From the Earth to the Moon (1998) s01e01 Episode Script
Can We Do This?
1 We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard.
- Look at that.
- That's beautiful.
It's gotta be one of the most proud moments of my life.
I guarantee you.
For most of human history, a voyage to the moon was the fantasy of the addle-brained or foolhardy, for only divine beings and supermen could make the journey.
But then humans went aloft on mechanical wings, defying gravity and redefining the realm of possibility, and the moon was within the grasp of whoever would build the machine to take them there.
The main requirement for making the fantasy a fact? Perseverance.
The wherewithal to solve the problems one by one over the long course of the endeavor.
Problems such as how to make that first exploratory leap into the lifeless void of outer space.
For without surviving that, no one would ever dare make the foolhardy yet divine voyage from the Earth to the moon.
- What do you do here at the base, sir? - I'm an astronaut.
Are you one of the seven astronauts that have been chosen? That's right.
I'm one of the seven.
They're gonna shoot me out into space, into the blue.
Up above buildings! Now, sir, just one moment.
One moment.
Sure.
I'm a little nervous.
I'm afraid I'm gonna lose my life.
- Sir, may I ask you something? - Sure.
I saw the pictures of the seven astronauts that appeared in Life.
- You saw them, yeah.
- You are not among them.
None of them are them.
- You mean those are not the real - No, those are models.
You see, they can't take pictures of us.
We're monkeys, man.
- What do you mean? - Let me explain something.
- Those are seven handsome men.
- They take pictures of them so that we're not ashamed for Russia to show such ugly little astronauts.
- You're not a very good-looking man.
- No, I'm a monkey! Sir, I'm a little disturbed that they're sending you up to be the first man in space.
You seem ill-equipped to be an astronaut.
What do you mean? I got gloves and everything.
There is historic news from behind the Iron Curtain.
Man has traversed the reaches of outer space, and that man is a communist.
Soviet pilot Yuri Gagarin in the spacecraft Vostok I successfully lifted off the face of the Earth, flew his craft around the globe in 90 minutes and landed safely in the Soviet Union.
As with the flight of Sputnik four years ago, this latest Russian achievement has caught those in the American space programme by surprise.
The seven astronauts of the Mercury space programme suddenly find themselves jockeying for second place.
It has been reported that either Gus Grissom, John Glenn or Alan B Shepard will be the first to fly the one-man Mercury space capsule.
Just when the flight will take place has been the subject of much speculation.
Tonight President Kennedy is meeting with officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to discuss not just why we are losing the space race but perhaps if it has already been lost.
- The Russian went into orbit.
- One orbit, yes.
We can't even match that.
Not yet.
Gentlemen The president has been keeping up with your hearings before Congress and committees.
Tonight we can dispense with small talk.
He will want to know how we can catch the Russians, or better, leapfrog them.
We can put a man on the moon before the Russians.
How about that? It will take a concerted national effort.
Something along the lines of the Manhattan Project.
- How much would it cost? - Somewhere between 10 and 20 billion dollars.
Pumping that much cash into the private sector could be popular.
He will ask if there's anything we can do for less of the taxpayers' dollars.
What if we put up a space laboratory of some kind? They'll beat us.
If we get into a race over heavy-lifting capabilities, which is all that putting up a space station will demonstrate, we're going to lose for at least the next five years.
Hugh, were you as sure about this under Eisenhower? No, but the Soviets hadn't put a man in space then.
Most assuredly, the moon is their ultimate objective.
Red moon, huh? Who wants that hanging over our heads? As head of the president's science advisory, I've gotta tell him that politics aside, there's no reason to put a man on the moon.
The only thing we'll get for our money is some rocks.
So, put a probe up, scoop some out, bring 'em back and tour the world with them for propaganda purposes.
You don't need to send a man a quarter of a million miles away to do that.
And it sure as hell won't cost 20 billion dollars.
Certainly the president realizes that the moment a man steps on the moon will be a definitive one in the history of the world.
Especially when he sticks Old Glory in it and salutes.
He's ready for us.
Can the president count on anything in the immediate future? Yes, 2nd May.
We'll have an American up on 2nd May.
- Command carrier on.
- Roger.
Command carrier on.
Turn off telemetry transmitters when sep is complete.
Roger.
Flight transmitters are off.
Summary status check.
Check ALO switch position.
Roger.
ALO switch position on.
Liftoff is on.
We have ignition.
We have liftoff.
- You're on your way, José.
- Roger.
Liftoff, and the clock has started.
This is Freedom 7 I Fuel is go! 1.
2G Cabin pressure 1 4psi.
Oxygen is go! Freedom 7, it is still go! Roger.
Copy.
This is 7.
Fuel is go! 1.
8G.
8psi, cabin, and the oxygen is go.
Cabin pressure holding at 5.
5.
Cabin holding at 5.
5.
Cabin valves sealed.
Environment's holding.
I understand.
Cabin holding at 5.
5.
We are still go, CAPCOM.
Fuel is go! 2.
5G.
Cabin, 5.
5.
Oxygen is go.
The main vessel's 24 and the isolated battery is 29.
- OK, it's a lot smoother now.
- Roger.
We are at max speed.
Fuel is go.
5.
5, cabin.
Oxygen is go.
All systems are go.
All systems are go.
The trajectory is OK.
Tower jettison.
Cap sep green.
- Flight, we'll be coming up at zero G.
- Very good.
I'll turn jet off, and the turnaround has started.
ASCS is OK.
No movement.
Roger.
OK.
I have got a visual on the periscope.
- What a beautiful view.
- I'll bet it is.
Cloud cover over Florida.
Three to four tenths near the eastern coast.
I can see Okeechobee, identify Andros Island, identify the reefs.
Manual flight control.
Roll and yaw are OK.
Feels great to fly.
Start retro sequence.
In retro attitude.
- Control is smooth.
- Roger.
Down to retro.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Retro fire.
- Retro one, very smooth.
- Roger.
- Retro two.
- Retro two.
Retro three.
All three retros are fired.
- All right on the button.
- Retro jettison is red to arm.
- CAPCOM, go fly by wire.
- Switching to fly by wire.
- Fly by wire.
- Roger! - All is OK.
- Roger.
Roger.
I do not have a light.
Understand that you do not have a light.
I saw the straps falling away.
I heard a noise.
- I will use override.
- Roger.
OK, buster, re-entry.
ASCS normal.
- Roger.
- Periscope is retracting.
- ASCS is OK.
- Understand.
- Switching to UHF on radio.
- On UHF.
Back to UHF.
OK, this is Freedom 7.
G buildup.
Three.
Six.
Nine! Eleven! OK! OK.
1 1.
5 max G.
- This is 7.
I'm OK.
- Coming through loud and clear.
30,000 feet.
OK.
Freedom 7, your impact will be right on the button.
The drogue is freed at 21,000 feet.
I've got 70% auto, 90% manual.
Oxygen is still OK.
CAPCOM, can you read? CAPCOM, can you read? - I read.
- How do you read now? CAPCOM, glad to be here aboard.
The main chute is green.
Main chute is green.
Main chute is good! All right.
All right.
All right.
Rate of descent is about 35 feet per second.
I'm at 7,000 feet.
Landing bag is on green.
My peroxide is dumped.
