American Experience (1988) s31e08 Episode Script

1
♪♪
(piano music playing)
♪♪
Gather round while I sing you
of Wernher von Braun ♪
A man whose allegiance
is ruled by expedience ♪
Call him a Nazi,
he won't even frown ♪
"Nazi-shmazi,"
says Wernher von Braun ♪
♪♪
Don't say
that he's hypocritical ♪
Say, rather,
that he's apolitical ♪
(in German accent):
"Once the rockets are up ♪
"Who cares
where they come down? ♪
(crowd laughter)
That's not my department,"
says Wernher von Braun ♪
(laughter)
Some have harsh words
for this man of renown ♪
But some think our attitude
should be one of gratitude ♪
Like the widows and cripples
in old London Town ♪
Who owe their large pensions
to Wernher von Braun ♪
You too may be a big hero ♪
Once you've learned
to count backwards to zero ♪
(in German accent):
"In German or English,
I know how to count down ♪
And I'm learning Chinese,"
says Wernher von Braun ♪
(applause)
♪♪
NEIL ARMSTRONG:
That's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
(speaking German)
(speaking German)
ED BUCKBEE:
All those years, we had very,
very few inquiries
about von Braun's past.
We never really had
any questions about what-what
are all these Germans doing,
you know,
involved in this program?
That never came up.
He was kind of untouchable.
He was the rocket man,
and he was taking us
to the moon.
Then when things
began to change,
he handled it quite well.
(crowd applauding)
(show music playing)
I believe you were forced
to join the Nazi party,
as I understand it.
No, that isn't quite right.
Oh.
Um
(audience laughs)
I was trying to make it sound
I got a letter
one fine day
which said, "We understand you
would like to join the party,
and here is a form,
an application form."
But the circumstances
were such that
the message would have
been very loud and clear,
you know,
had you not sent it in.
GEORGE ALEXANDER:
He disavowed
any loyalty to Hitler
or to the German cause.
He acknowledged
the regime's crimes.
He tried to avoid discussing
the politics of World War Il.
♪♪
Do you have a statement
Dr. Von Braun, were you
were you aware
that there was a slave camp
near the plant you
worked in Germany?
Well, you are misinformed.
The slave camp was about
400 miles from where I worked,
because I was in charge of the
development of the V-2 rocket,
which took place
in Peenemünde on the Baltic,
and this slave camp was
in central Germany
in the Harz Mountains
Were you aware that there were
any atrocities
taking place there?
I learned later
on that there were
atrocities taking place there,
but I was not involved
in this whole operation.
ALEXANDER:
He had to have known
that all those people
he saw pushing heavy equipment
were horribly abused.
He would have had to have
been blind, deaf, and mute
not to have known that.
Do you feel that it will
hinder your reputation at all?
Well, that remains to be seen.
As I say, I think
this record is for inspection.
And I have nothing to hide,
I had nothing to hide,
and I told the court
what I knew.
I was here as a witness;
I'm not implicated.
Remember that.
(applause)
RICHARD NIXON:
Only a few short weeks ago,
we shared the glory of
man's first sight of the world
as God sees it,
as a single sphere
reflecting light
in the darkness.
As the Apollo astronauts
flew over the moon's
gray surface
(fading):
on Christmas Eve
(protestors' chants grow louder)
They spoke to us of the beauty
of Earth.
(rockets firing, exploding)
(protesters clamoring)
Get lost!
(clamoring continues)
ROGER LAUNIUS:
In the time that they
were focused on going to
the moon, the world had changed.
Society had changed
in pretty fundamental ways.
FRANK BORMAN:
After Apollo 8,
President Nixon sent me around
to make talks on
the different college campuses.
(crowd chattering indistinctly)
Everywhere I went,
I met with antagonism
and even hatred.
(clamoring continues)
I think I represented,
to these people,
the establishment.
At one of the places,
I had to go in by helicopter
because they'd barricaded
the entrance to the college.
(siren blaring)
And at Columbia,
I was run off the stage
by a guy in a gorilla suit.
They threw marshmallows at me.
It was unbelievable.
(crowd clamoring)
When we went to Cornell,
it was like going
into an enemy camp.
I couldn't believe
I was in America.
And I must say when you
continually point your finger
at the establishment
and big business,
I'd like to just shoot it back
at you a little bit.
Many of us think one of
the greatest problems
we have in the environment
of the future
is the current crop of
irresponsible college radicals.
(students groan)
The difference
between the reaction
on American campuses and
overseas was like night and day.
BRITISH REPORTER:
To the people of this planet,
what is the meaning of this
stupendous venture?
(applause)
BORMAN:
They were excited,
they were happy,
they were very congratulatory,
they were wonderful.
Everywhere.
(chuckling):
Except on the American campus.
Even in Russia,
they were very, very friendly.
I was there in 1969,
my family and I.
This was before
the lunar landing.
We spent two weeks
over there
going all over the country.
They couldn't have been
more nice to us.
REPORTER:
Another warm welcome for
the traveling American astronaut
who came far out of his way,
all the way to central Siberia,
to pay tribute
to Soviet science.
Colonel Borman,
you've seen something of
the world of Soviet science,
how does it impress you?
Oh, very much.
They certainly have
a fine institute here.
(speaking Russian)
BORMAN:
The intellectuals there
understood their system
was corrupt and couldn't last,
but they were afraid
to talk about it
unless you got them off
by themselves.
It was that kind of a society.
And I like to think
that the Apollo program
had a lot to do with
the subsequent dismantling
of the Soviet Union.
Have you had any feeling
from the cosmonauts
of their view toward the pending
moon landing and Apollo 11?
Well, I think they feel
the same way about that
as we do about theirs
They wish us all success,
as we've done on
every one of their flights.
MARK BLOOM:
I remember trying to write
as much as I could
about what the Russians
were doing.
We knew very little.
Occasionally they'd show us
spy photography from Baikonur,
from the Soviet launching site.
But there was
a lot of guess work.
♪♪
JACK KING:
Korolev.
He was the von Braun,
if you will,
of the Russian space program.
He died.
And, in my mind, that's when
things started to change,
as far as the Russians
were concerned.
They tried to put together
a giant rocket.
But I always felt
that once they lost Korolev,
they really lost the genius
of the Russian program.
SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV:
The Korolev lunar program
to send the man to the moon,
it have a very sad history.
The Soviet Union have
the same ideas as the Americans,
but our design
of the lunar vehicle
failed from the very beginning
because Korolev
technically made it
in the wrong way.
The N1 program,
it was very complicated project
with 30 engines
that have to work together,
and if you did not test it
by stages,
you have too many new things.
Korolev's people,
after Korolev's death,
they say let's assemble
everything together
without testing.
Maybe you will have a good luck.
(indistinct voice on radio)
(rocket boosters igniting)
(explosion roaring)
(men shouting, sirens blaring)
Korolev died,
but this project was doomed
from the very beginning.
Resuming our interview
on Meet the Press
from Cape Kennedy, Florida,
our guests today
are the three astronauts
who commanded Apollo missions
eight, nine, and ten.
JOHN NOBLE WILFORD:
Colonel Borman,
during your trip to Russia,
did you get any indication
in your talks with the Russians
when they might be sending
cosmonauts to land on the moon?
Do you think that they still
want to land men on the moon?
There's no question about it.
They he told
everywhere the indication was
not only will we land
on the moon,
will we go to the moon,
we'll go to the planets
and eventually man
will leave the solar system.
And I believe that.
♪♪
BLOOM:
NASA called a press conference
to introduce the Apollo 11 crew,
and I went to that.
They were introduced,
the three guys.
PAUL HANEY:
Ladies and gentlemen,
it's my considerable pleasure
to introduce to you
our Apollo 11 crew.
BLOOM:
Neil and Buzz and Mike Collins
This was the crew that,
if all went well,
Apollo 11, with Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin,
was going to be the crew
that landed,
and Neil was the commander.
REPORTER:
Which one of you gentlemen
will be the first man
to step onto the lunar surface,
and what do you think
your reaction will be?
The current plan involves
one man on the lunar surface
for approximately
three-quarters of an hour
prior to
the second man's emergence.
Now, which person is which
has not been decided
at this point.
BUZZ ALDRIN:
Neil is going to be
the commander, but there was
two schools of thought as to
what we should do after landing.
