- [Reporter] The latest
problem for the unlucky Apollo 13 and for the
astronauts came late tonight when carbon dioxide began
building up in their spaceship. The Apollo 13 carries
lithium hydroxide canisters to cleanse the air of carbon dioxide. But the canisters in the command ship are not operating at the moment. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] April 9th, 1959. NASA introduces its first
class of astronauts. All seven begin a crash
course in space travel. - [John Glenn] Once we were selected, it was sort of open-ended
as to what kind of things people could think up
for us to do that might have some weird remote
application to space flight. - [Narrator] Wally Schirra
endures a heat chamber. Gus Grissom tries to fly blindfolded, and John Glenn becomes a
human test dummy for G-forces. Astronauts call this
centrifuge, "The Beast." - You're straining just as hard as you possibly constrained
to keep enough blood up in your head to keep from blacking out. - [Narrator] They spin so violently, that their hearts bang into their lungs, knocking the wind out of them. (suspenseful music) They test for every condition they can imagine in space flight. But what about weightlessness? The Air Force devises a way
to simulate zero gravity. The Mercury Seven are
again the Guinea pigs. A C1-31 transport ascends to 40,000 feet. (airplane engine roaring) Inside are the future astronauts, and one nervous reporter
with a tape recorder. - [Art Freeman] My hands are shaking. I don't know if my voice
sounds funny or not. - [Narrator] Then the plane
tops out like a roller coaster. And the men begin to float. - [Astronaut] We are now weightless. We are now weightless. Good Lord, what an
interesting feeling this is. (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Doctors
have no idea if humans can survive long in weightlessness. Will their organs function? Will food stay down, if
there's no up or down anymore? They call this the vomit comet. And it's the only way to
test the possibilities and problems of zero gravity. (upbeat music) The Air Force even tries it on animals. They appear far less enthusiastic. It's a Friday in Cape Kennedy, Florida. The Apollo One crew ends a long week with a test of the command module. A weekend with family is on their minds. - [Gus Grissom] I seem to
get busier all the time, and I find that I'm home less and less. And that's about the way it's been going. - [Narrator] This is
footage from another test a few months earlier.
(dramatic music) They will simulate space flying conditions inside the capsule. As Friday morning turns to afternoon, they ascend the launch tower. - [Ed White] We've run
one altitude chamber test on the spacecraft. We'll be running another one, and then we'll start our
final preparations for launch. - [Narrator] They enter the
capsule on top of the rocket. It's not fueled yet, so the test is considered non-hazardous. They close the hatch and pressurize the spacecraft with pure oxygen, exactly how it will be in space. Ground control and the Apollo One crew begin a long check list.
(indistinct) Communication problems cause
delays and frustration. - [Radio Operator] Okay, Gus- - [Narrator] More than
two hours into the test, Grissom goes off script
to express his annoyance. (indistinct) Then there's a surge of voltage somewhere in the electrical system. Spotty communication reveals
the capsule is on fire. (indistinct) Ground control tries
to hail the astronauts. (indistinct) They call the workers on the launch pad. - All men, get in there and help them. - [Narrator] It's only 17 seconds from the first call of
alarm to radio silence. (indistinct) It's already too late. (dramatic music) - [Andrew Chaikin] That fire erupted. It didn't just spread. It was an explosive combustion. The hall of the spacecraft had ruptured from the pressure of the fire. The temperature got up to 1200 degrees. There were puddles of aluminum that had melted during the fire. - [Narrator] It was sparked
by an electrical short, fed by pure oxygen and contained by the heavy hatch
designed to lock out space, instead it locked in fire. - Nobody at NASA realized
that they were putting those three astronauts into a bomb that was waiting to go off. (gunshots)
(playing trumpet) - [Narrator] October 25th, the plan was to launch an unmanned
target rocket called Agena, and then have the astronauts launch and chase it in orbit, move in and dock. - [Narrator] The Agena
breaks up on ascent. (rocket explosion) The failed Agena rocket
launch forces a new plan. - Look, why not use Gemini Six to rendezvous with the mission that's going to fly
after it, Gemini Seven. - [Narrator] Two crews,
two ships, one mission, find each other in space. Gemini Seven will go first. Frank Borman and Jim
Lovell will try to break the endurance record in space. A two week marathon stuck
inside their tiny capsule. - Jim Lovell called it
two weeks in a men's room. - [Narrator] Now they just
sit, skimming the globe, waiting for Gemini Six. - [Frank Borman] It was boring. When you're just drifting,
tumbling through space, time goes slow. - [Narrator] It doesn't help that Borman can't change his clothes. - [Woman] This suit was
designed with the idea in mind that they had to make the
astronauts comfortable in order to do meaningful work in space. A helmet gave an impression of an insect. The suit became known
as the grasshopper suit. - [Narrator] The grasshopper
suit is more flexible than a standard spacewalk suit. But nothing is comfortable
for two straight weeks. (sentimental music) - [Frank Borman] Lovell
and I had been up there for 11 or 12 days, I
don't remember how long. We were tired.
