ApolloHoax.net

Apollo Discussions => The Hoax Theory => Topic started by: onebigmonkey on August 15, 2025, 02:22:05 PM

Title: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 15, 2025, 02:22:05 PM
The AD's latest offering deserves not to be buried in the compendium of their stupidity I've posted elsewhere.

A quick precis:

The always excellent Dave McKeegan and the Apollo detectives have both posted videos addressing the issue of the use of film in satellites, and whether or not they require pressurising to avoid fatally damaging the film beyond use. McKeegan points out that while some satellites used pressurised film systms, many did not. and that the use of pressurisation was not for the welfare of the film. The ADs, on the other hand, have latched on to Discoverer 14 - the first successful aerial film retrieval mission of the Corona program. All parties agree that no pressurisation was involved there.

Discoverer 14 was launched on August 18 1960, and film was recovered the following day in the Pacific after 17 orbits.

The ADs, which in this instance is Marcus Allen, Robert Williams and Jarrah, have found this image taken by Discoverer:

(https://i.ibb.co/5W0tQV7g/CORONA-first-image.jpg) (https://ibb.co/VW1rF8Kc) (https://i.ibb.co/wZrZ7kWs/Screenshot-2025-08-15-192302.png) (https://imgbb.com/)

It's of  Mys Shmidta airfield in easternmost Russia, a stone's throw from Alaska (the image here is upside down).

Lawks a Lawdy, they cry - look how degraded and terrible the image is, you can't make any kind of detail at all! This, they conclude, can only be as a direct result of radiation and exposure to vacuum, and therefore Apollo films would have suffered the same fate.

No.

The image they've found is terrible, but if they knew a little bit more about the subject they'd know there are better quality ones available, and that the image isn't all of the actual photo.

Fortunately for us, this website:

https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/

has all the declassified images from Discoverer 4 (and many others) available for download. As an aside, I've used theis site to get Landsat-1 images showing matching ice flows visble in Apollo 17's Blue Marble).

Here's the complete image from which theirs is derived:

(https://i.ibb.co/27hgWW04/DS009009002-DV058v2.jpg) (https://ibb.co/99gsccm5)

I've marked on the approximate area concerned - roughly 20 miles square in a swathe covering (at a conservatice estimate) roughly 800 miles long and 100 miles wide.

It's interesting to note the footprint of that image compared with the ones taken either side of it covering the area to the north-west.

(https://i.ibb.co/FLvg2Nt1/Screenshot-2025-08-15-181940.png) (https://ibb.co/nN2z9ZSy)

It's odd that this is an oblique image and covering a much wider area - deliberate attempt to capture the airfield, or just a glitch? Just for info, here are the ther swathes covering the USSR on that mission:

(https://i.ibb.co/JjyGsKyr/Screenshot-2025-08-15-174605.png) (https://ibb.co/LdJcZ8J9)

So, how do modern scans of the image compare? Here's the entire width of the photograph:

(https://i.ibb.co/KjMJ1NTY/Screenshot-2025-08-15-143304.jpg) (https://imgbb.com/)

and here's the same area:

(https://i.ibb.co/jZfNhZRQ/Screenshot-2025-08-15-143733.jpg) (https://imgbb.com/)

It's very obviously much better quality than the one on which the ADs are relying. You can even get closer in:

(https://i.ibb.co/wFwS5pQX/Screenshot-2025-08-15-143820.jpg) (https://ibb.co/FL05R8YM)

One of the things they complain about is the lack of detail in the image - the lack of roads and so on. It's the arse end of nowhere chaps there's nothing there.

Now, the labelling system of the images suggests that this photo was taken on the second orbit. If the ADs are correct, then images taken in much later orbits will be even worse! OK, how about this one, taken on orbit 14 showing a 180 mile by 12 strip in the American Midwest (ID    DS009009014DV061).

(https://i.ibb.co/mCRfq4f8/Screenshot-2025-08-15-191826.png) (https://ibb.co/tMHVsDVX)

(https://i.ibb.co/v4Pt1kDc/DS009009014-DV061.jpg) (https://ibb.co/Jj7hnHCc)

There should be nothing in here right?

(https://i.ibb.co/SwskY3Hs/Screenshot-2025-08-15-183137.png) (https://ibb.co/pj0HVLN0)
(https://i.ibb.co/7NTCQkhy/Screenshot-2025-08-15-183159.png) (https://ibb.co/4gDt21kN)

Oh! Seems that the images have got better over time!