My condition is good.
Mr Speaker.
The President of the United States.
Mr Webb, Dr Gilruth is here.
- Bob.
- Hey.
He's just getting into it.
Good.
Can you turn it up, please, Jim? their large rocket engines, which gives them many months of lead time, and recognizing the likelihood that they will exploit this lead for some time to come in still more impressive success.
We, nevertheless, are required to make new efforts on our own.
For while we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last.
I therefore ask the Congress above and beyond the increases I requested for space activities to provide the funds needed to meet the following national goals.
First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.
There can be no space project in this period that will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.
- Whoa, buster.
- They sure didn't waste any time.
If we had gotten Shepard into space before Gagarin, it'd be over.
We'd have beaten them.
That would have been that.
We wouldn't be talking about going to the moon for another 20 years.
Between this and the Bay of Pigs Does anybody want my job? That five-page memo from LBJ pressing us to do it by 1967.
Before we get near the moon we'll need to put thousands of man-hours into space.
So far we got 15 minutes and 22 seconds.
I'm serious now.
Who here wants my job? Bob, can we do this? We'll need thousands of people, special facilities, technology and material that haven't been invented yet.
Yeah.
Can we do it? Put a man on the moon in nine years.
Yes.
Absolutely.
We have to.
Damn.
Here's what we're gonna have to do, folks, to get a man to the moon ahead of the Soviets.
We've all been planning, meeting, talking, dreaming, but here is the brass tacks so we're all on the same page.
To get a man to the moon, we first have to get him into orbit.
Our friends from Russia already did that.
Good for them.
Popgun shot with Al Shepard was a nice start.
But we all know we don't get cigars for that.
The Mercury flights coming up will get us into orbit long enough for us to figure out how to stay up for a bit.
We do that, we have objective number one made.
EVA, spacewalk.
Objective number two.
Once in orbit, we get out of the spacecraft.
Go for a walk.
See if we can build a suit to protect a man outside.
See if he can manoeuvre, see if he can get back in.
We need this for emergencies but we ain't going to the moon to sit inside, take pictures.
We're gonna walk around up there.
We'll need the equipment to allow a man to do that.
Rendezvous.
Two spacecraft meeting up in orbit.
You wanna have fun? Come over to my house.
You stand in the back yard.
I'll stand in the front yard.
You throw a tennis ball over my roof.
I'll try to hit it with a rock as it comes sailing over.
That's what we're going to have to do.
Two spacecraft flying at five miles a second hundreds of miles up with a communication system spread all over the world like so many trading stamps.
Then we're gonna have to dock.
Join up.
Develop the specs and hardware for two spacecraft to first rendezvous, then to come together all safe and stable.
Objective five, long duration space flight.
Take two weeks to fly to the moon and back.
What is being in zero G that long gonna do to the human body? Will the crews' hearts stop beating? Can they take a crap without fouling up the flight controls? I'm betting they can.
Still, we need to prove it.
We need to prove them all proficiently over and over again.
We have to get so good at it that we bet the lives of our crews without flinching.
We get 'em up there, we accomplish the mission objectives and we get them back home every time.
Oh, there's one more thing.
You know those daring, dashing young throttle jockeys who call themselves astronauts? Well, we're gonna need a whole bunch of new ones.
My name's Max Peck.
I believe you've got a room for me.
Yes, Mr Peck.
We've been expecting you.
Howdy.
I'm Max Peck and I need a room.
Of course, Mr Peck, and we've been holding one for you.
Er, Peck.
Max Peck.
Good afternoon.
I'm Max Peck.
Mr Peck, of course.
Hi.
I have a reservation for a single room.
My name is Max Peck.
You're who? Mr Max Peck.
Max Peck.
I don't think so.
Er, no, really.
Yep, that's me.
Good old Max Peck.
I'll handle this one, Sheila.
Mr Peck, how nice to see you.
I believe you're expected in the Corral Room up in the mezzanine.
You guys are drinking in bad company if Pete Conrad's buying.
Good God, not Jim Lovell.
Space programme isn't safe if shaky here can pass muster.
- Good to see you, Pete.
- Jim, come on in.
- Hi, Jim Lovell.
- Ed White.
- Jim McDivitt.
- Jim.
- It's a pleasure.
- Elliott See.
- Pleasure.
- Nice to meet you.
- Frank Borman.
- Hello, Frank.
- Tom Stafford, John Young.
- Nice to meet you.
Max Peck.
What's the point of having top-secret code names if we don't use 'em? Well, heck, what'd I say, Jim Lovell? I meant Max Peck.
- Max Peck.
Makes more sense.
- Nice to meet you.
So I say, "Who is it?" She says, "He won't say.
" I say, "Well, ask again.
" She says, "I did.
" He was sure it was Dialling For Dollars.
I get to the phone.
"Jim, this is Deke Slayton.
Would you be interested in flying for us?" I said, "Well, Deke, let me think about that.
Yes.
" - "Yeah, how soon do you want me?" - Exactly.
Think about it.
He's in training for his Mercury mission.
Yanked from the flight line.
Just like that he's grounded.
Yeah, well, some doctor had a piece of paper saying, "Deke Slayton shouldn't fly because of something called heart fibrillations.
" Doesn't everybody's heart fibrillate? I'm guessing it'll be a variation on military rotation for Gemini.
You back up prime crew.
You skip a couple of flights and end up prime yourself.
Getting on that rotation in the first place? That's the trick.
The original seven's gonna fly way before any of us new nine.
Deke Slayton runs the office.
Carpenter's history.
John Glenn's leaving NASA.
He's gonna run for president someday.
If he leaves, he's got my vote.
What do you think? Will Glenn be satisfied with just president? Let's ask Armstrong.
Hey, Neil, would you vote for John Glenn for president? Glenn for president, huh? That would depend.
Who'd be running for king? A great leader is dead.
A great nation must move on.
And as we bow our heads in submission to divine providence, let us also thank God for the years that He gave us inspiration through His servant John F Kennedy.
And to honour his memory and the future of the works that he started have today determined that Station Number One of the Atlantic Missile Range and the NASA Launch Operation Center in Florida shall hereafter be known as the John F Kennedy Space Center.
If there is a word that expresses the Washington reaction to the Russian space spectacular today, it is admiration.
The actual getting out of the capsule itself was more or less the next thing to happen.
A more accurate word is envy.
Soviet scientists are talking about landing a man on the moon.
It was going to happen sooner or later.
The Russians started ahead of us in space ventures.
Today proves they are still ahead.
The Gemini capsule would be equipped to perform the same type On the fourth flight, which could be this year, one of the American pilots will step outside.
Extravehicular activity! That's just a fancy way of saying, "Let's go outside for a walk.
" The trouble is, it's cold out in space.
See? Even chilly.
Freezing! And there is no air to breathe out here.
That's right, Woody.
If Americans are ever to walk on the moon, the deadly vacuum of space must first be conquered.
- Captain See? - Captain's not necessary.
I'm a civilian.
We're having our PTA book fair on the 22nd.
We'd love it if NASA could arrange an astronaut visit.
I'd be happy to pass this along to the Public Affairs Office.
When I told the kids Astronaut Elliott See was coming, they all said, "Who?" They think every astronaut is John Glenn.
