You are a go. Water systems. Go grades operations. All clear to launch. Mercury capsule. Go. All prestart panel lights are correct. The ready light is on. In the fall of 1958, nasas first administrator, t. Keith glennan, approved project mercury with the goal of sending a man into space and bringing him home safely. And do it before the russians do it. But first, nasa needed a spacecraft. Specifications were sent to 20 companies. Eleven bid on the highly prized contract. And in january, 1959, st. Louisbased Mcdonnell Aircraft Corporation was picked to build what had never been built before. This was irresistible. This was a chance to do something that had never been done. We were just basically out of college. I just graduated a year before. I was part of the electrical power and sequential system. I followed mercury from the very beginning after the contract was signed in 1959, january. What they really asked mcdonnell to do was to take the warhead off of a Ballistic Missile and put on the spacecraft that we were designing and building in st. Louis. We were given the shape, the basic shape of it and heres a blank piece of paper, you do what you have to do to put a man in it, launch him and bring him back safely. Everything was new. We had to design all our own test equipment. We had to decide what kind of test would make sense to make sure that that spacecraft was man worthy. At the time, you could test for the temperature, the vibration, the noise, the acoustics. We could simulate that but you could not simulate the weightless condition. That was the big problem. No one knew. Some of the medical community said two hours weightlessness youll get bloodshot eyes, your eyeballs might even pop out, your intestines might burst. It was an unknown. Inevitable risk that would fall on a courageous few. Test pilots, known collectively as the mercury seven. These men, the nations project mercury astronauts, are here after a long and perhaps unprecedented series of evaluations which told our medical consultants and scientists of their superb adaptability to their coming flight. Scott carpenter. Gordon cooper. John glenn. Gus grissom. Wally schirra. Alan shepard. And deke slayton. Its the height of the cold war. These guys were cold warriors. The mercury seven became instant celebrities and for those engineering the countrys first manned spacecraft, the pressure to deliver was reinforced as the allseeing eyes of the press descended on their work. We couldnt hardly get to work. The traffic was unbelieveable. There was every tv station, every radio station, every tourist in the world, it looked like, was on the beach. It was intense. We knew that we were behind. We had a job to do. And it continued throughout the program cause we were behind all the way. We were behind on mercury. Behind all the way. We were behind on mercury. Russia had such tremendous launch capability. They could lift payloads much heavier than we could. We thought these russians were 10feet tall. They were kicking our ass. You know, we were blowing up rockets left and right. And the newspapers would cover these very well and say, you guys must be nuts thinking youre gonna put a man on here. You cant even get the things off the ground yet. the attitude among American People was, my god, hes going to get on that thing and theyre going to light it. When gagarin, when he went up there. That was a low point. Thats when we went on the 18 hours days, seven day weeks. When you were testing and you had a problem you didnt leave until that problem was solved or you had a method of solving it. One time, i went to work monday morning and came home two weeks later. Things that looked like they were gonna work on paper, once we put them in those vacuum chambers and started testing, we had to go back and redesign. These were difficult, really difficult. We had young families and the wives had to raise the kids. Thats just what it amounted to and theyd get tired and i can see why they would. You know you just had time to come home, get a meal, go to bed, get up and go back to work. The wives were struggling with the little kids, we all had small children. And they never saw us. We had to leave before the kids get up in the morning and sometimes we wouldnt be home. That was probably one of the Biggest Challenges down there and it costs a lot of divorces. They calculated that of the 300 engineers that mcdonald aircraft sent down there, the hr guy calculated that 48 percent of them ended up divorced. Our man in space, alan shepard, was awakened shortly after one a. M. This morning and from then on it was a quickening pace of tenseness and anxiety. 