Mister donovan, before we get to july 1969, started 1957, what was the effect of sputnik on this country . Guest the first artificial satellite created a sensation in this country. We went crazy. Somehow they out science us. Started wondering what was next . Bombs coming down . Nuclear bombs . Space stations with Nuclear Missiles . And of course it created nasa a year later. Had to respond somehow at the height of the cold war. A lot of people now dont understand how tense everything was. A lot of people thought world war iii was starting. Host did the fact that sputnik happened, did we have a Space Program at all at that point . Guest space might be stretching it. We had a satellite program. You heard of werner von braun, the nazi in charge of the program in germany. We scooped him up and lots of other scientists and engineers under the auspices of a topsecret program called operation paperclip. He was in charge of one of the programs, air force, navy, army had their own programs for space and satellites. Host how quickly did the us get a satellite in orbit after sputnik . A couple months later. It might have been done earlier. That they wanted to be sure, they were testing for safety. If that had happened the entire space race might never have happened. Host president eisenhower, supporter of nasa . Did he get it . Guest now. He didnt get it. He thought it was a huge waste of time and money. Didnt think a beach ballsized silver sphere meant anything. He didnt understand and a lot of people did not understand what it meant and what was going to happen because of it. Host may 25, 1961. The importance of jfks speech. The challenge, his urgent needs. Challenged america to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely before the end of the decade. In reality kennedy was not much of a at all. This happened and he realized we needed something, this was a few weeks after bay of pigs and we needed good news to counter that, it was dreadful for his image. Host it was a political stunt. Two things involved, research in this book, one was National Security. It wasnt just we needed to get something up there to counter the russians. It was a thing called national prestige, to show that we were not in second place behind the communist nations. This was the height of the cold war and there were dozens of nations who hadnt decided which side of the Global Public war they wanted to be on. They wanted to be on the winning side, who was going to be winning this war. Host 202 is the area code if you want to talk to James Donovan about his book shoot for the moon the space race and the extraordinary voyage of apollo 11, talking about space travel, talking about the moon landing and we are going to talk about the future of space travel as well. 7488200, central time zones, 2027488201 for those in the mountain and out here in the pacific time zones. What did it cost the us taxpayer up to july 20, 1969, to put a man on the moon . Guest about 25 billion, thats a lot more in todays dollars. That was current dollars back then. Nasa pioneered, the Space Program pioneered so many things, satellites, communication, medicine, lots of other areas. Six years later, 1975 someone estimated the return on investment in r d to be 16 1. Host 4. 4 of the us budget in 1966 was dedicated to nasa as one point. Guest sometime in the mid60s. Now nasas budget is Something Like 0. 5 . It is almost nothing like it was. Host was Neil Armstrong on purpose or an accident . Guest some people at nasa then and now will tell you it was just his turn. He was chosen as commander of apollo 11 which was meant to be the First Mission to attempt a landing on the moon. Most astronauts didnt think he would make it, something would come up, there were too many unknowns, might be apollo 12 or apollo 13. But he had a reputation as a cool customer. He had barely survived several accidents in space, the x 15, one of the few x 15 pilot and i think that had to do with his choice. Host alan shepard, who was he . Guest the first man in space, about 15 minutes in 1961. Host 15 minutes. Guest 15 minutes. It was a big deal. Eureka garin a few months r yuri gagarin a few months earlier, they beat us. Guest alan shepard was the First American in space. Described his voyage. Guest this was at a time these were small nose capsules on top of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles meant to deliver nuclear warheads. People couldnt believe somebody would strap themselves on top of this and get in one of these rockets. They. Up with frightening regularity. They didnt even new what space and weightlessness would do to a human body. They thought it would do something to your brain and you would pass out and get spacey and weird, they had names for it. Host how high up did he go . Guest maybe 100 miles, 125 miles, spent 9 or 10 minutes in space. Space starts at 50 miles up, then came right down. Host where did he lands . Guest in the pacific, 200 miles downrange from Cape Canaveral at the time. Host how many people died in space or trying to get to space in pursuit of getting to the moon . Guest there are rumors a soviet cosmonaut died and the russian government, they werent open with their Space Program. They announced after it happened. Theres never been a rumor. I can never track down anything that was evidence of that. Several russian cosmonauts have died. There was the 3 americans, 1967, apollo 200 for which was later termed apollo 1 in january 1967 died in what should have been a simple dress rehearsal on the launchpad. That was a tragedy but it made the program safer. Host James Donovan, you and i were talking prior to this segment about our memories of seeing the moon landing. How was it . Where we watch it live on july 21, 1969 . Or were we seeing tapes . How were we seeing cameras focused on Neil Armstrong . Guest i have done radio shows, was an alien holding the camera . How could we see them . They had a kind of ornate thing where he backed himself on a small porch of the lunar module and reached down and let something go and it flopped out, a camera on the bottom of this thing and it was aimed right at him. Host were we seeing it live . Guest we were seeing it live with a few minutes delay, that is 240,000 miles away. Host it is said there is more technology in this phone then there was on that space capsule. Guest the apollo guidance computer, there was one on the lunar module and one on the command module which