Third-party evidence for Apollo Moon landings their orbits. According to the group, in December 1972 a member "picks up Apollo 17 on its way to the Moon". Paul Maley reports several sightings of the Apollo 12 Command Module. Chabot Observatory calendar records an application of optical tracking during the final phases of Apollo 13, on April 17, 1970: Corralitos Observatory photographed Apollo 14. Paul Wilson and Richard T. Knadle, Jr. received voice transmissions from the Command/Service Module in lunar orbit on the morning of August 1, 1971. In an article for "QST" magazine they provide a detailed description of their work, with photographs. Jewett Observatory at
Moon landing destroyed in another unmanned test when it was finally launched several weeks later. By this time flights of the third generation U.S. Apollo spacecraft had begun. Far more capable than the Zond, the Apollo spacecraft had the necessary rocket power to slip into and out of lunar orbit and to make course adjustments required for a safe reentry during the return to Earth. The Apollo 8 mission carried out the first manned trip to the Moon on 24 December 1968, certifying the Saturn V booster for manned use and flying not a circumlunar loop but instead a full ten orbits