That reminds me, someone the other day said to me that the reason the Eagle had to land long was because they "got lost" on the way down. Any comments or explanation on that? I know about the boulder field, but this is the first I have heard of they're already being long.
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Originally Posted by oynaz
It is not surprising that the Russians did not take the authencity into question. The scientific method have always been revered in Russia, so I do not think they even considered making propaganda over the matter.
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That does not conform to the historical record of the Soviets. For instance, they're teaching of Lamarkian evolution instead of Darwinian evolution, for political purposes. For instance, the incredible hype over their space "firsts" that turn out to be more stunts that actual accomplishments - like they're "rendevous" that was really two ballistically close paths rather than maneuvering together. The attitude and atmosphere of the Cold War strongly suggests that the Soviets would have screamed bloody murder if they thought it was a fake. With regards to scientific method being revered, pseudoscience exploded with the downfall of the USSR.
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Originally Posted by Tim_t7
Why would the Russians dispute it? They have no motive to.
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Why would the Soviet Union wish to openly discredit the West? This is not how they acted previously. All their propoganda was directed internally, towards the population. I think that it is your assumption that the Soviet Union would discredit the US to the world based on your experience of western politics, not a study on the history of the Soviet Union.
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I disagree. The Soviets were just as interested in external propaganda as internal. The whole space race was about convincing the world which political system was better by showing which had the best technological ability, which translates into best military might. The list of Russian Space Firsts trotted out glosses over the risky nature of their program and the distortions on some of the accomplishments, such as mentioned above. Yes, they were ahead at the beginning - first satellite, first human in space. But the gap wasn't that big.