Posted : Mon, 24 Jul 2006 07:02:00 GMT
Author : Renin Paul  Category : Space
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NEW YORK: A new documentary reveals that the Americans were so eager to show their one-upmanship over the Russians that they launched the mission to moon without much scientific or technical precision or the required precautions. The mission came to be launched in hope rather than in expectation.

The documentary, "Apollo 11: The Untold Story", brings out several lacunae that would have ended up in disaster.

The uncertainty was so strong that the then U.S. president Richard Nixon had even prepared an address to the nation announcing that the three astronauts -- Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins -- had died in a space mishap.

Aldrin, now 76, interviewed by the makers of the documentary, narrated how he found to his dismay that a vital switch got damaged as one of the astronauts brushed against it in a bulky spacesuit. He said as he looked around some of the lunar dust on the floor, he found that there was something that did not belong to the moon -- a broken part of a circuit breaker. That was a vital link for the trio to return to the earth in safety. "In the countdown procedure, I used a pen, one of several that we had on board that didn't have metal on the end, and we used that to push the circuit breaker in."

The documentary also provides an account of the crisis that occurred when the landing module was thrown off course by a computer breakdown just as it was about to land. As the astronauts tried to find out what really went wrong, they also noticed that the spaceship had very inadequate fuel. The trio was 100 feet from landing and the vehicle had only fuel for 60 seconds. "Without trying to disturb Neil's concentration my body language was urging him to 'Get on the ground as soon as you can', Aldrin told the makers of the documentary.

Armstrong managed to land with just 15 seconds of fuel left.

There were also problems about escape procedures for the astronauts in case of an eventuality. Classified documents that have been made public indicate that NASA scientists never told the astronauts that the escape procedures could be useless as they would work only if the Saturn V rocket that powered their craft had broken off.

The U.S. government had already ordered the ground control to cut off links with the astronauts if any disaster occurred. The government was more concerned about a whole world watching the American astronauts spinning back into space.

Aldrin also revealed that he and other astronauts had reported seeing a UFO during the flight, but NASA had covered it up. He said, "There was something out there, close enough to be observed, and what could it be?

"Now, obviously, the three of us weren't going to blurt out, 'Hey Houston, we've got something moving alongside of us and we don't know what it is you know?' 

SOURCE: Earthtimes

First Men on Moon Saw UFOs
25-Jul-2006

In the documentary "Apollo 11: The Untold Story," shown on Britain's Channel Five on Monday night, July 24, astronaut Buzz Aldrin says he, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins all saw a UFO shadowing their spacecraft. Apollo 11, which took off on July 16, 1969, was the first manned mission to the moon. Aldrin says, "There was something out there, close enough to be observed, and what could it be?"

In the documentary, he says, "Now, obviously the three of us weren't going to blurt out, 'Hey, Houston, we've got something moving alongside of us and we don't know what it is,' you know? We weren't about to do that, because we knew that that those transmissions would be heard by all sorts of people and somebody might have demanded we turn back because of aliens or whatever the reason is." He says NASA knew about the UFO but covered up the information.

It has just been learned that all but two of the 700 boxes of Apollo 11 videos are mysteriously missing from the National Archives. The footage of the Apollo 11 mission was recorded on special 1-inch magnetic tape, and the only machines that can play it are at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, which is being closed in the fall of 2006.

Astronaut Gordon Cooper, who took part in the earlier Mercury and Gemini missions, had his first UFO sighting as an Air Force pilot. He later said that a UFO landed at Edwards Air Force Base. In 1985, Cooper testified at the UN, saying, "I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which obviously are a little more technically advanced than we are here on Earth. For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us." Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who was the 6th man to walk on the moon, has also said he believes in the existence of UFOs.

Whitley Strieber comments, "I was on a television program in the UK with Buzz Aldrin where he treated me with ill- concealed contempt and stated categorically that he had never seen a UFO. While I am glad that he has finally admitted a truth that I was told by other astronauts many years ago, I will never forget his treatment of me. In contrast, Edgar Mitchell and Gordon Cooper were forthcoming with me. If there are craft guided by nonhumans in our skies, then we would be fools to assume that they are not also on the ground and in our lives. It's time for organizations like NASA to stop lying and get on with the process of contact." 

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Man On Moon: We Saw A UFO

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