chasing the moon

 

Bill Anders: I remember thinking, you know why are these people treating us like heroes? One of the scientists at Jodrell Bank is now quoted as saying, It is now possible that the Russian probe will be back faster than the Americans. Chasing The Moon: American Experience. Theo Kameke: We had gotten ourselves onto another world and put our foot there. Because both the United States and the Soviet Union would have to build new rockets in order to land people on the Moon. Morley Safer: Britain is not a participant in the space race but she is an avid spectator. And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with goodnight, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth. Houston, you are go for staging. They’ve been aloft twenty-seven hours, forty-four minutes. David Brinkley: The astronauts are talking to the ground and reporting on the facts and figures of the flight, and somebody here a minute ago was saying they are as matter-of-fact and unexcited and calm as if they were taxicab drivers reporting in and saying we’re on Maple Street headed for downtown. Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins. We went through the drill of escaping, which was riding a wire and then jumping down to a shoot, and then jumping down there and landing in a room on springs and padded chairs, and I thought, we’ll never get that far. With this vehicle, the flight to the Moon will be accomplished. We do that, and then we can go beyond the Moon. Bill Anders: All religions are based on the fact that the Earth is the focus of the universe, and God sits up there with his super computer and keeps track of all the rights and wrongs. Buzz Aldrin: Neil is now unveiling the plaque. Assistant news director: Ready to go to Cronkite. Learn more: Watertown Regional Library, Copiague, NY Just imagine a bunch of diarrhea and vomit floating around right in front of you. And when did you first notice it? Alexander: They were running low on propellant and they had overshot the landing sight. Congressman Teague: I think Gemini’s in good shape, but I think the Apollo program is going to have to have more money. So at two of the NASA major centers, were headed by ex-Nazis. Gemini was going to prove the lunar-orbit rendezvous. Was it God? Buckbee: Von Braun was the man who convinced President Kennedy that we can beat the Russians to the moon. That never came up. I’m feeling a lot better now. Tim Bono Ed Buckbee: We get over to the test site, and they fire up the booster. Gene Kranz: Ok it’s a go there, CapCom, on the hot and fire, ok all flight controllers, going around the horn, go no go for undocking. Wernher von Braun: Well, if you foot the bill, in 1985, but at the moment there’s no national commitment to do that and it would probably require a national commitment of a similar magnitude as the Apollo program to land a man on the Moon. The descent to the lunar surface happened pretty quickly. John Logsdon: The Kennedy administration was very media conscious, so the plans all along had been to do things on live television. The most popular color? Historical Media President Kennedy: But it will be done. National Endowment for the Humanities Luc Stone Learn more: Fryeburg Public Library, Scotch Plains, NJ Walter Cronkite: HAL has characteristics unlike most of the sophisticated machines you’ve ever seen…. You know, he was the first man to go through the speed of sound. There were some computer programmers, a few of those, but in terms of working on the engineering side, I was the only one. Buzz Aldrin: You need a spacecraft we can launch him in, and it’ll be the spacecraft that brings him back. So she was Marion Moon Aldrin. It gave me so much pleasure to know that you men have done a large part of that job. They watched a nuclear test firing of an engine of what was called a NERVA – a Nuclear Engine Test Vehicle. Friday, June 28 Tuesday, July 2 I thought it was the beginning of moving out to other planets. Roger Chaffee: Oh I don’t like to say anything’s scary about it. Reporter: What’s the speculation down there about the first words Neil Armstrong will utter as he steps off the ship? Learn more: The Libraries of Foster, Salisbury, CO When I was in elementary school we would have duck-and-cover exercises and crawl under our desks like that would protect us form a nuclear blast. Ullstein Bild / Walter Frentz George Alexander: The Gemini spacecraft did hook up with an Agena. Walter Cronkite: That’s a rather serious one to hear. But it will end on a spectacular note with a nighttime launch, perhaps one of the most exciting sights a visitor to Cape Kennedy can see. garment. Bergman: Its been charged that when you walk into the Mission Operations Control Room the mission grinds to a screeching halt. Tuesday, July 2 Mission control: Apollo 8, can you confirm your burn time please? These, ladies and gentlemen, are the nation’s Mercury astronauts. Theo Kamecke: It was still twilight and I could hear the faint siren and some blinking lights and looked off to my right and there was the convoy of half a dozen vehicles