was revolutionary for this time when ibm made things that took up most of the room. Each of them had approximately 72 kb of Processing Power and 1 mhz of memory and 1 mhz of Processing Power. My iphones has millions more. Host James Donovan is our guest, the book is called shoot for the moon the space race and the extraordinary voyage of apollo 11 in the first caller for him is troy in missouri, go ahead. Caller james and peter, thank you for taking my call. Regarding apollo 1, did the astronaut suits fail . Were they burned to death . And in addition, had Virgil Grissom survived, would he have been the first man on the moon . Thank you. Host a great question. Also tell us what apollo one was. Guest apollo one, Virgil Grissom and his crew, ed white and Roger Chaffee were scheduled to be the first crew of the first shakedown crew of an apollo spacecraft in space. In january 1967 they were involved in what should have been a routine dress rehearsal to see if their power worked. They were in a 100 oxygen atmosphere and any flame is highly flammable, you know what oxygen does to a fire and there was a spark, material that was flammable. They were dead within 30 seconds, unconscious wins in 30 seconds, dead within minutes. They suffocated, they didnt burn. They were burned but that didnt cause their death. A lot of people thought he might have been the first man on the moon. There was an feeling they would like one of the first mercury 7 astronauts to be the first man on the moon and he was one of them. Anyway he might have been, we dont know for sure. Host what was the date of that . Guest i dont know the exact date but january 1967. Host from shoot for the moon the space race and the extraordinary voyage of apollo 11, nasa published qualifications for the job, research astronaut canada, starting salary, 8300 12,000, the minimum requirements for the job, 1500 hrs. Of flying time, graduation from test pilot school, excellent physical condition, between 25 and 40 years old, no taller than 5 foot 11. Why the height . Guest this is the don of the spacecraft age. They had boosters that could only get a certain size payload into space so they didnt want anybody big. The capsule was kind of small. Host didnt they have an issue recently the two women who were supposed to do a spacewalk couldnt because there werent spacesuits they could find that fit them . Guest they were tailored for each man down to the size of his fingers so when he bent his fingers in heavy gloves it would work as well as it could. The funny thing was the qualifications you mentioned, that was later. At first before they decided on test pilots they didnt know what was this was going to be like, having an open call for daredevils, circus performers, contortionists until cooler heads prevailed and they decided we have these pilots and test pilots and all their records and this was a time of National Security emergency so they did that. Host did a lot of men apply . Guest not everybody did. At the time they werent sure this program was going anywhere. What would it do to their career track . In every one of the services, they didnt know if it was sidetracking or if it was going to work at all. Host peter in alexandria, virginia, go ahead for your question for James Donovan. Caller this is so funny. I actually called about six and years ago, you were interviewing a gentleman at the air and space museum. My question is similar for James Donovan. Im amazed i got through twice but thank you so much for cspan. Mister donovan, i wanted to get your views, im a little nervous, a Nuclear Rocket Successful Ground tests in 1969. It is being done at the marshall center, just an idea if that particular, a Rocket Propulsion laboratory is needed instead of the current term, the jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Rocket Propulsion laboratory and marshall to move marshall to california, texas or florida. Host peter, in alexandria, virginia, thank you. Guest there was some research and development into nuclear propulsion. They stuck with chemical which they had been using, but right now they are thinking about going to mars. A long long way, minimum 34 billion miles. They are looking at other possible systems, ion, nuclear and a few others. I dont think they have made their decision yet. Host a potential return to the moon, do you have an opinion about that . Guest some people say even some astronauts, we have been there, why are we going back . Lets just move on. But there are a lot of things you can do once you get out of the gravity of earth. A lot of things you can do on the moon as a staging area. I dont think it is a bad idea at all. Host david in vancouver, washington, go ahead. Caller this dovetails on what you were talking about, us going back to the moon. Would we not need to go to the moon first before we go to mars to establish a Research Outpost that could develop fuel on the moon that could get us to mars that much easier because we are out of the gravity area. And secondly, the soviets propelled us with sputnik to do the apollo program. Lets say the chinese put a man on the moon, would that motivate us to really go forward with establishing a Research Outpost on the moon . Guest good question. We are in a different time now. We are not in the middle of the cold war which really propelled us to do all that great stuff in a 60s in the Space Program. I dont think it is the same situation. I doubt that would spur us on. I see more interest in space and Space Exploration right now than i think we have had in 50 years. The commercial exploitation, virgin galactic, space x, blue origin and other Companies Working in partnership with nasa so it is wonderful to see. Host Michael Collins, is he still alive . Guest Michael Collins is alive and going strong, 89 on halloween. Buzz aldrin just turned 89. Neil armstrong has been gone for a few years. Michael collins is a wonderful gentleman, very thoughtful. Speaking of our future in space, he said people will go when they are able to go and i think that says it all. It speaks to the human needs, the human yearning to find out what is over the next hill, the next valley, on the next world. Host did he ever express regret being the guy who had to drive the ship around the moon while his two friends guest he was a gentleman, he never complains. He said once or twice in his book carrying the fire, which is probably the best astronaut autobiography, these were alpha