Did the 1969 Moon landing really happen?
>>Did the 1969 Moon landing really happen?<< First off, there were two landings in 1969, plus two more in 1971 and a further two in 1972. >>on of my friends recently pointed out that only two years previously the Americans had been hopelessly behind in the space race<< Unfortunately for your friend he could not be more wrong. America was *never* 'hopelessly' behind in the space race. Every first from the USSR was equalled or bettered within months by NASA. Russia forged ahead trying to get firsts, to the point where they got the first three-man crew in space by ripping out the ejector seat from their one-man spacecraft and putting in three couches. It was so cramped the crew could not wear pressure suits, so they essentially sacrificed safety to get the first. In 1965 and 1966 NASA put ten manned flights into space in the Gemini program, which practised techniques such as long duration flight, rendezvous, docking and spacewalks. In that period not one single Russian flew in space. They