(sentimental music) It was a real high point to see this bright light look
like a star came up, and then eventually we could
see it was a Gemini vehicle. - [Jim Lovell] They came
up and we stayed together. We each took turns
flying around each other to see how nicely the spacecraft would control something like that. - [Narrator] Wally Schirra, piloting the newly-arrived Gemini Six can measure his moves in inches. - [Wally Schirra] Again,
it was tiny, tiny thrusts. I call it a micro mouse spark. (chuckling) You've got to have
these very slow changes, where you don't waste a lot of fuel. - [Narrator] They even get close enough for the former serviceman
to heckle each other. Space flights first rendezvous is a win. (helicopter propellers) The joint mission also proves that astronauts can survive
a moon length marathon, two weeks of space camping. - [Frank Borman] I don't know
how in the world we could, but in that small area,
somehow we lost the toothbrush. We ended up sharing toothbrush. - [Narrator] This airplane
has the look of a toy, but it's real and ingenious. Nicknamed the pregnant Guppy, it's wide enough to carry space hardware, and comes apart to get
that hardware in and out. First the stages of a rocket. They'll have to put it
together like building blocks. Then a Gemini capsule. Everything looks right
out of a kid's toy box. But this is full-scale,
exceptionally complex. Uncommonly expensive. And Gus Grissom is about
to make it really fly. Grissom joins rookie John Young as America's first two person crew for the maiden voyage of Project Gemini. - [Radio Operator] Five,
four, three, two, one, zero. Ignition! (rocket explosion) - [Narrator] Gemini Three
pierces into the sky flying straight and true. - [Gus Grissom] The current
flight was very smooth. Smoother than we had any reason to expect, and there isn't a jiggle or a bump in it in the whole first days flight. - [Astronaut] I have
backup plans on bank angle, and trying to reverse bank angle. - [Narrator] Astronaut Gordon Cooper, one of Grissom's best friends,
guides them around the globe. - Hello there.
(indistinct) - [Narrator] Then they
land 52 miles off target. - [Astronaut] We're 50 miles from a spot- - [Narrator] By the time
the Navy finds them, they've been pitching in
deep swells for 30 minutes, costing Grissom his breakfast. - [Radio Operator] Monitor,
we have both astros, and (indistinct) at this
time returning to, Roger? All well. - [Narrator] The capsule
shows the scars of re-entry, but passes the flight test. It's airworthy and airtight. Few know that on the next Gemini flight, they'll open the hatch
on purpose in space. - It was actually a kind of secret effort. And the rest is one of the
most extraordinary episodes in the whole history of NASA. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Next step, learn to dock. Gemini Eight sends up two rookies, Dave Scott and Neil Armstrong. - [Neil Armstrong] Really
believed that we wouldn't have any trouble with the docking, based on the simulations we did. - [Radio Operator] This is Gemini control. Houston, about two minutes ago, Neil Armstrong called in
and he was able to confirm that radar lock had been established. - [Narrator] The scene
unfolds as if in slow motion. - [Radio Operator] We've
got a visual on the Agena. - [Narrator] Even though both spacecraft are flying 10 times faster than a bullet. (indistinct) - [Radio Operator] You're
looking good on the ground. Go ahead- - [Narrator] Armstrong
and Scott nailed it. (suspenseful music) (indistinct) - [Radio Operator] Roger,
big brother is watching. - [Man] I'll bet those lucky guys are just jumping up and down. - [Narrator] Mission control celebrates the first docking in space. A necessary skill for Apollo's moonshot. Then Gemini Eight drifts around the Earth out of contact with Houston. - [Neil Armstrong] Murphy's Law says, bad things always happen
at worst possible time. - [Narrator] Without warning, the two docked spacecraft begin to spin. - [Neil Armstrong] We first suspected that the Agena was the culprit. - [Narrator] They shut down
the Agena's control system. But the spinning gets worse, and the astronauts get dangerously dizzy. - [Narrator] When the
rates became quite violent, I concluded that we couldn't continue. We had to get ourselves separate. I was afraid we might lose consciousness. - [Narrator] With blurry eyesight, they ditch the Agena,
thinking that's the culprit. - So they back off from the agenda. And rather than the spinning
slowing down, it speeds up. - [Narrator] When Houston
gets back in range, they find the crew in crisis. (indistinct) The problem isn't the Agena. One of the capsules own
thrusters is stuck open, and they don't know it. It's now spinning once per second, and the crew is in danger of blacking out. - Neil realizes that the only way he's going to stop the spinning
is to use the big thrusters. - [Narrator] The big thrusters
are meant only for re-entry, but Armstrong has to engage
them to wrestle Gemini Eight back from the brink. (indistinct) - [Radio Operator] Roger copy. - The mission rules
away that if you engage the re-entry system, that's
the end of the mission. - [Narrator] They have to come home, making the U S space programs
first emergency landing. - [Neil Armstrong] A lot of
unexpected things happen, and usually they're not
the ones you practice. - [Narrator] The command module,
and the Saturn Five rocket have made it through their test flights, the lunar module as well. Now, mission control
calls for the next test, an EVA or extra vehicular activity, commonly known as a spacewalk. - [Radio Operator]
Everything's looking good. - [Narrator] The spacewalk
falls to Schweiker, who will be testing a brand new suit for the very first time. - [Jeffrey Kluger] All other astronauts who had ever walked on
space had been attached to their spacecraft via umbilicals. In order to walk on the moon,
you had to cut that tether. You had to have a complete life
support system on your back. (indistinct) - [Andrew Chaikin] Rusty
