NASA lies about existance of Apollo 18 ?

If you Google "How many Apollo Missions were there?" You always find the official answer to be 17 missions. Yet on this page Apollo 18 mission does exist. At first this page says it does not exist:

"Sadly, Apollo 18, 19 and 20 were cancelled due to budget limitations. One of these missions had been scheduled to explore the scientifically intriguing crater Aristarchus, where astronomers through the ages had witnessed geological (or, more properly, "lunalogical") activity through their telescopes and wondered whether or not it might be volcanism. We are still wondering."

www.hq.nasa.gov... - SOURCE

Then if you scroll down you see Apollo 18 listed as:

Launched: July 15, 1975

Landing: July 24, 1975

Orbits made: 136

Mission duration: 217 hours, 30 minutes

Even Wikipedia says this mission was "Planned but Canceled"
en.wikipedia.org...

What is going on here?

Some may say "Oh well those are the missions to the Moon and Apollo 18 didn't go to the Moon" - That doesn't fly with me.. no one specified we were talking about moon missions.. just the number of Apollo missions total. Even this web page does not make this distinction.



[edit on 12-12-2009 by JohnPhoenix]

NASA is hardly trying to cover up the excistance of Apollo 18 as long as you were able to find this information online.

But the origiinally planned Apollo 18 mission, which was supposed to go to the Moon, was indeed cancelled. Apollo 18 never went to the moon.

This mission became instead the "Apollo-Soyuz" misson, the "first docking of spacecraft built by different nations" (US and Russia):

While this mission is generally remembered as a political/public relations venture, it resulted in some major technological advancements necessitated by the requirement to dock the two extremely variant spacecraft, neither of which had been built for the purpose, together.

The two spacecraft were launched within seven and a half hours of one another, and, three hours after they docked two days later, the Astronauts and Cosmonauts met in the middle ahd shook hands in orbit, exchanged flags and gifts (including the seeds of trees that were later planted in each others' countries) and conversed haltingly with one another in each other's native tongues.

It would be six long years before another American astronaut would fly in space, this time aboard the reusable Space Shuttle. The Apollo era, an era of the greatest achievements in mankind's history, had ended.

www.hq.nasa.gov...

Isn't your title a bit inflammatory?

As ziggystar said, Apollo 18 did launch, but it was not a moon mission -- it was Apollo-Soyuz. It's a shame how soon the "youngsters" forget about our space history. Apollo-Soyuz was a REALLY BIG DEAL when it happened. I still remember it vividly.

Here is an excerpt from the link provided by ziggystar (www.hq.nasa.gov...):

Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 Launched: July 15, 1975
Meeting in Space: July 17, 1975
Soyuz 19 Landed: July 21, 1975
Apollo 18 Splashed Down: July 24, 1975
Duration:

* Apollo 18: 217 hours, 30 minutes
* Soyuz 19: 143 hours, 31 minutes

Orbits: (Apollo 18) 136; (Soyuz 19) 96

Astronaut Crew:

* Thomas P. Stafford
* Vance D. Brand
* Donald K. "Deke" Slayton

Cosmonaut Crew:

* Alexei Leonov
* Valeri Kubasov

[edit on 12/12/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


My title is not inflammatory. I am asking a question. The quote from the page does Not say anything about the Moon Missions.. it says 18 was canceled.. Not that the Apollo 18 moon mission was canceled.

If the page had made this distinction, I would not have reason to question it. I still think the wording of the page is fishy.

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
The quote from the page does Not say anything about the Moon Missions.. it says 18 was canceled.. Not that the Apollo 18 moon mission was canceled.

The original planned mission was cancelled. NASA then used the CSM that was to be used for Apollo 18, for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Officially there is no number for this Apollo mission, but some people unofficially refer to it as "Apollo 18" anyway.

reply to post by jra


Whay are we supposed to beleive that? Cause they say it, lol

Originally posted by TeoMyster
reply to post by jra

 

Whay are we supposed to beleive that? Cause they say it, lol

Are we supposed to believe you instead? Cause you say so?

Originally posted by TeoMyster
Whay are we supposed to beleive that? Cause they say it, lol

Well it would be pretty much impossible to launch an Apollo mission secretly. The Saturn V is a big rocket and requires a lot of man power to assemble, bring it to the launch pad and prep it for launch. Everyone who lives in the area around Cape Canaveral would hear and see it launch.

But you're welcome to believe whatever you like, even if it flies in the face of common sense and logic.

Had the OP dug one page deeper he would have answered his own question

www.hq.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by amcdermott20
Had the OP dug one page deeper he would have answered his own question

www.hq.nasa.gov...

Exactly.

Technicall. the OP was correct -- Apollo 18's mission to the Moon was concelled, but Apollo 18 still flew -- just it never went to the Moon, but instead met up with a Soyuz capsule in Earth's orbit, for the famous "Apollo-Soyuz" Mission.

So, yeah. As the OP said, Apollo 18's Moon mission was canceled, but (also as the OP said) Apollo 18 still:

Launched on July 15, 1975
Orbited 136 times
Landed on July 24, 1975
and had a mission duration of 217 hours, 30 minutes

Apollo-Soyuz was a very famous mission, and was huge news when it happened. NASA isn't trying to fool anyone or hide the fact that it happened -- I mean, how could they?

it would be impossible to launch a "secret apollo" mission. Aside from the the fact that the launch can be seen from 20 miles away and could only be launched at cape canaveral, there were over 200,000 people employed by nasa and the various manufacturers involved in the apollo program.