All the ADs are seeing in the image they've looked at is film grain - a grainy scan of a small part of a much larger image taken on the first successful mission of its kind.

It does not prove their point at all. This cannister has exposed its film to space longer than any Apollo Hasselblad magazine. They were claiming that this supposed damage was from something that wasn't that vacuumy - I'm guessing now it won't have been vacuumy enough.

They can posture all they like about pressurised film systems like lunar orbiter (where the pressure was there to protect the developing process, not the film), they can pretend the Soviet film return missions didn't happen, but they have no evidence other than their own deeply flawed "experiment" that the film used in Apollo, be it in Hasselblads, or the Metric and Panoramic cameras, wouldn't have worked.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: Peter B on August 15, 2025, 07:38:09 PM
I just watched Dave McKeegan's latest video in which he dismantles the claims of the Apollo Detectives. It's hard to see how the ADs can be so badly mistaken in their experiments and claims, leading to my conclusion that they're simply grifting at this point.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: TimberWolfAu on August 16, 2025, 02:49:38 AM
The thing that always annoyed me with the whole "film needs to be pressurised", is that the same people making these claims usually have no problem saying the Project Gemini and Project Mercury flights happened. You know, those manned flights that didn't use pressurised film cannisters for the cameras. If a film camera is working in low Earth orbit, it's working on the moon. Hell, assuming my understanding here is correct, even the "radiation" issue for the film is pretty close to being the same between low Earth orbit and the lunar surface.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 16, 2025, 03:36:27 AM
It's embarrassing how ill-informed they are, and how much they think ChatGPT is the be all and end all of information sources instead of a glorified garbage in garbage out info dump.

This book

https://www.cia.gov/resources/publications/corona-between-the-sun-and-the-earth/

suggests that the initial orbits experienced some issues and threatened to tumble out of control, wich may explain the odd angle and coverage of frame 58, compared with frames 57 and 59. This book

https://archive.org/details/eyeinskystoryofc0000unse/mode/1up

has a version of the airstrip image of comparable quality to the one I downloaded, along with many other very high resoltuion CORONA images.

I've also seen that image called "the first" one in took - it clearly isn't, but this source:

https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/discoverer-xiv/

shows I've interpreted the naming convention correctly - the airstrip image is from the 2nd pass early in the mission. That source also mentions the number of previously unknown military sites that the mission was able to discover, despite the poor resolving power, like this one


(https://i.ibb.co/x8jsSb1J/Screenshot-2025-08-16-083322.png) (https://ibb.co/1JqnfNr8)

of Kapsutin Yar Missile Test Range. Lots of detail there, despite it being taken 7 orbits later than the one they look at. I downloaded this myself, so I hope I got the right spot.

Later missions improved to be able to se objects 5-6 feet across, rather than the 35-40 or so feet in this one. All the information they need is out there, if they choose to put some actual effort in. Th AD video calls itself 'Part 1'. I wonder where part 2 will take us.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 16, 2025, 03:39:38 AM
The thing that always annoyed me with the whole "film needs to be pressurised", is that the same people making these claims usually have no problem saying the Project Gemini and Project Mercury flights happened. You know, those manned flights that didn't use pressurised film cannisters for the cameras. If a film camera is working in low Earth orbit, it's working on the moon. Hell, assuming my understanding here is correct, even the "radiation" issue for the film is pretty close to being the same between low Earth orbit and the lunar surface.

That's exactly the point McKeegan made in one of his earlier videos - the AD seemingly have no issue with those missions, but conveniently gloss over them. Their response was mostly to go for the ad hominem approach, claiming (without no evidence at all) that Dave uses digital cameras and doesn't know about film, and that he needs to get hold of the SO film to prove his point - the irony of that escapes them, given theat all they did was test off the shelf film and produced results that any competent film developer could resolve.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 16, 2025, 08:17:21 AM
Dwayne Day's book linked to above provides some interesting titbits.

As with all things COld War, the USSR were developing identical systems in parallel with the US. Their ZENIT satellites, the CORONA equivalent, went for pressurised vessels:

"Unlike their American counterparts, Soviet engineers traditionally preferred to shield the most sensitive systems of their satellites from the space vacuum. Creating an artificial atmosphere inside pressurized containers was easier than designing new vacuum-rated equipment. While ensuring higher reliability, this approach had a price, since the resulting satellites were larger and heavier."

