[threefinger]

The Russians were in on the hoax because in 1968 they claimed they sent a rocket to the moon with two tortoises on it (Zond 5), in part to pretend they were testing the effects of the Van Allen belts. The hoax also claimed both tortoises returned to earth quite alive, apart from being a bit peckish because they hadn't been fed in almost a week.

I haven't yet worked out a plausible reason why the Russians would have aided the US's hoax space program, but I found some magic mushrooms in the garden today, and I have high hopes they'll do the trick.

The US also hoaxed the launch of their own rocket in 1968 (OV1-13) with a fake radiation instrumentation package. After a 13-month hoax mission to measure and map the Van Allen belts, they hoaxed having the certain knowledge how to pass an astronaut through the belt unharmed.

[Jan_Sobieski]

While you’re smoking your mushrooms, here’s some reading material…

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/former-head-of-roscosmos-now-thinks-nasa-did-not-land-on-the-moon/amp/