1961. At the height of the Cold War between the
United States and the Soviet Union, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. Just weeks later, the United States launched
its first astronaut, Alan Shepherd. ‘All systems are go!’ He was welcomed home as a hero, but President
John F Kennedy knew that if the United States was to overtake the Soviet space programme,
it needed a bolder mission. “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.” As Kennedy addressed congress, the United
States had just fifteen minutes of human spaceflight experience. No one knew if a moon landing was even possible,
let alone in just nine years. It would be an unprecedented engineering and
scientific undertaking, marked by heroism... ...and tragedy. The incredible task of landing an astronaut
on the Moon would be known as the Apollo Program. Before NASA could start designing a spacecraft
for its lunar mission, it faced some fundamental questions about how it would send astronauts
to the Moon. Perhaps the man best placed to provide answers
was NASA’s top rocket scientist, Werner Von Braun. Von Braun had spearheaded development of Nazi
Germany’s deadly V2 rocket during World War 2. It was the world’s first long-range guided
missile. After the war, he’d been recruited by the
US military to assist their own rocket program. He joined NASA as the first director of its
Marshall Space Flight Centre in 1960. The most obvious way to complete a lunar landing
was to send a single spacecraft from Earth to the Moon and back again. But a spacecraft large enough to carry all
the necessary supplies, equipment and fuel for the journey would need an impossibly huge
rocket to launch into space. Von Braun wanted to solve this problem by
launching the spacecraft in pieces aboard smaller rockets, and assembling it in orbit
around Earth. But there was still the problem of landing
such a massive spacecraft on the Moon’s surface. NASA engineer John Houbolt suggested another
option - one initially considered far too dangerous by NASA’s most senior engineers. Not one but two spacecraft would travel to
the Moon, joined together. The first was a command and service module
or ‘CSM’. It would provide fuel, power, supplies and
living space for three astronauts as they travelled to and from the moon. The second spacecraft, the lunar excursion
module or ‘lem’ - would land on the moon. It would be piloted by two astronauts whilst
the third stayed behind to fly the CSM. Because the lem only needed equipment and
fuel for a lunar landing, it could be small and light. The huge savings in weight meant this spacecraft
could be launched on one smaller rocket. Von Braun endorsed Houbolt’s proposal, but
the plan was high-risk. To dock and undock the two spacecraft, NASA
would need to invent new piloting techniques, and execute them flawlessly... because if
anything went wrong, the astronauts would have no hope of rescue. NASA embarked on years of pioneering research
and development. The space flights of Project Mercury and Project
Gemini paved the way for Apollo. Over 16 crewed missions in just five years,
American astronauts learned how to eat, sleep, work and walk in space. But President Kennedy didn’t live to see
these achievements. He was assassinated in 1963. Many years ago, the great British explorer
George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said ‘because it is there’. Well space is there, and we’re going to
climb it. And the Moon and the planets are there. And new hopes for knowledge and peace are
there. And therefore as we set sail, we ask God’s
blessing, on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever
embarked. But before the Apollo Program launched its
first astronauts, it would face its darkest hour. “How are we going to get to the Moon if
we can’t talk between three buildings?” “They can’t hear a thing you’re saying.” “ Jesus Christ…” The Apollo 1 crew were sealed inside their
Command Module, conducting a dress-rehearsal of the launch countdown. The test had been halted by constant communications
problems, and Command Pilot Gus Grissom was becoming frustrated. Grissom was one of America’s most experienced
astronauts: he was a member of NASA’s first astronaut group - the Mercury Seven - who
launched into space aboard tiny one-person capsules. His senior pilot was Ed White, the first American
to walk in space. With them was rookie astronaut Roger Chaffee,
a former spy-plane pilot who flew reconnaissance missions during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Under enormous pressure to land an astronaut
