WOW NO STARS! |
Conspiracists have managed to sustain public interest in their theories for more than 40 years despite there being much third-party evidence for the landings and detailed rebuttals to the hoax claims. Polls taken in various locations have shown that between 6% and 20% of Americans surveyed believe that the manned landings were faked, rising to 28% in Russia. Even as late as 2001, the major television network Fox broadcast a documentary named Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? claiming NASA faked the first landing in 1969 to win the Space Race.
Since the late 2000s, high-definition photos taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of the Apollo landing sites have captured the lander modules and the tracks left by the astronauts. In 2012, images were released showing the Apollo flags still standing on the Moon. With present day passanger space travel Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo completed its second powered flight, flying faster and higher than any previous flights. It’s been nearly three years since SpaceShipTwo’s first glide flight, an indication of the challenges of developing a space vehicle that is safe enough for passenger flight, something that has been one of the main concerns since the sub-orbital space tourism idea kicked off a decade ago.
SpaceShipTwo's flight flew under rocket power four seconds longer than the first powered flight back in April, with the total burn time lasting 20 seconds after being dropped from 46,000 feet. After igniting the rocket, Scaled Composite test pilots Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols accelerated to Mach 1.43 and reached an altitude of 69,000 feet. It was the 29th flight for the future space liner
, part of the extensive flight testing program Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites is completing before flying the first group of more than 600 people who have signed up for the sub-orbital ride. Today’s flight also marked the first time SpaceShipTwo’s “feather” re-entry system has been tested after a powered flight.