5 20 a. M. And astronaut alan b. Shepard, Lieutenant Commander United States navy enters the mercury space capsule that he hopes to ride into space with the hopes of america riding with him. They close the door and they go clam, you know and they lock her up and from then on the tension starts rising and rising. Its just palatable. You could cut it with a knife. The countdown was so long we wondered if it was ever going to get going. He was up on the spacecraft for Something Like five hours. I dont think anybody could breathe. There was no talking. There was nothing. We had a guy that couldnt sit down at his console there. He just couldnt get it so they had to hold him and take him off and somebody else took his place in the last 30 minutes. The tension just got to him. Roger, ready to resume the count ste, im going to turn it over to stoney ok stoney take it over. Five, four, three, two, one, zero. Five, four, three, two, one, zero. Roger, lift off and the clock has started. Fuel is go, fourg, five point five cabin, oxygen go, all systems are go. On the periscope, what a beautiful view. Main chute is raised. Main chute is green. Main schute is coming unwreathed and looks good. Main schute is good, rate of descent is reading about 35 feet per second. Of descent is reading about 35 feet per second. Fifteen minutes after liftoff, alan shepard had returned from space. Twenty seven minutes after he was riding the deck of an Aircraft Carrier in the carribean alongside his cone shaped spacecraft. It was absolute elation you know when it was successful, completely successful. We were in space and that was only 23 days after gagarins flight. There he is as he emerges from the plane. He is met by grissom and slayton, theyre the pilots on the two sides of him there and captain hugh may, the commander of the base. He greets shorty powers. Ted sorensen, jfks speech writer and closest advisor, sat down with him after Alan Shepards first flight and said weve got to do something. Weve got to catch up. What can we do . The consensus was, based on our technical capabilities and a time frame that we could send men to the moon and return them by the end of the decade. Them by the end of the decade. Strides. Time for a great new american enterprise. Time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth. Claps i therefore ask the congress, above and beyond the increases i have earlier requested for space activities, to provide the funds which are needed to meet the following nationals goals. First, i believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. Holy cow. What on earth are you talking about . I said, another politician has let his mouth override his knowledge. We thought it was very, very gutsy; very, very risky. And ill tell ya, those of us that were on the ground thought this is gonna be a chore. We had one 15minute flight in our history and hes talking about going to the moon. He. He. He had no reason to believe that we could even come close to doing Something Like that. After kennedys speech, then theres a goal. Okay. So now we know where were going and everything starts moving in one direction. Meantime, the russians, course they had put men in orbit. All through the mercury program, the russians are beating us. Theyre sending a woman into space. Theyre sending a manned spacecraft for two, three, four day flights. We were excited about what we did but we knew we werent quite there yet and so then in february of the next year, 1962, john glenn got his ride. All stations, gantry is in launch position. The test conductor goes through and he goes through a final check in every system. And all he wants to hear is one word from you. Doesnt wanna hear anything else except go. status check, presurrization go. Lock stacking, you are go, water systems, go, greens operations, go, mercury capsule, go, allprestart panel lights are correct, the ready light is on. All recorders set to fast. Tminus 18 seconds and counting, engines start. Scott gave his famous word, godspeed john glenn and he was off. Good lord ride all the way. Godspeed john glenn. Roger, deep is go and i am go. Our capsule is in good shape. Seeko. Rocket grades fired ok. Adjusted. Roger, zero g and i feel fine. Capsule is turning around. Oh that view in tremendous. And finally. He sends back hes in orbit. Then all hell broke loose in the blockhouse. There was a lot of a lot of relief, but a lot of joy. First glimpse of the conquering hero. Colonel john h. Glenn. He left his footprints among the stars. We were now to the point where we were orbiting our astronauts as well as russia orbiting their cosmonauts. We were convinced we were on the right path. The reason for mercury was to see if a man could live and function in space. The reason for gemini was to see if he could do the manuevers with the vehicle that was necessary to go to the moon. I was the back up to ed white in gemini 4. This was the first time we were looking at going outside the spacecraft. This is where we start to get into the space