We Never Went to the Moon [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

To speak about the pseudo-scientific "evidence" that he presents is a waste of time. However, if this person's ideas have intrigued you, I will briefly refute three of the most popular ideas:

1) The flag is waving. We faked the Apollo program and shot it on a stage in Nevada.
The flag was stiffened with wire on the back to give it the apperance of waving, since there is no air on the Moon. Plans to do this can even be found in books written before we went to the Moon! Movies where the flag is actually waving only appear where the Apollo astronauts were struggling to stick the flag in the soil, and as a result, the thin wires vibrated.

2) There is no blast crater underneath the lunar module. We faked the Apollo program and shot it on a stage in Nevada.
There is no blast crater underneath the lunar module because, as can be found in countless books and websites, the lunar module's engine was shut down about five feet above the lunar surface. A long probe extended from the end of each footpad. When they touched the ground, the engine was shut down to prevent thrust from bouncing back from the surface and damaging the LM.

3) There are no stars in the pictures from the moon. We faked the Apollo program and shot it on a stage in Nevada.'
Have you ever tried to take a picture of a bright object and a dim one at the same time? The lunar cameras were designed to take pictures of the well-lit surface. The bright lunar surface and Earth washed out the stars. If you don't believe this, try to find stars on a moonlit night with snow cover or try to take a picture of a flashlight and a car headlight at the same time.

My favorite part of this book is when he says that while the astronauts were not on the Moon but in Las Vegas, they were visiting bars and the like. There is a full-page spread of an exotic dancer. No astronauts, just a dancer. Boy, I'm really convinced now!

Please, don't, don't, DON'T get this book. There are better things to do with your life, like planting hyacinths, re-inventing the law of gravity, or painting pictures of your relatives.

Ironically, this book began as a satire of the moon hoax theory. Kaysing was contracted to write an outlandish tome that would make fun of the theory, showing how ridiculous it is. But, the story goes, as he researched his quarry, he became convinced that NASA had indeed defrauded everybody and that the astronauts never got farther from earth than an airplane.

I won't go into Kaysing's "proof" of all this, because there is none. His creativity, however, can be amusing. Kaysing writes that while we thought we were watching moon walkers bound along the moon's surface 250,000 miles from earth, they were actually getting down in Las Vegas girlie bars. His evidence? He has a full-page spread of an exotic dancer. Of course, we don't see any astronauts, but the dancer sure is nice to look at.

Then there are the personal schedules. Kaysing gives us what he believes were the astronauts' activities on earth during the moon flights. One of my favorites is the "Guilt Therapy" sessions, obviously for whomever was suffering pangs from defrauding us all. Did these schedules come on official NASA letterhead? Were they developed by government officials? No, they came straight from Kaysing's imagination--but what the heck.

Bill gets ugly with his original editor. He reprints a letter from the woman where she tells him that his manuscript just isn't written very well, and therefore she cannot publish it. I guess Bill never received a rejection letter before, because he concludes that this is proof she is in cahoots with NASA to suppress his efforts to expose the truth.

It's tempting to say that this is so bad that it's good, but I can't, because there are people who actually believe this moon hoax garbage, and revere Kaysing for starting the whole thing. What is most annoying is the attitude of these folks. Their ignorance of basic logic, critical thinking and scientific concepts is outweighed only by their arrogance: they do not put forth their ideas as mere theory, but as fact. And when challenged, they respond with "NASA made that up," or "that cannot be proven," "the photos were faked" or "how do you know--were you there?" All the while, forgetting that they have never furnished one bit of creditable evidence. All they do is make up claims, and then put them forth as fact. (Kaysing once said that he knew a geologist who said the moon rocks actually came from earth. His friend's name? Credentials? Proof? Funny--that's not in the interview.)

This book was once the subject of an article in the Weekly World News--you know, the paper that features articles such as "Clinton catches Hillary in bed with space alien!" Kaysing applauded the News for their work on his behalf. Enough said.