THE TRUTH ABOUT THE US LUNAR PROGRAM
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the USA (NASA, for its acronym in English) recognized on the centenary of the arrival of man on the Moon, that its program was the result of human error and an unexpected requirement.
“A moon landing was only scheduled to fulfill President Kennedy's promise to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade [of the 1960s]. But something unforeseen happened and we had to send six more missions after Apollo 11," said the administrator of the space agency.
In a crowded press conference held at the Kennedy Space Center, the also astronaut revealed that this "something unforeseen" had Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, as its protagonist.
“Armstrong foolishly lost his car key on the Moon, which wouldn't have been a problem except the key ring it was on was a wedding anniversary gift from his wife Carol and he took a fancy to get it back. When the mission time ran out and the lunar module returned to Earth, he threw a tremendous tantrum and threatened to tell the Russians the moon landing was a hoax if we didn't come back for his key chain."
In this regard, the NASA administrator admitted that, indeed, a false moon landing had been filmed in a studio "in case something went wrong", but that it was never used, and stressed that all the images disseminated about the event are one hundred percent true. ".
He commented that after Apollo 12 was sent and it returned without "the damn keychain", NASA got a replica of it that would travel on Apollo 13, which James Lovell, head of that mission, would be in charge of bringing back as If they had found it on the moon.
“Now you will understand the true meaning of the famous phrase 'Houston, we have a problem.' It was not because of the explosion of the liquid oxygen tank in the Service Module, since we always had a clear idea of what to do in the face of a contingency like that; It was because they weren't going to be able to bring back the fucking key chain”.
He added that it was not until Apollo 17 that they were able to find the happy object, thanks to the fact that with the Lunar Rover, specially designed for it and tested in previous missions, the search area could be expanded.
"We spent millions for an old keychain that wasn't even worth 15 dollars, but the prestige of the Nation was at stake," said the astronaut, slightly annoyed, who commented that Armstrong explained at the time that he took the car key to the Moon so his wife wouldn't use it in his absence, since she didn't have a driver's license and drove like a lunatic.