(train rumbling)
NARRATOR: 50 years ago--
ANNOUNCER: Man is
about to launch himself
on a trip to the moon.
NARRATOR: Mankind
redefined what is possible.
ANNOUNCER: Liftoff on Apollo 11.
NARRATOR: This is the story
of a generation's ambition.
All I could think
of, this is nuts.
NARRATOR: The risks they took.
If I had been older, I
might've had a heart attack.
ASTRONAUT: And if that failed,
you had two dead men on
the surface of the moon.
NARRATOR: The people
who blazed the trail.
I was the only
woman in the field.
I was a part of it, a
very important part of it.
It's wonderful.
NARRATOR: The generations
they would inspire.
Apollo 11 is a national
watershed event.
I get emotional when I
kind of think about it.
NARRATOR: The
technology that made
those dreams come true.
MICHAEL: You have
to be pretty precise
and if you goof,
bad things happen.
NARRATOR: This is the story
of American ingenuity.
ASTRONAUT: Base here,
the eagle has landed.
One of the greatest
human achievements
in engineering ever done.
NARRATOR: And the greatest leap
in the history of civilization.
NEIL: It's one
small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
NARRATOR: This is the story
of Apollo 11, 50 years later.
It was 1961, the
heart of the Cold War,
and the Soviet Union
had reason to celebrate.
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had just
become the first
human to reach space.
The United States had been
watching with a wary eye,
ever since the Soviet
satellite Sputnik
entered Earth's orbit.
And with the space
race now well underway,
many Americans feared the
U.S. was falling behind.
By that May, President
John F. Kennedy
was determined to move ahead.
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.
The United States had
a total of 15 minutes
of human space
flight experience.
So it was a really
short suborbital flight
with Alan Shepard at the
beginning of the month
and by the 25th of May,
President Kennedy was
proposing Project Apollo.
NARRATOR: It was
a daring challenge
that would ignite
American momentum.
With new urgency,
NASA's fledgling
Mercury and Gemini projects
scored quick success.
Zero-G and I feel fine!
NARRATOR: John
Glenn's solo orbit
and for the first
time, space walks.
NASA astronauts, engineers,
and American industries
spent the decade
working round the clock.
And by 1967, it was time for
Apollo's first manned flight.
But before it could take
off, tragedy struck.
ASTRONAUT: I've got
fire in the cockpit!
NARRATOR: Flames trapped
the three-man crew
inside the cabin
during a launch test.
There was no escape.
But the heartbreaking
setback proved temporary.
And with a critical redesign,
Apollo was back on track.
Christmas Eve 1968,
the world watched
as Apollo 8 astronauts
ventured further
than humans had ever traveled.
ASTRONAUT: I can
see the entire Earth
now out of the center window.
NARRATOR: Bringing us our
first full view of home.
An image that helped
unite Americans
at the end of a turbulent year.
ASTRONAUT: This is
the crew of Apollo 8,
we close with good night,
good luck, a Merry Christmas,
and God bless all of you,
all of you on the good Earth.
NARRATOR: Seven months
later the moment arrived.
NASA was ready.
And after years of training,
so was the
carefully-selected team
of Neil Armstrong, Buzz
Aldrin, and Michael Collins.
I feel very fortunate to,
first of all, to be on that crew
and second, fly
with Neil and Buzz.
Neil had been an X-15 pilot,
Buzz, on the other hand,
was the whizbang
orbital expert from MIT.
So the two of them were
extraordinarily well-trained
and competent and I was
delighted to fly with them.
NARRATOR: On the morning
of July 16, 1969,
the trio made their
way to the launchpad.
When we had been out
to Pad 39 before,
it was the hub of
machine activity.
Not today, nobody's around,
we're the only ones.
NARRATOR: The action this
day was in mission control
and along the
beach and highways,
where a million
spectators had gathered.
ASTRONAUT: We're on
time at the present time
for our planned liftoff of
32 minutes past the hour.
NARRATOR: As the
astronauts climbed aboard,
the world held its breath.
When I was standing up there,
here is the most gigantic,
complex pilot machinery
you've ever seen in your life.
ASTRONAUT: T minus one minute,
35 seconds on the
Apollo Mission,
flight to land the
first man on the moon.
NARRATOR: The eight-day
journey was about to begin.
ASTRONAUT: Five, four, three,
two, one, zero, all
engines running.
Liftoff, we have a liftoff.
NARRATOR: All six million pounds
of the massive Saturn five
rocket roared skyward.
Each of its three stages firing
to power into Earth's
orbit in mere minutes.
