Did Apollo 11 Really Go To The Moon?: On Bart Sibrel's "A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to the Moon"

A rebuttal to the Fake Moon Mission Theories of Bart Sibrel

"On Bart Sibrel's "A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to the Moon":

A rebuttal to the Fake Moon Mission Theoies of Bart Sibrel

By Robert D. Morningstar

​Robert Morningstar will be a guest to discuss this article on The Other Side of The News tonight, Friday Septembr 22nd, 2023 at 10 pm. Eastern.

lick the link below to hear the show:

→ The Other Side of the News -September 23rd, 2023

On April 15th, 2023, the now well-known Apollo 11 Moon Mission investigator and debunker, Bart Sibrel, spoke for 2 hours on "The Other Side of The News Radio Show" giving his reasons for believing that the Apollo Missions to the Moon were all faked.

The reader may recall that for over 10 years, Sibrel was stalking Apollo astronauts trying to spring "I gotcha questions" on them to prove his theory that they wer co-conspirators in the greatest scientific hoax the world has ever known, anamely, the Apollo misisons that landed 12 Americans on the Moon. 

Bart Sibrel's exhaustive efforts culminated in a knock-out punch delivered to him by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin when Sibrel in a video taped publicity stunt (with a Bible in hand) confronted Aldrin in apublic setting and demanded that Aldrin "swear on the Bible" that he really went to the Moon.

I listened to the ​e​ntire show​ on “The Other Side of the News.”  Three years ago, I also produced an interview with Bart Sibrel conducted by my friend and colleague Rick Price, but after hearing Sibrel's  dissertation, I decided to 'can it."​ This article explains in detail the many reasons why.

After​ hearing the program on TOSN, I went to ​Sibrel's website for the 3rd time in the last few years and I watched ​all his videos.  

Sibrel debates and argues by using ​false analogies​ ("it's like" ... this or "It's like" ... that).  ​Most of them are patently fallacious and illogical, for example:

"If the Soviets actually tried to find the location of an Apollo crew in the hundreds of thousands of miles surrounding the Earth and the Moon, it would be tantamount to trying to find a rowboat in the Atlantic Ocean."

That is fake analogy and ​false "reasoning," which as the reader will see below, is complete​ly illogical in it's argument.  

First of all, Apollo 11 was not a "rowboat" lost in the Atlantic, and if a rowboat were to be sailing the Atlantic with the most advanced radio equipment and voluminous telemetric data issuing as it did from Apollo 11, even in 1969, its position could be exactly determined at all times by triangulating the signalls received by  radio stations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.  Only 3 receivers with omnibearing detectors would be necessary to pinpoint Sibrel's hypthetical "rowboat" at every moment of its passage (even 2 could so).   

Sibrel repeatedly refers to the Titanic in his video.   Let us not forget that the position and predicament of the RMS Titanic's sinking was determined by a single ham radio operator named David Sarnoff in New York City in 1912.

https://www.britannica.com › topic › Apollo-11

Apollo 11 - History, Mission, Landing, Astronauts ... - Britannica

Aug 14, 2023 Apollo 11, U.S. spaceflight during which commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Edwin ("Buzz") Aldrin, Jr., on July 20, 1969, became the first people to land on the Moon and walk the lunar surface.

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The course to the Moon that Apollo 11 was to take was known and published in every newspaper in the world.  Thousands of amateur and professional astronomers armed with binoculars, small and large telescopes were monitoring the passage of Apollo from Earth orbit to the mon.

What Bart Sibrel apparently does not acknowledge (or perhaps, is intentionally ignoring) is that Apollo's trajectory was made known to every major astronomical observatory (including the Soviets) so that Apollo 11 could be tracked from Earth orbit to the Moon using all major American, Canadian, Australian and Eruopean observatories to monitor its passage from Earth to the Moon.

Some of the most notable facts in my personal memories and recollection of that historic event, were the regular reports from the Jodrell Bank Observatory in England, which gave periodic noticies of Apollo 11's progress and position on its way to the Moon.  

How Jodrell Bank ​Tracked Apollo 11​'s Moon ​Landing ​And a Russian ​Probe

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-49001181
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The same was true of the Australian observatories in Parkes, Australia monitoring the flight of Apollo 11.

Australia’s ​Role​ in Tracking Apollo 11

Many Australian locations, organisations and people were involved in making Apollo 11 a success seen around the world.

https://apollo11.csiro.au/the-australian-connection/

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Because of the global network of observatories and the turning of the world, there was no time during which Apollo was out of sight or "Lost in Space," except when the sky was obscured over an observatory or whenApollo passed behind the Moon and both radio communications and radar were blocked by the Moon.

While the analogies​ Sebril employs similes (using "like" or "as") may be true ​events or facts in themselves (like the sinking of the Titanic), they ​have no bearing on Apollo missions and cannot be used logically to support or justify his claims, which are based quite frankly upon innuendo, aspersions cast upon ​the character​ of Apollo astronauts  and accusations of ​govrnemnt deception​ on a scale​ so massive as to defy credibility without any more substantial proof than Sebril's 10 NASA publicity photos. That is are not enough proof.

