It is a fact that The Russians never duplicated Apollo 8.



Let that fact sink in.



It is a fact that the only people to ever leave the earth radiation belts have been caucasian, male, US military test pilots, with the exception of one geologist who later became the US Senator of New Mexico.



The Russians sent turtles to outer space and back, but those are reptilian creatures with greater resistance to radiation than human flesh.



The Americans and Russians were always copying technologies from each other. Not in all cases but there is parity in technology over a long term perspective of 50 years.



The Soviet Russians would never allow themselves to be left behind in science like this... there was always the threat of escalation in the Cold War... if one country did this, the other country would do this +1, ... it happened in defense and it happened in space.



So why did Soviet Russia withdraw from lunar science exploration unless they were forbidden to do so: by science, by aliens on the moon, or by Richard Nixon's secrets, or, is there a deeper level chess game going on here?



Why didn't Jimmy Carter send NASA the orders to duplicate Apollo 8 on the 10 years anniversary?

Why didn't the Soviets, after Apollo-Soyuz, proceed to the next step, which would be, to duplicate Apollo 8?



Let's be real. Apollo 8 is a really simple mission objective. The Russians never duplicated it. The USA claimed in December 1968 that 3 Americans orbited the moon and returned them to earth safely. The Russians never duplicated Apollo 8. Do you any of you have alternative theories on this? Is it purely political? How can it be purely political if Apollo 8 was never confirmed, duplicated, peer reviewed by scientists and engineers, etc, by the Soviets, at that time, the mortal enemies of the United States? This makes no historical sense to me.



I'm looking for some well reasoned, non technical responses that could convince me why such a simple mission objective could not be duplicated by any other advanced country for the last 46 years. Is it impossible? Or is it possible but nobody has the balls to do it?