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It was months behind schedule. instead of falling further behind the soviets nasa officials had a bold idea. the lunar module unfortunately was delayed considerably. and so nasa again in one of the, i think one of the great strokes of management substituted apollo 8 from an earth orbital flight to a lunar orbital flight. reporter: if it worked, america would actually leapfrog the soviets in the space race an astronaut, not a cosmonaut, would be the first to fly around the moon. it was one of the big gambles that nasa at the direction of the president took in order to establish that america was better than the soviet union. reporter: a big gamble indeed. after all it was less than two years before that apollo 1 demonstrated how complex every mission was, how the smallest oversight can be fatal. nobody knew that better than frank gorman, point man in the apollo 1 investigation. nasa tapped him for the latest ....
Vehicles before we would go to the moon. reporter: apollo viii was a big step forward. america would still be trailing the russians in the race to the moon. they sent spacecraft around the moon with animals to test them for cosmonauts. and they were fairly successful. but then in the soviet hierarchy, they had a been controversy, should we send the cosmo mauts, and people said, no we should send them one more time before the cia began getting signals that maybe the soviets were going to try a sir com lunar flight. which would have massively undercut the pr potential of a lunar landing, or even you know, a lunar orbital flight. reporter: the lunar module wasn t ready to go into space. ....
And the other people said, no, we should send one more time, just to make sure. the cia began getting signals that maybe the soviets were going to try a circum-lunar flight, a big figure eight around the moon, which would have massively undercut the p.r. potential of a lunar landing or even, you know, a lunar orbital flight. to make matters worse for nasa, the lunar module wasn t ready to go into space. it was months behind schedule. but instead of falling further behind the soviets, nasa officials had a bold idea. the lunar module, unfortunately, was delayed considerably, and so, nasa, again, in one of the i think one of great strokes of management substituted apollo 8 from an earth orbital flight to a lunar orbital flight. if it worked, america would actually leapfrog the soviets in the space race, and an ....
And the other people said, no, we should send one more time, just to make sure. the cia began getting signals that maybe the soviets were going to try a circum-lunar flight, a big figure eight around the moon, which would have massively undercut the p.r. potential of a lunar landing or even, you know, a lunar orbital flight. to make matters worse for nasa, the lunar module wasn t ready to go into space. it was months behind schedule. but instead of falling further behind the soviets, nasa officials had a bold idea. the lunar module, unfortunately, was delayed considerably, and so, nasa, again, in one of the i think one of great strokes of management substituted apollo 8 from an earth orbital flight to a lunar orbital flight. if it worked, america would actually leapfrog the soviets in the space race, and an ....
And the other people said, no, we should send one more time, just to make sure. the cia began getting signals that maybe the soviets were going to try a circum-lunar flight, a big figure eight around the moon, which would have massively undercut the p.r. potential of a lunar landing or even, you know, a lunar orbital flight. to make matters worse for nasa, the lunar module wasn t ready to go into space. it was months behind schedule. but instead of falling further behind the soviets, nasa officials had a bold idea. the lunar module, unfortunately, was delayed considerably, and so, nasa, again, in one of the i think one of great strokes of management substituted apollo 8 from an earth orbital flight to a lunar orbital flight. if it worked, america would actually leapfrog the soviets in the space race, and an ....