Gagarin's flight in 1961. [39] There was in fact no video broadcast during either the landing or takeoff because of technological limitations. [163] The photos show the descent stage of the landers from each mission on the Moon's surface. [150], In 2002, NASA granted US$15,000 to James Oberg for a commission to write a point-by-point rebuttal of the hoax claims. See. [166], China's second lunar probe, Chang'e 2, which was launched in 2010, can photograph the lunar surface with a resolution of up to 7m (23ft). Since 2012, Plum Brook Station has received about $31 million in annual funding from NASA, most of which comes from the agency's Construction and Environmental Compliance account the budget. He described the emergence of the atomic age and the weapons of mass destruction that were piling up in the storehouses of the American and Soviet nations. It's home to the antenna that received the first images of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. [128] Three of them were carried to the Moon on Apollos 15, 16, and 17, used by the astronauts for transportation once on the Moon, and left there. 11. NASA agreed, and, in a letter appended to the audit report, said it would present the strategy in a report to Krista Paquin, associate administrator for mission support, in September. [9][10] He served as head of the technical publications unit at the company's Propulsion Field Laboratory until 1963. [2][3] In 2012, images were released showing five of the six Apollo missions' American flags erected on the Moon still standing. 5. Its walls are 2 feet thick to withstand the blast of powerful . Lewis reactivated the B2 vacuum chamber in 1987, SPF and K Site in 1988, and the HTF in 1993. Kubrick had no such brother the article was a spoof, complete with a giveaway sentence describing Kubrick shooting the moonwalk "on location" on the Moon. In 2004 NASA began funding the demolition of unused facilities across the agency. NASA's Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio is now the After a three-year search, the "inescapable conclusion" was that about 45 tapes (estimated 15 tapes recorded at each of the three tracking stations) of Apollo 11 video were erased and re-used, said Nafzger. We will get in touch with you shortly. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. The reactor and Rocket Systems Area remained shuttered. The cameras were fitted with a Rseau plate (a clear glass plate with a reticle etched on), making it impossible for any photographed object to appear "in front" of the grid. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you . [33] Since most conspiracists believe that sending men to the Moon was impossible at the time,[34] they argue that landings had to be faked to fulfill Kennedy's 1961 goal, "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. In 2015, a report from NASAs inspector general made the disconcerting announcement that all but one of the major test facilities at Plum Brook Station had few or no customers. Proving a hoax would have been a huge propaganda win for the Soviets. In 1961, NASA's Plum Brook Reactor Facility in Sandusy, Ohio went live, with a focus on researching nuclear-powered vehicles first airplanes, and then rockets. Plum Brook Station is located about eight miles from Sandusky, Ohio. Kubrick also used some 50mm f/0.7 lenses that were left over from a batch made by Zeiss for NASA. The most notable claim is that the six crewed landings (19691972) were faked and that twelve Apollo astronauts did not actually walk on the Moon. 6. By the time of Apollo 11, the United States had a lead much wider than that. Lowry Digital president Mike Inchalik said that, "this is by far and away the lowest quality" video the company has dealt with. These include the Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility, which is like something from the wildest dreams of Spinal Tap. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). The US$230,000 restoration project took months to complete and did not include sound quality improvements. WASHINGTON All but one of the five big test facilities at NASAs Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, have few or no customers, and the situation is unlikely to change any time soon, according to an April 23 report from NASAs inspector general (IG). The Lunar Modules made no blast craters or any sign of dust scatter.[98]. [189][190], A 2000 poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation[ru] () in Russia found that 28% of those surveyed did not believe that American astronauts landed on the Moon, and this percentage is roughly equal in all social-demographic groups. Baron was a quality control inspector who wrote a report critical of the Apollo program and was an outspoken critic of NASA's safety record after the Apollo 1 fire. Two of these a wind tunnel called the Hypersonic Test Facility, and the Cryogenic Components Laboratory, which is now slated for demolition have not been used in four years, the IG wrote. [44] They show that NASA's portrayal of the Moon landing is fundamentally accurate, allowing for such common mistakes as mislabeled photos and imperfect personal recollections. Several scenes in 2001 show dust billowing as spacecraft landed, something that would not happen in the vacuum environment of the Moon. A resident of Perth, Western Australia, a woman named Una Ronald (a pseudonym created by the authors of the source[70]), said that for two or three seconds she saw a Coca-Cola bottle roll across the lower right quadrant of her television screen that was displaying the live broadcast of the Apollo 11 EVA. 3. Since in 1969 water was believed to be absent on the Moon, no geologist discussed finding these on the Moon in any great amount. Last used in 1998 to test the upper stage of Boeings ill-fated Delta 3 launch vehicle, B-2s steam ejection system which has been broken for years needs $15 million worth of repairs before the chamber can properly simulate high-altitude conditions required for engine tests, according to the IG. The documentary reinvigorated the public's interest in conspiracy theories and the possibility that the Moon landings were faked, which has provoked NASA to once again defend its name. A propulsion engine testbed that paved the way for the Space Shuttle launch sits without recognition at this rocket center. Blueprints and design and development drawings of the machines involved are missing. Landing on the Moon was viewed as a national and technological accomplishment that would generate world-wide acclaim. [168], The Apollo program collected 380kg (838lb) of Moon rocks during the six crewed missions. "[171] NASA continues to send teams to work in Antarctica to mimic the conditions on other planets. On the demolition front, although