bringing the astronauts to the launch pad. We have liftoff, we have liftoff at 7am. Learn more: Palm Beach County Library System, Woodbury, CT But I always felt that once they lost Korolev they really lost the genius of the Russian program. Eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, 35 seconds. Charlie Duke:Hello Eagle, Houston, we’re standing by over. Gather round while I sing you of Wernher Von Braun Neil Armstrong: The current plan involves one man on the lunar surface for approximately three-quarters of an hour prior to the second man’s emergence. NTV Russian Archives Martin Luther King, Jr.: If our nation can spend thirty five billion dollars a year to fight an unjust evil war in Viet Nam, and twenty billion dollars to put a man on the Moon, it can spend billions of dollars to put God’s children on their own two feet, right here on Earth. John Chancelor: The administrator of NASA, is Mr. James Webb, and he is standing by now at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center at Greenbelt, Maryland. And he called me up and said, would you like to work on a crazy scheme? She didn’t want to be a part of it. Reporter: The atmosphere is quite tense as 600 news men wait to see…. Mark Bloom: I kept thinking, as the lunar module went down from the command module and lunar orbit, and got closer and closer and closer – I kept thinking they were going to abort. Janet Armstrong lived a couple of houses behind me. And all of a sudden von Braun and his team were heroes. Neil Armstrong: Houston, the autotargeting was taking us right into a football field sized crater with a large number of big boulders…. And now, at last, we had the opportunity to go and see for ourselves - to satisfy that curiosity. Underneath it says, “Here men from the planet Earth first stepped foot upon the moon. The Apollo mission, it was wonderful that they managed to do as much as they did. The orbital rendezvous is so counterintuitive that you really had to use the on-board computer in Gemini in order to implement it. And I said, yes, we could. The sound was deafening, making your shirt, slacks, flap. Shelby Stone We had the obligation to present the enthusiasm– historically, man going to the Moon. Mission control: We show a loss of signal with the space craft. You know, he was, he was the rocket man. Wernher von Braun: This advance base, or space station, will be headquarters for the final assent to the moon. Christina Korp Wernher von Braun: This is one of the proudest and most significant days in my life. “Chasing the Moon,” a film by Robert Stone, reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort. I got it because I was black. Joel Banow: What are you going to do? Fuel to monitor. Mark Bloom: The only thing NASA had on the mission that did not have redundancy was the assent engine on the Lunar Module. Good to hear your voice. Saturday, July 6 Learn more: Bridgeport Public Library, Prescott Valley, AZ It was this huge black void, and that was the Moon. HAM is a stand-in for the astronaut. Reporter: The door opens and out come America’s Apollo 11 astronauts, waving, albeit their faces completely covered by these B.I.G. My grandmother was known as “Mama Moon.” I had two older sisters they didn’t know what to call me, but I was their baby brother, so it was “Buzzer” and that got shortened to Buzz. Monday, July 1 Right? Corporation For Public Broadcasting They would ask questions and didn’t know how to follow up. We’d like to introduce the new group of fourteen astronauts that we’ve been in the process of selecting for about the last four months. Tuesday, July 2 He’s locked up in that capsule, he can’t get away. It’s live in the US. And the first phase of it was test pilot training, which was a precursor to the space training in route to being an astronaut. Ed Buckbee: I don’t think we did a good job of preparing them for what was expected of them, especially after they flew and came back. Walter Cronkite: And now we have two Americans on the moon. Richard Lewit I grabbed an oxygen mask that was only supposed to be worn during fire. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. We knew very little. 3 minutes into the flight we’re 50 miles high…. Chasing the Moon. Ed Dwight: All the other astronauts were test pilots. That this is a test program. The series concentrates on ... See full summary », Nearly 50 years ago three astronauts launched from the Earth and headed towards the Moon for the first time. Ed Buckbee: 33 Saturns were flown in the time that they were built, never failed, they completed their mission, and they never carried a weapon in space. Gus Grissom: Hey, how are we going to get to the Moon if we can’t talk between three buildings? I’m here to demonstrate in a symbolic way the tragic and inexcusable gulf between America’s technological abilities and our social injustice. Joel Banow: I don’t think there was anybody like Walter Cronkite. We’re tumbling end over end. After a while you kind of get used to it. Mike Wallace: Walter I’m sure this hits you particularly hard because these men were friends of