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Apollo 11 Moon Lander

On December 7, 1972, NASA launched Apollo 17, the last manned Moon mission…and the U.S. has not been back since. In December 2013, China landed its Chang’e 3 lander in the Bay of Rainbows and deployed the Yutu rover, proclaiming its intention to carry out a manned lunar mission in the early ’30s.

Yutu lunar rover

NASA spent 6 billion on its Constellation program for a manned Moon mission by 2020 based on its Ares V launch vehicle and Orion lander, only to have it cancelled by President Obama in 2010. Without a heavy lift vehicle capable of launching the payload of modules required for a return Moon mission, America may be forced to go cap in hand to Russia and France to get them into space—like they’re doing to get to the ISS. Meanwhile, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Russia and private firms have active programs to land vehicles on the Moon as precursors for manned missions.

Rendition of NASA Orion crew vehicle

Gazing at the enigmatic Moon one soft evening, I wondered why America abandoned it lunar missions program and why it is so reluctant to return. This subject has vexed many people, giving rise to a plethora of explanations, ranging from lack of political will, financial difficulties, all Moon landings were a hoax, to alien intervention. For anyone interested in exploring these scenarios further, the following URL and its links will provide a wealth of material to satisfy the curious and the skeptic. Make up your own mind.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RcKLAo62Ro

Following the Yom Kipur War in 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) initiated the Arab Oil Embargo, which triggered the 1973-74 stock market crash and forced a major economic realignment in the U.S. and Europe due to a high rate of inflation combined with an economic recession and high unemployment. The embargo ended less than a year later, but its effects were felt for decades afterward. One casualty of this recession was NASA’s Apollo program. Congress seemingly lost appetite to pour billions of dollars on manned Moon missions with the aim to set up a permanent base, and inexplicably turned its eye on Mars, a planet that is some 34.8 million miles from Earth, with all the complications inherent with such flights. From 1972 to 2013, the U.S. undertook 33 Mars orbiter and lander missions, not all of them successful. Why did NASA convince Congress to abandon the Moon?

NASA Curiosity Mars rover

Most conspiracy theories are bunkum, designed to confirm the beliefs of the diehards. The one I like best is that all Apollo Moon landings were fake. Well, some people don’t believe in evolution either. The topic about extraterrestrials visiting Earth in the past and now is rife with conspiracy theories and governments everywhere have tried hard to discredit them even though credible evidence exists to suggest something is out there and they have come knocking. Ever since NASA began its Mercury program, astronauts have claimed to have seen and filmed strange objects following their capsules. Most people don’t know about this as astronauts were reluctant to broadcast what they saw on an open channel listened to by the whole world. There is one channel that only Houston listens to—the medical channel.

Apollo 11 landed in Mare Tranquilitatis near a crater called West. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin reported seeing two craft near the crater wall. This is the transmission received by Houston:

‘These babies are huge, sir…enormous…Oh, God, you wouldn’t believe it! I’m telling you there are other spacecraft out there…lined up on the far side of the crater edge…they’re on the Moon watching us.’

In 1979, Maurice Chatelain, former chief of NASA communications specialists, confirmed that Armstrong had indeed reported seeing two UFOs. Most ground control personnel refused to talk about this and other incidents because of real fear of reprisals. With the passage of time, things have changed and people have talked. However, the U.S. government still persists in debunking any material relating to UFOs. It is curious though, that no credible explanation exists why NASA has not returned to the Moon.

http://exopolitics.org/first-man-on-moon-dies-along-with-secrets-of-what-he-saw/

http://ronrecord.com/astronauts/armstrong-collins-aldrin.html

http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicphotos.html

Do aliens have bases on the Moon, and have they warned Earth not to trespass? Everyone will have to make up their own mind about that.

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