Once there, after circling the
planet one and a half times,
the rocket's third
stage fired again,
propelling the spacecraft
out of orbit and
toward its target.
Collins piloting the command
module, took the controls.
His first order of business,
separating Columbia
from the spent rocket,
turning it around, and
docking with Eagle,
the lunar landing
module, known as the LEM,
all while moving at
17,000 miles an hour.
I always think of it as
a long and very fragile
daisy chain of events.
If you break one little
link in the chain,
you got deep trouble.
NARRATOR: For the
next three days,
the hurtled toward the moon.
As the mission goes on,
event by event by event,
you never get a chance to relax.
You're worried about,
oh God, what next?
NARRATOR: Before long, they
had entered lunar orbit.
There, Collins would stay
in the command module
while Armstrong and
Aldrin moved into the LEM.
ASTRONAUT: Okay our
flight controller
is going out of the heart
and gonna go for undocking.
MISSION CONTROL: Okay
retro, go, final.
Go, go.
NARRATOR: After a series of
checks, the two pulled apart.
MISSION CONTROL: Roger,
how does it look?
NARRATOR: The Eagle
was now on its own.
ASTRONAUT: Still
looking very good.
NARRATOR: Suddenly,
alarms sound.
A warning the crew
didn't recognize
threatens to abort the mission.
ASTRONAUT: Bravo one.
MISSION CONTROL: Bravo one.
ASTRONAUT: Bracket 1201 alarm.
NARRATOR: NASA engineers
immediately identify it
as an overloaded computer and
the Apollo Guidance System
is able to quickly
resolve the problem.
ASTRONAUT: Okay we're go.
ASTRONAUT: We're go, we're go.
NARRATOR: The
landing was still on,
but Armstrong realized they
had overshot their target
by four miles, with a
boulder field now below.
Taking the controls, he spotted
flat terrain further away.
NEIL: 75 feet, it's
looking good down ahead.
NARRATOR: And with
just 30 seconds of fuel
left in the tank--
NEIL: Okay engine stop.
MISSION CONTROL: We
copy you down Eagle.
ASTRONAUT: Base here,
the eagle has landed.
NARRATOR: A smooth landing
in the sea of tranquility.
REPORTER: Man on
the moon, oh boy!
ASTRONAUT: Thank you.
Whew, boy.
ASTRONAUT: You got a bunch
of guys about to turn blue.
NARRATOR: And
several hours later,
Armstrong was ready
to make history.
MISSION CONTROL: Neil,
we can see you coming
down the ladder now.
REPORTER: Armstrong is on
the moon, Neil Armstrong.
38 year old American standing
on the surface of the moon.
NEIL: It's one
small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
NARRATOR: Taking the most
famous footsteps in history,
he relayed what he saw.
NEIL: The surface
is fine and powdery,
I can pick it up
loosely with my toe.
There seems to be no
difficulty in moving around.
NARRATOR: A colorless,
rock-filled world.
NEIL: It has a stark
beauty all its own
(mumbles) of the United States.
It's different but it's
very pretty out here.
NARRATOR: Soon, it was
Aldrin's turn to emerge.
BUZZ: Okay, ready
for me to come out?
NEIL: All set.
BUZZ: Okay I'm on the top step.
Incredible view.
(mumbles)
NARRATOR: Together
they set up a camera
to capture the barren moonscape.
NEIL: Tell me if you
got a picture Houston.
MISSION CONTROL: We got
a beautiful picture Neil.
NARRATOR: Using every moment
of their two and a
half hour moon walk,
they collected rock samples,
conducted experiments,
and dedicated a plaque.
NEIL: We came in
peace for all mankind.
NARRATOR: And then
spoke by phone
to President Richard Nixon.
RICHARD: Hello Neil and Buzz.
I just can't tell ya
how proud we all are.
Because of what you have done,
the heavens have become
a part of man's world.
ASTRONAUT: Thank you
Mister President,
it's a great honor and
privilege for us to be here.
NARRATOR: While they
explored the surface,
Collins was orbiting,
alone, overhead,
rounding the moon
every two hours
and seeing the
Earth rise 30 times.
MISSION CONTROL: Columbia,
this is Houston reading
you loud and clear, over.
MICHAEL: I believe
they're setting up now.
MISSION CONTROL: I
guess you're about
the only person
around that doesn't
have TV coverage of the scene.
That's all right,
I don't mind a bit.
The question that the
press directed to me,
almost exclusively, weren't
you terribly lonely?
And all I could think
of, this is nuts,
it never occurred to
me that I was lonely.
