Suppressed Inventions and Other Discoveries (51 page)

When Deke Slayton was asked about the pressure test he reportedly blurted out, "Man, we've just been lucky. We've used the same test on everything we've done with the Mercury and the Gemini up to this point, and we've just been lucky as hell."
²⁸

Why do I doubt that? I suspect that everything about the pressurization test is a lie. I think that it was a one time only occurrence specially configured to suit the job at hand.

Borman contended that Ed White and his wife Pat were friends of his and that he listened to the audio tapes of the fire over and over again. Then he states, "The only comfort derived from listening to the tapes was the knowledge that the agony hadn't lasted long; that death had come from noxious fumes before the flames reached them."
²⁹

Borman's acumen might be judged by the fact that Eastern Airlines played submarine when he was at the helm as CEO. Nobody dies in 14 seconds from noxious fumes. Ed White died inhaling super heated oxygen which set fire to his lungs, throat and skin the same way that technician's hand burned in the test years before. The chances are that they survived for minutes and were conscious for a good part of that time. However, death was definite after the first breath.

Borman then writes about "nuts" and disgruntled employees who tried to give his committee information:

As the investigation progressed, all sorts of nuts came out of the woodwork with their own theories. There also were some serious allegations

directed against North American Aviation, most of them coming from former employees with large axes to grind. They charged the the company with criminal neglect and mismanagement, and we investigated each accusation thoroughly. We found that in every case we were getting input from people who simply had personal grievances against the company, with no evidence to back them up.
³⁰

That's odd! One of Borman's superiors, General Phillips, had also made a report in November, 1966 that shredded North American Aviation. He could hardly be classified as a disgruntled employee. Speaking of classified, Michael Gray in his book disclosed the fact that Phillip's report was classified.
³¹
Borman apparently ignored that report.

Time and time again, NASA has bragged about how open NASA was. One wonders, then, who classified this report? What could it possibly have had to do with national security? No wonder that Bill Kaysing was never able to obtain a copy. To paraphrase an old saying, the "TOP SECRET" stamp, because it reflects patriotism, has always been the last refuge of scoundrels.

On April 27, 1967 the 204 Board was still in the process of almost learning new things. A low level employee named Thomas Baron had already testified in Washington and now was a target for NASA's ire. His voluminous reports were day by day accounts of North American's screwups and were written years earlier. It seems very strange that both Baron's and Phillips' reports disappeared. After accepting his reports, the 204 Board wrote off his testimony.

By the very next evening Baron, his wife and stepdaughter would all be dead. The two women were totally innocent but, maybe, that's what they get for associating with a NASA whistle-blower.

One of the common accidents to governmentally sensitive folks in Florida is the old railroad crossing gambit. There are lots of semi-deserted country roads and active railroad tracks in Florida. Usually after the grisly event, the bodies are found by someone so powerful that he can have them immediately cremated, frequently before an autopsy can be performed—which is contrary to Florida state law. And they used to tell us horror stories about the KGB! I no longer live in Florida so if they come after me for writing these words they will have to think up a new method.

And please note: I am not suicidal. I say that because suicide is a common cause of death in this context. For instance there is a suspicion that another casualty of NASA is Mrs. Pat White, who committed suicide a few years alter her husband's cremation. From post-mortem reports—she wasn't suicidal cither. Low level whistle blowers die like flies and yet, General Phillips, goes on to head NASA after he told basically the same story.

Borman also complained about the windows that kept fogging up on his Gemini 7 mission and again on Apollo 8. North American, for four straight years failed to find a solution for such a simple problem as window fogging yet he couldn't find anything seriously wrong with them. That's about par, isn't it?

Borman was stationed at Clark Air Force base in Manila during 1952 and part of his duty was to inspect a huge warehouse that stored heavy equipment, supposedly ready to roll on an instant's notice. His inspection revealed that, "there wasn't a vehicle or a piece of equipment that wasn't in deplorable shape—most of it unusable without major overhauls. The stuff had been there since the end of the war and obviously hadn't been touched since."
³²

The Captain in charge asked Borman to certify that it was in good condition and he refused. The code of West Point of "Duty and Honor" took precedence. However, when a Colonel insisted that he sign-off as in good condition he caved in. "Honor" be dammed. The new moral code is apparently totally dependent upon the rank of the officer who gives the order? Go along to get along.