males and everybody wanted to be highest and fastest so of course he wanted to walk on the moon but he was a team player. He was happy to be part of the first crew. Host joe in new york city, go ahead with your question for James Donovan and his book shoot for the moon the space race and the extraordinary voyage of apollo 11. Caller thank you. Good evening and welcome to usc. Im a proud trojan alumni and it is special that you are discussing the moon because Neil Armstrong did his graduate work at usc. With that i will ask you, i was pretty upset to learn there really isnt a celebration in washington for the public regarding the 50th anniversary of apollo 11. I noticed there is a contractors celebration hosted by Northrop Grumman at Kennedy Space center which they are dubbing the official gala celebration, 5000 each. I was wondering your opinion about this and whether, in fact, the notoriety of the media, the movies that have garnished historical significance has overwhelmed the original tenets of what the Space Program was about to this country and did not just become a pay as you can to be part of the program . Host i think we have got the idea. Guest grumman was the Aircraft Company that got the contract to design and build the lunar module, they played an important part in it. I heard about the celebration. Tough to say. What to celebrate, what they are not. It would be nice to have something on the 50th anniversary. Im sure they will have some kind of celebration. Doesnt sound like the public is invited. I wish they were. Host what about in the control room at houston . And why houston . Guest you could write a chapter on that and i have. The Vice President at the time was Lyndon Johnson from texas. Host was there a connection . Guest i wonder. The chairman of the House Appropriations committee was involved in budgeting for nasa and his district was a place called houston. So they got the lions share but in all fairness they tried to spread out cities all over the country in different states got different parts of the program and the choice was nasa, the manned spacecraft center. Host and here at california, the jet Propulsion Laboratory and other places. Guest cleveland, ohio in several places and langley in virginia was the origin of nasas first headquarters. Host you can clearly draw a political map to those locations. Is that fair to say . Guest to a certain extent, yes. The ostensible reason houston was chosen, one of the reasons i always wondered, as soon as the spacecraft clears the gantry everything shifts over to houston, why dont they do it all at Cape Canaveral . One reason was there might be signals mixed up from all the other programs in communications. Host bill in indianapolis, thanks for holding, youre on with James Donovan. Caller my question is, what the viability is in going to mars . It would take so much time and money and what is the value in it . Guest right to the core of the question. Economically it is outrageously expensive. Spaceflight has always been expensive. That is why nasa hasnt done much with manned Space Exploration since the early 70s. The budgets were cut. There are economic reasons. There are things to be found on mars and on the moon too that might be well worth going there. Part of it speaks i have mentioned it before, this human yearning for exploration. Margaret mead, and after apologist, said once a civilization that does not move forward, there is something to be said for that. No matter how far in the future we are talking, i think as long as some part of us is human we will still be exploring. For right now that means leaving the earth. Host James Donovan, basin dollars, 3 books, about the alamo, general custer, going to the moon. What is the connection . Guest i couldnt figure it out but a friend of mine finally said this fits in with your other two books. I somebody talking about . He said men on the frontier. I guess that is it. Host shoot for the moon the space race and the extraordinary voyage of apollo 11 is his newest books and chances are between now and july 2019 we will be seeing him quite a bit as the nation commemorates 50 years of the moon landing. Thanks for being on booktv. A look at live coverage for thursday. On cspan at 12 30 p. M. Eastern, a Top Air Force officer joins military contractors and scholars to talk about future Technology Used to modernize the military. Later in the day, chief of staff chair jammer general James Dunford discusses us defense strategy. On cspan2 at 8 30 eastern officials from the military, federal agencies and Government Contractors discussed cyber security, Artificial Intelligence and military applications for space. On cspan3 cybersecurity officers, federal agencies and private industry at a forum on preventing Cyber Attacks on elections, individuals and companies. That comes your way at 8 00 am. Host saturday on booktv at 9 00, 10 00 eastern, interview with disability rights attorney and author, she details becoming the first deaf, blind graduate of Harvard Law School and how she movers through a site, hearing world. Go to school and expect the teacher to teach them. I couldnt do that. I had to think about what i might be missing. What are the potential how can i find those . All my life i have tried to identify unknowns and figure them out. At 10 00 on after words American University professor kindy talk about how to be an antiracist. Is interviewed by arthur and princeton University Professor imani perry. I dont think wellmeaning people who are trying to be part of the movement against racism recognized the history of this time. When a eugenicists classified as racists that im not racist, when jim crow segregationists were charged as being racist they said im not racist and today white nationalists say i am not racist, no matter whether they are in the white house or planning the next mass shooting. Host at 11 00 pm former defense secretary jim mattis recount his military career and his thoughts on leadership in his book chaos, learning to lead. Watch booktv every weekend on cspan2. Hello, everyone. Welcome to brussels bookstore, thanks for being here tonight. We are here to celebrate 1 giant leap the Impossible Mission that flew us to the moon written by charles fishman, claimed daughter of other titles including a curious mind with brian glaser, the walmart effect, he is a 3time winner of the most prestigious prize in
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