The first man would
exit the space craft,
most probably taking down
with him
what we call
a lunar equipment conveyor.
This is a pulley-type system
which enables us to transfer
various pieces of equipment.
And the first priority
on the surface
is to take photographs
from the LM itself
at the landing site.
And the second priority
is a contingency sample
(voiceover):
Obviously Neil and I
might have differences.
He said that he
understood the significance
and he wasn't going to rule
himself out of being first
priority is an E.V.A.
evaluation
ALDRIN:
And so there was a standoff.
(archival):
So it's at this point
that the second person
would exit the spacecraft
BLOOM:
Buzz, his father
was a retired general,
and he went on a press campaign,
came to my office in New York,
to campaign for Buzz to be the
first man on the moon, not Neil.
The controversy was
inspired by Buzz's father.
HANEY:
Hey, Buzz,
as I recall,
isn't your middle name "Moon"?
My mother's middle name
was Moon.
Your mother's family name?
That was my grandfather's name.
ALDRIN (voiceover):
By coincidence or good fortune,
my mother was named Marion Moon.
That was her maiden name.
So she was Marion Moon Aldrin.
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 it got shortened to Buzz.
(crowd cheering)
We had a taste of the publicity
from Gemini 12.
ANNOUNCER:
This celebration in Montclair
is for hometown boy
Lieutenant Colonel
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin,
the record-setting space walker,
who along with
ALDRIN:
She just looked like she was
uncomfortable about being
in the press.
Before we were announced
as the crew to Apollo 11,
my mother died.
Committed suicide.
I felt that she didn't want
to look forward
to that sort of thing again.
She didn't want
to be a part of it.
REPORTER:
I wondered if each of the three
could tell us very briefly
how your families have reacted
to the fact that you're
taking this historic mission?
ARMSTRONG:
Well, who wants to
take a crack at it?
ALDRIN:
Well, I think
in my particular case,
my family has had five years now
to become accustomed
to this eventuality,
and over six months
to face it quite closely.
♪♪
PETER HACKES:
Colonel Collins, you'll be
the only one of the three
making this first moon flight
who will not have an opportunity
to walk on the moon's surface.
How do you feel about that?
MICHAEL COLLINS:
Well, I think that the way
we've put Apollo together,
it's a three-man job.
All three men are required
to do the total mission,
and of course
I'll be the only one
on board the command
and service module.
(voiceover):
I honestly felt
really privileged to be
on Apollo 11, to have
one of those three seats.
Did I have
the best of the three?
No.
But was I pleased with
the one I had?
Yes!
I do have one complaint,
however.
I'd like to point out
to those of you,
particularly
in the television business,
that I have no TV set on board,
and therefore I'm going
to be one of the few Americans
who's not going to
be able to see the E.V.A
(audience laughs)
so I'd like you to
save the tapes for me please,
I'd like to look at them
after the flight.
(laughter)
ALEXANDER:
They were three distinct
personalities.
Armstrong was
the gold standard
for the calm, committed,
professional pilot that he was.
BILL ANDERS:
I probably knew Neil
better than most people,
because we were
in Gemini together as a crew.
Then he and I became the two
who were selected
to fly the lunar module
training vehicle.
It really was
an exceptional simulation
of the lunar module
in one-sixth lunar gravity.
The day of the accident,
I went out in the morning.
There was a bit of a wind.
That afternoon, Neil went over
to fly this thing.
♪♪
Unbeknownst to us on that day,
the sensor for the hydrogen
peroxide fuel had failed.
(machinery hissing)
So when the red light came on
and they said,
"Okay, Neil, you've got
30 seconds to go,
head on down," he didn't know,
nor did the ground know,
that he really only had
about 15 seconds of fuel.
(explosion roaring)
(vehicle crashes, explodes)
(flames crackling)
♪♪
Neil was
the consummate test pilot.
He packed up,
went to his office.
You know?
He said,
"Oh yeah, I ejected."
That's Neil Armstrong for you.
(machinery hissing)
Six months later,
another test pilot crashed.
(vehicle crashes,
explosion roars)
I never flew it after that.
It's easy to see
that the lunar landings
might have well
had crashes on the moon.
♪♪
KHRUSHCHEV:
The Soviets had another
secret lunar project,
an automatic lunar system
called Luna 15.
We wanted to land it on the moon
the same way as Apollo.
It was possible that
this will just drill the moon,
extract some soil,
and then fly back to the earth
before the Americans,
because it was more efficient.
And we have scheduled
this launch
more or less at the same time,
on the summer 1969.
(rocket firing)
(policeman blowing whistle)
FRANK REYNOLDS:
Moscow's morning newspapers
today ignored
the impending Apollo 11 flight
to the moon.
The Russians are not saying
very much about Luna 15 either.
That's their own
unmanned spaceship
that is expected
to reach the moon
either today or tomorrow.
JULES BERGMAN:
I don't think anything
in history has ever
happened like this, Frank,
with any group so large.
We think there must be
at least a million people.
And to us,
it's a terribly moving scene.
REPORTER:
There are a million people
who made their way
down to the Cape
to see the rocket go off.
One million people
in the immediate environment
of Cape Kennedy
to watch it go off
from that launch complex 39A.
(distant cheering)
MAN (on loudspeaker):
May I have your attention?
I'd like to take this
opportunity to discuss
the Apollo 11 profile, which
will begin tomorrow morning.
They will climb
through an airlock
into the lunar module.
The third astronaut
These astronauts being
Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins
Collins will remain on board
the Command and Service Module
serving as a communication link
between the surface of the earth
and the surface of the moon.
(indistinct talking)
(protesters singing hymns)
(singing continues)
LAUNIUS:
At the time of
the Apollo 11 launch,
Ralph Abernathy
led a group of protesters
to the Kennedy Space Center
to protest the priorities
of the federal government.
Ladies and gentlemen
of the press,
on the eve of
one of man's noblest ventures,
I am profoundly moved by
our nation's scientific
achievements in space,
and by the heroism
of the three men
who are embarking for the moon.
I have not come to Cape Kennedy
merely to experience the thrill
of this historic launching.
I'm here to demonstrate
in a symbolic way
the tragic and inexcusable gulf
between America's
technological abilities
and our social injustice.
We shall overcome ♪
LAUNIUS:
Tom Paine went out
to Ralph Abernathy's group
and met with them.
He's the new head of NASA,
and they talked.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I'm here because
you invited me to be here
and because I want to be here.
If it were possible
for us tomorrow morning
to not push the button
and to solve the problems
for which you are concerned,
believe me,
we would not push the button,
but the problem is that
LAUNIUS:
He said, you know,
this is something that
we as a nation have decided
that we need to do,
and we think that these
results are going
to be positive for everybody.
We would like to see you hitch
your wagons to our rockets,
and to tell the American people
that the NASA program
is an indication
of what this country can do
LAUNIUS:
And then he invited
a select group of the people
who were in the protest
to attend the launch,
among them Ralph Abernathy.
To encourage
this country to tackle
many of its other problems.
(applause)
ABERNATHY:
As our brave, courageous
heroes make their way
to the moon tomorrow,
may they never
forget their suffering brothers
and sisters
down here on the earth.
May they think about us tomorrow
and pray for us
as we will be praying for them.
♪♪
♪♪
ALEXANDER:
The urge to explore
was so deeply ingrained
in the human psyche.
That goes back to our
earliest days as Homo sapiens,
this curiosity.
What was this large,
shiny white globe?
What was it?
Was it God?
We attributed so many
explanations to the moon.
And now, at last, we had
the opportunity to go and see
for ourselves
To satisfy that curiosity.
It was something that
you couldn't just turn off.
Tomorrow,
we the crew of Apollo 11 are
privileged to represent
the United States
in our first attempt to take man
to another heavenly body.
We feel very honored
that we can participate
in this voyage,
represent our nation.
We think the country
has provided us
with the finest equipment,
the finest training,
the finest preparation
that anyone can receive.
We look forward to going.
We thank all of you
for your help and your prayers.
♪♪
REYNOLDS:
Good morning,
ladies and gentlemen,
I'm Frank Reynolds
at ABC space headquarters
in New York.
It is July 16, 1969,
and we are all about to witness
the fulfillment of that promise
that President Kennedy
made at Rice University Stadium
in Texas on September 12, 1962.
