What I know About About The Apollo 11 Mission To The Moon

What I know About About The Apollo 11 Mission To The Moon

by Bill Knell

On July 20, 1969 my family and I were watching a Play called ‘South Pacific’ at the outdoor Jones Beach Theatre on Long Island (about a thirty minute drive from New York City). The breezes that gently drifted our way from the Atlantic Ocean made the whole experience seem more real. I was thirteen with older parents so they probably enjoyed the Play a bit more than me; although it was well done and had several notable celebrities of that time in the cast including Nancy Dussault, Jerome Hines. Martha Larrimore, Brad Sullivan and Jerry Lester.

The real problem for me was not a lack of interest in the play, it was that I was afraid I would miss an important historical event. While I sat watching the Play millions of people sat in front of their TV sets waiting for the first man to set foot on the Moon. I had been lucky enough to watch CBS Network News coverage of the Moon landing earlier that afternoon and see famous CBS Nightly News Anchor Walter Cronkite smile widely just after it occurred. Little did I know that about four years later I would meet him in person and hear about his UFO encounter; but that's another article.

When the play ended around 10:30 pm (EDT), Jerry Lester stepped out of character to tell the audience that a huge projection TV screen was set up on the wall in front of the main level restaurant. Word had gotten out beforehand so that famous band leader Guy Lombardo's already popular restaurant had an overflow crowd waiting to watch the historic event on the massive screen. Needless to say, we headed down there right away.

Just minutes before 11pm we watched in awe as Astronaut Neil Armstrong climbed down the ladder of the Lunar Lander and stood on the surface of the moon. Or did he? His short comment was “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Or was it? I decided to cover this topic because in 1989 I met a retired aerospace engineer named Robert Atlas who was interested in my UFO investigations. Like many people who grew up on Long Island, he had worked for the huge Grumman Aerospace Corporation in Bethpage. We were both Long Islanders having grown up there; although I was born in New York City.

Grumman had the government contract to design and build the Apollo Lunar Lander. The program lasted from 1961 to 1972. I never asked Bob about his work because I already knew that Grumman employees working on classified projects were never supposed to talk about their jobs. I was just happy to have availability to his scientific and technical advice for my UFO research. Thankfully, I had many people like that to advise me including a local college professor and a technical writer who worked on the first Space Shuttle. Most had UFO Sightings and/or Alien Encounters of their own which was how we all met.

After the subject of UFOs and Astronauts came up in one of my lectures that he attended, Bob told me that he worked on the Lunar Lander program. At our next get together he brought his Grumman I.D. and some amazing color photos of himself with one of the Landers before it went to the moon. I already believed him, but he wanted to be sure that I did. That's because he had some interesting things to tell me. As with others, I kept some of what he told me to myself until after his death.

Having dealt with people who worked at classified jobs before, I knew to be patient and read between the lines of what Bob said. His first revelation was that his job was very frustrating. He told me, “We could never get the damned thing to stabilise. The prototypes kept crashing.”

He left it at that. Does that mean they never developed a working model? No, because I have seen footage of prototypes flying, but not in a particularly long or stable manner. However, I can honestly say that Bob never gave me the impression that the Moon Landings were faked. Then again, I'm not sure that he would have been in a position to know. Like most Government programs, the Moon Mission project was highly compartmentalised when it came to the contractors working on them.

Bob also told me that a number of people he met in the course of his life and work had information about UFOs and Aliens that was ‘officially’ unavailable to the public. I believed that because of all the things told to me by fellow Long Islanders who worked on secret programs and projects, and others who had their own experiences and were affiliated with the government.

Bob occasionally shared some tantalizing tidbits with me. One was that he met a former U.S. Government facility Security Official who was transferred to Grumman after an odd incident at another contractor site elsewhere. They became friends and after both retired the official told Bob an amazing story. He had accidently been invited to a training session where engineers were briefed on the needs of “captive entities”.

The briefing never mentioned Aliens, but the engineers were told that they needed to design a facility with some sort of electromagnetic field. Most of it went right over his head because he was not an engineer. However, he wondered what other kind of ‘captive entities’ would need such a facility? When it was found out that he attended the briefing by accident, he was forced to sign a number of additional security agreements and then immediately transferred. He went along with everything because he knew things could have gone much worse for him. His extensive experience, military background and spotless work record made him too valuable a resource to be terminated or disappeared. More ‘Bob’ stories later.