But I'm sure they will be glued to the TV when you make your space shunt.
With such a suit, why, anyone could take a walk in space or even a walk on the moon.
There you are, snug as a bug in a rug.
For a penguin, I mean.
Hey, where are you going? My suit's at 3.
5psi and holding.
Great.
Yeah, mine's just about the same.
All right, you dirty dog, ready to go ahead and finish with the cabin depress? - Yeah, I'm ready.
- All right.
Let's go.
- Hawaii, Houston Flight.
- Go, Flight.
Tell him we're ready to have him come out when he is.
Roger.
Understand.
- Delta, give us a mark.
- Gemini 4, CAPCOM.
Come on out, Ed.
Make us all look good.
Gemini 4, CAPCOM.
You are good for EVA on your mark.
OK, I'm separating from the spacecraft.
OK, my feet are out.
I think I'm dragging a little bit but I don't wanna fire the gun yet.
OK, I put a little roll in there.
It took me right out.
- Am I in your view, Jimbo? - Ed, I can't see through the window.
Don't sweat it.
I'm coming over to you.
There goes what looks like a thermal glove.
- That's what it is, Ed.
- All right.
I'm coming above the spacecraft now.
It looks like we're coming up on the coast of California.
I'm under my own control.
There's no disorientation associated with it.
None.
OK, I'm kicking down underneath the spacecraft.
It's all very soft.
Particularly as long as you move nice and slow.
I feel very thankful to have the experience to be doing this.
- You look beautiful, Ed.
- I feel like a million dollars.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
He's been out twice as long as Leonov.
Very good.
They're running out of daylight up there.
CAPCOM, let's get him back in now.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
I don't know exactly where we are but it looks like we're back over Texas again.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
As a matter of fact, yeah, that looks a lot like Houston down there.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
Gus, I don't know if you read, but we're over Houston.
Why don't you run out and look? Yeah, that's Galveston Bay right there.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
I could stay out here all day.
- Let's see what Flight Director says.
- Flight Director says get back in.
Tell that son of a bitch to get back in.
Gemini 4, Houston.
Gus, this is Jim.
You got any message for us? - Gemini 4, get back in.
- OK.
Ed, Houston wants you to come back in.
Back in? Roger that.
Been talking for a while.
Coming in.
This is the saddest moment of my life.
All right.
All right.
Ladies and gentlemen, Commander Roger Chaffee is from the third class of brand-new astronauts.
He's flown in special from Houston to tell us all how America is gonna beat the Russians to the moon.
Who the hell is Roger Chaffee? - I came to see a real astronaut.
- He's an astronaut.
He just hasn't been up yet.
He ain't flown outer space yet.
He ain't no astronaut.
Thank you very much.
Ed White's extravehicular activity cleared a major hurdle.
Man can work in the vacuum of outer space and in a few years, on the surface of the moon.
Just last December, Borman and Lovell in Gemini 7 were met in orbit by Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra of Gemini 6.
But what they didn't do was literally link up or dock.
This NASA has yet to accomplish.
To do that, we have to develop a special docking mechanism, which we have here in diagram form.
You know, I I brought along someone who I think can explain all of this one heck of a lot better than I can.
Blastoff! That's good.
I just remembered.
I'm allergic to cheese.
Now comes the hard part.
Getting back home.
The lunar lander will fly up from the moon and have to not only find the orbiting capsule but actually grab on to it.
- Howdy, fuzz! - Hey! Hello! And home we go! This is Emmett Seaborn with a special bulletin from St Louis.
American astronauts Elliott See and Charles Bassett have died in a crash of their T-38 jet aircraft.
The astronauts were flying to Lambert Field to inspect their space capsule at the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation when the plane carrying the two astronauts smashed into the roof of the assembly plant.
As crew of Gemini 9, the pair were to have flown into space in early June.
They tried to keep the field in view while doing a turnaround under the cloud ceiling and overshot the runway.
Elliott tried to land VFR under that low overcast.
He hit the building and smashed into the park.
Where the spacecraft was being assembled.
Good God! It's a miracle more people weren't killed.
Does that mean we're pushing too hard with our guys flying all over in bad weather? They fly through a lot worse than overcast skies.
It was an accident.
Two astronauts who hadn't even been in space yet are dead.
You don't think Congress is gonna ask me how that happened? They'll slow us down, cancel missions to look good.
This is the first time a backup crew will go into space.
Are Stafford and Cernan ready? This is exactly why we have backup crews.
Gene and Tom will be ready.
There are gonna be two very public funerals.
Then the press will have a field day about NASA wasting not just tax dollars but human lives.
Still, we dodged a bullet.
If they had been killed during a space mission? Congress would shut NASA down and Russia gets to the moon in a cakewalk.
We have Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott going up in Gemini 8 in two weeks.
There is no reason to slip the launch.
We have to rendezvous and dock with Agena, otherwise we are way behind.
All right.
We go on just as we have to.
I'll fight with whoever tries to close us down in Washington if for no other reason than to buy time, time to rack up a couple of successful missions so no one has anything to complain about.
But at the same time, gentlemen, let's all say some prayers for nothing else to go wrong.
Bus arm to dock.
Eight.
CAPCOM, we copy.
CDA Control, switch is off.
Agena docking light is green.
Agena power light is green.
Gemini 8, we have telemetry solid.
Looking good on the ground.
You're still go for docking.
OK, contact light.
We have capture and rigidising.
Flight, we are docked with the Agena.
It was really a smoothie.
Roger, Dave.
Hey, congratulations.
This is real good.
You can't have the thrill down there that we have up here.
We have you at loss of signal in ten seconds.
- We'll acquire over CSQ.
- Very good.
The letters LOS stand for loss of signal.
Armstrong and Scott are going to be out of communication as Gemini travels from the tracking station toward the one on board the ship, Coastal Sentry Quebec or CSQ.
Where are they now, Armstrong and Scott? It looks as if they're just below the coast of India, crossing over.
Neil, we're rolling.
We're in a bank.
Plus 30 degrees.
What the hell is this? - We shouldn't be moving like this.
- Shut down the Agena.
I did.
Command 400.
It's down.
Then what the hell is this? Our rate is picking up.
It's just getting worse.
Let's hope it's something wrong with the Agena.
We better disengage.
You ready? - Yes, sir.
- Undock.
- Hey, Deke! - Pete.
Better get in here and do some work.
Work.
I heard of that.
Spelled with a W, isn't it? - I can't stop it.
Wanna try? - I got it.
Man, what is this? - Gemini 8, CSQ CAPCOM, how do you - We have serious problems here.
We're tumbling end over end.
We've separated from the Agena.
We're rolling up and we can't turn anything off.
We are continuously increasing left roll.
- CSQ, Flight.
- Go ahead, Flight.
Did he say he could not turn the Agena off? No, he said that he separated from the Agena and is in a roll and he can't stop it.
His reg pressure is down to zero.
Gemini 8, CSQ.
We are in a violent left roll here.
We can't turn the OAMS off or fire them.
- One of the OAMS must be stuck on.
- I'm isolating the attitude system.
I'm shutting it down.
- Did I hear a stuck hand controller? - Affirmative, Flight.
We can't get any valid data here.
They're in a violent tumble.