♪♪
(indistinct talking)
REPORTER:
They take with them
this morning,
the good wishes
and the admiration
of a world of people.
As man,
a species born and who's lived
all his life on earth,
moves with this journey
out into the solar system,
and so presumably begins
with this journey,
his dispersal in other places
out in the universe.
KING:
Astronauts Neil Armstrong,
Buzz Aldrin,
and then finally Mike Collins,
plus their suit technicians
and director of flight crew
operations Deke Slayton
now boarding the transfer van.
The transfer van now departing
from the manned spacecraft
operations building
at the Kennedy Space Center on
the start of its eight-mile trip
to Launch Pad A
here at Complex 39.
Right now our count
at three hours,
three minutes, and counting,
aiming toward
the planned liftoff time
of 9:32 a.m.
Eastern Daylight Time.
This is launch control.
♪♪
(seagull squawking)
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.
And it was just the most
beautiful thing you ever saw.
♪♪
BORMAN:
The riskiest part
of most missions at that time,
to my mind, were the launch.
You're sitting
on a small atom bomb.
Of course, the landing
had never been done before;
that's very risky.
(gate rattling)
This was the culmination
of a lot of lives that were lost
and a lot of lives that
were tragically broken.
So I was quite concerned
about the mission.
♪♪
LOGSDON:
It was clear, first of all,
to the NASA people,
that success was not guaranteed
and that there was a chance
of a catastrophic occurrence
with the worst possible
Astronauts being
stranded on the moon alive,
but unable to get back.
Nixon had brought
Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman
into the White House
to advise he and his associates.
And it was Borman that said,
"Prepare for what
you say to the widows."
REPORTER:
And so, up there this morning
let's all think
of those three men
Three superb pilots.
Armstrong, the commander;
Aldrin, the man
who will share the journey,
the unknown part of
this lunar journey to the moon;
and Collins, the man
who's going to fly them round.
And here they are at breakfast
a couple of hours ago,
and the traditional steak and
eggs, and how they can eat it
with this journey before them,
Lord alone knows.
REPORTER:
At this moment,
millions of Frenchmen are glued
to their television sets
to watch
the launching of Apollo 11.
Britain is not a participant
in the space race,
but she is an avid spectator.
They're going to
land on the moon.
And then what are they
going to do?
They're going to walk around.
And then what are they
going to do?
Go back up.
Well in my opinion, it's a very,
very marvelous achievement.
I only hope it's successful.
I think it's disgusting.
It's a pity they haven't got
something else to do.
(crowd chattering indistinctly)
WILLIAM LAWRENCE:
It has to be over 100 degrees
here in the broiling Florida sun
where the VIPs
The very important persons-
and indeed the VVIPs the very,
very important persons
Are gathered to watch
this launch just down range.
Among them here are former
President Johnson,
who helped to shape
the space program
as Senate majority leader,
the new vice president,
Mr. Agnew,
who has already
stirred a controversy
by suggesting that this
administration commit itself
to sending a man to Mars
by the end of the century.
JACK KING:
We're now coming up on
Ten minutes away
from our Apollo liftoff.
Mark, T minus ten minutes
and counting,
we're aiming for
our planned liftoff of
(voiceover):
I was doing the countdown
commentary
from the back row
of the launch control center.
Launch control center
is about three and half miles
from the launch pads,
which is considered to be
the safe distance as far
as sound and blast is concerned.
My God, we had 3,000 press
people in there for Apollo 11.
They did all kinds of tests,
acoustics tests.
They equated the sound
to sitting in the first row
of a hard rock heavy metal band.
It was just
Wow.
(archival):
that Eagle was sold.
The swing arm now coming back
to its fully retracted position
as our countdown continues.
T minus four minutes,
50 seconds and counting.
Skip Schulman
informing the astronauts
that the swing arm's
now coming back
KAMECKE:
I think there were 500 people
in that launch control center.
Just rows and rows
of consoles and technicians
sitting looking at
their own particular gauge
that they were monitoring.
I was the only civilian
in there,
because that's
where I was supervising
the filming of the launch.
That's the first time
I understood
what it meant to smell fear.
I've heard that expression
ever since I was a kid,
and it was distinctive smell.
It wasn't body odor,
it was the smell of fear.
Every single
one of those 500 people
was afraid that it would be
their little gauge,
their little valve
that would go wrong.
KING:
All indications
are coming into
the control center at this time
indicate we are go,
one minute, 25 seconds
in the counting
We're getting close,
we're getting close.
KING:
All the second stage tanks
now pressurized,
35 seconds and counting,
we are still go with Apollo 11.
30 seconds and counting.
Astronauts report it feels good.
T minus 25 seconds.
20 seconds and counting.
T minus 15 seconds,
guidance is internal.
12, 11,
ten, nine,
ignition sequence starts,
six, five, four,
three, two, one, zero,
all engine running.
Liftoff, we have a liftoff,
32 minutes past the hour.
Liftoff on Apollo 11.
(engine roaring)
WALTER CRONKITE:
She's passing the tower,
she's lifting up.
KING:
Tower clear.
CRONKITE:
We have tower clear,
we have tower clear.
We're beginning to feel
the first thunderous roar.
(rocket roaring)
Oh boy, it looks good.
♪♪
MAN:
Building's shaking.
MAN:
What a moment,
man on the way to the moon.
(equipment beeping)
(Armstrong communicating
indistinctly)
(rocket roaring)
(indistinct radio communication)
ALEXANDER:
You could feel the vibrations
in the ground.
The sound was deafening,
making your shirt
and your slacks flap.
(announcer talking indistinctly)
It was a big-dog experience,
flat out,
it was
it just took your breath away.
♪♪
BERGMAN:
Burning hot, straight,
and true all the way
toward a moon
2,180 miles distant.
A moment many Americans,
many people
never believed could happen
or would happen.
ANNOUNCER:
We're through the region of
maximum dynamic pressure now.
(rocket roaring)
COLLINS:
No Saturn 5 rocket ever blew up.
Saturn 1, the 1B,
and the Saturn 5,
I thought surely
one of those suckers
was going to blow up.
(applause)
It's a real tribute
to the engineering
of von Braun's people,
primarily.
(applause continues)
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.
And it was done by a bunch
of government guys, you know.
There's really nothing
to say about it
What can you say
about a sight like that?
(boosters firing)
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
(CBS News theme song playing)
MAN:
This is CBS News color coverage
of "Man on the Moon:
The Epic Journey of Apollo 11."
JOEL BANOW:
As a director, I had to
make this very, very exciting,
and make it more like a movie.
We alone spent
almost a million dollars
on the production,
which for a news event
in those days, in '69,
was astronomical.
Remembering all the great
science fiction B-films
I saw as a boy,
I got a sense of things that
I would like to try and do,
like creating
a full-sized mock-up
on a lunar landscape
and using models
to explain things.
The time is next Sunday,
the place is the lunar surface.
BANOW:
We would say
"CBS News simulation,"
"CBS News animation," telling
the audience this is not
from the moon at this moment
in time or in space.
Doug Trumbull, the great special
effects creator for 2001,
I called him and hired him
to work for me.
(beeping)
I needed Doug to create
a system for putting
alpha-numeric graphics
on the screen.
We named it HAL,
in honor of HAL from 2001.
HAL has characteristics
unlike most of
the sophisticated machines
you've ever seen, so
BANOW:
We had Walter talk to HAL.
CRONKITE:
Welcome to CBS, HAL.
Are your memory banks
keyed up for today's events?
(computer beeping)
BANOW:
We didn't have a voice,
we didn't go that far.
CRONKITE:
Might show us, for instance,
how Columbia,
the Command Module,
acquires tracking stations
BANOW:
We stayed on I mean,
we were on the air
for 36 straight hours.
We knew that the whole world
was seeing this.
HOUSTON:
11, Houston,
that's a beautiful picture
now we've got.
We're looking
at a 12-second delay,
to us you're just bringing it
down by the optics now.
(beeping)
CRONKITE:
So, things are
going well, they went
into earth orbit
exactly as planned.
They have gone into their
trans-lunar trajectory,
their course to the moon,
exactly as planned.
They have docked
with the lunar module
still in the third stage
of their Saturn rocket.