So, while there was an up front cost for the US developing vacuum rated gear, the Soviet approach gave heavier payloads and more complex systems. A key point is that CORONA systems were tested in vacuums! It's also worth mentioning the involvement of Fairchild ITEK in the program, who were behind the Apollo Panoramic camera.

CORONA satellites had another issue which was static discharge, caused by the large number of rollers involved in moving film around in a confined space at speed. It was largely resolved by improving the roller design, but often the first few frames in each reel were ruined.

Over and over in the book, and others, problems with acetate based film in a vacuum were resolved completely with the use of new, thinner, polyster based ones.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 17, 2025, 11:49:23 AM
The detectives are currently goading McKeegan in the comments section of his video. They are demanding he does a live stream with them, because he's done it with flat earthers so why not them. AFAIK, he's done livestreams with a former flat earther, discussing Apollo photography. Appearing on a livestream is a favourite demand of theirs, as if somehow it proves something. It does not. The evidence is there, live or not. Deal with it. You are not in charge of anything, you do not get to make demands of anyone. Just make your case - it doesn't have to be in person.

They are further insisting he sends off to NASA for Apollo negatives (sic) to test in a vacuum, because that's an easy thing to do. So easy, in fact, that they haven't bothered to do it themselves.

They are also criticising him on the basis that "all he has are pictures from the internet", which, given that the video I'm commenting on here consisted entirely of "an image from the internet", and them interrogating ChatGTP, on the internet, is a bit rich.

Hypocrites, all of them.

They are promising more revelations in their upcoming livestream. I look forward to it consisting of nothing from the internet.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: bknight on August 17, 2025, 12:58:56 PM
It will be a relief for truth when, Marcus Allen dies.  He has been a grifter blowing with whatever money winds blow from Apollo believer to Apollo denier.  The man has no scruples.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: Ranb on August 18, 2025, 12:34:51 AM
They are further insisting he sends off to NASA for Apollo negatives (sic) to test in a vacuum, because that's an easy thing to do. So easy, in fact, that they haven't bothered to do it themselves.
Wasn't every single negative used on the lunar surface and in the LM already exposed to a vacuum?  What good would it do to "test" them again?  Surely if the film was degraded by exposure to a vacuum, it would show on the prints?
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 18, 2025, 12:53:35 AM
I can only assume they want the same SO film. It's conspiraloon SOP: "I demand evidence I know you can't give me, therefore I am right'.

Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: Obviousman on August 19, 2025, 04:26:25 PM
It will be a relief for truth when, Marcus Allen dies.  He has been a grifter blowing with whatever money winds blow from Apollo believer to Apollo denier.  The man has no scruples.

Well said. They are there to snare disciples, not to explore the truth.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 20, 2025, 04:36:47 AM
All Allen has is a stock collection of well worn phrases and facts that he can pepper a conversation with in order to sound more educated about it than he actually is.

Anyway, back to the substance of the AD video. In amongst the personal incredulity, zoo running methology, and bizarre claims (they are amazed that they can't see snow, and that must be because the snow looks black from radiation damaged film, not because it's August), there are basic factual errors.

Jarrah claims that the lunar orbiter images transmitted to the public were photographed off TV screens, and it was only when you got the LOIRP images that high quality ones. Not true, and any one of the many Lunar Oribter documents available would have told him otherwise if he'd read them.

Images scanned by the probes in lunar orbit sent their signals to Earth. The signal was then exposed on 35mm film strips. Those strips were then assembled and photographed, eg from https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunarorbiter/documents/LO_DUNOTES.pdf.

“The video signal received on Earth was fed into the ground reconstruction electronics (GRE) where it was converted into an intensity modulated line on the face of a cathode ray tube. This line was used to expose 35-mm in a continuous motion camera to reconstruct the framelets…the video signal was also recorded on magnetic tapes which were subsequently used to make additional 35-mm framelets.”

The attached shows an example.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 20, 2025, 06:06:47 PM
And just to demonstrate that actually yes, they did test stuff:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19730009710/downloads/19730009710.pdf

"When cameras and films must operate in high vacuum, camera lubricants are required which will not poison the vacuum environment if the camera is exposed to the full vacuum. Cameras have been used directly in vacuum, and in certain applications they have been enclosed in housings in which a partial pressure of air or nitrogen has been  maintained. Few problems occur with respect to film exposure or its sensitivity in a vacuum. The major problems have been the generation of static, particularly with the high-speed cameras. In general, these problems are avoided by correct selection and treatment of film."

and

"In planning the Apollo missions, a hermetically sealed magazine was considered to maintain a suitable environment for the film. Many years of experience had included the use of photographic film in vacuum systems such as electron microscopy and electron beam recording, and this experience indicated that the disturbance caused by the vacuum environment should not prove too serious. This was confirmed by tests of extended exposure to vacuum conditions, and the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions were carried out with a conventional unsealed magazine. Thus the film was exposed to the high-vacuum lunar environment. The results of these missions substantiated the validity of this decision and of the earlier observations."

