Publisher's Note: Jerry Williams explores the popular conspiracy myths of the moon landing. Was it faked under top secret conditions? Thanks Dirk

I made a fun film showcasing the popular conspiracy about the moon landing that some say was faked by NASA.

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Exploding UFO Wakes Thousands in SC (Video)

Story by Tom Rose
Originally posted 2/14/2012

A streaking flash of blue light, what many witnesses are calling a UFO, burst over the midnight skies of South Carolina early on Monday morning. What was it? No one really knows, but the object, caught on tape, has astronomers trying to allay fears in a nervous public.

The unidentified flying object was caught on a home security cam, reflected in the window of a parked car, and a nighttime sky camera which showed the UFO blasting through the sky trailed by a flashing tail.

Local astronomers were immediately consulted and tried to allay public fears by saying the OVNI was probably a comet or meteorite, even though such celestial phenomenon are usually well-known and expected by the time an object of this size burns up in the atmosphere.

Still, one local resident, interviewed by the local FOX affiliate in the video below, admits she was scared and wondered for just a moment if it was "aliens" attacking.

Here's the video:




Video Link

What do you think? Why weren't scientists aware this UFO was streaking through the sky beforehand? Is it a comet or meteorite?

 Source

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Our A & E Ancient Aliens Season 3, DVD promotional contest ends February 28, 2012, so hurry and send your entry in today!






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Photo of the Moon, taken by Sunny Williams/LITS

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Experts say Gingrich moon base dreams not lunacy

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich wants to create a lunar colony that he says could become a U.S. state. There's his grand research plan to figure out what makes the human brain tick. And he's warned about electromagnetic pulse attacks leaving America without electricity.

To some people, these ideas sound like science fiction. But mostly they are not.

Several science policy experts say the former House speaker's ideas are based in mainstream science. But somehow, Gingrich manages to make them sound way out there, taking them first a small step and then a giant leap further than where other politicians have gone.

Gingrich's promise that "by the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon" got amped up in a recent debate in Florida, which lost thousands of jobs with the end of the space shuttle program. By then, the lunar base had become a colony and even a potential state, and his moon ideas were ridiculed by rival Mitt Romney.

Returning to the moon and building an outpost there is not new. Until three years ago, it was U.S. policy and billions of dollars were spent on that idea.

Staying on the moon dates at least to 1969, when a government committee recommended that NASA first build a winged, reusable space shuttle followed by a space station and then a moon outpost. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush proposed going to the moon and staying there.
Sixteen years later, in 2005, his son, President George W. Bush, proposed a similar lunar outpost, phased out the space shuttle program and spent more than $9 billion designing a return to the moon program.

George Washington University space policy director Scott Pace, who was NASA's associate administrator in the second Bush administration and is a Romney supporter, said the 2020 lunar base date Gingrich mentioned was feasible when it was proposed in 2005.

But it is no longer, felled by funding cuts and President Barack Obama's decision to cancel the program. Pace said it would be hard to figure out when NASA could get back to the moon, but that such a return is doable.
What kept killing return-to-the moon plans were the costs, starting in 1969. The proposal died 20 years later when the price tag was released: more than $700 billion in current dollars. The second President Bush's plans started running into problems due to insufficient funding. After a special commission said those plans were not sustainable, Obama cancelled the return-to-the-moon program. Instead, he ordered NASA to aim astronauts toward an asteroid and eventually Mars, something many space experts say is even more ambitious.

"Some of you may like it and you may dislike it, but I gave the boldest explanation of going into space since John F. Kennedy in 1961," Gingrich said this week in Florida. "I believe in an America of big ideas and big solutions. I believe if we unleash the American people we will rebuild the American dream."

In Florida, nearly all the Republican presidential candidates promoted private companies sending astronauts into space. Several companies are building private spaceships. Commercial space companies taking over the job of getting Americans into low Earth orbit is a cornerstone of the Obama space plan. But, again, money has been an issue.

For example, NASA received $406 million in its current budget for private space programs. Obama had asked Congress for $805 million.

Neal Lane, former head of the National Science Foundation and White House science adviser during the Clinton administration, said Gingrich's proposals aren't crazy, although he may disagree with some of them. Gingrich's ideas and actions are "very pro-science," said Lane, who credited Gingrich with protecting federal science research from budget cuts in the 1990s.

"He's on the edge of mainstream thinking about big science. Except for the idea of establishing a colony on the moon, it's not over the edge," added Syracuse University science policy professor Henry Lambright.

Read more at MSNBC...

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Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare, shown here in red/orange as that is the color typically used to show light in the 304 Angstrom wavelength. The flare began at 10:38 PM ET on Jan. 22, peaked at 10:59 PM and ended at 11:34 PM. CREDIT: NASA/SDO/AIA

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Solar Storm Forecasts Improve as Sun’s Fury Increases

Space.com- If this week's raging solar storm was any indication, the sun is ramping up its activity — and scientists will be ready for it. By meticulously studying our planet's star, they are able to predict these potentially dangerous space weather events better than ever before.

