‘Send Me to the Moon’: Did NASA Really Record a Fake Apollo Moon Landing in Case Things Went Wrong?

IN Fly with me to the moon, The film, starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum and opening today, is a historical moment that has been filmed many times: arrival of people on the moon. However, they do this from a different point of view, since it is not so much a question of scientific preparations as of marketing It is necessary to position the population of the United States in favor of landing on the moon.

Johansson presents publicist hired by NASA to make the mission attractive. It really wasn’t. But it is true that this was a time when great importance was attached to scientific dissemination. Former reporters were hired to cover the story from all sides. But they were not left to their fate. NASA gave them a large number of dossiers with technical information about the mission and put some of its experts at their disposal to check all the news before it was published. Thanks to this, Americans, like the rest of the planet, little by little they became interested in landing on the moon.

Thus we can understand that part of what is presented in Fly with me to the moon true, while others are interpreted very freely. Of all that appears in the film, there is one that particularly stands out: the decision to remove fake moon landing. Is it true that this initiative was undertaken in case the mission failed? Not really, although some videos were made that essentially encouraged moon landing deniers.

Free interpretation Fly with me to the moon

IN Fly with me to the moon, We see a publicist hired by NASA decide to shoot several campaigns. His goal is to inform the astronauts and mission engineers and, of course, to do it in an attractive way.

One part of the campaign that we see in the film, and that actually happened, is the broadcast of the moon landing. An order is given to build a video camera that can fit in the door of the lunar lander and withstand inhospitable conditions our satellite. Thus, hundreds of millions of people see in their homes that small step for man, but a big step for humanity.

Something that also corresponds to reality is the decision to change public opinionwho for a long time remained largely against the trip to the moon. At that time, there were many fears in the United States, so its citizens considered the trip of men to the moon pretentious and superficial. Everything else was more important.

If all of NASA’s efforts to move forward had failed, there would have been enormous public discontent. For this reason, the film presents Plan B consisting of a recording of a fake moon landing that would be broadcast if the real landing ran into trouble. Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary. But was it recorded in real life, too?

Real preparation in case something goes wrong

Obviously, there was no 100% guarantee that the moon landing would be successful. So there were preparations in case something went wrong. It was not a video or even an audio recording, but a speech prepared for the US President. Richard NixonCall the families of the deceased astronauts.

This would be a real problem after Apollo 11, failure. It already happened with Apollo 1 that the astronauts on board died in a terrible accident. This first part of the missions did not even have the intention of landing on the Moon, but in the end it turned into a disaster.

The video that is not talked about in Fly with me to the moon

Currently moon landing deniers They talk about videos that show fake lunar landscapes plasterboard V TV. This may correspond to what is said in Fly with me to the moon. However, while it is true that there are videos on TV, it has nothing to do with what is shown in the film. And neither do the deniers claim anything, because they hear the bells, but do not know where.

There are several videos recorded in the 1960s featuring educational goals to show the population what space travel was like. Since computer entertainment like that available today was not possible at the time, it was necessary to resort to typing. These videos are now available on the Internet, but it is clearly explained that they educational recreation.

On the contrary, the moon landing was recorded right there. There is a lot of evidence that this is not a decoration, but real scene. It’s a reality that’s not in Apple’s new movie. But just because it doesn’t reflect reality as it happened doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it.