firsts. Finally, we do something before the soviets. So gus and john young, another great astronaut, go up in the first gemini flight in march of 1965. The sole purpose of that mission was to make sure that you could precisely make changes in the orbit. Its a fundamental capability you have to have if you want to go to the moon. Air force leiutenant colonel gus grissom, one of the original mercury astronauts and Navy Commander john young, a newcomer, were americas first gemini twins to fly. A little bit high on the flight plan, but no problem on the ground. Okay sir isaac newton is no longer in the drivers seat, gus is flying the machine. A few months later in june of 65, the First American walks in space. Five, four, thr, two, one, zero. Ignition. Already in its early hours gt 4 has clearly established itself as americas most spectacular space shot. Roger, flight were go. Hes got some nice elevated rates which we expected and hes really speeded it up, but he looks great. Lets go i was the backup to ed white in gemini four. This was the first time we were looking at going outside the spacecraft. White has opened the door. He has stood up and its the most relaxed period. We should be picking up communications with the spacecraft any second now. Okay, im separating from the spacecraft. Okay separating from the spacecraft. Ok im dipping down underneath the spacecraft, theres no difficulty with me contacting the spacecraft. Its all very soft. Ed white liked it so much out there that they had a hard time bringing him back in. The flight director says get back in okay. Gemini 4 get back in i feel like a million dollars. The main problem that we were worried about was not getting him in the spacecraft itself and sitting down but closing the hatch. On earth, that hatch weighed an awful lot so it helped ed close it but in space there was no weight to that hatch so it was a lot harder but he managed to do it. Now were catching up with them. You had to be able to rendezvous in space with another vehicle. Rendezvous in space with another vehicle. Gemini 7 was a very interesting flight. We had to see what effects longterm zerogravity environment would do. Frank borman was the skipper on that one. I was the pilot. The mission was two weeks. Okay could we have your sleep report . Roger. Both of us slept six to seven hours last night, probably woke two or three times during the night. After about three days we found out that oxygen, gaseous oxygen flowing over us were drying us out and it was very uncomfortable. I realized that the spacecrafts integrity was pretty good so i started to unzip myself to get out of that suit and spend the rest of the two weeks in my underwear. This is houston, flight. How long have you been up there now . Lets see. Its a hundred anthirty nine hours, five minutes, fourteen and a half seconds. Okay, thats a lot. I feel like i was born up here. We were supposed to go up after gemini 6 went up. Six was supposed to rendezvous with a robotic agena spacecraft that had docking equipment on board after we were up there for 12 days they launched gemini 6. Ignition. Engine start. Inaudible at cape kennedy, the american spacecraft, gemini 6 has finally succeeded in starting her Journey Towards the space rendevous with gemini 7, whose two astronauts have now been in space since december the fourth. Hello gemini 6 this is 7, how do you read . We saw them coming up at night. We see the lights. Ah roger, congratulations. Excellent. In gemini 6, were two Naval Academy graduates. Tom stafford and wally schirra, both from the Naval Academy. In gemini 7, i was from the Naval Academy but frank borman was west point so as we rendezvoused and we got nose to nose, tom stafford put up a little sign that said beat army. I took the picture, and we figured it was highest beat army rally known to man. That was a major, major breakthrough. You cant go to the moon without doing that. Its not possible. Once they got that then i thought okay, alright, maybe it can be done. Were basically, they were launching flights every six weeks. They flew gemini 3 in 65, and the program ends at the end of 66. By now weve lapped the soviets. Weve demonstrated capabilities that they dont have. At the end of gemini, we had done all those things required to go to the moon rendezvous, docking, extra vehicular activity, Long Duration flight. Geminis finished. You know, were doing great. We know what were doing. Now were gonna take this huge step in function up to apollo, which is far more complicated. I thought that that would kill, at least, the kennedy prediction. Kill, at least, the kennedy prediction. I think there was hubris. Something is happening and its hubris. Its a form of group think and its all driven by schedule. Theyre in a big hurry and theyre not looking at their test data and they got a spacecraft