From the Earth to the Moon (1998) s01e05 Episode Script
Spider
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 ya.
Before painting the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo had to first construct a massive scaffolding to allow him access to the ceiling without interfering with the chapel's daily use.
He had to develop special wax models so he could study the lighting effects to be duplicated in the frescoes and come up with a special slow-drying plaster.
He suffered constant deadline pressure from frustrated church officials and the Pope, who just wanted the ceiling finished.
The work itself was uncomfortable and unending with wet paint and plaster dripping in the face of the man who was not, after all, a painter but a sculptor.
Such challenges arise in all the great works of human imagination, be they the creation of our world rendered upon the ceiling of a church, or the view of our world evident by making the voyage from the Earth to the moon.
For a long time, the only people who thought of going to the moon were science fiction writers.
In October, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik and everything changed.
Suddenly, going to the moon was a possibility.
The question was, how do you do it? Four months after Sputnik, Wernher Von Braun briefed the head of NACA.
He presented the two best options for going to the moon.
There are two methods.
The first method we call Direct Ascent.
You build an enormous rocket, put a capsule on top.
Boom, you go straight to the moon.
The other method we call Earth Orbit Rendezvous.
Instead of using one huge rocket, we perform several launches with smaller rockets, each carrying a component of the spacecraft.
We put the pieces together in orbit and off we go.
And these two methods, these are the only ways of getting to the moon? Yes.
Actually, there were other ideas.
So we started thinking, "What can we do right now?" And then it hit us.
The moon! You rendezvous on the surface of the moon.
- The problem isn't getting a man to the moon.
- Easy.
- It's not.
- Relatively.
- Pretty easy.
The problem is getting him back.
- So we say You send up some ships to the moon with all the extra fuel and supplies to get back.
That way, when the astronauts arrive, everything they need to get home is already there.
We put a man on the moon as soon as possible.
Just get him there.
- We can keep sending supply ships.
- Until we figure a way to get him back! Well, that's That's No.
I'm sorry, gentlemen.
There is no way on God's green Earth, we would ever do anything like that.
I'm sorry.
It looked like either Earth Orbit Rendezvous or Direct Ascent would be the way to go.
Either way we go, the spacecraft that lands on the moon is going to look like that.
Yes, just like that.
No.
It doesn't have to look like this at all.
At Chance Vought Industries in Texas, an engineer named Tom Dolan hit upon an interesting idea.
You ever hear of a Russian rocket guy named Yuri Kondratyuk? No.
In 1916 he realised something we seem to have forgotten today.
Getting to the moon is going to be all about weight.
Look at the size of this thing.
It's gotta be 60-70 feet tall.
A couple of hundred tons at least.
Do you really need to take all that to the surface? No.
What Kondratyuk wondered What I wonder is what if you took along a smaller vehicle, lightweight, that you just used to land? Something like this.
But you could never re-enter the atmosphere.
I know.
You come back on the spacecraft you took from Earth.
But that means you'd have to have a rendezvous in lunar orbit.
Exactly.
Von Braun calls his method Earth Orbit Rendezvous.
I call this Lunar Orbit Rendezvous.
We don't know if rendezvous is possible in Earth orbit and you wanna do it around the moon? Wouldn't that be kind of dangerous? I don't know.
Would it? Well, Mr Dolan, this is certainly a very interesting idea.
Why don't you let us think about it? - I've prepared a report.
- I have everything I need right here.
Thank you for your time.
Chances are, Lunar Orbit Rendezvous would have ended up as nothing more than a footnote in the history of space exploration if a report on the idea hadn't landed on the desk of a NASA engineer by the name of John Houbolt.
When he started reading the report, Houbolt had the same reaction others did.
Lunar Orbit Rendezvous seemed like just another far-fetched scheme.
But the more he read, the more the idea made sense.
By the time John Houbolt finished the report, he knew this was it.
This was how you get to the moon.
Now, over the past few weeks I've prepared this report on Lunar Orbit Rendezvous and I think you'll find it interesting.
Look at Houbolt.
He reads the report and he's Moses, come down from the mountain.
- So he's a little enthusiastic.
- He's making a fool of himself.
You hear what happened in the Heaton Committee? He wasn't even allowed into the technical conference.
Well, he'll get the hint and he'll give it up.
I hear he's going to write to Seamans.
- He doesn't report to Seamans.
- I know.
- He could get canned.
- I know.
"Dear Dr Seamans, Somewhat as a voice in the wilderness, "I would like to pass on a few thoughts on matters "that have been of a deep concern to me over the recent months.
"I have tried, on numerous occasions "to draw attention throughout NASA to the concept of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous.
"Regrettably there has been little interest shown.
"Now, do we wanna get to the moon or not?" Yes, sir.
Right away, sir.
It goes on like this for another eight pages and then there's a 40-page report.
Good Lord! I can make a call.
He won't do it again.
Hold on.
I'll tell you what.
Draft a reply.
Say that his idea has merit and that I'm going to send it along to Brainerd and then see if this Mr Houbolt isn't due a vacation soon, because, dear God, he needs one.
"Somewhat as a voice in the wilderness.
" OK.
Does it have merit? Well, actually it's an intriguing notion.
It's a little risky but it could save a lot of weight.
There's no chance in hell Lunar Orbit Rendezvous is the way we're gonna go but it is interesting.
I'll see you at 3:00.
In July 1 962, the idea that didn't have a chance in hell of succeeding succeeded.
NASA selected Lunar Orbit Rendezvous as the way to go to the moon.
Now the question became, who would build the lander? My name is Tom Kelly.
On the day after election day, 1 962, I waited with the rest of the Grumman lander team for a call from my boss, Joe Gavin.
Whoever's tapping the pencil, if you value your life, please stop.
Sorry.
Any word? Yeah, Frank.
We got the contract.
We're just observing a moment of silence for the companies that didn't.
OK.
Look, this is crazy.
Let's I mean, this might not happen for an hour or more.
Let's go back to work and I'll let you know.
OK? Tom Kelly.
Hi, Joe.
We've been I see.
OK.
Thanks, Joe.
Bye.
I'm afraid you're gonna have to go tell your wives and kids the bad news, fellas.
You won't see much of them for the next couple years because we got the contract! You did it, Tom.
No, I'm trying to hit the flashing.
The contract.
You did it.
Well, we did it.
We all did it.
Quite a story, really.
- "Local Long Island boy makes good.
" - Yeah, yeah.
