The role of the USSR leadership in the NASA lunar scam. Part-1: Hoax

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-16 18:34

In 1969-1972, the United States reported six times the landing of its astronauts on the moon. The political leadership of the USSR recognized the victory of the United States in the lunar race and made no open attempts at revenge. After that, hundreds of researchers studied the "lunar" evidence from NASA and came to the conclusion that the Americans had hoaxed the flights to the moon.

The hoax took place with the assistance of the USSR (for a large reward) and the statement: "Ours, if something were wrong, would have immediately exposed" is absolutely untenable. After all, such exposure was also disadvantageous to those who contributed. In the first half of the 60s, space exploration in the USSR was carried out under the obvious motto "be the first", but then the policy of the Soviet leadership is increasingly becoming ambivalent. Especially with regard to a manned flyby of the moon and landing a person on it. Successor of S. P. Korolev, academician V. P. Mishin wrote

The question is often asked: what would happen to our space technology if Korolev were alive? I think that even he, with his authority, would not be able to resist the processes that covered all spheres of our society. It would be difficult for him to work without feeling the support of the leaders of rocket and space technology in our country, who (even during the lifetime of Sergei Pavlovich) pursued an incomprehensible policy on this issue.

- ^[6]

General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee L. I. Brezhnev (right) - Soviet creator of the policy of detente with US President R. Nixon

USA: victory by any means and without regard to conscience, the loser will die

US President John F. Kennedy announces the launch of a man-made lunar landing program. May 25, 1961.^[7]

On April 12, 1961, the flight of Yuri Gagarin took place. After Sputnik, it was the second gigantic slap in the face for US prestige. In response, on May 25, 1961, President Kennedy announced that the United States would land a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. For this, under the leadership of NASA, a special Apollo program was deployed.

It was not a simple challenge to the opponent, but a formal call for a war of destruction.^[2]True, the destruction is not military, but political. But the result did not change from this. The losing state had to perish (which happened in the end with the USSR).

If we want to win the battle that has unfolded around the world between the two systems, if we want to win the battle for the minds of people, then … we cannot allow the Soviet Union to occupy a leading position in space. “We have sworn that we will have to see on the moon not an enemy conquest flag, but the banner of freedom and peace …

- President D. F. Kennedy.^[2][8]

… The rivalry for the moon was a war. Death and damnation await the loser. It was a struggle between two systems of power, in which the Americans must win. By any means »…

- "New York Times".^[2]

And in tune with her, US Secretary of Defense R. McNamara said:

“We will instill in every participant in the program that it is a crime against the nation to stop in means of its implementation. Acting without regard for such a trifle as conscience " … To the president's question: "What will be the reaction of the Russians to such actions?" his brother, Robert, answered unexpectedly, saying that he was taking over the Russians. Like, there are ideas and developments."

- ^[9]

What was behind these appeals "By any means!" What was behind the words of R. Kennedy that "he takes over the Russians." Not knowing these subtleties, tens of thousands of Soviet people who created space technology, did everything possible to overtake the Americans. But it turns out that at the same time, ideas were ripening among the ruling elite of the USSR on how to make friends with the Americans. For this, the Moon can be traded. Of course, the Americans will not bargain with a weak rival. And it was necessary to show the Americans that flying around the moon by a manned ship, and then landing a man on it, were quite solvable tasks for the USSR. But - only to show a willingness to solve, not bringing the decision to its logical end. For a manned flyby of the Moon, and then the landing of a Soviet cosmonaut on it, would mean the third giant slap in the face of America and could ruin all trade. Having won on the moon, what will you sell? While the technical difficulties were being overcome, the work in the framework of the lunar race was both supported and financed. But as soon as the main difficulties were left behind, and success was indicated, the work stopped.

Technical positions of the parties before the start of the lunar race

The exploration of the moon was started by automata. And at all the most important stages of this period, the USSR was invariably ahead of the United States.^[10]The USSR was the first to hit the moon with a rocket (Luna-2, September 12, 1959). A month later, "Luna-3" flew around the moon for the first time. She photographed its reverse side, which had not been seen by any earthling before, and transmitted her pictures on the TV channel (4.10.1959). 1965-18-07 AMS "Zond-3" for the second time transmitted to Earth 25 photographs of the far side of the Moon, this time of very high quality. The other side of the moon was still inaccessible to the Americans. 1966-02-03 "Luna-9" carried out the world's first soft landing on the moon and for three days transmitted images of the lunar surface. 1966-31-03 "Luna-10" became the first artificial satellite of the Moon. 1970 saw the first automatic delivery of lunar soil to Earth (Luna-16) and the first self-propelled automatic apparatus on the Moon (Lunokhod-1).

