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Then why didn't the Russians.... beat ... them (to it)?

Both countries faced the difficulty of traversing the van Allen Radiation Belt. The Russians (sans a home-grown Hollywood talent hotbed) presumably dealt with the problem while bathed in reality.

Given that the Americans--seeking merely the optics of a cold war advantage (with that Hollywood piece in place)--had less of a "requirement" to face reality, they faked it till they could make it.

One wonders with such an achievement "six times in the bag" without a major failure why the Americans haven't been back for a manned moon flight, or any other manned destination, be it a celestial body, or even merely traversing beyond the van Allen Belt (~1000 to ~2600 miles) in the meantime. Forty years on, couldn't a lot of money been made flying rich people to the moon and back with such a well-proven vehicle by now?

..And Stolar... invocations of God, Nazi-isms, or next of kin do not an argument make. History has shown that hundreds of thousands if not millions of people can be simultaneously deluded by propaganda.

The shielding that would have been required to protect three astronauts from the Van Allen Belt radiation was estimated to require an inch thick of lead (or the equivalent) all around. There is no way even the Saturn V rockets could have handled that extra weight to achieve orbital-, let alone escape -velocity to the moon.

Since essentially the same vehicle was used for all the Apollo program launches, if Apollo 11 could not have done it--and they amply proved through imagery trickery that they couldn't even plausibly fake having done it--none of the Apollo missions went to the moon.

Lots of crazy government hacks are out there (and here, too) spewing nonsense and wild theories just to allow the unwashed masses to pejorize others, but that's just disinformation. Many honest seekers of the truth are people with very knowledgeable backgrounds. I believe FR has a reasonably good percentage that fit into that category (or I'd not be here).

“Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage. But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us - and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along.”-- Carl Sagan

If we're not up to this difficult task (Sagan's challenge), some group could do something really awful, like set off nukes in the American homeland, while blaming undocumented Guatemalans or some such (false flag). Then the unthinking (remaining) masses would overwhelmingly welcome a New World Order after millions died off in the total economic stagnation, eh?

I'm just going to laugh at all of this. JUST last night I attended an event with Apollo era mission control folks. I know these people and have since childhood. I know what they went through and overcame, directly. And fyi, EVERY mission was risky and had problems.

Hell, every Space Shuttle mission had problems (they just didn't get discussed in the media). and I know THAT part from direct personal experience as I followed in my father's footsteps for a while and was part of the program. YOU KNOW NOTHING.