They will be ejecting that,
and then, with the lunar module
attached to their nose,
they'll be on the way
to the moon.
ARMSTRONG:
We're about to open
the hatch now.
MAN:
Right.
(beeping)
ALDRIN:
We'd been training for
six months on doing something
and getting closer and closer,
and now it's
approaching the time and
you've finished your training.
(archival):
The vehicle is surprisingly free
of any debris moving around,
it's very clean.
CHARLIE DUKE:
11, Houston, it's pretty hard
to describe this view,
it's really, really great.
(beeping)
ALDRIN:
Now you know how we feel.
DUKE:
Hey, that's a great shot
right there.
We see you in there.
Guess that's Neil and Mike.
Better be, anyway.
♪♪
RADIO HOST:
But how is the Apollo spaceship
doing?
Latest reports from Houston
say the craft is in its
tenth orbit of the moon,
while the Soviet spacecraft
Luna 15 is also still in orbit,
but in an elongated path.
RADIO HOST:
Bob, what's the scene
at Houston now?
REPORTER:
Well, it's a bit early
in the morning,
but they're beginning to gather.
I think probably you could
sum up the situation here,
the feeling in
most people's mind is that
it's a tremendous sense
of history,
an awareness that this is
the most important thing
historically that's happened
for a long time, possibly
the greatest physical event
that has ever taken place.
REPORTER:
What's the speculation about
the first words Neil Armstrong
will utter
as he steps off the ship?
REPORTER:
Well, everyone's noticed that
they're a pretty taciturn group,
the crew of Apollo 11,
and no one really knows,
and he's been very careful
not to say anything.
He's avoided it.
But there's one curious
little rumor going around.
He comes from a place in Ohio
called Wapakoneta.
Wapakoneta is known for
a cheese factory,
a small cheese factory,
run and owned by a man
called Freddie Fisher.
And for months now, Armstrong
has been playing a little game
with Freddie Fisher,
because that company's
been trying to capitalize
on the publicity
by referring to the moon as
being made of their cheese.
So it's possible that he may
make some reference to cheese
and it may well be
Freddie Fisher's cheese
that he talks about.
RADIO HOST:
You really think
he might be that corny?
REPORTER:
Well, yes.
DUKE:
11, you've got
a pretty big audience.
It's live in the U.S.,
it's going live to Japan,
Western Europe,
and much of South America.
Everybody reports
very good color.
Appreciate the great show.
(beeping)
Looks like it's
going to be impossible
to get away from the fact that
you guys are dominating
all the news back here in Earth.
Even Pravda in Russia
is headlining the mission
and calls Neil
the czar of the ship.
ALDRIN:
Neil wasn't particularly
outgoing.
He was hard to get to know.
I'm not much of a cocktail
discussion person either.
Yeah, hello there sports fans,
you got a little bit of me,
but Neil is in the center couch
and Buzz is doing
the camera work this time.
DUKE:
Roger, it's a little dark
there
ALDRIN:
Mike was the one that probably
had the better sense of humor
of seeing the lighter side
of life.
I would have put on
a coat and tie
if I'd known about this
ahead of time.
We are very comfortable up here
though, we do have a happy home.
There's plenty of room
for the three of us,
and I think
ALDRIN:
Mike asked him, at one time when
we were in the command module
approaching the moon,
he said, "Well, Neil,
have you thought about
what you're going to say?"
Because of course the newspapers
were posing the question
What will the first man say when
he puts his foot on the ground?
Mike said, "Did you think about
what you're going to say?"
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.
(radio static crackling)
Columbia, Houston.
We'll have L.O.S.
at one-zero-one-two-eight,
AOS for you
One-zero-two-one-five, over.
REYNOLDS:
Houston has just told Apollo 11
"We'll see you
on the other side."
They told them that
a few minutes ago.
They are not,
as everybody knows by now,
a very talkative crew.
They said, "We'll see you
on the other side,
and the response
from Apollo 11 was, "Okay."
♪♪
CRONKITE:
We're approaching one of the
critical moments of this flight.
At 1:46 p.m. Eastern Daylight
Time, the command module
and the lunar module
will begin undocking,
the lunar module cutting itself
free from the command module,
beginning the maneuvers
which in two hours
and 32 minutes from now
should place it
on the surface of the moon.
♪♪
COLLINS:
Hear you loud and clear Houston.
HOUSTON:
Roger, same now.
Could you repeat
your burn status report?
We copied the residuals and
burn time and that was about it.
Send the whole thing again,
please.
COLLINS:
It was right perfect.
Altitude zero, burn time 557
MAN:
Zero, one, eight-eight, niner.
CRONKITE:
As they're circling
the moon now,
at this altitude,
the Luna 15 is in an orbit
similar to the one that
the lunar module will assume
after that descent orbit
insertion burn.
MAN:
Showed 60.9 by 169.9.
CRONKITE:
It does increase
the speculation
as to what
the Soviet unmanned spacecraft
is doing up there.
MAN:
Okay, Charlie,
we're in the lab.
GENE KRANZ:
Okay, it's a go there, CapCom,
on the hot and fire,
okay all flight controllers,
going around the horn,
go no go for undocking.
Okay, retro?
MAN: Go.
KRANZ: Fido? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: Guidance? MEN: Go.
KRANZ: Control? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: Telcom? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: GNC? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: E-Com? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: Surgeon? MAN: Go.
KRANZ:
CapCom, we're go for undocking.
♪♪
KAMECKE:
When it was time to descend
from lunar orbit
and land on the moon,
I was there watching.
The descent to the lunar surface
happened pretty quickly.
It was tense.
DUKE:
Hello Eagle, Houston,
we're standing by, over.
(beeping)
♪♪
Eagle, Houston
Houston, we see you
on the steerable, over.
ARMSTRONG:
Roger, Eagle is undocked.
DUKE:
Roger, how does it look?
ARMSTRONG:
The Eagle has wings.
DUKE:
Rog.
♪♪
Eagle, Houston,
we recommend you yaw ten right.
It will help us on
the high-gain signal strength.
Over.
(beeping)
♪♪
KRANZ:
Okay, all flight controllers,
go no go for powered descent.
Retro? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: Fido? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: Guidance? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: Control? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: TelCom? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: GNC? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: E-Com? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: Surgeon? MAN: Go.
KRANZ:
CapCom, we're go
for powered descent.
(stopwatch ticking)
BERGMAN:
Gene Kranz is getting a go
no go for descent.
BUCKBEE:
I did not think we'd land
Apollo 11.
I don't think anybody
thought we would actually
land the first time.
We figured something
would happen,
we'd get a wave off, you know,
something
It just wouldn't go right.
MAN:
Moments now.
Roger.
CRONKITE:
They are face down,
windows down.
You're go to continue
powered descent,
you're a go
to continue powered descent.
MAN:
Okay everybody, hang tight.
Look for landing radar.
CRONKITE:
Ten minutes to the touch down.
(indistinct radio chatter)
CRONKITE:
Oh boy.
Ten minutes to
a landing on the moon.
KAMECKE:
Bear in mind that for everyone
all over the world
who was watching this
during the descent to the moon,
it was an audio experience.
The camera
that shows the descent
right to the surface
is a film camera,
so as it was happening,
it's not readily viewable.
CRONKITE:
We're seeing here
our CBS simulation
of what should be taking place
at this moment,
according to the flight plan.
ARMSTRONG:
Our position is just down range.
It appears to be a little long.
DUKE:
Roger, copy.
BERGMAN:
That was Armstrong saying
they're a little long,
down range on position.
They'll have to correctly
slightly.
They should be
through 45,000 feet
BLOOM:
I kept thinking,
as the lunar module went down
from the command module
in lunar orbit,
and got closer and closer
and closer,
I kept thinking
they were going to abort.
I mean, they're not going
to make it on the first try.
Inconceivable in my eyes.
MAN:
Houston, you're looking
at our Delta H.
MAN:
That's affirmative.
MAN: Program alarm.
(alarm beeping)
DUKE:
Looking good to us, over.
ARMSTRONG:
It's a 1202.
ALDRIN:
BUCKBEE:
Of course the computer was,
you know, overloading.
ARMSTRONG:
Houston, give us a reading
on the 1202 program alarm.
KAMECKE:
They had a computer
on the space craft
that would make your iPhone
look like
the most powerful thing
in the world.