thats not very well constructed. Its got miles and miles of wiring and most of its bad and its not insulated and theyre going to put three guys in this thing and theyre going to pump it full of pure oxygen. Uh. It was. To pump it full of pure oxygen. Uh. It was. Its a a prelaunch test on its a a prelaunch test on the pad called a plugs out test. They seal three hatches. They pump the spacecraft full of pure oxygen and theyre going to do a simulated countdown down to zero and at zero, theyre going to literally pull the plugs and see if the spacecraft can operate on internal power, hence the name plugs out test. And they immediately run into all kinds of communications problems. How are we going to get to the moon if we cant talk between two or three buildings . Thirty seconds later, somebody says hey. Or fire. Hey weve got a fire in the cockpit. It is a bad fire im burning up theyre gone. Up theyre gone. I knew where where i was the night they they came on, it was a friday night in the evening and there was a bulletin from all the networks, flash from cape canaveral, florida. The apollo 1 crew has died in a flash fire. Commander gus grissom, roger chaffee, a rookie pilot from purdue and ed white, the First American to walk in space. It was devastating. Horrible to have Something Like that happen. The ongoing inspection of the wire bundles around the hatch going in and out was not adequate. They got frayed. They made a spark and a spark in a hundred percent oxygen environment is an explosion. The other thing that was ill advised to start with was the hatch design. The hatch was designed to open inwardly and if you have a fire that builds up pressure on the inside with the area of the hatch, there was simply no way that you could open that hatch to get them out. Space flight is risky. People who want to become astronauts accept the risk and the rewards are well worth we think the risks. But to die on the launch pad on an unfueled booster just doing a test. Thats really not the way to go if youre going to go. There are a couple of paradoxes about the fire. One is that it happened on the ground, so they could determine the cause. Two, if the fire doesnt happen, we probably dont get to the moon dear fellow citizen, spending time hunting treasures with my daughter is wonderful. Because before im even ready, shell be off to college. And though ive planned for it, i may need a loan to help her pay her way there. Just like i do for my son. Citizens bank student loans, call 18669990150. As a leader in student lending, we have student loan options that others dont. Including better alternatives to federal loans. I can show you how to pay for your own childs way to college. In case you dont find that treasure chest. If you have a question about student loans, ask me. Sincerely michele wright, fellow mom and fellow citizen. Citizens bank student loans, call 18669990150 to apply now. As head of the three man apollo crew, borman already was a veteran of the space program. Now an air force colonel, the 40year old borman is married and has two teenage sons. James lovell, the pilot of the apollo command module islso 40 and flew with borman on the two week flight of gemini 7. The youngest apollo 8 crew member, lunar module pilot william anders, 35, was a space rookie until this flight. With borman in the lead, the three astronauts suited up, carrying portable air conditioners, headed for the van which would take them to the launch site for the elevator ride to the top of the 36 story tall saturn v moon rocket. We were gonna go to the moon. We were gonna circle the moon, look for suitable landing spots. Oh and theres the rumble in our building. It looks good. It looks like a good flight. Its a beautiful take off so far. This building is shaking under us. Weve got it. Weve got it, apollo 8 now in lunar orbit. So theres a cheer in this room. This is apollo control, houston. Switching now to the voice of jim lovell. Okay houston. The moon is essentially grey, no color. We didnt plan on were the things of what the earth really looked like from the moon, being the first flight. Oh my god look at that picture over there. That is the earth coming up, wow thats pretty. Is that a color film, jim . Hand me that roll of color, quick. Oh man quick. I looked at the earth in this true perspective in relation to the moon and to the sun and realized how insignificant we are and how fortunate we are to have that body to live on. One of the highlights of my youth was when the crew of apollo 8 got to the moon Christmas Eve and on our old black and white tvs, it said live from the moon and they read from the bible. It was terrific. We tried to figure out something to say. We did through people at nasa asked a newspaper man to give us an idea. He tried but it was his wife that came up with the idea of reading