Next Borman, still the politician that Collins first pegged him for, tells perhaps the greatest lie of his life. He concludes, "We didn't sweep a single mistake under the rug, and to this day I'm proud of the committee's honesty and integrity. "
³³
Presumably Mr. Borman, had his fingers crossed when he wrote that!

The committee was still in the middle of its stately review process when on April 7, 1967, a House subcommittee was also convened to investigate the fire. The next day a dismayed New York Times fired off a lead editorial. They used the words, "Even a high school chemistry student" (knows better than to play with 100 percent oxygen). The editorial went on to accuse those in charge of the Apollo project of "incompetence and negligence. "
³⁴

The 204 Board concluded with a real wrist spanker of a statement against NASA:

A sealed cabin, pressurized with a pure oxygen atmosphere without thought of fire hazard; an overly extensive distribution of combustible materials in the cabin; leaky plumbing carrying quate escape provisions for the crew, and inadequate provisions for rescue or medical assistance.
vulnerable wiring carrying spacecraft power; a combustible and corrosive coolant; inade

Both committees would prove about as useful as a screen door in space (and about as effective as the politicians who manned the Warren Commission's investigation of the Kennedy assassination a few years before). Like all government inquisitions they use a method best described as "let's all gang-bang the whistle-blower."

At the beginning of the Mercury Program, NASA tests on pure oxygen proved that the safe pressure limit for breathing was between 2.9 and 6.67 psi. But they also concluded that pressures, "outside these limits would cause severe, if not permanent damage. "
³⁵
In plain English, murder begins at 6.7 psi!

Kennan & Harvey have this to say about the fatal test on the capsule, "The day of the plugs-out test, the TV camera inside the space-craft, which was an important piece of flight and test equipment, was absent; its retaining brackets had some how been bent during installation."
³⁶

These authors never called it murder but they continued with this statement, "It is of the greatest significance that the fire extinguishers were located in that (008) spacecraft during its testing. Not only were fire extinguishers included but fire resistant teflon sheets were draped over wire bundles and the astronaut's couches. These particular items, non flight items, were conspicuously absent in command module 012 during the fatal plugs-out test on January 27, 1967."
³⁷

They also summed up the test with these statements:
It was the first and only use of the new three piece hatch.

It was the first plugs-out test in which as many as three hatches were closed on a crew in an oxygen atmosphere at a pressure of sixteen pounds per square inch . . .

It was the first occasion of the Apollo emergency escape drill under allout pre-launch conditions.

It was the first occasion when certain non flight flammable materials, such as two foam rubber cushions—were placed in the cockpit.
³⁸

Later NASA would rule out the use of any material which could be ignited by spark at 400°F in pure oxygen at 16.7 psi.
³⁹
"They included the couch padding, to which astronaut White's body was welded by the heat: this, it emerged, could be ignited by a spark at 250°F."
⁴⁰
Notice they still had every intention of using 16.7 psi oxygen. Or was it 20.2 psi?

If a civilian corporation killed three men by extreme stupidity there would be criminal proceedings, trials and fines. But because the government is the suspected culpable party nothing happens. To repeat: I cannot believe that in such a highly technical field as space that even the lowest paid technician would not have questioned the moronic decision to use 100 percent oxygen to try a pressure test on a capsule with live electric panels, and which contained locked in and strapped down astronauts.

Especially, on a capsule that would never fly.
At the time, there was talk the Apollo Program would be scratched. But even if 50 people had been killed the operation would have continued, with no more than a brief pause, because the bucks were too big. As Collins points out, "I don't think the fire delayed the first lunar landing one day, because it took until mid-1969 to get all the problems solved in areas completely unrelated to the fire."
⁴¹

According to the newspapers, NASA committed another unequivocal example of utter stupidity on March 19, 1981. They had a chamber on the Space Shuttle Columbia filled with nitrogen and seven people entered it. Two died and five were injured.

