May 9, 2023 08:08 PM
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/...-the-moon/
EXCERPTS: During his four-year tenure at Roscosmos, Rogozin wrote, he asked his leadership team to look into whether NASA had actually landed a dozen astronauts on the Moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After all, Rogozin reasoned, "It was not clear to me how the United States, at that level of technological development of the '60s of the last century, did what they still cannot do now?"
[...] As evidence for the landing, Rogozin claims he only received a copy of a book by cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.
Accordingly, at the end of this "investigation," Rogozin said he does not believe Americans landed on the Moon but rather that they had succeeded in infiltrating the "establishment" of the Russian space program.
Rogozin's doubts about the Apollo Program did not surface publicly during his years at Roscosmos, but there were plenty of other reasons that NASA and other international partners found his leadership style insufferable. He mocked US astronauts, repeatedly threatened to pull Russia out of the space station partnership, and attempted to use the international facility for propaganda purposes. NASA was therefore thrilled to see Rogozin go when he was effectively fired in July 2022.
So why not just ignore this latest outburst from the mendacious Muscovite?
There are two good reasons. One is that Rogozin is tapping into a strengthening current of Moon-landing denialism...
Secondly, the Russians observed the lunar landing in real time from the ground—and even had a spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. Rogozin's claim that the only evidence Roscosmos could offer of the Moon landings was a book by Leonov is asinine... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: During his four-year tenure at Roscosmos, Rogozin wrote, he asked his leadership team to look into whether NASA had actually landed a dozen astronauts on the Moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After all, Rogozin reasoned, "It was not clear to me how the United States, at that level of technological development of the '60s of the last century, did what they still cannot do now?"
[...] As evidence for the landing, Rogozin claims he only received a copy of a book by cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.
Accordingly, at the end of this "investigation," Rogozin said he does not believe Americans landed on the Moon but rather that they had succeeded in infiltrating the "establishment" of the Russian space program.
Rogozin's doubts about the Apollo Program did not surface publicly during his years at Roscosmos, but there were plenty of other reasons that NASA and other international partners found his leadership style insufferable. He mocked US astronauts, repeatedly threatened to pull Russia out of the space station partnership, and attempted to use the international facility for propaganda purposes. NASA was therefore thrilled to see Rogozin go when he was effectively fired in July 2022.
So why not just ignore this latest outburst from the mendacious Muscovite?
There are two good reasons. One is that Rogozin is tapping into a strengthening current of Moon-landing denialism...
Secondly, the Russians observed the lunar landing in real time from the ground—and even had a spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. Rogozin's claim that the only evidence Roscosmos could offer of the Moon landings was a book by Leonov is asinine... (MORE - missing details)