on the Moon by the end of the decade, NASA and its contractors had rushed the design
of the complex Apollo spacecraft. Even after 5 years of development and testing,
it was still riddled with defects. During ground tests, astronauts struggled
with coolant leaks, problems with the plumbing in the environmental system, and short circuits
in the 20 miles of electrical wiring that filled the spacecraft. The crew were getting ready to resume the
countdown. ‘Hey!’ ‘We’ve got a fire in the cockpit!’ ‘Can you get them out of there?’ ‘Gus can you read us?’ Within moments, flames ripped through the
capsule, killing all three astronauts. Precisely how the fire started was never determined:
but it was most likely a spark from damaged wiring, somewhere in the lower equipment bay. The atmosphere inside the command module was
pure oxygen, and in this environment, even materials that were normally fire-resistant
burst into flame. Within seconds, the spacecraft became an incinerator. The design of the spacecraft’s heavy, multi-piece
hatch made escape impossible. The inner hatch was fixed in place with 6
large bolts, which had to be manually unscrewed with a wrench. Even if the bolts could have been removed
in time, the hatch opened inwards, and so it was sealed shut by the high pressure inside
the capsule. The risks of spaceflight were well understood
at NASA, but Grissom, White and Chaffee did not die during a rocket launch or in orbit. They died on the ground, during a routine
test, with help close at hand. The tragedy of Apollo 1 left NASA’s public
image in tatters. If the Apollo Program was to survive, the
next mission had to be a success. After a series of uncrewed test flights, the
next mission to carry astronauts would be Apollo 7. Learning from the failures that caused the
Apollo 1 fire, NASA redesigned the Apollo spacecraft. The new ‘Block II’ model had fireproof
wiring and spacesuits made with non-flammable cloth. At launch, the capsule was pressurised with
a safer oxygen-nitrogen mix. And its new single-piece hatch could be opened
in just seven seconds. The lunar module was still in the design phase,
and would be tested on later flights. The Apollo 7 crew had been the Apollo 1 backups. Like Gus Grissom, mission commander Wally
Schirra had been part of the original Mercury 7 astronaut corps. Their mission was to give the new Apollo spacecraft
a thorough shakedown. 5, 4, 3, 2, we have ignition. Commit, liftoff, we have liftoff! Schirra and his crew put the Apollo spacecraft
through its paces for the first time. They performed navigation exercises and practised
docking manoeuvres using their spent rocket booster as a target. Apollo 7 accomplished all it’s objectives. The mission was a success. The Apollo program was back on track, and
its next step would truly be a giant leap. In April 1968, a CIA report suggested that
the Soviet Union was about to send Cosmonauts around the Moon. To stop the Soviets beating America to another
first, Apollo 8 - originally intended as a test of the lunar module in Earth orbit - would
instead be sent on a mission to orbit the Moon. The furthest any human had travelled from
the surface of the Earth was 850 miles. Apollo 8’s crew would travel 240,000 miles
from home, with no hope of rescue if their spacecraft failed. The mission commander was Frank Borman – an
Air Force Colonel, test pilot and aeronautical engineer. His Command Module Pilot was Jim Lovell, who
knew Borman better than most - On Gemini 7, the two men spent a record-breaking, and gruelling,
14 days orbiting the Earth in a tiny spacecraft. Joining them was Bill Anders. His job would be to survey the Moon’s surface
for future landing sites. Travelling to the moon required the largest
rocket NASA had ever designed. Borman, Lovell and Anders would be the first
astronauts to ride the mighty Saturn V. We have commit, we have liftoff. At over 110m tall, it dwarfed all previous
American rockets. Its five enormous F1 engines burned through
half a million gallons of kerosene and liquid oxygen in just two and a half minutes, delivering
a combined thrust of seven and a half million pounds. The second and third stages carried the spacecraft
to Earth orbit, and onwards to the moon. It took the Apollo 8 crew three days to travel
to the Moon, but they did not fly alone. Like all Apollo missions, Apollo 8 was carefully
managed from the Mission Operations Control Room, in Houston, Texas. Popularly known as Mission Control. Teams of flight controllers operated round-the-clock,