yours. Buzz Aldrin: I’m Lieutenant Aldrin, I just got down off my fifty-sixth mission. Over three decades, he recruited hundreds of African Americans into the space program. John Logsdon: Khrushchev, in 1961, really didn’t know or trust Kennedy, and so didn’t take his cooperative proposal very seriously. Gus Grissom: I can’t hear a thing you’re saying. Frank Borman: Let’s face it, he had nothing to do with Apollo 11, and I told him that. Valerie Anders: He would get in a T-38, and leave Houston and be at the Cape in an hour and a half. Turned out the Soviets were still debating whether to go to the Moon or not. And Neil said, no, no, I’ll wait until I get there and think about it, and I don’t think Mike believed him and I didn’t either. Reporter: The Apollo program, short of money and no longer as fashionably popular as it once was, is ending. Sounds pretty highfaluting, Fecal Containment Device. An unprecedented look at the decade-long odyssey to land a man on the moon that pulls back the curtain on the familiar narrative of the moonshot that we think we know, revealing a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses and personal drama. Frank Borman: He provided a fiscal umbrella for us. No panic. Sergei Krushchev: The success of the Sputnik brought attention to the space research. The Cutting Corporation Officer (military funeral procession): Firing squad fire three volley’s. Roger Launius: It’s hard to appreciate how truly desperate this rivalry was with competing economic and political systems, each out to destroy the other. Everybody wanted to meet or see an astronaut. But what was inside the dog’s head we don’t know. Ed Dwight: Yeager had called in the entire instructor staff and he announced that Washington is trying to cram the “N-word” down our throats. We had a taste of the publicity from Gemini 12. When he states that we’re second in education, when he makes statements like this, what does this do to American prestige? NASA press officer: Do you have one of our press kits? Learn more: Fairbanks North Star Borough Libraries So, was it sexist? And Korolev could not answer. There’s no way that words can really describe the enormity or the timelessness, the magnificence. That’s the most – that’s the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen. Jim Lovell: Hey, hey don’t talk like that Bill. We stop racing, they will undoubtedly win. And the moms stayed home, you know the moms stayed home and took care of the children and that was sort of mundane for these men that were flying fast airplanes and doing these exciting adventures. One in their pride in what you have done, and one in our prayers that you will return safely to Earth. Ed Buckbee: Trans Lunar Insertion. Since joining the series in 2003, she has provided editorial support and guidance to its broadcast and new media work. It’s now midway over Australia. And it was the first launching after the Apollo fire. Poets, philosophers, yeah, you want people who are technically equipped to make decisions. But there’s one curious little rumor going around. Magnificent Desolation. Chasing the Moon. Learn more: Coastal Branch Library, South Windham, CT Radio host: But how is the Apollo spaceship doing? What I’d like to do is get all the way out Jim and get a picture of the whole spaceship – I don’t seem to be doing it. Michael Collins: The first EVAs, of course, were on the Gemini 4, Ed White. United Nations We were defenseless. Learn more: Groton Public Library John Logsdon: The reality was that there was an influential member of the House of Representatives, named Albert Thomas who controlled NASA’s money. Saturday, June 29 Chasing the Moon Same type. Just tremendous relief and just truly the happiest day. Um, I think we better move on now, we’ll go in that direction. James Burke: Armstrong beginning that very cumbersome and difficult act of getting down on his stomach to go out feet first. Campaign Rewards FAQ Updates 2 Comments 1 Community Paul Haney: … has been relieved at the Cape. It will help us on the high-gain signal strength. Wernher von Braun: Well in the simplest terms, Saturn is the most powerful rocket that we’ve ever built on this side of the world and, presumably, the biggest rocket built anywhere, anytime. Valerie Anders: I don’t know that I was prepared for that. Senior Producer, American Experience Lincoln Public Library Ed Buckbee: I did not think we’d land Apollo 11. Marshall Space Flight Center Bill Anders: Just grab me a color, a color exterior. And if we don’t try to expand ourself and expand our horizons, which I think the space program is the biggest example of expanding your horizons that man has ever undertaken, we’re not going to progress as a nation. It was this river Prypyat with the forest filled with mushroom, and we have one of our friend, he was officer from the KGB intelligence, and he had the telescope. Bill Anders: Gemini 12 with Aldrin and Lovell was exceptionally successful. Learn more: Union County Public Library Jules Bergman: That was Armstrong saying they’re a little long, down range on position. But