Was the murder of the astronauts not the first intention?

As for the first issue, I do think they were both killed upon being captured, cause I don't really see much of a point in keeping them alive only to kill them afterwards. And I can't see any reason why they would keep the three of them alive.

As for the second one, it's an interesting question. It would certainly be "easier" to rig the heat shield to avoid the risk of any of the astronauts telling the truth once they were back home. There's nothing in the movie that seems to suggest that, tho, and Kelloway, who is consistently shown keeping his cool about other "oddities" during the flight, seems really surprised when the heat shield alarm goes off.
Also, I think that if they were planning to kill them, why didn't they kill them right after the final communication with their wives?

just watched it for the first time

i thought the whole heat shield thing was a unplanned mistake and when it happened they decided they had to kill them as the news would report them dead. before that they were going to be able to return them

also thought they were killing them asap when they were found via helicopter at the end,making the flare scenes have more meaning than just that theyd been caught

I understood the whole thing a bit differently. The way I understood it, there was no empty spaceship entering Earth's atmosphere, the Huston space station was just connected to some computer that fooled the space station into thinking there was something flying in space. The landing module, with three astronauts in it, was going to be planted somewhere, so they could be picked up by the rescue team. But since the conspirators saw that the astronauts would probably not keep quiet, they decided to stage the shield failure. I'm not sure my interpretation is correct, but that's how I saw it while watching the movie.

I think killing them always seemed like an odd idea cause surely the lose of the astronauts in a "space accident" would be just as much an excuse to cancel the space program as them not really being able to make it to Mars.

I honestly think they were killed when they were found. They could never be seen again or the whole cover-up is blown.

The heat shield failure was definately not planned. The astronauts were being taken to the splashdown point when the capsule was lost and the jet was turned around. The G men were waiting to see if the astronauts were really dead before killing them- which is when they got wise and escaped.

And you wanna know the worst part? You're from outta state!

Right. Because this movie is inspired in the "conspiracy theory of the fake moon landing". So: Were the astronauts from the missions Apolo XI to XVII killed after they return to the Earth alive? The answer is No. But the theory says astronauts (as well as other people involved in the fake mission) are forced to keep silence. Therefore the failure of the instruments indicated that the mission ended before return safely to Earth, so the only 3 people that couldn't be seen ever were the astronauts, and that's the reason that the NASA men needed to kill them.

I don't see the point of holding onto them. I've never considered that they survived long after being captured.

As far as the heat shield separation goes, I've never seen any reason to believe either way. The first time I saw it I assumed it was a glitch of some kind, but later considered it may have been planned. I don't know of any reason to rule out either story.

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After viewing this movie several times (last evening being the latest) I think that they would be holding the two captured 'would be astronauts' until the third was captured, then they would be killed.
Why would they be killed in cold blood if Brubaker may suddenly turn up (as he indeed did), then not only would the future plans for space expenditure be thrown out (which is what forced this charade in the first place) but all the top people would be up for murder and many would be spending many years in prison.
The murder of the friend of Elliot Gould, who worked out the scam on his own and then disappeared, could probably not be proven.
I also think that the heat-shield failure was not expected and because of that the charade could no longer be played-out and the three had to be eliminated. After all, the actual mission had been successful (in the eyes of the world) and old-glory had been unfurled on Mars, and the President had given in his blessing.
I find this movie has a top conspiracy plot that will not date in time.