from the old testament, the first ten verses of genesis. For all the people back on earth, the crew of apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you. Bill read the first third. I read the second third and frank read the last third, and then frank had a small prayer which he gave. We close with goodnight, good luck, a Merry Christmas and god bless all of you. All of you on the good earth. We of course thought about that, thought that was very appropriate. Never realized the true significance of what that would do. 1968 was a very poor year for the United States. The vietnam war had been going on. There were two assassinations of prominent people Martin Luther king and bobby kennedy. There was riots on campuses and the Chicago Democratic Convention at that time and yet at the end, at the end of that period, we were able to go to the moon on something that everybody thought was a good idea that brought everybody together. And do something first and before the soviets, before they could do it. We accomplished something very important. Alright, houston were hard dock. Roger apollo 9, hard dock. Theyre going to take the lunar module to the moon and theyre gonna go down to about 47,000 feet. And i thought that was just as dangerous if not more dangerous than just going down and landing. The guidance was absolutely fantanstic and well give you the burns right now. This engine is just beautiful. So apollo 10 was, i think may of 1969. Then neil armstrong, buzz aldrin, and mike collins, three guys born in 1930. All of them test pilots. They just. Fate, the arc of technology and these three guys come together and they get the first chance to land on the moon. I was down at the cape on launch and in fact i was escorting Charles Lindbergh on the beach. We were talking about apollo 11 and i looked at him and i said take a look at that spacecraft on top of that saturn v way out there. I said, theyre planning to land on the moon. And he looked kind of wistfully at it and then looked down and i think he was probably thinking about his own flight, some thirty three and a half hours from new york to paris. And he was thinking about that 240,000 miles of navigating to the moon. We get out to the launch pad, i was gonna be the last one to get in the spacecraft. And the pad leader, we called him the czar of the white room, he didnt want three people up there up there at one time. So in the meantime im down two flights down on the elevator out on the edge sort of looking over the rocket and the sun is just beginning to come up and the waves are coming in over the beach, and im looking over here and i can see the evidence of masses of people. And i thought i wonder if somebody has a set of binoculars, they might be able to see me. So i waved to them. I was sitting here with this serene five or ten minutes all by myself and a big rocket next to me and thousands of people over there. Blue sky, awaiting our venture outward. This is Apollo Saturn Launch Control weve passed the six minute mark in our countdown for apollo 11. The flight to land the first men on the moon. Now were all together and the countdown is proceeding. Tminus one minute, 35 seconds. Forty seconds away. Astronauts report. It feels good, tminus twenty five seconds. 10, 9, ignition sequence start 6. 11, houston your guidance is converged. Youre looking good. 11, houston your guidance is converged. Youre looking good. Three men civilian neil armstrong, 38 of wapakoneta, ohio, United States air force colonel edwin e. Buzz aldrin, 39 years old of mont clair, new jersey and 38 year Old Air Force Lieutenant Colonel michael collins. They are on the way to the moon. Looks like its gonna be impossible to get away from the fact that you guys are dominating all the news back here on earth. The three of us all have different personalities. Mike is sort of a wellrounded jovial person that whatever the subject is that people are thinking about or talking about why, hes got something to offer. Now neil was pretty focused. You sort of have to get him engaged in whatever it is, then the pearls of wisdom will come out. Now me, im a little different. My business is spaceoriented. So we got these three people together kind of going to the moon, not a whole lot to talk about except look out the window. Good evening, if news is defined as the unexpected or the unpredictable in human affairs, then tonight the flight of apollo 11 just does not qualify. Apollo 11 is right where we knew it would be. Well over halfway to the moon, some 145,000 miles from earth, traveling at a speed and on a course predictable months or years ago. Were looking at the earth growing smaller and smaller. Apollo 11, this is houston, over. Roger go ahead houston, apollo 11. 