BBC Space Race (2005): Episode four: Race For The Moon (1964--1969)

through the centuries to explore space was an impossible fantasy and two rival scientists became locked in a race to realize that dream their struggle would make history Sergei Corey Olaf was released from prison to become chief designer of the Soviet space program he launched the world's first satellite it's just been announced that the Russians have put a set amount into space and Yuri Gagarin the first man into space despite all the success Corey lofts identity was a closely guarded state secret coming five in America his rival vanaf on Braun was struggling to catch up the soviets may be ready to go as soon as November we can't waste time trucking this capsule from state to state mullet Reds are orbiting the Earth and you prefer we kill an astronaut now with the launch of America's first astronaut Tom Brown is closing the gap and with the creation of NASA baby the moon is in his sights of the world now look into space we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other thing not because they are easy but because they are hard the year is now 1964 let's get on with it Sergey Cory Olaf's role as chief designer as a well kept secret in the Soviet Union while everything done by his rival in America it's public knowledge project Apollo destination move what rocket will take these men and futuristic Apollo craft to their destination let's hear about its design from the world-famous rocket designer dr. Wernher von Braun and over 350 feet long 75 will be a giant among rockets its weight equivalent to a light battle cruiser will be lifted into the air by a first stage of five engines producing over seven and a half million pounds of thrust enough to launch over 1500 Sputnik into orbit the Space Age has fully arrived this exploration is necessary for a dynamic America and essential for the preservation of peace both men have dreamed of going to the moon for over 30 years but Cory Olaf can't win backing for his Luna rocket the money they must have you can't even get our plans for a lunar mission approve never mind it funds that von Braun is such a lucky devil thirsty Nazis than the American government you may love for silly but he will fly its battle cruiser I'm one is unlikely to even lift off the design boy the polygons say they want lunar mission they know we must come a powerful stir like the N 1 or the Saturn if we're to do it do they do they really facili what do they expect us to pull it out of the bag like we always do another rocket as powerful as the Saturn we will lose the statins engines work on the same basic principle as all rocket engines of which this is an example the crucial part of the design is the injector plate like a giant shower head spraying fuel into the combustion chamber where it ignites it's a process that has to be absolutely precise or the engine fails allow me to give you an example imagine that thousands of times the ferocity with fuel delivered at a rate sufficient to fill a family size to import every 10 seconds that's what we have to achieve on the f1 the most powerful rugged engine ever built fail and we don't go to the moon so a testing engine number 0:08 with injected PDF 367 senior engineer paul kasin Holtz has been testing the engine for the past two years yes sir that's zero zero eight and plate F 367 but there are problems getting the ambitious design to work at all thank you about ready standby for engine test turbo pump sequencing engine ignition inside the engine the injector plate is the most critical part of the design it mixes the liquid fuels together through thousands of tiny holes as the tens of thousands of gallons of liquid oxygen and kerosene burn the gases expand to create intense pressure the smallest upset the smooth mix will lead to a rocket designers worst nightmare combustion instability well it takes the slightest thing keep me posted on modifications for the next test von braun needs five of these engines perfectly synchronized just to lift his saturn off the ground it's never gonna work at that size well it'll have to he sure as hell isn't going to the moon how many times have you tried this you'll never make this with you because he's jealous and all this expect I know but I need him and he knows it his engines launch Gagarin Sputnik he knows launching the n1 will be loaded the Politburo still wouldn't fund Korea loves Luna rocket the n1 to help persuade them he and his wife Nina hope to enlist the help of the Soviets leading rocket engine designer Valentin Glushko a man who has long coveted quarry Olaf success I have made my position completely clear to the central comedian to the Politburo my answer is now unless you change fuels which you won't so there's the end of the discussion you know I can't agree to that anyway to abandon liquid oxygen now would kill the n1 we don't have time you have seen von Braun Saturn he used his oxygen I didn't see it flow are we going to the moon or not not on liquid oxygen using large engines a schoolboy can tell you the problems you will get with combustion instability this is not about fuel is it Valentin this is about you and me I know how you've talked behind my back are you poisoned my relations with Christian and now you do the same with the poly do your brezhnev get out you cannot stand it when I succeed you'll do anything to destroy my chances leave now good pleasure Valentin Petrovic if you don't want the job I'll get by without you that could have gone better I thought you said the Patrol will never agree to phones if you don't have little knowledge I have another man in mind Sookie what's happening I'm all right I'm all right let's just get