Artemis II Was the First Manned Moon Mission

Artemis II Was the First Manned Moon Mission

By Robert Korczynski

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

1957–1972: The Era of Deception

Starting in 1957, the Soviets dominated actual space engineering, forcing the U.S. into a reactive state where they used Hollywood and aircraft technology to simulate parity. This era of deception lasted until the program was shuttered in 1972. It began in October 1957 with the Soviet Union achieving orbit for the first time with Sputnik. By January 1958, the U.S. matched it with Explorer 1, immediately hitting the Van Allen radiation belts—proving a lethal radioactive environment exists that 1950s technology could not safely shield for humans.

1961–1962: The Soviet Lead and the "Aircraft" Hull

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth, a massive technical victory for the USSR. Exactly one year later, in February 1962, the U.S. finally matched the feat with John Glenn. To catch up, NASA utilized a 1.5-inch aluminum honeycomb wing structure adapted from the B-52 Stratofortress. This aircraft-grade aluminum hull was designed strictly for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and offered zero protection against the high-energy particles discovered in 1958.

1963–1968: The Manned Orbiting Laboratory

Throughout this period, 28 men were trained for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). They were launched to orbit in front of the world using the same 1.5-inch aluminum hulls as John Glenn. These 28 men served 30-day rotations in the 72-foot-long station in polar orbit. By 1965 and 1966, the public became bored with orbital spaceflight; they had been promised progress toward the Moon, but no visible progress appeared to be happening. This "Space Fatigue" allowed the pilots to dock and expand the orbital fortress in plain sight while the public stopped paying attention.

December 1968: The Apollo 8 Logistics Reality

People watched a crew get into the Apollo 8 capsule and they supposedly went and orbited the Moon. However, this clearly could not have happened in a 1.5-inch unshielded aluminum hull. If humans had actually been sent in that craft, they would have been sent through what was essentially a radiation machine for over an hour. Without heavy shielding, the thin aluminum hull would have converted incoming high-energy electrons into a lethal shower of X-rays via Bremsstrahlung (secondary radiation), turning the capsule into a cosmic microwave, while NASA claims that they only received about 1 second's worth of radiation from a chest X-ray.

They didn't go around the Moon; they went and docked at the space station. The claimed duration of 6 days and 3 hours for Apollo 8 is a perfect amount of time to make it to the Space Station, unload cargo, and come back. If they had actually gone to the Moon, orbited the Moon 10 times, and come back, they would have traveled at twice the speed of Artemis II, which is anticipated to take 10 days instead of the transit time of roughly 5 days for the claimed Apollo 8 trip. This makes tonight's launch historic because it is the first time that humans have ever even slingshotted, orbited, or gone to the Moon in any way, or passed through the Van Allen belts.

June 10, 1969: The 40-Day Personnel Pivot

Just 40 days before the supposed Apollo 11 landing, the U.S. officially "shuts down" the MOL. The 28 pilots, the world's experts in LEO docking were immediately transferred to NASA to maintain the secret orbital fortress while the public was fed a Stanley Kubrick produced broadcast of the Moon landing.

July 1969: The 27-Ton Disappearance

The Saturn V launched 32.5 tons of hardware, but only a 5.5-ton unshielded aluminum capsule returned. NASA says this mission went to the Moon, but if it didn't go to the Moon with people in it, where did the people and the cargo go? The reality is the people went to the Space Station. The missing 27 tons consisted of modular expansion units used to transform the 72-foot MOL into a multi-axis orbital fortress.

1970–1972: The Robotic Rover Mirror

The pattern of mirroring Soviet achievements continued. On November 17, 1970, the Soviets successfully landed Lunokhod 1, the first remote-controlled robotic rover on the Moon. In 1971 and 1972, the U.S. claimed to land their own rovers during the later Apollo missions.

While the Soviets were honest about their rover being a robot, the U.S. used the same 1.5-inch aluminum hulls to claim their missions were manned. In reality, 1972 may have been the first time the U.S. actually reached the Moon—but only to deliver an unmanned robotic rover that they falsely claimed was manned. After "matching" the Soviet robotic capability with this manned narrative, the U.S. abruptly abandoned the program entirely.

April 1, 2026: The Engineering Contrast (Artemis II)

Tonight's mission exposes the 1960s lie through pure engineering scale. While the Apollo capsules were only 12 feet wide and 1.5 inches thick, the Artemis Orion is over 16 feet wide with approximately 12 inches of specialized composite radiation shielding. It has a mass of 11.4 tons compared to the 5.5-ton unshielded hulls of the past.

To survive the transit, tonight’s crew must strap their food and water supplies, which are hydrogen-rich, against the interior walls of their craft. By huddling in a "Safe Room" in the middle surrounded by a foot of specialized shielding and another foot of their own supplies, they attempted to create a 2-foot-thick hydrogen-rich barrier against radiation.

Furthermore, none of the Apollo pilots that supposedly went to the moon ever suffered from any radiation sickness or cancer issues despite supposedly passing through the Van Allen belts without surrounding themselves with their food and water and without the modern radiation shielding in the Gemini with only the same 1.5-inch honeycomb aluminum shells that were designed for Low Earth Orbit. The engineers have told the Artemis crew they'll be fine if they huddle, but they are the first people in the history of the world to ever try to go through the radiation belt. Maybe the engineers are right; maybe they're not.

Conclusion

Tonight is clearly the first manned Moon mission. If it takes an 11.4-ton armored tank and 10 days just to slingshot around the Moon today, it proves that the 1.5-inch un-radiation shielded aluminum hulls and the 5.75-day transit of Apollo 8 was a LEO station run.

Artemis II is the first time anyone has ever even attempted to shield a craft enough to send people to the Moon. We have yet, apparently, to land on the Moon and walk on it.

Citations

NASA, "Apollo 8 Mission Report and Weight Analysis," 1969.

NRO, "The DORIAN Files Revealed: A Compendium of the NRO's MOL Documents," 2015.

NASA Technical Note TN-D-7080, "Radiation Dosages in the Van Allen Belts," 1973.

Lockheed Martin, "Orion Structural Design and Mass Analysis," 2024.

NASA, "Artemis II Mission Overview and Timeline," 2026.