Apollo-Soyuz: The Joint Hoax?
Chapter 3
The significance of selecting A. Leonov as Soyuz 19 commander
"An important question arises regarding the joint Soyuz-Apollo flight. If this Soviet-American project was not for real, then this [Soyuz 19] flight could have been falsified, but this time with our [Soviet] direct participation. But a member of our crew was cosmonaut Leonov. Perhaps this explains [Leonov’s] position as an ardent defender of the US achievements on the Moon."
– Reader's letter, Yaroslav Mikhailov, Moscow
Was the ASTP a special, clandestine operation?
The Apollo Moon hoax, along with the alleged lunar missions of US astronauts (1968-1972), with hindsight, was demonstrably a clandestine operation on a global scale. This is the opinion of many, including the author, who also finds significance in the fact that the USSR was a silent but nevertheless important accomplice in that special program.
Since the Brezhnev leadership of the USSR the policy of political rapprochement continued with the United States (the so-called "policy of détente"). Then, in 1975, as with the Apollo Moon hoax, the ASTP played out as a second global operation, but this time it was a joint program.
By way of contrast to the Moon hoax, the role of the USSR in the ASTP deception was an active one, both in terms of political significance and expended resources.
Only a handful of people from the political and scientific elite as well as the upper echelons of the intelligence agencies knew the true nature of the ASTP, but this time the Soviets and the Americans were working together in full cooperation. Nevertheless, again in the opinion of the author, there must have been at least five other people from both countries in the know but not part of this elite group.
On the US side were the three astronauts T. Stafford, D. Slayton and V. Brandt, who stayed behind remaining on the ground. On the Soviet side were those who really flew into space on this mission. These were cosmonauts A. Leonov and V. Kubasov. They, as executors, spearheaded this special operation of the ASTP. Naturally, to participate in such a joint clandestine operation, individuals with special personal qualities were selected for the project.
The Soyuz 19 commander had excellent relations with the Americans and was fully trusted, not only with participating astronauts but with all the US ASTP partners. Fate brought the author to meet a man who, in 1976, soon after the ASTP, accompanied A. Leonov and V. Kubasov who were traveling as part of the group to a conference in Los Angeles.
This individual said that at every opportunity, A. Leonov demonstrated his especially-warm relationship with T. Stafford, D. Slayton and V. Brandt, and with the other American partners as well.
Figure 1. A. Leonov and V. Kubasov before their flight to the USA
There is not much to say about the second member of the crew, flight engineer V. Kubasov. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the personality of the commander is, of course, all important. And the second can best be expressed by the well-known proverb, birds of a feather flock together. No doubt the flight commander selected a very suitable assistant. Undoubtedly, the special services of both sides verified this choice, and approved it.
Outline of the ASTP special operation
Considering the fact that the appointed commander of the Soyuz 19 had no experience of space rendezvous and docking with another spacecraft in orbit, and that there were many better qualified cosmonauts that could have flown this mission, an obvious conclusion for this selection can be reached.
The actual ASTP program did not provide for a rendezvous with the Apollo craft, nor would any docking procedures actually be carried out. Consequently, during the ‘joint flight’ the Apollo component of the ASTP remained on the ground. Only the Soyuz 19 craft actually flew in space.
As indicated in Chapter 1, the seriousness and intensity of the preparations were such that while the Soviet team was earnestly preparing the space technology required for the ASTP flight, the Americans did virtually nothing in this respect.
It is clear that both A. Leonov’s and V. Kubasov’s participation in the dress rehearsal of the Soviet element of the ASTP mission was unnecessary. Other cosmonauts risked their lives to prove the technology – for example A. Filipchenko and N. Rukavishnikov (Soyuz 16). The two Soyuz 19 cosmonauts were reserved for this special ASTP mission.
Any clandestine operation requires a cover story. And, if it's to be a significant global operation, the cover story requires more than verbal accounts and appropriate documents. In this case, the event required considerable material expense and the efforts of many thousands of people. Furthermore, these people had to be kept fully in the dark, and with a few exceptions, the fruits of their labours following the operation were discarded in the trash and into landfills. Some exceptions were selected ASTP items that were sent to museums.
