It was a quiet Friday Oct. 4th, 1957 in the heart of the golden age of America, families were gathering together in their living rooms eagerly anticipating the new episode of Leave It To Beaver, Americas favorite television program. Just then a surprise newscast came on the television with a sense of urgency in the report, a surprise so shocking to those watching it stirred outrage across the nation. The Russians who were the sworn enemy of the United States had just launched the world’s first satellite into space.
US families had grown complacent in its position as a world leader in technology and power. They never could have imagined in their wildest dreams that the Russians could have possibly ever achieved such a thing, at least not before them. Fear began to set in, this news did not rest well within the hearts of Americans and they knew something must be done to correct this and done immediately. Discussions abroad leading to reclaim our world superpower status were swirling the nation which eventually ended on one thing. ‘We must get to the moon and fast before the Russians can make us feel even lamer than they already do.
Within the following year NASA was built and on May 25, 1961, JFK stood before Congress and proclaimed that “This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” But the prospects of man going to the moon were no longer merely an American dream, but the dream of all the world. This was to be the most important project in the history of mankind.
For nearly a decade the suspense in America and across the globe had built into a grandiose fantasy of American achievement. The world looked up to us and we had to hurry before the Russians could beat us to it. Nixon, a compulsive man who always has to win went to great lengths, often illegal or unethical to destroy his political enemies as he had just became president and like anyone who has recently been given a position of power he wanted really make some significant things happen. Nixon was determined not to let anything get in the way of this American achievement, even if he had to fake the whole thing, Win or lose the world was going to see a successful moon landing, you can count on that.
But who on earth could create an authentic looking film on such short notice? Well, Stanly Kubrick had been working with the pentagon for years being given permission to film in top secret areas of the pentagon with previous films and had owed many favors to many elected officials including Donald Rumsfeld who served as an adviser to Nixon on his staff. Stanly Kubrick had just finished filming Space Odyssey 2001 when he received a phone call soon to change his life forever.
Stanly Kubrick was being asked at that time to shoot the moon landing on his Space Odyssey 2001 set in secret, to script the moon landing perfectly, to make it dramatic and to get all the perfect angles. This was to be the greatest achievement in the history of mankind and the moment needs to be presented as such. Stanly refused too oblige the president many times, he did not want to have this hanging over him the rest of his life, but he knew he could not escape this fate as even this phone call may destroy him alone. So he eventually agreed on one condition, that he never here from them again.
It was July 16, 1969, and the moment the world was waiting for had arrived. Stanly’s video was loaded and ready at the NASA communications hub. The launch control counted down, the world fell silent, not a breath was heard as it reached 0, “liftoff” the announcer said as the global pressure mounted. A sigh of relief from everyone with seamless lift-off, and crowds cheered as the first moon rocket vanished into the darkness of space.
Less than an hour passed and the crew were just beginning to let all this sink as they looked out the window when Buzz Aldrin spotted something a ways out. But what happened next stunned the crew of Apollo 11, as they gazed out the window pondering what they had just done they see a small glowing orb.
Fear, confusion, and excitement begins to set in as they watch this glowing object follow them, speculations about what it could be began to bounce back and forth between the three astronauts, but they all knew in their hearts what it was. They nervously radioed back to headquarters that there is a bogey at four-o-clock and seems to be following them, but careful not to say what they think it is.
As they traveled the mysterious object continued to follow them never getting closer or further, just following them, the entire three day trip. As they arrived and landed the lunar module, Buzz Aldrin looks around in awe at what he was witnessing, there was what seemed to be garbage everywhere. Surprised he immediately comments on how much junk there is everywhere and was recorded in saying this. Just then Buzz looks over and witnesses the UFO which had followed them the whole way lands with them on the moon with them about a mile out. Buzz immediately gets on the radio and tells his chief medical officer that a UFO has just landed next to us and we are being watched.
After planting a flag and gathering samples the pilots immediately set back for earth with a strange sense of urgency and anxiety. When Buzz Aldrin was asked why they left so abruptly, his answer was that they were ordered to leave by the aliens. The public had not yet seen any actual video or photos of the moon at this point as they have only seen Kubrick’s dramatized enactment. When they went through the photos and video, they found numerous incriminating things which did not correlate at all with Stanly’s film, including all the junk on the moon, and the alien ship, giving away the alien cover up, thus all film was destroyed. The official excuse for it is that NASA accidentally recorded over the original tapes of the Apollo 11 moon landing. All we have today are the poor-quality recordings people made of Kubrick’s broadcast.
Stanly Kubrick at the time had been agonizing over the details of a film project he had always wanted to do called Barry Lyndon, but never could. This particular film must be shot in low light (candle light) conditions to preserve authenticity of the era which no camera known at that time was capable of doing. Upon researching cameras he stumbled onto a lead. In a science magazine an article mentioned a secret lens that the US government bought from Zeiss optics, it was a one of a kind and worth millions. Stanly under desperation used his affiliation with the faking of the moon landing as leverage to negotiate use of this special military lens which was designed to see other satellites in pitch blackness, threatening to reveal the truth to the world, Kubrick knew he would be put on a leash over this, but as a perfectionist he had no choice.
Many people have wondered over time how he was able to obtain such an important government owned device and how he became such an insider within the US government and these are basically the steps that got him there. Today about 6%-20% of Americans believe we never went to the moon, but people believe that way based on the fact that the video was faked, and though it was faked, that does not necessarily mean we didn’t go. In fact we can now see much of the junk we left behind including the flag in telescopes.
