The former head of the Russian space corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, has once again proved his incredible degree of incompetence. The ex-chairman, who was dismissed from the post of director of the country’s space program last year, now uses Telegram, where he likes to dive into conspiracy theories. Recently, he questioned the fact that NASA landed a dozen astronauts on the Moon more than half a century ago during the Apollo program. Ars Technica reports.
According to his publication, Rogozin asked Roscosmos to provide him with “documentary evidence of the Americans’ stay on the Moon”. According to him, despite all the efforts, being the head of the agency, he did not find any evidence. Even cosmonaut Alexei Leonov’s comments about the reality of the NASA mission, he simply ridiculed.
“Do you know what answer I have received? The book “The conquest of the Moon by Astronauts” with comments by cosmonaut Leonov that they were there, because “they told him about it!” he writes.
Rogozin at the Front (Telegram channel)
Ten years ago, when I was working in the Government, I sent an official request to Roscosmos to provide me with documentary evidence of Americans on the Moon available to this federal agency at that time. I was too embarrassed by the fact that Soviet cosmonauts returning from multi-day expeditions could barely stand on their feet and underwent a long recovery after such flights, and the Americans got out of their lunar spacecraft like cucumbers from the garden.
Do you know what I have received in response?) The book “The Conquest of the Moon by astronauts” with the comment of cosmonaut Leonov that they really were there, because “they told him about it”!
Having started working at the Roscosmos State Corporation in 2018, I continued to search for this evidence, but I found nothing there, except angry accusations by some of our fans to go to America at someone else’s expense of academics that I, they said, undermine the “sacred cooperation with NASA”, and I also received one angry call from a high-ranking official with the accusation that I “aggravated the international situation” with my doubts.
But I did not undermine or aggravate anything, and only by virtue of my character tried to get to the bottom of the details and establish, at least for myself, the true state of affairs in the matter of exploring the Moon by our competitors. It was unclear to me how the United States, at that level of technology development in the 60s of the last century, did what they cannot do now?
https://dzen.ru/a/ZFKwfllGaXpvLUYE
Thus, instead of evidence of the Americans’ presence on the Moon, I received evidence of their people’s presence in our “establishment”. Which was also an important conclusion.
Rogozin’s defiant comments demonstrate his penchant for popular conspiracy theories, which persist among various kinds of supporters of anti-science and are an indicator of the short-sightedness inherent in the top of the governing elite of Russia. One of the most popular is the “secret conspiracy” around the landing of people on the Moon.
The evidence is overwhelming
But ironically, the Soviet Union closely followed the astronauts’ landing, intercepting space talks about how NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their historic first steps back in 1969. This means that Russia has a lot of unconditional and well–documented evidence of the landing of people on the Moon, which are stored in the archives – Rogozin just had to get acquainted with them.
Moreover, the USSR even had its own rocket N-1 with a spacecraft, which had the goal of landing on the Moon before the Americans. But because of design defects due to haste, none of the four flights were successful, after which the Allied lunar program was closed in 1974.
However, this amount of evidence clearly did not make a sufficient impression on this particular member of Putin’s inner circle. Rogozin has made many enemies over the years with his aggressive behavior. Last year, he even threatened to shoot down the International Space Station over US territory. During his tenure, he also claimed that Russia would soon separate its modules from the ISS, but the country later agreed to cooperate with its international partners until the station was closed in 2030.
Earlier we reported how Rogozin promised to take revenge on the howitzer from which he was wounded.
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