Conspiracy ~ Did We Land On The Moon?

Conspiracy

  For quite some time, many years in fact, I have found my self debating people about whether man actually landed on the moon or not. What I've learned is that most conspiracy theorist base their arguments on conjecture and non factual information. Most of all they do not know the true meaning of a conspiracy. Because of this it is hard to debate some who is unwilling to accept facts while denying something they do not fully understand. 

Criminal conspiracy. In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance of that agreement, to constitute an offense.

 noun ~ a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful. 

conspiracy

noun

con·​spir·​a·​cy

 kən-ˈspir-ə-sē 

plural ~

conspiracies

Synonyms of conspiracy

1: the act of conspiring together

They were accused of conspiracy to commit murder.

2

a

: an agreement among conspirators

uncovered a conspiracy against the government

b

: a group of conspirators

a conspiracy made up of disgruntled aristocrats

conspiracy theory

noun

plural

conspiracy theories

: a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators

the conspiracy theories surrounding Kennedy's assassination

also : a theory asserting that a secret of great importance is being kept from the public

… is best known for … his conspiracy theory that a secret cabal of reptilian humanoids is running the world.

—Simon Little

… has often been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories such as "birtherism," the theory that President Obama was not born in the U.S.

—Grace Segers

The following will show where and how this silly notion that the government faked the moon landing. It started with a movie starring OJ Simpson. In it they faked a space mission to Mars. NASA helped in making the movie despite the conspiracy plot. 

Capricorn One is a 1977 British-produced American thriller film in which a reporter discovers that a supposed Mars landing by a crewed mission to the planet has been faked via a conspiracy involving the government and—under duress—the crew themselves. It was written and directed by Peter Hyams and produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. It stars Elliott Gould as the reporter, and James Brolin, Sam Waterston, and O. J. Simpson as the astronauts. Hal Holbrook plays a senior NASA official who goes along with governmental and corporate interests and helps to fake the mission. 

Plot

Capricorn One—the first crewed mission to Mars—is on the launch pad. Just before liftoff, astronauts Charles Brubaker, Peter Willis, and John Walker are suddenly removed from the spacecraft. Bewildered, they are flown to an abandoned military base in the desert. The launch proceeds on schedule, with the public unaware the spacecraft is empty.

At the base, NASA official Kelloway informs the astronauts that a faulty life-support system would have killed them in-flight. He says they must help counterfeit the televised footage during the flight to and from Mars. Another failed space mission would result in NASA's funding being cut and private contractors losing millions in profits. Kelloway threatens their families to force their cooperation.

The astronauts remain captive during the flight and appear to be filmed after landing on Mars, although they are actually inside of a makeshift TV studio at the base. At the command center, only a few officials know about the conspiracy until an alert technician, Elliot Whitter, notices that ground control receives the crew's televised transmissions before the spacecraft telemetry arrives. Whitter reports this to his supervisors, including Kelloway, but is told it is due to a faulty workstation. Whitter partially shares his concerns with a TV journalist friend, Robert Caulfield. Whitter suddenly vanishes, and when Caulfield goes to Whitter's apartment the next day, he discovers someone else living there and that all evidence of Whitter's recent life has been erased. As Caulfield investigates, several attempts are made on his life.

Upon returning to Earth, the empty spacecraft burns up during atmospheric reentry due to a faulty heat shield, which would have killed the astronauts had they been on board. The astronauts realize officials will need to kill them to keep the hoax a secret. They escape in a small jet which quickly runs out of fuel, forcing a crash-landing in the desert. They split up on foot to increase their chances of finding help and exposing the plot. Kelloway sends helicopters after them. Willis and Walker are found, while Brubaker evades capture.

Caulfield interviews Brubaker's "widow" after reviewing a televised conversation between the astronauts and their wives. Mrs. Brubaker had seemed confused when her husband mentioned their last family vacation. She explains that the family had actually gone to a different location, where a western movie was being filmed. Brubaker was intrigued by how special effects and technology made it seem real.

Caulfield believes Brubaker would never make such a mistake and may have been sending his wife a message. Caulfield goes to the deserted western movie set and is shot at. As he investigates further, federal agents break into his home, arresting him for possessing cocaine that they planted there. His exasperated boss bails Caulfield out, then fires him.