- The Agena? - Flight Surgeon! Go ahead.
That roll's too violent.
There's a danger of tunnel vision and blacking out.
We can't take much more of this.
Not it.
All we have left is the re-entry control system, Dave.
We bring up the RCS, they'll abort the mission.
Not much choice here.
- OK.
- Good, Neil.
You're bringing it down.
OK, we're regaining control of the spacecraft slowly on RCS direct.
Roger, Captain.
We're pulsing the RCS slowly here, trying to kill our roll rate.
Understand, Gemini.
We show you manoeuvring on your RCS.
Affirmative.
If they've brought up the RCS, the flight's over.
That's mission rules.
We gotta bring them in.
Gemini 8, CSQ.
How much RCS have you used and are you just on one ring? We are on one ring, trying to save the other ring.
We started out on two rings but we are now on one ring.
- And the RCS? - Doesn't matter.
End of story.
We bring 'em in.
- What about the RCS, Houston? - We're down to about 1, 7 00 pounds - Recovery, are you getting all this? - Roger.
CSQ, Flight.
Let's get that spacecraft sea-band beacon on.
Re-entry sea-band beacon on.
We've lost contact with the spacecraft.
- OK.
We'll get 'em over Hawaii.
- Let's hope so.
The re-entry program isn't in the computer.
Dave will have to enter the pad then verify the self-tests with us.
They can't do that and get secure in one orbit.
They need time.
- All right? - Right.
Two passes over Rose Knot Victor, then.
They're the secondary recovery zones.
Let's bring them down in 7-3.
Na-ha Rescue 1, Gemini 8.
Na-ha Rescue 1, Gemini 8.
They ain't out there.
Three-to five-foot waves, sure.
They didn't say anything about these swells.
The fumes from the heat shield really help.
You think they even know we're here, Neil? Not to worry, Dave.
If nothing else, we'll just float along to China.
Oh, God, give me that bag.
Na-ha Rescue 1, this is Gemini 8.
Na-ha Rescue 1, this is Gemini 8.
Neil Armstrong did everything a pilot should.
He probably saved the space programme in the process.
But I want a Mercury veteran to fly the first Apollo mission, Gus.
It's simple as that.
A brand-new spacecraft.
Who'd be the choices for my crew? I want the best, Deke.
I was thinking of Donn Eisele but he went and broke his shoulder in the Vomit Comet, so - What about Ed White? - Eddie? I'll take him.
Who else you got? I'm mighty impressed with Roger Chaffee.
He flew photo missions over Cuba during the Missile Crisis.
He's smart too.
Wears down the engineers when he starts talking about their systems.
And there's one last thing, Gus, about the rotation.
We won't know the flight schedule for some time.
But I'd sure like to have one of the original Mercury astronauts still flying when Apollo makes that first moon landing.
Interesting you should say that, Deke.
Just so happens, I'm one of the original Mercury astronauts.
Roger Chaffee is a rookie astronaut chosen out of a field literally of thousands.
Ed White is a veteran astronaut.
He's made our first spacewalk back on Gemini 4.
Gus Grissom, the Apollo 1 commander, has already flown both Mercury and Gemini spacecraft.
This three-man crew and the engineers are well into the development and training phase of Apollo procedures and hardware.
Therefore I can say yes, we are winning the space race.
We have not only caught up with the Soviets, we have surpassed them in many areas.
We have kept men in space longer, we have achieved orbital rendezvous of two spacecraft and the docking of two vehicles in orbit.
These are not only firsts in their own right but important steps to our long-range goal of landing on the moon with the Apollo programme.
Miss Hedges, a follow-up.
Should the Russians beat us to the moon, Mr Webb, will the costly Apollo programme be continued? Landing the first man on the moon is the priority of NASA and the American taxpayers.
I do not see their support wavering until we do so.
Gavin O'Rourke.
Mr Webb, NASA achievements and taxpayer will aside, are we gonna beat the Russians in this contest? Will the United States put the first man on the moon? It is my job and the job of 400,000 men and women around the country to see to it that we do.
We have ignition.
We have liftoff.
And liftoff! There it is! America is closer to the moon with the launch of Gemini 1 2.
Flight Commander Jim Lovell is a veteran astronaut.
Pilot Edwin Aldrin makes his first journey into space.
From Houston, Science Editor Emmett Seaborn.
In one of the luckiest coincidences of this space programme, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, who had worked on orbital rendezvous for his doctoral thesis at MIT, was seated in the right-hand seat of Gemini 12 when the onboard computer refused to accept data from the rendezvous radar.
Using an 8-power sextant and charts developed in the case of just such a malfunction, Aldrin guided Commander Jim Lovell to a successful rendezvous and docking with the Agena target vehicle.
This was an important moment for NASA as it proves the skills honed during the ten Gemini missions can overcome potentially catastrophic problems, problems that could arise on a flight as crammed as Gemini 1 2.
In four days, the crew is expected to dock twice more with the Agena, using its rocket engine to send them into an even higher orbit around the Earth.
Three spacewalks, Dr Rendezvous himself, Buzz Aldrin, will perform experiments, photograph star fields and remain outside the capsule longer than any astronaut to date using modified handrails and equipment specifically designed for work in zero gravity.
For Lovell, who will remain inside the spacecraft, these four days of orbiting the Earth, together with the 1 4 days aboard Gemini 7, will make him the most travelled man in history.
Jimbo, gonna clean your windshield.
Hey, Buzz, check the oil too, would you? And so the curtain rings down on this second act of man's voyage to the moon.
NASA officials are confident that the third act, Project Apollo, will place a human being, in the form of an American astronaut, on the moon sometime before midnight New Year's Eve, 1969.
From Houston, I'm Emmett Seaborn.
- Good morning.
- How you doing? Some crowd, huh? They think you're announcing your return to the flight rotation.
You can announce mine while you're at it.
- At least I can teach a couple of 'em.
- Yes, you could.
Owen Maynard and the Mission Operations Division has laid out a plan for the Apollo flights that will lead up to the landing on the moon.
Each of these missions has a letter.
The A and B missions will be unmanned tests.
The C mission will be the first manned flight of the command and service module.
Gus, Ed and Roger in Apollo 1.
The D mission will be the first dual flight of the CSM with the lunar module in low-Earth orbit to test it out.
The E mission will do the same in high-Earth orbit for re-entry procedures.
The F mission will go all the way to lunar orbit with the LEM but won't land.
That will be the objective of whoever takes the first G mission.
Now, each of these missions must be successfully completed before we can move on to the next type of mission.
If we have problems with the rendezvous radar or the backpacks or the retracting probe, we will go to a D-1 or a D-2 or even a D-3 mission before we attempt the first E mission.
So, even though there are only five manned missions laid out, it does not necessarily mean that the fifth group will make the first landing, which brings me to the point of this meeting.
Assembled here are those of you that are left from the original seven Mercury astronauts, as well as the new nine or the next nine, or whatever you guys call yourselves, and some of the third group.
The crew assignments that will be made concern you in the following manner.
The men in this room will be making moon landings.
Two of you will be first.
I don't know which two that will be.
But I do know that the first man to walk on the moon walked into this room today and is looking at me right now, as well as the second, the third and the fourth and so on.
Just thought you might wanna know that.