"Local boy convinces government to give "local Long Island company half a billion dollars.
" The rubber balls you're gonna have to pay for yourself.
You know, if weight wasn't a factor, we'd have this thing done in a year.
True enough.
But weight's gonna be the most important factor.
If we could find some teeny-tiny astronauts we'd be done in a month.
They've given us seven years.
We might as well use 'em.
Seven years.
Well, let's get started.
OK, specs call for five legs.
I think four will be better.
It'll be as stable and we won't have to worry about interference with the thruster quads.
Let's go with an octagonal descent stage.
I think a round one's gonna end up being more trouble than it's worth.
Bob, how much do these windows weigh? - I don't know.
A couple ounces? - Bob.
- The real ones? - Yeah.
Five, six hundred pounds at least.
- Really? - Yeah.
- Do we need 'em? - Yeah, Tom.
I think the astronauts might wanna see where they're going.
Do they need windows this big? No.
Of course they do.
Otherwise they wouldn't be able to see from their seats.
- What? - What if they don't need seats? - They have to have seats, John.
- Why? They can fly standing up.
- Yes, but they have to land.
- In 1/6 gravity.
And legs are great shock absorbers.
If they were standing, they'd be a lot closer to the window, increasing their field of view and we wouldn't need such big windows in the first place.
- What do you think? - Well, I think it's interesting.
But I don't really see it.
Sorry.
Good try, though.
Let's help him see it.
What the heck is that? What we did instead of sleep.
Well, John.
I can certainly see it now.
OK.
Beautiful.
I gotta call Joe Gavin about the budget.
One more thing, thermal shields.
Costing us way too much weight in the descent stage.
You know, I don't think we need shields.
Right, Frank.
It's gonna be 250 degrees in the sunlight and minus 250 in the shade but we don't need thermal shields.
Sarcasm's really helpful, Jim.
I mean maybe we can use something other than the shielding that's been used before.
It'll look like that.
Mylar film between layers of kapton with an outer layer of nickel foil.
How thin is the Mylar? - 1/8,000 of an inch.
- Oh, well.
As long as it's good and sturdy.
We'll use a couple dozen layers all around.
More where we need it, by the thrusters.
It'll do the job, Tom.
OK, well, we'll see how it goes in testing.
Now, hatches.
As it stands, we have two docking hatches.
We can't afford the weight.
I've been on the phone with Owen at NASA and John Healey at North American and we agree.
We're gonna go with just one docking hatch up top and use a forward hatch for egress.
When they come back they'll have to rendezvous and dock blind.
We'll put a window up top so the pilot can look up as he docks.
Another window? How much is that gonna weigh? I don't know.
It's gotta be less than a second docking hatch.
Tom, that will require the astronaut flying the LEM to make a 90-degree change in axis.
Left roll becomes left yaw.
- But left yaw becomes right roll - Arnold.
Astronauts are smart.
They'll figure it out.
OK.
Apparently we're not done with the hatches.
I just got off the phone with Pete Conrad.
Because of the square backpacks, we're gonna have to put in a square hatch.
Did you like Ed swinging around like Tarzan yesterday? Yeah.
Rope ladder's not gonna fly.
No.
I'll call the configuration control board.
We can put some rungs on the forward leg.
OK, one more thing.
It's no longer the Lunar Excursion Module any more.
Everybody feels that excursion sounds like it's gonna go out on a school trip.
From now on it's just the Lunar Module.
I'm still gonna call it the LEM for short.
John, you do whatever makes you happy.
Well? I guess we'd better start building them.
Let's make sure we film everything we do.
You wanna show NASA where its 500 million is going? Yeah.
I wanna show my kids where I was while they were growing up.
Every LEM would have to be handmade.
There was no supplier to order LEM parts from and because everything on a LEM was new, everything had to be tested and tested again.
The thrusters, the engines, the deployment of the landing gear.
We had to know how a LEM would react when exposed to intense sunlight or when pelted with dust.
We had to know how the landing gear would perform coming down on a slope.
Thousands of tests day after day for years.
Some of the tests went well.
And some did not.
Is this why the leg snapped? Apparently I made the initial miscalculation a few months ago.
Everything has been based on that since then.
Mr Kelly, I'm sorry.
- When did you find this out? - Last night.
After the test I decided to go over my figures.
I understand if you You know.
Go home.
And get some rest.
Look Did you come to me right away when you found out or did you try to cover your ass? You did a good thing.
Not this.
This is bad.
But as long as people speak up about their mistakes, we've got a shot.
OK? They try to sweep it under the rug and we're not gonna go to New Jersey, let alone the moon.
Get some rest.
Truth be told, we were behind schedule from the beginning.
But mistakes and miscalculations were only a small part of it.
The real problem is that a LEM isn't one spacecraft but two.
The lower half of the LEM, the descent stage, contains the engine that the astronauts will use to control their landing.
After the moonwalks, the descent stage will serve as a launch platform for the ascent stage, the cockpit of the LEM, which the astronauts will fly into lunar orbit for their rendezvous with the command module.
Now, this particular ascent stage belonged to LEM 3.
LEM 1 and 2 were designed and built for unmanned test flights.
LEM 3 would be the first to be flown in space by astronauts.
We worked hand in hand with the astronauts from the beginning of the LEM programme.
They showed us what we were doing right and what we were doing wrong.
From early on much of their attention was given to LEM 3 but it wasn't until a day in November, 1 966 that NASA decided which crew would be the one to actually fly her.
I just got off the phone with Deke Slayton.
The crew assigned to take the LEM 3 into space on the first manned flight of a lunar module is as follows.
Commander Jim McDivitt, a Gemini vet, one of the best pilots in the programme.
Command Module Pilot Dave Scott, another Gemini vet.
And flying right beside McDivitt as his LMP, Rusty Schweickart, a rookie.
Now any crew is a good crew but these guys well, I think we're pretty fortunate because, gentlemen, this won't be an easy mission.
We're off the lake, Jim.
Can we talk business now? Well, if you insist.
I've been going over the mission plan and it looks a little rough.
- It is kind of ambitious, Jim.
- Heck, it's not ambitious.
It's impossible.
Look, everyone's focusing on us flying the LEM.
It's only a small part of it.
Every mission's got a few things never been done before.
This one's got about ten.
First manned launch of a LEM, first docking extraction of a LEM, first men in a LEM in space.
And we just go out and fly the LEM, right? Wrong.
Before we can even undock the LEM from the command module, we gotta make sure we can do an emergency transfer outside the craft.