Why do people believe we never landed on the Moon? According to Google Science:

“People believe the moon landings were faked for various reasons, including the belief that faking the landings was easier than the actual mission, the desire to receive continued funding and prestige for NASA, and a general distrust of authority figures and the government. Conspiracy theorists often cite perceived anomalies in photographs and videos from the missions, such as the appearance of the American flag or the lack of stars, as "proof" of a hoax. Here are some specific reasons for the moon landing hoax beliefs:

Mistrust of Government and Authority: Some people believe the government, particularly NASA, would lie to the public to achieve political goals, such as winning the Space Race and justifying massive spending on the Apollo program.

Perceived "Evidence" from Photos and Videos: Theorists point to supposed inconsistencies in the visual evidence:

The Flag: The American flag appears to wave in some photos, leading to questions about what could make it wave in a vacuum.

Lack of Stars: The absence of stars in many photos is seen by some as a sign of a studio set rather than space.

Shadows: Uneven shadows are sometimes interpreted as proof of artificial lighting rather than a single light source (the Sun).

Technological Skepticism:
The idea that the technology for space travel was not sufficiently advanced in the 1960s to land on the Moon and return safely is a common belief.

Motivational Factors:
Conspiracy theories suggest that NASA had strong motivations to fake the landings:

Funding: To justify the immense cost of the Apollo program and ensure continued funding for space exploration, according to the theories.

Prestige: To win the Space Race against the Soviet Union and secure national prestige.

Fulfillment of Political Goals: To achieve the public goal set by President Kennedy to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.”

Now let's look at Debunker's answers to those claims. Google Science says:

“Skeptical claims that the Moon landings were faked are not credible and have been thoroughly debunked by multiple lines of independent, scientific evidence. Experts in science and astronomy overwhelmingly regard the claims as pseudoscience, and they are based on misinterpretations of photographic, technological, and scientific facts.

Key evidence proving the Moon landings were real

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) images

NASA's LRO has taken high-resolution photographs of all six Apollo landing sites.

These images clearly show the descent stages of the Lunar Modules that were left behind, the rovers parked where the astronauts left them, and even the paths the astronauts walked and drove.

Spacecraft from other countries, including India's Chandrayaan-1 and China's Chang'e 2, have also photographed the landing sites, providing independent verification.

Lunar laser ranging experiments

The Apollo astronauts planted laser reflectors on the Moon's surface during the Apollo 11, 14, and 15 missions.

Observatories on Earth, independent of NASA, have consistently fired lasers at these reflectors to measure the distance to the Moon with extreme accuracy for decades.

The fact that these human-made devices are still functional and detectable on the lunar surface is unambiguous proof of the landings.”

The problem with all the facts on both sides of the issue are that they are both missing a key element. That element is an actual statement from a Moon Landing Astronaut. It's interesting to note that the alleged first man to walk on the Moon kept to himself after the Moon Mission. Perhaps his conscience got the best of him? Google Science says:

“After the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong retired from NASA in 1971 and pursued a private life, teaching aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati and later serving on various boards and commissions, including the Challenger disaster investigation.

He shied away from public attention, focusing on academic and business endeavors, while still remaining involved in space and aeronautics.”

Astronaut and Apollo 14 Lunar Lander pilot Edgar Mitchell has publicly stated that he believes UFOs are Alien piloted devices. Having grown up in New Mexico he has also stated that UFOs often appeared over the White Sands testing area. His most interesting claim based on his own knowledge and conversations with other Astronauts and pilots is that Aliens on board a UFO once used their technology to prevent a nuclear war between the USA and the Soviet Union.

I have every reason to believe that Mitchell's Apollo 14 mission landed on the Moon. If not, I'm all but certain he would have said so given the other information he has shared about UFOs and Aliens. That doesn't mean that the first or other missions weren't faked. I'm keeping an open mind on the entire affair until more evidence surfaces to support either argument.

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