overseeing the spacecraft’s trajectory and every one of its on-board systems. All voice communications to the spacecraft
passed through the capsule communicator or ‘capcom’, a position always filled by
a fellow astronaut. The Flight Director had overall responsibility
for the mission, and the final say in every decision. When Apollo 8 reached the moon, the crew had
to fire their large SPS engine, to slow down and be captured by the Moon’s gravity. If the engine didn’t fire for precisely
the correct amount of time, Apollo 8 could crash into the moon, or be hurled into deep
space. It was impossible to communicate with the
crew whilst they were behind the Moon. The staff at Mission Control waited nervously
for news. Borman, Lovell and Anders were the first humans
to view the lunar surface close-up. But the most incredible thing they saw was
their home planet. On the third orbit, Anders captured one of
history’s most remarkable photos. Earthrise. The image was peaceful, but 1968 had been
a difficult year for the United States. The nation was bitterly divided over the war
in Vietnam, Black Americans were still fighting for their civil rights. Martin Luther King was assassinated in April,
and Bobby Kennedy in June. But for NASA at least, the success of Apollo
8 brought hope. For the first time it seemed possible they
might meet President Kennedy’s goal, and land an astronaut on the moon before the end
of the decade. But the lunar module was still untested, and
landing on the moon held many unknowns. There would be no room for error. Say again please? Houston we’ve had a problem. The Apollo Program had been rocked by the
tragic death of Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. But it had recovered with the brilliant success
of Apollo 7 - the first crewed test of the Command and Service Module. And in 1968, after seven years of intense
research and development, NASA had flown three astronauts 240,000 miles from home and into
lunar orbit. Apollo 8 flew within 69 miles of the Moon’s
surface. But crossing that final gap would be the greatest
challenge of The Apollo Program. It would require a completely new and untested
type of spacecraft. The Lunar Module. In the wake of Apollo 8’s daring journey
to the Moon, Apollo 9 received much less public attention. The mission wasn’t even going to leave Earth
orbit. But within the astronaut corps, the first
crewed flight of the Lunar Module was seen as an even more exciting challenge. The mission’s commander, Jim McDivitt, had
actually turned down the chance to fly to the moon on Apollo 8, choosing Apollo 9 instead. Like many Apollo astronauts, he was a former
test pilot, and this was a chance to test a brand new flying machine. [Public Affairs Officer] 2, 1, 0, liftoff! We have liftoff at 11am Eastern Standard Time. Before the test flight of the Lunar Module
could begin, the crew had a challenging docking maneuver to perform. The Lunar Module was folded inside the upper
stage of the Saturn V rocket, and needed to be extracted using the Command and Service
Module. [McDivitt] Roger Houston, we’re at about
25 feet now and moving forward. [McDivitt] Alright Houston, we’re hard docked. [Capcom] Good show. Leaving Command Module pilot Dave Scott to
fly the CSM, McDivitt and Lunar Module pilot Rusty Schweickart climbed aboard and undocked. The Lunar Module was the first true spaceship
- designed only to fly in the vacuum of space. Its insect-like body was designed without
the constraints of aerodynamics, but every panel, bolt and button had to be as light
as possible, so the craft could lift itself off the moon’s surface. McDivitt said that it looked ‘like cellophane
and tin foil put together with Scotch tape and staples.’ He gave his craft the callsign ‘Spider’. Unlike the command module, Spider did not
have a heat shield, so it would burn up if it tried to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. So if the astronauts couldn’t re-dock with
the Command Module after their test flight, they would have no way of returning home. But Spider’s test flight went perfectly. McDivitt and Schweickart flew the Lunar Module
over 100 miles from the Command Module. They tested the ascent and descent engines
and returned for a safe rendezvous. The Lunar Module was ready to fly to the moon. NASA had successfully tested both the Command
Module and Lunar Module, and made a trip around the moon. Many hoped the next mission would attempt
the first moon landing. But NASA needed more experience in communications
and tracking two separate spacecraft in lunar orbit. Plus the challenges of rendezvous and docking