11, this is houston, you are go for loi, over. We entered a orbit, 60 nautical miles. Apollo 11 this is houston, all your systems are looking good, going around the corner. Well see you on the other side, over. Ok its go there capcom,. Ok all flight controllers going around the horn go no go for undocking. Ok retro, go vital, go guide, go control, go telcom, go ginsing, go ecomm, go surgeon, go. Capcom, were go for undocking. In front of my console, a light. When that one comes on is that youve got about a minute of fuel left and that was just about the same time that we got a call from Mission Control that said 60 seconds. Sixty seconds. Lights on, forward. Is 60 seconds gonna be enough fuel to get us down . Forty feet down, two and a half, picking up some dust. 30 second call out from charlie duke. Thirty seconds. And were about 10 feet. And i felt well, okay we got it, we got it made now. Contact light. Okay engines stop. We copy you down eagle. Those were the first words spoken from my lips on the moon, contact light, engine stop. Oh boy. Youre looking good here. Houston, Tranquility Base here. The eagle has landed. Roger. Tranquility we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. Were breathing again, thanks a lot. Boy. K were gonna be busy for minute. Wally say something, im speechless. Im just trying to hold onto my breath. When you touch down, you dont just say hey, were here. N there are things to do. In the last half hour, they have been getting into their extravehicular space suits and the heavy boots and the gloves and the helmets. Into the portable life support systems that they will wear onto the moon surface. Preparing to leave the lunar module perhaps as early as forty five minutes from now. The flight plan said sleep but that isnt what we did. So we didnt have a timeline. Buzz and neil decided you know, im jacked up, lets go. I dont want to wait. When you got two people out there. Somebody has to come in first. All of a sudden theres this. This human being, this very smeared, blurry picture. Ok neil we can see you coming down the ladder, now. Im at the foot of the ladder, the lem foot beds are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches. And then he says, im going to step off the ladder now. And theres a pause. And he puts his foot on the moon and utters those famous words. Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. We ran outside, all of us and just looked at the moon, you know just to think, there is a man up there and then what a feeling that must be. Theyve got the flag up now and you can see the stars and stripes from the lunar surface. That was. Something ill never forget. That was. Something ill never forget. We accepted the challenge of going to the moon. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal. The acceptance of this challenge was inevitable. Before this decade is out. The relative ease with which we carried out our mission i believe is a tribute to the timeliness of that acceptance. Of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. And returning him safely to the earth. Apollo 11, apollo 11. This is hornet, hornet over. Apollo 11 reading you loud and clear. Our position 1,3,3,0, 6, 9, 1, 5. We did what we said we were gonna do and we did it in public. That was quite a deal and i was really, really honored to think that i had been part of the effort to get this thing started. You know it took a lot of people. It was a team effort. Everyone everyone had their little part to do and thats what it took. We can do. We can dosome awesome things when were challenged. Awesome things when were challenged. You know you could make an argument that gee, we could have spent 25 billion dollars on things here on earth to better the lives of Many Americans and thats probably true. It isnt clear that we actually would have done that. But one thing that i think you need to remember is that by going to the moon, they got to look back at earth and realize what weve got here, and how precious this planet is. So, i think thats significant. That was a step in the evolution of human beings and now were gonna explore the solar system. And now were gonna explore the solar system. Captioning sponsored by cbs quijano plugging white house leaks. The president s new Communications Director threatens to take drastic action to stop secrets from being spilled through the cracks. Youre going to keep leaking, im going to fire everybody. Quijano also tonight a Human Trafficking tragedy, at least nine people are dead. They were found inside the back of a sweltering tractor trailer. A high stakes showdown in kentucky. Will it become the nations first state without an Abortion Clinic . And why are people lining up to get inside this italian prison . Would you believe its the food . How was it to have all of theetion folks here tonight . Libero. Freedom . This is the cke
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