A reporter friend tells Caulfield about an abandoned military base located 300 miles (480 km) from Houston. The base is deserted, but Caulfield finds Brubaker's necklace and medallion and concludes the astronauts were there. Caulfield hires a crop-dusting pilot named Albain to search the desert. They spot and follow two helicopters to a closed isolated gas station where Brubaker is hiding. They rescue him as he attempts to escape his pursuers. The helicopters chase their plane through a canyon but crash when Albain blinds them with crop spray.

Ultimately, Caulfield and Brubaker arrive at the astronauts' memorial service, where Kelloway and Brubaker's wife see them and live network TV coverage exposes the truth.

Peter Hyams began thinking about a film of a space hoax while working on broadcasts of the Apollo missions for CBS. He later reflected regarding the Apollo 11 Moon landing, "There was one event of really enormous importance that had almost no witnesses. And the only verification we have ... came from a TV camera."^[2]

He later elaborated:

Whenever there was something on the news about a [space flight], they would cut to a studio in St. Louis where there was a simulation of what was going on. I grew up in the generation where my parents basically believed if it was in the newspaper it was true. That turned out to be bullshit. My generation was brought up to believe television was true, and that was bullshit too. So I was watching these simulations and I wondered what would happen if someone faked a whole story.^[3]

Hyams wrote the script in 1972 but no one wanted to make it. He says interest in the script was re-activated by the Watergate Scandal. He approached producer Paul Lazarus. Hyams and Lazarus had a meeting with Lew Grade, head of production company ITC Entertainment who had recently moved into film production with The Return of the Pink Panther. Grade agreed to make the film after only five minutes.^[4] The budget was $4.8 million.^[5][6][2]

Grade announced the film in October 1975 as a part of a slate of ten films he intended to make over the next 12 months, including The Domino Principle, Action - Clear the Fast Lanes and Juarez. The last two were ultimately not made.^[7]

To stay within the budget, NASA's co-operation was needed. Lazarus had a good relationship with the space agency from Futureworld. The filmmakers were thus able to obtain government equipment as props, including a prototype Apollo Lunar Module,^[8] despite the story's negative portrayal of the space agency.

In September 1976, it was announced the cast would include Elliott Gould, O.J. Simpson, James Brolin, Brenda Vaccaro, and Candice Bergen.^[9] The presence of Brolin and Simpson in the cast helped secure a presale to NBC.^[4] Ultimately Bergen pulled out and was replaced by Karen Black.

Hyams later joked, "O. J. Simpson was in it, and Robert Blake was in Busting [Hyams' first feature]. I've said many times: Some people have AFI Lifetime Achievement awards; some people have multiple Oscars; my bit of trivia is that I've made films with two leading men who were subsequently tried for the first-degree murder of their wives."

Two novelizations of the film were written and published by separate authors. The first was written by Ken Follett (under the pseudonym Bernard L. Ross) and published in the United Kingdom; the other was written by Ron Goulart and published in the United States.^[21]

The Follett novel is notable for giving Robert Caulfield more development than the movie does, including giving him something of a relationship with CBS reporter Judy Drinkwater (who has more time in the book than in the movie) and ending the book with him and Judy. The story saves his career and results in his being employed by CBS.

Clips from the faked Mars landing scenes have been used for illustration purposes in various Moon landing hoax conspiracy documentaries, notably the Fox TV show Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon and Bart Sibrel's film A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon (2001). The latter also features a still shot from the hoax scene on the DVD's front cover.

In 2020–2021, Capricorn One was used as part of an internet prank. A viral video purported to be released by WikiLeaks was uploaded to BitChute, Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms and blogs with a title: "Wikileaks releases - Moon landing cut scene - filmed in Nevada desert". In fact, WikiLeaks released no such video. Close inspection revealed this prank video to be made using clips from Capricorn One and even various film reels shot on the set of Capricorn One, which were then cut and spliced with stock footage from the Apollo missions and training sessions.

  When they landed on the moon they left on the moon reflectors that they still use to this very day to monitor the distance between the moon and the earth as well as rotation and earth's axis.

 Yes. Reflectors were left on the moon, by the Apollo 11, 14, and 15 crews, to be used in experiments to measure the precise (within a millimeter) distance to the moon.

 Retroreflectors are devices which reflect light back to its source. Six were left at six sites on the Moon by three crews of the Apollo program, two remote landers of the Lunokhod program, and one by the Chandrayaan program.