Plum Brook has torn down 18 buildings and structures since 2012 reducing the annual maintenance costs in the process there is still a backlog of repairs Glenn has put off at the Sandusky campus because it does not have the roughly $55 million it would cost to undertake them, according to the IG. Spacecraft Snoops Apollo Moon Sites", "World's biggest telescope to prove Americans really walked on Moon", "How to find Apollo 11's landing site on the Moon", "The "halo" area around Apollo 15 landing site observed by Terrain Camera on SELENE (KAGUYA)", "Chandrayaan sends images of Apollo 15 landing", "Chandrayaan's moon findings: Water, rocks and traces of Apollo", "China publishes high-resolution full moon map", "Martian Meteorite Launch: High-Speed Ejecta from Small Craters", "Lunar South Pole-Aitken Sample Return (2002)", "Sample Return Mission to the South Pole Aitken Basin", New Views of the Moon II: Understanding the Moon Through the Integration of Diverse Datasets, American Association for the Advancement of Science, "NASA's LRO Team Helps Track Laser Signals to Russian Rover Mirror", "Landing a Man on the Moon: The Public's View", Institution of Engineering and Technology, "Man on the Moon: A Case of Mass Brainwashing", "Attitudes Toward Space Exploration Ipsos Poll on Behalf of C-SPAN Belief in Authenticity of the 1969 Moon Landing", Bruce M. Nash (Executive Producer, Writer), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories&oldid=1141029494, This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 00:31. Some still think so", "Solar corona photographed from Apollo 15 one minute prior to sunrise", "Goddard's Journal: Are Apollo Moon Photos Fake? In addition, the center decided to begin removing the Plum Brook Ordnance Works (PBOW) concrete bunkers that had stored munitions during World War II and NASA records and equipment in later years. Crosshairs are sometimes rotated or in the wrong place. The reactor first went critical on 14 June 1961, and was finally shut down on 5 January 1973. This suggests that a painted background was used. The NASA Space Environmental Test (SET) Project is tasked to develop new environmental test facilities to support NASA's developing space exploration program. . NASA's Nuclear Frontier: The Plum Brook Reactor Facility, 1941-2002 In 1953, President Eisenhower delivered a speech called "Atoms for Peace" to the United Nations General Assembly. Dan Leone is a SpaceNews staff writer, covering NASA, NOAA and a growing number of entrepreneurial space companies. Plum Brook Station, located about 50 miles west of NASA's Glenn Research enter in Sandusky, Ohio, is home to several unique space-related test facilities, including the Space Power Facility (SPF), an environmental simulation chamber used to test hardware in a simulated space or planetary environment. The arms of the crosshair are washed-out on the white stripes of the flag (Photo ID: AS15-88-11863), Close-up of the flag, showing washed-out crosshairs. Page Editor: Robert Arrighi (See List of human spaceflights, 19611970, and refer to individual flights for the length of time.). 12. Who filmed Neil Armstrong stepping onto the Moon? [140][141] All of the deaths occurred at least 20 months before Apollo 11 and subsequent flights. Short-exposure photo of the International Space Station (ISS) taken from Space Shuttle Atlantis in February 2008 during STS-122 one of many photos taken in space where no stars are visible, Earth and Mir in June 1995 an example of how sunlight can outshine the stars, making them invisible, Long-exposure photo taken from the Moon's surface by Apollo 16 astronauts using the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph. The digital technology on Earth during the time of the Moon landings was just in its infancy. The air conditioning units that were part of the astronauts' spacesuits could not have worked in an environment of no atmosphere.[109]. [186] This Fox special is seen as having promoted the hoax claims. Conspiracists often use this evidence to suggest that objects were "pasted" over the photographs, and hence obscure the reticle. For technical reasons, the Apollo 11 lander carried a slow-scan television (SSTV) camera (see Apollo TV camera). [174] Furthermore, lunar meteorites are so rare that it is unlikely that they could account for the 380kg (840lb) of Moon rocks that NASA gathered between 1969 and 1972. Orion progress at KSC, consumable offload planned for EM-1. Moon Landings? This suggests that artificial lights were used. In December 1972 NASA canceled all of its nuclear propulsion and power programs, resulting in the closure of Plum Brook Station [today, the Neil Armstrong Test Facility]. Because von Braun was a former SS officer (though one who had been detained by the Gestapo),[170] the documentary film Did We Go? Down in the O&C Building at KSC, the EM-1 Orion spacecraft hardware has almost completed standalone testing. [40], The American Patriot Friends Network claimed in 2009 that the landings helped the United States government distract public attention from the unpopular Vietnam War, and so crewed landings suddenly ended about the same time that the United States ended its involvement in the war. ", "End of Conspiracy Theories? [1] Since the late 2000s, high-definition photos taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of the Apollo landing sites have captured the Lunar Module descent stages and the tracks left by the astronauts. [162] A three-dimensional reconstructed photo also matched the terrain of an Apollo 15 photo taken from the surface. NASA also notes that all of the operations and phases of the Apollo program were closely followed and under the scrutiny of the news media, from liftoff to splashdown. About fifteen minutes of it were filmed by an amateur 8 mm film camera and these are also available. The B-2 Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility had last been used in 1998, and both the Hypersonic Test Facility and the Cryogenic Components Laboratory hadnt been used in four years. 5. A majority of the test facilities are underutilized, with the level of use and funding for these facilities depending on NASA programs and external customers choosing to perform testing at Plum Brook rather than at other NASA or private facilities, the IG wrote in the 28-page report, Audit of NASAs Requirements for Plum Brook Station.. [30], Also, there was nothing "abrupt" about the Apollo cancellations, which were made for cost-cutting reasons. Marcus Allen, a conspiracist, answered that no photos of hardware on the Moon would convince him that human landings had happened. The many allegations in Kaysing's book effectively began discussion of the Moon landings being faked. 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