JFDee
Senior Member.
In both moon landing hoax and flat earth context, a quote from Wernher von Braun (leader of the Apollo program) is used by believers. The claim is that he allegedly confirmed that it is impossible for a rocket to leave the earth at all.
Source: https://twitter.com/rokro11/status/1009157353940414464
This is the quote as text - it's supposedly from the 1953 book called "Conquest of the Moon" (Wernher von Braun, Fred L. Whipple, Willy Ley):
However, the quoted passage itself and the available reviews of the book are sufficient to debunk the claim.
There was a review of the book by Heinz Haber in The Saturday Review, January 1954 (facsimile available). It outlines what the book is about:
The calculations of the necessary amount of propulsion for a direct moon flight - deemed economically impossible - was based on the considerable size of the expedition: 50 people for six weeks on the moon, including a 'tank' for moving around and the construction of an underground base there.
In any case, this is obviously not the alleged admission of space travel being impossible from an engineering point of view.
Follow-up edit:
I have received my copy of "Conquest of the Moon". It's a bit smelly but in very good condition.
Here is my scan of the respective page:
The quote is accurate, however when put in context with the whole page, the debunk is confirmed.
The next paragraph after the one with the quote says:
Source: https://twitter.com/rokro11/status/1009157353940414464
This is the quote as text - it's supposedly from the 1953 book called "Conquest of the Moon" (Wernher von Braun, Fred L. Whipple, Willy Ley):
[Note that the actual text is unconfirmed. I have just ordered a used copy of this book and will confirm the quote later.]External Quote:"It is commonly believed that man will fly directly from the earth to the moon, but to do this, we would require a vehicle of such gigantic proportions that it would prove an economic impossibility. It would have to develop sufficient speed to penetrate the atmosphere and overcome the earth's gravity and, having traveled all the way to the moon, it must still have enough fuel to land safely and make the return trip to earth."
However, the quoted passage itself and the available reviews of the book are sufficient to debunk the claim.
- The most obvious objection to the interpretation in the tweet is that the impossibility involved is defined as economic. It doesn't say anything about a fundamental impossibility.
- The specification of a direct flight from earth to moon leaves open the consideration of alternative approaches. That is in fact one of the main issues discussed in the book, according to the available reviews.
There was a review of the book by Heinz Haber in The Saturday Review, January 1954 (facsimile available). It outlines what the book is about:
The alternative to the "direct flight" is given as the construction and launch of the moon crafts in orbit, in the vicinity of an orbital space station.External Quote:The objective of the project described is the exploration of a limited section of the moon's surface. The personnel of the expedition consists of fifty highly specialized and selected scientists and engineers who make the trip to the moon, land there, spend a total of six weeks on the desolate, airless face of the moon, and return to the home planet.
The project requires: (1) a space station and (2) three moonships. ...
The calculations of the necessary amount of propulsion for a direct moon flight - deemed economically impossible - was based on the considerable size of the expedition: 50 people for six weeks on the moon, including a 'tank' for moving around and the construction of an underground base there.
In any case, this is obviously not the alleged admission of space travel being impossible from an engineering point of view.
Follow-up edit:
I have received my copy of "Conquest of the Moon". It's a bit smelly but in very good condition.
Here is my scan of the respective page:

The quote is accurate, however when put in context with the whole page, the debunk is confirmed.
The next paragraph after the one with the quote says:
External Quote:From the space station's orbit, however, a journey to the moon becomes feasible. In the orbit we can construct the type of vehicles we require for the lunar trip, in the same way that we can build the space station. These vehicles will already have a speed of 15,840 miles per hour - the speed of the space station as it moves around the earth. Since we have this running start, we will not need excessive amounts of propellants or very powerful rocket motors [...]
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