And in several experiments on film in a vacuum chamber reported here:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19680010273/downloads/19680010273.pdf

No significant impacts on the films were found.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: Peter B on August 21, 2025, 06:29:09 PM
And just to demonstrate that actually yes, they did test stuff...

This reminds me of something I see so often from hoax believers: they seem to have no awareness of the idea that NASA would test equipment in realistic environmental conditions to look for issues they needed to address.

"How did they know [item X] would work in the heat/cold/vacuum?"

"Um, they literally tested it in heat/cold/vacuum. It's not like they sent untested equipment off with the astronauts and hoped for the best."

= = = =

It's interesting that I find this attitude more widely, that people will ask a question thinking they've made some sort of gotcha point. Yet it's clear that they've done no research.

One example I've seen recently is on Dave McKeegan's year-old video "People think Apollo didn't have enough fuel to get to the Moon." There's been a rash of comments in the last few days from people all saying "Elon Musk says they'll need 8 rockets to get a mission to the Moon." It's clear in this case that they're just parroting a claim made by Bart Sibrel on a Danny Jones video. It's just as clear they're completely unaware of the differences between Apollo and Artemis.

Similarly, the number of people who ask how the lunar rover was carried to the Moon, or how the liftoff of the Apollo 17 was videoed, without making even the most cursory search to find out, is somewhere between amusing and disturbing.

But I also see this 'reflex skepticism' in what might seem like fairly mundane subjects. I recently saw a video short labelled 'How the Drip Rifle worked' describing a process to fire a bolt-action rifle without a human pulling the trigger - by having water drip into a can which hung by string from the trigger. Comment after comment says "but as it's a bolt action rifle it will only fire once", as though they've made some killer refutation. But all people would need to do is search the term 'drip rifle' to find out where it was used, and why (during the evacuation of Gallipoli in December 1915).
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 22, 2025, 12:55:21 AM
Another aspect of that argument is the idea that if something isn't on the Internet it doesn't exist. They find it difficult to comprehend that there are these old fashioned paper things that people just haven't got round to digitising yet, or even that the original documents were of such esoteric and specialist interest they weren't deemed worthy of shelf space, let alone the time it takes to scan them. Their purpose was served, there's no need to keep them.

At least this topic provided an interesting diversion where I was able to learn something, even if the catalyst for it aren't prepared to.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 23, 2025, 12:34:00 PM
On doing some more research, I htink I need to correct my earlier criticism of Jarrah's claim about how lunar orbiter images were produced after transmission to Earth.

The example I showed was effectively what the the magnetic data tapes contain, and these were produced in parallel with the actual images.

The 35mm films themselves were produced by recording from a kinescope, which you could say is filming from a TV screen. More info in here (page 18)

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19670012120/downloads/19670012120.pdf
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 24, 2025, 04:34:24 AM
So, while it was annoying me that I got something wrong I carried on investigating the Lunar Orbiter photographic subsystem, as it is something that the ADs, and others, do bring up as it is a pressurised film system, and therefore all photography requires pressure to protect the film.

I found this document:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19680071016/downloads/19680071016.pdf

which covers every aspect of what is an incredibly complex piece of engineering by anyone's standards.

The key takeaway from the document is: At no point does it claim that the pressure vessel used to maintain between 1.0 and 1.9 psia of 99% nitrogen (with a tiny bit of oxygen thrown in) exists to protect the Kodak film.

It does, however, require pressure in other areas.

During photography, a small bellows draws the film towards the platen (the area where exposure occurs). In order for that to work, there needs to be a pressure differential. If the entire system is in a vacuum, there is nothing to create that differential.

The next step is the development process. During developing, a bimat strip loaded with chemicals is laminated to the film. That bimat film develops the actual photographic film into something that can be scanned. It's that bimat strip that needs maintaining in optimal humidy and temperature conditions. Temperature is largely controlled by radiating and conducting heat away through the orbiter structure. Humidity is regulated by potassum thiocynate crystals, which deal with the moisture produced by the bimat film during development.