That is all, gentlemen.
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard.
- Look at that.
- That's beautiful.
It's gotta be one of the most proud moments of my life.
I guarantee you.
For most of human history, a voyage to the moon was the fantasy of the addle-brained or foolhardy, for only divine beings and supermen could make the journey.
But then humans went aloft on mechanical wings, defying gravity and redefining the realm of possibility, and the moon was within the grasp of whoever would build the machine to take them there.
The main requirement for making the fantasy a fact? Perseverance.
The wherewithal to solve the problems one by one over the long course of the endeavor.
Problems such as how to make that first exploratory leap into the lifeless void of outer space.
For without surviving that, no one would ever dare make the foolhardy yet divine voyage from the Earth to the moon.
- What do you do here at the base, sir? - I'm an astronaut.
Are you one of the seven astronauts that have been chosen? That's right.
I'm one of the seven.
They're gonna shoot me out into space, into the blue.
Up above buildings! Now, sir, just one moment.
One moment.
Sure.
I'm a little nervous.
I'm afraid I'm gonna lose my life.
- Sir, may I ask you something? - Sure.
I saw the pictures of the seven astronauts that appeared in Life.
- You saw them, yeah.
- You are not among them.
None of them are them.
- You mean those are not the real - No, those are models.
You see, they can't take pictures of us.
We're monkeys, man.
- What do you mean? - Let me explain something.
- Those are seven handsome men.
- They take pictures of them so that we're not ashamed for Russia to show such ugly little astronauts.
- You're not a very good-looking man.
- No, I'm a monkey! Sir, I'm a little disturbed that they're sending you up to be the first man in space.
You seem ill-equipped to be an astronaut.
What do you mean? I got gloves and everything.
There is historic news from behind the Iron Curtain.
Man has traversed the reaches of outer space, and that man is a communist.
Soviet pilot Yuri Gagarin in the spacecraft Vostok I successfully lifted off the face of the Earth, flew his craft around the globe in 90 minutes and landed safely in the Soviet Union.
As with the flight of Sputnik four years ago, this latest Russian achievement has caught those in the American space programme by surprise.
The seven astronauts of the Mercury space programme suddenly find themselves jockeying for second place.
It has been reported that either Gus Grissom, John Glenn or Alan B Shepard will be the first to fly the one-man Mercury space capsule.
Just when the flight will take place has been the subject of much speculation.
Tonight President Kennedy is meeting with officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to discuss not just why we are losing the space race but perhaps if it has already been lost.
- The Russian went into orbit.
- One orbit, yes.
We can't even match that.
Not yet.
Gentlemen The president has been keeping up with your hearings before Congress and committees.
Tonight we can dispense with small talk.
He will want to know how we can catch the Russians, or better, leapfrog them.
We can put a man on the moon before the Russians.
How about that? It will take a concerted national effort.
Something along the lines of the Manhattan Project.
- How much would it cost? - Somewhere between 10 and 20 billion dollars.
Pumping that much cash into the private sector could be popular.
He will ask if there's anything we can do for less of the taxpayers' dollars.
What if we put up a space laboratory of some kind? They'll beat us.
If we get into a race over heavy-lifting capabilities, which is all that putting up a space station will demonstrate, we're going to lose for at least the next five years.
Hugh, were you as sure about this under Eisenhower? No, but the Soviets hadn't put a man in space then.
Most assuredly, the moon is their ultimate objective.
Red moon, huh? Who wants that hanging over our heads? As head of the president's science advisory, I've gotta tell him that politics aside, there's no reason to put a man on the moon.
The only thing we'll get for our money is some rocks.
So, put a probe up, scoop some out, bring 'em back and tour the world with them for propaganda purposes.
You don't need to send a man a quarter of a million miles away to do that.
And it sure as hell won't cost 20 billion dollars.
Certainly the president realizes that the moment a man steps on the moon will be a definitive one in the history of the world.
Especially when he sticks Old Glory in it and salutes.
He's ready for us.
Can the president count on anything in the immediate future? Yes, 2nd May.
We'll have an American up on 2nd May.
- Command carrier on.
- Roger.
Command carrier on.
Turn off telemetry transmitters when sep is complete.
Roger.
Flight transmitters are off.
Summary status check.
Check ALO switch position.
Roger.
ALO switch position on.
Liftoff is on.
We have ignition.
We have liftoff.
- You're on your way, José.
- Roger.
Liftoff, and the clock has started.
This is Freedom 7 I Fuel is go! 1.
2G Cabin pressure 1 4psi.
Oxygen is go! Freedom 7, it is still go! Roger.
Copy.
This is 7.
Fuel is go! 1.
8G.
8psi, cabin, and the oxygen is go.
Cabin pressure holding at 5.
5.
Cabin holding at 5.
5.
Cabin valves sealed.
Environment's holding.
I understand.
Cabin holding at 5.
5.
We are still go, CAPCOM.
Fuel is go! 2.
5G.
Cabin, 5.
5.
Oxygen is go.
The main vessel's 24 and the isolated battery is 29.
- OK, it's a lot smoother now.
- Roger.
We are at max speed.
Fuel is go.
5.
5, cabin.
Oxygen is go.
All systems are go.
All systems are go.
The trajectory is OK.
Tower jettison.
Cap sep green.
- Flight, we'll be coming up at zero G.
- Very good.
I'll turn jet off, and the turnaround has started.
ASCS is OK.
No movement.
Roger.
OK.
I have got a visual on the periscope.
- What a beautiful view.
- I'll bet it is.
Cloud cover over Florida.
Three to four tenths near the eastern coast.
I can see Okeechobee, identify Andros Island, identify the reefs.
Manual flight control.
Roll and yaw are OK.
Feels great to fly.
Start retro sequence.
In retro attitude.
- Control is smooth.
- Roger.
Down to retro.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Retro fire.
- Retro one, very smooth.
- Roger.
- Retro two.
- Retro two.
Retro three.
All three retros are fired.
- All right on the button.
- Retro jettison is red to arm.
- CAPCOM, go fly by wire.
- Switching to fly by wire.
- Fly by wire.
- Roger! - All is OK.
- Roger.
Roger.
I do not have a light.
Understand that you do not have a light.
I saw the straps falling away.
I heard a noise.
- I will use override.
- Roger.
OK, buster, re-entry.
ASCS normal.
- Roger.
- Periscope is retracting.
- ASCS is OK.
- Understand.
- Switching to UHF on radio.
- On UHF.
Back to UHF.
OK, this is Freedom 7.
G buildup.
Three.
Six.
Nine! Eleven! OK! OK.
1 1.
5 max G.
- This is 7.
I'm OK.
- Coming through loud and clear.
30,000 feet.
OK.
Freedom 7, your impact will be right on the button.
The drogue is freed at 21,000 feet.
I've got 70% auto, 90% manual.
Oxygen is still OK.
CAPCOM, can you read? CAPCOM, can you read? - I read.
- How do you read now? CAPCOM, glad to be here aboard.
The main chute is green.
Main chute is green.
Main chute is good! All right.
All right.
All right.
Rate of descent is about 35 feet per second.
I'm at 7,000 feet.
Landing bag is on green.
My peroxide is dumped.
My condition is good.
Mr Speaker.
The President of the United States.
