The meeting is part of a push to mend relations which have been strained by the Afghan conflict Mr Trump reduced security aides to Pakistan early last year accusing the country of lies and deceit Mr can said u.s. Assistance was minuscule compared with what the u.s. Led war on terror had cost Pakistan a man who stole the show at France's Bastille Day celebrations by flying overhead on a jet powered hollow board is now planted across the English Channel on it and the more has the details dressed as a soldier armed with a rifle Frankie's a patter swooped in front of the crowds in Paris on what he calls his fly board powered by 6 miniature engines he carries a backpack with enough fuel for about 10 minutes a flight he was planning to make 2 refueling stops from a boat meet channel but the French authorities have refused permission so now he plans to make just one stop in Precious waters he says he hasn't decided yet whether to land was refueling or to carry on harboring Thursday has been chosen as the day for the adventure because it is the 110th anniversary of the 1st flight across the channel by Louis Blair e.o. B.b.c. News. Hello this is the history hour with Max Pearson where this week quite understandably we're all about space the world is marking 50 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing a defining moment for humankind as we step beyond our own home planet and without doubt one of the defining moments of the 20th century will be looking at the genesis of space flight through the early Russian programs at the try amps and one of the near disasters of the American program and one of the 1st attempts to go beyond the moon to Mars but we begin with Apollo 11 itself and our 1st eyewitness to that truly historic mission that took Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the moon could hardly have been closer to the action Gerry Griffin was a flight controller on Apollo 11 and he's been speaking to Simon Watts. 60 seconds and. Put it back when he received the good wishes thank you very much we know it was. On the 16th of July 969 an estimated 1000000 people gathered at Cape Canaveral in Florida to watch the launch of Apollo 11 hundreds of millions more saw the spectacular takeoff on television. Last night was really something else and then worldwide there was this tremendous interest it was a fun time immersed in it was exciting we were ramped up ready to go as Apollo 11 headed into space the NASA team at Mission Control prepared to make history Jerry Kristin was one of the flight controllers mission control was made up of matter young people I was 34 and I was one of the older gas we felt that no one has ever Nana's Seles just now but you must have felt under enormous pressure with all the world looking on it was only pressure we can't generalize. On ourselves to make sure we didn't make a mistake in it least the best of our ability I never felt any outside pressure and we knew the world was falling for us. Apollo 11 was to moan date by 38 year old film a test pilot Neil Armstrong alongside him with a Mike Collins New York was a very very good pilot he didn't say a lot he was kind of quiet but oh nice folk are going to listen buzz a little more flamboyant Mike he can have this funny twinkle in his eye and he could always find humor in just about anything but it was a great mix all 3 of those guys really did a great job. Apollo 11 took 3 days to travel to the moon and then went into lunar orbit it was a routine. Extreme no plane and of course then we had separate and they were much on our land. And we could we do you want to. Do good luck with. The lunar module code named Eagle headed towards the moon flown by Neil Armstrong with Aldrin alongside him might call in state behind orbiting in the Apollo 11 command module your go away to go over. The final phases of the descent of Apollo or kind of from hand to computer Arms Hotel in a 12 hour saying that's computers being overworked. So it's not a good thing like the last simulation before we actually launched mission we had seen them. And when he came up with the flight the guys knew more about it they took a quick but make sure that all the guidance was correct but quickly gave them an event by the way you know man that made that call was and he's 20 that's. Where So it was. There at the end and then they started running short of fuel and we were concerned. That. I heard calls and said you get 60 seconds 30 in Neil never responded from the cockpit of the Eagle Neil Armstrong could see that the landing site selected by NASA was much rougher than expected in fact it was strewn with crates of some huge rocks and some of the boaters are quite large are so he had to maneuver to try to find a smooth place and that's what was taking the time. And that film was ages headed down and we were watching that and it was nerve wracking it was in the Armstrong's hands at that point. And I never will forget when Buzz Aldrin said we were picking up some dust that's when I thought we're going to make it 310 engine room and stuff them. Right. Down he told me one time he said it's like an automobile when it's sunny and did there's a little bit left in the technique. When they 1st touchdown and Neil made the call that he said Tranquility Base here the eagle has landed it was a great relief in Canada. I remember being proud. Proud thing by golly we did it the 2 astronauts checked beagle systems were working smoothly then in the early hours of the morning on July the 21st 960000000 they put on this space suits to head out sunlight NASA had decided that the super Co meal strong would go 1st. A day a week. Course the television picture was pretty grainy and not very easy but I think everybody was just kind of struck there was very little being said in that room. He 1st actually got down to the footpath and he was standing on the footpath I think you'd already decided what he was going to say but I think you wanted to make sure that he was kind of calm and. Not excite him which he never was to say it plainly. And when he said what he said and stepped off on the surface off the surface I remember thinking. You knew he was going to come up with something profound. I died. Drin followed on strong out on the astronauts spent more than 2 hours exploring. It is a bit of Luna juggling collected moon rocks and put up an American flag and the thing I remember most from when they went out was when they planted the flag and talked to the press I. Think As for standing up. Talking of president next. Well it worked the science were jumping up and down stop all this and get samples and so forth. Their Side Story but I thought that