It was, it was primitive.
MAN:
We're still go,
altitude 27,000 feet
ALDRIN:
Same alarm,
and it appears to come up
when have a 1668 up.
DUKE:
Roger, copy.
MAN: Okay we'll monitor
CRONKITE:
What's this alarm, Wally?
WALTER SCHIRRA:
It's a go case
that just apparently some
MAN:
We'll monitor your delta
SCHIRRA:
function that's coming up
on the computers.
MAN:
Delta H looks good now.
DUKE:
Roger, Delta H is
looking good to us.
KRANZ:
Okay, all flight controllers
hang tight.
ALEXANDER:
There were all these problems.
MAN:
Descent two, fuel crit.
DUKE:
Descent two,
fuel critical.
He didn't want to say critical.
Eagle, Houston,
it's descent two.
Fuel to monitor. Over.
ALEXANDER:
They were running low
on propellant
and they had
overshot the landing site.
CRONKITE:
Oh boy.
MAN:
MAN:
Altitude 13,000-five.
CRONKITE:
They're just
a little under five miles
from the landing site.
And that high gate
MAN:
We're now in the approach phase,
everything looking good.
REPORTER:
They have 70 seconds in which
to redesignate the landing site,
to take a good look at it now
if they want to change it.
MAN:
Says we're go.
Altitude 9,200 feet.
DUKE:
8:30 you're looking great.
REPORTER:
In that high gate now,
slowing down below 300 miles
an hour
MAN:
129 feet per second
REPORTER:
Just a little more than
100 miles per hour descent rate.
They're getting a look now such
as no man has ever had
at the surface of the moon.
They should be getting
a good look at it now.
They should decide very soon
if they like it.
DUKE:
Eagle, you're looking great,
coming up nine minutes.
(beeping)
MISSION CONTROL:
We're now in the approach phase.
Everything looking good.
KRANZ:
Okay, all flight controllers,
go no go for landing.
Retro? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: Fido? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: Guidance? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: Control? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: TelCom? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: GNC? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: E-Com? MAN: Go.
KRANZ: Surgeon? MAN: Go.
CapCom, we're go for landing.
DUKE:
Eagle, Houston,
you're a go for landing, over.
(indistinct chatter on TV)
ALDRIN:
Roger, understand.
Go for landing, 3,000 feet.
Program alarm.
ARMSTRONG: 1201.
DUKE: Roger, 1201 alarm.
(alarm beeping)
MAN:
Good heavens.
ALEXANDER:
Gene Kranz, who was
the mission director,
he had to make a decision
to let the landing
proceed or whether to abort it.
KRANZ:
Roger, 1201 alarm.
MAN:
Same type. We're go,
flight.
KRANZ:
Okay, we're go.
DUKE:
We're go. Same type.
We're go.
MAN:
Flight fighter right on,
real good.
MAN:
2,000 feet, 2,000 feet,
into the AGS, 47 degrees.
Roger.
How's our margin looking, Bob?
BOB:
It looks okay, we're
about four and a half.
KRANZ:
Okay, rog.
ALEXANDER:
He stayed cool and calm
and he kept everybody focused.
No panic.
He had confidence in Armstrong,
that Armstrong would manage
the fuel consumption
and the altitude.
But it was touch and go.
CRONKITE:
They got a momentary alarm
on their system there,
but decided that
MAN:
Eagle looking great, you're go.
CRONKITE:
it was nothing.
MAN:
now, to our right, now
The other thing that happened
The landing site
that he was supposed to land
was a big crater,
and Neil
He saw this giant crater
about 60 feet deep
and 100 yards wide,
and he put that thing
in a hover position
with 30 seconds of fuel
left in the tank.
CRONKITE:
They've got a good look
at their site now,
this is the point in time
they're going to hover,
they've got to make a decision.
MAN: down 3.5.
MAN:
I think we'd better
be quiet now.
MAN:
Rog.
Okay, the only callouts
from now on will be fuel.
ALEXANDER:
All we knew was that Armstrong
was manually steering
the lunar module looking
for a safe place to land
and the fuel kept running lower,
and lower, and lower.
ALDRIN:
Okay, 75 feet.
Guys, looking good,
down a half forward.
MAN: Low level.
MAN: Low level.
DUKE: 60 seconds.
ALDRIN: Lights on.
Down two and half.
Forward, forward.
40 feet down, two and a half,
picking up some dust.
Big shadow.
More forward, more forward,
drifting to the right a little.
Down a half.
DUKE: 30.30 seconds.
ALDRIN:
Contact light.
Okay, engines stopped.
ACA out of detent.
MAN:
Copy.
ALDRIN:
Mode control, both auto.
Descent engine command override
off.
Engine arm off.
MAN:
We've had shut down.
ALDRIN:
413 is in.
BLOOM:
Holy shit.
They made it.
On the first try.
DUKE:
We copy you down, Eagle.
(cheering)
ARMSTRONG:
Tranquility Base here,
the Eagle has landed.
DUKE:
Roger, Tranquility,
we copy you on the ground.
You got a bunch of guys
about to turn blue,
we're breathing again.
Thanks a lot.
CRONKITE:
Man on the moon.
REPORTER:
"Houston, Tranquility Base"
ARMSTRONG:
We're looking good here.
REPORTER:
"the Eagle has landed."
DUKE:
Eagle has landed,
Tranquility Base.
Eagle has landed
Phew. Oh, boy.
KRANZ:
Okay, keep the chatter down
in this room.
ALDRIN:
It looks like we're venting
the oxidizer now.
HOUSTON:
Roger, Eagle, and you
are stay for T1.
ARMSTRONG:
Houston, the auto targeting was
taking us right into
a football field-sized crater
BUCKBEE:
Neil landed with
17 seconds of fuel left.
DUKE:
Rog, Tranquility, be advised,
there are lots of smiling faces
in this room
and all over the world.
Over.
(cheers and applause)
(cheering continues)
MAN:
That's what the cheers
and applause are for.
They're on the moon right now.
(cheers and applause)
And it's a standing ovation.
Very inspiring.
("God Bless America" playing)
BLOOM:
You ripped the copy
out of a typewriter.
(chuckling):
You've got your
Western Union guy,
grab the copy,
run over, teletype to New York.
And there was a guy in New York
who was assigned to
ripping my copy
off the teletype machine,
rushing it over
to the national desk,
and he told me that was the most
exciting day of his life.
It was a good day,
I mean it was a giddy day,
I think, for a lot of us.
CRONKITE:
Another morning newspaper
BLOOM:
Nothing quite matched that day.
Yes, Jim, I don't want
to interrupt you,
but we have just
had a bulletin from UPI,
United Press International,
from Jodrell Bank in England.
The Jodrell Bank
tracking station said today
indications were
Russia's Luna 15 satellite
has landed on the moon.
They say now that Luna 15
has landed on the moon
in the Sea of Crises,
about 500 miles away
from the landing site
of Apollo 11.
If we look at
the moon's surface,
Luna 15 came over
Eagle's landing area.
This is roughly site two here,
and somewhere in this area
is where Jodrell Bank
claims Luna 15 landed.
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."
There may be savings in time
with an unmanned craft
with no docking procedure.
(indistinct chatter)
REYNOLDS:
So, recapping:
all is well at Tranquility Base
aboard Eagle,
the moon walk due to begin
about 20 minutes from now.
JAMES BURKE:
The moonwalk now beginning
just about an hour later
than originally planned.
That screen, blank at the moment
there in Mission Control
as we look at it direct
via satellite from Houston.
ARMSTRONG:
Houston, this Tranquility,
we're standing by for a go
for cabin depress. Over.
DUKE:
Tranquility Base,
this is Houston, you are go
for cabin depressurization,
go for cabin depressurization.
ARMSTRONG:
Roger, thank you.
BURKE:
Armstrong beginning that
very cumbersome
and difficult act
of getting down
on his stomach
ARMSTRONG:
How am I doing?
MAN:
You're doing fine.
BURKE:
to go out feet first.
They're obviously going
extra careful.
At most
Unless he really
takes his time
It should be no more
than a minute and a half
to two minutes from now.
ARMSTRONG:
Okay Houston, I'm on the porch.
BURKE:
Armstrong is out
on the porch, outside.
MAN: Roger, Neil.
ALDRIN: Okay.
