Thats one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind. On this 50th anniversary of the apollo 11 moon landing, todays washington journal in conjunction with cspans American History tv will focus on this historic event and its influence on modern space flight. For the next three hour, we are live from the national air and space museum here in washington, d. C. , where we will talk about apollo 11 historians and michael collins. You want to talk about that day, your impressions of it, 2027488000 and for all others, 2027488001. You can post cspanwj your thoughts and impressions of the 50th anniversary. You can do the same at our Facebook Page at facebook. Com cspan. Our show will be based to hear from the national air and space museum. A couple of facts of the apollo 11 mission. It was astronauts Neil Armstrong, buzz aldrin and michael collins, the team for that day and the launch, youll remember took place july 16, 1969, at 9 32, to be exact. The moon landing on july 20, of july 69 at 4 17 in the afternoon. First step by Neil Armstrong at about 10 56 p. M. On july the 20th. Buzz aldrin would follow along about 20 minutes later from that. That mission, when the astronauts left the moon july the 21st of 1969 and returning to earth july 24, 1969. Well talk about the historical significance. Well talk about what it means for space flight today and also as we hear from historian, astronauts and the like well hear from you, too, and you can call and let us know the impressions, 2027488000 and 2027488001. This program is being done today in conjunction with our colleagues with American History tv and if you dont know, cspan3 on the weekends turns into that channel with historical programming, lectures and the like and also they have a way of talking to you about the 50th anniversary. You can if you want to share your impressions on their specific facebook and thats cspan history at facebook. Dom. You can participate on twitter. There is a poll there atcspan history is how you do that and ahtv will give you programming specifically related to apollo 11 and watch that on cspan3. If you go to their website page you can find out all of the programming that they have planned and all of the other information for you specifically not only about apollo 11, but other programming they have, as well. Some interesting facts when it comes to the apollo 11 mission and the things they carried on apollo 11, of course, the astronauts and of course, science experiments and things of the like and some of the other plans and that was on one of the arms of the lunar module and that plaque would have eventually stayed behind on the surface of the moon that carried two large american flags and the flags of the 50 states and the u. S. Territories and flags of certain nations and the United Nations flags, too, and as youve seen pictures of people walking on the moon especially armstrong and aldrin and that came courtesy of a tv camera that went onboard the module as well as other things and well talk about those things over the course of the morning and to hear from you primarily during these three hours as we have a new location, usually were at the washington journal set in d. C. And not too far away from the national air and space museum and theyve hosting us this morning, as well. Jack in rhode island starts us off on impressions for those that watch the moon landing and good morning, thanks for giving us a call. Go ahead. Thank you, and im showing my age because i did watch it with my father who was a little bit older. Hes no longer here. Its not really publicized because its not politically correct. The key people that got us to the moon were the technological geniuses that were driven. Vaughn brown led the project and then it was Arthur Rudolph and then there were a lot of key engineers and scientists from operation paper clip. They were german scientists and german engineers that the u. S. Government let in after world war ii because they wanted their expertise in rocket engineering. Nazi germany for all that history what . For all of that history and background, then from the time that you watched it what are your impressions of the apollo 11 mission itself . Extremely successful. Absolutely amazing and it was because primarily because of those men and also, too, those astronauts were absolutely amazing. Their bravery, you know, was astounding and i have to admit im a little proud myself because my ancestry is german, okay . I didnt know a couple of them were nazis, and you know, maybe they did that to protect themselves. Okay. Lets hear from martha. Martha in Virginia Beach also watched the moon landing. Martha, youre next up. Go ahead. Hi. I wanted to thank you all for covering this from the very beginning. My husbands cousin james shea was in charge of that unfortunate accident where they burned before they even got out of space, and a lot of pressure was put on them at that time to hurry up. We have to beat the russians. So i think in hindsight maybe there were some corners that were cut and they jumped into the thing too soon and that may have been what happened. Are you talking are you talking about the events of apollo 1 . Is that what youre talking about . Yes. Uhhuh. Thank heavens there was a gentleman on there the other day talking about that from the beginning to this point. So thank you for taking my call and have a good day. Before you go, martha, whats a specific memory do you have about the landing itself or the mission itself . Well, my mother and i were fascinated with it, and she died in 1976. So we sat up there at night and watched that thing, watched it go on. My husband had to go to sleep because he had to go to work the next day, but anyway but i was fascinated with it and i worked as a research chemist, but ive always been fascinated with science of any kind. Thats martha in Virginia Beach, again, giving impressions her impressions of the moon landing. 2027488000 if you have specific rmemories of that time and mark in the bronx, new york on our line for others. Mark, go ahead. Yes. I was in the navy at the time and we were in vietnam and i was on the uss boston, and the displacement and i was on the signal bridge where we did flashing lights, signal flags, and when the word came from the bridge, it was during the day there, and when the word came from the bridge the call goes out that says stand by your bag, meaning the signal bag with all of the flags in it. Once the message is brought to the to the leading petty officer, the call is signal in the air at this point george who was a petty officer at the time being hood up the flags that read usa, man on the moon, and then we hoisted it up to the yard arm. At the same time, the captains gig was dropped over the side with a photographer on it who took pictures of the ship with the flags up, and that was it. Thats what we did. What was the reaction for those onboard. Do you remember anything specific about that . I was on the signal bridge so it was just three of us on the bridge. I dont know what happens happening down below. We had 1200 men on this ship. So i really couldnt answer that. I couldnt tell you. Some of the footage youll remember for those of you who watched the atlantic and not only here in the United States specifically, but worldwide, people in other countries and reacting to it, as well. In fact, if you go to nasa and you see footage and youll see various images and pictures of people watching all over the world as this one event that took place in space became the fascination of the whole world. Well go to robert in baton rouge, louisiana, to watch the moon landing. Good morning. Good morning. Im glad im watching the program and i was 18 years old, and i saw it on tv like most people. Amazing, its still impressive today. I have an older son or a younger son and he cant really appreciate it as much as i try to tell him about it, but im a big fan of apollo 50, but what i have in my hand for those who collect coin, the United States mint produced commemorative counties for the 50th landing and theres a historic picture where buzz aldrin, or Neil Armstrong is taking a picture of buzz aldrin and when they when they came out it showed the picture of Neil Armstrong standing andio you can see the module or the lunar module if im correct on that. Anyway, the coin is curved just like the face mask and for those that collect coins, the United States mint had them, and im not trying to sell them, so to speak. Theyre 5 ounces. Theyre beautiful and theyre collector, but on the back side of the coin itself it shows the first footprint, and its unably beautiful. I was im looking at it right now and i wish everybody on tv could see this thing and i ran outside and i am assuming people did that. It still stayed with me today did you watch it with other family and friends or did you watch it by yourself . I watched it with my mother. Mi father wasnt there and he passed away when i was a child, but my two brothers were there, and we were like everybody else, we were glued for three days and of course, Walter Cronkite was unbelievably great in his narrative and it still sits with me today when they landed on the moon, my brothers and i, we were just sitting there and holding our breath like everyone else, i guess, who was watching it and watching Walter Cronkite and take his glasses off and he was smiling. It was a great event. One small step for me, one giant step for mankind. I guess as the years go by this might go down in history, but id like to think that it would go down in history as something that people will truly, and somehow you had to go nat pain past and luckily we had the film of it and everything and kudos to everyone who was a part of this thing especially the technicians and the people who built it. Thats amazing and the engineers. Okay. I think thats robert in baton rouge, i believe, and he talked about Walter Cronkite. It was Walter Cronkite while delivering the updates on the meeting and the lunar module 1 himself that was provided to him and use that to demonstrate what was going on with the various parts of the flight. Again, these are historical images that you can find online and nasa as we tell the story on this 50th anniversary of the apollo 11 mission. You can join in the conversation. You can post on our Facebook Page. You can also post on American Historys Facebook Page, as well. All of that available to you and dont forget that American History tv and that cspan3 turns into American History on the weekends and you can see a weekend of programming and not only things youre seeing today, but other fulllength feature, as well and go to the website at cspan. Org for more information on that. I believe this is mark from the bronx . I think ive taken that one. So lets go to david in chicago. David in chicago, watched the moon landing. Good morning. Go ahead. Did i watch the moon landing. I was just a kid just out of grade school, and i remember it very well, but i want to talk about the fact that it took 40,000 americans, practically all of them american born and educated to put a man to the moon and back. There were about 150 refugee p. O. W. And scientists and these were all american, born talent and right now theres bill going to the senate, s 386 that would entrench labor workers and we talk about what it took to put a man on the moon and back and this was all before the h1b visa and all of the labor dumping started into our technology sectors. So with you think about the american the moon mission and the apollo, i want everybody to remind their senators, their congressmen that we did these two major outbacks in the 20th century and win the cold war before all of this cheap foreign labor dumping started. So when it comes to apollo 11 itself, caller, were you one of those during the time when the mission was announced and it was going on, were you a big supporter of the mission itself or did you have skepticism about it . Let me tell you something, my father worked on the integral technologies out of the major defense contractor that provided the precision and the trajectory technologies that sent a man to the moon and back, and also for the multiple nuclear deterrents. It was in my family, and my father worked so many hours overtime during the 1960s. They even paid triple time back then on holidays, and on christmas or thanksgiving to meet a deadline because it was such a rush to meet these deadlines before the end of the decade that they would pay triple time. Companies dont do that anymore. They dont take care of their people like that. Okay. Thats thats david in chicago calling, talking about the work aspects of the apollo 11 and the manpower that took place to make it happen, and then its just one of the variety of things that you can talk about during the course of our morning. When it comes to the things that were taken from the moon, youll remember that part of the purpose of the moon mission was to take samples from the surface of the moon and those samples still being analyzed and looked at today and this is from the lunar and Planetary Institute that telling us about 22 kilograms of the man and that translates to roughly about 50 pounds and 50 rocks in toil including the lunar samples and the lunar and Planetary Institutes and two from the earths surface is also taken from that. So thats just, again, some of the purposes of the mission and the things taken and brought back to earth from the efforts of apollo 11. This is christy from huntsville. Christy, good morning. Yes. Good morning. Youre on. Go ahead. I probably watched it and i was 10 years old, and i dont remember. What i do remember is i live in huntsville, where it all began and i used to hear the rocket tests, and it was amazing. I still hear rocket tests out there on the arsenal. My good friend, her grandfather was the head of operation paper clip and i feel proud living in huntsville, alabama, where it all began. Is huntsville tell a major hub when it comes to space issues and i know you have a space museum in huntsville and how much goes on to this day . Oh, not as much space as it is army because its a Redstone Arsenal and its an army base with a Marshal Spaceflight Center and i worked for lockheed in the Marshal Space Flight Center in the past. My dad worked for ibm in 1965 and rocket testing was being done at that point and let me tell you, it was earth shattering to hear those rockets test. But it was cool. As a kid, it was very cool. Thats christy from huntsville and part of the efforts of Lyndon Baines johnson once president kennedy decided he wanted to send a man to the moon to put efforts across the United States to make it happen primarily in the south and huntsville, alabama, being one of those major locations where the work of the Apollo Mission would take place. In fact, you can still see some of the evidence there in the space museum. James in arlington, texas, hi. Good morning. Good morning. Hi. My dad was a Senior Engineer on the Apollo Program. He worked for north american aviation out of southern california. He basically worked on almost anything from the launch escape towers down to the first stage. And how much did you talk about it can you talk about it . How much did you talk about it with you guys at home. Technically, there are certain things he didnt talk about, but at the same time, such as when apollo 7, apollo 8, 9, 10, for that matter, when they returned to earth we had a big, vent at the downey facility and the astronauts would be flown in for a ceremony so wed all see them driven by us in the electric car and then wed be allowed to look at the capsules which had been recovered and saved. So we had what we called the dei room which had a lot of exhibits in it and people would once a year get a chance to see that, all of the way, well into the 80s, in fact. So i would see the Service Module capsules and eebt ally the mockup of the shuttle and there were a number of things that we were aware of and when i was 10 years old i was taken by my dad to the seal beach facility. My dad worked at downey and i was kind of wondering where we were going to seal beach and they had a big event for the delivery of the lastsecond stable of the saturn 5 which is what they built at seal beach so they opened up the doors on the Assembly Building so im witnessing this massive second stage being rolled out, and its quite an impression on a 10yearold. Are you in the Science Field or anything related because of those impressions or influences . My sister and i both followed my father in engineering. I worked for 11 years until 2009 in shuttle support and support for the International Space station. Originally, i was a Mcdonnell Douglas employee, but we got bought by boeing. My sister got started with north american rockwell and they, too, the assets were bought by boeing and she ended up working with me and shes still working at this time though shes about to retire. We did a recent poll from viewers and reuters in conjunction with reuters and we did a poll taking a look at space issues and one of those things that were found that at the top of the list what people want nasa to do and pursue environmental efforts and lower on the list efforts like going back to the moon and going back to mars. What do you think of that and do you still support this idea of manned space Flight Missions . That caller is gone, but well talk to kathy next from imperial missouri. Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Hi, go ahead. I watched the moon landing. I was 4 years old and i remember it vividly. Everyone was riveted to the tv. I was allowed to stay up past that time. I was worried when the astronaut went down the ladder that he would sink in like in quicksand and my dad explained to me that because the lunar module, the lunar lander didnt sink in that the astronaut would be okay, too. When it comes to thats a vivid memory of yours. What do you remember of it . I remember everyone being very excited and everyone thinking this is a great day and that we can do anything. Do you still think manned space flight should be a priority for the United States . Yes. I do. Why so . I think we should start by expanding or increasing the number or the size of our orbiting space station and establishing a colony on the moon like steps. Okay. Thats christy in missouri, if you go to the poll on space policy issues, a lot of questions, some about the work of nasa and some about the priorities nasa should for sue and other information and all of that is available to you at cspan. Org and if you are tuning in a different set for us today at the national air and space museum as we talk about the 509th anniversary of t509 50th anniversary and follow along on the facebook feed and the American History tv facebook feed and give those impressions. After this program, more programming on apollo 11 available when you go to cspan, American History tv. In virginia, percival, virginia. I remember it very well and i was driving back on 95 on the radio and i just got tears in my eyes. It was such an impressive thing and i guess i was 27 years old at the time no, 28, and its a part of history and the other thing i remember landing on sputnik, that was an impressive thing also. It was a great time to be alive and participate in it. Do you think do you think the historical significance of apollo 11 still resonates to this day . Has it waned a little bit . What do you think . I think very much so because in the d. C. Area, of course, we have a lot of government things here, but the significance of it is incredible and all of the side benefits of all this technology, so much of our lives, the cell phones and the gps and i guess medical devices using dwnsed electronics and having a project like this accelerates all of that and it may have happened, but i dont think it would have happened as quickly if it didnt have the impetus to go ahead with this project. Well hear from jim in ohio. Hi there. Well, good morning, and thanks for cspan. Its the only channel on my tv and i would keep it. So i was a young man watching this with my future wife and her family, in 69, and unless my memory fails me i think we went outside to try to look up at the moon when that happened and just sort of imagined that we could see something that was going on. I dont know, its a thing a young person would do, maybe i dreamed that, but i think we did it, but what i do know for sure, i was looking at goodyear at the time, and i became a Science Teacher for 38 years and i dont know if i can draw a Straight Line, and i think i can draw a crooked line to that. I still get emotional when i hear the replay of the of the landing, so i i guess im like the fella from virginia say that he got emotional, and i dont know, maybe thats what drove me into the science classroom and just as a as an interesting aside, my son mike was born nine months to the day after the moon landing so i dont know if i can draw a Straight Line on that one and thanks for cspan for giving us a chance to reflect on the heart point of American History. Thanks for the call, jim, we appreciate it. Things left on the moon. As you can imagine, as the astronauts were trying to shed some of the weight from the lunar module before it left the surface of the moon. If you go to the website, they have a list of some of those things. It was that section of the eagle as it was known and it was nicknamed during the space flight itself, the section of there landing, that was left on the surface of the moon. An american flag, iconic, placed by the astronauts on the surface of the moon and other mementos honoring the apollo 1 crew in which the first three astronauts died because of a fir the that in the capsule there and a disk with good will messages, including experiments, tools, trash and as they tell us including human waste left on the surface of the moon. Again, you can find out more when you go to the nasa website and cspan3 on American History tv 2 and well go to bobby. Hi, bobby. Youre next up. Hi, good morning. Yes, i supported the apollo 11. We worked a solid year, seven days a week and i watched it that morning with my three children sitting on the lawn chair in the living room. I had no furniture. We had a 12inch plaqblack tv ae went on to support other Apollo Missions and thousands of contractors were involved and i dont think people realize how many contractors are involved in the missions and you have everyone from lockheed to honeywell and engineering and to ibm, thousands of us worked and we produced my particular group used to document and sit on the console and we were told what the astronauts were going to do including the music that would wake them up in the morning. It was an exciting time and we worked hard. We worked so many others and we went on to support the other Apollo Missions including the first including the Space Shuttle missions and i went to original launch and landings procedures and i went on to support every time in 2011. The last mission i worked on was in 2012. It was an exciting time and i worked on the missions during the hubble, and its been an exciting Space Program. It is so exciting. I want us to go back to the moon. I want us to go to mars and i think it is all just wonderful and i enjoyed every second. It was hard work and i enjoyed it. So bobbi, before you go, a couple of questions if i may. You said you wanted to go back to the moon, go back to mars. Should that be strictly a nasa thing and there is this day and age where a lot of private companies are involved in this process. Private companies have always been involved. Nasa is probably made up of 80 of private companies. Its not just nasa. Its always been other companies involved, other contractors. They put out tons of contracts and theyll award tons of contracts to private companies. Honeywell is very much involved. Lockheed is i dont think people realize, nasa is made up of tons of private contractors, thousands of them actually. Everybody from companies with 40,000 people to companies with six people. Might make the screws for a particular piece of equipment. Theres always been private companies involved. Thats bobby in columbia, maryland. Heres marsha. Shes in pennsylvania. Hi, marsha. Good morning. Good morning. Im calling on the line for all others because i have a somewhat unusual i would say completely neutral position on watching the moon landing and that is entirely circumstantial. That evening i was 23 years old. I had just been married two years, and my husband and i had just bought our first house and moved in less than a month before that. Had furniture stored in my parents house, had furniture stored in his parents house, moving back and forth, back and forth by hand with a little travel trailer. That was a saturday night, i was a church organist, didnt even consider plugging in the 10 inch black and white tv to try to watch stuff saturday night because i had to get up early sunday morning. That was i cant say i am for or against anything. I never got to watch it. I think the first time i actually watched it was some reruns probably ten years afterwards when we got to the first decade anniversary. Of course, we read it in the newspapers, that was 69. Newspapers were everywhere. We probably got somebody elses sunday paper that next morning because having just moved in, we wouldnt have had a Newspaper Delivery to the house. Any regrets that you didnt see it firsthand . No, no. And i wouldnt have been able to because we would have had to stick one of those funny looking antennas on the roof. Im 73. Im sure anybody else in my age bracket will remember those very, very little cable tv, if any. If you didnt get a picture on your rabbit ears, you were stuck. You had to stick one of those things on the roof, your husband had to be agile. Got you. Thats bonnie. Thanks for the story. Oh, thats marsha. Were taking a pause. Continue calling if you want to talk about your impressions of the moon landing. If you watched the moon landing, were hearing from ellen. Director of the national air and space museum, not only her impressions of apollo 11 and how the smithsonian handles this topic and what they relate to people that visit in washington, d. C. First i want to show you a little of something from a program called moon walk one. It was produced from nasa. Part of that included animation. That showed various steps of the apollo 11 mission. Here it is. The flight began with vertical lift through the heavy lower atmosphere and tilt to the east at 6,000 Miles Per Hour. The first stage is discarded to save weight, so is an adapter ring in the unused tower. It reaches 15,000 Miles Per Hour when it is jettisoned. The third stage places apollo inert orbit at 17,400 Miles Per Hour. When the spacecraft is thoroughly checked by the crew, the third stage fires again. Its speed tearing it free from the grip of earths gravity. While coasting outward, command Service Module separates and docks for access to lunar module, and empty third stage is left behind. Apollo loses speed through ninetenths of the journey until the moons gravity overcomes the pull of earth. Apollo fires in reverse direction, slowing down enough to be captured by orbit of the moon. Eagle slows still more, breaks to a touchdown on the lunar surface. From the Smithsonian National air and space museum, our program is based on the influence of apollo 11. Joining us, ellen stopan. Good morning. From a museum perspective, this is one thing you have to memorialize. How do you do that . We hold the apollo collection for the nation and the world. When you have an anniversary thats a big one like this one, you try to say how do you bring apollo to a generation where more than half were Border Patrol post apollo. How do you bring that sense of excitement and achievement. You have to go big. How do you go about it . First of all, a combination of going over the history, what was it that happened, how did it happen, why did it happen, making sure people understand it is very much in context of the cold war. Really talking about a lot of origins. What i have been trying to come back to, all of the celebrations again and again, it took 400,000 americans to make this happen from the seamstresses who made the space suits to engineers that designed rockets to of course astronauts that ultimately flew on them. It is the idea of teamwork we have been trying to get across this summer. We have been doing a lot of events at the museum, a lot of lectures. We have a statue of Neil Armstrongs space suit traveling ballparks around the country, trying to reach people all around the United States, let them look at his space suit. This week in washington, weve been projecting saturn 5 rocket onto the washington monument, and last night and tonight we have been launching it, not the monument, just the rocket. Lot of people attending that. Tell us what was the inspiration behind that . Two of my creative Staff Members from the beginning of the celebration said we have to do something on a grand scale. It was such an amazing achievement. How do you bring excitement of a launch to a generation that didnt see it. I think we succeeded. Last couple evenings when i have been on the mall watching kids faces, when they see that, the monument is shaped a bit like a rocket, it is not totally surprising, then the show called go for the moon the last night and tonight tells the story of apollo and sets it in context of kennedys Rice University speech, lets us look forward, of course. Thats another big aspect. Lets not have it be 50 years ago we did this thing. We want kids to think whats next. We have told people about the recent poll with ipsos, one of the thing that was asked, what should be the priority for nasa, concerns about the environment, low on the list, concerns of going to the moon and mars. How does that strike you for what you do . I think thats an important thing. I agree, i think climate is the most thing we can be working on, threat of Climate Change is so real an important. Nasa plays a Critical Role in that in observing the earth. Nasa also plays a Critical Role pushing technology forward, pushing us forward in exploration. I think it is a false choice between looking at nasas budget and trying to solve all of the problems, i think Going Forward nasa does need to send humans to the moon. Theyre going to eventually discover life evolved not just on the moon but onto mars, we think life could have evolved on mars and want to find signs of it. If you learn nothing else from apollo, when society does something really hard and challenging, it brings the world together, pushes Society Forward and inspires a whole generation of scientists, technologists and mathematicians. Folks can see behind you, lunar module 2. I suppose people will ask you if this is the real thing that went to the moon. We get that question a lot. It is a test article. It was built by nasa for the Apollo Program. They built more lunar modules than they sent to the moon. Thats one of them. All kinds of testing was done by nasa on it. Luckily at the end of the program we get it here to display. So you talked also about the space suits, armstrongs space suit recently refurbished. Talk about that. What led to that . The space suits are almost individual spacecraft. They need a source of air for the astronauts, they have to keep them protected from the lunar environment. Theyre very complex and they were made to protect astronauts on the moon, but they werent made to last 50 years. In places the suits are made up of 21 layers, and the layers were starting to degrade, werent in good shape. It has been off display 13 years to keep it out of light, but then to work on how do we stabilize layers, make repairs on the suit without changing it. We dont want to clean the lunar dust that remains on the suit, dont want to clean that off. How do we put it in condition where it is good for generations to come. We actually have an incredibly special mannequin in the suit that helps air circulate inside it to maintain temperature and humidity conditions and protect the suit. It is in great shape. Just went on display on the 16th. Visitors to washington can come and see it. Will armstrongs suit be the only one refurbished or are others planned . No, in the course of doing his suit, we learned a lot. It was a science experiment. We learned techniques we will be applying to other suits in the collection to make sure again that they last for long periods to come. Most suits now are stored in a dark room, very controlled conditions to protect them as much as we can. When it comes to apollo 11, what are the common questions asked of you or others at the smithsonian about the mission . One of the things people want to know, they want the human stories behind it. Who were the people involved in the mission. What are those stories. Those are ones i think people are most interested in. The other thing is they want to touch something. And were a museum. Dont normally let people touch things. One of the more popular exhibits is where you can touch a moon rock. Thank you for bringing that up. People remember what was brought back, moon rocks. What was done with them . The rocks are in possession of nasa at Johnson Space Center Available for researchers from around the world who do research, trying to understand the history of the moon and how it relates to earth. The moon is possibly a piece of the earth that came off very early in earths history. Understanding the moon helps us understand this planet. The surface of the moon with big craters tells us what early history of the earth was like. The moon is important for helping us understand this planet, and apollo moved that science forward. Your bio says your previous life you worked at nasa, you were chief scientist there. What were you involved in . At nasa, i looked at all of the science programs, helping move them forward, involved in