Let's start friends right from the start of the race (1967)

During the race, its participants do not agree on cooperation between the participants and do not share technical secrets. During the race, they are chasing. But it was an unusual race. Let's look at the very first line of Appendix 1, which lists the agreements concluded between the USSR and the United States during the reign of Secretary General L. I. Brezhnev within the framework of the so-called policy of detente: 1967 January: the Soviet-American space experiment Soyuz-Apollo began. It appeared after many years of contacts between our leading academicians (first A. A. Blagonravov, and then M. V. Keldysh) with the corresponding American circles.^[11]The pro-Western sentiments of many of our academics are the Punchinelle's secret. And what is there to be surprised at if the then director of the Institute of Space Research of the USSR Academy of Sciences R. Z. Sagdeev has been a US citizen for 20 years. But, it is clear that not one of the academicians would have opened his mouth if it had not been for permission from the top party leadership. In general, for Soviet specialists, the intensity of the lunar race was growing, and the Americans were already told by the Politburo: do not worry, in the future the main thing for us is not a competition, but cooperation with you. And these were not empty words.

The ruling party was the KPSS (Communist Party of the Soviet Union). Its governing body was the Central Committee (CC). All the main directions of the country's life were supervised by the secretaries of the Central Committee. This position was more important than that of a minister, since there were 5-6 secretaries, and several dozen ministers. From among the secretaries of the Central Committee and the most important ministers, the top power - the Politburo - was elected.

- Information on the structure of power in the USSR

Journalist G. V. Smirnov:

In 1967, I was working in the editorial office of Tekhnika Molodyozhi, when one of the employees brought a special issue of the American magazine Mechanix illustrated. It proved that the USSR's successes in space were a bluff. Seeing the magazine, the editor-in-chief Vasily Dmitrievich Zakharchenko lit up. Guys! - he said. - Let's devote a whole number to exposing their revelations! He took the magazine and went to the Central Committee of the CPSU. He returned three hours later, extinguished, indifferent: “They said it was inappropriate….”. I was shocked: The CPSU Central Committee itself refused the opportunity to sharply and effectively take advantage of the Americans!

- ^[3]

Cancel the flight around the moon! (1968-1970)

(The Politburo first postpones, and then completely cancels the prepared flyby of the moon by Soviet cosmonauts)

The Soyuz spacecraft known all over the world were created specifically for the task of a manned flight around the Moon. In the unmanned version, they bore the designation 7LK1 ("Probe"). For the purpose of their development, for four years (1967-1970) Soviet specialists carried out 14 launches of "Probes" with the ultimate goal of their successful return to Earth(Table 1). And as in any new business, they fully knew the bitterness of failure, until the success at first only showed itself ("Probes-5, 6), and then became indisputable (" Probes-7, 8). While the Soviet specialists went step by step forward with their "Probes", the Americans decided to show the world that they had no need to bother with such trifles as testing lunar ships in automatic mode. And this despite the fact that the success of their implementation of the program of automatic exploration of the Moon by many times simpler devices is half and more filled with reports of accidents.^[10]As the saying goes, a good mine with a bad game. Because the United States did not have anything like the Soviet "Probes" - "Soyuz" and still does not.