Which means, Rusty, you're gonna have to do an EVA on the PLSS backpack, first use of that.
Dave, we're gonna leave you alone in the command module.
First time that'll have happened.
Then the real fun begins.
First I pop the thruster, see if the LEM can fly.
If it can, Rusty and I fire the descent engine, take the thing on its maiden voyage.
We go out a hundred miles or so.
God willing, the ascent engine lights, first firing of that in space.
Then Rusty and I head back to you for the first docking of a two-man spacecraft.
All right, so it's only nine things never been done before.
Give me a hand with the trailer.
But you guys are right.
It's a lot for one mission.
Maybe too much.
If we get even half of it done we can call it a success.
I can't wait! While Scott went to Downey to work on the command module, McDivitt and Schweickart joined us on Long Island.
So you wanna take the vehicle for a spin? - Gee, Dad.
Can we? - Sure.
As long as you don't bring her back empty.
The hardest part of getting the first LEMs to fly was getting the thousands of systems and subsystems to work together.
Mostly it was like having a ballroom full of dancers dancing different steps to music that wasn't quite right for any of them.
- Bring that TL up.
- Roger, TC.
And TTCA four jets down.
Copy, TC.
TTCA four jets down.
Well, that can't be good.
Now let's cycle that one more time.
Yep.
Roger, TC.
For the You know, you look more and more like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.
Funny you should say that.
I got guys digging a tunnel under the east fence.
Should reach the trees by Sunday.
Ready to start up again.
We think we've got it.
Let's do it.
- TFI telemetry cal off.
- Copy, TC.
- TFI power off.
- Roger, TC.
- R&D A off.
- Copy that, TC.
God bless it! Tom, what's up with the radar? Tom Kelly.
Hi, Lou.
Yeah, I know Well I know what we're up against, Lou.
We will make the date.
I need to know if we can make the date.
If we can't, I'm gonna have to take cash from the safe and move to South America.
OK.
Bob? Yep.
- Arnie? - Sure.
- John? - Yes, sir.
The other John? Sorry, Tom.
The cockpit's gonna take another three weeks.
- We could use a few weeks ourselves.
- Us too.
If we had it, we could certainly use it.
You know, Tom, I hear Bolivia is really nice this time of year.
You know, this is so bad I can't even joke about it.
Perhaps we were behind schedule and over budget because budgets and schedules are based on previous experience with similar projects.
We didn't know how much it'd cost to build the LEMs or how long it would take.
All we really knew was how much time we'd been given and that was running out.
LEM 3 was scheduled to be launched in the fall of 1 968.
To make the launch, NASA needed delivery some time that spring.
We were working as fast as we could, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and it wasn't enough.
In June, 1 968 it was decided that we'd ship LEM 3 to NASA as she was and finish the work at the Cape.
You know, I don't know what I'm so worked up about.
I mean, what's the worst that could happen? Well, we ship the LEM to NASA, we never get it to fly, the Russians beat us to the moon and within ten years we're all living under the iron thumb of Communism.
Exactly.
Remember when seven years seemed like a long time? Remember when this whole thing was only gonna cost 500 million? You know, I can't even remember when it was gonna cost a billion.
Unfortunately, moving LEM 3 to the Cape did little to ease the pressure we were under.
Tom, there's still 100 things wrong with it.
- We'll get it fixed in time.
- No, you won't.
There is no way that in three months that thing is gonna be ready to fly.
Look, Jim, it's It's a good machine.
Just needs a little fine-tuning.
That's all.
You don't have to whisper.
It can't hear you.
Look, I want it to go up as much as you do.
I know we're running out of time.
It's 18 months to the end of the decade and we still haven't had a single manned Apollo flight, I know that.
But that doesn't change the facts.
LEM 3 is not ready to fly.
And it won't be any time soon.
That's gonna have to be my recommendation to headquarters.
Now, with the LEM 3 not ready to fly after Wally and the 7 crew go up with the CSM in October, that means there won't be another Apollo flight until the spring.
- Right.
- Well, maybe not.
George has come up with a rather wild idea.
How wild? Frank's mission is being scrubbed.
We've created a new C-Prime mission which will precede your mission.
What's the mission? Well, we're gonna send the command and service module, no lunar module on a flight around the moon in December.
Really? What's Frank think about that? I haven't talked to Frank yet.
I'm talking to you first.
I don't want to lose your crew's experience with LEM 3.
That's why we decided to send Frank on this mission ahead of you.
But I wanted to see what you had to say about it before I told Frank.
I told him we'd stick with the mission we got.
Good.
Going around the moon sounds like a blast and all but I really wanna fly the LEM.
That's pretty much what Dave said.
I called him in Downey.
He said he really wanted to fly the command module solo, get us out of his hair for a few hours.
I don't know, though.
Maybe we're making a mistake.
Maybe we're missing out on some historical voyage.
I don't know, Jim.
Maybe.
But it sounds like they're just gonna be sightseeing.
With all the things we gotta do, our mission's fun.
Yeah, we got a great mission.
Providing that thing will fly.
In the fall of 1 968 while work continued on LEM 3, the Apollo programme finally got off the ground.
On October 1 1th, just a few miles from where LEM 3 was being fine-tuned, Apollo 7 was launched.
Two months later, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders took Apollo 8 on its historic flight around the moon.
All that time, LEM 3 was being worked on around the clock.
By February 1 969, George and the rest of the Grumman crew had tested every circuit and tightened every bolt.
LEM 3 was ready.
- I like the call sign.
- Spider? It seemed appropriate.
- How about the command module? - Gumdrop.
When it came from North American it was wrapped in blue plastic.
It's sort of what it looked like.
Maybe you should go up with us, make sure everything's OK.
I'd love to go up with you.
She's ready.
I know.
We'd better get back to the sim.
- She's a beautiful machine, Tom.
- Isn't she? - You think it's beautiful? - It looks like a toaster with legs but I'm not gonna tell him that.
- Hold on a minute, Bill.
- I gotta get him to the airport.
Look, he spent the last seven years of his life building that thing.
Let's give him a moment to say goodbye.
It stays up there, remember? As far as LEM 3 was concerned that should have been it for me.
I should have been able to sit back in the SPAN room in Houston and watch the show.
But in the early hours of launch day, the pressure in one of LEM 3's fuel tanks was reading disturbingly high.
It's the helium tank? Actually, sir, the super critical helium.
- How's it reading now? - Still on the edge.