Sibrel attempts to debunk 6 Apollo missions using ​o​nly 1​0 pictures and a few feet of video tape.  ​The 10 photos in his video are shown so rapidly that they are over and gone in exactly 8-9 seconds between Time Mark 22:33 and 22:41.

Sirbel misconstrues and misinterprets not only the motives and intentions of Apollo Astronauts, Mission Control and Mission Specialists, but he even misdirects ​Apollo Mission televised ​scenarios and mis​i​dentifies the true identity of the voices ​that are heard speaking on the audio of the ​i​mages televised ​t​o the Earth​, ​t​ransmitted when Apollo 11 was 130,000 miles from Earth​.  

On the TOSN program of Septmber 15th, Bart Sebril also miscalculated the lag time of the radio signals ​​received from Apollo 11's distance from Earth based on the Speed of Light ​of the radio transmission​s.  He stated that in order to fake TV broadcast NASA knew that they needed a 4 second delay for signals to get to anf from the capsule when it was 131,000 miles from earth (about midway to the ) Moon.

At that distance the delay would have been less than 1 second each way.  The Speed of Light  = 186,282​ mph.  At 131,000 miles distant, the lag time would be 

131,000​/186,282​ = .703 seconds each way

 ​... or less than 2 seconds (1.406 seconds to be exact).

Sibrel insinuates that it was Houston (Mission Control) that ordered Neil Armstrong to speak (after missing his cue) by saying "Talk!" I ​b​elieve Sibrel is wrong. 

The voice we hear on the Apollo 11 radio transmission is that of one of the other astronauts. 

Having seen and heard the original transmission and knowing, as I do, the sounds and tones of the Apollo astronauts' voices from many television interviews and listening to their voices on radio transmissions on their real trip to the Moon, as well as, later during press conferences, my immediate reaction and instantaneous impression when I heard the voice say "Talk!" was that the voice that Sibrel claims was coming from Houston Mission Control was actually the voice of fellow astronaut Michael Collins saying "Talk!" when Armstrong (who was the most reticent and taciturn of all the astronauts) actually did miss his cue to speak and narrate the Earth viewing transmission​, which would account for the 4 second delay, but not to fake a transmission from the moon which he had not reacheed yet, but because he was tardy in replying..

Sibrel completely misunderstands (or intentionally misinterprets) the astronauts' real meaning when he says:

 "We'll be able to correlate it when we see the tape.'' 

That was a statement that the astronaut made sbecause they were not looking at the video and could not see the Earth because the camera was covering the window. 

So the astronaut who spoke was talking about correlating his narrative with the videotape AFTER returning to Earth when he could see what they had captured on the videotape.

Sibrel's film is actually not a science film nor a documentary ​e​xpose\, but rather a typical example of a VietNam War vintage anti-War, counter culture, anti-government propaganda film.

Regarding the staging and filming of the LEM and astronauts inside the 2 hangars used as Moonscapes at Carson AFB in Nevada: 

First, the testimony of the the son of Captain Aker is purely hearsay, and even though the astronauts along with Werner Von Braun were present on that Moonscape stage and were visited by Lyndon Johnson and Robert Emmenegger, it does not necessarily mean to me that they were there to fake the Moon Walks and the Moon landing of Apollo 11.

Secondly, I wonder if Sibrel has ever heard the terms:

"Simulator," "Simulation," or "Dress Rehearsal."

Simulation appears to me to be the real purpose for building the Moonscape stage constructed at Carson Air Force Base, namely, to prepare the astronauts with practice sessions (as a dress rehearsals) to prepare them for their Moon Walks by learning to master the use of the equipment, for example, donning & doffing space suits inside the LEM, practicing egress from and reentry into the LEM and using the Hasselblad cameras in their space suits with gloves on.

Beyond that, the purpose was also to prepare the Apollo 11 astronauts psychologically for the moon trip by giving them insight, working inside a visual simulacrum of what they would see in the lunar environment during the greatest adventure any humans had ever undertaken.

​B​art Sibrel is a very cagy and well-rehearsed fellow who is more of a "True Believer" and a "Bible thumper" than he is an investigator, researcher or a detective. “Bible Thumping” was the reason that he got ‘clocked” by Buzz Aldrin.

O​ne of Sibrels's favorite mantras is, which he repeats ad nauseum is:

"That one photo is all you need to prove that the Apollo missions were fake."

The simple anser to that is:

"No, it's NOT!"

My question is:

W​hat about the thousands of other photos taken by Apollo Missions both from lunar orbit and on the surface of the Moon?

I will grant that some of the phots displayed by Sibrel could have been taken in the Carson AFB simulator (as descrbed) above, but to dismiss thousands of legitmate photos, miles of film/video and Apollo astronaut’s testimonies, is not only poor research, bad scholarship, but also betrays Sirbel's hidden agenda which was not to produce a scientific documentry, but to preach a sermon agains NASA, the US government and the Deep state in a self-righteous diatribe against the Viet Nam war and the Apollo Mission.