Mr Webb, Dr Gilruth is here.
- Bob.
- Hey.
He's just getting into it.
Good.
Can you turn it up, please, Jim? their large rocket engines, which gives them many months of lead time, and recognizing the likelihood that they will exploit this lead for some time to come in still more impressive success.
We, nevertheless, are required to make new efforts on our own.
For while we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last.
I therefore ask the Congress above and beyond the increases I requested for space activities to provide the funds needed to meet the following national goals.
First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.
There can be no space project in this period that will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.
- Whoa, buster.
- They sure didn't waste any time.
If we had gotten Shepard into space before Gagarin, it'd be over.
We'd have beaten them.
That would have been that.
We wouldn't be talking about going to the moon for another 20 years.
Between this and the Bay of Pigs Does anybody want my job? That five-page memo from LBJ pressing us to do it by 1967.
Before we get near the moon we'll need to put thousands of man-hours into space.
So far we got 15 minutes and 22 seconds.
I'm serious now.
Who here wants my job? Bob, can we do this? We'll need thousands of people, special facilities, technology and material that haven't been invented yet.
Yeah.
Can we do it? Put a man on the moon in nine years.
Yes.
Absolutely.
We have to.
Damn.
Here's what we're gonna have to do, folks, to get a man to the moon ahead of the Soviets.
We've all been planning, meeting, talking, dreaming, but here is the brass tacks so we're all on the same page.
To get a man to the moon, we first have to get him into orbit.
Our friends from Russia already did that.
Good for them.
Popgun shot with Al Shepard was a nice start.
But we all know we don't get cigars for that.
The Mercury flights coming up will get us into orbit long enough for us to figure out how to stay up for a bit.
We do that, we have objective number one made.
EVA, spacewalk.
Objective number two.
Once in orbit, we get out of the spacecraft.
Go for a walk.
See if we can build a suit to protect a man outside.
See if he can manoeuvre, see if he can get back in.
We need this for emergencies but we ain't going to the moon to sit inside, take pictures.
We're gonna walk around up there.
We'll need the equipment to allow a man to do that.
Rendezvous.
Two spacecraft meeting up in orbit.
You wanna have fun? Come over to my house.
You stand in the back yard.
I'll stand in the front yard.
You throw a tennis ball over my roof.
I'll try to hit it with a rock as it comes sailing over.
That's what we're going to have to do.
Two spacecraft flying at five miles a second hundreds of miles up with a communication system spread all over the world like so many trading stamps.
Then we're gonna have to dock.
Join up.
Develop the specs and hardware for two spacecraft to first rendezvous, then to come together all safe and stable.
Objective five, long duration space flight.
Take two weeks to fly to the moon and back.
What is being in zero G that long gonna do to the human body? Will the crews' hearts stop beating? Can they take a crap without fouling up the flight controls? I'm betting they can.
Still, we need to prove it.
We need to prove them all proficiently over and over again.
We have to get so good at it that we bet the lives of our crews without flinching.
We get 'em up there, we accomplish the mission objectives and we get them back home every time.
Oh, there's one more thing.
You know those daring, dashing young throttle jockeys who call themselves astronauts? Well, we're gonna need a whole bunch of new ones.
My name's Max Peck.
I believe you've got a room for me.
Yes, Mr Peck.
We've been expecting you.
Howdy.
I'm Max Peck and I need a room.
Of course, Mr Peck, and we've been holding one for you.
Er, Peck.
Max Peck.
Good afternoon.
I'm Max Peck.
Mr Peck, of course.
Hi.
I have a reservation for a single room.
My name is Max Peck.
You're who? Mr Max Peck.
Max Peck.
I don't think so.
Er, no, really.
Yep, that's me.
Good old Max Peck.
I'll handle this one, Sheila.
Mr Peck, how nice to see you.
I believe you're expected in the Corral Room up in the mezzanine.
You guys are drinking in bad company if Pete Conrad's buying.
Good God, not Jim Lovell.
Space programme isn't safe if shaky here can pass muster.
- Good to see you, Pete.
- Jim, come on in.
- Hi, Jim Lovell.
- Ed White.
- Jim McDivitt.
- Jim.
- It's a pleasure.
- Elliott See.
- Pleasure.
- Nice to meet you.
- Frank Borman.
- Hello, Frank.
- Tom Stafford, John Young.
- Nice to meet you.
Max Peck.
What's the point of having top-secret code names if we don't use 'em? Well, heck, what'd I say, Jim Lovell? I meant Max Peck.
- Max Peck.
Makes more sense.
- Nice to meet you.
So I say, "Who is it?" She says, "He won't say.
" I say, "Well, ask again.
" She says, "I did.
" He was sure it was Dialling For Dollars.
I get to the phone.
"Jim, this is Deke Slayton.
Would you be interested in flying for us?" I said, "Well, Deke, let me think about that.
Yes.
" - "Yeah, how soon do you want me?" - Exactly.
Think about it.
He's in training for his Mercury mission.
Yanked from the flight line.
Just like that he's grounded.
Yeah, well, some doctor had a piece of paper saying, "Deke Slayton shouldn't fly because of something called heart fibrillations.
" Doesn't everybody's heart fibrillate? I'm guessing it'll be a variation on military rotation for Gemini.
You back up prime crew.
You skip a couple of flights and end up prime yourself.
Getting on that rotation in the first place? That's the trick.
The original seven's gonna fly way before any of us new nine.
Deke Slayton runs the office.
Carpenter's history.
John Glenn's leaving NASA.
He's gonna run for president someday.
If he leaves, he's got my vote.
What do you think? Will Glenn be satisfied with just president? Let's ask Armstrong.
Hey, Neil, would you vote for John Glenn for president? Glenn for president, huh? That would depend.
Who'd be running for king? A great leader is dead.
A great nation must move on.
And as we bow our heads in submission to divine providence, let us also thank God for the years that He gave us inspiration through His servant John F Kennedy.
And to honour his memory and the future of the works that he started have today determined that Station Number One of the Atlantic Missile Range and the NASA Launch Operation Center in Florida shall hereafter be known as the John F Kennedy Space Center.
If there is a word that expresses the Washington reaction to the Russian space spectacular today, it is admiration.
The actual getting out of the capsule itself was more or less the next thing to happen.
A more accurate word is envy.
Soviet scientists are talking about landing a man on the moon.
It was going to happen sooner or later.
The Russians started ahead of us in space ventures.
Today proves they are still ahead.
The Gemini capsule would be equipped to perform the same type On the fourth flight, which could be this year, one of the American pilots will step outside.
Extravehicular activity! That's just a fancy way of saying, "Let's go outside for a walk.
" The trouble is, it's cold out in space.
See? Even chilly.
Freezing! And there is no air to breathe out here.
That's right, Woody.
If Americans are ever to walk on the moon, the deadly vacuum of space must first be conquered.
- Captain See? - Captain's not necessary.
I'm a civilian.
We're having our PTA book fair on the 22nd.
We'd love it if NASA could arrange an astronaut visit.
I'd be happy to pass this along to the Public Affairs Office.
When I told the kids Astronaut Elliott See was coming, they all said, "Who?" They think every astronaut is John Glenn.
But I'm sure they will be glued to the TV when you make your space shunt.