Meaning? Meaning we'd like to be down the middle of the tolerance band but we're not.
Give me the worst case.
When the LEM heads away from the command module and they're throttling up, the tank could over-pressurize and the burst disk could blow.
We would lose helium on the descent stage.
They would not be stranded.
They'd still have the ascent engine.
But it would kill the mission.
Tom, I'll need the official Grumman position on this.
We're still within the limits.
It'll fly.
In the last few minutes before launch I managed to put the tank pressure problem out of my mind for a moment.
I tried to imagine what it was like in LEM 3 just then.
Astronauts have said that sitting in the command module during a countdown can be almost peaceful.
Must have been even more peaceful in LEM 3.
At least until For the next ten minutes it must have been like LEM 3 was stuck in a paint mixer in a hardware store.
And when it must have seemed the shaking would never stop, it did.
On the second day of the mission, Rusty became the first person to enter a LEM in space.
Later that day, shortly after Rusty and Jim extended the landing gear, something happened which brought the mission to a halt.
OK, I got gear out in front of me now.
OK, landing gear deploy, safe? Roger, safe.
Sequence camera, off.
GET is 45-1-1-3-5.
TFI telemetry cal off.
TFI power, off.
TFI, off.
- R&D A, off.
- TFI power, off.
R&D instrumentation A, off.
R&D instrumentation A, off.
OK, Deke.
I'm gonna have to recommend we scrub the EVA tomorrow.
We got you, Jim.
Jim, if Rusty doesn't do the EVA I understand the ramifications, Dave.
I just don't think it's safe for you to do it.
I don't think we can put you in a pressurized suit if it looks like you're gonna throw up.
We'll proceed with the checklist tomorrow.
Check out as many systems as we can without undocking.
It's just gonna have to be it.
If Rusty were to throw up in a suit, he'd likely asphyxiate and die before Jim could get him back into the LEM and repressurize.
But if Rusty didn't test the backpack, the LEM couldn't undock from the command module.
When Jim canceled the EVA, we all understood but we were devastated.
LEM 3 would not fly.
Next day, as Rusty and Jim went through the checklist, the mood at NASA was grim.
The mood lifted a little when one of Jim's transmissions made everyone smile.
Well, almost everyone.
- Houston, this is Apollo 9.
- Go ahead, Apollo 9.
Houston, if some of our friends from Grumman are listening in, I suggest on the next LEM they give a go with a vacuum cleaner.
We got a few odds and ends floating around in here.
Roger, Apollo 9.
We'll pass that along.
Oh, well.
In a few minutes, even I would be smiling.
You look like you're feeling better.
I am.
I feel good.
How good? Real good.
What do you say you go outside? I think that's a good idea.
- Gumdrop, this is Spider.
- Roger, Spider.
Dave, Rusty's feeling a lot better and he looks better too.
I thought maybe he should go out on the porch and get some fresh air.
Hey, man! I like the sound of that.
For 45 minutes, every available camera on Apollo 9 was put to use filming the first two-man space walk in history.
While Rusty stood on LEM 3's porch, Dave stood in the hatch of the command module to film Rusty's test of the backpack.
When one of Dave's cameras broke he went back inside to fix it.
That gave Rusty something unheard of on an EVA, free time.
For three minutes there was nothing for him to do but look at the Earth.
With the backpack tested, it was time to see if LEM 3 could fly.
That's a nice-looking machine.
It's not like an F-86, I'll tell you that.
It's an ungainly beast.
But it really flies.
Houston, Spider.
We are preparing to throttle up the descent engine.
Roger, Spider.
Then it was time to see if the decision I had made just before the launch was the right one.
The tank'll be fine.
It'll hold.
Throttle to 20%.
It's a little rough there.
Wasn't it? I think we swallowed a little helium.
Let's try it again.
Throttle to 40%.
Houston, Spider.
Everything looks good here.
It was a good burn.
Keep track of us, will you, Davey? Roger that.
See you in a while.
Jim and Rusty took LEM 3 out 1 1 0 miles from the command module.
To get back to Dave they had to separate from the descent stage, then fire the ascent engine.
Thirteen feet per second.
Nine feet per second.
I have the interconnects.
Five, four, three, two, one, we have shutdown.
Roger.
We have a good burn.
No residuals.
And there goes half our spacecraft.
A short time later, LEM 3 redocked with the command module.
Her mission was over.
That's a song I haven't heard in a long time.
- You all set, Rusty? - Yeah, Jim.
All right.
I'll see you up at CSM.
I don't suppose they're gonna let anybody back up they think'll get sick? I don't know, Rusty.
I'll tell ya, those few minutes I had outside while Dave was working on the camera that was something special.
I just wanted to say thanks.
The only reason it was a question is I didn't want you to kill yourself.
And I'll try not to for the rest of the mission.
All right.
I'll see you inside.
Yep.
LEM 3 would fly one last time but this time she would fly alone.
OK, the tunnel's closed out, the pyros are armed.
We're all set.
All right.
So long, Spider.
Hope I didn't leave anything in there.
When I first saw the LEM I thought, "You gotta be kidding.
" But it kind of grows on you.
It really is a beautiful machine.
Listen to me.
I sound like Tom Kelly.
But you guys are right.
It's a lot for one mission.
Maybe too much.
If we get even half of it done we can call it a success.
I can't wait! Apollo 9 had shown that a LEM could fly.
At least in Earth orbit.
Two months later on Apollo 1 0, Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan took LEM 4 down to within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface.
Look at that.
There's enough boulders to fill up Galveston Bay! Houston, we is goin', and we is down among 'em, Charlie! Now only one question about the LEM remains.
The biggest question of all.
And it will be up to the next LEM to answer it.
When I said goodbye to LEM 3, I felt like a proud parent watching a child go off to college.
As I say goodbye to this LEM, I feel like a parent of centuries past saying farewell as his child embarks for the New World.
To some people, that might sound like I'm stretching the point.
A LEM is not a child, it's a machine and a machine doesn't have a soul.
We may yell at our toasters and give names to our cars but in the end even a LEM is just a collection of wires and circuits and nuts and bolts.
I don't know.
I think each LEM does have a soul.
It's a soul of all the people who built her, designed her, first dreamed of her.
- What number is this one? - This one is LEM 5.
- Thank you for inviting us here today.
- You're welcome, Mr Houbolt.
Without you guys there might not be anybody here today.
- Someone would have thought of it.
- Maybe.
And this is the actual machine that's gonna land on the moon? Yep.