in the moon’s weaker gravity. And there was another critical unknown. In 1968, NASA scientists discovered that the
Moon has a highly uneven gravitational field. This is caused by huge lumps of high-density
material in its crust known as mass concentrations or ‘mascons’, which could exert an uneven
pull on a spacecraft and throw it off course. Before it was safe to attempt a landing, NASA
would need to learn more about the mascons by examining their effect on another Apollo
flight. Apollo 10 would be a dress rehearsal for the
first landing attempt, flying every part of the mission except for the final descent to
the surface. The Apollo 10 crew was Commander Tom Stafford,
Command Module Pilot John Young, and Lunar Module Pilot Gene Cernan. All three men were veterans of the Gemini
program, and with five missions between them, they were the most experienced crew ever sent
into space. Stafford and Cernan flew the Lunar Module
to within nine miles of the Moon’s surface. Their successful flight proved every phase
of the mission... except for the final descent. Now, everything was in place. It was time to attempt the landing. Apollo 11 would be commanded by Neil Armstrong,
a brilliant engineer and test pilot. Early in his NASA career, he’d flown the
experimental X-15 rocket plane up to an altitude of 207,000 feet, at speeds of almost 4,000
miles per hour. When he joined the space program as part of
NASA’s second astronaut group, he was one of the few astronauts to be offered a command
on his first mission, Gemini 8. Gemini 8 achieved the first docking of two
spacecraft in orbit. But the mission almost ended in disaster when
a faulty manoeuvring thruster caused the Gemini capsule to spin wildly. Armstrong’s calm and swift piloting brought
the spacecraft under control, and although the mission was cut short, he’d proved his
almost superhuman ability to remain calm under pressure. Joining him as Lunar Module Pilot was Buzz
Aldrin. A graduate of MIT, Aldrin wrote his doctoral
thesis on piloting techniques for orbital rendezvous, and had an extraordinary understanding
of orbital mechanics. He’d proven his expertise on Gemini 12. When the spacecraft’s rendezvous radar malfunctioned,
he was able to compute the orbital manoeuvres himself, and guide the capsule to a successful
docking with an unmanned target rocket. The Command Module Pilot was Michael Collins. He would remain aboard the Command Module
whilst Armstrong and Aldrin descended to the Moon. He had no regrets about his assignment, telling
reporters that he was going 99.9% of the way there, and that was fine with him. But years later, he would recount his greatest
fear – that Armstrong and Aldrin would be stranded on the surface, leaving him to travel
back to Earth alone. 15th July, 1969. Almost a million people were gathering at
Cape Kennedy to watch the three astronauts fly to the Moon. But not everyone was there to celebrate. As launch preparations were made, around 150
people, mostly African American mothers and their children, arrived at Cape Kennedy to
protest the launch. They were led by the Reverend Ralph Abernathy,
who had succeeded Dr Martin Luther King as leader of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference after King’s assassination the previous year. Their message was simple - it was inhuman
to spend billions of dollars sending men to the moon while one in five Americans lacked
proper food, shelter and healthcare. NASA Administrator Thomas Paine met with the
protestors the evening before the launch. He told Abernathy that ‘if we could solve
the problems of poverty by not pushing the button to launch men to the moon tomorrow,
then we would not push that button.’ Their terse meeting resolved nothing, but
it ended with a handshake, and a promise by Abernathy that he would pray for the safe
flight of the astronauts. The following day, ten of the protestors were
invited into the VIP stands, to watch the launch of Apollo 11. 10, 9, ignition sequence start, 6, 5, 4, 3,
2, 1, 0, all engines running, liftoff, we have a liftoff, 32 minutes past the hour,
liftoff on Apollo 11. Four days later on the 20th July, Armstrong
and Aldrin climbed into their Lunar Module, callsign ‘Eagle’. They undocked and began their descent to the
lunar surface. Armstrong - ‘The Eagle has wings!’ Years of hard work and training had led to
this moment. The descent to the lunar surface would test
their skills to the very limit. Back on Earth, in Houston, Texas, the staff
