this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
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I typically use this line but I don’t know that the Soviets had the technology to track the flight completely at the time or to verify the landing.
The Russians kicked our* asses all through the Space Race. I'm sure they could at least intercept comms and look through their telescopes.
It was the nicest thing the USSR ever did for us. Borrowing from a blog piece I did, Eisenhower freaked out over the successful launch and orbit of Sputnik 1. Ike passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 [... and secured] a grant extended to Fairchild Semiconductor to further its development on the transistor... in the fecund economy of California.
Hence the US is now the big tech capitol of the world (though depending more and more on patents rather than innovation since the 2010s, so maybe not for long.)
While it’s definitely true they could’ve intercepted comms, I don’t know that they did do that. And telescopes would only get them to confirming things up to orbit probably.
I still think it’s likely they knew it was real, I’ve just never been able to confirm that they did for myself and so the argument I’m using it much weaker without that piece of evidence. Not to mention that Russia has had state actors promoting the conspiracy theory in recent years which makes things confusing
Well it's certainly not proof per se*, but considering all the bugs and spies the USSR planted it seems like a no brainer that they would be listening in on any and all unencrypted over the air communications.
Just FYI, the phrase is "per se", not "per say". It's Latin for "by itself".
Just FYI, Not according to my android keyboard's autocorrect.
Maybe it has learned from previous occasions. Mine doesn't suggest either option.
If I remember correctly, it was pretty easy to intercept the communications. The Americans also dropped a few mirrors on the moon and the Soviets used them to fire lasers at the moon.
Not only intercept, but they could easily check if the signal was coming from the Moon.
What they couldn't do was get a photo of the ship.
Pretty sure they had the radio technology to intercept the radio communications and validate that they actually went far enough to reach the moon.
They absolutely had the tech to point a big antenna at the moon and listen in on communications and watch the video broadcasts.