- What are they calling this one? - This one? This one is the Eagle.
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 ya.
Before painting the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo had to first construct a massive scaffolding to allow him access to the ceiling without interfering with the chapel's daily use.
He had to develop special wax models so he could study the lighting effects to be duplicated in the frescoes and come up with a special slow-drying plaster.
He suffered constant deadline pressure from frustrated church officials and the Pope, who just wanted the ceiling finished.
The work itself was uncomfortable and unending with wet paint and plaster dripping in the face of the man who was not, after all, a painter but a sculptor.
Such challenges arise in all the great works of human imagination, be they the creation of our world rendered upon the ceiling of a church, or the view of our world evident by making the voyage from the Earth to the moon.
For a long time, the only people who thought of going to the moon were science fiction writers.
In October, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik and everything changed.
Suddenly, going to the moon was a possibility.
The question was, how do you do it? Four months after Sputnik, Wernher Von Braun briefed the head of NACA.
He presented the two best options for going to the moon.
There are two methods.
The first method we call Direct Ascent.
You build an enormous rocket, put a capsule on top.
Boom, you go straight to the moon.
The other method we call Earth Orbit Rendezvous.
Instead of using one huge rocket, we perform several launches with smaller rockets, each carrying a component of the spacecraft.
We put the pieces together in orbit and off we go.
And these two methods, these are the only ways of getting to the moon? Yes.
Actually, there were other ideas.
So we started thinking, "What can we do right now?" And then it hit us.
The moon! You rendezvous on the surface of the moon.
- The problem isn't getting a man to the moon.
- Easy.
- It's not.
- Relatively.
- Pretty easy.
The problem is getting him back.
- So we say You send up some ships to the moon with all the extra fuel and supplies to get back.
That way, when the astronauts arrive, everything they need to get home is already there.
We put a man on the moon as soon as possible.
Just get him there.
- We can keep sending supply ships.
- Until we figure a way to get him back! Well, that's That's No.
I'm sorry, gentlemen.
There is no way on God's green Earth, we would ever do anything like that.
I'm sorry.
It looked like either Earth Orbit Rendezvous or Direct Ascent would be the way to go.
Either way we go, the spacecraft that lands on the moon is going to look like that.
Yes, just like that.
No.
It doesn't have to look like this at all.
At Chance Vought Industries in Texas, an engineer named Tom Dolan hit upon an interesting idea.
You ever hear of a Russian rocket guy named Yuri Kondratyuk? No.
In 1916 he realised something we seem to have forgotten today.
Getting to the moon is going to be all about weight.
Look at the size of this thing.
It's gotta be 60-70 feet tall.
A couple of hundred tons at least.
Do you really need to take all that to the surface? No.
What Kondratyuk wondered What I wonder is what if you took along a smaller vehicle, lightweight, that you just used to land? Something like this.
But you could never re-enter the atmosphere.
I know.
You come back on the spacecraft you took from Earth.
But that means you'd have to have a rendezvous in lunar orbit.
Exactly.
Von Braun calls his method Earth Orbit Rendezvous.
I call this Lunar Orbit Rendezvous.
We don't know if rendezvous is possible in Earth orbit and you wanna do it around the moon? Wouldn't that be kind of dangerous? I don't know.
Would it? Well, Mr Dolan, this is certainly a very interesting idea.
Why don't you let us think about it? - I've prepared a report.
- I have everything I need right here.
Thank you for your time.
Chances are, Lunar Orbit Rendezvous would have ended up as nothing more than a footnote in the history of space exploration if a report on the idea hadn't landed on the desk of a NASA engineer by the name of John Houbolt.
When he started reading the report, Houbolt had the same reaction others did.
Lunar Orbit Rendezvous seemed like just another far-fetched scheme.
But the more he read, the more the idea made sense.
By the time John Houbolt finished the report, he knew this was it.
This was how you get to the moon.
Now, over the past few weeks I've prepared this report on Lunar Orbit Rendezvous and I think you'll find it interesting.
Look at Houbolt.
He reads the report and he's Moses, come down from the mountain.
- So he's a little enthusiastic.
- He's making a fool of himself.
You hear what happened in the Heaton Committee? He wasn't even allowed into the technical conference.
Well, he'll get the hint and he'll give it up.
I hear he's going to write to Seamans.
- He doesn't report to Seamans.
- I know.
- He could get canned.
- I know.
"Dear Dr Seamans, Somewhat as a voice in the wilderness, "I would like to pass on a few thoughts on matters "that have been of a deep concern to me over the recent months.
"I have tried, on numerous occasions "to draw attention throughout NASA to the concept of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous.
"Regrettably there has been little interest shown.
"Now, do we wanna get to the moon or not?" Yes, sir.
Right away, sir.
It goes on like this for another eight pages and then there's a 40-page report.
Good Lord! I can make a call.
He won't do it again.
Hold on.
I'll tell you what.
Draft a reply.
Say that his idea has merit and that I'm going to send it along to Brainerd and then see if this Mr Houbolt isn't due a vacation soon, because, dear God, he needs one.
"Somewhat as a voice in the wilderness.
" OK.
Does it have merit? Well, actually it's an intriguing notion.
It's a little risky but it could save a lot of weight.
There's no chance in hell Lunar Orbit Rendezvous is the way we're gonna go but it is interesting.
I'll see you at 3:00.
In July 1 962, the idea that didn't have a chance in hell of succeeding succeeded.
NASA selected Lunar Orbit Rendezvous as the way to go to the moon.
Now the question became, who would build the lander? My name is Tom Kelly.
On the day after election day, 1 962, I waited with the rest of the Grumman lander team for a call from my boss, Joe Gavin.
Whoever's tapping the pencil, if you value your life, please stop.
Sorry.
Any word? Yeah, Frank.
We got the contract.
We're just observing a moment of silence for the companies that didn't.
OK.
Look, this is crazy.
Let's I mean, this might not happen for an hour or more.
Let's go back to work and I'll let you know.
OK? Tom Kelly.
Hi, Joe.
We've been I see.
OK.
Thanks, Joe.
Bye.
I'm afraid you're gonna have to go tell your wives and kids the bad news, fellas.
You won't see much of them for the next couple years because we got the contract! You did it, Tom.
No, I'm trying to hit the flashing.
The contract.
You did it.
Well, we did it.
We all did it.
Quite a story, really.
- "Local Long Island boy makes good.
" - Yeah, yeah.
"Local boy convinces government to give "local Long Island company half a billion dollars.