A striking example is the US Apollo Moon hoax – not a single American ever landed on the Moon, neither did any astronaut even fly around the Moon. And how much money was spent on this operation? According to different sources, the cost at the time was about US$25-27 billion. This was spent on the development and manufacture of rockets and command and service space modules. After all, it was necessary to demonstrate about a dozen launches ‘to the moon’. Only several dozen pieces of Apollo craft were produced, including the so-called ‘boilerplate’ capsules. There were actual training exercises conducted with these capsules; sometimes in pools, and sometimes with the involvement of warship detachments. About a dozen lunar modules (LMs) were built. None actually landed on the lunar surface.
Without counting the giants of the aerospace industry, hundreds of medium and small firms were involved in the Apollo program. The organisation of more than a dozen splashdowns of Apollo astronauts – supposedly coming back from space, involved major US Navy ships and must have been a major cost. We shouldn’t forget the financing of the controlled media (newspapers, television, film studios) and much, much more. If we take into account the extraordinary global propaganda success of the Apollo Moon deception, then the cost was undoubtedly fully justified.
More important is the fact that the individuals who built all these items of space hardware – the rockets, the command and service modules, the lunar modules and so on, were absolutely certain that they were creating the means for landing humans on the Moon. At the peak of this activity NASA had more than 200,000 workers and specialists working in the Apollo program. But those actually in the know only needed to be, and were, just a few of these many thousands.
In the case of the ASTP hoax everything was run on similar lines. Here we will only mention the development of a special Soyuz modification, the Soyuz-M spacecraft. This required a 40-50% modification of the basic Soyuz design. In all, six fully-fledged Soyuz-M spacecraft were built. What was to be the future of the new modified Soyuz? There were two unmanned tests in space, one manned expedition and then the Soyuz 19 mission itself. About a year after the ASTP flight, as Soyuz 22, another manned Soyuz-M flew into space. And with this flight the flying history of the Soyuz-M craft ended.
It turned out that thousands of people worked on the major redesign of the standard craft purely for the sake of the two manned flights. Not to mention how many planning meetings were held. Delegations were dashing back and forth from the USSR to the US. There was feverish activity. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of Soviet specialists who created specific equipment believed unconditionally that they were facilitating the first joint Soviet-American space flight. In short, everything played out as in the Apollo Moon hoax.
Surprising restraint in the memoirs of A. Leonov and V. Kubasov
It is most interesting to read what the commander and flight engineer have written about this ‘joint mission’ in their memoirs. It turns out that there’s practically nothing!
The author received an interesting letter on this subject from his colleague D. Kropotov:
"In my opinion, A. Leonov's silence about the details of the ASTP flight is curious. For example, in Leonov's book Life Among the Stars,1 written after the ASTP, there is no detailed description of this flight. But this was the peak and the end of Leonov's space career!"
"V. Kubasov's memoirs were published in Touching Space.2 I looked through the book and, surprisingly, just a few paragraphs were devoted to the ASTP mission. Basically, these are stories about Kubasov’s first and third flights. Moreover, the third flight (Soyuz 36) is described virtually minute-by-minute, including re-entry and landing, but about Kubasov’s greatest achievement in his cosmonaut's career, the ASTP flight – surprisingly little. Most likely, he is afraid to write much on the subject of ASTP." (emphasis added)
In the opinion of the author, this is to be expected. After all, it is well known that the 'pen is mightier than the sword'. The more the author writes in his book about this ‘joint’ mission, which didn’t take place, the more chances there are of getting the facts confused. Hence the quite understandable modesty in his memoir when it comes to published works. A careless word said in any interview can always be denied by responding, "I did not mean that" or "the interviewer misunderstood," etc.).
What really happened on this mission requiring these two Soviet cosmonauts to keep silent? Answers to this question will be addressed in the following chapters.
ISBN: 978-1-898541-19-6
Aulis Publishers, September, 2018
English translation from the Russian by BigPhil
References
Internet links validated January 10, 2018
- A. Leonov and A. Sokolov, Life Among the Stars
- V. Kubasov, Touching Space
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