MAN:
Hand rails there.
Then from the front porch down
to the first rung of the ladder.
BURKE:
Any minute now he should
release the controls
that turns on the television.
Any minute now
we should see pictures.
(indistinct radio communication)
MAN: Houston we copy, and
we're standing by for your TV.
MAN:
Can we verify
TV circuit breaker in?
ALDRIN:
Roger, TV circuit breaker's in.
♪♪
And read you five square.
MAN:
Roger.
(static crackles)
MAN:
And we're getting
a picture on the TV.
(cheers and applause)
There's a great deal
of contrast in it
and currently it's
upside down on our monitor,
but we can make out
a fair amount of detail.
Man, that's
MAN:
Okay, can you
verify the position,
the opening eye on the camera?
MAN:
Stand by.
CRONKITE:
There he is, there's a foot
coming down the steps.
DUKE:
Okay, Neil, we can see you
coming down the ladder now.
BURKE:
There is Armstrong.
ARMSTRONG:
Okay, I just checked
getting back up
to that first step, it's
the ladder
didn't collapse too far,
but it's adequate
to get back up.
MAN:
Roger, we copy.
ARMSTRONG:
It's a pretty good little jump.
I'm at the foot of the ladder,
the LM foot pads
are only depressed
in the surface
about one or two inches,
although the surface appears
to be very fine grain
as you get close to it,
it's almost like a powder.
Okay, I'm going to
step off the LM now.
That's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
(cheers and applause)
SCHIRRA:
That was Neil's quote,
I didn't understand.
CRONKITE:
One small step for man,
but I didn't get
the second phrase.
If some one of
our monitors here,
at space headquarters,
was able to hear that,
we'd like to know what it was.
ARMSTRONG:
Surface is fine and powdery.
I can pick it up loosely
with my toe.
It does adhere
in fine layers
like powdered charcoal
to the sole
and insides of my boot.
CRONKITE:
His quote was,
"That's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind."
ARMSTRONG:
But I can see
the footprints of my boots
and the treads
in the fine, sandy particles.
HOUSTON:
Neil, this is Houston,
we're copying.
(static buzzes)
KAMECKE:
There was a video camera
that was recording them
coming down the ladder,
and then there
was another portable camera
which they took and moved out
away from the lunar module.
And that was the only vision
that humans around the world
had of what was happening
on the moon.
HOUSTON:
Here you come into
our field of view.
(inaudible)
ARMSTRONG:
Oh, let me move that
over the edge for you.
KAMECKE:
There was a ghostly quality
about it because
you can see through people.
Well, that's a
very clever way they had of
limiting the amount of signal
that they had to broadcast.
You couldn't transmit
high-definition television
from the equipment
that they had on the moon.
It couldn't be done.
So you're going to
have to pare down
your expectations of the quality
of the image
that you're going to see.
ALDRIN:
Okay, ready for me to come out?
ARMSTRONG:
All set.
Okay, you saw what difficulties
I was having.
I'll try to watch your PLSS
from underneath here.
CRONKITE:
Aldrin about to emerge
apparently from the space craft.
ARMSTRONG:
Okay, your foot looks like
it's clear and okay.
Your toes are about
to come over the sill.
Okay, now drop your PLSS down.
There you go, you're clear.
ALDRIN:
Now I want to back up
and partially close the hatch,
making sure not
to lock it on my way out.
ARMSTRONG:
(laughs)
Definitely a good thought!
ALDRIN:
It's a very simple matter
to hop down
from one step to the next.
ARMSTRONG:
You're on-you've got
three more steps
and then a long one.
ALDRIN:
Okay, I'm going to leave
that one foot up there
and both hands down to
about the fourth rung up.
ARMSTRONG:
There you go.
That's a good step.
Yep.
About a three-footer.
CRONKITE:
And now we have
two Americans on the moon.
(cheers and applause)
ALDRIN:
Beautiful view.
ARMSTRONG:
Isn't that something?
Magnificent sight out here.
ALDRIN:
Magnificent desolation.
♪♪
ALDRIN (voiceover):
There's no way that words
can really describe
the enormity
or the timelessness,
the magnificence.
It was so desolate.
But I could have thought
and thought beforehand
and I probably wouldn't
have come up with that.
("Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp
Minor" by Beethoven playing)
It's this, yet it's that.
("Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp
Minor" by Beethoven continues)
KAMECKE:
We had gotten ourselves
onto another world
and put our foot there.
It was not just
"we the Americans."
It was "we the humans."
"We the people of earth."
It was one of us.
(radio reports
in multiple languages)
(inaudible talk on radio)
ALDRIN:
Neil is now
unveiling the plaque.
ARMSTRONG:
For those who haven't
read the plaque,
we will read the plaque
that's on the front landing gear
of this LM.
There's two hemispheres,
one showing each of
the two hemispheres of Earth.
Underneath it says,
"Here men from the planet Earth
"first stepped foot
upon the moon.
"July 1969 A.D.
We came in peace
for all mankind."
It has
the crew members' signatures
and the signature of the
president of the United States.
COLLINS:
Before the flight,
we knew there was going to be
some kind of plaque.
And they were kicking
around what it should say.
NASA had to clear it with
the White House.
And they said,
"Well, I don't see anything
"in there about God.
And you know
the president's big on God."
LOGSDON:
The person in the White House
that was responsible
for signing off
on the design
of the plaque said,
we put in A.D
"1969 A. D."
As a sneaky way of noting
that we were
using a Christian calendar.
COLLINS:
Houston, Columbia
on the high gain, over.
MAN:
Columbia, this is Houston
reading you
loud and clear. Over.
I guess you're about
the only person around
that doesn't have
TV coverage of the moon.
COLLINS:
That's all right,
I don't mind a bit.
How is the quality of the TV?
HOUSTON:
Oh, it's beautiful, Mike,
it really is.
COLLINS:
Oh gee, that's great.
Is the lighting halfway decent?
HOUSTON:
Yes, indeed, they've got
the flag up now.
You can see the stars and
stripes on the lunar surface.
COLLINS:
Beautiful, just beautiful.
BLOOM:
The flag was an act of Congress.
Congress passed
a resolution requiring it.
A lot of people felt
there shouldn't be a flag.
They said, "Who are we to
put our American flag up?"
(chatter on radio)
KAMECKE:
Oh, so they planted a flag
on the moon.
But they do that
on mountaintops.
In fact, people
would consider it strange
if they didn't plant a flag.
ARMSTRONG:
Say again, Houston?
HOUSTON:
Roger, we'd like
to get both of you
in the field of view
of the camera
BORMAN:
President Nixon, he wanted NASA
to even play
"The Star-Spangled Banner."
At least we got that canned.
MAN:
I just talked to the
president
BORMAN (laughing):
People knew it was an American
on the moon,
you didn't have to play
the "Star-Spangled Banner"
to tell them that.
MAN:
Neil and Buzz, the president
of the United States
is in his office now
and would like to say
a few words to you, over.
BORMAN:
Let's face it, he had
nothing to do with Apollo 11,
and I told him that.
ARMSTRONG:
That would be an honor.
BORMAN:
I said you ought to be
very, very concise, short,
and humble about it,
or at least not grandstanding.
HOUSTON:
Go ahead, Mr. President,
this is Houston, out.
NIXON:
Hello, Neil and Buzz,
I'm talking to you by telephone
from the oval room at
the White House,
and this certainly has to be
the most historic telephone call
ever made.
I just can't tell you
how proud we all are
of what you've (audio cuts out).
For every American,
this has to be
the proudest day of our lives,
and for people
all over the world,
I am sure they too join
with Americans
in recognizing
what an immense feat this is.
Because of what you have done,
the heavens have become
a part of man's world,
and as you talk to us
from the Sea of Tranquility,
it inspires us
to redouble our efforts
to bring peace and tranquility
to earth.
For one priceless moment,
in the whole history of man,
all the people
on this earth are truly one.
One in their pride
in what you have done,
and one in our prayers
that you will
return safely to earth.
♪♪
(radio reports in multiple
languages)
LOGSDON:
For a brief period of time,
people just sort of paused
and watched
this thing take place.
And there was
a sort of momentary sense
of community
all around the world.
(reporting in
non-English language)
ALDRIN:
I believe I'm out of
your field of view,
is that right now Houston?