As I note above, Sibrel used ​only 1​0 still photos and a few feet feet of video tape to try to debunk 6 outstanding and historic Apollo Missions while ignoring the thousands of legitimate, verifiable lunar surface photos and hundreds of feet of film and videos taken during the Moon Walks and ​the rover rides of Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, & 17.  ​Apollo 13 did not land on the Moon.

Study the catalogue of images from Apollo 12 given below to see what a monumental task it would have been and how difficult (or impossible) it would have been to fake such a mission, not to mention 10 Apollo missions in total (7 of which went to the Moon), using 1960s-70s photo and film technology to generate so many false images, as Mr. Sibrel claims.

Apollo Mission Surface Journal (All Lunar Landings)

Apollo Mission Surface Journal (All Missions)

Apollo 12 Image Library

NASA History Division (.gov)

https://history.nasa.gov › alsj › images12

Menu 70mm Image Catalog Apollo 12

Lunar and Planetary Institute

https://www.lpi.usra.edu › apollo › catalog › mission

Finally,  Sibrel claims that he is NOT a "conspiracy theorist" and that he "hates conspiracy theories," but he subtitled his film "The Greatest Government Conspiracy of all Time," which I would turn around to describe his film as:

"A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to the Moon"

 "The Greatest ANTI-Government Conspiracy 

of all Time," 

​What Bart Sibrel does accomplish well is a good denunciation an demonstration of the pernicious effects ​of ​excessive govern​ment secrecy and the ​malaise it cause lead​ing people to​ try to fill in the gaps left by partial knowledge or disinformation intended by the governemnt to "keep secrets" for the public.

I​ agree with Bart Sebril that the US Government can no longer be trusted because after decades of deception by the Deep State (aka The ISG, or Illegal Secret Government), one can no longer take at face value anything that the US Government, especially the current administration, feeds the American people from it's "Ministry of Truth." 

The problem is that Mr. Sebril chose the wrong "patsies" to take the rap, namely the Apollo astronauts.

Mr. Sebril would have done better to expose the FBI and their role (along with the CIA) in the assasination of President John F. Kennedy and their continuing collusion ​in ​the coverup of that ​heinous crime, which endures to this day.

ISRO Chandrayaan 2’s photos of Apollo 11 & 12 landing sites

In April 2021, The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)'s Chandrayaan2 Orbiter captured images of NASA's Apollo 11 & 12 landing sites and Lunar Modules from 100km altitude. In the Apollo 12 image, Astronaut boot tracks are even still visible! Due to recent interest in another post I shared, I decided to download and learn how to view the raw imagery myself from ISRO. More images can be found on my website, along with details about this orbiting spacecraft and instructions for how to access the ISRO imagery yourself: www.backyardastronomyguy.com/apollo-isro

https://www.reddit.com/r/ISRO/comments/167hcnz/isro_chandrayaan2s_photos_of_apollo_11_12_landing/?rdt=51076

With many thanks to Holger for this timely phot, which arrived just minutes before I posted this article.

There are 3 elements in those photos that I find fascinating (proof) that the landings were real.

Two (2) of them are the shadow cast by the base of the LEM which remained on the Moon.  I make a point of studying the shadows cast by objects in aerial photos.

The Third is the position of Apollo 11 in relation to 3 craters surrounding it.

First: 

Compensating for the difference in the sun angle, it is clear to me that the shadows of the 2 spacecraft are congruent and if we were to shorten the long shadow cast by Apollo 11, it would be nearly identical to the shadow cast by Apollo 12.

Secondly:

The position of Apollo 11 in the midst of the 3 deep craters shown in the Chandrayan 2 photo proves the veracity of the account given by Armstrong and Aldrin that if Armstrong had not seized manual control of the LEM on its descent just before touchdown, the autopilot would have landed the Eagle right inside one of those craters, thereby making it impossible for them to take off again to join and dock with Columbia to return to Earth. 

Both astronauts reported that Armstrong brought the LEM down almost on the rim of one of those craters, which is exactly what the photo shows.

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Passing Through the Van Allen Radiation Belts

https://news.yahoo.com/space-radiation-apollo-crews-were-101420372.html

Quote:

“Although the aluminium skin of the Apollo spacecraft needed to be thin to be lightweight, it would have offered some protection. Models of the radiation belts developed in the run-up to the Apollo flights indicated that the passage through the radiation belts would not pose a significant threat to astronaut health. And, sure enough, documents from the period show that monitoring badges worn by the crews and analysed after the missions indicated that the astronauts typically received doses roughly less than that received during a standard CT scan of your chest.”

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Written, compiled & edited by Robert D. Mmorningstar, Publisher/Editor of TMRN

WWG1WGA - “Where We Go ONE, We Go All”

RobertMorningstar.​Substack.com.

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