Table 1. Flights under the Soyuz 7LK-1 - Zond program^[12]

	Launch codename	Launch date, launch vehicle	Main tasks	Flight progress
1	Cosmos-146	1967-10-03 "Proton"	Testing of aggregates in a highly elliptical orbit	RN failure at start
2	Cosmos-154	1967-08-04 "Proton"	Testing of aggregates with a flyby of the Moon	LV failure at launch, spacecraft remained in low earth orbit
3	Probe-4A	1967-28-09 "Proton"	Testing of aggregates with a flyby of the Moon	LV explosion at start, CA rescued by SAS system
4	Probe-4B	1967-22-11 "Proton"	Testing of aggregates with a flyby of the Moon	LV explosion at start, SA rescued
5	Probe-4	1968-02-03 "Proton"	Testing of aggregates in a highly elliptical orbit, return of the spacecraft to the Earth	A flyby of the Moon, the return of the SA took place in an unplanned area. It was blown up during the descent.
6	Probe-5A	1968-23-04 "Proton"	Testing of units with a flyby of the Moon, return. CA	RN failure at start, CA rescued
7	Probe-5B	1968-21-07 "Proton"	Testing of onboard units with a flyby of the Moon, return of the SA	RN explosion before launch
8	Probe-5	1968-15-09 "Proton"	A flyby of the moon, fotogr. Moon and Earth, SA return	A flyby of the moon 1968-18-09, return of the SA 1968-21-09 in the Indian Ocean
9	Probe-6	1968-10-11 "Proton"	Fly-over and photo. Moon and Earth, SA return with landing	A flyby of the Moon on 1968-14-11, when returning on 1968-17-11 on the territory of the USSR, the SA crashed
b / no	Food for thought	21-27.12.1968	Americans report	successful flyby of the Moon by Apollo 8 astronauts
10	Probe-7A	1969-20-01 "Proton"	A flyby of the moon, return of the SA to Earth	LV explosion at start, SA rescued
11	Probe-7B	1969-21-02 "H1"	A flyby of the moon, return of the SA to Earth	LV explosion at start, SA rescued
12	Probe-7V	1969-03-07 "H1"	A flyby of the moon, return of the SA to Earth	LV explosion at start, SA rescued
b / no	Food for thought	16-24.7.1969	Americans report	the successful landing of the Apollo 11 astronauts on the Moon
13	Probe-7	1969-08-08 "Proton"	A flyby of the Moon, photographing the Moon and the Earth, testing the control of the apparatus from an on-board computer	A flyby of the Moon 1969-11-08, the return of the spacecraft to the Earth 1969-14-08
14	Probe-8	1970-20-10 "Proton"	Orbiting the Moon, photographing the Moon and the Earth, testing the landing option from the northern hemisphere	A flyby of the moon 1970-24-10, return of the spacecraft to the Earth 1970-27-10
			PROGRAM	DISCONTINUED

General N. P. Kamanin^[13]

The crew of Apollo 8, allegedly circling the moon^[14]

On April 4, 1968, the Americans failed a lunar rocket test. And 19 days later they announced that on December 21 of the same year the manned spacecraft Apollo 8 would orbit the Moon. Many of our experts believed that the United States was not yet ready for such a flight. In November 1968, the head of the Cosmonaut Training Center, General N. P. Kamanin wrote:

"Continue to carry out its flight program without adapting it to American tricks … We will prepare a manned flyby for January 1969, and if the Americans are flying on Apollo 8, we will postpone the flight until April."

- ^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]}

At the end of 1968, feeling the intensity of the lunar race, members of the three Soviet "lunar" crews A. Leonov, O. Makarov, V. Bykovsky, N. Rukavishnikov, P. Popovich and V. Sevastyanov sent a letter to the Politburo asking for permission to fly to the Moon … In early December, the cosmonauts flew to the cosmodrome, hoping that a decision would be made on the launch. However, the Soviet leadership did not give the go-ahead.

- ^[23]

And then a message thundered all over the world that Apollo 8 flew to the Moon and made 10 revolutions around it.

Well, well, we must catch up. It was not only N. P. Kamanin. Here are the words of A. A. Leonov:

It was necessary to go on a manned flight around the moon even after Frank Bormann circled the moon. The lunar landing program has not been canceled, we will still have to start landing with a flyby. The ship is there. Let me fly! Central Committee: “No!.

