Almost seems like it would cost just about as much to pull off a coverup of that magnitude as it would to try to go into space... Things like building towers to fake navigation systems and other technological necessities would surely cost well into the billions. If they really couldn't get into space, they are simply just using all this to delay their demise, because a coverup of such a large scale couldn't possibly last forever. Doesn't make much sense to fake the world into thinking the planet is round while raking in money to keep trying to get into space when they can never actually get there.
Yeah its not really plausible. My biggest issue the process by which new NASA executives become involved, and who exactly is involved in the conspiracy. The more you look at it, the more you realize that the Top executives have to be incredible geniuses to predict what they need to do. It is one thing to tell an artist to come up with a rendition of what they think mercury would look like, its another to keep an entire group of artists quite when you put forth their example as reality.
My professor Jean Brodie does research into globular clusters, and has examined thousands of NASA photos. My other professor Sandra Faber has examined 50,000 photos of distant galaxies, taken by various telescopes including Hubble. There are many famous Hubble photographs, and many famous photographs from space, and their descriptions usually do not say "and artists rendition" or at least they do not always say that, which means those artists need to be paid off.
Not to mention we have internal government forces designed to regulate fraud. It is difficult to take extra taxpayer money in our government. Its easy to accept money from corporations and people who run them when you should not. It is easy to lie in office. Its easy to do another of other fraudulent activities, but it is difficult for individuals to actually steal more money. The salary of NASA employees is a matter of public record. Where NASA spent its money is a matter of public record. When they slip up and do not know where a small percentage of their budget has gone, the government investigates it thoroughly.
It is just to hard for me to believe that everyone for the past 50/60 odd years has had a price.
Then you have the problem of astronauts. They are all in on the conspiracy, so they all need to be paid off. And you have to cross your fingers that they are all so loyal as to not release such a grand secret on their deathbed.
It just seems like you need to accept a lot less if the earth was simply round.