" The rubber balls you're gonna have to pay for yourself.
You know, if weight wasn't a factor, we'd have this thing done in a year.
True enough.
But weight's gonna be the most important factor.
If we could find some teeny-tiny astronauts we'd be done in a month.
They've given us seven years.
We might as well use 'em.
Seven years.
Well, let's get started.
OK, specs call for five legs.
I think four will be better.
It'll be as stable and we won't have to worry about interference with the thruster quads.
Let's go with an octagonal descent stage.
I think a round one's gonna end up being more trouble than it's worth.
Bob, how much do these windows weigh? - I don't know.
A couple ounces? - Bob.
- The real ones? - Yeah.
Five, six hundred pounds at least.
- Really? - Yeah.
- Do we need 'em? - Yeah, Tom.
I think the astronauts might wanna see where they're going.
Do they need windows this big? No.
Of course they do.
Otherwise they wouldn't be able to see from their seats.
- What? - What if they don't need seats? - They have to have seats, John.
- Why? They can fly standing up.
- Yes, but they have to land.
- In 1/6 gravity.
And legs are great shock absorbers.
If they were standing, they'd be a lot closer to the window, increasing their field of view and we wouldn't need such big windows in the first place.
- What do you think? - Well, I think it's interesting.
But I don't really see it.
Sorry.
Good try, though.
Let's help him see it.
What the heck is that? What we did instead of sleep.
Well, John.
I can certainly see it now.
OK.
Beautiful.
I gotta call Joe Gavin about the budget.
One more thing, thermal shields.
Costing us way too much weight in the descent stage.
You know, I don't think we need shields.
Right, Frank.
It's gonna be 250 degrees in the sunlight and minus 250 in the shade but we don't need thermal shields.
Sarcasm's really helpful, Jim.
I mean maybe we can use something other than the shielding that's been used before.
It'll look like that.
Mylar film between layers of kapton with an outer layer of nickel foil.
How thin is the Mylar? - 1/8,000 of an inch.
- Oh, well.
As long as it's good and sturdy.
We'll use a couple dozen layers all around.
More where we need it, by the thrusters.
It'll do the job, Tom.
OK, well, we'll see how it goes in testing.
Now, hatches.
As it stands, we have two docking hatches.
We can't afford the weight.
I've been on the phone with Owen at NASA and John Healey at North American and we agree.
We're gonna go with just one docking hatch up top and use a forward hatch for egress.
When they come back they'll have to rendezvous and dock blind.
We'll put a window up top so the pilot can look up as he docks.
Another window? How much is that gonna weigh? I don't know.
It's gotta be less than a second docking hatch.
Tom, that will require the astronaut flying the LEM to make a 90-degree change in axis.
Left roll becomes left yaw.
- But left yaw becomes right roll - Arnold.
Astronauts are smart.
They'll figure it out.
OK.
Apparently we're not done with the hatches.
I just got off the phone with Pete Conrad.
Because of the square backpacks, we're gonna have to put in a square hatch.
Did you like Ed swinging around like Tarzan yesterday? Yeah.
Rope ladder's not gonna fly.
No.
I'll call the configuration control board.
We can put some rungs on the forward leg.
OK, one more thing.
It's no longer the Lunar Excursion Module any more.
Everybody feels that excursion sounds like it's gonna go out on a school trip.
From now on it's just the Lunar Module.
I'm still gonna call it the LEM for short.
John, you do whatever makes you happy.
Well? I guess we'd better start building them.
Let's make sure we film everything we do.
You wanna show NASA where its 500 million is going? Yeah.
I wanna show my kids where I was while they were growing up.
Every LEM would have to be handmade.
There was no supplier to order LEM parts from and because everything on a LEM was new, everything had to be tested and tested again.
The thrusters, the engines, the deployment of the landing gear.
We had to know how a LEM would react when exposed to intense sunlight or when pelted with dust.
We had to know how the landing gear would perform coming down on a slope.
Thousands of tests day after day for years.
Some of the tests went well.
And some did not.
Is this why the leg snapped? Apparently I made the initial miscalculation a few months ago.
Everything has been based on that since then.
Mr Kelly, I'm sorry.
- When did you find this out? - Last night.
After the test I decided to go over my figures.
I understand if you You know.
Go home.
And get some rest.
Look Did you come to me right away when you found out or did you try to cover your ass? You did a good thing.
Not this.
This is bad.
But as long as people speak up about their mistakes, we've got a shot.
OK? They try to sweep it under the rug and we're not gonna go to New Jersey, let alone the moon.
Get some rest.
Truth be told, we were behind schedule from the beginning.
But mistakes and miscalculations were only a small part of it.
The real problem is that a LEM isn't one spacecraft but two.
The lower half of the LEM, the descent stage, contains the engine that the astronauts will use to control their landing.
After the moonwalks, the descent stage will serve as a launch platform for the ascent stage, the cockpit of the LEM, which the astronauts will fly into lunar orbit for their rendezvous with the command module.
Now, this particular ascent stage belonged to LEM 3.
LEM 1 and 2 were designed and built for unmanned test flights.
LEM 3 would be the first to be flown in space by astronauts.
We worked hand in hand with the astronauts from the beginning of the LEM programme.
They showed us what we were doing right and what we were doing wrong.
From early on much of their attention was given to LEM 3 but it wasn't until a day in November, 1 966 that NASA decided which crew would be the one to actually fly her.
I just got off the phone with Deke Slayton.
The crew assigned to take the LEM 3 into space on the first manned flight of a lunar module is as follows.
Commander Jim McDivitt, a Gemini vet, one of the best pilots in the programme.
Command Module Pilot Dave Scott, another Gemini vet.
And flying right beside McDivitt as his LMP, Rusty Schweickart, a rookie.
Now any crew is a good crew but these guys well, I think we're pretty fortunate because, gentlemen, this won't be an easy mission.
We're off the lake, Jim.
Can we talk business now? Well, if you insist.
I've been going over the mission plan and it looks a little rough.
- It is kind of ambitious, Jim.
- Heck, it's not ambitious.
It's impossible.
Look, everyone's focusing on us flying the LEM.
It's only a small part of it.
Every mission's got a few things never been done before.
This one's got about ten.
First manned launch of a LEM, first docking extraction of a LEM, first men in a LEM in space.
And we just go out and fly the LEM, right? Wrong.
Before we can even undock the LEM from the command module, we gotta make sure we can do an emergency transfer outside the craft.
