system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How did the Apollo spacecrafts get past the Van Allen Radiation belt?

Had a family friend tell me about this and I wanted to know if you guys have the answer to this .
gpt
Quickly. They did not dilly dally, they did the lunar insertion burn from below the belts in Earth orbit and hauled butt through them. They also angled the trajectory intentionally to miss the worst of the belts on the way to the Moon.

Even so there are accounts of the astronauts being able to close their eyes and see "sparkles" as charged particles zapped through their retinas while they were going through the belts. Which is kind of spooky to think about. Luckily the Earth is inherently slightly radioactive and the body can cope with a certain level of radiation dosage over time.