HOUSTON:
That's affirmative, Buzz.
ALDRIN:
Now, once the two of us
put the flag up
HOUSTON:
You're in our field of view now.
ALDRIN:
and I knew where the TV was,
and so I got in front of it
and demonstrated different ways
of moving around.
The TV was looking
at the scenery,
we happened to be
passing through.
(archival):
In about two or three
or maybe four easy paces
can bring you fairly smooth
(voiceover):
There was the being in the suit
and the lightness
of the gravity,
but you know you're on camera.
You're going to have cameras
on you all the time.
(cheering)
What can I do?
Well, I can hop like this.
(archival):
So-called kangaroo hop
does work,
but it seems that your forward
mobility is not quite as good.
(voiceover):
I got a big backpack
and you have to acknowledge
that you're carrying that
when you make a turn.
(archival):
You do have to be rather careful
to keep track of
where your center of mass is.
(voiceover):
It really wasn't what you'd call
a challenge other than to
look nonchalant
in front of people.
(archival):
this may be a function
of this suit,
as well as lack
of gravity forces.
(voiceover):
Early in our being outside,
I heard Neil
say something about it
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
And I thought,
"That's not beautiful."
CRONKITE:
The date's now indelible.
It's going to be remembered
as long as man survives.
July 20, 1969,
the day man reached
and walked on the moon.
HOUSTON:
We heard on the news today, 11,
that The New York Times
came out with a headline
The largest headline
they've ever used
in the history of the newspaper.
REYNOLDS:
Yes, well, landing and walking
on the moon, of course,
is only the halfway point
in Apollo 11's mission.
Now Armstrong and Aldrin
must safely return
to the command module
and begin the long
and very welcome journey home.
MISSION CONTROL:
Crew of Eagle going through
their pre-ignition checklist.
MAN:
Standing by for two minutes
BLOOM:
The only thing NASA had
on the mission
that did not have redundancy
was the ascent engine
on the lunar module.
They had one shot
to light that thing
and go back up into lunar orbit.
And if it didn't work
on the first try,
the likelihood of it
working on the second try
was pretty slim.
Or zero.
And they knew that.
We did at one point
have a "Marooned" headline
in type, with big typeface.
If the ascent engine
on the moon didn't light up,
they were marooned.
So that was the headline
we had, ready to go.
BERGMAN:
This engine burns seven minutes
and 18 seconds,
Frank, to get them into
9.9-mile orbit.
And it has to work.
ALDRIN:
Yep.
Nine, eight, seven, six, five,
fourth stage,
engine-armed ascent, proceed.
(boosters firing)
Beautiful.
36 feet per second up
(radio static crackles)
REYNOLDS:
That ascent engine that
has never been fired before
in similar circumstances
has fired.
ALDRIN:
Very quiet ride.
REYNOLDS:
Armstrong and Aldrin
are off the lunar surface
after a stay of 21 hours
and 36 minutes,
and all continues
to go exactly as planned.
MAN:
Per second, critical rise
(static crackles)
Here we go Houston, they
request manual start override.
♪♪
♪♪
ALEXANDER:
All the steps involved
in Apollo,
all that hard work,
all that detective work,
all that head scratching
and eureka moments
Getting out to the moon,
getting down on the moon,
getting up from the moon
and getting back
to the mothership
Sort of a winnowing of problems.
They all came together
pretty much perfectly.
♪♪
CRONKITE:
Big news this morning,
Jodrell Bank
has just come through
and said that
now they're tracking data,
as they analyze
it indicates that Luna 15
may have plunged
to the surface of the moon
at around 300 miles an hour
BERGMAN (overlapping):
said if Luna 15 hit the
surface at that speed,
nothing could be likely
to survive such a landing.
CHET HUNTLEY:
hit the moon surface at
a speed of 300 miles an hour,
indicating it may have
crash landed.
♪♪
♪♪
(loud thrumming)
(loud clang)
(distant shouting,
birds chirping)
KHRUSHCHEV:
I was not with my father
when the Apollo 11 landed.
I was on my vacation
with my friends.
And we were
You won't believe it
In Chernobyl.
It was this river, Pripyat,
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.
So we have this telescope
and look there.
(crickets chirping)
It was no broadcast
on the Soviet television.
It was just small several lines
somewhere in the middle
of the newspaper
that American reported
that they landed on the moon.
♪♪
But then, later,
I brought this film
to my father,
it was 16 millimeters.
Of course, Soviets
did not show anybody
except the professionals,
but we watch
this movie together.
He say he cannot understand
why Soviets failed
to send man to the moon.
We just sadly said,
"Yes, they did it."
The stars and stripes
flies proudly now
over the Sea of Tranquility.
A new chapter
in human history has opened.
The race for the moon is over.
Man's probe
into the universe has begun.
MISSION CONTROL:
Roger, the Hornet is
on the station,
just far enough
off the target point
to keep from getting hit.
REPORTER:
Yes, we see it. We see it.
There it is.
Apollo 11 coming right down
toward the primary
(helicopter blades whirring)
(indistinct chatter)
(helicopter blades whirring)
(applause)
(cheering)
KHRUSHCHEV:
I was proud
for the human beings.
You know, we compete
with each other,
but at the same time
we have respect.
(indistinct talking, laughing)
NORTHCUTT:
Oh, I think everybody felt
that they had a piece of it.
Everybody felt they
had a piece of it, and they did.
I thought at the time it was
the beginning of something.
I thought it was the beginning
of moving out to other planets.
(indistinct chatter)
REPORTER:
Of course, that question
still remains,
the question of contamination,
whether enough precautions
have been taken
to protect the earth
from anything
that they might bring back
in the way of
rudimentary forms life.
REPORTER:
The opinion seems to be
generally among the scientists
who are represented here,
at least,
that the possibility
of some sort of contamination
is very, very remote
and that adequate steps
have been taken to prevent it,
at least adequate
as far as anyone
can possibly figure out.
REPORTER:
The door opens and out come
America's Apollo 11 astronauts,
waving,
albeit their faces
completely covered
by these B.I.G. suits.
COLLINS:
On the one hand, you've got
rooms full of scientists
saying "We don't think
there are any germs up there,
"but should there be,
"we ain't gonna expose
the population of the earth
to these germs."
So they had
all these procedures.
But then, look at it this way.
Suppose there
were germs on the moon.
There are germs on the moon,
we come back, the command module
is full of lunar germs.
Command module lands
in the Pacific Ocean,
and what do they do?
They open the hatch,
you gotta open the hatch
All the damn germs come out!
(helicopter blades churning)
ALDRIN:
You have to laugh a little bit,
because when you
get in the life boat
out of the spacecraft,
you have this
Biological Isolation Garment,
the BIG garment.
They've got disinfectant
and they've got a rag
and they sponge you down.
When they get through,
they have a weight
and they tie it around the rag
and they throw it overboard
and it takes all those germs
down to the bottom of the ocean.
(chuckling):
Oh, I wonder if they're going
to survive down there.
COLLINS:
I mean it doesn't
make any sense.
It was a huge flaw
in the planning.
(fanfare playing)
REPORTER:
President Nixon
waving to the astronauts.
The curtains have been drawn
and there they are
in the rear window.
Have you been able to
follow some of the things
that have happened
when you were gone?
Did you know about
the all-star game?
ALL:
Yes, sir.
The capsule communicators
have been giving us
daily news reports
They keep you posted.
Yeah.
Were you American League
or National League?
I'm a National League man
I'm non-partisan, sir.
That's right,
there's the politician
in the group, right.
(chuckling)
COLLINS:
We had to be in isolation,
I believe,
21 days from the time
we left the moon.
It wasn't as if
some horrible injustice
had been done to us.
It was
It was fine.
I was glad to be back.
(cheers and applause)
CRONKITE:
Do you suppose Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin
have any concept
of what's in store for them?
The first men to have
set foot on the moon,
of meeting this dream
of two billion years
Their lives
can never be the same.
(cheers and applause)
(engine revving)
(cheering)
REPORTER:
You're now national heroes.
What are your initial feelings
about being heroes?
How do you believe
it will change your lives?
And do you think that
maybe you'll get another chance
to go to the moon, or you going
to be too busy being heroes?
(laughter)
COLLINS:
The trip around the world
was very, very interesting.