Which means, Rusty, you're gonna have to do an EVA on the PLSS backpack, first use of that.
Dave, we're gonna leave you alone in the command module.
First time that'll have happened.
Then the real fun begins.
First I pop the thruster, see if the LEM can fly.
If it can, Rusty and I fire the descent engine, take the thing on its maiden voyage.
We go out a hundred miles or so.
God willing, the ascent engine lights, first firing of that in space.
Then Rusty and I head back to you for the first docking of a two-man spacecraft.
All right, so it's only nine things never been done before.
Give me a hand with the trailer.
But you guys are right.
It's a lot for one mission.
Maybe too much.
If we get even half of it done we can call it a success.
I can't wait! While Scott went to Downey to work on the command module, McDivitt and Schweickart joined us on Long Island.
So you wanna take the vehicle for a spin? - Gee, Dad.
Can we? - Sure.
As long as you don't bring her back empty.
The hardest part of getting the first LEMs to fly was getting the thousands of systems and subsystems to work together.
Mostly it was like having a ballroom full of dancers dancing different steps to music that wasn't quite right for any of them.
- Bring that TL up.
- Roger, TC.
And TTCA four jets down.
Copy, TC.
TTCA four jets down.
Well, that can't be good.
Now let's cycle that one more time.
Yep.
Roger, TC.
For the You know, you look more and more like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.
Funny you should say that.
I got guys digging a tunnel under the east fence.
Should reach the trees by Sunday.
Ready to start up again.
We think we've got it.
Let's do it.
- TFI telemetry cal off.
- Copy, TC.
- TFI power off.
- Roger, TC.
- R&D A off.
- Copy that, TC.
God bless it! Tom, what's up with the radar? Tom Kelly.
Hi, Lou.
Yeah, I know Well I know what we're up against, Lou.
We will make the date.
I need to know if we can make the date.
If we can't, I'm gonna have to take cash from the safe and move to South America.
OK.
Bob? Yep.
- Arnie? - Sure.
- John? - Yes, sir.
The other John? Sorry, Tom.
The cockpit's gonna take another three weeks.
- We could use a few weeks ourselves.
- Us too.
If we had it, we could certainly use it.
You know, Tom, I hear Bolivia is really nice this time of year.
You know, this is so bad I can't even joke about it.
Perhaps we were behind schedule and over budget because budgets and schedules are based on previous experience with similar projects.
We didn't know how much it'd cost to build the LEMs or how long it would take.
All we really knew was how much time we'd been given and that was running out.
LEM 3 was scheduled to be launched in the fall of 1 968.
To make the launch, NASA needed delivery some time that spring.
We were working as fast as we could, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and it wasn't enough.
In June, 1 968 it was decided that we'd ship LEM 3 to NASA as she was and finish the work at the Cape.
You know, I don't know what I'm so worked up about.
I mean, what's the worst that could happen? Well, we ship the LEM to NASA, we never get it to fly, the Russians beat us to the moon and within ten years we're all living under the iron thumb of Communism.
Exactly.
Remember when seven years seemed like a long time? Remember when this whole thing was only gonna cost 500 million? You know, I can't even remember when it was gonna cost a billion.
Unfortunately, moving LEM 3 to the Cape did little to ease the pressure we were under.
Tom, there's still 100 things wrong with it.
- We'll get it fixed in time.
- No, you won't.
There is no way that in three months that thing is gonna be ready to fly.
Look, Jim, it's It's a good machine.
Just needs a little fine-tuning.
That's all.
You don't have to whisper.
It can't hear you.
Look, I want it to go up as much as you do.
I know we're running out of time.
It's 18 months to the end of the decade and we still haven't had a single manned Apollo flight, I know that.
But that doesn't change the facts.
LEM 3 is not ready to fly.
And it won't be any time soon.
That's gonna have to be my recommendation to headquarters.
Now, with the LEM 3 not ready to fly after Wally and the 7 crew go up with the CSM in October, that means there won't be another Apollo flight until the spring.
- Right.
- Well, maybe not.
George has come up with a rather wild idea.
How wild? Frank's mission is being scrubbed.
We've created a new C-Prime mission which will precede your mission.
What's the mission? Well, we're gonna send the command and service module, no lunar module on a flight around the moon in December.
Really? What's Frank think about that? I haven't talked to Frank yet.
I'm talking to you first.
I don't want to lose your crew's experience with LEM 3.
That's why we decided to send Frank on this mission ahead of you.
But I wanted to see what you had to say about it before I told Frank.
I told him we'd stick with the mission we got.
Good.
Going around the moon sounds like a blast and all but I really wanna fly the LEM.
That's pretty much what Dave said.
I called him in Downey.
He said he really wanted to fly the command module solo, get us out of his hair for a few hours.
I don't know, though.
Maybe we're making a mistake.
Maybe we're missing out on some historical voyage.
I don't know, Jim.
Maybe.
But it sounds like they're just gonna be sightseeing.
With all the things we gotta do, our mission's fun.
Yeah, we got a great mission.
Providing that thing will fly.
In the fall of 1 968 while work continued on LEM 3, the Apollo programme finally got off the ground.
On October 1 1th, just a few miles from where LEM 3 was being fine-tuned, Apollo 7 was launched.
Two months later, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders took Apollo 8 on its historic flight around the moon.
All that time, LEM 3 was being worked on around the clock.
By February 1 969, George and the rest of the Grumman crew had tested every circuit and tightened every bolt.
LEM 3 was ready.
- I like the call sign.
- Spider? It seemed appropriate.
- How about the command module? - Gumdrop.
When it came from North American it was wrapped in blue plastic.
It's sort of what it looked like.
Maybe you should go up with us, make sure everything's OK.
I'd love to go up with you.
She's ready.
I know.
We'd better get back to the sim.
- She's a beautiful machine, Tom.
- Isn't she? - You think it's beautiful? - It looks like a toaster with legs but I'm not gonna tell him that.
- Hold on a minute, Bill.
- I gotta get him to the airport.
Look, he spent the last seven years of his life building that thing.
Let's give him a moment to say goodbye.
It stays up there, remember? As far as LEM 3 was concerned that should have been it for me.
I should have been able to sit back in the SPAN room in Houston and watch the show.
But in the early hours of launch day, the pressure in one of LEM 3's fuel tanks was reading disturbingly high.
It's the helium tank? Actually, sir, the super critical helium.
- How's it reading now? - Still on the edge.
Meaning? Meaning we'd like to be down the middle of the tolerance band but we're not.
