To fully appreciate the scale of this achievement, we must look at the technological progress triggered by the Apollo program, whose fruits still shape our everyday lives today. To navigate the vacuum of space, engineers literally had to invent microelectronics from scratch , which at the time bordered on science fiction. Although the computing power of those days may raise a smile compared with that of a modern smartphone, it was the real springboard toward the era of mass computing. The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC), the onboard electronic brain, was one of the first systems in the world to use integrated circuits. This revolutionary technology of miniaturizing components on tiny silicon chips was accelerated and perfected by companies such as Fairchild Semiconductor precisely thanks to NASA's massive orders. The aim was to obtain hardware that was at the same time infinitely lighter, more compact, faster and more vibration-resistant than the fragile transistor systems or vacuum tubes of the time. I often hear conspiracy theorists say that the Command Module and Lunar Module computers were not technologically mature enough to handle a Moon landing. This claim is based on a deep misunderstanding of the computer architecture of the missions. It is important to point out a fundamental technical detail: contrary to what is often believed, the AGC was not a simple timer but a true marvel of software engineering capable of performing complex guidance, navigation and real-time control calculations. However, the onboard computer never worked alone. The heaviest mathematical work, that is, the calculation of orbital trajectories, of celestial mechanics and of ballistic parameters, was processed on the ground by giant mainframe computers (some as big as entire rooms) located in Houston's Real-Time Computer Complex. The engineers and mathematicians sitting in the "Trench" (the front row of consoles in Mission Control) processed the vital data and sent it up to the spacecraft, where it was loaded into the onboard computer by radio uplink or, when necessary, keyed in by hand by the astronauts through a keyboard interface called the DSKY. It was a perfect synergy between the raw power of the computers on the ground and the miniaturized efficiency of the onboard electronics. When you consider that even the Soviets managed to fly their spacecraft with much less advanced technology, sometimes still based on rudimentary vacuum-tube systems, doubting the far more advanced American instrumentation becomes paradoxical. Even today, space agencies around the world rely on the extremely reliable Soyuz capsules, whose basic design is the product of engineering more than half a century old ... and that speaks volumes!

Moreover, we should remember a crucial historical fact that dismantles any remaining theory about alleged "lethal radiation" being the reason lunar flights were abandoned: the Soviets too desperately tried to send their own cosmonauts to the Moon, but failed. And they did not give up because their robotic probes had discovered that the environment was lethal to human biology, but for purely engineering reasons: their gigantic Moon rocket, the N1, was plagued by insurmountable design problems. Fitted with no fewer than 30 engines at the base of its first stage, the N1 had a disastrous tendency to explode catastrophically right on the launch pad or a few seconds after liftoff because of fatal anomalies in its plumbing and main control system. Discouraged, paralyzed by internal conflicts and aware that the technological gap with the American Saturn V could no longer be bridged, the Soviets secretly canceled their crewed lunar program . To settle this matter once and for all, a chapter of this work is entirely devoted to the Soviet lunar program. To read it, click here! Deniers nevertheless still find it suspicious that the technology needed to conquer the Moon could have been created almost from nothing in less than a decade. The answer is painful for anyone looking at the present: it was an era in which people firmly believed in science and in which resources were unlimited. More than 400,000 people worked all over the United States to make the lunar dream come true: an army of electronics engineers, computer scientists, aerospace engineers, physicists, chemists and mechanical engineers, supported by the laboratories of the country's most prestigious industries and universities . Added to this was the invaluable contribution of the German engineers "acquired" after World War II, true pioneers of rocketry. Under the direction of the brilliant Wernher von Braun, this team overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles; without his vision and his iron-fisted engineering management, the 3,000-ton beast called the Saturn V would never have left the ground and the race to the Moon would have remained a pipe dream.

Today, every time modern civilization uses a laptop, a smartphone, a GPS navigator or benefits from laser surgery and countless other devices, it should spare a grateful thought for the space missions and Apollo in particular, where collective ingenuity and the extreme technological challenge produced tangible spin-offs that have revolutionized our lives. Moreover, denying the reality of Apollo means failing to understand how technology evolved in the following decades. The Space Shuttle program, for example, is the direct offspring of the experience gained with the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs. Comparing the avionics of the shuttle with those of the lunar capsule, you can see an obvious evolutionary continuity. The Shuttle's extremely powerful main engines (SSME) derive from the exceptional development work carried out on the liquid hydrogen and oxygen J-2 engines that powered the two upper stages of the Saturn V. Even the Shuttle's orbital maneuvering system used hypergolic engines whose reliability came directly from the tests carried out on the Service Module and the Lunar Module. Denying this unbroken technological lineage and claiming that Apollo never existed would be like arguing that the history of electronics magically jumped from vacuum tubes to modern microprocessors, skipping the invention of the transistor. Claiming such a thing is not only an affront to historical memory, but a humiliation of human intellect and common sense!