the hell out of here please take us straight home for the entire moonshot resting on the success of his engines von braun takes a radical step a small bomb is planted in the engine to deliberately trigger instability term sequence initiated if the engine copes with the shockwaves caused by the bomb he'll know he solved it all this failure is turning public opinion against von Braun how do you answer those who say you're using the tax dollars in the court of fat no rich corporation so if we don't spend the money on the move spend it here in the United States creating jobs and new products down the round while I see you up there nur fun Brown a man whose allegiance is Ileana by expedient call him a Nazi even from Nazi schmutzie says burn our fun pie say that he's hypocritical fun some Rockets are says fair components are redesigned and then test-fired at a cost of tens of millions of dollars until Tom Brown at last gets word of a breakthrough excellent pour thank you thank you so what was the problem frankly sir I still don't know but it has been resolved we found a design of injector plate that cures the instability just under what caused in the first place anyway we now have an engine that runs so uh the f1 can go operational let it go real car he has to build the engines with no guarantee the problem is solved why the rush the Russians appear to be doing nothing don't be fooled the Soviets understand the significance of conquering space they want to beat us to the moon and they may surprise us any day now this is diamond one I'm ready to go out justice from Brown fears coral off is ready with another historic first Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first man to walk in space I can see clothes see the caucuses Cory Olaf hopes that the space warps impact will help persuade the Politburo to fund his plans for a lunar mission they saw this performing the world Filan one this is born you have achieved your objectives returned to the spacecraft hell I can get back to the spacecraft the air present in my suit isn't crazy I can barely move my fingers in my gloss thank you myself back for life leonov's suit is so inflated he will never fit back through the airlock Aleksei try using the release valve to manually vent air from the suit he struggles for 12 minutes of the airlock with one last push he finally manages to climb back into the spacecraft today the Soviet Union announced successful completion of the first walk in space pilot-cosmonaut lieutenant colonel alexei arkhipov each lien of spent 23 minutes and 41 seconds outside his spacecraft the Politburo never reveal how close the mission came to disaster von Braun can only assume the Soviets are ahead and were still hostilities are escalating in Vietnam America is torn apart as the protest movement grows Tom Brown is worried about losing public support for the moonshot watching from Russia Corinth is acutely aware of the funds at his rivals disposal the industrial might of America is now focused on NASA's lunar program in assembly buildings across the country the gigantic Saturn 5 is taking shape in high-altitude tests astronauts are training for each step of a moon mission in 1965 alone nASA has been allocated a further five billion dollars to spearhead its conquest of space we have approved but a circumlunar flight on the 50th anniversary of the revolution and a manned landing within three years no we can move the n1 into full production although they have allocated half the funds we asked for at last Korolev has the go-ahead to compete directly with the American moon mission but with only a fraction of the money he soon finds a replacement for Glushko to design his new rocket engines Nicolay Kuznetsov how many engines are you proposing for the first stage birthday 2494 we'll need 24 to deliver enough thrust nikolai the american saturn has 5 how are we going to control 24 engines well find a way it's a brilliant design which I am pleased to say will make glushko spit oh how are we going to test a stage of 24 engines when we long so say there's no money he decides it will take three years to build it test and logical while his lunar rocket is under construction Cory loaf invites the cosmonauts to see a mock-up of the capsule that would take them to the moon the Soyuz it weighs six and a half thousand kilos and can carry three Pablo liyan off Gagarin and Komarov are his top candidates the ship has solar panels for extra power but the most important feature this is maneuverability unlike old Vostok it can be piloted in space it can dock with other ships so it could link and detach to another craft which descends to remove not even take a look you might be the first of life Lord most based on the Vostok twice the size huh well there was some dispute about that a young design I wanted to make it so small I drew a chalk circle around him the size he proposed and made him standing it we continued that debate he soon agreed to make the capsule bigger she'll keep our age are you alright I'm fine don't fuss don't fuss no look I have to buy one after leaving the cosmonauts Korolev collapses with severe heart pains doctors order him to take rest his deputy of 20 years Vasili mission takes over while he's away yes possibly spoke to the minister I met him he says no further funds can be released until we submit or poor well of course he'd say that what do you expect okay I can't take this this job is not for me I'm sorry I don't have to ask to stand up please please Vasya calm down you can handle it just tell him to continue the engine tests I'll deal with this when I get back to add to the strain nASA has developed a new spacecraft called Gemini and is launching manned