Proof That NASA Censored Moon Photos (and The Astronauts Knew!)

July 20, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The Moon Is Weirder Than NASA Lets On

In 1994, the Clementine mission was publicly described as a joint NASA-Department of Defense scientific survey of the Moon's mineralogy and morphology. But Dr. John Brandenburg, a former deputy manager of the mission, has stated on record that its actual purpose was a photo reconnaissance mission to determine whether someone was building bases on the Moon that we didn't know about—and whether they were expanding them. Nobody from NASA or the DOD has ever come out to say he is lying. That silence, combined with the legal framework of the Space Act of 1958—which explicitly allows NASA to withhold discoveries that could threaten national security—creates a plausible basis for suspecting that the space program has encountered things it has not shared with the public.

What Astronauts Saw and Wouldn't Say

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What you'll learn

1 Proof That NASA Censored Moon Photos (and The Astronauts Knew!)
2 Timestamped Outline
3 (00:00) **Opening Claims** - Jesse and guest Max Loughan preview the episode's core thesis: NASA has hidden evidence of anomalies on the Moon, astronauts knew more than they said, and the space program has been entangled with secrecy from the beginning.
4 (02:28) **Guest Background: Dr. Max Loughan** - Loughan introduces himself as a physicist by training with experience in philosophy of physics and statistical analysis of parapsychology studies.
5 (04:20) **Stony Brook, Renaissance Technologies, and the UFO Legacy Program** - Jesse asks whether Stony Brook and Renaissance Technologies could be the academic hub of a secret UFO reverse-engineering program.
6 (10:46) **The Clementine Mission's Hidden Purpose** - Loughan reveals that the 1994 joint DOD-NASA Clementine mission may have been a photo reconnaissance mission to check for alien bases on the Moon.
7 (15:04) **Who at NASA Knows More?** - Loughan names specific individuals who likely possess deeper knowledge of UFOs than they acknowledge.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Ross Coulthart

Show Notes

Our American Alchemist this week is Maaneli "Max" Derakhshani. Check out Max's work here https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maaneli-Derakhshani

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Theoretical physicist Maaneli Derakhshani, a Utrecht PhD working on lunar anomalies, discovered that NASA holds two versions of the same Apollo 14 photograph: in one, a blue orb hangs in the sky above astronaut Ed Mitchell, and in the other it has been redacted out. He has found the same across other Apollo missions, and Ken Johnston Sr., a former NASA consultant and pilot who worked with the astronauts, says he was ordered to destroy early negatives showing things that weren't supposed to be there.

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Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 2:28 - Maaneli's Background 3:54 - Stony Brook, Renaissance, and Brookhaven 10:45 - Clementine and the Space Act 15:03 - Does NASA Know More? 18:52 - Apollo 17 Blue Lights 21:22 - Sponsors (DOSE) 22:51 - Apollo 17 Metallic Object 25:50 - Cosmic Rays and Lens Flare 28:58 - Buzz Aldrin's Apollo 11 Sighting 35:45 - Cernan and Mitchell's Experiences 39:32 - Enforced Secrecy and Dean Radin 41:11 - Freemasonry Inside NASA 43:26 - NASA Insiders and Gary McKinnon 46:03 - Ken Johnston and Archive Inconsistencies 51:59 - Shuttle Footage and Code Words 57:24 - Wishbone Structure and Lunar Erosion 1:00:37 - Withholding and the Brookings Report 1:02:42 - Brandenburg, Mars, and Carl Sagan 1:05:00 - Sagan's Two Sides and the Face on Mars 1:10:53 - Menzel and Narrative Management 1:11:37 - Villarroel and the Palomar Transients 1:16:23 - Fast Walkers and DSP Satellites 1:20:12 - Armstrong's Ecuador Expedition 1:21:45 - The Phobos Monolith and Arth