plans to get humans to mars in the 2030s. When you hear about current efforts to get to mars, what do you think are questions that have to be asked, what has to be considered if thats the long term goal . I think were in great shape to get humans to mars. When president kennedy made the call to go to the moon, eight and a half years later we went to the moon. We didnt know the technologies to be developed. To go to mars, because of the long experience, and experience on the International Space station we answered most questions, know what we need to do and are ready to go. It is a question of national will. Do you think the will is there . I think it is. I worry about the long commitment. Eight and a half years the commitment didnt waiver, it wavered afterward but not during the eight and a half years, we kept going. Thats the time it would take to get humans to mars. I wonder if we have the National Commitment to stick with it. What encourages me is u. S. Wouldnt go alone this time, we would go with International Partners and private companies, and thats what makes me optimistic. As director of the smithsonian, youre involved in renovations. Whats going on there . The building wasnt built to last. It was built 43 years ago, but it is having issues. We have to do major repair work on the outside of the building. Thats going to be a seven year project. We closed half the museum. Were renovating that half. Well stay open during construction. Threeandahalf years, well open new galleries on the west end and begin on the east end. In the end we have a completely reimagined museum that to me is a true center for inspiration for kids to say i can do Something Like that. One of the things im most concerned about, i want to be sure every kid no matter what they look like comes in the museum, sees stories of people that look like them that have done Amazing Things in air and space. The stories are there, we havent been telling them. What do you think is the untold story then of the people behind apollo 11, what should people know . Again, people should know those people look like all our population. For most of us, we think of apollo 11, we think of astronauts, scenes from Mission Control. Face it, all those people looked pretty much the same except for joe ann morgan, the one woman in Mission Control. I think certainly when i was a kid, i looked at things like that, said people that look like me dont do things like this. The thing is there were people of color, there were women of color involved in the entire project, and we need to tell those stories so kids understand that people who look like them actually were part of this amazing achievement. Before we let you go, we talked about it a little bit. Your most distinct impression about apollo 11. When we put our minds to a problem, we can overcome it, if we have national will and teamwork and determination, we can take on any problem. This is ellen stofan. Thank you for housing us today, from the milestone of flight hall. Thanks for your time. Thank you. Were going back to your calls on the mission of apollo 11. 2027482000. If youre watching on cspan3, American History tv, you can do so and join in the conversation in a variety of ways. Post on their Facebook Page at American History tv, give your impressions of apollo 11, whats going on, especially on this 50th anniversary, on their twitter feed, take part in a poll as well. Give your impressions there too. All of that is available at cspan. Org and more about American History there too. This is from theron. Thanks for waiting. Whats your impressions of apollo 11 . It was an amazing event. I was 18 years old. I had just joined the navy week and a half before that. I was in boot camp in great lakes, illinois. We were excited, we piled into a room in the barracks that we barely got to use, got to sit down, watch the moon landing, smoke cigarettes. It was exciting. Everybody was pretty jazzed about it. Interesting story. My aunt lorraine, we had a bet that she would make me a 50 bet, a lot of money in 1969 we would not get to the moon. I said i will take that bet. She wrote me a check. She knew i was going into the navy. When i got back, i went and found the check at my parents house after boot camp, she never signed the check, i never did collect the 50 bucks, but go ahead. I was reading some articles. Some interesting things about apollo 11. The first computer was on that vehicle. There was a Software Developed by m. I. T. To do the landing. It basically started the digital revolution. Came out of that program. Another thing i learned about, on facebook, friend of mine, i came out of the video industry, friend of mine, an engineer said the original data tapes were lost. They were streaming data back from the camera on the lunar craft. They looked bad, they had to take that data, convert it to a signal at the time. But the original data tapes he said were lost. I said i seem to recall they found those tapes. What happened was the tapes, nasa decided to sell a copy of tapes in 1976 at a surplus sale, some nasa intern bought those tapes. Come to find out, they were the original tapes the guy bought. Theyre being auctioned off at sothebys today in new york. Theyre expected to fetch about a Million Dollars in fact. Why were you convinced the moon would happen . I was an 18yearold kid. Thought for sure, i didnt see any reason how we would fail. Thats theron in georgia. Daniel in tennessee. Good morning. Good morning, sir. Good morning. Youre on. I worked at the time, been there 30 years, i had a small part, supplied some nitrogen which was guidance. I have a series of pictures on my wall outside that shows the steps up to the landing. So proud of it. I watch it all the time. I look at it. Feel good about it. It was such a great thing for our country. I was so glad to be part of it. Were you worried that things would go wrong during the mission . On every launch that went there while i was working, we always worried about something happening, of course. We just prayed through it, that everything went well. Im proud of our country they were able to do that. From nancy in richmond, virginia. Also watched the moon landing. Hi, nancy. Good morning. Good morning. Im delighted to be here this morning to talk. In 1957, i remember watching sputnik with my dad as it passed over richmond. He said then, one day america would get into space. Fast forward into high school, i watched the mercury and then in college watched the program with the gemini program. Then that first year of teaching, i had the wonderful opportunity thanks to what is now virginia commonwealth university, they offered to Richmond School teachers opportunity to take a class in aerospace education. And as a first year teacher, this was such a wonderful opportunity because the Air National Guard took us teachers to the Kennedy Center and gave us a marvelous tour. I actually stood under an apollo rocket as it was being built. It was the most fascinating thing i think i had ever seen, next to michelangelos great statue. I was thrilled. Then the following year while i was in charlottesville studying at uva, my father again with me and my mother watched that marvelous moment when Neil Armstrong took that first step onto the moon. We were in awe and great hope. I think that even today, i think of the courage and trust that our astronauts put into the brilliance of so many that cooperated and developed the technology that our country continues to be so proud of. And the fact that we were a free country going into space and leaving that, im proud we have an International Space station. I think thats essential. I have continued to follow the program. I taught for 35 years, mainly at Quantico Military base. So my students were from all over the world. I did use that class, even though i taught english, there was not a year didnt go back that my students were not aware i was a lunatic. And i continue to follow this program. I just finished reading fishmans book, one giant leap. I love jane krants book failure is not an option. I am wearing an apollo tshirt all day today where i live. Age 12 to now 72, i remain glued to a program that i think is so essential for our country to accept those wonderful challenges, and cooperate and do something that brings positive vibrations to people, diversity, people all over the world who can get excited about something that is so grand. Thats nancy giving us a lot of history and her personal interest in the Apollo Program, a teacher. We thank you for the call. Again, it is 2027488000. If you want to tell stories like nancy did, feel free to do that. We go to carol in south carolina. Go ahead. Good evening. Good morning i should say. Good morning. Slightly different perspective. I didnt watch it but i heard it. I was in the u. S. Air force at the time stationed in vietnam, and we couldnt see the video but we did have live audio. So we had to imagine what pictures were broadcast to the rest of the world that we couldnt see. It was a sense of pride for everybody although i think the significance of it might have been lost on us at the time. What was it like hearing the audio and then when you had a chance to see pictures or video of what was going on . We got the video or the film, i dont remember which it was probably the next day and it was standing room only to get in to see it. And then we put the audio together with the pictures and it made it a whole lot more realistic. We had to imagine when hearing the audio what other people were seeing. Because you were just listening to it, what was the emotion like for you and others listening along . It was mixed because we couldnt understand what was going on, although we were hearing it. And i think what we keyed in on was what Mission Control was saying back to aldren and armstrong, so we could understand what their process was and what they were doing at the time. Carol from south carolina, heard the mission at first before seeing the video and pictures. Lets go to marlene in new hampshire. Hi. Hi. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Yes. Im watching the show on the American History tv and i am just finding this whole Space Mission replay is just amazing. I was 20 years old at the time. Just given birth to my second child. It was a totally amazing, amazing event for me. My son who is now 48 asked me at one time to please write down the things that i have seen in my lifetime, this has to be one of the top number one things that i have ever seen. I thank you for letting me share that. Well, before you go, marlene, why is it top of the list . Well, i just think, i mean, we came out of an age where kids played flash gordon and all of the make believe space things, and all of a sudden here it is real. Its real, happening in front of us. And i think culturally today people, kids need to be more and more aware of this. They need to be more involved. We need to get future scientists, we need to keep this going, you know. And keep kids aware of not only of our history but our future. Do you think that space flight should manned space flight should still be an effort by the United States . I do, i do. Should be abandoned . Why is that . No, i dont think they should be abandoned, no. No, i was asking if you think manned space flight should still be an effort by the United States, if they should still make that effort . Yes, i do. I honestly believe that they do. I think it is important not only as a country but as a world and i think it should continue on, yes. Okay. Marlene in dover giving her experiences and remembrances of the apollo 11 mission on the 50th anniversary. Well hear from willie in stearns kentucky. Last call for this segment. Go ahead. Hi. Thanks. I am fortunate enough to have a book of every front page of the columbus dispatch, and it stated july 21, 69. A good friend of mine, writer for the dispatch went, and Neil Armstrongs mother thought she thought he might sink into the surface of the moon. And i thought that was kind of ironic because i did too. It seems like a dream. As far as future exploration, i think it would be like watching the beatles on ed sullivan. You could only do that once. Were not i mean, we did it. We did it. I see no reason to do it again because we already did it. Thats willie in stearns, kentucky giving us his impressions of apollo 11. Our programming in conjunction with American History tv on cspan3, based from the national air and space museum. We will continue on until 10 00, talking about the 50th anniversary of apollo 11. Joining us next for that conversation, the founder of gorgeous Washington University Space Policy Institute, author of the book john f. Kennedy, the race to the moon. We have a conversation with him up next. You remember going back to september of 1962, it was then president kennedy gave what would be known as his moon speech at Rice University in houston, texas. Why some say the moon, why choose this as our goal. And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain. Fly the atlantic. Why does rice play texas . We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of skills, that challenge is one were willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win. And the others too. [ applause ] if i were to say my fellow citizens that we shall send to the moon 240,000 miles away from the control station a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than ever experienced, fitted together with precision better than the finest watch, carrying all of the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food, and survival, on an unknown mission to a celestial body, enter the earth, reentering speeds over 25,000 Miles Per Hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun, almost as hot as it is here today, and do all of this and do it right, and do it first before this is out. Then we must evolve. 50 years ago today. Were celebrating the landing of apollo 11 on the moon. The launch, couple days before that talking about historical, cultural, scientific significance. John is founder of the Space Policy Institute at george Washington University. Good morning. Good morning. What was the drive of president kennedy do you think . Competition. The soviet union defined its space success as indication of superiority of the communist way of life. It is hard to recreate in 2019 the zero sum cold war competition of the late 50s, early 60s. It was very real to kennedy. The idea that space was a measure of national vitality, and that the u. S. Was behind was not acceptable to him, so after the launch in april of 61, asked advisers, i am quoting from a memo. Find a Space Program which promises dramatic results in which we could win. And the answer came back lets go to the moon. That was from the scientists from nasa saying when kennedy made the pitch to congress, how was it received . The first pitch may 25th, 61 before joint session of congress, said i believe we should go to the moon before this decade was out, reaction was very positive. Kennedy proposed a very significant budget increase and it was passed with very few opposing votes in the summer of 61. What was the role of Lyndon Johnson during this process . Lyndon was a Vice President , he was involved in setting up nasa in 1958, and was clearly a cheerleader for a very ambitious Space Program. When kennedy decided it was important for national purposes, he basically took the issue back from Vice President johnson and made it a president ial issue. So johnson was there, he was involved, but kind of on the margins. When it comes to public sentiment for kennedys proposal, how would you gauge that . There was a gallop poll in may of 61, before kennedys speech, asking are you willing to spend x billion dollars to go to the moon. And 60 of the American Public said no. This was a leadership initiative. Didnt come out of a ground swell of public demand for a major space initiative. Our guest for this segment. If you want to ask questions, you can do so if you watched the moon landing, want to ask questions. 