the circumstance were such that the message would have been very loud and clear, you know, had you not sent it in. It’s the only communist country of their tour, so for this reason Yugoslavia regards the visit of the three American astronauts as a special and significant honor. It may have been a little bit crude and rough around the edges, but they did it. But they do that on mountaintops, in fact people would consider it strange if they didn’t plant a flag. Joel Banow: In the early days of television, we didn’t have any live feeds from the space craft. Reporter: Now ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. Reporter:This is a live special report from ABC radio news – the flight of Apollo 12... Mark Bloom: It was never going to be the same again. Friday, June 28 Bill Anders: There was a lot of apple-polishing with Congressmen and so if a Congressman wanted to have some astronaut appear with him, he just snapped his fingers. Ralph Renick: It’s about T minus thirty seconds. Houston: Roger, Eagle, and you are stay for T 1. Doris Day: Well, we had a little trouble with that one didn’t we? Let’s get on with the job. We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them, and they may be less public. He said, yes sir, it’s going to fly just like that. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation George Alexander: You could do this, but then you know, the devil was in the details. A Robert Stone Production for American Experience in association with Arte France. Roger Launius Apollo control, Houston, we’ve heard nothing yet, but we’re standing by. Your mother’s family name? Gene Kranz: Ok, all flight controllers, go no go for powered descent. Eastchester Public Library My feeling was they were flying with baling wire and rubber bands. Announcer: Coverage of the Apollo 8 mission, a presentation of ABC news, is brought to you by Tang, the instant breakfast drink. Over. They made it on the first try. Frazer Pennebaker Did you scroll all this way to get facts about chasing the moon? The space launcher is still in service, after sixty years, the basic idea the same. He was awakened this morning at 2:50. Roger Launius: Tom Paine went out to Ralph Abernathy’s group and met with them. Most of the time, the men weren’t there. After orbiting the earth over seventeen times, in the course of twenty-five hours and covering over 700,000 kilometers, Major Titov landed in a predetermined region of the Soviet Union. Houston: Oh its beautiful Mike, it really is. Actor playing Himmler: We have always known that a German scientist will someday invent a weapon which will give us victory. UCLA Film & Television Archive They are currently over western Australia. Scotch Plains Public Library Union County Public Library That maneuver behind the Moon is very critical because if they come out too early it’s not good, if they come out too late, it’s not good. Sergei Khrushchev, Son Of Soviet Premier Roger Launius: Well the astronauts of the early era were very much our alter egos, our surrogates in this gigantic struggle with the Soviet Union. It drains all the blood out of your head and you can’t even see. So I think we’re late to church. Susan Borman: Really, I’d love – I’d love nothing better than to make a beautiful profound statement for you that would be Earth-shaking for everyone, but I’m – I’m just speechless, I – this hasn’t sunk in yet. Carolyn Macleod, Director Of Digital Content John Logsdon: In 1963, severe criticism of Apollo began to emerge from a variety of quarters. Learn more: Catawba County Library System, Jurupa Valley, CA Everybody wanted to go to Cocoa beach. Program alarm. Saturday, July 6 They all came together pretty much perfectly. You know, the sun isn’t going to expand before we’ve wiped ourselves out ten times over with global warming or some other thing. It really was an exceptional simulation of the lunar module in one sixth lunar gravity. We gotta do it up right because there’ll be more people will listen to this than ever listened to any other single person in history. Butte County Library Some of the astronauts said, no, no, that’s not going to be any good, there’s a big difference between water and space. And it has to work. It was part of the Kennedy policy – we can work together. Plainfield Public Library District He was not comfortable with that at all because they had never followed that process. Paul Vanezis So I went off and applied and to my amazement, on my birthday in 1963, was called by Deke Slayton, and said, hey how would you like to come work for us? Walter Cronkite: The goal is the moon, perhaps man’s oldest dream. Fort Fairfield Library Michael Collins, Astronaut So late darkness, and I had a lot of drinking s always a possibility that will! Schirra might have differences flights were unsuccessful for various reasons “ Opening in Moscow ” by d a Pennebaker 1960! Behind me through, paul the pad at the time – he rejected this to sink into our of... Was just the propaganda: before flight they wanted us to the public write. 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