was a terrific moment after the safe return of Apollo 11 the NASA Lunar program continued until 972 landing on the moon and of the 5 times and conducting important scientific research Gerry Griffin worked on all the missions on them became director of the Kennedy Space Center you know today 15 years later I think this is storable significance is more of an impact on me now than it was than . We did and with all technology and. Mazes It amazes me still that we were able to do what we did. Gerry Griffin talking to Simon Watts about a project and a moment that in through all the world Incidentally there's a great space history collection on our website and there's a film with Gerry Griffin along with unmissable archive footage just search for b.b.c. Witness history I was 9 years old and got woken up by my father to witness the moon landing on an old fuzzy black and white t.v. The b.b.c. Future space correspondent Richard Hollinger was just a bit too young for that but he's definitely studied and written extensively about the space programs I asked him 1st just how dangerous was what they did on Apollo 11 where they'd never done it before however much they rehearsed it and simulated and tried it out this was the 1st time that people were going to land on another world so we know now about the a law means that those 120212 or one alarms Mission Control knew what was going on but Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did not know that those alarms actually meant the computer was overloaded but it was fine to continue but above all going into that boulder field an area they thought would be the best place to land turned out not to be and having to just fly it I mean that is the the amazing thing about the Apollo 11 landing you had 400000 people involved in the Apollo program from the contractors secretaries nurses doctors all these people in the engineers and the rocket scientists and yet that landing comes down to just one man Neil Armstrong Armstrong does seem like an incredibly cool person why did he get that 1st man on the moon job well if you ask NASA they'll say he was just next in line but we know that's not really true he was selected because he's just so cool and calm under pressure there was so many instances during his training where he just walked out his heart rate barely when time. At all but also he wasn't egotistical he would always share the whole experience of of Apollo and bringing everyone else to that so there were some astronauts less so and in that respect he was just the perfect person to represent the United States and represent the world what about the machinery that they were using meant by today's standards their astonishingly primitive Yeah and the one that they always talk about is is the computer but actually although the computer when he had about 70 k. Of memory so you know the smart phone I got my hand here is vastly superior to the computer in terms of memory the really neat thing about the computer that Galt's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on to the moon was it couldn't crash it just cycled around again so any error messages it just rebooted itself and carried on so in that way it's actually superior to solar technology we have today and it was all building blocks you know they've gone from the 1st rockets in the late 1950 s. Into the Mercury program with a single man capsule then the 2 man capsules of Gemini all the time building on each success and eventually getting there and being able to land on the moon writer for the moment thanks NASA had that huge success in 1969 but the moon shots that followed were not always so successful famously in 1970 when 3 other American astronauts were on their way to the moon disaster struck Richard House has spoken to one of those on board Apollo 13 Fred Hayes April the 14th 970 Apollo 13 as 200000 miles from Earth heading for the moon the astronauts Jim Lovell Jack Swaggart and Fred Hayes are carrying out routine checks and procedures according to shuttle the mission is going smoothly they are receiving instructions from. Control in Houston. Maybe I want more item for you when you get damn right I could hear her a beer crowd. And I are happening right here Ok look at the damage Bennett if you hated. Him by. An explosion on board Fred Hayes rushes back to his station there was a loud bang metallic sound as I was 15 up to get through the tunnel to get back into the command module of the mothership there were some crinkly the metal in the tunnel where the vehicles moved relative to each other and actually caused enough stress to buckle some metal in the tunnel area commander Jim Lovell got straight on to mission control. Houston we've had a problem a legendary understatement the biggest thing was confusion you know trying to sort out what really had gone wrong when I arrived in my position than the right couch and looked at the instrument panel number readings on several meters told me immediately we had lost one oxygen tank I had made it we had a just a sick feeling in my stomach because I knew that that was constituted an abort and we had lost little I really lost our chance to land on the moon but they hadn't just lost their chance to walk on the moon the explosion in the oxygen tank had crippled the spacecraft some of their power systems had been badly damaged the challenge now was to get back to earth a tall they knew they needed to preserve as much energy in the spacecraft as possible Apollo 13 at this point was made up of 3 parts the badly damaged service module the command module which was designed for the return to Earth and the lunar module which was only designed to get them on to the moon now they had to use the lunar module as a lifeboat to get home the problem being that the lunar module was only meant to work for 2. A's and was flimsy and lightweight we would need it for life support and communications and navigation and control we got extremely busy with a requirement to do a very rapid power up of that they have a much faster than we normally would have done Fred he says the training and their characters with their most valuable resources over man knew the systems and technologies of the spacecraft and to Muttley a Mission Commander Jim Lovell was one of Nasa's most experienced astronauts it was good to be with Jim who really had the right personality for the set of conditions there even headed had himself a good man or sense of humor obviously wouldn't tend to lose his cool we reshot a specialist in our own right about the vehicles I had spent 7 months at the plant and Grumman where voter modules will be fabricated and tested similarly Jack