- ^[3]

Say, it is necessary to carry out several more flights to the moon in an unmanned version.^[23]Well then: in 1969 and in 1970 our specialists carried out two more completely successful fly-bys of the Moon by "Probes" Nos. 7 and 8. You can send cosmonauts to fly around the Moon. And then the Politburo finally canceled the flyby of the moon. On October 4, 1957, the USSR launched the first satellite. But the Americans did not say: "we are upset and we will not launch our satellite." Their satellite flew on January 31, 1958. On April 12, 1961, Gagarin flew. It was only on February 20, 1962 that the Americans made their first orbital flight. In general, the Americans did not hesitate to catch up. Let's try to understand why the Politburo acted differently? Take another look at Table 1. Here is line No. 9 - "Probe-6" orbits the Moon, successfully enters the Earth's atmosphere, approaches the landing area, but at the last moment the parachutes did not work. And the next yellow line says that Apollo 8 successfully circled the moon. Then the Soviet leaders would have to close all these "Probes". But nothing like that. In the next six months, three Probes are launched one after the other, and all is unsuccessful. And the Americans have already matured a new yellow sensational message: "Apollo 11" landed astronauts on the moon. It would seem that now the Politburo will certainly cover the Probes. And again they did not guess. The Probes specialists have been working for another year and three months, and during this time they have carried out two completely successful launches. Almost two years have passed since the Apollo 8 flight. But now everything is ready for Soviet cosmonauts to fly around the Moon. And you don't need much money for this, because the main expenses have already gone to failures and to fix them.

And what is the Politburo doing? With a slight grunt, gives the go-ahead? Nothing of the kind: it closes the lunar flyby program. And two ships, fully equipped for a manned flyby of the moon, remained on Earth..^[23]The money spent both on the entire Probe program and on these two finished ships was simply thrown away. Absurd? And this is how you look. Let's go back to the first yellow line - Apollo 8 orbited the Moon. If the Soviet leaders had any other data regarding this flight, then still there was nothing to "prop" the Americans with? Not anonymous data from anonymous intelligence agents? They will laugh. We need our own ship that can fly around the moon. He, in any case, will not leave the disembarkation uncontrolled. And they start one after another, but unsuccessfully "Probes -7A, 7B, 7B". The second yellow line has matured - "Apollo 11" has landed on the moon. And again there is nothing to check. And how useful a ship with a crew would be able to fly around the moon and look with a human eye at the places of the named landings. And the flights of the Probes continue. And now, finally, the complete success of "Probes 7 and 8". For specialists, this is the beginning of a long journey, and for the Politburo, it is the end. There is a trump card in the form of a finished ship, you can bargain. Say, gentlemen Americans, we have demonstrated our capabilities to fly around and control the Moon. But we will not fly yet, so you can continue your flights. But you yourself understand, the payment of the debt is red.

Do not rush to deliver the Soviet lunar soil, inform the Americans about the parameters of the "Luna-15"

AMS E-8-5 for the delivery of lunar soil ("Luna-15, etc.) (" To the stars "," Planet ", Moscow, 1980, p. 98)

Three days before Apollo 11, the Soviet automatic station (AMS) Luna 15 arrived in circumlunar orbit. The goal is to deliver lunar soil to Earth. We read from N. P. Kamanina:

I read the TASS report that Americans are most afraid that the Russians would outstrip them with the help of an automatic machine that will bring samples of lunar soil to Earth … They have nothing to fear. The Apollo 11 flight will overshadow the success of any machine gun.

- ^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]}

What then were the Americans afraid of? After all, the landing of astronauts on the moon, and even with the subsequent delivery of several tens of kilograms of moon rocks, would really overshadow the success of any machine gun. But if there was no landing, then what could NASA claim about the lunar soil after the astronauts "returned"? Only his fake. In this case, it was very important that the USSR did not have real lunar soil. Without real soil, it is difficult to expose a fake. And if the USSR manages to deliver its lunar soil, but much later, then by that time NASA will convince mankind of "landing" on the Moon. In general, the Soviet Union should not be allowed to acquire its lunar soil before the return of the A-11 astronauts. And what, if not the threat to get ahead with the delivery of soil, does the TASS message contain? After all, TASS messages in those days were published only at the initiative of the Politburo. Will the USSR fulfill its threat or is it just blackmail within the framework of that very “strange policy”. And what can the Americans do to prevent the success of Luna 15?

