Originally Posted By: Momos
No problem to pass the Van Allen belt unless you stop there for a week.

http://www.wwheaton.com/waw/mad/mad19.html

A Capsule in MEO would have been detected by the Russians and is inconsistent to the communication system.


It's safe to stop in the safe zone, that's what they did.

Both USA and USSR were bluffing and kept it a secret.

They tracked the decoy probe, that was sent to the moon from the safe zone.