Schweigert had helped develop the initial contingency procedures for the commander service module now the crew of Apollo 13 must use the moon's gravity like a giant slingshot to flick them back towards Earth they had to fly around the dark side of the man the backside is quite different from the front most of it is much more rugged hell they really have beat up a large rock is what it looks like with not too much coloration unfriendly looking place back on course for Earth a quarter of a 1000000 miles of space separated the astronauts from home conditions inside the space capsule were difficult how did they cope it was not a matter of functioning per se because of the the requirements to meet the task and you know what had to get down meant getting home or not it was damp because of the moisture build up we went down to probably mid thirty's Fahrenheit we had did not have adequate clothing for that condition you you couldn't sleep for very long periods because of that environment. So it was carrying if you want to look at it from that aspect Mr Bobi said in there for lots of hours and that sort of environment cold wet and tired without any computers to guide them they flew on for 2 days with their recycling system switched off carbon dioxide was building up inside the capsule the astronauts had to rig up homemade Affeldt is using cardboard duct tape and socks to stop themselves dying of carbon dioxide poisoning navigating back to Earth was done by skillful hand eye coordination and teamwork coming back we had only 2 major things that we did and we did do 2 mid-course for the mid-course corrections on the way back we did it without computers it was done totally manual with Gem use and the controls to stare on to the cost but the earth with Co asked us like a gun so I left when the then pitching from that point to where I could pick up the sand I would tell him to stop the pitch rate and we froze the attitude at that point and that's how we got the position to then manual a run the engines the damage spacecraft and its crew now prepared for the most dangerous part of the mission re-entry into Earth's atmosphere the lunar module and the service module would jettisoned as the Service Module floated away the astronauts saw for the 1st time just how much damage had been done by the explosion . Right. Now the re-entry began Jim Lovell Jack Swaggart and Fred Hayes would make the final part of their journey to earth at unimaginable speed cocooned in a space capsule from the furnace like temperatures of the upper atmosphere. Target the Central Pacific Ocean you're looking backward and you can see the fireball trailing what it rolled you see a low swore a pattern change and that fireball trailing you which gradually as you got it slowed up and got in deeper it would change coloration from a more hotter I guess red orange to even eventually just a brown stream of like smoke trail and you and eventually to get the drug shoots out that stabilize you as you come in through I think about 60000 feet then your weight but really what means you're really got it made is when you see the main chutes deploy obviously in our case we got all 3 shoots out and that's 1st time you know you really Home Spice down itself might be a little jolting in our case it was that was as bad as I suspected it might be when you're finally home on the way down towards the sea I can imagine some big smiles on all of your faces we're talking to each other and relieved and saying some present thanks perhaps you have been on one of the most incredible adventure is no surprise that only there was no that much conversation we had post-landing checklist to go through to get the vehicle saved and ready for when the divers outside saved everything and got ready to open the hatch now there was no conversation I recall about what had transpired at that point or what I feel it mutually our failings were it was like Hollywood you know everybody shouts and slaps everybody on the back and now there was none of that Fred Hayes the Apollo 13 astronaut was speaking to Richard Howells Richard Halling of the b.b.c. Future space correspondent knows all about the Apollo 13 near disaster and not just from the Hollywood film an extraordinary team effort rescue Absolutely and it proves the Apollo was so much more than just the 3 in the spice crop. Aft there was mission control on the ground but behind mission control there was the Mission Evaluation rooms every person on one of those consuls Mission Control had a team of people behind them and behind them there were more teams in there with the contractors and when something went wrong like in Apollo 13 they could pull all this expertise in and have this brilliant chain of command to solve these problems I think the great unsung hero of Apollo 13 is a roll of sticky tape a roll of duct tape that was carried by every Apollo spacecraft and used time and again so they were able to tape the canister within the lunar module to remove the comet dockside in Apollo 13 they also used tape to fix the lunar rover in Apollo 17 their college program finished in 1902 after 5 moon landings but what did it achieve in terms of science there's one really obvious fundamental one they discovered there's no life on the moon and that wasn't obvious to start with they discovered evidence of volcanoes discovered the mineral composition of the Moon I think in science the big one to me is the origins of the moon the fact that we now think it's most likely the the moon formed as a result of a monster size object hitting an early Earth spinning out into 2 different bodies the earth and the moon so that's pretty fundamental and then of course you got the technological saw eat the miniaturize ation of electronics and NASA ordered so many thousands of silicon chips these new integrated circuits that really kickstarted Silicon Valley the miniaturize ation of technology and all the things we take for granted today Richard Donnegan b.b.c. Future space correspondent who be with us again shortly as we look back at Soviet space efforts and at Mars that's in part 2 of the history our. The moment. Distribution of the b.b.c. World Service in the us is made possible by American Public Media producer and distributor of award winning public radio content a.p.m. American Public Media with support from context travel offering privately guided tours in 60 cities around the world led by local experts in the car to cuisine architecture and more information at Radio dot context Travel dot com. Coming up in part 2 of the history our. That's the 1st woman in space we've also got the 1st dog in space and how a very British effort