They put a whole big airplane
at our disposal, you know,
the backup Air Force One.
Had a whole crew,
the three of us
and our three wives,
some people from NASA
headquarters.
28 cities in 33 days,
or something like that.
(cheers and applause)
BUCKBEE:
These guys, they'd never
really been out,
exposed to anything like this.
A tantos amigos
(crowd cheering)
BUCKBEE:
That stuff just went
totally beyond
any of our belief
that would have happened.
And I think the astronauts
were just totally overcome.
REPORTER:
The presidential jet
has arrived at Heathrow,
bringing America's
man on the moon team to Britain.
(applause)
REPORTER:
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.
BUCKBEE:
These astronauts were famous.
It was unbelievable how much
people came out to see them.
(cheering)
I think Kennedy
would have loved that,
to have seen the effect
that his boys, you might say,
had around the world.
That was a wonderful chance
for America
to touch all
these other countries.
Once they saw what
the rest of the world
thought about NASA
and what they had accomplished,
then they realized,
"Hey, we made an impact."
(crowd clamoring)
ALDRIN:
We saw many, many signs
that said,
"We did it."
Not us "we,"
they, the whole world.
COLLINS:
They all had that
identical feeling of,
by golly, we mankind
Did this thing,
and we're all brothers together.
And it'd certainly be nice
if we could use
the space program to,
to further that feeling.
How to do it is a
more complicated question.
MAN:
Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the Apollo 11
press conference.
ALDRIN:
You know, the most frequently
asked question is
"What did it feel like?"
When you first
stepped on the moon,
did it strike you
as you were stepping
that you were stepping
on a piece of the earth,
or sort of what
your inner feelings were,
whether you felt you
were standing in a desert,
of if this was
really another world,
or how you felt at that point?
Well, there was no question in
our minds where we were.
We'd been orbiting
around the moon
for quite a while.
(laughter)
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.
Does it have a philosophical
dimension of any kind?
Mr. Aldrin?
ALDRIN:
They somehow want to know
what's in your inner thoughts.
If we were that kind of people,
we probably wouldn't have been
given the opportunity.
Poets, philosophers?
Well, you want people
who are technically equipped
to make decisions.
(man speaking Spanish)
I felt very small
and very lucky.
And as we looked up
on the surface
from the surface of the moon,
we could see above us,
up here the planet earth.
And it was very small,
but it was very beautiful.
And it looked like
a oasis in the heavens.
And we thought
it was very important
at that point
for us, and man everywhere,
to save that planet
as a beautiful oasis
that we together can enjoy
for all the future.
♪♪
Today, as astronauts speed again
to the threshold of the moon,
and as we prepare
for the final achievement
of this national goal,
we have the obligation
to look ahead
to the role of the space program
will play in the future.
LOGSDON:
There was a recognition
that decisions
on what to do after Apollo
were urgently needed.
The idea was that
just looking out
to the end of the century
in justifying NASA's missions
wasn't a long enough view.
And one of von Braun's
assignments
was organizing a view of NASA
over the next hundred years
or so,
not just the 30 years remaining
in the 20th century.
REPORTER:
Where do you think
we ought to go from here?
VON BRAUN:
I think the next ten years
will undoubtedly
be a little more versatile.
We will have
a number of activities
in several areas rather than
one big thrust in one direction.
BUCKBEE:
He was looking
at the big picture.
Von Braun
had a nuclear stage plan
for Saturn 5 to go to Mars,
and he met Kennedy
at Los Alamos.
They watched
a nuclear test firing
of an engine of
what was called a NERVA
A nuclear engine test vehicle.
With that nuclear stage
on the top
of the Saturn 5,
he was confident
that we could send a crew
out there.
REPORTER:
If you had to estimate,
when would you see
a man on Mars?
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.
But the technology
is there to do it,
and we could land a man on Mars
in a little over ten years
if we really wanted to do it.
BUCKBEE:
And von Braun
presented that project
to Nixon's vice president,
Agnew,
two weeks after Neil
walked on the Moon.
Nobody was listening,
nobody cared.
REPORTER:
This is a live special report
from ABC Radio News
The flight of Apollo 12.
I'm Mark Graham
with Merrill Mueller
BLOOM:
It was never going to
be the same again.
The quest was fulfilled.
And coverage
of the second mission,
you had to sell it a little bit
to your editors.
Doing something
for the first time
is so much better
than doing something
for the second time.
I mean, who remembers
the second team
that climbed Everest?
If you can do it once,
you can do it again.
REPORTER:
The Apollo program,
short of money
and no longer
as fashionably popular
as it once was, is ending.
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.
(gulls crying)
CRONKITE:
What is it in our makeup
that is possible for us
to get excited
about an Apollo 11,
man's first step on the moon,
and within two short years
of that time,
be as blasé as the public
seems to be today about,
about this particular launch
and the space program generally?
Well, I think it's
the excitement of the new.
I mean, it's like
getting married,
you know, and being married.
The love is still there,
and the excitement
is still there,
but it's no longer
the honeymoon.
FREEMAN DYSON:
I was all in favor
of people going into space.
(rockets firing)
It was the particular way
of doing it
which didn't make sense.
Right from the beginning,
Kennedy thought of it
as a ten-year project.
You went to the moon,
you waved your flags,
and you came home,
and that was it.
Apollo would have made sense
if it had been
a 100-year program.
The Apollo mission,
it was wonderful that
they managed to do
as much as they did.
(flag flapping)
NORTHCUTT:
It was amazing how quickly
the money dried up
in our space program.
At the Cape, they stared
handing out pink slips
right after the launch.
♪♪
LAUNIUS:
There is such a thing
as spinoffs,
and in the early 1960s,
NASA brought together
hundreds of the best minds
it could find
to build
an Apollo guidance computer
capable enough to get these guys
to the moon and back
and small enough to fit
in the command module.
At the end of the effort
to build that guidance computer,
the people working on it
dispersed.
And they went everywhere
you can imagine.
And these become
the individuals who sort of
build the computing industry
in the 1970s.
NORTHCUTT:
The thing about technology
is that every little advance
really multiplies
in a lot of unexpected areas.
And, in that sense,
I think that the space program
did a whole lot for technology.
I think they accelerated
miniaturization in the area
of computers
and everything else.
I mean, all kinds of things
were made smaller
because you needed to make
them smaller
in order to fly.
BLOOM:
The Apollo project
was a great achievement.
National pride,
a dose of national pride
was a good thing
for the country.
It showed that this country
could do
what it wanted to do
technologically if it devoted
enough time
and effort and resources to it.
I think we could do
lots of things today
technologically
if there were
the political will,
and there was political will
to go to the moon.
COLLINS:
I think the really interesting
thing in the future is Mars.
ANDERS:
Mars is a long way off.
I don't get all philosophical
about
"We need a place to escape
when the sun expands."
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.
Sure, humans ought
to go to Mars,
but only after it's been
thoroughly worked over
for decades
by unmanned vehicles.
(whooshing)
♪♪
ALEXANDER:
And irony of ironies,
as time has gone by,
the robotic program
now of course
has taken over
space exploration.
Mars now has something like
15 or 16 American-made machines
either flying over
or making their way
across the Martian surface.
DYSON:
I think that the manned program
only begins, really,
to make sense
when it becomes sort of
like the Mayflower
going across the Atlantic.
People go
because they want to go,
and they want
to go and live there.
So, to my mind,
these are the adventurers
who will take risks
and go out there
and try and make a go of it.
(rocket firing)
I don't know whether Mars is
such an interesting place to go,
that remains to be seen.
Life expands
and life always takes chances.
Taking risks is in fact
what makes life interesting.
(rocket firing)
♪♪
(low thrumming)
♪♪
("Outro" by M83 playing)
I'm the king
of my own land ♪
Facing tempests of dust,
I'll fight until the end ♪
Creatures of my dreams ♪
Raise up and dance with me ♪
♪♪
I believe we should
go to the moon.
MAN:
Three, two, one
zero, liftoff.
Now and forever ♪
I'm your king ♪
♪♪
("Outro" by M83 continues)
But it will be done.
And it will be done before
the end of this decade.
("Outro" by M83 continues)
("Outro" by M83 continues)
("Outro" by M83 continues)
(song ends)
(birds chirping)
(birds chirping)
♪♪