Lourdes SIGINT station

Transcription

Jarrah: Once again, just like the radio hams, Russia lacked the ability to tune into the 2GHz frequencies used by the Apollo spacecraft. Jodrell Bank had a telescope capable to do so, but it was used to track the Soviet moon craft as opposed to the American vehicles. In fact, when the Soviet Union, launched Luna 9, in January 1966, they were still relying on Jodrell Bank to track their own spacecraft. Actually, Jodrell Bank had three - count ‘em - three separate radio telescopes. In the foreground of this photo is the Mark II elliptical radio telescope not long after it was erected in 1964. Behind it, in the distance, is the 76m Mark I, now known as the Lovell telescope. A “smaller” 15m (50 ft) antenna was also put up in 1964 that was later used to track the Soviet Zond and US Ranger space probes. The fifty-footer also picked up the Apollo 11 radio traffic when they were on or near the moon. At the same time, the Mark I was tracking the Soviets’ Luna 15 and the Mark II was free for paying customers. Did I mention they could do all this at the same time? They had three different radio telescopes. Implying that Jodrell Bank could not follow both Luna 15 and Apollo 11 at the same time is a false dilemma fallacy. Jarrah: Why would the Soviets need to rely on the British to track their own lunar probes if they already had their own Radio telescope capable of doing just that. It seems that by the time Apollo landed men on the moon, the Russians still lacked this technology. The day after Apollo 11’s return, Time reported: Jarrah: The first details of the Russian shot came not from Moscow but from the irrepressible English astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell. “Listening to Apollo with one ear and Luna with the other.” Again, the Soviets did not RELY on Jodrell Bank to track their satellites. In fact, after the Luna 9 incident, Lovell’s irrepressible eavesdropping on their lunar probe transmissions was becoming more than a mere nuisance to the Soviets. The Soviets only gave pointing data to Jodrell Bank when they wanted their achievements verified to the world. NASA, on the other hand, never needed an independent source to verify their achievements. Narrator: The pictures were rushed to press. The scoop of the century nearly caused an international incident. Alexander Basilevsky: Next day, was a big scandal. In our newspapers they say that Englishmen, they have stolen our pictures, our data. This British scientist grabbed our data and then British media published our pictures before we did this? I was very angry. “They have stolen our pictures?” Is it just me, or does anyone else out there get the impression that the little Soviet feller’ is, oh, should I say, annoyed at the Englishman for stealing his pictures? Maybe I just can’t read Soviet body language, but it seems to me that if Alexander here was aware that he was totally dependent upon that very same Englishman for fetching his data - monitoring and recording the radio telemetry and video signals from their spacecraft, then, why isn’t Alexander happy? Why isn’t he praising the Englishman. Doesn’t Alexander realize that without the Englishman, the Soviets would have no chance of ever seeing their pictures? Doesn’t he realize that he and his fellow countrymen are so stupid that they don’t know how to point a dish into space and find their own spacecraft? Isn’t it amazing though, that the Soviets were able to supply Jodrell Bank the pointing data for their spacecraft even when they weren’t able to range the spacecraft themselves to generate that pointing data. Where did the Soviets get that data from? Why did the Soviets lack the motivation to develop their own radio telescope technology and instead chose to fall two decades behind the US and the rest of the world before they got around to doing it? If all that was true, as Jarrah claims, then why is Alexander so angry? Why did Alexander act like he simply wanted the irrepressible Englishman to leave them alone? So, is there any hard evidence that the Soviets could track their own spacecraft to the moon? Jarrah: An alternative conclusion could be that the Luna 1 never existed. The US government had the telemetry to prove it. And yet, they let the USSR get away with it. Why? The US had the telemetry to prove Luna 1 never existed? [Sigh.] The existence of telemetry implies there was a spacecraft that transmitted it. If there’s no spacecraft, there’s no telemetry. Saying that the US had telemetry that proved a spacecraft didn’t exist is simply the fallacy of making things up as he goes along. It’s a ridiculous bare assertion fallacy. If Luna 1 didn’t exist, then how did the Soviets collect all the data from that historic first moon shot? How did they deduce the existence of high-energy particles in the outer Van Allen belt? What made them think that the moon had no detectable magnetic field? And how did they not only predict the existence of a solar wind but also correctly guess its flux? All this before “proven” US spacecraft were able to go to the moon and verify the Soviet claims. So, riddle me this Batman. We know that the first time the Soviets sent tracking data to Jodrell Bank was for Luna 2. That means that Jodrell Bank did not track Luna 1. Right? So how did the Soviets collect all this data from Luna 1, if they were not able to track it themselves? Hmm? This is the main reason why Jarrah is so anxious to discredit Luna 1, because its existence proves that the Soviets were able to track it to the moon and beyond, since it missed its target, using the DSN stations they had in place at the time without any assistance from Jodrell Bank. And if the Soviets could track Luna 1, then what stopped them from tracking all their other spacecraft? Nothing. The fact is that before Sputnik launched in 1957, the Soviets had an extensive near-earth network of tracking stations. Before Luna 1 launched in 1959, the Soviets had a fully capable DSN system. And by the time Gordon Cooper flew the last of the manned Mercury spacecraft into earth orbit, in May 1963, the Soviets were monitoring the launch from their largest overseas Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) facility in Lourdes, Cuba. Since the flight plan for all US manned missions were filed with the FAA weeks in advance, to clear the area over the Atlantic of all private and commercial aircraft, the Soviets had more than enough time to position a few of their 60 or more known Electronics Intelligence (ELINT) surveillance ships along the flight path. The Soviets monitored every US manned mission because they suspected the US might hide auxiliary payloads, like secret spy satellites, on their rockets. And in December, 1968, when Lovell, Anders, and Borman, aboard Apollo 8, became the first humans to leave earth orbit and rendezvous with another celestial body, the Soviets could track their spacecraft to altitudes that would put them well into the Inner Van Allen Belt, if they had taken that path, using nothing more than their fleet of surveillance ships and subs. The Soviets clearly knew when and where every moon-bound spacecraft left parking orbit and whether any surprise packages continued to orbit the earth. So, at the end of the day, we find that the Soviets were more than capable of tracking any spacecraft they wanted, either in earth’s orbit or out into deep space. If the Soviets had the ability to listen in to Apollo and didn’t, [Chuckles] that would truly be stupid. Ciao moon hoax conspirators, wherever you are.