With such a suit, why, anyone could take a walk in space or even a walk on the moon.
There you are, snug as a bug in a rug.
For a penguin, I mean.
Hey, where are you going? My suit's at 3.
5psi and holding.
Great.
Yeah, mine's just about the same.
All right, you dirty dog, ready to go ahead and finish with the cabin depress? - Yeah, I'm ready.
- All right.
Let's go.
- Hawaii, Houston Flight.
- Go, Flight.
Tell him we're ready to have him come out when he is.
Roger.
Understand.
- Delta, give us a mark.
- Gemini 4, CAPCOM.
Come on out, Ed.
Make us all look good.
Gemini 4, CAPCOM.
You are good for EVA on your mark.
OK, I'm separating from the spacecraft.
OK, my feet are out.
I think I'm dragging a little bit but I don't wanna fire the gun yet.
OK, I put a little roll in there.
It took me right out.
- Am I in your view, Jimbo? - Ed, I can't see through the window.
Don't sweat it.
I'm coming over to you.
There goes what looks like a thermal glove.
- That's what it is, Ed.
- All right.
I'm coming above the spacecraft now.
It looks like we're coming up on the coast of California.
I'm under my own control.
There's no disorientation associated with it.
None.
OK, I'm kicking down underneath the spacecraft.
It's all very soft.
Particularly as long as you move nice and slow.
I feel very thankful to have the experience to be doing this.
- You look beautiful, Ed.
- I feel like a million dollars.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
He's been out twice as long as Leonov.
Very good.
They're running out of daylight up there.
CAPCOM, let's get him back in now.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
I don't know exactly where we are but it looks like we're back over Texas again.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
As a matter of fact, yeah, that looks a lot like Houston down there.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
Gus, I don't know if you read, but we're over Houston.
Why don't you run out and look? Yeah, that's Galveston Bay right there.
Gemini 4, Houston CAPCOM.
I could stay out here all day.
- Let's see what Flight Director says.
- Flight Director says get back in.
Tell that son of a bitch to get back in.
Gemini 4, Houston.
Gus, this is Jim.
You got any message for us? - Gemini 4, get back in.
- OK.
Ed, Houston wants you to come back in.
Back in? Roger that.
Been talking for a while.
Coming in.
This is the saddest moment of my life.
All right.
All right.
Ladies and gentlemen, Commander Roger Chaffee is from the third class of brand-new astronauts.
He's flown in special from Houston to tell us all how America is gonna beat the Russians to the moon.
Who the hell is Roger Chaffee? - I came to see a real astronaut.
- He's an astronaut.
He just hasn't been up yet.
He ain't flown outer space yet.
He ain't no astronaut.
Thank you very much.
Ed White's extravehicular activity cleared a major hurdle.
Man can work in the vacuum of outer space and in a few years, on the surface of the moon.
Just last December, Borman and Lovell in Gemini 7 were met in orbit by Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra of Gemini 6.
But what they didn't do was literally link up or dock.
This NASA has yet to accomplish.
To do that, we have to develop a special docking mechanism, which we have here in diagram form.
You know, I I brought along someone who I think can explain all of this one heck of a lot better than I can.
Blastoff! That's good.
I just remembered.
I'm allergic to cheese.
Now comes the hard part.
Getting back home.
The lunar lander will fly up from the moon and have to not only find the orbiting capsule but actually grab on to it.
- Howdy, fuzz! - Hey! Hello! And home we go! This is Emmett Seaborn with a special bulletin from St Louis.
American astronauts Elliott See and Charles Bassett have died in a crash of their T-38 jet aircraft.
The astronauts were flying to Lambert Field to inspect their space capsule at the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation when the plane carrying the two astronauts smashed into the roof of the assembly plant.
As crew of Gemini 9, the pair were to have flown into space in early June.
They tried to keep the field in view while doing a turnaround under the cloud ceiling and overshot the runway.
Elliott tried to land VFR under that low overcast.
He hit the building and smashed into the park.
Where the spacecraft was being assembled.
Good God! It's a miracle more people weren't killed.
Does that mean we're pushing too hard with our guys flying all over in bad weather? They fly through a lot worse than overcast skies.
It was an accident.
Two astronauts who hadn't even been in space yet are dead.
You don't think Congress is gonna ask me how that happened? They'll slow us down, cancel missions to look good.
This is the first time a backup crew will go into space.
Are Stafford and Cernan ready? This is exactly why we have backup crews.
Gene and Tom will be ready.
There are gonna be two very public funerals.
Then the press will have a field day about NASA wasting not just tax dollars but human lives.
Still, we dodged a bullet.
If they had been killed during a space mission? Congress would shut NASA down and Russia gets to the moon in a cakewalk.
We have Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott going up in Gemini 8 in two weeks.
There is no reason to slip the launch.
We have to rendezvous and dock with Agena, otherwise we are way behind.
All right.
We go on just as we have to.
I'll fight with whoever tries to close us down in Washington if for no other reason than to buy time, time to rack up a couple of successful missions so no one has anything to complain about.
But at the same time, gentlemen, let's all say some prayers for nothing else to go wrong.
Bus arm to dock.
Eight.
CAPCOM, we copy.
CDA Control, switch is off.
Agena docking light is green.
Agena power light is green.
Gemini 8, we have telemetry solid.
Looking good on the ground.
You're still go for docking.
OK, contact light.
We have capture and rigidising.
Flight, we are docked with the Agena.
It was really a smoothie.
Roger, Dave.
Hey, congratulations.
This is real good.
You can't have the thrill down there that we have up here.
We have you at loss of signal in ten seconds.
- We'll acquire over CSQ.
- Very good.
The letters LOS stand for loss of signal.
Armstrong and Scott are going to be out of communication as Gemini travels from the tracking station toward the one on board the ship, Coastal Sentry Quebec or CSQ.
Where are they now, Armstrong and Scott? It looks as if they're just below the coast of India, crossing over.
Neil, we're rolling.
We're in a bank.
Plus 30 degrees.
What the hell is this? - We shouldn't be moving like this.
- Shut down the Agena.
I did.
Command 400.
It's down.
Then what the hell is this? Our rate is picking up.
It's just getting worse.
Let's hope it's something wrong with the Agena.
We better disengage.
You ready? - Yes, sir.
- Undock.
- Hey, Deke! - Pete.
Better get in here and do some work.
Work.
I heard of that.
Spelled with a W, isn't it? - I can't stop it.
Wanna try? - I got it.
Man, what is this? - Gemini 8, CSQ CAPCOM, how do you - We have serious problems here.
We're tumbling end over end.
We've separated from the Agena.
We're rolling up and we can't turn anything off.
We are continuously increasing left roll.
- CSQ, Flight.
- Go ahead, Flight.
Did he say he could not turn the Agena off? No, he said that he separated from the Agena and is in a roll and he can't stop it.
His reg pressure is down to zero.
Gemini 8, CSQ.
We are in a violent left roll here.
We can't turn the OAMS off or fire them.
- One of the OAMS must be stuck on.
- I'm isolating the attitude system.
I'm shutting it down.
- Did I hear a stuck hand controller? - Affirmative, Flight.
We can't get any valid data here.
They're in a violent tumble.
- The Agena? - Flight Surgeon! Go ahead.