got out of the lunar module. He was going to be the first to test the moon suit in the vacuum of space. Meanwhile, Dave Scott was sticking out of the command module hatch and
photographing and observing, while Rusty checked out the suit. (indistinct) - Dave was supposed to take movies of it so that we would document the stability of being able to do this. I had started up the
handrail and Dave said, "Oh, the camera jammed." And so Jim said, "Okay,
Dave, you got five minutes. "Rusty, don't go, just stay right there." - [Narrator] Scott ducks
into the command module, leaving Schweickart to an
out of this world experience. - I just spun around and
I looked at the Earth and I just said, "My job right now "is to just be a human
being, just be a person." And I stopped being an astronaut. There I was a human being in space saying absorb this, just soak this up. Just let it all come in. That five minutes was a
very, very special time. (suspenseful music) (indistinct) - [Narrator] Day two, the Apollo 17 knows that the command module works. But things with the
crew are not going well. - [Radio Operator] And then shut it down. - [Man] Wally Schirra came
down with a monster head cold. - [Narrator] Schirra's
cold is misery in orbit. In the zero gravity capsule, his sinuses just won't drain, and he quickly becomes irritable. On Earth, astronauts might turn to comfort food when they're sick. In space, there's really no such thing. - The space food's on the table here, represent different
meals throughout the day. So we have sugar-coated cereal Sausage patties, so this
would make a nice breakfast. We have chicken stew, which would have been a
lunch or a dinner item. And then butterscotch
pudding and grapefruit drink. - [Narrator] First experiments
in space food were cautious. Could astronauts even swallow in space? Nobody really knew. In 1962, John Glenn proved
that astronauts can eat, at least from a tube. He could choose apple
sauce or pureed beef. Early space food isn't very appetizing. Scientists freeze dry and dehydrate it into bite-sized morsels, and coated with gelatin
to stop down crumbs. - [Woman] In space, crumbs
don't fall they float. And air filters could
pick up those crumbs, and it would just create
a maintenance problem for the astronauts where they would need to clean those filters more often. - [Narrator] By the time of Apollo Seven, added features make space
food a bit more delicious. - Wally Schirra, Don
Isley and Walt Cunningham could rehydrate things that had a bit more flavor and dimension to them. Dishes that might be more enjoyable, and have some added flavors as well. - [Radio Operator] Quite a
lot of concern down here. - [Narrator] But none of
it is mom's chicken soup. The mood in the command
module quickly goes south. - [Astronaut] No, we
can't do that, though. - It made Schirra in
particular a little bit grumpy. - [Operator] Okay. - [Narrator] Flight director, Glenn Lunney isn't used to hearing no,
even from one of NASA's stars. - I think it came as a bit of a shock to some of the people on the ground that you have a space crew
that's not necessarily going to do everything
you want them to to. - [Operator] I think we can work that out. - [Narrator] Schirra thinks
the workload is way too much. - [Walter Cunningham]
When Wally had a cold, everybody had to be miserable. (indistinct) - [Operator] For the
helmet on either that one. - [Narrator] On the final descent, mission control tells the
crew to put on their helmets. - [Astronaut] We tried
them on this morning. - [Narrator] The crew refuses. - [Astronaut] If we had an open visor, I'd go along with that. - Schirra didn't want to do this because they needed to be able to clear their ears as the pressure changed during the descent. - [Operator] Okay, I guess
you better be prepared for some detail when we land
why we haven't got them on. But it's your neck and I
hope you don't break it. - [Astronaut] Thank you! - [Narrator] Even before the
astronauts are back on Earth, mission controllers
swear that none of them will ever fly again. 65 years to the month after the first American airplane lifted off, humankind is on its way to the moon. If all goes well, Apollo Eight will orbit the
Earth two and a half times. Speed off 233,000 miles into deep space. Once they reach the moon, they will orbit 10 times
and then head back to Earth. - [Operator] 137311. - [Narrator] Manning the
guidance and navigation station on Apollo Eight falls to Jim Lovell. - [Operator] Apollo Eight Houston. - [Narrator] Mission
control has some good news. He's on an almost perfect course. (indistinct) Now, it's time for one of the most critical maneuvers of the entire mission. To fire up their engine and
then slow the spacecraft just enough to enter lunar orbit. The mood in the control room is tense. The spacecraft must fly into this orbit at a precise speed and location. Going too close, or too slow will cause it to crash into the moon. Too far or too fast will send it on a one-way journey into space. Making it even more complicated, astronauts won't have
mission control to help. - The key maneuvers had to take place when the astronauts were behind the moon. So, they were completely
cut off from Earth. - A really critical flight
maneuvers happening, and there's no way to know
until after it's all over. - [Narrator] All the training
has built up to this moment. Now the crew will be on their own. - [Operator] Apollo Eight,
Houston you're riding the best bird we can find, over? - [Jeffrey Kluger] People
had navigated across oceans. People had found their
way across continents. Nobody had ever found their way across a quarter of a million miles of interplanetary inter-world void before. - [Narrator] On Christmas Eve, mission control gives the go ahead. (indistinct) - [Astronaut] Thanks a lot, Chris. We'll see you on the other side. - [Narrator] The men in mission control wait anxiously to see if Apollo Eight has survived its journey to
the far side of the moon. - The worst thing that
could happen of course, would have been if they heard nothing, that would have meant that the astronauts had crashed on the far side of the moon. That was very real possibility. - [Narrator] 32 minutes
