Soviet cosmonaut dismisses moon hoax claims

[Evan Burton]

Alexey Leonov, the first man to walk in space talks to Russia Today about space, the Moon and hoax claims. Leonov was in training to be the first Russian on the Moon when the Soviet lunar programme was cancelled.

RT: The US is often accused of not actually going to the moon and faking the images from there. What’s your take on that?

AL: That is ignorance, total ignorance on the part of those who say so. These people don't know anything about technology. Or they just seek popularity. Only two countries did not monitor the orbiting of the moon and landing on it. It was during the Cold War. There were systems, monitoring planes as well as rockets. Our radars monitored everything. We did not have a mission control center. There was a space communication military base in Moscow. Americans announced the start of Saturn-5 with Frank Borman as the commander. We observed the start of the rocket, Americans were transmitting it to the whole world, and only two countries were not watching – the Soviet Union and China. Out of stupidity. We saw all four adjustments. Our systems saw how a huge meteor came from the south and landed.

One interesting fact: Frank Borman came here some time after the flight. Crowds surrounded his hotel every day. The government held a great reception for him, there was a press conference. Our people greeted Frank Borman just like they had greeted Gagarin. It was pure joy!

We could have orbited the Moon before Frank Borman. All the tests were going great. We were asking to go on L-6. “No, let's do more tests.” Korolev had died, and Vasily Mishin took over. He was an excellent engineer, but he didn't have Korolev's strong leadership skills.

Our engineers didn't like the risk. So they launched the sixth unmanned craft, which landed 600 meters away from the launch. Precision, all systems worked perfect, but it was unmanned. This was the most painful thing. We had all the chances to orbit the moon before Frank Borman did it. As far as landing goes… We were supposed to orbit the moon three times and then pick two crew members. Americans planned for two people to land, we planned one.

I was the lunar team commander and in charge of the group training. We had three crews on the team altogether. So, when the Americans announced their mission, we all gathered at this military base. We sat there, holding our fingers crossed. We wished all the luck to the guys. We personally knew them, and they knew us. Radars were monitoring the whole process. When the ship landed, their external cameras began to show the surroundings. We saw it all. Then the hatch opened, the next camera turned on (they really had thought it all through). Armstrong goes down the steps. The last step was about 50 cm above the Moon's surface. He was moving his foot carefully. We all froze, waiting to see what was going to happen next. He jumped off the step, then bounced and began to walk. He had an antenna that transmitted everything to the Earth; we saw everything that they did.

The question about the wind on the moon: There is a copy of that American flag in the museum. The flag was taken out of the case and unfolded. And this unfolding looked as though the flag was being moved by the wind.

The rumor started when Stanley Kubrik's wife commented on her husband's work. She said that it was very difficult to make the film about Americans landing on the moon. Well, it is understandable. There are two ships left on Earth. One is at the Smithsonian museum. It is not allowed to even take pictures there, because the displays there are extremely valuable. And the second ship, the exact copy, is in Hollywood. So he did some of the shots there, things like landing, opening of the hatch. Because otherwise viewers would not get the whole picture. So that's how the rumor about the landing on the moon footage being fake started. Two people even went to prison for bearing false witness.

When it got to our journalists, they began to spread all kinds of nonsense. There were two idiots showing pictures of the Earth taken from the moon. They said they were optics specialists, and apparently it was impossible to take such a detailed picture of the globe with all the continents and even rivers. The funny thing is we ourselves took this picture from our unmanned craft, using the camera made by one of Moscow's optical labs. We did this! How dare they say things like that! And we had two unmanned vehicles for nine months there. It is such ignorance to say that Americans were never there, but we controlled our vehicles from the Earth. It is simply impolite. But it is even more impolite that only two countries did not watch the mission – China and the Soviet Union, both Communist countries. It is just idiotic nonsense; they robbed their own people off this experience. It is like if we didn't show it, that means it never happened. Like a cat that sneaks in somewhere with closed eyes, thinking it is invisible. It was wrong for such a great country to do something like this.

Read the full article here.

[Len Colby]

This guy is either part of the ignorant hoodwinked sheeple or is/was in on it. What does this joker know anyway? Professional musicians who were toddlers or not even born at the time and retired ad execs know better.