of mission control watched as Eagle passed behind the moon for a final time. They monitored every system in both spacecraft,
and guided the astronauts through the complex flight plan. And the success of the mission was about to
rest on the shoulders of 26-year old guidance officer, Steve Bales. It’s a 1202
Stand by 1202
The master alarm sounded in the Lunar Module cockpit. Eagle’s guidance computer was trying to
tell the astronauts that something was wrong. Its simple display showed the numbers ‘12
02’, but neither Armstrong or Aldrin knew what this meant. ‘Give us a reading on the 1202 program alarm’
Flight Director Gene Kranz was seconds away from calling an abort. He turned to Bales for answers. ‘12 02’ meant the guidance computer was
overloaded. It had too many tasks to complete in its computing
cycle, and was dropping some in order to continue functioning. Without a working guidance computer, the astronauts
would have to abort. But - the alarm wasn’t sounding continuously. This meant that most computational cycles
were being completed properly. Bales decided that as long as the problem
was only intermittent, the landing could continue. ‘We’re go on that, flight, if it doesn’t
reoccur we’ll be go. But then another problem: the Lunar Module
was approaching the surface too fast, and had overshot its intended landing site. Now, the computer was guiding them towards
a massive, football stadium sized crater, surrounded by a field of car-sized boulders. With the Lunar Module almost out of fuel,
Armstong took manual control. Mission control could only watch. The landing rested on Armstrong’s piloting
skills. 60 seconds
Lights on 4 forward, drifting to the right a little
Down a half 30 seconds
Contact light Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed
As around 600 million people watched from Earth, Armstrong took his first steps on the
lunar surface. ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant
leap for mankind’ The precisely choreographed Moonwalk had taken
two years to plan. For two hours and forty minutes, Armstrong
and Aldrin gathered rock samples, set up scientific experiments, and took photographs. The Apollo 11 crew returned home as heroes,
their names now amongst those of the greatest explorers in history. Now that President Kennedy’s goal had been
accomplished, was there any point in returning to the moon? What was left for the Apollo Program to achieve? The new mission would be science. The Moon’s origins remained a mystery. Where did it come from? Could its scarred surface tell the story of
the early solar system, and in turn help us understand the origins of our own world? But although NASA now possessed the knowledge
and technology to land on the Moon, it would soon receive a powerful reminder of the dangers
of spaceflight. ‘Houston we’ve had a problem’
But now that President Kennedy’s goal had been accomplished, interest in space exploration
began to fade. NASA’s budget was slashed. There would only be resources for six more
lunar flights. But in its final chapter, The Apollo Program
would make its greatest scientific discoveries, and face the deadliest perils of spaceflight. ‘I’m not sure we didn’t get hit by lightning.’ ‘This is Houston, say again please?’ ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem.’ The flight was extremely normal for the first
36 seconds and after that it got very interesting. - Pete Conrad, Apollo 12 Mission Commander
Apollo 11 landed safely, but it completely missed its intended landing site. NASA’s plans for lunar exploration relied
on its ability to land astronauts at precise points of scientific interest. It would be up to Apollo 12 to attempt a pinpoint
landing. Apollo 12 would aim to land next to the Surveyor
3 probe, which had been on the moon since 1967. If NASA could hit this precise target, they’d
prove that a pinpoint landing was possible. Apollo 12’s crew was Mission Commander Pete
Conrad, Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon, and Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean. They were a tight-knit crew, who drove matching
gold corvettes to work at Kennedy Space Centre. Conrad and Gordon had already flown together
on Gemini 11, and all three men had been stationed at the United States Naval Test Pilot School
at Patuxent River, Maryland. But their mission almost didn’t make it
into orbit. As the countdown reached zero, huge thunderclouds
loomed overhead. The colossal Saturn V rocket and its exhaust
trail were acting as a gigantic lightning rod. Two lightning strikes shut down the service
