Apollo moon landings were proposed in 1967 and to end 1973-4?
Huh?
Apollo (well at that time a program leading to landing a man on the moon by the end of 1970) was proposed in
1958 shortly after the formation of NASA from its predecessor, NACA, and the amalgamation of ABMA and JPL into the new organisation occurred, not 1967. Initial plans were started under Eisenhower, who approved Project Mercury, funded the Saturn Rocket Programme and gave his go ahead on the contracting of Aerospace Companies for the Mercury follow up, Project Apollo. Apollo was announced publicly in July of 1960.
Apollo had its roots in the final NACA report which stated that the new agency's goals for the upcoming decade should be focused on manned exploration of the solar system, starting with the Moon. (A rather ambitious goal since at that time they were still 4 years away from the first Mercury flight.) After the formation of NASA there were numerous meetings to discuss the possibility of a lunar landing, could they do it, and if so, what approaches should be taken to it.
At Van Braun's first meeting with the new Director of NASA, Keith Glennan, he spoke highly enthusiastically of and even present a proposal for the first moon landing with the use of the, then, yet to be designed Saturn Rocket Family. Glennan was impressed enough by Von Braun, and the numerous reports (including a 1959 congressional report in which they polled the Aerospace industry itself) that stated that a lunar landing was preferred over a space station as a follow up from Mercury, to pass the proposal on to Eisenhower and ask for the ABMA to be incorporated into NASA (along with JPL and its team under William Pickering [had to get a Kiwi connection in here somehow.
].)
Eisenhower declared that the Saturn Rocket project was to be given the highest priority rating for development and hardware procurement. He also gave the go ahead on the proposed lunar program, by that time Project Apollo, and at the end of July, 1960, NASA held a conference with 1,300 representatives of the American Aerospace industry and the Government where they released their plans and challenged those at the conference to come up with equipment that would do it.
Much of this planning was actually put in jeopardy less than six months later when Kennedy won the 1960 Presidential Election. Apollo was moved to the back burner because Kennedy wasn't at all interested in the idea and it had been a Republican plan. In fact Kennedy almost killed Apollo. Had it not been for the disaster at the Bay of Pigs, and that he really needed something grand to rectify the problem, Apollo may never have happened. Instead Lyndon Johnson (then chairman on a senate board on spaceflight and a huge spaceflight supporter) convinced Kennedy that not only did the space programme have merit, but also that if they could beat the Soviets in space it would be a great step forward for the US. Kennedy took up the challenge and instead of cancelling Apollo and possibly even Mercury, threw his weight in behind them and as they say, the rest become history.
Actually here again the HB often miss a lot by not knowing the real history of Apollo. Most people think Apollo started with Kennedy in 1961, when in fact it isn't true, it began in 1958, three years earlier. Most people think that Kennedy imposed Apollo and the timeline of 1970 on NASA, but in reality Kennedy asked them when they could do it, and they replied, by the end of 1970. Why? Because that was what all their reports and the timelines they'd already created over the previous two years said. Many think that NASA designed the lunar equipment and told the industry to build it. Again this is totally wrong. NASA told the Aerospace industry what they needed the craft to do (be a shirt sleeves environment capsule to transport the crew of three to lunar orbit and have a Lander capable of landing two of them on the lunar surface, then re-launch and dock back up with the capsule which would return home) and then simply chose the best ideas the industry provided. In fact there were several rounds where the best ideas were taken from one round, and then everyone got to redesign based on that idea. The entire industry was involved almost from step one, all NASA did was coordinate the efforts and train the crews, which is why they could never have hoaxed it. Quite simply, those with a real understanding of the times and what occurred know it happened as advertised because there is no way to have hoaxed it successfully the way Apollo was done. It's only those that are extremely ignorant of the real history that think it could have been hoaxed, and they seem only too willing to remain ignorant of the true history because it conflicts with their beliefs.