>when they put something living 400 miles out... i'll start to take the Apollo missions seriously..
>but as of now .. the only time a living thing has gone more than 400 miles from earth was from 1968 to 1973 during the Apollo missions.
>Its looking more and more like a 30 Billion dollar tax payer ripoff.
>40 years from now if they still haven't been able to put a living thing 400+ miles out.. then i'd have to say the moon landings were faked.
>
>as of now.. i'm on the fence.
>
>interesting that they claim they are "going back" in 2020 :)
>of course they're missing every milestone and deadline leading up to the 2020 new moon landing...
>and this hasn't stopped them from handing out giant research contracts worth billions and billions of dollars
>it appears the 2020 "going back to the moon" is a tax payer ripoff...
>
>its interesting to note that they hit every milestone and target back in 1967 right after the astronauts in Apollo 1 died.
>
>i guess NASA was just way better back in the 1960s
>and i guess aerospace technology has regressed.
>
>:)

I was at the cape when Apollo 8 launched (I was about 11 years old IIIRC) - the first manned Saturn 5 mission and the first to orbit the moon.

The power of that rocket was unbelievable. I have no doubt that would get to the moon.

I've been to many shuttle launches. Not even close to the earth shaking thunder (still cool though).