after losing contact, ground control sends a
test call out into space. - [Operator] Apollo Eight Houston, over. Apollo Eight Houston, over. - [Astronaut] Go ahead, this
is Apollo Eight (indistinct). - [Operator] Apollo
Eight, this is Houston. Roger, good to hear your voice. - It was a critical step in
being able to land on the moon. - [Narrator] Armstrong and Aldrin try to master the lunar module, knowing that it can be
only so realistic on Earth. - There are pilots that are trained to fly in Earth's atmosphere. Those skills are completely
useless on the moon, 'cause there's no atmosphere. - [Andrew Chaukin] They
needed something called the lunar landing training vehicle, which was a special machine
designed to replicate flying in the moon's one sixth gravity, even though you were still on Earth. - [Narrator] Astronauts call
it the flying bed stick. In the center, a big jet engine
that points straight down, with a pilot seat bolted on top. Each flight is a precarious venture. - [Andrew Chaikin]
There was no safety net. If you tilted too far, you
could just fall out of the sky. You really had to be on your toes. - [Narrator] In 1968,
Neil Armstrong prepares for his 21st flight in
the lunar Lander trainer. The first 20 went well. But this one suffers a rare malfunction. - [Andrew Chaikin] All
of a sudden it lurched, kind of tipped over on one side. (suspenseful music) - With no time to spare, he was really close to a fatal accident. He was able to inject just in time. - [Margaret Weitkamp] Neil Armstrong had a particularly cool head. He went back to his desk
and finished his workday because he didn't see
any reason that having just narrowly escaped death, he would clock out and go home early. - [Narrator] Apollo 11,
eight days after launch, Columbia blazes through
the Earth's atmosphere at 36,000 feet per second. It splashes down in the Pacific. The USS Hornet is waiting. The Navy deploys a Sikorsky sea king, and three swimmers to
retrieve the triumphant crew. Before the crew can port the ship, they must put on a new kind of suit, a biological isolation garment, designed to prevent the spread
of germs from outer space. (crowd applauding) - [Buzz Aldrin] We were
the first crew of course, that was going to be exposed
to the lunar surface material. And there was a fair
amount of scientific debate as to whether that rate
anyway pose any hazard to people back on Earth. - [Narrator] Apollo
11's voyage for the ages ends in this trailer called
a mobile quarantine facility. - NASA knew fairly well
that the environment on the moon was quite hostile to life, the very ultraviolet rays from the Sun, which we use on Earth to
kill germs all the time. But just to be sure, they
agreed that it would be prudent to quarantine returning astronauts - [Michael Collins] I could have stayed in there a lot longer, that was fine. A hot shower, that was
the main thing really because I love hot showers and of course, there's not one in the command module. So, I was grubby and glad to be back. Hot shower, gin and steak. Wow. - There was a little kitchenette there. Very state of the art modern convenience of a microwave oven. To have microwave cooked meals was a real treat for the
astronauts after their journey. And then there were bunks to sleep in. For them, it was spacious
compared to all the time they had spent in the command
module for a couple of weeks. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Soon,
quarantine ends with a roar. (cheering) The returning astronauts
are treated as heroes. Their Goodwill tour takes them
to 24 countries in 45 days. Through it all, astronauts
stress that the achievement doesn't just belong to
three men on a rocket. - One thing that Neil
Armstrong would emphasize again and again and again, was that it wasn't just the two
of them landing on the moon, but it was hundreds of thousands of people had worked around the clock
and through the weekend for years to make sure that
everything would go right. (suspenseful music ends) - [Narrator] After Apollo
12, the agency is preparing for eight more lunar landings. They want to push further on the moon with improved spacesuits
and new lunar rovers. But space enthusiasm is
waning as mass protests and social change divide America. - Although there was a
lot of interest in 11, and there was still quite a
lot of interest in Apollo 12, there were so many other
major, major issues people were grappling with at that time. - [Narrator] Issues like civil rights, the economy and the Vietnam War. The president questions Apollo's worth, just as NASA unveils bold long-term plans. The agency pushes for reusable space ships and space stations. Some even dream of space colonies. But the president is not onboard. - [Bill Barry] NASA comes up
with a very ambitious plan that they lay out and
the Nixon administration does not respond to that plan. They basically just sort of ignore it. - [Narrator] After Apollo
12's lightning strike- (indistinct) NASA launches in pure sunshine. The skies are clear,
but the crowds are thin. - [Radio Operator] Apollo 13 is go. Three, two, one, zero. We have commit, and we
have lift off at 2.13. (applauding) The entire five, building up to 7.6 million pounds of thrust. And it has cleared the tower! (dramatic music) - [Narrator] Two days
later, Marilyn Lovell and Mary Hayes visit mission control to watch their husband's TV broadcast. The astronauts give a tour of
the command module, Odyssey. - [Radio Operator]
There he is, we see him. - [Narrator] And the
lunar module Aquarius, but none of the networks carry it. - With Apollo 13, a lot of the interest, at least within the United States had started to wane a bit. People weren't following the flight. There was a broadcast, but it
didn't show on primetime TV. (indistinct) - [Narrator] Apollo 13 is
seven minutes from Earth, and may have a damaged heat shield. The crew and Houston do final checks. - [Operator] Okay, go ahead. - [Glynn Lunney] So,
here we are 30 years old dealing with this problem