2027488000. For others, 2027488001. You provided a picture of the day of launch. Thats true. You are highlighted in that. Talk about what, what were your impressions that day . I had chosen 1967 as a graduate student at New York University and already as faculty member at Catholic University in washington to write my dissertation on kennedys decision to go to the moon. By 1969, i was pretty well done, the book on the way to being published as a book called decision to go to the moon. That earned me, i had be working with nasa in research, that earned me a press pass and invitation to launch. So i was at the press site at Kennedy Space center, about as close as a civilian could be to the launch on that morning at 9 32 a. M. Thats me in the red circle. Unforgettable experience, the sure power of the saturn 5 launch, low frequency noise which you could physically feel in your body, and slow acceleration, it seemed to hover before it gathered speed and headed off. You knew you were seeing going down in human history. That combination is unforgettable. What was the level of confidence when you saw the launch that the mission could be accomplished . Probably higher than the crew because they knew more than i did. Armstrong is quoted as saying he thought that there would be a 90 success they would get to the moon and back. 50 that the landing would be successful. I guess by that time, had high confidence. Nasa pulled off the very bold step of sending people around the moon on apollo 8 in december of 68, christmas eve, 68. And frankly, i stood there thinking this is going to happen. Our first call comes from augusta, georgia. Mark. Youre on with john logsden. Go ahead. Yes. I first of all want to say thank you to all of the people at nasa that made it possible. I was a nineyearold kid watching when they were in orbit of the moon, we were at grandpas house. By the time we got home to indiana, where we lived at the time, we watched them actually land. My mom, she was basically in charge of our family, my father was off fighting a war called vietnam, and i dont know what they did in vietnam as far as listening to the broadcast from nasa and everything, but i remember playing with a little cardboard toy you got from the gulf station, thing you hunt with a string, pretended this was a cardboard model of the lunar module that you pretended to be landing with. We were huddled around the tv set at that time. Got you. John, public sentiment of the time at launch versus sentiment leading up to launch . By the time of launch and after the success of apollo 8 a few months earlier, there was building excitement, not only in the United States, but the world was watching. The third of the three communication satellites necessary for Global Communication had just been put in orbit a few weeks earlier, so this was the first event that was watched internationally. Something like 600 Million People were watching or listening as armstrong as they descended to the surface. It was a global event celebrated around the world, not only in the United States. How did russia react to it . Well, its interesting. I have always thought that russia did not broadcast in real time. I was listening to a call in show like this with a woman that said she was in the soviet union and that they were watching it live. Thats contrary to my impression, but she was there and i wasnt. It certainly was not big news in the russian papers. Lets hear from grand rapids, michigan. Lenay. Hello. Hello. My name is lenay. And thank you so much for taking my call. Youre on. Go ahead. It is my birthday. I was 15. Turning 15 the day they landed on the moon. Today im 65. Celebrating the 50th anniversary and my birthday all at the same time. Happy birthday. Thank you. It is an exciting day. I remember watching the moon landing with my family gathered around the tv set which was of course black and white, listening to Walter Cronkite. My memory that day of them landing on the moon, not only for the first step for mankind, and all that happened with that, but also because i dont know how many people realize that the moon is a planet, you look at the only planet thats a lone planet is the moon for month of july. I dont know if nasa knew that, why they landed just before leo which is ruled by the sun. Caller, thank you. Happy birthday. Anything from that . Well, people talk several of the callers talk about watching that moon landing. They didnt do that. There was no camera that caught the landing, 4 17 in the afternoon that sunday. A camera caught armstrongs first step, but the landing was all simulation on various networks. They puzzled how to show this. If they had been able to show the reality, they would have showed something really remarkable because as has been said a lot the past few days, right before the landing, the lunar module pitched over, and armstrong and aldren saw where they were headed, a rocky field full of boulders. Neil had to take over, fly the lunar module, parallel to the lunar surface for a few seconds, i am sure it seemed longer than that, to find a level spot to land. They landed with 17 seconds of fuel left. Remarkable piloting achievement. The scientific efforts at the time. Talk about them. What was involved with the module itself, getting it invested and ready to go. Well, i suspect viewers can see the lunar module over my shoulder here. Its a very weird looking spacecraft. Nasa chose a way of getting to the moon which had a mother ship go to lunar orbit. That mother ship was designed to get to lunar orbit, and importantly get the crew back to earth. Had fuel and heavy heat shield for reentry. Then a separate lunar module that was only going from lunar orbit to the surface. Didnt have to deal with an atmosphere, didnt have to deal with atmospheric pressures and so the skin of this was basically paper thin and flexed a lot. So it is not a strong spacecraft. But it was optimized for one purpose and did it very well. Was this the final design . How many versions . This was real. How many versions went through or designs went through before you had a final design . From the time this approach called lunar orbit run was chosen in 1962 to the final versions built, there are probably with x being a big number of designs, one of the concerns was weight. There were great incentives to shave every pound of possible weight off this spacecraft. When nasa was ready after the apollo 1 fire to resume flights, the lunar module was still not ready. And one of the reasons we sent apollo 8 around the moon was that was a way of testing the whole system, except for the lunar module, which if we had waited for the lunar module, it would have potentially delayed meeting kennedys end of the decade deadline. Here is thomas. Go ahead. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. I have two short stories. The first was i was in vietnam in 1969 and we didnt know for a couple days. Somebody passed me in the mess hall or someplace and said oh, by the way, we landed on the moon. And i said oh yeah, when. Oh, couple days ago, like it was nothing. That was what was going on when i served in the army. And the second story was my Old Neighborhood there was a gentleman who never served, the only father on the block never served in world war ii, but 10 or 15 years ago when i read the obituary when he passed away, i found out why. In world war ii, he designed bombs for the air force, and when it came to the Lunar Landing, he also designed two it was in his obituary, designed two of the electric motors on the lem. And im calling because im so proud i lived so close to a gentleman that had to do with the Space Program. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, caller. One thing to say is this was a truly National Effort to get those two people on the moon, and the ten people that followed them. There were only 12 people that walked on the moon, only four of them still alive. With 400,000 people spread all over the country that worked more or less directly on apollo. It was a very peaceful but warlike mobilization of human financial resources, which is unlikely to happen again. How did armstrong, aldren and collins, how are they the ones to come to do the mission . As they all say over and over again, mainly look, there was a rotation of crew, so if you were the backup crew on a particular mission, three missions later, you would be the primary crew. So armstrong and aldren were backup to apollo 8. Collins had neck surgery, but was restored to flight status. When it came to 11, they were by normal rotation the prime crew. You have to remember that it was not at all a given that apollo 11 would be first. It was going to be the first attempt. But there were lots of things that could happen to make it not successful. And then i think the nasa management recognized that the piloting skill and personality of Neil Armstrong made him an ideal person to be first. What is it about that personality that strikes most. Steady, calm, solid, exuding confidence, not calling attention to himself. A true leader of the team. The kind of personality that neil demonstrated after the mission, and ill get a cheap shot in here, and was not portrayed in the first man movie. Caller good morning. Good morning, america. I have the pleasure of visiting the Kennedy Space center twice, once when i was 4 and, of course, back then you were allowed into the vehicle Assembly Building. And when i first went, i saw the gemini spacecraft inside the building, and i thought, wow, you know, a little kid like me, that was huge. But then when i went back, the spacecraft that was in the building then was apollo 13, and then i went, oh, my gosh, this thing is a monster. And by that time, i was a young teenager. I was lucky enough to, you know, have a venus big venus television. It was black and white, but that was okay with us. And that, when apollo took off, it just seemed like it took forever like for that spacecraft to clear the gantry. Once it cleared the gantry it was like, boom, and then as you look at the footage, about halfway up, you can kind of see where the sonic boom like kind of rolled off the top of the spacecraft. And then seeing it land, i remember my father is a Science Teacher. So, you know, he was very encouraging. Took me to nasa every chance he could. And when they were going to land, and i was watching them, and i was hearing 60 seconds, my dad came flying in the house because he was a real estate broker, and i said, dad, whats 60 seconds mean . He said theyve got 60 seconds of fuel left, and i said, oh, wow. You know, because it didnt look like they were close to the ground at all. They got down. It was charlie duke who later walked on the moon on apollo 16. That was the capsule communicator. The capcom was calling out the time of the fuel left. He got down to 30 seconds. I was interacting with charlie earlier this week and he tells the story of by the time they got to 30 seconds and they said picking up some dust, whatever the rules were about calling an abort, he knew that armstrong was going to land because the commander had the final authority. He was there. He saw where they were visavis the lunar surface. So, again, armstrong was the man to be able to pilot that spacecraft to a landing and it took a lot of nerves of steel to do it. What was it particularly about where they landed on the moon. Why there . Well, why there is basically because it was a the easiest place to get to. I mean, apollo 11 was fundamentally a demonstration of the ability to land on the moon and get back. They did a little science but very little science. It was really a demonstration that we could meet kennedys goal of landing a man on the moon, returning him safely to earth before this decade is out. So they were looking and then all the prior robotic and the two missions that had gone to the moon, apollo 8 and apollo 10 had looked for the best, easiest landing site and picked the sea of tranquillity. Turned out that the specific spot the Guidance System picked was the wrong spot but overall, it was a kind of flat place where you could land the spacecraft with minimum risk. Here is from alabama, jimmy. Youre on with our guest, john logsdon. Hi. Caller i just want to [ inaudible ] the people come up to see it. And the various equipment they use okay, thanks, caller. I basically didnt hear much of that. Did you understand what lets go to new york. Sally, hi. Caller thank you. I do have a question for mr. Logsdon, but i wanted to say that i watched the landing from bogota, colombia. I was on vacation with my parents. We were in a big hotel, and there was one television in the television room. So we watched it communally, which is in itself a gift. And i heard a bit of Walter Cronkite. I heard a lot of la luna, la luna, la luna. But the best part is the next day as we walked around the streets of bogota, people knew we were americans and they would say felicidad as if we had anything to do with it at all. My question for mr. Logsdon, i would like you to comment on the role that george lowe played in initiating this project. Thank you. Well, for your viewers, lets first say who was george lowe. He was a nasa career engineer and even with the organization that preceded nasa, in 1960, 61, he did the first study of the technical requirements for landing on the moon at nasa headquarters. It was his study that allowed nasa to say to president kennedy, yeah, give us enough money and we can do this. Then george, who we had the good fortune of knowing well moved to houston with the establishment of the manned Spacecraft Center and was the number two person to the Center Director bob gilroad and kind of the daybyday soul of the operation. Then after the apollo 1 fire, he demoted himself to be the head of the apollo spacecraft program, and he was the one that oversaw the redesign of the command and Service Module to get rid of all the problems that were the source of the fire that killed grissom, chaffy and white. So hes kind of an unsung hero of apollo in my view. Out of the blue, two days ago, i got an email from his daughter who is in the Washington Area saying id love to get together and share memories of george lowe and his role in apollo. So im very much looking forward to that. So its good that you know that, sally. Who are the other unsung heroes, in your mind, of this mission . The man that came up with the idea of lunar orbit, john hubolt, a man that managed human space flight. Back then manned space flight. Man in washington named George Mueller who was associated min administrator from manned space flight. He was able to manage the program to success and keep the relationships with the contractors and with the Congress Going and then jim webb and bob siemens were steady and kept the program on target. This is john logsdon who is joining us. Hes the author of john f. Kennedy and the race to the moon. Atlanta, georgia, this is dottie. Hi. Caller hello. My name is Dottie Drummond smith, and im from atlanta, georgia. And my husband and i were very interested in the Space Program during the 60s. We actually were standing on the jetties at Cape Canaveral im sorry, dottie, i didnt hear that. Hold on, dottie, for a second. She was talking about she was in atlanta, georgia, and watched it during the 60s. Try one more time. Caller yes. My husband and i were at Cape Canaveral im not hearing you. Watching when with glen, john glenn in february of 1962. And then with my son was named scott after Scott Carpenter. And then my who was the second mercury or astronaut in orbit. Go ahead, dottie. That is correct. And then my husband and i, we were watching the moon landing and jumping up and down with much enthusiasm and excitement with the landing in 1969. So we actually grew up so you lived the program. Caller yes. Thats dottie in atlanta, georgia. I have to say, i have a john glenn story in here. Please. I was working in manhattan in a totally different field, technical writing in 1962. And on march the 1st, i went over to a couple streets over and watched john glenn parade through manhattan after his 1962 orbital flight. And thats what got me interested in the Space Program. So there was a direct line between john glenn and my career. I had the good fortune of being able to say that to by then exsenator glenn later in life. You know, im from cincinnati, ohio. Glenn is an ohio person. Neil armstrong is an ohio person. Those connections have been very gratifying. How were the three astronauts received once they came back to earth . Well, on august the 13th, they started the day in new york with a ticker tape parade. Then flew air force two to chicago for a ticker tape parade. Then flew to los angeles for a banquet presided over by president nixon. And then nixon sent them on what was called the giant steps tour around the world. 