I believe that the cremation was mass murder. If not that it was unconscionable stupidity. We may never know for sure. What I am sure of is that the entire Apollo Program was a show, a simulation produced by the CIA, directed by NASA, invested in by Congress, and paid for by Mr. and Mrs. American Taxpayer! As shown, I also believe that, to protect their multi billion dollar income, the CIA murdered three astronauts on Pad 34, plus four more on plane rides, and one in a car.

REFERENCES

1. Barbour, Footprints on the Moon (The Associated Press, 1969), p. 117.

2. Gray, Angle of Attack (Norton, 1992), p. 218.

3. Barbour, Footprints on the Moon (The Associated Press, 1969), p. 117.

4. Young, Silcock and Dunn, Journey to Tranquility (Doubleday, 1969), p. 173.

5. Collins, Carrying the Fire (Ballentine Books, 1974), p. 62.
6. Ibid, p. 101.
7. Baker, Astronomy (Van Nostrand, 1959), p. 291.
8. "Economics Of Wheat Deal," National Review (1972), p. 1168.
9. Hurt, For All Mankind (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988), p. 323.

10. Young, Silcock and Dunn, Journey to Tranquility (Doubleday, 1969), p. 193.

11. Lewis, Voyages of Apollo (Quadrangle, 1974), p. 163.

12. Collins, Carrying the Fire (Ballentine Books, 1974), p. 275. 13. Young, Silcock and Dunn, Journey to Tranquility (Doubleday, 1969), p. 194.

14. Borman and Serling, Countdown (Morrow, 1988), p. 175.
15. Wilford, We Reach the Moon (Bantam, 1969), p. 101.

16. Murray and Cox, Apollo: The Race to the Moon (Simon & Schuster, 1989), p. 187.

17. Young, Silcock and Dunn, Journey to Tranquility (Doubleday, 1969), p. 186.

18. Wilford, We Reach the Moon (Bantam, 1969), p. 96.
19. Collins, Carrying the Fire (Ballentine Books, 1974), p. 270.
20. Kennan and Harvey, Mission to The Moon (Morrow, 1969), p. 32.
21. Ibid. p. xi

22. Young, Silcock and Dunn, Journey to Tranquility (Doubleday, 1969), p. 192.

23. Borman and Serling, Countdown (Morrow, 1988), p. 174.
24. Kennan and Harvey, Mission to the Moon (Morrow, 1969), p. 146.
25. Borman and Serling, Countdown (Morrow, 1988), p. 175.
26. Aldrin and McConnell, Men From Earth (Bantam, 1989), p. 162.
27. Ibid. p. 163.
28. Gray, Angle of Attack (Norton, 1992), p. 233.
29. Borman and Serling, Countdown (Morrow, 1988), p. 174.
30. Ibid. p. 178.
31. Gray, Angle of Attack (Norton, 1992), p. 241.
32. Borman and Serling, Countdown (Morrow, 1988), p. 51.
33. Ibid. p. 178.

34. Murray and Cox, Apollo: The Race to the Moon (Simon and Schuster, 1989), p. 220.

35. Baker, The History of Manned Space Flight (Crown, 1982), p. 39. 36. Kennan and Harvey, Mission to the Moon (Morrow, 1969), p. 21. 37. Ibid. p. 57.
38. Ibid. p. 20.

39. Young, Silcock and Dunn, Journey to Tranquility (Doubleday, 1969), p. 195.

40. Ibid. p. 198.

41. Collins, Carrying the Fire (Ballentine Books, 1974), p. 276.

ExtraTerrestrial Exposure Law
Already Passed
by Congress

On 5 October 1982, Dr. Brian T. Clifford of the Pentagon announced at a press conference (The Star, New York, 5 October 1982) that contact between U.S. citizens and extra-terrestrials or their vehicles is strictly illegal.

According to a law already on the books (Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, adopted on 16 July 1969, before the Apollo moon shots), anyone guilty of such contact automatically becomes a wanted criminal to be jailed for one year and fined U.S. $5,000.

The NASA administrator is empowered to determine, with or without a hearing, that a person or object has been "extra-terrestrially exposed" and impose an indeterminate quarantine under armed guard, which could not be broken even by court order.