A huge solar flare erupted Jan. 23, triggering the strongest radiation storm in nearly a decade. A wave of charged particles, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), bombarded Earth yesterday (Jan. 24). The bombardment is over now, but some minor disruptions to spacecraft and power grids were reported.

Scientists' forecast for the arrival of the disruptive wave was off by only 13 minutes, far more accurate than in the past. And with much of the world's networks interconnected and populations increasingly reliant on technology, the ability to predict and track potentially harmful space weather events will become ever more crucial. [Photos: Huge Solar Flare Sparks Major Radiation Storm]

Solar flares and CMEs are expected to increase in frequency as the sun emerges from the dormant phase of its 11-year activity cycle.  

Read more...

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Video Link


Filmed aboard the International Space Station, Richard Garriott's eight-minute science fiction movie "Apogee of Fear", has yet to be released by NASA. Why?  It's goofy, it's whacky and it shows that the astronauts on the ISS can have fun too, or are bored and have too much time on their hands?

Well, I did laugh.  Even more so at NASA for being such tight a$$es (and they plan to edit).  After all, if they'd release it now, you wouldn't have to watch (like I did), this poor quality cam vid by Dragon Con.

Uh, thanks DC!

NASA Relents: Apogee of Fear, First Sci-Fi Film Shot in Space, Will Be Released

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Could the eerie sounds heard 'round the world be of Heavenly origin?

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Strange sounds have been heard all over the world.  There are rumblings, humming, loud whistling sounds and even what sounds like trumpet blasts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_57ht7Ob8nc

Sound heard recently in Costa Rica:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JHnShNkelo

Here is what Earth sounds like from space.  It sounds like a symphony:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bnU6K1y468

Now listen to how Jupiter sounds, as recorded by NASA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toSMu632QhM

And Saturn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LswSW60Zd4g

Neptune:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwnpXll_A_E

Mercury:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=894Aejo-R0U

Venus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4ll-DxDmbw

The Sun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2eQPOo95l0

Sounds of the Universe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE2fTDecEww

More sounds from space:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gcszvFrq8Y


So what are the eerie rumblings, whistles, hums and trumpeting that people around the world are hearing?  When these sounds are heard, could it be that atmospheric conditions are just right, allowing sounds from space to be heard right here on Earth?

Are these sounds due to seismic activity?  Not likely, as in most cases there were no reports of seismic activity occurring at the time these sounds were heard.

Is there a possibility that these sounds are due to some type of communication?  If so, then from who, or what?

There is some unseen, unknown force at work here.  It's most likely natural but for now it remains a mystery. -SW

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International Space Station by SW/LITS.

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Source: Space.com

The astronauts living on the International Space Station (ISS) are gearing up for a milestone event in February — the first visit of a commercial spaceship to the orbiting outpost.


The private spaceflight company SpaceX plans to launch its unmanned Dragon capsule to orbit Feb. 7 atop the firm's Falcon 9 booster from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. The capsule will carry a load of food, clothing and other supplies for the six-man crew of the space station.

"We're excited about that," NASA astronaut Don Pettit told SPACE.com in an interview Wednesday (Jan. 4) from the station. "Anytime you have a visiting vehicle coming by, that's an exciting day."

Dragon's flight is partially funded by NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which aims to stimulate the development of private spacecraft to carry cargo to the station now that NASA's space shuttle fleet is retired. [Gallery: Dragon, SpaceX's Private Spacecraft]

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX is the first of a number of companies vying to fly test flights to the International Space Station. NASA has also awarded funding to the Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., which is developing the Cygnus spacecraft to fly on its Taurus 2 rocket.

Dragon is due to make an automated rendezvous with the International Space Station at about 240 miles (386 kilometers) above the Earth. Once it approaches within a few meters of the laboratory, astronauts inside will use the station's robotic arm to grab hold of the capsule and attach it to the outpost.

"It's going to be packed with all kinds of supplies for us, and it's sort of the first of many wagon trains coming up here to bring us supplies," Pettit said.

After being docked for about a week, Dragon will depart the space station, carrying cargo back down to Earth, where the capsule will be retrieved after landing in the Pacific Ocean.

Continue reading...

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Photo taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) shows high sunlight reflecting off the moon's Aristarchus crater. CREDIT: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

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Giant Moon Crater Revealed in Up-Close Photos

Source: Space.com

Spectacular new images of a gigantic crater on the moon were captured recently by a low-skimming NASA satellite.
In November 2011, the space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft passed over the moon's Aristarchus crater, which spans 25 miles (40 km) and sinks more than 2 miles (3.5 km) deep. Photos and video of the crater from LRO's sweep were released Dec. 25.
The huge and highly reflective Aristarchus is easily visible with the naked eye. But the details shown in the new photos are a special treat from an extremely low flyover by LRO.

Continue reading...

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NASA Questions Astronaut's Right to Sell Apollo 13 Memorabilia

LITS Notes:  My personal opinion is that if NASA wanted such documents back, they should have asked for them years ago.  Knowing what astronauts were paid back then, I think Lovell deserves to do with the list as he sees fit.

Would I like to see the list donated to the space museum?  Sure but possession is nine tenths of the law and NASA is pushing that one tenth for all it's worth... -SW

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