missions almost every two months they carry out spacewalks test maneuvers for space docking and set a two-week endurance record in orbit an obvious prelude to their Apollo moon missions here you're taking Cory Olaf has nothing ready to match this they are leaving us behind Korolev is taken in for exploratory surgery a tumor is discovered is everything all right I'm sorry is gone while under anaesthetic Cory lofts weak heart fails a result of the physical hardship endured during his imprisonment in the gulag after 20 years of anonymity the Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev decides to reveal the genius behind the Soviet space program his name revealed to the world the man who had once been sent to the gulag now has a full state funeral in Red Square a hero of the Soviet people at last even his ashes are preserved in the Kremlin wall pan of on brown at last discovers the identity of his greatest rival I never knew all this was just one man how all they do without him at the Cape von Braun is soaring ahead inside the largest building ever constructed is giant Luna Rockets the Saturn 5 is being assembled NASA is almost ready for the start of the Apollo missions on a 27th day of January 1967 astronaut Gus Grissom ed white and Roger Chaffee are sealed inside the new Apollo capsule for a final run-through on the ground what happens next throws the moon program into crisis how come I do not read you one I can't talk to you five miles away how am I gonna contact you from the moon a spark suddenly turns the capsule into an inferno the death of the three astronauts stuns America the spark ignited the capsules pure oxygen atmosphere nASA has to go back and painstakingly rework their Apollo capsule from scratch just three months later the Soviets are ready to test their equivalent of the Apollo capsule the soils once in orbit the cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is in trouble a solar panel fails to open and the craft is starved of power you should attempt an immediate reentry wait he the power demands down woman laughs my silly mission now in charge of the Soviet space program faces the first big test of his leadership only absolutely essential systems to be left on all others to be switched off we're a thirteenth orbit the automatic reentry systems also fail Comoros chances of survival are slim his only hope to pilot the stricken craft home himself convinced it's an impossible task komarov's wife is called in to say goodbye against all the odds Komarov brilliantly guided the tumbling soils through the Earth's atmosphere but as both his main and backup parachutes failed he perished why are we having these fails I'll tell you like for work but less lazy approach everybody excuse this doesn't function I can't get this made excuses excuses that govern us shoddy justice work mission increasingly relies on alcohol to deal with the pressure it has been my duty to inform state commission inform them that this third failure means it is now not possible to celebrate the glorious 50th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution with man flight the cosmonauts complain about mission to the Soviet leadership citing his failings as inpatients rudeness and poor knowledge but nothing is done two months later Gagarin himself dies killed in a flying accident gagarin steth so soon after Cory Olaf's is a further blow to the morale of the Soviet space program which now falters on the brink of collapse in America Tom Brown is ready for a test flight of his saturn v rocket an unmanned dress rehearsal for the real thing standing 36 storeys high it weighs more than a battlecruiser the greatest weight ever lifted off the ground it takes 450 staff to control the countdown from Braun Saturn five is to carry the unmanned Apollo capsule into orbit for safety the press are held behind a three and a half mile exclusion zone for Fon Brown everything hinges on the reliability of his entrance six five four with the exception of a nuclear bomb blast the saturn v is the loudest man-made object ever built it registers on earthquake sensors across America for a hundred and twenty-five seconds the flight is flawless we have a problem we have Coco + - 10 G's Togo powerful vibrations down the length of the rocket if they become violent enough they'll cause the rocket to break up combustion instability frequency fire six cycles per second you wait-wait-wait it's over stage one separate and you're out which engine to another engine out white booster oh my god dope we've got engines two and three out here she's falling booster it's your action you go for abort are you going aboard wait wait we still have good control at this time Oh Roger that although the Saturn limps into orbit von Braun cannot risk a man flight until the engine problems are fixed wait the Soviets also have engine problems their new designer Nicolay Kuznetsov has been forced to add extra engines to provide more thrust the first stage now has 30 Bart Kuznetsov faces criticism from Cory Olaf's old adversary valentin glushko during the static firing of the nk1 5 there was a partial blow out of the combustion chamber comrades we need not go in further at this stage I wish to propose redesigning the n1 I have plans that would utilize our proven our d23 5 engine ignoring glucose opposition korean off stream rockets the n1 makes a fleeting appearance on the pad but engineers find cracks in its outer casing burner burner we've had reports reports from the CIA that the Russians are getting close to arm and circumlunar flight maybe by the end of the year with what these are classified satellite shots of their launch pad at your attempt they show a Saturn sighs