29 cities in 36 days or Something Like that. One of your callers said she saw was in bogota, colombia, which was the first stop on this giant steps tour. And they got unanimous acclaim. The world said to them, we did it. We, the world, landed on the moon. The idea that this was an effort of all humanity was very powerful and very successful. This is lisa, louisville, kentucky. Hi. Caller hi. Thank you for cspan. I appreciate this segment today. I remember 1969. Our whole neighborhood talked about nothing that day but the moon landing. We decided we had to get together and do something. I was only 11. And one of our neighbors took a little took a motorola tv. We hooked it up on the outside of the porch, ran an extension cord through the window and somebody had to hold the antenna in the air so we could get good reception, but our whole neighborhood was sitting there on that night, 1969, watching the moon landing. And i have four heros in my life, during my lifetime. Muhammad ali, jfk, Neil Armstrong and john mccain. And two of them had to do with that great moon landing and it seemed like after that, science boomed in schools. We did all kinds of aerospace projects. We did all kinds of moon talk. It was just a wonderful time, and i was so happy i could see it. Lisa, thank you so much. Yeah, it was great to be alive and be away of what was happening. I mean, sending people to the moon was remarkable. Its been since december of 72 that anybodys been back. Its well past time, i think, for us to return. I was going to ask, what do you think is the sentiment now when it comes to space flight, manned space flight, human space flight versus what you experienced back then at apollo 11 . Its good you say human space flight. Human space flight. The current policy of the u. S. Government is that the first person to go back to the moon will be a woman. President trump, Vice President pence, have declared the intent to get back to the moon within the next 5 years, 2024, and theres a program. Its logo its official if it has a logo was just unveiled yesterday called artimus. Its a stretch, its a challenge, but so was kennedys. Everything has to go right. Congress has to be willing to fund it. American public, i think, right now is, and particularly in the kind of excitement of this anniversary celebration, is interested in seeing the United States lead in International Public private coalition of companies and countries to get back to the moon as soon as possible. Did that sentiment, as far as after the apollo 11 mission, what was public sentiment like after that . Did it sustain . Did it wane . How would you gauge that . If you gauge it by the media, always a little risky. By apollo 12 followed in november of 69. By apollo 13, until it had its problems, Television Networks had stopped live coverage of the missions. So if thats an indication of their judgment of Public Interest, it waned rather quickly. It was, after all, repetitive. All you were doing is landing in a different spot. So it transitioned from being something that captivated the world to voyages and exploration that those that were close to it were interested in. By the time of apollo 17 in december of 72, if anything could be described, anything related to flying to the moon could be described as routine, i think people began to accept, yeah, we can do this. And so the intense Public Interest really dissipated rather quickly. In your mind, is mars achievable as far as a Human Space Flight Program is concerned . Achievable. Achievable when is a different question. But i think that most of the technologies we need to get humans to mars are achievable. We really dont know how to protect the crew from radiation in a long voyage. We really should have a better propulsion system, something that has negative connotations, but it shouldnt, of a Nuclear Rocket engine that could cut the travel time down from nine months to a couple of months. And if we develop the systems that would maximize the mission, i think its achievable by midcentury, if not sooner. Here is from murphy, north carolina, jack. Go ahead. Caller yes. Thank you for taking my call. I had always heard that armstrong was specifically selected because he was a civilian. Is there any truth to that . That armstrong was selected because he was a civilian, i think he said. Yeah. I dont think that was it was certainly a consideration that neil i mean, almost all the astronauts had been military test pilots. Neil was a test pilot but he was a civilian test pilot. I dont think that was very high on the list of selection criteria for the mission. As i said earlier, his crew was in the rotation that made them the choice for the first landing attempt. And then his bosses recognized that he was particularly well suited to be the first man. And the fact that he was civilian may well have been an element in that. Lets try from peoria, illinois. Well hear from herb. Hi. Caller hi. I was a 20yearold mathematics and physics major in college, not knowing what i was going to do. Nasa was actually on my list. And i ended up being a college teacher. Ive been a College Professor for over 40 years. Teaching history me, too. Caller and mathematics in particular. When i think about watching the apollo landing, 66 years is a blink of the eye in the history of the world. And only 66 years after the Wright Brothers. And i remember that hitting me that, my god, my dad was just born two years after the Wright Brothers, and he was sitting there watching them land on the moon. And thats a perspective i think a lot of people lose. Right. A couple of things to say about that. One, a ceremony the night before the launch of apollo 11, lindbergh was there. Not very public. He didnt like being out in public. A man named herman obirth who was von brauns mentor back in germany and one of the 3 recognized 20th century rocket pioneers was there. There was a compression of history that, indeed, we stepped on the moon within 66 years of the Wright Brothers first flight. American historian pardon me Arthur Schlesinger said when the history of the 20th century is recorded hundreds of years from now, the one thing that will be remembered is apollo and apollo 11. Well see whether thats well, i wont see, but i think that may be the case. Is it true armstrong took a piece of the wright flyer up with him . He did, indeed. It belongs to this museum. Its upstairs here today. And he did take i mean, neils dedication was to the practice of flight, whether its airplanes, rocket planes or spacecraft. And so the museum loaned him some pieces of the wright flyer to take to the moon with him to kind of demonstrate that historical continuity. Our conversation with john logsdon. Hes the author of john f. Kennedy and the race to the moon. The founder of george Washington Universitys Space Policy Institute. Thank you for your time today. Its been a pleasure. We are live from the national air and space museum today as we talk about the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. The apollo 11 mission. Were doing this program in conjunction with American History tv today. If you go to our American History tv website, not only can you see everything weave taken in for this event but also on American History tv all weekend long you can see programming specific to apollo 11. The best way to find out whats going on is at our website at cspan. Org. In about 20 minutes were going to be joined by one of the apollo 11 astronauts, the pilot of the command module, michael collins. Up until then, were continuing your calls on the moon landing. 2027488000 if you watched the moon landing. 2027488000 for all others. And you can also tweet us and put our thoughts on our Facebook Page, too. Want to show you a little bit from our washington journal program. It featured a conversation with the nasa chief historian, bill berry. He talked about the technical accomplishments of apollo 11 but other factors that led to its success. Steps to get to the moon were extremely complex and there were things we hadnt really done before. Wed never really flown to the moon before with humans until december 1968 and apollo 8. This was the first time we launched people on the saturn 5 rocket. Saturn 5 rocket had over 3 million parts. And its full of explosive things. Basically, a big bomb that was designed to go off in a certain way. Any number of things could have gone wrong with that rocket. Saturn 5 performed beautifully. Minor glitches, engines turning off too soon. A couple things. Theyre all recoverable things. Even got hit by lightning on apollo 12, during the launch for apollo 12 and it kept chugging along and heading into orbit. Great vehicle. The spacecraft were well designed. Very robust. A lot of the strength of that program came from the fact we suffered a disaster early on in 1967 when apollo 1 fire happened. We lost that crew. And after that, nasa and all the people who were working on the program, about 400,000 people, and redoubled their efforts to fix everything they could. And so we got lucky, but we also worked really hard at it, too. On this 50th anniversary of apollo 11, were taking your calls. 2027488000 if you watched the moon landing. All others, 2027488001. In just a few minutes from now were set to be joined by michael collins, the commander of the module pilot of the command module and hell join us in just a bit. This is from timothy in maryland. Timothy, thanks for holding on. Go ahead. Caller yes. This is timothy from maryland. And im excited to be on cspan. I was 10 years old before the landing and today im proud to support nasa with the Earth Science Climate Research program. I had a question, though, one that really has to do with simulation. Today we have computerbased simulation, virtual reality, but im really curious about what type of simulation practice was done with the original mission . You mean as far as simulators that are used today in the training of astronauts . Caller or simulating the actual flight and the preparation of the command module and reconnecting with the lunar module and making sure that that was all going to be successful. David in palm beach, florida. Good morning. Youre next. Caller good morning. Can you hear me . Yep, youre on. Caller hello. Youre on, go ahead. Caller thank you. I just i work at Kennedy Space center for about ten years. Specifically during the lunar module, but my really point that id like to make is that there has never been a real credit to the contractors that design. Number one, grumman, mr. Tom kelly, the designer, the builder of the lunar module of Grumman Aerospace. It is that company that put it together. It was never really mentioned. We, the engineers, technicians, who spent many hours have never been credited with the work that we did. And i wish you would mention, not just grumman, but Companies Like piw, boeing, m. I. T. We made it possible for these astronauts to make it safely. You guys dont know really the technical problems that we encountered, and we had to make sure that when we change a switch, a panel, the intense testing we did day and night until we were sure we had it safe and to be able to get the astronauts to the moon and back. And it was apollo 13. We used lunar module light board to come back around the moon and come back to earth. But i wish they would mention that because, yes, the astronauts deserve the glory. They took a high risk, but it was we, the contractors who made this possible. Thank you very much for why do you think thats important to mention . You mentioned some of the why do you think it doesnt get mentioned a lot . Caller because, you know, all i read is, yeah, the glory goes to the astronauts. And theres no doubt about it. Its a high risk. But it was never mentioned the contractors who made this thing possible. We were slaves. You have you guys have no idea the technical problems we faced, and we had to resolve and prove and demonstrate that everything was okay before we give the spacecraft to nasa. Follow what im saying . I worked for nasa myself, too, but it is the contractors who really put this thing together. Okay. Thats david. In fact, if you come to the national air and space museum, we talked about it earlier, lunar module 2, one of the many test lunar modules that are available. You can see it. It gives you a good representation of what you might see if you had seen apollo 11 up and close and personal. Were based out of the national air and space museum for our program today. Our next call comes from alan in ft. Pierce, florida. Hi there. Caller good morning. Morning. Caller this is so fascinating. I was 11 years old when i saw the moon launch and the moon landing and these guys were my heroes. This is just so fascinating what youre doing. I want to mention that i had a great experience about 18 years ago. I worked at a community in port st. Lucie, florida, as the recreation director. And there was a gentleman who lived there who is retired from the military. Colonel ralph williams. And he told me he was on the team who that came to florida to look for a site for the space center. And it was so fascinating hearing this man talk. He was probably in his late 80s at the time. And he would talk about what it was like coming down and looking for the location where they were going to put this space center. So i wondered if your guests could also talk a little bit about that. What led up to the actually, he took off already, alan. I apologize for that. But as far as the heroes that you spoke about, of the three, do they all stand in equal standing when it comes to your heros . Does one stand out over the other . How would that rank . Caller all three of them were my heroes. When i was a kid, my father had a framed portrait. I think its the print of the same one you showed. He had a framed portrait in his store. And so every time id stop in the store, i would look at that. All three of them were my heroes. They were amazing people. It was amazing what they did, and it was just so cool that, you know, that they went up there and then you could look at the moon and youd think, men went up there and landed on the moon. And its really great youre doing this whole program so that people can recognize how important this was. How monumental it was. So, alan, thank you for that. I just want to let you know this program today even though youre seeing it on our cspan, our washington journal program, this is a production of American History tv which is cspan3 on the weekends. And as far as their programming for the weekend, a lot of programs just dedicated to apollo 11. And if you want to go to the website at cspan. Org, go to the American History tv section, you can see all the program they have planned for today looking at this event. If you go to our website overall at cspan. Org, you notice theres a Video Library box there. Type in moon landing. Type in apollo. Type in any spacerelated term you want. You can see all the program weve taken in on this topic. Again, all of that available at cspan. Org. You heard john logsdon talk about what happened when the three astronauts came back to earth. They went on a press tour. One of the things they did was participate in a press conference. And it was during that press conference where the astronauts had a chance to talk about what they thought was the meaning of the mission. I believe that what this country set out to do was something that was going to be done sooner or later, whether we set a specific goal or not. I believe that from the early space flights we demonstrated a potential to carry out this type of a mission and again it was a question of time until this would be accomplished. I think the relative ease with which we were able to carry out our mission, which, of course, came after a very efficient and logical sequence of flights, i think that this demonstrated that we were certainly on the right track when we took this commitment to go to the moon. I think that what this means is that many other problems perhaps can be solved in the same way by taking a commitment to solve them in a long time fashion. I think that we were timely in accepting this mission of going to the moon. It might be timely at this point to think in many other areas of other missions that could be accomplished. [ laughter ] everybody looking at me . Well, to me, there are near and farterm aspects to it. In the near term, i think its a technical triumph for this country to have said what it was going to do a number of years ago and then, by golly, do it. Just like we said we were going to do it. Not just perhaps purely technical, but also a triumph for the nations overall determination, will, economy, attention to detail and a thousand and one other factors that went into it. Thats short term. I think long term, we find for the first time that man has the flexibility or the option of either walking this planet or some other planet, be it the moon or mars or, i dont know where. And im poorly equipped to evaluate where that may lead us to. I just see it as a beginning. Not just this flight but in this program which has really been a very short piece of human history. An instant in history. Entire program. Its a beginning of a new age. Lets hear from james in roanoke, virginia. Hi. Caller good morning. I would like to find out if the two space vehicles that are still on the moon are still operational. Whats your interest in finding that out . Caller just curiosity. I watched the space landing when the man landed and stepped on the moon, but ever since then, ive been wondering now over all these years, if the space module you know, the mobiles up there are still operational as far as go back to them and get them and do missions with them is what im asking. Whats gotcha. From watching apollo 11, what do you remember most about it . I watched when armstrong stepped on the moon. It was an experience to, you know, back then to even watch that. It was amazing. Were you in support of the mission back at the time . Yes. I sure was. That was amazing to see