It was a direct sabotage

Here it is appropriate to recall that even before Luna-15, as if guessing the fears of the Americans, five accidents in a row fell on the Soviet "moon scoops". N. P. Kamanin writes about them as follows:

We were very unlucky: of the five previous launches of E-8-5, four ended in accidents with the Proton rocket near the cosmodrome, and "Luna-15" crashed during its descent to the lunar surface … May 30, 1969 Yesterday I attended a meeting of the State Commission. Chelomey reported that out of all 13 launches of UR-500K missiles, seven were emergency. During the first seven launches, there was oneaccident, and all the last sixlaunches were found to be emergency. This is the result of poor performance in factories, violations of the technological process, weak industrial discipline and low qualifications of workers.

- ^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]}

A. A. Leonov: "It was a direct sabotage"^[24]

The chagrin is understandable. But really, in such a short time, violations of the technological process have become 6 times more frequent, discipline and qualifications of workers have fallen? Could it be that some malicious intent intervened in the second round of tests? Here is what A. A. Leonov:

… The carrier was the proven Proton rocket. However, several launches ended in failure. The most offensive was the breakdown, when a plug from a completely different engine from a completely different workshop got into the rocket fuel path. It was a direct sabotage. They found out who collected it. The assembler showed how to put the stub. And so, imperceptibly, they slipped that other plug into him. He inserted it: it’s only smaller in diameter. Who slipped this plug into him for the first time and played into the hands of the Americans? The rocket itself had nothing to do with it. You just had to establish proper control.

- ^[3]

So maybe, and when, after a series of successful launches, four "Protons" exploded in a row at the start, as soon as they were loaded with "moon scoops", "the rockets themselves had nothing to do with it?"

There were similar cases with H1

Academician B. E. Chertok; ^[25]

It is pertinent to recall two very similar cases with another lunar rocket described by B. E. Devil. Here's what happened to the H1 during launch on June 3, 1969:

Peripheral engine No. 8 exploded for 0.25 seconds before taking off from the launch pad. The rest of the engines worked for some time, the rocket managed to take off 200 meters … The remnants of the scattered engines were collected. The turbopump assembly of engine No. 8, in comparison with the other twenty-nine, which retained its external shape, was destroyed by an internal explosion. Kuznetsov and his entire team, even military representatives, argued that an explosion was possible only through the fault of the interference of a "foreign object" …Experiments to forcibly tear off the aforementioned steel diaphragm from its place did not bring any clarity.

- ^[23]

And this supports the argument about tossing an object. However … "Glushko said that he does not believe in evil spirits that throw foreign objects into the pumps." And after one launch, on November 23, 1972, again "there was an almost instantaneous destruction of the pump of the engine (now) No. 4. This led to the elimination of the rocket."^[23]In simple terms, "the pump exploded again."

V. P. Glushko is a longtime ill-wisher of the late S. P. Korolev, whose brainchild was H1. His scientific and technical authority is undeniable. But the conclusion about "unclean forces throwing foreign objects" should be given by counterintelligence officers. And if the evil spirits could have thrown the wrong plug into the Proton rocket, then why couldn't they do it with the pumps of the H1 rocket that she loved so much? And after all, various evil spirits were spinning around H1. Here is what the well-known "space" journalist S. L. Leskov writes. in the preface to the book:

Spy - artist

Several years ago, at the Moscow Book Fair, K. Gatland's encyclopedia "Space Engineering" was presented. Many scientists specially came to just look through the encyclopedia. The book reproduced the Soviet N1 rocket, which was never mentioned in our literature.… Regarding the origin of the exact drawing of H1, the old-timers of Baikonur passed on the story that in one of the buildings next to the assembly and test building, from where the missile was taken to the launch site, a deeply rooted spy was working. He had only one task to sketch the H1 rocket. The most ordinary engineer. Then, when the exact characteristics of H1 were discovered in the West, the counterintelligence officers figured out from which window they were looking at H1 and who exactly. But there was no trace of the spy.

- ^[6]

Luna 15 “fell out of orbit and flopped. The reasons have not been established"

The cover of the special issue of A Look magazine. Below the author has embedded a fragment of text from the same magazine

Column from "A Look" magazine dedicated to "Luna-15" (author's photo)

It is against this background of stories about direct sabotage, the game of "unclean forces" and a spy-artist, and we will return to the misadventures of "Luna-15".