module’s fuel cells, and knocked out the command module’s guidance system. But nobody had seen the strikes, all they
could see was a barrage of errors and warnings. ‘I got three fuel cell lights, an AC Bus
light, a fuel cell disconnect, AC Bus overload 1 and 2, Main Bus A and B out.’ In Mission Control, flight director Gerry
Griffin was moments from calling an abort. But a young flight controller named John Aaron
was able to interpret the chaotic data, and come up with a solution. With no time to explain, he relayed an obscure
instruction to the crew: CAPCOM: ‘Apollo 12, Houston, try SCE to
Auxiliary, over’ Conrad: ‘NCE to Auxiliary?’ CAPCOM: ‘SCE. SCE to Auxiliary’
The command was so obscure that neither the flight director or Conrad had any idea what
the it meant. But in the Lunar Module Pilot’s seat, Alan
Bean understood Aaron’s solution. He switched to a set of backup electronics
that had escaped the lighting strike, and the mission was back on track. ‘I’m not sure we didn’t get hit by lightning.’ The problem had been diagnosed and fixed within
moments, it was a testament to the rigorous training of the astronauts and mission control
staff. The crew of Apollo 12 continued their journey
to the moon, and made a safe landing. Comin down at two, Pete, you’ve got plenty
of gas, plenty of gas, babe. He’s got it made! Contact light! When Pete Conrad stepped foot on the lunar
surface, his first words lacked Neil Armstrong's gravitas, but he more than made up for it
with his delight. ‘Whoopee! Man that may have been a small one for Neil,
but that’s a long one for me. I’m going to step off the pad… Ooh is that soft and queasy… As he looked around the landing site, he saw
that their mission had been accomplished. ‘Guess what I see sitting on the side of
the crater.’ ‘The old surveyor, right?’ ‘The old surveyor, yes sir.’ ‘It can’t be any further than 600 feet
from here. How about that.’ Apollo 12 had made its pinpoint landing next
to the Surveyor 3 Probe. It was located in Oceanus Procellarum. Also known as the Ocean of Storms. Now, NASA had sent astronauts to the Moon
four times, including two successful landings. But if lunar flight was starting to look routine,
the next Apollo mission would be a terrifying reminder of the dangers of spaceflight. NASA will claim that they are absolutely not
superstitious. But I’ll be you my last dollar, they’ll
never name another spacecraft 13. - Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 Mission Commander
The third lunar landing attempt marked a shift in the Apollo program. Previous missions had largely been test flights
of the spacecraft. Apollo 13 would focus on scientific discovery. It would land at the Fra Mauro highlands,
whose ancient terrain could provide insight into the origins of the solar system. Adapting a motto from the US Naval Academy,
the mission patch features the words ‘Ex Luna, Scientia’ - from the Moon, knowledge. But before the crew of Apollo 13 reached the
Moon, a disaster would leave them fighting for their lives. The Mission Commander was veteran astronaut
Jim Lovell, who had travelled further and spent more time in space than any other astronaut. Between his Gemini 7 flight with Frank Borman,
his Gemini 12 flight with Buzz Aldrin, and his trip around the Moon on Apollo 8, he’d
spend 572 hours in space and travelled almost seven million miles. He was joined by two rookie astronauts - Lunar
Module Pilot Fred Haise, and Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly. But just two days before launch, Ken Mattingly
was grounded after being exposed to German Measles, and replaced by another astronaut,
Jack Swigert. Swigert was considered an excellent pilot,
but the last-minute change was a difficult blow for a crew that had trained so intensely
together. 2 days, 7 hours, 46 minutes elapsed mission
time This is the crew of Apollo 13 wishing everybody
there a nice evening, and we’re just about ready to close out our inspection of Aquarius
and get back for a pleasant evening in Odyssey. The Apollo 13 crew had just completed a live
TV broadcast on their way to the Moon. But it went no further than mission control. With public interest in the Apollo Program
fading, no US TV network would carry their show. As the astronauts packed away their camera
equipment, there were a few housekeeping procedures to take care of. “13, we’ve got one more item for you when
you get a chance, we’d like you to stir up your cryo tanks.” The command and service module was powered
