One giant leap

Dr. Neville Jones

North A'Scotland Space Agency (NA'SSA)

Since the Saturn V rocket was scrapped, and the plans for building it mysteriously destroyed, no man has achieved an altitude of higher than 350 miles (when they reported seeing flashes of light even with their eyelids closed). All manned spaceflight before and after the Apollo programme was in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Countless prototype American rockets exploded in huge fireballs and great clouds of smoke attempting to achieve only LEO, which is defined as being between 200- and 400-miles above the World's surface. (LEO is indicated in Fig. 1, together with the inner and outer limits in extent of the highly radioactive 'Van Allen belts'.)

Figure 1: A scale drawing, showing the World from above the North Pole, in conventional, Western teaching.

Just how Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins chartered so smoothly such unknown dangers is truly amazing. How pleased they must have been when they got out as far as the white circle shown in Fig. 1. Unbelievable! Or, as one astronut said, "absolutely unreal."

No protection against lethal radiation. Less computer memory than that in a modern-day domestic washing machine. No experience of successfully piloting the landing vehicle. No method of cooling themselves or their craft. No test runs past LEO. For some strange reason, no ability to see the stars. And so on, and so forth.

Looking at the distance to the white circle in Fig. 1 really does put this 'achievement' into perspective for anyone except those who are physically or willingly blind. Quite remarkable. But still well less than one third of the claimed distance to the Moon!

For the icing on the cake, President Richard Nixon phones the Moon and calls those days in late July, 1969, "the greatest week since Creation."

Good show.

Oh how I used to like those Jules Verne-type stories, and they don't come much taller than this one.