rock we feel that the next Saturn 5 Apollo launch Apollo 8 should take a crew around the moon what's insane we won't have test flown of Saturn since we had the engine failure and Pogo problem I know but we can't take the chance that they do it first whoever sends men around the moon will of as good as won the race will be a massive propaganda victory some position to commit human life well maybe if we take a little more risk before we would have got an American up there first okay we go unknown to fajn Brown without Sergey courier off the Soviets of floundering why wasn't I call if I wasn't let go what's wrong lost pressure the peroxide temperature is low - five I said much come on let's go I'm not going anywhere where the cosmonauts losing faith in mission they appeal to the Politburo for a man flight around the moon in early December they are prepared to gamble their own lives to beat the Americans you but the cosmonauts request is denied good luck Americans the Americans send three astronauts to fly around the moon for the first time he was 135 seconds supposed to HSM I didn't the saturn hasn't flown since the engine and Pogo problems oh you're looking good your trajectory and guidance are no trust is fine agents are fine once the rocket stages drop away a critical step is tli translunar injection the final engine burn to set them on a course for the moon wait your go for tli Roger understand we are go for tli commander Frank Borman Jim Lovell and Bill Anders have to fly two hundred and thirty four thousand miles out into space and navigate for the first time into the moon's orbit on Christmas Eve the crew of Apollo 8 become the first human beings to look down on the lunar surface as they disappear behind the moon or radio contact is lost if they fail to lock into the moon's orbit they will fly on forever lost in space Apollo eight come in Apollo 8 azuz Houston Apollo 8 of always decision suddenly as they emerge from the far side of the moon a sight unseen by human eye the rising earth shining over the moon's bleak surface all of you all of you on agar the crew of Apollo 8 came within 70 miles of the moon service the next step is to actually land a man on the moon but just 17 days before the American moon mission mission is ready for an unmanned launch of his lunar rocket now we get to see who was right to succeed Kuznetsov's 30 engines must all fire together torn apart with almost the force of a nuclear bomb it is the most powerful explosion in the history of rocketry caused by a single bolt sucked into a fuel pump the explosion scatters pieces of debris over 10 kilometers the failure is a state secret for 20 years the disaster effectively ends the career of Vassili mission in America one last detail before the moon landing choosing the flag to ensure no one manufacturer can profit by claiming it's their flag on the moon a NASA secretary makes a random selection on the 16th of July commander Neil Armstrong Edwin Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins the crew of Apollo 11 make their way out to the pad 1 million people gather at the Cape to see them off across the world half a million are watching the Saturn's main engines have to fire for a hundred and fifty seconds to take the crew safely into orbit twenty-five years have passed since von Braun brought his rocket technology to America now he is about to realize his long-held dream to land a man on the moon but Baywatch Michael Collins orbits the moon in the command module we're go Frank hi we're go as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin head for the lunar surface you're looking great three PI degrees 750 coming down to 23 540 feet out of 15 then it 50 feet down at four alphabet glossary lights but while struggling to find a landing site the fuel runs dangerously low down five and a half pound hundred feet three and a half down 9 forward in forward 60 seconds of you of me I've gone forward forward pretty feet down two and a half picking up from that pink shadow poor boy were driven to the right level 30 seconds of you contact like okay stop we gotta get down at all quality Dave here we go I planted well if a week you gotta you guys we breathe again although the surface appears to be very very fine-grained as you get close to it it's almost like a powder mmm it's one small step for man while armstrong and aldrin are on the moon a Soviet probe sent in a last-ditch effort to steal some glory overshoots their landing site it crashes in the appropriately named sea of crises from Braun were mastermind another five successful manned missions to the moon his greater vision of a base on the moon and man flights to other planets is yet to be fulfilled you you

Channel: rsa008

Views: 600,507

Keywords: United States Of America (Country), Vostok Programme, Yuri Gagarin (Scientist), Human Spaceflight (Invention), Soviet Space Program (Space Program), Soviet Union (Country), Programme (Collection Category), Moon, Space Race (Event), Project Gemini, Apollo 1 fire, Space Race (TV Program), space walk, Alexei Leonov, the soviet space programme, Glushko, Korolev, fuel, Nikolai Kuznetsov, NK-33, F-1, Gagarin, jet crash, Soyuz 1, N-1 rocket, von Braun, Saturn V, Apollo 8, Apollo 11

Id: wZI8uLCsjlU

Length: 50min 7sec (3007 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 22 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/lowspeedlowdrag]

Yeah, if that was something they actually cared about then this wouldnt be on the back of every Omega Speedmaster Professional sold since then.

[u/Bum-Toots]

Bullshit.

[u/TWFM]

So ... the Annin Company has been lying to us all these years when they state that it was their company who made the flag?