of national significance. We trained, and thought
and prepared ourselves to be able to handle
eventualities as bad as that with the confidence
that if there was a way to thread through it,
that we would find it and be able to make it. - [Narrator] The crew also
tanks Houston, Just in case. - [Astronaut] All of us here want to thank all you guys down there for
the very fine job you did. - [Operator] That's affirmative, Joe. - [Man] Tell you, we all
had a good time doing it. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] With 14 minutes to re-entry, the world pauses and prays. - [Control Operator] Range to
go now. 3,271 nautical miles. - [Operators] Houston- - [Narrator] Controllers
have done all they can. The crew hopes for something
they've lacked, luck. During re-entry, the capsule will reach temperatures of 5,000 degrees. That will cause a communications blackout, which usually lasts three minutes. (suspenseful music) The three minute mark comes and goes. - And then 3:30 past, and then 3 45 past, and
then four minutes past, and then 4:15 past. - [Operator] Odyssey Houston, over? - There were surely
people in mission control, and in the homes who thought we've never hit four and a half minutes. It's naive to think these
guys are still alive. - [Narrator] Specialized tracking aircraft called Araya search for Odyssey's signal. - [Operator] Apollo 13 should be out of blackout at this time. We're standing by for any
reports of Araya acquisition. - [Narrator] Houston tries again - [Operator] Odyssey
Houston standing by, over. - [Astronaut] Okay, Joe. - [Man] Okay, we reached Jack. That was Jim Lovell
responding with the okay, Joe. - [Operator] Odyssey Houston,
we show you on the mains. It really looks great! Extremely loud applauses. Apollo 13 on the main chutes comes through loud and clear on the
television display here. (applauding)
(indistinct) - [Narrator] NASA will later learn the cause of the agonizing delay. - It hit at a slightly wrong angle when it first hit the atmosphere, and that caused the
longest re-entry blackout in the history of the space program. - [Man] The floor of the
mission operations control room, now crowded and there are visible smiles on the faces of the flight controllers and astronauts in this room. - [Narrator] For eight years, NASA had been shooting for the moon. Little did they know their ultimate test would be reaching planet Earth. For NASA, reaching the moon was just phase one of their plan. Phase two is hard science. Rock samples from the first two landings revolutionized our
understanding of the moon. They revealed moon rocks
are similar to Earth rocks, and that much of the lunar surface was once covered in molten lava. - And being able to have
those physical samples is a whole new kind of science that really begins as
soon as those samples start to come back to Earth. - [Narrator] Apollo 14- (indistinct) The crews next, task collect samples from surrounding craters. The forces that make craters blast ancient rocks to the surface. (indistinct) Shepherd and Mitchell collect
the biggest payload yet, 92 pounds of rocks and soil, which could help scientists determine what forces shaped the moon and Earth. - [Andrew Chaikin] The
moon is kind of like the rare book room of the cosmic library. None of the things that have erased the earliest history on the Earth. The motion of continents, the action of water and wind. Those things haven't happened on the moon. You go to the moon and
you can start paging through the earliest
history of the solar system, beautifully preserved. - [Narrator] Among their
samples, a stunning find. One moon rock dubbed, "Big Bertha" contains an Earth fragment. The oldest one ever discovered. Researchers think the fragment
landed on the moon eons ago, when an asteroid hit Earth and blasted pieces of it to the moon. It's time to shift geology into overdrive with a brand new lunar Rover. Engineers began working on
lunar cars in the early 1960s. But it was mostly a project in guesswork since no one had been to the moon. - [Jeffrey Kluger] Early engineering, like let's design a car for an environment we know absolutely nothing about. That takes a certain amount of hubris, but hubris is where it begins. - [Narrator] Early models were too heavy, too big or too unwieldy. Plus, there was no way
to get them to the moon. The lunar module had
limited storage space. Engineers finally came up
with an ingenious idea, a collapsible car. It fits inside a segment
of the lunar module, and unfolds with a lander. To keep astronauts from bouncing off, NASA installs toe hooks and a seatbelt. Engineers also literally
reinvent the wheel. - There's no exact knowledge about what you would be going over. So the wheels had to be
flexible and transformable. What they came up with is using a mesh of basically steel wire, the kind of wire that you use in a piano, woven on a loom, formed into a cylinder and then wrapped around a hub so that it forms a shape of a tire. The nice thing about being woven is that it comes back basically
to the shape it was before. - [Operator] Okay, that's good. - [Narrator] The Rover is a game changer for the next mission, Apollo 15. They hit top speeds of six miles an hour. But on the moon, that's a wild ride. - [Astronaut] Bad, this is really a rock and rolling ride, isn't it? - [Man] Your heading is
beautiful, continue on. - It's a very strange
sensation to drive on the moon. It was almost like being in
a row boat on a choppy sea. (crowd singing) - [Narrator] In July, 1969, America is on the brink of a
huge win in the space race, putting a man on the moon. But just a day before the launch, NASA faces a massive protest. (police sirens)
(suspenseful music) The Poor People's campaign
descends on Cape Kennedy with mules to represent
American inequality, and that eight million African
Americans live in poverty, while $3 billion is being spent on space. (suspenseful music) - We were for the advances of science wherever they might come. But we still don't want to forget the least of these, God's children. And I think that was Dr.
