A former head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos has questioned the veracity of the Apollo 11 moon landing of 1969.
Dmitry Rogozin issued a statement on Telegram on Sunday, stating, “About a decade ago, when I worked for the government, I sent an official request to Roscosmos to provide me with documentary evidence of the Americans’ stay on the moon.”
Rogozin stated that he was “embarrassed” by the fact that Soviet cosmonauts returned from space missions scarcely able to stand and requiring lengthy recoveries, while US astronauts “crawled out of their lunar ships like cucumbers.”
Rogozin added that he continued to seek for evidence on the US Moon landings while employed by Roscosmos, but was unable to discover anything other than the “angry accusations” of academics who claimed that he undermined Russia’s “sacred cooperation with NASA.”
Rogozin also reported receiving a phone call from a high-ranking official who accused him of “aggravating the international situation” with his doubts regarding the Apollo 11 landing.
“I did not undermine or aggravate anything, but I did try to get to the bottom of the intricacies and establish, at least for myself, the true state of affairs in the issue of our competitors’ exploration of the Moon. Rogozin remarked that it was unclear to him how the United States, at that level of technological development in the ’60s of the previous century, accomplished what they cannot do now.
Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins aboard.
Armstrong was the first human to set foot on the moon’s surface, and all three became internationally renowned figures.
