Untitled Page

Apollo 18, 19, 20: Did They Really Happen? April 5, 2011

The movie Apollo 18 which was originally slated for release in March and then pushed back to April has officially been pushed all the way back to January of 2012. Why? Its hard to say exactly. The movie claiming to be lost footage of a secret Apollo mission gone bad looks to be very similar in style to the Blair witch project or paranormal state. Its pretty clear that the movie is scripted and studio produced, but there is a grain of apparent truth to this conspiracy.

The last 3 Apollo missions, Apollos 18, 19 and 20 were cancelled in 1970 according to NASA. A man named William Rutledge claims these 3 additional missions took place, (partially) in secret and insists he was on Apollo 20. William Rutledge claims to be a 76 year old, former Navy test pilot and astronaut who now lives in Rwanda. Rutledge regularly posts content to YouTube under the user name “retiredafb”. There are all kinds of details online about the supposed Apollo 18 to 20 missions supplied by William Rutledge and others. Rutledge has posted several videos since 07 of what appear to be NASA mission briefings and technical overviews relating to these missions. He has also posted a variety of other information including pictures and documents.

What is interesting about his story is that he claims when Apollo 15 orbited the moon in the summer of 1971 it picked up images of what appeared to be a large almost cylindrical shaped craft, lodged in a crater on the far side of the moon. Take a look on YouTube by searching for “Apollo 20 William Rutledge”. Rutledge says that this cylindrical shaped craft was actually a 4 km long ancient alien spacecraft. In 1973 after the last official Apollo flight – Apollo 17, Rutledge says that NASA teamed up with the Soviets to complete these 3 secret missions, the purpose being to complete detailed surveys of this supposed alien craft.

Indeed in 1975 there was a mission between NASA and the Soviet space program, popularly referred to as the Apollo-Soyuz test project. Many people refer to this mission from the American Standpoint as “Apollo 18”. The objective was to dock the two probes. The mission was successful and highly publicised. The teams shook hands, exchanged gifts, ate together and coversed in each others languages. Astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand, Donald K. “Deke” Slayton were all aboard the US probe.

There are no official details on the Apollo 19 and 20 missions. According to NASA the intended missions were scrapped because of budget cuts. Rutledge says the Apollo-Soyuz test project was preparation for the 2 proceeding secret missions. Rutledge also claims that Apollo 19 was secretly launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California in July of 1975. There are indeed claims of a size able launch taking place at Vanderberg AFB at that time. Based on Rutledge’s accounts the Apollo 19 mission was met with near disaster due possibly to technical failure and/or some kind of collision that took place during a TLI maneuver. The astronauts apparently made it back to Earth safely after their ordeal.

Apollo 20 apparently took place in August of 1976 and also launched from California’s Vanderberg Air Force Base. The Apollo 20 mission objective according to Rutledge (who claims to have been on board) was to land in proximity to the cigar shaped alien craft spotted on Apollo 15 and then complete detailed surveys and exploration. The Americans used a Saturn V rocket to make the trip and apparently landed on the far side of the moon where they explored the large alien craft before returning to Earth.

This is a very interesting conspiracy theory to say the least and there seem to be some possible corroborations if you do your research. I cant possibly cover all the details of the missions in this short article but I suggest looking up William Rutledge Apollo 20 on YouTube. There are some very interesting videos that seem to be quite authentic.