that. Here is gail in florida. Watched the moon landing. Hello, gail. Good morning. Thanks for calling. Caller hello. Yes. I want to thank cspan so much for these programs. Im i was 24 years old. Im 76 now. I lived in Cape Canaveral during the apollo launches. And the inspiring thing was a sense of unity. The sense of the whole world as human beings. And we have such division right now. This these programs maybe help us remember that were all human beings and were all the same and we all have the same kind of dreams and sense of adventure. And i hope that that positive inspiration that i certainly felt when these apollo astronauts went to the moon. There were a lot of sacrifices to do that. Families, all the people who worked on this program were 24 7. You know, my family was working for ibm there and i just want to thank you for doing this. I hope this will remind us that we are human and we can do anything we put our mind to if we just do it together. Thank you so much. So, gail, before we let you go, did you watch the event by yourself . Did you watch with other people . Do you remember that . Caller yes, i was by myself. My husband was at work. And i was went out in my front yard. Im like a lot of people say. It was stunning. It was like an earthquake that you knew was you were safe but the earth shook like crazy. And i think one of your callers said that it was almost like the craft hovered for awhile instead of just like you think of rockets taking off. It hovered. And the power of it. And i do know that the astronauts and all of the personnel, i was watching it by myself, and i think its the most inspiring things that ive its kind of like a sense of inspiration that, look what humans can do if they just, you know, try hard and really focus on things that are important and that will help us. So, yeah. This is tim in minnesota. Hi, tim. Good morning. Caller hey, pedro, how are you . Fine, thank you. Go ahead. Caller i was only 6 when they did this. And i really didnt understand the significance of it. But ive read a lot of books since then, obviously, and i want im interested in a lot of these guys have said that were, you know, hundreds of years behind where were really supposed to be technologically. You know, we should be a lot further, but we spent trillions on wars. The last bunch thats going to congress now is about 700 billion for the National Defense authorization act. And, yeah, i just think by some of these books ive read and that were way behind where we really should be. One lady called and said, yeah, we should have had bases on the moon by now. We should have platforms up in space. I really wish the gentleman was still there because i would like to hear what he had to say, but anyway, thank you very much. Thats our caller from minnesota. Joining us now, michael collins, the command module pilot here on cspan. Thanks for joining us, sir. Thank you. I appreciate your time with us today. Looking forward to it. You get ask add lot of questions about apollo 11. What do you wish people would ask you, other than that . How much did i get paid for it. Other than that i suppose you hear a lot of the same questions about this. But what would you like people to know about the mission that maybe they wouldnt know from your especially from your experience. Well, i think it starts with john f. Kennedy. He was our president. Of course, was assassinated, but he, for one reason or another, became fascinated by space. He thought it was something this country ought to undertake. And so he made his famous speech and said we ought to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade and return him safely to earth. And that was a masterpiece of simplicity. Such a short, succinct but very, very direct set of instructions to us as we trained to get prepared to go to the moon. We could get things done. We could say kennedy wanted this and youre late there and it pulled a whole tremendously large group of people together at its peak. There were about 400,000 americans working on the Apollo Program. Well, i shouldnt say apollo. I should say Space Program. There were other aspects of it as well. What were you doing at the time when kennedy made the call and do you think it was possible when he made it . I dont know what i was doing at that moment, but my vision of, was it easy or difficult, possible or impossible, kind of oscillated. There were times when i thought, oh, sure, weve got 4 years to go before 1969 and all these problems seem to be falling into place. And other times i thought, huhuh, were not going to make it at all. In difficulty would come up. Some snag. Something we had not understood before that we had to solve. So it was a vacillating kind of goal as far as im concerned. Wasnt like the moon was that big and there it was. Sometimes it was pretty big and sometimes it was its sitsybits tiny. When you heard you were going to be on this mission, what went through your mind . It was a culmination of john f. Kennedys goal and the judgment of the Apollo Program which had a lot of high points in it. Two people i was going with were wonderful and highly competent. So i was very pleased to be joining them as well. I heard during an interview about the command module, itself, that you were very close to it. You had, i guess, a direct hand in maybe its design and building. Is that the case . Well, we were we were generally assigned to a flight at a point where the our machine that we were going to fly was not yet finished. So we used to go to the factory and help it down the assembly line. And they have to undergo a series of tests. And so it was helpful to the contractor saying, in this case, it was north american rockwell out in california. It was helpful to them to see that their customer was there helping this to be designed. And, of course, it was necessary, really, from our point of view so that ultimately we would understand the machine with a great deal of intimacy. How much input did you have have, then, the design of the machine, what did you tell the folks there . We probably, as visiting astronauts, we probably had too much too much power, i would say. If we said something, they would all scribble it down on a little notepad and we might have been dead wrong. But there was a lot of give and take to that process. And as our machines, in this case it was columbia the command module. When they finally got finished with it, it was pretty snafufree. If i could use that term, old term. When columbia and eagle separated, what were your responsibilities while you were orbiting . I was their den mother. I was their ticket home. I was in an orbit 60 miles circular around the moon. And i just was, you know, keeping home fires burning and everything in order while they were doing their work on the surface of the moon. Which involved what . Give us specifics. Of what you were doing while in orbit. I was pouring myself a cup of coffee. I turned the thermostat up to 72 degrees. I had a little music, if i wanted. And then i had a volume switch for Mission Control. And it sometimes, dont tell Mission Controloperated as a cutoff switch. As far as when you were orbiting, what went through your mind as far as the ability to complete the mission . Well, i thought wed complete the mission. The aspect of it that worried me the most was not the Lunar Landing. I thought armstrong was an extremely competent pilot. Wed seen thousands of photographs of the area in which he was supposed to land, and so i dont want to say that the descent was a piece of cake. It was not. They had a lot of problems with their computer along the way. But i really was not worried about neil landing safely at his target or somewhere close to it. The thing that worried me the most was the ascent when they were ready to come back up to the command module. We at nasa really believed in redundancy. When we have a gadget, we wanted two gadgets. Prime gadget. If it broke, we had a backup. And that was true in almost all cases. However, it was not true in their ascent. We just had the lunar module just had one ascent engine. Small little thing. Combustion chamber. One combustion chamber. If he didnt get ignition, they were two dead men. So that was what was upper most on my mind when they were on their way down and when they were coming back. Once you got back to earth, you we had a previous guest tell us that you guys went around the world to talk about the mission. What was the reception like . The reception of our around the world trip, i think we hit Something Like 29 cities. It was amazing. I thought that the people would say, well, big deal. Good. Thank you. You americans finally did it. Instead of that, they all said unanimously, we did it they felt participatory. They felt like they had almost crawled onboard with us, that we, humanity, had put this thing together and had carried it off and they felt very proud to be a part of that. Just to be a human, to live during that time when we were if you want to get technical we were exceeding escape velocity. We within on our way somewhere and that they were part of that. Michael collins, every mission has a patch assigned to it. Yes. We found out that you designed the apollo 11 patch. Yes, i did. More or less, the i think it was jim lovell, one of our backups, who thought the eagle was a proper motif, and i agreed with that so i kind of took that idea and ran with it. I went into a National Geographic book and got a proper eagle trying to fold its wings as it was coming in. And, of course, i had to have a little earth popping up over the horizon and little, by little, the patch emerged. So also, on the patch, itself, on some of the other patches of the missions, they had the names of the astronauts. Yours did not. Why is that . I didnt want any names on it. It was a tradition that started with gemini 10 which i flew with john young. And john and i agreed that there were thousands and thousands of people deserved a name on a patch somewhere, and they werent going to get one, and if they werent going to get one, then we shouldnt have one. That we were so dependent on thousands. If you go into Mission Control in houston, the walls are lined with patches. And i just like to see the gemini 10 and apollo 11, no names on those. And names on i think just about all the others. Not to denigrate the others. Its fine if you want to put a bunch of names on it, but i thought we were better off without it. When you look at the moon, do you still think about the mission . How often do you think about it . I dont think about it often unless someone pokes me in the ribs. I go out and walk down the street after dark and, you know, i kind of sense something up there. A Little Silver sliver up there. And i look and its the moon. Oh, hell, ive been to the moon. It kind of takes me by surprise every time. But im a slow learner. Does it shock people when you tell them that . Does it shock people when you tell them that about how you look at that . I dont know. I dont know what i do. Im sorry, i didnt get the question properly. I was saying when you tell people that you dont think about the mission much, does it shock them . Oh, does it shock people . I dont know what gives people 110 volt ac shock. I dont think so. I think its hard to shock people. Theres a current effort to go back to the moon, even go further to mars. What do you think about that effort . I like it. When i came back from the moon, i always used to joke that theyd sent me to the wrong planet and that nasa ought to be renamed the National Aeronautics and mars administration. 20something years of going and wrote a book mission to mars. Im a big mars addict. And if you asked me today, i would say i would go for a jfk, in his memory, mars direct mission. And i think going back to the moon is a solid idea. A lot of research has gone into the current plans to use the moon as a jumping off base to go to mars. But im entitled to my dissent and i say, no, mars direct, go. Do you think that people have the same awe of space flight that they did when you went to the moon . I dont know how people consider space. Its so remote from our daily lives. You know, in the normal course of events, i dont think about space very much at all. And, of course, its been a large part of my life. But, you know, if you are a dentist, you worry about cavities. You dont worry about space. So i think its way out on the periphery of our consciousness now. Its a good thing. Theres so many bad things that are out on the periphery of our consciousness that its nice to have one. Its a good one. One that you can get behind. Get interested in. Support. And well have benefits, tangible and intangible. What did you do after you left nasa and the Space Program . I went to work for the state department. I was assistant secretary of state for Public Affairs for a while. And at that time, this location where im sitting on the mall in washington was an empty field. And we wanted to convert it into a national air and space museum. And so with the help of Barry Goldwater and some other influential politicians, we were able to get 40 million appropriated, and so this building was built. I work here for longer, about six years, than i had worked at in the Space Program as a matter of fact. Michael collins, i asked what you wished people would ask you. You said about your salary. How much did you get paid for the moon mission . Zero. I was kidding about that. You know, but, no, we were we got paid whatever our salaries were in the organization to which we belonged. I was an active duty, i guess, colonel, in the air force at that time. And so whatever air force colonels i was probably overpaid considerably. Michael collins, the command module pilot for apollo 11. We thank you for your time today and giving us that time. Thank you very much. Nice to be here. Coming up, well hear from teasel muirharmony. The space history curator and author of apollo to the moon of history and 50 objects. Well have that conversation up next. First, the national air and space museum recently unveiled the newly refurbished space suit of apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong. We had a chance to talk about it with the museums space suit creator, kathleen lewis. Its one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind. Right now, we are in the Wright Brothers gallery of the national air and space museum. And im standing in front of Neil Armstrongs space suit which we put on display for the first time in 13 years yesterday morning. We took Neil Armstrongs space suit off display in 2006 because we determined that the materials that were inside the suit were beginning to deteriorate. They were degrading. And we didnt think that the case that we had it in was adequate to preserve it. So we decided to put it back on take it off display and put it in storage where the temperature and humidity were strictly controlled and give it a rest until we could come up with a plan for displaying it in a climatecontrolled case. The materials that were used in the space suit of almost all synthetic materials. And because theyre synthetic materials, they degrade. This is especially important about the rubber bladder thats in the suit. This is the essential part of the suit that keeps the oxygen inside the suit and allows the astronaut to breathe. The rubbers that they used, the technicians knew had a very limited lifespan. It was a combination of natural and synthetic rubbers. And they knew that it could break it would start to break down after six months. They had to time the manufacture of the suit to six months from the planned splashdown of the astronauts in the conclusion of their mission. We knew that when we acquired the suit that there would be problems, but the science was not there for us to determine what was the best environment for the suit. Having the space suit on display preserved and digitized is very important. Its not only important for the generation of people who remember when Neil Armstrong stepped on the surface of the moon 50 years ago. But its even more important for the Young Children who come here and have no memory of the Apollo Program. And even their parents perhaps dont have a personal memory of the Apollo Program. This suit is here for that icon, standing in for the icon in history, but its also standing there as a starting point for future generations. From that suit, they will learn what spacesuits did and what they will have to do if we return to the moon. We travel to an asteroid or even go on to mars. We are live from the air and space museum here in washington, d. C. Joining us now for a conversation is teesl muirharmony, the space history curator here specifically works on the apollo 11 curator issues and shes also author of apollo to the moon a history in 50 objects. Thanks for having me. When it comes to apollo 11, what are you in charge over . So the apollo spacecraft collection. The lunar module and the command modules. Things like