King's message in life. I can hear him saying, "Wait a minute, "don't get to the moon
and forget the poverty "that we have here on Earth." - I live in a nation that will spend billions of dollars to
put a man on the moon. And will not spend $60 dollars
for standing on his feet right down here on Earth. (audience applauding) - If it were possible
for us tomorrow morning, to not push the button
and solve the problems which you are concerned believe me, we would not push the button. - [Operator] Columbia, this is Houston reading you loud and clear, over? ♪ A man done bit my sister
Nel with whitey on the moon ♪ ♪ Her face and arms begin to
swell and whitey's on the moon ♪ - [Damion Thomas] "Whitey on the Moon" was an effective protest
song because it forced people to confront the hypocrisy
of America at this time. America put a man on the moon, but at the same time,
we hadn't figured out how to treat everyone with equality. - [Narrator] July 16th, 1969. Nearly a decade of
innovation at breakneck speed comes together for one
defining mission, Apollo 11. The dreams of millions,
and the work of thousands are now in the hands of three
men, led by Neil Armstrong. As the crews say their farewells
to ground staff at Kennedy, Houston stands by to over mission control when the Saturn Five clears the tower. - [Gene Kantz] We have a
feeling of intense relief. There's no more training, there's no more reworking
these procedures, we're going to launch, and we're going to the
surface of the moon, and we're going to bring that crew back. - [Narrator] After three days of traveling almost five miles per second, the Earth is just a distant marble. The moon looms below, cold and gray. Armstrong and Aldrin
entered the lunar module, separate from Collins
in the command module, and approach the surface. - Literally within seconds, we
have communications problems, and that's the one thing we need in order to go down to the surface of the moon. - [Operator] Apollo 11,
this is Houston, over? - [Narrator] Armstrong spins
the lunar module around to see if that enables them to hear the vital message they're
waiting for, go for landing. - [Buzz Aldrin] We finally got a lock on through all the static, and this is crucial because
this is the last time that the mission control is
getting data on our orbit before we start making the
maneuver powered descent. - [Narrator] But then the lunar module starts guiding the crew
to the wrong landing site. Armstrong takes manual
control, seeking level ground. - [Chris Kraft] We didn't
realize that he was about to land in a boulder field. Well, it turns out the computer
is off by a little bit, a couple of mile, half two
miles, put us into a crater. - [Narrator] With Armstrong flying farther than planned to avoid
a calamitous landing, fuel levels start dipping dangerously low. - [Charlie Duke] He had to level off, fly across this boulder field, pitch up, slow down, and then start down on the final stages of descent. Well, that take a lot of gas. And so we're getting very low on fuel. We had a minimum for an abort. So I called Eagle 60 seconds, and he would have on aboard call. - [Operator] 60 seconds (indistinct) We're still a hundred feet off the ground, and we got a ways to go and I'm getting a little nervous but I'm not about to interrupt Neil. He saw the light, he heard
the command, he's in control. And then I called Eagle 30 seconds. - Now they were close,
but not on the ground. So the tension was really extreme. In mission control, it was
as I recalled dead silence, and everybody was glued to their monitor. (suspenseful music) - [Buzz Aldrin] Fortunately
by the time 30 seconds came, we were about 10 feet off the ground, and I'm beginning to see a shadow, and a few more seconds
we're picking up the dust. And then the probe coming
down from the landing gear touches the ground and it sends a signal that says contact. So I call out contact light - [Astronaut] Contact light. Okay, engine stop? In quality space here,
the Eagle has landed. - [Narrator] Six hours after landing, Armstrong steps into his place in history. - [Astronaut] We're
just 'bout to land now. It's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind. - [Narrator] 20 minutes later,
Aldrin makes his small step. (suspenseful music) 600 million people around the world watched the first humans walk on the moon. The largest global television
audience in history. In 1968, America is
competing in an entirely different kind of race. Beating the Russians to the moon becomes an all-consuming crusade. Apollo Eight would be
the first man mission to Leave the Earth's orbit,
the first to reach the moon, and the first to orbit
another heavenly body. (suspenseful music) It was risky because they
had no backup engine. If there was an equipment
failure, they couldn't come home. - [Jim Lovell] The chances of coming back, I thought they were a little
bit better than 50/50. I thought that the rewards of being on that flight were
worth the risk involved. - [Operator] We have liftoff. Lift out at 7:51 am. - [Narrator] The journey
takes them to a place no human eyes had ever seen,
the far side of the moon and out of radio contact with Earth. - [Buzz Aldrin] Well, we
were like three school kids looking into a candy store window looking at those craters going by. (ambient music) - [Narrator] The crew becomes the first in human history to witness
the rising of the Earth behind the surface of the moon. (indistinct) - [Astronaut] I got it,
it's a beautiful shot. - [Narrator] The image is now known around the world as "Earthrise." - No one has ever taken a
photograph like that before. And to see the Earth,
us from that distance it was progress there
before your very eyes. (ambient music) - [Narrator] Christmas Eve 1968 falls on the fourth day of a mission. - [Astronaut] For all
the people back on Earth, and a message that we
would like to send to you, good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you,
all of you On the good Earth! (suspenseful music ends) - [Narrator] Apollo 13
was released in 1995 with its star, Tom Hanks
and director Ron Howard attending a series of
premiers around the world. - I wanted to make this an adventure. But at the same time, these
are about real people, and it's a true story and
I wanted to honor that. - [Narrator] The film earned
nine Academy Award nominations. But it wasn't the Academy Ron Howard really wanted to impress. - One of the most nerve
wracking screenings that I've ever had was
when we showed the movie before it had been a
theatrical release in Houston. And many, many astronauts
and mission controllers came to this screening. And man, my stomach was churning. - [Narrator] The movie
nearly didn't happen at all since the book it's based on co-authored by leading science writer, Jeffrey Kluger almost didn't get published. - Their response was