So, Luna-15 seems to be lucky. It did not explode at launch, reached the Moon and is in a circumlunar orbit. And its possible success worries the Americans very much. In a special issue of the American magazine "A Look" for August 1969, devoted to the first "landing", "Luna-15" is mentioned three times and with many details. In the July 18 rubric, it is reported that the political adviser to the White House, astronaut F. Bormann, who recently returned from the USSR (where he probably made new influential acquaintances), called the “Russians” and asked for “information about the orbit of the Soviet spacecraft ". Justification - the danger of collision of "Luna-15" with "Apollo-11". In a reply telegram, the President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Academician M. V. Keldysh said that “the orbit of Luna-15 does not intersect with the flight trajectory of Apollo 11 that you announced. So the topic is over? But for some reason the Americans are told the orbital parameters - altitude, turnover time, inclination to the equator (all of them are given in "A Look"). At the same time, Keldysh assured that "in case of further changes in this orbit, you will receive additional information." In addition, Keldysh reports that "Luna 15 will remain in its original orbit for two more days."

While Bormann was requesting intelligence information from America, in Moscow a certain B. Gvertzman also "monitored the activity of Luna-15." His name is noted in the honorary section "Acknowledgments". Finally, after 3 days of "trampling" in orbit, on July 21, 1969 at 18 hours 46 minutes, Luna-15 sent a landing signal, and at this the connection with the station was cut off.

Instead of a soft landing, the station fell out of orbit and flopped onto the moon. The reasons have not been established.

- ^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]}

Let's try to present these reasons in the light of what we have learned. Imagine that someone "A" is persistently interested in what path and at what time subject "B" walks, whose presence in this area is very unpleasant for "A". They call this path to him and add that "B" will stay on it for two days. Soon "B" orders to live long. Do you have any suspicions?

The story of the veteran rocket scientist N. V. is appropriate here. Lebedev (Appendix 2) about how the Americans tried to knock our military missiles off course with their radio commands:

The Americans have declared a uniform electronic war on us. A powerful electronic tracking unit operated against us, located, if my memory serves me, in Mazandaran (Iran) near the city of Behshehr. Tracking a launch is one thing. Ours also followed the American tests. Interfering with rocket flight is another matter. No sooner had the product started, than a stream of noise fell on it, from simple "jamming" of commands to their distortion. So, in the summer of 1964, during the eighth launch, the 8K81 rocket began to deviate from the course. I had to turn off the main onboard telemetry station and switch to the backup one. Knowing the mores of the Yankees, our designers provided for automatic registration of electronic impact on the onboard systems of tested missiles, "jumping" in frequencies in cases of such impact detection, installation, in addition to the main telemetry station, two or even three reserve ones.

- ^[9]

Unfortunately, unlike the creators of military rockets, the developers of our space technology were very complacent. As N. P. Kamanin,

Of the 45 commands sent to the ship, the four commanding its launch are the most unprotected. Our ships will be able to easily land not only the US intelligence services, but also just radio amateurs ».

- ^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]}

Three years before "Luna-15" Western experts decoded the signals of the Soviet lunar AMS … In 1966, AMS Luna-9 gently landed on the moon and broadcast a panorama of the surrounding area on the TV channel. Simultaneously with the Soviet specialists, the signals from Luna-9 were received by the British, who were working on the Jodrell Bank radio telescope. They deciphered them and quickly transferred the lunar panorama to print. And she appeared in British newspapers earlier than in Soviet ones.^[3]

AMS "Luna-9", the first in the world to make a soft landing on the moon, and transmitted by it a panorama of the lunar surface, this lunar television broadcast was intercepted by the British^[26][27][28]

M. V. Keldysh, President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR during the years of the lunar race ^[29]

As you can see, it was quite possible to "plop" Luna-15. And, according to the authors, ^[3][30]at the moment when the Luna-15 command was sent to land, the Americans intervened in this command, and the Luna-15 “flopped”. But for this, orbital parameters are required. Otherwise, acting at random, you can raise the orbit, instead of lowering it and "slapping" the station. And their Keldysh said. In addition, thanks to the assurances of M. V. Keldysh, the Americans had two whole days to prepare the electronic impact. And there is no doubt that giving the Americans all the necessary data, MV Keldysh acted with the knowledge of the Soviet leadership.

A source

To be continued …