This is the entirety of what it says about pressure:

"2.2.9.3 Pressure. The environmental gas in the [photographic subsystem] pressure shell is made up of 99 percent nitrogen and a total of I percent oxygen and other gases. Oxygen must be below 1 percent by volume to prevent loss of potency in the Bimat. Prior to launch, the nitrogen in the pressure shell is maintained at 1.9 psi above atmospheric pressure to prevent air leakage into the shell. This pressure differential is maintained throughout the launch phase by a relief valve which operates as the external pressure decreases.

During the photographic mission, pressure within the shell is maintained above 1.0 psia by nitrogen supplied from a pressurized bottle. This supply will allow for leakage equivalent to three pressure shell volumes of 1.0 psia at 70F. The lover pressure limit of 1.0 psia is required to keep the boiling point temperature of water above the expected temperatures of materials requiring moisture such as the Bimat film and the humidity control pads."


So, nothing to do with protecting the film, everything to do with protecting the Bimat strips and the developing of the film. To link back to the original topic, Corona systems that did not develop film did not need such protection.

As for radiation, the document has this to say:

"It is expected that the amounts of radiation received from the Van Allen belts and from the galactlc-cosmlc sources will have little or no effect on the photographic mission."

It summarises the characteristics of the film and why it is radiation resistant (I don't pretend to be an expert in that subject, so won't comment on it), and notes that the structure of the oribter also acts as a shield, specifically mentioning the film container. The risk from solar flares is much greater, and it calculates that there is a 43% probablility of a signifcant one happening over the entire program, which is pretty much in the "might happen, might not" area. If one was to occur, the idea was to orient the craft so that the more of the structure would be in the way.

Long story short: if you use the right film, and plan ahead, vacuum and radiation are not issues when using photographic film in space.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: TimberWolfAu on August 24, 2025, 06:33:27 PM
Except you're missing the important part; since the documents DON'T say that the pressurisation WASN'T to protect the film, then this means that the pressurisation WAS to protect the film, and no other uses matter.

You just gotta learn to read between the lines, and ignore all that pesky context stuff. That's how it works, right?  :)

Gotta love the original LO, someone wanted pictures of the lunar surface, and instead of trying to figure a way of sending film back (with all those risks instead), they just sent a '1 hour photo lab' up to the moon instead and 'developed' in location. Early space flight really did require some out of the box thinking.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 25, 2025, 02:24:00 AM
It was early days in the space program, and the 'Department for heading off conspiracy theory morons" wasn't fully up and running.

The ADs live stream has more stuff on this subject, but it's hard to tease out the details in amongst all the whining about how popular McKeegan's channel is, and the various passive aggressive ad homs and misrepresentations used. At one point his sitting there with his dog is seen as some sort of clue that he's a NASA stooge.

They also claim that he responded to their demands to appear on a live stream by saying he "doesn't deal with liars". As best I can tell he doesn't actually say that. Given that they were commenting on a video about how they lie about McKeegan, the weight of irony must be crushing.

They start waffling on about the Hexagon satellite, so here goes:

This document: https://planet4589.org/space/docs/nro/histories/1.pdf

goes into mind-numbing detail about this beast of a satellite (honestly, it's HUGE!). I've skimmed through it and yes by golly the film system in it was pressurised.

However, comparing this with Corona satellites is like comparing apples and oranges. Transferring that comparison to Apollo photography is like comparing apples to elephants.

The Hexagon system was massively complex - the twin film path from its forward and rear facing cameras (designed for stereo photography) passed through an incredibly long and twisting set of rollers to get the 7" wide (that's right, 7"!) EK 4404 film from its storage cannister to the film buckets.

The system designers found that the SO film used in other systems didn't like the set up because of the fine grain. After much testing (including in vacuum chambers), they elected to go for pressurisation because outgassing of the film created instability in the film path - it tended to hover over the platens and move around over layers of water vapour. The wide film also tended to curl, so pressure enabled to them to keep it clamped. Static build up ffrom the many rollers was also an issue. Again, pressure isn't being used to mantain the integrity of the film, but the photographic process. It even says this about outgassing:

"photographic properties of the film were negligibly affected by moisture content"

So no, you can't point at the Hexagon system and say that it's an equivalent comparison to Apollo cameras.