nobody is going to want to read about three men who didn't land on the moon 25 years ago. - [Narrator] Kluger
persevered spending many hours with Apollo 13 commander, Jim Lovell, played by Tom Hanks in the movie. - When we did finally
have a proposal done, and send it around to publishers, 11 of 13 publishers
still passed on the book. Only two made an offer. - [Narrator] But when the story reached Ron Howard's production company, he saw potential right away. - [Ron Howard] I attend
as a director just to sort of fall in love with an idea. It's not only a survival story, but it also turns out it's a rescue story. This is something that we discovered as we began developing it. The idea of rescue,
survival, that's good drama. - [Narrator] What this drama, three men's quest for
the moon has in abundance is nail-biting tension. All of it drawn from real life, and much of it captured by news cameras long before Hollywood took up the story. - [Astronaut] All right,
Houston we've had a problem. - [Operator] Stand by they got a problem. - [Astronaut] Yeah, that
jolt must have rocked the sensor of my O2 quantity 2. - [Man] And Jack our O2, quantity number two is reading zero. Did you get that? - [Operator] O2, quantity number is zero. (suspenseful music) (indistinct) - [Astronaut] We are venting something. We are venting something out in space. - [Jack Lousma] Roger,
we copy your venting. Okay 13, we've got lots and
lots of people working on this. We'll get you some dope
as soon as we have it. And you'll be the first one to know. - [Astronaut] Well do you
expect that we're going to be at a thermal problem
for the next many hours? The thing that concerns me is
starting throwing equipment. We had a problem. We don't know the cause of the problem. Flight, I've got a feeling
we've lost two fuel cells. I hate to put it that way, but I don't know why we've lost them. (dramatic music) We're in a serious problem. We can't get any pressure down here. We got to power down some more. - [Man] That's right. And luckily we got the LEM. - [Astronaut] Yeah, but that's not going to help this fuel cell. If we can't save that pressure, we're going to lose this third fuel cell. (suspenseful music) - [Operator] Okay Jack, it
looks like O2 tank one pressure is just a hair over 200. - [Jack Lousma] We confirm that here, and temperature also confirms it. - [Astronaut] Okay, does it
look like it's gone down? - [Jack Lousma] It's slowly going to zero, and we're starting to think
about the LEM Lifeboat. - [Astronaut] Yeah, that's
what we're thinking about too. (suspenseful music) - [Jack Lusma] We figure
we get about 15 minutes worth of power left in the command module, so we want you to start
getting over in the LEM and getting some power on that. (suspenseful music)
(indistinct) Discontinued the charge
in battery A, Jack. - [Astronaut] Okay, I need
some LEM line procedure. - [Man] Yeah. (indistinct) - [Jack Lousma] Yeah. - [Man] We need to go ahead and start that (indistinct) anytime. (suspenseful music) - Let's be sure we have
control of the LEM, although he's probably
out of jets right now. JSC you got anything for the CSM? (suspenseful music) - [Operator] You got a number for him? - [Astronaut] Yeah, I have a leak at about 3.2 pounds a minute. - [Operator] What's the number Joey? - [Astronaut] About 15 minutes. (suspenseful music) - [Reporter] At this moment, all power has been turned
off in the command module, and the crew are living on the emergency battery power supply of the lunar module. Houston says that they
will get back to us alive only if the lunar module systems
work perfectly all the way. So, for the first time in
the history of space flight there is no backup system to save them if anything goes wrong.
(suspenseful music ends) - [Narrator] July 16th, 1969. - [Operator] 10, nine,
ignition sequence start. Six, five, four, three, two, one, zero. All engine running.
(rocket explosion) Liftoff, we have a liftoff! 32 minutes pass the hour,
liftoff on Apollo 11. - [Narrator] Americans
crowd highways and beaches to witness the launch of Apollo 11 from the Kennedy Space Center. On board, astronauts Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. (indistinct) From the oval office,
President Nixon watches along with 600 million people worldwide. - [Astronauts] We copied
you on the ground. We got to fight of guys about- - [Narrator] The biggest TV
audience ever at that time. (indistinct) On July 20th, the world sees the first man Americans walk on the moon. - [Astronaut] It's one small step for man, one giant leep for mankind. (suspenseful music) - Hello, Neil and Buzz. - [Narrator] From the White House, the president congratulates
the astronauts. - I just can't tell you how proud we all are of what you have done. For every American, this has to be the proudest day of our lives. - [Narrator] The promise John Kennedy made at the start of the
decade has been fulfilled. (suspenseful music) America has won the space race. It is Americans who show the world the view from the moon. - [Man] You better think about getting in the LEM or using LEM systems. - What they knew they had to do since power was gone in here was get over to the lunar
module and stay there. This would be a way that
they could stay alive for the next several days
until they could come home. - [Narrator] The problem
was the lunar module was designed only for the moon landing, and then 33 hours on the surface. But now they'd be living in it for days. And the chemical filters that remove carbon dioxide from the air
wouldn't last that long. - Just like a charcoal filter
and a home water filter. Ultimately, it becomes saturated
and you have to switch it. - [Buzz Aldrin] The carbon dioxide was rising in another module, and carbon dioxide in that
magnitude is poisonous to humans. - [Dr. Charles Berry] You
certainly lose capability to think clearly, to do any reasoning, and somebody could become
totally unconscious with that depending on if the level got high enough. - [Narrator] And it's then the real story trumps anything Hollywood
could possibly have invented. - The crew needed new filters. Well, they could easily get
them from the command module. But the command module
filters were square, the lunar module filters were round. The challenge was
essentially to find a way to make a square peg fit in a round hole to adapt the square canister
from the command module to the round slot in the lunar module. - We gotta find a way to make this fit into the hole for this
using nothing but that. - [Man] Let's get it organized. (indistinct) - [Narrator] But in reality, it was just one man
who found the solution, crew systems Chief Ed Smiley. And 40 years later, he still remembers exactly how he saved the day. - We worked from the storage list, which was just a list of
everything that's on board. And so we discovered
duct tape, we said "Aha!" - [Narrator] The astronauts
