What if the moon landings had failed? The moving speech that President Nixon would have delivered

Daily Mail ^ | 25 August 2012 | JAMES NYE

[moonshot925]

Amid the triumphant success of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's successful moon-walk in July 1969, NASA and President Richard Nixon's White House breathed a heavy sigh of relief that he didn't have to deliver a speech to the nation entitled 'In Event of Moon Disaster'.

The speech and a memo were prepared in the event that the two Apollo 11 astronauts did not manage to reconnect with their command module piloted by Michael Collins and could not return safely home to Earth.

The memo laid out a list of instructions for President Nixon, among which was the tragic task of calling the 'widows-to-be' to express condolences and then to deliver a moving and thoughtful speech to the United States and ultimately the watching world.

The memo was drafted by Nixon's chief of Staff, H.R. Haldeman and the speech by Wailliam Safire who went on to work for the New York Times.

[Nik Naym]

"Did you know the Stanley Kubrick’s widow says that he directed the fake moon landing footage for NASA??"

I am assuming you don't actually believe this baloney.

There was no "fake moon landing footage" as the moon landing wasn't faked.

Any person who thinks it was faked is an idiot. Plain and simple. Any person trying to convince others that it was faked is both an idiot and an a-hole.

To actually believe in this conspiracy theory horsecrap WRT the moon landings requires one to be a certifiable wack-a-doodle loony-tunes barking moonbat. And ignorant too.

And no I do not care to discuss it, argue it or prove these idiots are wrong because some people and their insane ideas are just too stupid to waste time with.

Do I sound ticked off? I hope so. To try and eliminate from history what this once great country and what all of those thousands of exceptional Americans accomplished in going to the moon does indeed tick me off.

[Nik Naym]

"I think it is entirely possible that there was a moon landing but some of the footage was made on earth."

Oh, Good Lord you are one of them.

[NCC-1701]

That picture was taken nine days before the guys of Apollo 12 launched. According to a story that’s been published is that Chris Craft came the the 11 crew and told them not to take any undue risks. If they had to punch off and abort the landing, they would get the next Saturn V. They didn;t know if there was any truth to that but they wanted to do everything they could to get the job done first time out. The guys on 12 to 17 didn’t get that same promise. Just glad they got ‘r done on the first shot. It was a hell of a show that was an event unequalled to this day. I am still amazed at how it all worked. With the exception of the near fatal flight of Apollo 13, everything worked. My hat is off to all those involved with that effort. They did good.

[RummyChick]

I have a very very open mind when it comes to the government.

Just about anything is possible.

Good lord, you must be one of THEM that believes the CIA would never program a lone assassin that could commit a murder and never remember it, eh?

[Nik Naym]

“I have a very very open mind when it comes to the government.”

Honey, your mind is so open your brain fell out.

[NCC-1701]

Don’t know the answer to that. however, when asked about what he was going to say when he set foot on the moon, Neil said he hasn’t thought of it. Michael Collins jokingly told him to say, “Hey,what is that? Get away”. And at the end of that speech scream bloody murder and cut the mike. Now that would have been real funny. Don’t think the guys at NASA would think very highly of that, though. Collins was joker.

[Campion]

No, they weren’t tethered to anything. All of their life support was provided by the backpacks they wore.

[Defiant]

I used to think your nickname was a reference to Donald Rumsfeld. Now I realize it’s a reference to Captain Morgan.

[RummyChick]

So tell me, are you one of THEM that believes the CIA wouldn’t program a lone killer who can’t remember the killing?

[Nik Naym]

You might want to give this a read:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2923541/posts

[RummyChick]

There really is no need for your personal insults.

Btw, I noticed you refuse to answer my question.

Would the CIA program a lone assassin who was afraid of guns to kill and not remember it later?

[Sparky21555]

BFL, This is getting interesting.

[ADemocratNoMore]

I recall a question asked to an Astronaut that went something like this...

“You're in orbit and find you can't fire your retrorockets and you only have an hour of oxygen left. What would you do?”

Astronaut - “I guess I'd better hurry up and start fixing things, shouldn't I?”

I think that answer speaks volumes.

R.I.P. Neil Armstrong, a great American HERO!

[jimfree]

Safire was a genius with words.

[Campion]

Here is a picture of the Apollo 12 landing site, taken recently by a NASA spacecraft. Notice the details you can see, including the dark streaks of the astronauts' footprints. Wikipedia also reports that both the Russians and Chinese have similar imaging capabilities.

[a fool in paradise]

The Apollo astronauts put their lives on the line for the cause of manned space travel. Some DID die in that goal.

It is a disgrace that their sacrifices have been ignored by The One who would rather use NASA to trumpet the scientific contributions of Islamists than continue the program to “go farther”.

They will all pass away soon, many having witnessed America’s retreat from the space race.

[HenpeckedCon]

“Had D-Day failed, the Swastika would have been planted on the Moon.”
No, but it might have been the Soviet flag. By the summer of ‘44 the Germans were in full retreat on the Eastern front and their defeat was absolutely certain.