that. And so whats your as far as the collection, itself, whats included . How large is that . Its very large. So over 2,000 artifacts within the spacecraft collection, and then we have our apollo collection in general. Its thousands of objects from saturn 5 down to small things like space food. So a huge range of material. Including the lunar module that we have behind us. Im sure youre asked a lot of questions about that. What do people want to find out about it . I think it surprises people when they look at it because it doesnt look quite like an aircraft or Something Like that. Its not aerodynamic at all. So a lot of people have questions about how it works and whats that gold stuff, usually is a common question, whats it for, why does it look the way it looks . What is the gold stuff . Its a lumenized mylar. Its basically thermal protection. It kept the spacecraft regulated. The temperature regulated while it was in direct sunlight or in shadows. Theres a huge range of temperatures on the moon. Its important to have thermal protection to keep the spacecraft sort of temperate. So from your personal perspective, whats important about this day, this 50th anniversary . Its such an exciting day. And i have been speaking with a lot of people about what the significance of today is and the Apollo Program more generally. I think its a wonderful reminder of how spaceflight can inspire and encourage a sense of unity. And so you see that with hundreds of thousands of people that worked on the mission and in a coordinated effort on a huge scale across the country and across the world. And then also the huge audience that it attracted. Half the worlds population stopped what they were doing to watch the first Lunar Landing together. And i think its an important part of that legacy is that this mission really inspired people to come together in various ways. Is there a diplomatic role in the mission, itself, as far as how it was perceived worldwide . I think well, if you look back to why kennedy proposed project apollo in the first place, he was motivated by larger geopolitical concerns and the interest in alignment more generally. So with the hope that it would win the hearts and minds of the world and people would align with the United States, and i think in many ways, apollo 11 did contribute to that sense of alignment with the u. S. So mike collins who you just spoke to, he tells this wonderful story about how the astronauts travel the world after their flight on their diplomatic tour and everywhere they went people said, we did it. And there was a sense that it was an accomplishment of humankind and people were aware that the United States sent humans to the moon, that it was this larger project. So it was a u. S. Led Global Project in a way. And that was seen as really important politically. By the way, our guest is author of the book apollo to the moon a history in 50 objects. Were going to talk about that. But if you want to ask her questions, give us a call. 2027488000 if you watched the moon landing. Everyone else, 2027488001. A little bit about your book. What was the purpose behind it . Well, i wanted to tell the history of project apollo, but in a different way. A way that were not as used to. So it is such a complex program. It involves so many people. Often you can read an overview of the program but you miss some of the nittygritty details. And one of the ways that you can tell those stories is through artifacts, i thought. And so i selected 50 artifacts, and then together i sort of see it as a tapestry. So you get a picture of the political history, the social history, the cultural history, the technological history of a apalo through these individual stories. It allowed me to dive deep with each of these small stories and bring them together to tell a more full picture. Talked a little bit about the lunar module. Talk about the command module. What should people know about that . So i think also just even stepping back that it was a there were multiple spacecraft involved that at certain times in the mission act as one and other times they divided. The command module can be seen as the astronauts home during the mission. They lived in it for roughly, a little over eight days in total. And, but it was also their laboratory, it was everything had to happen in there. It was a combination of spacecraft, home, bathroom, dining room, kitchen, a really complex ship that included sort of two parts so you have the sort of pressurized interior and then a really sophisticated heat shield on the outside. Also you talked about the camera that eventually would record the astronauts on the moon and other actions. Talk about that artifact. The Data Acquisition camera. This is a really special artifact for a number of reasons. So the role that it played in apollo 11, it was mounted in the window, buzz aldrins window and recorded the landing. But we had anticipated that this camera was going to be left on the moon so the astronauts left a lot of material behind on the moon so that they could bring lunar material home. But it turns out that Neil Armstrong took this camera and put it inside his bag. We call it a mcdivet purse or the armstrong purse, its just a bag he put a number of miscellaneous things if there and brought them back as souven souvenirs. It ended up in one of his closets and after he passed away, his wife contacted the museum because shed found it and we looked at this material and we were thrilled to see this camera was in there and it was not left on the moon. Is it currently on display or is it kept elsewhere . Its currently on display, so we have a special apollo 11 case that we brought out some artifacts for the anniversary. You can see it on display. One of the other things before we go to calls was the computer that was used. Talk a little bit about the computer that actually was versus what we have today as far as its Computing Power. It compared to computers today, it had limited Computing Power but it was extremely robust and sophisticated for the time and this is a point in history where there was a huge change between computers getting larger and larger and larger and with apollo they had to be very, very small so you see this huge shift happen here and there was a lot of investment in research and development in Apollo Computers that then would pay off later on in the development of that industry. So the apollo computer, itself, was quite small. And it was extremely reliable. The software was handwoven with ropes. So it was quite robust. Well continue on with that conversation. First call for you is from carol. Carol is from new york. Youre on with teasel muirharmony of the National Space and air museum. Go ahead. Caller yes. I worked for Grumman Aerospace in 1965. I was a college student. They hired summer help for employees at grumman whose children were in college at the time. So it was a big thrill for me to work for the lunar excursion module. And i typed thousands and thousands of part numbers, actually, on vellum which they produced later. That was a small part that i played in it. At the time, my father worked there for many years. He was part of the scaffold crew that put up the scaffolding in the hangar for the mockup. And apparently, i heard that when they had the when the lunar excursion module was in the air, they also did the same maneuvers in this hangar on the mockup that my father was privileged enough to be a small part of also. And my family watched the lunar excursion module. And the it was a thrill. It really was a thrill to watch it on tv and to be a part of it. I got to meet Scott Carpenter and a few of the astronauts at the time. Gotcha. Thank you, carol. Ms. Muirharmony, any more on that . Thats a wonderful story. It points to a few important things that happened during apollo is a lot of the people working on the hardware got to meet the astronauts and got a sense that these were the people we are sending to space. And it contributed a sense of responsibility and duty and ensuring that the spacecraft and all the different components were reliable and the astronauts would not encounter any problems in space. So that was an important element of the program. One of the people you highlight in the book is a woman named margaret hamilton. Who is she . She was the head of Apollo Software for both the lunar module and the command module and a pioneer for her time. She studied abstract math. She was from indiana originally, i believe, and came to cambridge, massachusetts, with her husband when he went to graduate school there and ended up supporting the family, which is also a bit unusual for the time and working as a software engineer. She actually helped popularize that phrase. When she first did, it was there were some jokes about it because it was seen as sort of aggrandizing that profession, but it really caught on and was an important contribution. She, herself, ended up overseeing a very, very large team in the development of the software for the Apollo Program. Theres a picture of her standing next to a stack of books. Thats the code that apollo was using at the time . Yeah, prohibinted out. What they would do, put it on cards and feed them into the simulators. Then it would print what you see in that image is the printed how many lines of code do you know offhand . Me . I will leave that to the computer curator. Gotcha. A little outside my area. Joanne is from missouri. Hello, go ahead. Caller hi. Hello. Hi. Can you hear me . Yeah, youre on. Go ahead. Caller okay. I just wanted to say that i was in high school when i watched with my family. And one special thing for our family was it happened on my fathers birthday. His birthday was july 20th, and he was an avid viewer of all the shuttles, apollo, everything. He was very, very american oriented and just loved the fact that we were involved in these things. And our whole family is very proud to be a part of the whole group that did all this and supported it and just a wonderful memory and awesome experience even to see it on television. And caller, thank you. Thank you very much. What a wonderful day to have a birthday. I think thats a great celebration. Ive heard stories of people having either wedding anniversaries or weddings on july 20th as well, which is a good way to celebrate. I have a colleague whose parents were married in germany on that day. He says that part of the wedding party, part of the reception, included following the mission. This is from alabama. Bill, good morning. Youre on with our guest. Caller yes. I just wanted to say that, you know, i was there. I actually worked for the Space Program. I was in the launch support team, worked on the limb, the building, put that all together. The backpacks for the astronauts, we built those, myself and three or four other guys in our shop. And it was an exciting time. Ive got movies from where i was standing on top of the vab building filming the apollo, saturn 5, as it took off. It was an awesome thing. It was just spectacular for me to work on it. It was like going to disneyland every day. It was something new. No one had ever done this before. So it was exciting for us and i was glad to be part of it. Got to meet the astronauts just about every day. We i just wanted to add a little thing. I dont know if many people know or even notice it, but when the saturn 5 launches, if you will watch the rocket, it will lean over a little bit so that it can clear the tower. One of the tailfins would have hit the tower. We built all those swing arms and put them together in birmingham, alabama, and moved to huntsville where we finished assembling them. Also worked on the lunar rover up there. And then we went to florida, lived down there for about 3 1 2 years. And just wanted to add that to it andsay, how i was to be part of it. And i hope we go back again. Thank you very much. Okay. Thanks. Thats i thank you for sharing the story. I love hearing the stories. And its so wonderful the highlight the contributions of the people who contributed to the program. And it was over 400,000 people, a huge coordinated effort. And everyone was doing their part. One of the interesting things about apollo, the way that it was structured was that nasa oversaw the program. But there was a huge percentage of contract and subcontractors working on the on the mission. And so over 90 of the people who contributed to project apollo were coming from private industry or from universities or institutes. And it was the type of program where you have so many people participating in it and contributing to it. And coordinating their efforts together. And its created so many wonderful memories. And i always get very excited to hear some of the details of the individuals that contributed. He mentioned the tapes even today there is supposed to be an auction of private tapes that was held by when you hear stories like that dont you wish them you had them in the possession. I hope they are preserved carefully. Its a reminder when project apollo happened space flight was brand, brandnew. The first artificial satellite is 1957, first human in space, 1961, same year kennedy proposed project apollo. By 1969 humans were landing on the moon. So many things had to be done quickly. There were a lot of expectations about protocol perhaps that we have today werent exactly in place at the time because informs brandnew. And a pioneering efforts. And a lot of things were figured out in the realtime, like the inclusion of cameras within human space flight. Tell us a bit about the moon rocks brought back from the mission. With apollo 11 it was roughly 50 pounds of lunar material was brought back. In the Apollo Program in general its 842 pounds. That material has been helpful in our understanding of how the moon formed, its age, the material content of the moon as well as answering questions about our solar system more generally. But there are three primary types of rocks. They are very similar to earth rocks and thats an important part of the key. It substantiated the idea the theory that a large marssized body impacted the earth and the earth formed through the collision. Where are the rocks kept now or are they still being tested on. Theyre still being used for scientific study. And some of the material i believe from 11 was just released for scientists to study. And it had been carefully protected since that time. And not used in scientific study. But all the material that was brought back from the Apollo Missions is well the majority of it is in nasas possession. And we have some lunaary material but its on loan from nasa. And nasa lends it to scientists for study. And over the years as scientific instruments have improved weve been able to learn Additional Information from the lunar material material. This is t. L. Are from sun city, california. You are next with our guest. I wasnt alive when the Lunar Landing was broadcast 50 years ago. But i have a direct connection to the Apollo Program. My father worked for both nasa and rockwell. Rockwell was then known as north american aviation. And and down in california, in a way the ground zero to the space age. I was hoping to speak with mike collins to tell him how hand some he is at his age. My dad worked on perhaps the command module in the second stage of the saturn 5 rockets. And there were other projects such as the x15 rocket plane. Im just calling to tell say that the the Apollo Program in a way is like a a legacy of my dad, because because i never got to know him because he passed away before i was born. So in a way, the moon landing is a way to get to know him. While he was alive, he made friends with a lot of his coworkers. And even an actor who later became a president himself. So. Thanks,dale. Thanks for the stories. Thats great to hear, yeah, downey, california, north american aviation is a an important part of the apollo story in many ways. But the command module was developed there. This is the home, the space craft of the astronauts. And they have to go through a lot of modifications. There was the apollo 1 fire in january of 67. And really alerted everyone to some of the dangerous of space that they needed to improve the capsule and to ensure the astronauts safety. Appear many of the improvements taking place in downey helped make a Safer Program is wart of the reason we didnt have fatalities in space in following missions. Miss muirharmony part of the book deals with human waste. Could you tell our viewers why . Thats one of the people traveling in space gets asked the most. And mike collins was asked him that last night. And someone asked how he went to the bathroom in space. And he applied very carefully. Thats the correct answer. Its an issue from the beginning, to make sure that you know things are hygienic, relatively clean. And its never that pleasant. When you think about being inside the space craft in tight quarters, the command model youll itself i read a book that the more compared