INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Washington: The view from the lunar landing module on July 20, 1969, was - in mankind's best guess - the first
time a living being traveled to another celestial body to observe the luminous blue planet shrouded in the seemingly infinite darkness of
space.But before that moment, the crew of Apollo 11 hurtling toward the moon radioed mission command in Houston to ask about a curious
object they saw on their third day in space."Do you have any idea where the S-IVB is with respect to us" commander Neil Armstrong asked,
referring to the third stage of the Saturn V rocket that was jettisoned earlier in the flight.Mission control had an answer about three
minutes later, according to a NASA radio transcript of the mission."Apollo 11, Houston," the command replied
"The S-IVB is about 6,000 nautical miles from you now
Over." That satisfied Armstrong, who said 12 seconds later: "Okay
Thank you."The seemingly innocuous exchange has become a touchstone for UFO-sighting enthusiasts and alien truthers, and now, seemingly fake
news.Buzz Aldrin, 88, the second astronaut to set foot on the moon, believed that the crew saw an extraterrestrial spacecraft at this
moment, and a "lie detector" test proves it, at least according to the British tabloid the Daily Star
That's not quite right."He has never said he saw a UFO
This story has been a fabrication for the sake of headlines and is not true as far as Buzz Aldrin is concerned," his spokeswoman, Christina
Korp, told The Washington Post in a statement Tuesday
That echoes Aldrin's 2015 comment on Reddit that the object "was not an alien." The Daily Star did not return a request for comment.The
truth is out there, if only the Daily Star looked closely.The tabloid's story focuses on a vocal analysis conducted by the Ohio-based
Institute of BioAcoustic Biology and Sound Health, a nonprofit institution that founder Sharry Edwards has said developed a program that can
evaluate how truthful or confident someone feels about a subject they are talking about.Edwards told The Post she used Aldrin's interview
from the 2006 Discovery Science made for TV-documentary "Apollo 11: The Untold Story" to analyze Aldrin's remarks."There was something out
there that was close enough to be observed and what could it be" Aldrin recounted about the incident, adding that crew member Michael
Collins viewed ellipses on the L-shaped object when viewed through a telescope
"That didn't tell us very much," he said.The moment called for restraint from theorizing what the object might be during one of the most
scrutinized missions in human history, Aldrin said."Who knows what somebody would have demanded that we turn back because of aliens or
whatever the reason is," he said on the program
The crew decided to move on and mention it later in mission debrief, Aldrin added.In an analysis, Edwards says Aldrin "has a firm belief in
what he saw but logical awareness that he cannot explain what he saw; therefore he thinks he should be doubted."She said the conclusion was
published years ago but that she does not know how it became suddenly relevant.Aldrin has already clarified his position on the incident.In
a response on the NASA website after the documentary was released, Aldrin said he believed he saw one of four panels separated from the
S-IVB heading on the same trajectory toward the moon but on a slightly different course
That discussion was edited out and the rest was "taken out of context," NASA said.In the 2015 Reddit thread, he said the sun must have
glinted off one of the panels.The recurring UFO story is the result in part of the public distorting the scientific term UFO to mean a craft
with "little green men," NASA chief historian Bill Barry told The Post.Yet the Apollo 11 mission was already a significant moment in human
history without the intrigue of alien spacecraft.The median age of Americans is about 38, or 11 years younger than the mission itself
Most people alive today were not around to hear President John F
Kennedy say in 1961 that the United States would send a man to the moon and return him safely to Earth.The Soviet Union had already been the
first to send a man into Earth orbit, frustrating NASA and creating a belief that the Russians might have an edge
"They were basically on a war footing," he said of NASA leadership.NASA's lessons from the mission were extensive
For instance, leaders honed the organization for large scientific projects, which later helped develop the International Space Station,
And investment in science paved the way from everything from the internet to cellphones.Discoveries also offered more hints about the origin
of life on Earth and the history of the universe. Evaluating the rock samples from the moon helped confirm theories that the body is the
result of an object that smashed into the Earth and later coalesced to form our satellite, Barry said.That lesson amounted to a common
refrain among astronauts, he added: "We left the Earth and what we discovered was ourselves."In the next five centuries, humanity will
remember the 20th century for three things, Barry said - two world wars and the U.S
landing on the moon.Aldrin has been known to defend that history, now and in the past.In 2002, filmmaker Bart Sibrel confronted Aldrin,
demanding that he swear on a Bible that the landing was authentic
Sibrel called him a "coward and a liar."Sibrel was adding "thief" when Aldrin struck him in the face
No charges were filed.The moment was captured on video
There were no camera tricks
The punch was real.(This story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