Jarrah's contribution to the 'discussion' was to show a screenshot of him emailing Kodak for some of the SO film used in Apollo and Lunar Orbiter. Let's hope he holds his breath while he waits.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: JayUtah on August 25, 2025, 09:48:19 AM
I'm sort of kicking myself over this because when our museum got its U-2 and we unshipped the cameras, there was a some film still left inside (tattered and completely exposed). I didn't think at the time to ask for a sample of it. I know the cameras have gone to an outside company for restoration but I don't know what happened to the film. It probably just got thrown out.  >:(
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 26, 2025, 12:47:45 PM
Kudos to McKeegan, he did actually turn up on their live stream, and found himself ambushed by stupid questions that were nothing to do with the nominal subject at hand (eg the alleged existence of two Apollo 13 capsules, which is a lie).

Another satellite system reared its head, namely Gambit, and Jarrah didn't know whether it used a pressurised system or not.

Let me help you there Jarrah: it did not. This document

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA606622.pdf

Outlines how the Gambit system was originally planned to be pressurised, and that such was the level of secrecy over the various projects the Gambit developers were unaware that the unpressurised systems in Corona were a thing. In the end, changes to the recovery program that would have been needed for the much heavier pressurised system, and eventual oversight of the project by people who knew that Corona existed,  that sent them down an unpressurised path.

In other interesting development, the detectives seem to be declaring that images of Earth are indeed genuine,  but have somehow been spliced into magazines with Apollo astronauts on the surface in some studio somewhere.

They're running out of straws to clutch at.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: TimberWolfAu on August 26, 2025, 07:28:48 PM
In other interesting development, the detectives seem to be declaring that images of Earth are indeed genuine,  but have somehow been spliced into magazines with Apollo astronauts on the surface in some studio somewhere.

They're running out of straws to clutch at.

Isn't that 'Rasa's' idea that the SIV-B went to the moon and took the photos of the Earth and moon from various 'half-way' points, along with all the photos of the moon from lunar orbit?
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 27, 2025, 02:28:44 AM
Something along those lines, but the film somehow still managed to make it through the VAB and vacuum of space that way. There are countless photos from the spacecraft where people are visible and the cameras are obviously hand held. The 16mm and TV footage is also there, and lunar details recorded in surface photos aren't there in the lunar orbiter photos. Jarrah has an aulis article where he supposedly demonstrates that those details are there, but in this series of youtube ones also admits that the originals weren't as clear ad the modern ones, and it's the modern ones that used in my comparisons that show they weren't.

It's a trend now with the more informed hoax proponents: concede that some arguments are stupid and some of the evidence is genuine, but it merely adds more layers of complexity in mixing and matching what they believe that just doesn't help them. They isolate fragments of the mission snd say 'this bit is false', but constructing a coherent and logically consistent timeliness from those is impossible.

The Saturn V was underpowered, but got people to orbit, where they stayed, and launched an S-IVB, which was somehow filmed from the CSM after TLI (as well as on TV) by those same people. The unmanned vehicle then took photos which were developed and spliced into other imagery by person or persons unknown somewhere at some point after retrieving the film from a different vehicle that no-one noticed - presumably distracted by the actual CM splashdown.

The number of hoax participants increases massively in their scheme of things, making secrecy and success far less likely.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: onebigmonkey on August 29, 2025, 05:08:14 AM
So the ADs have produced a response video to McKeegan's (which they make clear was recorded before his appearance on their live stream).

It is no response at all. Yet again they completely misrepresent what Dave has been saying, invent all manner of strawman arguments and show basic lack of research and understanding. They take offence that Dave McKeegan called them liars but are presenting that as being about their 'experiment'. It is not. McKeegan stated that they were misrepresenting the results of their 'experiment' by not showing consistent views of the film they used. He called them liars because they lied about McKeegan specifically - claiming he had not discussed a specific topic when he had, and they knew he had because they referenced a video in which he discussed it. Just like they lied about him refusing to come on livestreams because they lie. He didn't say that, and he actually turned up!

They repeat the claim that systems were pressurised to protect the film, when in it was to protect the photographic process, and don't seem to want try and establish even the most basic facts about the Corona image that they initially discussed. They insist that the image is damaged when it is not, it's film grain. They've made no effort to try and obtain the images to see for themselves.

It's sad that people fall for this BS.
Title: Re: Corona and Keyhole satellite imagery and the Apollo Detectives
Post by: TimberWolfAu on August 29, 2025, 12:16:03 PM
and they knew he had because they referenced a video in which he discussed it.

Not the first time they've done that to McKeegan. My favourite was when they were crowing that McKeegan had taken down a video about them, showing a listing of McKeegan's video, and the one they were crowing about was on screen, clear as day.