Once you see it, it can't be unseen

Oh something awful happened.

I was merrily (well not really, long story which we'll skip) moving along in life, a child of the Space Age. A grown-up child, that is -- 11 when Neil Armstrong set his famous footprint on the Moon, and even somewhat closely associated with NASA people. Not just any people, but people who designed parts of Voyager and the Space Shuttle. I even lived in Cape Canaveral, I kid you not. Saw launches of satellites with my own eyes; two of them exploded, boy that was a big 40 million dollar-kaboom and left Europe without weather coverage for sometime.

Anyway. Weren't I a child of the Space Age, went to the Space Museum at Cape Canaveral, AND in Wapakoneta, Ohio, the birthplace of Neil Armstrong. Whom family of someone I knew, knew personally and John Glenn, too. I told you I knew people at NASA.

And so what happened, way back when there was no social media but we had e-groups, someone posted Bill Cooper's "We never went to the Moon"-conspiracy theory, and I laughed. I debunked it, too, I love conspiracy theories because they're like urban legends, they're these fantastic and fascinating take-offs from what normal people know (or think they do, ha, ha).

Until I got to the Van Allen Belts and their super-way-high-radiation, which was over my head, so I went to NASA's website, where I was told only stupid people ask such questions. Euh? Later I was told, they took a "polar route" (?) and weren't in them very long. Couple hours. None of them died an early death of any radiation symptoms, either, and also their film showed no radiation traces of anything. At the time, if you took your vacation pictures through an airport X-ray, they'd be damaged.

But that wasn't the thing. It was only the first time I realized something was wrong and was more inclined to believe people who said, NASA lied. So much later, I'm watching Youtubes on how the Moon landings were faked, and again, just like in e-groups days, I laugh. I have to; c'mon, despite the VAB thing which they obviously somehow solved, I know NASA people and people who know NASA people and they couldn't possibly be fakes?

Until I got to the parts of their films, that they themselves didn't really pay attention to. But I did. So help me, I did. I saw it and it cannot be unseen. No Bill Cooper told me; though they showed in in many Youtubes, they did not point to it as one more thing, so as to convince me about how fake it was.

Before we got any rocket anywhere near any orbit, it took decades of trial and error. Lots of technical people, special buildings, special towers, special crews. But from the Moon, the launch was perfect, first time, every time, no mistake, no crews or towers or special fuel or anything. Poof, up we go. Just like that.

And that just does not compute. Certainly not with computer power of 1969. For those who still don't get it, ask yourself why this feat has never been duplicated by China or Russia, though they are well capable and have much more knowledge at their disposal with international space cooperation and superior computing power. I think it's because they know you may by some process get people there, but not, ever, back. The Astronauts all came home safe. And they shouldn't have.