On November 7, 1972, Apollo 17 went to the Moon. The programme of this space mission included the most detailed study of the Moon and a number of scientific experiments. After it three more similar lunar missions with serial numbers 18, 19 and 20 were planned. Astronaut crews had already been formed and were preparing for the flight at full speed. But after the return of “Apollo 17” to Earth, the program to study the satellite of our planet was urgently curtailed, and further flights were canceled. So the legend has arisen that on the Moon the American astronauts have faced something that they did not expect to see there.
“We are not welcome on the Moon,” said Werner von Brown, father of the American space program, when he learned about the results of the Apollo 17 mission. Different variations of this phrase, attributed to the creator of American cosmonautics, can be found in various sources of conspiracy subjects.
The crew of Apollo 17 spent more than three days on the Moon. During this time the astronauts made a lot of pictures, collected about 100 kg of samples of lunar rocks and soil, installed the necessary devices and sensors, conducted a number of experiments and left a memorial plaque on the surface of the Moon before departure. On December 19, the crew safely returned to Earth.
The mission of Apollo 17 is considered one of the most successful and problem-free lunar flights in the history of lunar flight. No serious failures, malfunctions or unforeseen circumstances prevented the astronauts, except for the unexpected manifestation of one of the crew members’ lunar dust allergies. This is the official version.
However, the sharp curtailing of the program after a truly successful research mission looked suspicious. Soon enough there was a conspiracy version that actually astronauts have collided on the Moon with the rests of highly developed civilization or even have come into contact with it.
NASA and von Brown personally, who realized that this was a far superior human civilization, allegedly insisted on not waking up dashingly as long as it was quiet and turning off flights to the Moon so as not to risk the fate of humanity.
There is also a second variant of the conspiracy legend. According to it, after “Apollo 17” another mission was sent to the Earth satellite – “Apollo 18”. It was sent in conditions of the strictest secrecy, officially this launch never happened, and the astronauts could not tell about their mission even to their families. Their task was to explore this mysterious civilization, which, however, was outraged by the invasion of strangers, and the crew never returned to Earth.
Another version of the lunar encounter is also known. With reference to the book “The Lost Space” by Edwin Rice it is asserted that soon after the landing, when the astronauts were riding on a lunar rover, an unknown language sounded in their radios. They redirected the tape to NASA, where it was immediately identified as Latin and translated. It turned out that local residents warned the earthlings against invading their space. Astronauts returned to the ship and soon went to Earth, and no one else came to the Moon. It was also alleged that the author of the book was an employee of NASA and one of the Apollo 17 program managers, Edwin Rice.