to to the space of ver british phone boopgts next to each other. Very limited space. The urine collection device, the astronauts would have worn on the lunar surface fitted to their bodies. Theyre very much a reminder that all the early american stroernts were men because they are specifically designed for mens bodies. But they had issues with them leaking sometimes. And then fecal collection was also one of the less glamourous aspects of space life well say say. Thats one of many photos you will find in apollo to the moon. By our guest. S in steve from ohio, hi. Im so glad you wrote the book and im certainly going to buy it. My wife and i grew up with the Space Program. And we watched the moon landing. My what saddens me is when i speak with such enthusiasm about the Apollo Program, especially, and i talk about all the benefits that came from it that we take for granted in our daily lives, that a lot of the people i talk to in the 20s and 30s they just grew up with in stuff. They dont understand there was a benefit. They said, oh, no my parents said it was a big waste of money. And why are we wasting more money trying to go to mars . Im saying wow, the apollo the whole 60s piece of the Space Program transformed our society and these guys are weigh up and saying i can computer miniaturization pap waste management, greener technologies, complex polymeres for sports et cetera. Could you enumerate some of these things hand possibly educate the public and just how much we got back from our investment. Gotcha, caller. Yeah, there are quite a few spin off technologies that were important and apollo helped seed the computer industry. A lot of people who were working on project apollo at the Instrumentation Lab and in m. I. T. Went on to contribute greatly to the development of computing. But i would say with project apollo its also really important to look at the the political spin offs. President kennedy proposed project apollo primarily as a response to a larger geopolitical situation. It was done within the context of the cold war. You had the russian flight in april of 1961, the first human in space. And it was a huge blow to u. S. Prestige. And that was quickly followed by the bay of pigs invasion which was another blow to u. S. Prestige. And kennedy asked his Vice President , Lyndon Johnson to find a Space Program that would be highly impressive to the International Public that we could win. And so project apollo was really motivated by politics and a political situation. And when we evaluate it we should evaluate it in terms of its impact on diplomacy and the u. S. Politician in the world and in addition to technological spin office because the United States did not primarily vest in the project apollo for the spin office. Alter a wonderful outcome of the mission. But its not why the program was funded and also shouldnt be the primary reason or primary means that we evaluate it. When it comes to fascination with space flight, do you think it still exists as it did at the time of apollo 11 . I think its quite different. There is a huge fascination. A. And here at the national air and space mutuals we have a wonderful visitorship. People of all ages from all over the world come here, millions and millions of people every year. Thats a great sign of the interest in space flight. But at that time in the 1960s space flight had just sort of evolved from fiction to fact. And it was brandnew. You cant recreate that sense that this was cuttingedge, brandnew. And it was coupled with ruffles in television, communications and media. The first Lunar Landing was the first live Global Television broadcast. Thats an important part of the history and legacy and the impact of the mission as well, it allowed people from around the world to do something in unison. And that was memorable and gave people a sense of participation and part of its historic weight. From candace in vir o beach, florida. Youre on with our guest. Good morning. Good morning. I just want to say anyone who was around to watch the moon landing, what a what an amunds amazing accomplishment we had. And my connection is my best friend was judy reznick on the challenger. Because of her i was privileged to be involved one way or another with many things going out at nasa. And i knew john glenn and Neil Armstrong and quite a few others. And its just been a highlight of my life, and continued success. And i know that all of them they have such a different breed, these astronauts and engineers. They are very, very courageous. And i know that if they could they would go up in space seven days a week. So i was very, very, very honored to be a part some small part of all of this. And i thank you for your time. Thanks, candace. A different breed. What do you think about that characterization . I think if you meet the astronauts, they are very, very impressive, really capable, really competent, really intelligent. Risk takers. Really extraordinary people. Ive had the privilege of being alk to have a number of conversations with mike kohl license over this year. And he did the foreword for the book. And he is a remarkable person. With so much ability, poise, thoughtfulness, intelligence, and you just when you stand in you a of what they were able to accomplish and the risk they were able to take and the focus they brought to their jobs. Yet he told us he doesnt think about the flight much these days. Does that surprise you . Well, its been 50 years. I think its a good sign that he lots of other thungs that interest him and occupy his mind. He wouldnt want just 8day period of your life to take up your entire life, i imagine. Attached to the module there was a plaque. What was on that plaque . That plaque was carefully designed. A few months before the first Lunar Landing Symbolic Activities Committee was formed to to plan out you will all the symbolic activities taking place on the moon. In addition to collecting lunar material, the scientific experiments, the astronauts performed symbolic activities. And the black was part of that. It was supposed to symbolize and signal to the whole world following the flight this is as mission for human kind. And it depicts the two hemispheres of the earth. You see no political boundaries that was an important part of the symbolism. The earth from space you cant see the political boundaries. And there is a sense of unity and were all on the planet together. Under that there is a message carefully crafted. Youll see there is a line about here men from planet earth first set foot on the moon. The reason why it says foot is instead of landed is because there was some concern that there was soviet union was landing a probe ahead of the mission. So it was change to foot. Also ad in the date. And the speechwriter for nixon said that was a great way to sneak god in, a subtle nod to religion there. The crews names and president nixons name as well. From nile in troy, michigan. Hi. Caller yes, thank you for taking my call. I have two pieces id like to add for your viewers. Number one i had a first cousin who was a naval af yiter and flew moon rocks off the carrier back to california. Secondly its important for the viewers to put time and distance in perspective. In 1969, just a prior 100 years earlier, it took americans almost five to six months to cross the United States in a covered wagon. Once the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in may of 1869, it just took seven days to cross the United States in a train. Now that the moon landing has occurred, we reduced the time to takes to get the moon to four days of space travel. Over 240,000 miles. And i think people often forget that the compression of what mankind has done, what human kind has done to reduce time in travel and distance to something thats so taken for granted. And today we live in an era where it takes a few hours to cross the country. Thanks, caller. Caller thats a story we tell here at the mythance air and space museum because the first power controlled flight, write brothers airplane, 1903, the first Lunar Landing 1969. Behind me the is the lunar module. And hanging above it if the spirit of st. Louis, from 1927. This was a compressed history. A story of the 20th century. And huge leaps and bounds, especially in terms of flight were taken within that century. And its remarkable to come here and see it all in one place and get a sense for the Technological Development that happened in a short period of time. From minnesota, brian. Good morning. Caller yes. Miss muirharmony can you hear me. Yes, go ahead. Caller miss muirharmony you mentioned charles huh . Charles lindberg . Caller he is from little falls, minnesota. My question i got a couple of questions. Number one, apollo one, the three guys were burned to death. How about apollo 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. And apollo eight circled the moon orp 9 and 10 . And then another question is when Neil Armstrong, one stapp for man one giant leap for mankind, who was running the camera . And then mike kohl license im disappointed he on the phone or for quite a while. I wanted to ask mr. Collins. He was Drinking Coffee and listening to music. What kind of coffee was it and did he play a little bit of johnny cash wsh bob dillon or neil young. He is gone now but well let our guest answer what she can. I can. He had the benefit of drinking warm coffee in space. On the lunar module they didnt have hot water to heat up the coffee or food. They were eating cold food. But in the command module one of the technologies introduced for the Apollo Program was hot water. And so he had coffee. It was luke warm but it was coffee. And you can actually listen to the sound track from the apollo 11 mission. Its its an interesting combination of music. But if you go Online Google it and youll find it spp spotify put together the list. Its fun to hear the music they were listening to in space on the mission. Im not sure what mike kohl license was listening to onboard by himself but he had a range of options. Its an eclectic mix of music. Since you mentioned food talk about the first meal on the moon. The first meal on the moon was more of a snack, not a full robust meal. They had bacon squares some of the movie porp food items on the Space Program bus they were salty and flavorful. When you are in space you lose your sense of taste because the nasal could havety is filled with food. I wont. The details. But in space female like the saltier and flavorful foot. Bake on swears a pineapple fruit drink and coffee. A light meme. I should say buzz aldrin performed communion on the moon. He would have had wine and a wafer and after the moon walk they came become back and had a substantial meal, beef stew, cream of chicken soup. Froo fruit cake. Fruit cake is one of the stad astronaut foods from that period. Larry in houston, texas . Hi. Hello. Caller the thing island like to say is when woe we said we are going to the moon we didnt have enough geology and so we put a lot of money into getting more people into geology appear and one of my friends, a female was one of the first females to go to Geology School in arizona. And there were no bathrooms in geology building when she was there. So a little bit of women got into programs that they hadnt been able to before. The other thing i was living i just turned 21. And i was working at dow at the time for a summer job. I went the afternoon at nasa at the hotel across where they had the all the i think its nbc. And as people we were watching on the tv there. And as people came down after they spoke we were able to see them and in the lobby of the hotel. So i got to meet a fellow oklahoman, Tom Staffford after he got through talking. That evening we went to another hotel and watched the landing. And a a lieutenant in the navy essential bought us bought all us young whipper snappers champagne for the while we watched the event. Got it, caller thank you. Great to hear. And thank you for telling us that story. I think one thing that is so hartening to me during the anniversary is the greater focus on contribution of women to apollo. I was in graduate school during the 40th anniversary of apollo and apollo 11. At the 50th anniversary there is much, much more attention. There was really important important contributions of women to the program. As the caller mentioned having to deal with things like not having a designated bathroom or being the only woman in the room, and there are such important stories to hear from the people who contributed to the program, and the woman who were pioneers within the field. Teasel muirharmony, when the astronauts came back to earth they were put in something looking like a silver trailer. What was that. The air stream trailer. The mobile quarantine facility. It happened at such a short time scale, from 61 kennedy proposed until the landing, a lot of the Technology Used for project apollo was off the shelf and already available. So this is an air stream trailer, modified to quarantine the astronauts. The question was whether the astronauts might bring back some problematic biological path o gens to the moon. And they wanted to make sure they were quarantines just in case. But there wasnt a solution for how to quarantine them from the landing to houston where the Lunar Receiving Lab was where they would be in quarantine. They came one a slugs to have the air stream trailer, small enough to be on the Aircraft Carrier and transferred by airplane to houston. They did nauchlt modifications. If you look at it it is anary stream trail from the period. They have a beds, kitchen. And a microwave in there. They could eat steak and drink martin ys and have the hot hour. They change the pressure to make shurp nothing would escape and put in special filters. But it was a comfortable little vacation trail are for them they lived in for a bit. Lets go to clay in north carolina. Hey, good morning. Thank you. Its an honor to be on. I was just my grandfather, carl bab who lived and worked in newport news, noefrlg area. He would always as a child tell us stories about in and seeing the anniversary now, he was involved in it. He was part of one of the scientist trainers that would be up in the hangars when they were training the astronauts to land on the moon. And just over the weekend, watching all of this, and listening to my mom would tell me stories about back in the day that they would do a a 20 tax back at that timing with 68, 69. It was a lot of money for a lot of folks. All of america had a lot to do with landing on the moon. Its just a privilege and honor to be a part of it. And to know that my one of my family members had something to do with landing on the moon. Apollo 11 thats awesome. Caller, thank you. Thank you very much. Teasel muirharmony, final thoughts on apollo 11. He brought up a great point that it cost over 4 of the national budget. A huge investment. Its a good reminder why the country invested like that at that scale and reminded of the cold war context and the significant place on soft power fighting that cold war as u. S. Grand strategy. The book is called apollo to the moon, a history and 50 objects. Our guest is the space history kurter at the air space museum. Teasel muirharmony pangs thanks for your time. Thank you. This month we feature American History tv programs as a preview of whats available on cspan3 on weekends. This week we focus on the lecture history series. Tonight, a discussion on the American Revolution and how George Washington interacted with fellow soldiers, how he viewed himself and how he is remembered today. American history tv aires at 8 00 p. M. Eastern and every weekend on cspan3. Watch book tv for live coverage of the National Book festival, saturday at 10 a eastern. Our coverage includes Author Interview was Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg on her book, my own words. Tafd treuer, the heart beat of wound pd knee. Sharon robinson talks about her book, child of the dream. Rick at kinson author of the british are are coming. Thomas malone counteder for of the mit center or for collective intelligence. Live saturday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on book tv on cspan2. In the wake of the recent shootings in el paso, texas and dayton, ohio, the house judiciary will return early from the summer recess to markup three gun violence prechgs bills. Which include banning high capacity ammunition magazines, restricting firearms from those deemed by a court to be a risk to themselves, and preventing individuals convicted of misdemeanor hate crimes from purchasing a gun. Live coverage begins wednesday september 4th at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan and cspan dofrg and if youre on the go listen to our live coverage using the free cspan radio app. Next on American History tv, president kennedy on the u. S. Space Program Urging that america should be the leader in Space Exploration and the first to land a man on