That roll's too violent.
There's a danger of tunnel vision and blacking out.
We can't take much more of this.
Not it.
All we have left is the re-entry control system, Dave.
We bring up the RCS, they'll abort the mission.
Not much choice here.
- OK.
- Good, Neil.
You're bringing it down.
OK, we're regaining control of the spacecraft slowly on RCS direct.
Roger, Captain.
We're pulsing the RCS slowly here, trying to kill our roll rate.
Understand, Gemini.
We show you manoeuvring on your RCS.
Affirmative.
If they've brought up the RCS, the flight's over.
That's mission rules.
We gotta bring them in.
Gemini 8, CSQ.
How much RCS have you used and are you just on one ring? We are on one ring, trying to save the other ring.
We started out on two rings but we are now on one ring.
- And the RCS? - Doesn't matter.
End of story.
We bring 'em in.
- What about the RCS, Houston? - We're down to about 1, 7 00 pounds - Recovery, are you getting all this? - Roger.
CSQ, Flight.
Let's get that spacecraft sea-band beacon on.
Re-entry sea-band beacon on.
We've lost contact with the spacecraft.
- OK.
We'll get 'em over Hawaii.
- Let's hope so.
The re-entry program isn't in the computer.
Dave will have to enter the pad then verify the self-tests with us.
They can't do that and get secure in one orbit.
They need time.
- All right? - Right.
Two passes over Rose Knot Victor, then.
They're the secondary recovery zones.
Let's bring them down in 7-3.
Na-ha Rescue 1, Gemini 8.
Na-ha Rescue 1, Gemini 8.
They ain't out there.
Three-to five-foot waves, sure.
They didn't say anything about these swells.
The fumes from the heat shield really help.
You think they even know we're here, Neil? Not to worry, Dave.
If nothing else, we'll just float along to China.
Oh, God, give me that bag.
Na-ha Rescue 1, this is Gemini 8.
Na-ha Rescue 1, this is Gemini 8.
Neil Armstrong did everything a pilot should.
He probably saved the space programme in the process.
But I want a Mercury veteran to fly the first Apollo mission, Gus.
It's simple as that.
A brand-new spacecraft.
Who'd be the choices for my crew? I want the best, Deke.
I was thinking of Donn Eisele but he went and broke his shoulder in the Vomit Comet, so - What about Ed White? - Eddie? I'll take him.
Who else you got? I'm mighty impressed with Roger Chaffee.
He flew photo missions over Cuba during the Missile Crisis.
He's smart too.
Wears down the engineers when he starts talking about their systems.
And there's one last thing, Gus, about the rotation.
We won't know the flight schedule for some time.
But I'd sure like to have one of the original Mercury astronauts still flying when Apollo makes that first moon landing.
Interesting you should say that, Deke.
Just so happens, I'm one of the original Mercury astronauts.
Roger Chaffee is a rookie astronaut chosen out of a field literally of thousands.
Ed White is a veteran astronaut.
He's made our first spacewalk back on Gemini 4.
Gus Grissom, the Apollo 1 commander, has already flown both Mercury and Gemini spacecraft.
This three-man crew and the engineers are well into the development and training phase of Apollo procedures and hardware.
Therefore I can say yes, we are winning the space race.
We have not only caught up with the Soviets, we have surpassed them in many areas.
We have kept men in space longer, we have achieved orbital rendezvous of two spacecraft and the docking of two vehicles in orbit.
These are not only firsts in their own right but important steps to our long-range goal of landing on the moon with the Apollo programme.
Miss Hedges, a follow-up.
Should the Russians beat us to the moon, Mr Webb, will the costly Apollo programme be continued? Landing the first man on the moon is the priority of NASA and the American taxpayers.
I do not see their support wavering until we do so.
Gavin O'Rourke.
Mr Webb, NASA achievements and taxpayer will aside, are we gonna beat the Russians in this contest? Will the United States put the first man on the moon? It is my job and the job of 400,000 men and women around the country to see to it that we do.
We have ignition.
We have liftoff.
And liftoff! There it is! America is closer to the moon with the launch of Gemini 1 2.
Flight Commander Jim Lovell is a veteran astronaut.
Pilot Edwin Aldrin makes his first journey into space.
From Houston, Science Editor Emmett Seaborn.
In one of the luckiest coincidences of this space programme, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, who had worked on orbital rendezvous for his doctoral thesis at MIT, was seated in the right-hand seat of Gemini 12 when the onboard computer refused to accept data from the rendezvous radar.
Using an 8-power sextant and charts developed in the case of just such a malfunction, Aldrin guided Commander Jim Lovell to a successful rendezvous and docking with the Agena target vehicle.
This was an important moment for NASA as it proves the skills honed during the ten Gemini missions can overcome potentially catastrophic problems, problems that could arise on a flight as crammed as Gemini 1 2.
In four days, the crew is expected to dock twice more with the Agena, using its rocket engine to send them into an even higher orbit around the Earth.
Three spacewalks, Dr Rendezvous himself, Buzz Aldrin, will perform experiments, photograph star fields and remain outside the capsule longer than any astronaut to date using modified handrails and equipment specifically designed for work in zero gravity.
For Lovell, who will remain inside the spacecraft, these four days of orbiting the Earth, together with the 1 4 days aboard Gemini 7, will make him the most travelled man in history.
Jimbo, gonna clean your windshield.
Hey, Buzz, check the oil too, would you? And so the curtain rings down on this second act of man's voyage to the moon.
NASA officials are confident that the third act, Project Apollo, will place a human being, in the form of an American astronaut, on the moon sometime before midnight New Year's Eve, 1969.
From Houston, I'm Emmett Seaborn.
- Good morning.
- How you doing? Some crowd, huh? They think you're announcing your return to the flight rotation.
You can announce mine while you're at it.
- At least I can teach a couple of 'em.
- Yes, you could.
Owen Maynard and the Mission Operations Division has laid out a plan for the Apollo flights that will lead up to the landing on the moon.
Each of these missions has a letter.
The A and B missions will be unmanned tests.
The C mission will be the first manned flight of the command and service module.
Gus, Ed and Roger in Apollo 1.
The D mission will be the first dual flight of the CSM with the lunar module in low-Earth orbit to test it out.
The E mission will do the same in high-Earth orbit for re-entry procedures.
The F mission will go all the way to lunar orbit with the LEM but won't land.
That will be the objective of whoever takes the first G mission.
Now, each of these missions must be successfully completed before we can move on to the next type of mission.
If we have problems with the rendezvous radar or the backpacks or the retracting probe, we will go to a D-1 or a D-2 or even a D-3 mission before we attempt the first E mission.
So, even though there are only five manned missions laid out, it does not necessarily mean that the fifth group will make the first landing, which brings me to the point of this meeting.
Assembled here are those of you that are left from the original seven Mercury astronauts, as well as the new nine or the next nine, or whatever you guys call yourselves, and some of the third group.
The crew assignments that will be made concern you in the following manner.
The men in this room will be making moon landings.
Two of you will be first.
I don't know which two that will be.
But I do know that the first man to walk on the moon walked into this room today and is looking at me right now, as well as the second, the third and the fourth and so on.
Just thought you might wanna know that.
That is all, gentlemen.