lives would depend on a plastic bag, the cardboard
cover from the flight plan, and a hose from one of the space suits. - We put the plastic
bag over the canister. We'll take tape and tape it
to the canister to seal it. - [Narrator] Next one end of the hose was fed into the plastic bag. And when the other end was connected to the circulation fan in the ship, it sucked air through the filter. - The fan is drawing the oxygen through. It would solve the CO2 problem. - People constantly want to
talk to me about that moment. People have told me that
in management courses that they play that
clip and talk about that kind of by the seat of
your pants problem solving. And that was a gift when
we discovered that scene. - [Narrator] April 14th, 1970, rookie astronauts Fred
Hayes and Jack Swaggart, and commander Jim Lovell, a
veteran of three NASA missions are two days into the third moon landing attempt on Apollo 13. (crashing noise) - [Fred Haise] This loud bang occurred. I could hear and saw some warping of the metal in the tunnel. - [James Lovell] The
light started to flash, and just started a fire. And I looked up at Fred to see if he knew what was
causing all this commotion. And then I could tell, he didn't know. - [Narrator] Warning lights indicate something is wrong with
the electrical system. Then more lights. Two out of the three fuel
cells have just died. - [Operator] We really had a problem here. - Say it again, please. - [Astronaut] Houston, we have a problem. We are venting something out into space. - [Narrator] What the astronauts saw was frozen oxygen spilling
out of their own air supply. - [Gene Kranz] At that moment, everybody recognized
that this was survival, and we started moving in an
entirely different fashion. - [Narrator] Mission
control has been handed the job of their lives. Without inventive solutions,
the crew will perish. Their crisis is immediate. In the command module,
both oxygen and power are dwindling fast. - [Operator] Okay, let's make
sure that we don't do anything that will cause us to
lose fuel cell number two. - [Narrator] On the stricken spacecraft, energy is in short supply. So all superfluous life
support systems are shut off. But even with everything powered down, the air supply will not
hold out long enough. The three astronauts
are exhaling deadly CO2 into the tiny lunar module. - The amount of pressure of carbon dioxide was building up in the lunar module. - [Narrator] Spare canisters
in the command module could save the crew, but
these spares are square, and the lunar module
carbon scrubber is round. Mission control needs
to figure something out. - So engineering comes up with the idea to fabricate an adapter
to fit the square scrubber into the round hole, test
it in the laboratories, and voice the instruction up to the crew. - And they used duct
tape, a piece of cardboard and a piece of plastic and a little sock. - Literally was in
minutes, the crew could see the carbon oxide pressure
starting to drop. - [Narrator] The harrowing
ordeal of Apollo 13 was a stark reminder that
we had not tamed space. Ultimately, it was the
highly skilled team work of mission control that saved the day. - [Operator] We can see you
coming down the ladder now. - [Narrator] Over 600 million people watched the live broadcast. (indistinct) - [Roger Launius] Well,
it was an enormously significant event and that's
the way it was intended because this is about
demonstrating American prowess from a scientific and
technical perspective. And the whole world watched. (suspenseful music) - [Astronaut] It's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. - Everything paused on Times Square as it was being broadcast there. Around the world, the same
sorts of things were happening. And it really was for
just a very few minutes, people kind of pausing and saying, "I'm part of this much bigger thing "where humanity is now set foot "on another body in the solar system." And they were very excited about it. - [Man] Beautiful view. (indistinct) - [Buzz Alrdin] What did it look like? Well, it looked like black sky, and the horizon with
no air was so defined. You could see a rock, a boulder on the horizon a mile and a half away, with no atmosphere and no
impediments to the vision, and the Sun behind us. We could just see so clearly - [Man] And we're getting
a picture on the TV. - [Narrator] But it was not so clear to people back on Earth. As ghostly and grainy images
were broadcast live on TV, skeptics already may have been thinking that something was up. Their mission was to land on
an unexplored part of the moon. They would spend 10 days in space. But the scheduled launch time, chosen right to the minute for the optimum conditions in space only added to the superstitious notion that Apollo 13 was tempting fate. - [Jeffrey Kluger] The launch took off at 1:13 PM central
time, which is 13:13 PM. But this really was set strictly by the cold and objective laws of physics and orbital mechanics. - [Man] Roger how does
it look? (indistinct) - From my standpoint,
I never even considered 13 an unlucky mission. I don't think any of my controllers did, the crew certainly didn't. We have to eliminate any
element of superstition. We deal with facts. - [Narrator] Flight controller, Gene Krantz was a key figure
in the real Apollo 13 mission. Played on screen by Ed Harris, the real Krantz is a tough
level-headed ex-fighter pilot. But as the movie depicts, despite his disdain for superstition, Krantz started every
mission, including Apollo 13 with a distinctive white vest, hand-stitched by his wife. - [Operator] Ignition sequence start. - [Narrator] As this third mission to the moon blasted off the launch pad, NASA was confident nothing
had been left to chance. (rocket explosion)
(indistinct) (suspenseful music) (indistinct) - [Man] That was Commander Jim Lovell. Reporting shut down the engine is off. It was reported that the burn duration was literally right on the money. (suspenseful music) - [Dick Chapman] Jim Lovell indicated to mission control a short time ago how weary they'd become. (indistinct) - [Man] I tell you it
gets cold up in there. I don't know whether we'll be able to sleep up there tonight. It must be about 35 or 40 degrees. (suspenseful music) - [Reporter] The latest problems for the unlucky Apollo 13 and for the astronauts came late tonight when carbon dioxide began
building up in their spaceship. The Apollo 13 carries
lithium hydroxide canisters to cleanse the air of carbon dioxide. But the canisters in the command ship are not operating at the moment. (suspenseful music) - [Man] The first thing we want you to do, cut off the outer bag by cutting along one of the heat seals. Do it carefully and most of the heat seal because we may have to use the outer bag if we damage the inner bag. (indistinct)
(suspenseful music) (ambient music)