by three fuel cells that generated electricity by mixing hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen was stored as a very cold liquid
in two storage tanks. In zero gravity, the temperature and density
of the oxygen could become uneven in different areas of the tank, which made it difficult
to measure how much was left. The solution was to stir the liquid oxygen
with a fan. During a ground test just a few weeks earlier,
a heater inside oxygen tank number two was accidentally left on, and its interior was
baked to over 500°C. This damaged the teflon insulation around
the wires leading to the fan. When Jack Swigert turned that fan on, electrical
current arced across the wires, starting a fire. The pressure of expanding gas turned the oxygen
tank into a bomb. ‘Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.’ ‘We’ve got more than a problem’
‘This is Houston, say again please?’ ‘Houston we’ve had a problem.’ As the staff at mission control frantically
tried to understand what had happened to the spacecraft, Lovell glanced out the side window
of the Command Module. ‘It looks to me that we are venting something. It’s a gas of some sort.’ Their second oxygen tank had also been damaged
in the blast, and was bleeding its contents into space. Soon there would be nothing left for the astronauts
to breathe, let alone to generate electricity. There was one chance for survival. Apollo 13’s lunar module, Aquarius, had
oxygen, fuel, and a descent engine that could be used to put them on a course back to Earth. The astronauts had no choice but to use it
as a lifeboat. The crew shut down the Command Module to preserve
it’s tiny reserve of battery power for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, and all three of
them climbed into the two-person Lunar Module. Conditions were cramped and bitterly cold. NASA staff worked around the clock to solve
countless engineering and navigation problems that put the astronauts' lives in constant
danger. One of the most serious problems they faced
was stopping the astronauts from being poisoned by their own exhaled carbon dioxide. The Lunar Module used round canisters of lithium
hydroxide to filter carbon dioxide from the air, but there were only enough of these canisters
to support two astronauts for two days. The command module used a similar system,
but those canisters were square-shaped. Fortunately, to provide an emergency backup,
NASA had developed a procedure during preparation for Apollo 8 to build an air purifier using
a lithium hydroxide canister and items found in the spacecraft. The makeshift device was made of cardboard,
tape and an astronaut’s sock, but it worked perfectly, and removed the poisonous carbon
dioxide from the cabin’s atmosphere. Having survived the flight back to Earth,
the crew faced re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. They climbed back into the Command Module
and jettisoned Aquarius, which wouldn’t survive re-entry. LM Jettison
Farewell Aquarius, and we thank you. The Command Module had been powered down and
left in freezing conditions for days. Its heat shield might have been cracked when
the oxygen tank exploded, or its parachutes might have frozen solid. The astronauts were expected to be out of
contact with Houston for four minutes during re-entry. But four minutes passed, then five, with no
word from the crew. But after six agonising minutes… Odyssey re-appeared. The astronauts had survived. Apollo 13 failed to land on the Moon. But against all the odds, and through incredible
determination and ingenuity, NASA brought Lovell, Haise and Swigert home safely. The mission became known as the ‘successful
failure’. Apollo 14 would see the unlikely return of
one of America’s original space heroes: Alan Shepard. Launching aboard a tiny one-person capsule,
Shepard became the first American in space in May 1961. ‘Oxygen is go, all systems are go!’ He was due to command the first mission of
Project Gemini, but he began experiencing bouts of extreme dizziness and nausea. He was diagnosed with Ménière's disease,
a disorder of the inner ear. There was no known cure, and it seemed he
would never be assigned to another spaceflight. Shepard was appointed Chief of the Astronaut
Office, overseeing crew training and mission planning. Outside of NASA, he also made a small fortune
investing in real estate, banking and oil drilling. But he was determined to fly in space again. In the summer of 1968, he underwent an experimental
and risky surgical procedure to correct his disorder. Now, Shepard would return as the commander