Give me the worst case.
When the LEM heads away from the command module and they're throttling up, the tank could over-pressurize and the burst disk could blow.
We would lose helium on the descent stage.
They would not be stranded.
They'd still have the ascent engine.
But it would kill the mission.
Tom, I'll need the official Grumman position on this.
We're still within the limits.
It'll fly.
In the last few minutes before launch I managed to put the tank pressure problem out of my mind for a moment.
I tried to imagine what it was like in LEM 3 just then.
Astronauts have said that sitting in the command module during a countdown can be almost peaceful.
Must have been even more peaceful in LEM 3.
At least until For the next ten minutes it must have been like LEM 3 was stuck in a paint mixer in a hardware store.
And when it must have seemed the shaking would never stop, it did.
On the second day of the mission, Rusty became the first person to enter a LEM in space.
Later that day, shortly after Rusty and Jim extended the landing gear, something happened which brought the mission to a halt.
OK, I got gear out in front of me now.
OK, landing gear deploy, safe? Roger, safe.
Sequence camera, off.
GET is 45-1-1-3-5.
TFI telemetry cal off.
TFI power, off.
TFI, off.
- R&D A, off.
- TFI power, off.
R&D instrumentation A, off.
R&D instrumentation A, off.
OK, Deke.
I'm gonna have to recommend we scrub the EVA tomorrow.
We got you, Jim.
Jim, if Rusty doesn't do the EVA I understand the ramifications, Dave.
I just don't think it's safe for you to do it.
I don't think we can put you in a pressurized suit if it looks like you're gonna throw up.
We'll proceed with the checklist tomorrow.
Check out as many systems as we can without undocking.
It's just gonna have to be it.
If Rusty were to throw up in a suit, he'd likely asphyxiate and die before Jim could get him back into the LEM and repressurize.
But if Rusty didn't test the backpack, the LEM couldn't undock from the command module.
When Jim canceled the EVA, we all understood but we were devastated.
LEM 3 would not fly.
Next day, as Rusty and Jim went through the checklist, the mood at NASA was grim.
The mood lifted a little when one of Jim's transmissions made everyone smile.
Well, almost everyone.
- Houston, this is Apollo 9.
- Go ahead, Apollo 9.
Houston, if some of our friends from Grumman are listening in, I suggest on the next LEM they give a go with a vacuum cleaner.
We got a few odds and ends floating around in here.
Roger, Apollo 9.
We'll pass that along.
Oh, well.
In a few minutes, even I would be smiling.
You look like you're feeling better.
I am.
I feel good.
How good? Real good.
What do you say you go outside? I think that's a good idea.
- Gumdrop, this is Spider.
- Roger, Spider.
Dave, Rusty's feeling a lot better and he looks better too.
I thought maybe he should go out on the porch and get some fresh air.
Hey, man! I like the sound of that.
For 45 minutes, every available camera on Apollo 9 was put to use filming the first two-man space walk in history.
While Rusty stood on LEM 3's porch, Dave stood in the hatch of the command module to film Rusty's test of the backpack.
When one of Dave's cameras broke he went back inside to fix it.
That gave Rusty something unheard of on an EVA, free time.
For three minutes there was nothing for him to do but look at the Earth.
With the backpack tested, it was time to see if LEM 3 could fly.
That's a nice-looking machine.
It's not like an F-86, I'll tell you that.
It's an ungainly beast.
But it really flies.
Houston, Spider.
We are preparing to throttle up the descent engine.
Roger, Spider.
Then it was time to see if the decision I had made just before the launch was the right one.
The tank'll be fine.
It'll hold.
Throttle to 20%.
It's a little rough there.
Wasn't it? I think we swallowed a little helium.
Let's try it again.
Throttle to 40%.
Houston, Spider.
Everything looks good here.
It was a good burn.
Keep track of us, will you, Davey? Roger that.
See you in a while.
Jim and Rusty took LEM 3 out 1 1 0 miles from the command module.
To get back to Dave they had to separate from the descent stage, then fire the ascent engine.
Thirteen feet per second.
Nine feet per second.
I have the interconnects.
Five, four, three, two, one, we have shutdown.
Roger.
We have a good burn.
No residuals.
And there goes half our spacecraft.
A short time later, LEM 3 redocked with the command module.
Her mission was over.
That's a song I haven't heard in a long time.
- You all set, Rusty? - Yeah, Jim.
All right.
I'll see you up at CSM.
I don't suppose they're gonna let anybody back up they think'll get sick? I don't know, Rusty.
I'll tell ya, those few minutes I had outside while Dave was working on the camera that was something special.
I just wanted to say thanks.
The only reason it was a question is I didn't want you to kill yourself.
And I'll try not to for the rest of the mission.
All right.
I'll see you inside.
Yep.
LEM 3 would fly one last time but this time she would fly alone.
OK, the tunnel's closed out, the pyros are armed.
We're all set.
All right.
So long, Spider.
Hope I didn't leave anything in there.
When I first saw the LEM I thought, "You gotta be kidding.
" But it kind of grows on you.
It really is a beautiful machine.
Listen to me.
I sound like Tom Kelly.
But you guys are right.
It's a lot for one mission.
Maybe too much.
If we get even half of it done we can call it a success.
I can't wait! Apollo 9 had shown that a LEM could fly.
At least in Earth orbit.
Two months later on Apollo 1 0, Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan took LEM 4 down to within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface.
Look at that.
There's enough boulders to fill up Galveston Bay! Houston, we is goin', and we is down among 'em, Charlie! Now only one question about the LEM remains.
The biggest question of all.
And it will be up to the next LEM to answer it.
When I said goodbye to LEM 3, I felt like a proud parent watching a child go off to college.
As I say goodbye to this LEM, I feel like a parent of centuries past saying farewell as his child embarks for the New World.
To some people, that might sound like I'm stretching the point.
A LEM is not a child, it's a machine and a machine doesn't have a soul.
We may yell at our toasters and give names to our cars but in the end even a LEM is just a collection of wires and circuits and nuts and bolts.
I don't know.
I think each LEM does have a soul.
It's a soul of all the people who built her, designed her, first dreamed of her.
- What number is this one? - This one is LEM 5.
- Thank you for inviting us here today.
- You're welcome, Mr Houbolt.
Without you guys there might not be anybody here today.
- Someone would have thought of it.
- Maybe.
And this is the actual machine that's gonna land on the moon? Yep.
- What are they calling this one? - This one? This one is the Eagle.