of Apollo 14. But Shepard’s struggles continued. The mission was almost overcome by glitches
on the way to the moon. After launch, the docking mechanism between
the Command Module and Lunar Module wouldn’t engage. Before Lunar descent, the computer tried to
abort the landing and had to be re-programmed mid-flight. Finally, the landing radar stopped working
just as the crew were approaching the surface. But Shepard had come too far to be stopped
by glitches. With the support of mission control, he and
his crew overcame these problems and made a perfect landing, the closest yet to their
target. Over the course of two Moon walks, Shepard
and his lunar module pilot Ed Mitchell ventured further from their lunar module than any previous
astronauts. They climbed steep terrain, investigated ancient
craters, and gathered more rock and soil samples than Apollo 11 or 12. With his mission objectives completed, Shepard
brought out a golf ball that he’d smuggled in the pockets of his spacesuit. Using his sampling tool as a club, he teed
off next to the Lunar Module. ‘Miles and miles and miles’
“Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure
Science.” - Edwin Hubble The final three missions were the most scientifically
productive, and they were equipped with advanced hardware. Their upgraded lunar module had enough supplies
to support astronauts for three days. New space suits and backpacks enabled Moonwalks
as long as seven hours. And the new lunar rover allowed astronauts
to explore much larger areas of the Moon’s surface. Meanwhile, the command module pilot conducted
extensive surveys of the Moon from orbit, using a new suite of cameras and scientific
instruments. Dave Scott, on his third spaceflight, was
the commander of Apollo 15. The crew made one of the biggest geological
discoveries of the program, when they unearthed a chunk of anorthosite, a piece of the Moon’s
primordial crust, 4.5 billion years old. Apollo 16 was commanded by John Young, who
had already flown to the Moon on Apollo 10. The Lunar Module Pilot was Charlie Duke, and
the command module pilot was Ken Mattingly, who had lost his place on Apollo 13 just days
before the launch, and was finally getting his chance to fly in space. Young and Duke spent three days on the lunar
surface, travelling great distances with the aid of the lunar rover. But now, budget cutbacks had brought the Apollo
Program to an early end. Apollo 17 would be its final flight. On December the 7th, 1972, Apollo 17 prepared
to depart. It was the only night launch of a Saturn V.
The rocket’s blazing exhaust plume lit up the sky at Cape Kennedy. The final mission was commanded by Gene Cernan. His command module pilot was Ron Evans, and
the lunar module pilot was Harrison Schmitt. On this final mission, Schmitt represented
a first. A professional geologist, he was the only
scientist astronaut to walk on the Moon. Apollo 17 landed at Taurus-Littrow, the most
geologically complex site yet visited. Cernan and Schmitt spent a total of 22 hours
walking on the Moon. They travelled 19 miles across its surface. And they collected more scientific data than
any other mission. But after three days on the Moon, it was time
to leave. Cernan and Schmitt would be the last humans
to walk on the Moon in the 20th Century. But as the Apollo program came to an end,
NASA was preparing for new adventures in space flight. The first US space station - Skylab - would
launch in 1973, aboard an Apollo Saturn V rocket. In 1975, the United States and the Soviet
Union flew a joint mission - the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. It was the final flight of an Apollo spacecraft,
and the symbolic end of the space race. 1981 would see the first flight of the Space
Shuttle. The mission was commanded by Apollo astronaut
John Young, and it ushered in the next era of spaceflight. But for the Apollo Program, 1972 was the end
of the road. As Cernan climbed into the lunar module at
the end of the mission, he bade farewell to the Moon, and shared his hope that humans
would soon return. 'As we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we
leave as we came, and, God-willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all
mankind.' As of June 2021, Gene Cernan remains the last
person to have set foot on the Moon. But NASA intends to return with the Artemis
Program. The goal is to land the first woman the the
first person of colour on the Moon, and Develop technologies for the first crewed missions
to Mars. Thank you to our Patreon supporters for making
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