Through mission control,
I felt like I was,
part of the time I was
down there with them.
At least I understood
what was going on.
NARRATOR: And he understood
that the riskiest part of
the mission was just ahead.
The one that I
worried about the most
was Neil and Buzz coming
up from the lunar surface
and meeting me in my
60-mile orbit above them.
When Eagle, the lunar module,
lifted off from the moon,
it was just one engine.
If that failed, you
had two dead men
on the surface of the moon.
That whole procedure, that
was the part of the mission
that I sweated more than
any of the other parts.
NARRATOR: But when
it was time to go,
the engine fired
and the Eagle rose.
NEIL: 1000 feet high, 80 feet
per second vertical rise.
NARRATOR: Before long, it
had re-docked with Columbia.
Reunited, they were ready
to fire out of lunar orbit
and begin the
three-day journey home.
To fulfill President
Kennedy's goal,
they had to return safely.
And to reenter
Earth's atmosphere,
they had just a 20
mile wide window.
Trying to hit a 20-mile
target from 230,000 miles,
you have to be pretty precise.
NARRATOR: Too shallow an angle
and they'd bounce back into
space in a never-ending orbit.
Too steep and they'd burn up.
Plunging back to Earth at
nearly 25,000 miles an hour.
MISSION CONTROL:
36,000 feet per second.
NARRATOR: The team
in mission control
kept them on course.
MISSION CONTROL: Apollo 11,
Apollo 11 (mumbles) over.
NARRATOR: Splashing
down in the Pacific
where the USS
Hornet was waiting.
Not knowing what they might
have brought back with them,
they'd spend the next
three weeks in quarantine.
Finally, it was
time to celebrate.
America had won the space race.
But while seen as a
victory here at home,
around the world,
Apollo was embraced
as a triumph of humanity.
Neil, Buzz, and
I were privileged
to have an
around-the-world trip.
And I was just amazed by the
response that we received.
Everywhere we went
people said we did it,
we, humankind, we
left this planet.
People around the world
were naming their kids
after the astronauts.
They became sort of global
heroes, world heroes.
NARRATOR: It was a feat
few thought even possible
at the dawn of the decade.
And now, with just
months to spare,
President Kennedy's
dream had been realized.
A tribute to American ingenuity
and lifting America's spirits,
amid the horrors of Vietnam,
as the Cold War carried on.
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.
NARRATOR: Up next, we look
at the people and technology
that were paramount
for mission success,
when Apollo 11, 50 Years Later
returns in just a minute.
ANNOUNCER: Apollo
ASTRONAUT: Base here,
the eagle has landed.
Man on the moon, whew boy.
Project Apollo and Apollo
11, more specifically,
was the first live global
television broadcast in history
when people from all around
the world were able to watch.
MISSION CONTROL: And we're
getting a picture on the TV.
Okay Neil, we can see you
coming down the ladder now.
The estimates are between
500 and 600 million people
were tuning in their
television sets.
And then millions
more following it
on the radio or newspaper.
So half the world's population
was following the flight.
NARRATOR: While
the world watched
and celebrated the three
brave men of Apollo 11,
there was a relatively
unheralded group
back on Earth who
made this a success.
A group that was not
lost on the astronauts
in their broadcast
back home from space.
NEIL: All this is possible,
all this is the blood,
sweat, and tears of
a number of people.
To all those, I would like
to say thank you very much.
NARRATOR: At its peak,
NASA estimates more than
400,000 engineers, scientists,
computer programmers,
and manufacturers
contributed to putting
man on the moon.
While the world
would know the names
Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins,
unsung heroes who
dedicated years of work
would be the guiding force to
make the giant leap a reality.
We had a commitment
that was being made
at the national level
that we were going to the
moon with men and return them.
We all thought that was a
rather ambitious program
but we all had a great
deal of confidence.
Sonny Morea has a long career
of being a problem-solver
behind the scenes.
I said to myself,
we can do this,
we just gotta find the
way, and we found that way.
NARRATOR: Morea was critical
to overcoming the
engineering challenges
of incorporating the
engines that would
be powerful enough to
take man to the moon.
His team helped solve
the F-1 engine combustion
instability problem,
solved the J-2 engine problem,
and developed the
Lunar Roving Vehicle
that would fly on
Apollo 15, 16, and 17.
I tell people I'm
the project manager
who developed the engines to
get the astronauts to the moon.
When they got there, I had a car
for the last three missions
that they could drive
and they didn't have to go
through a rental agency
to get one. (laughs)
People like Jim Odom,
he was the second stage
manager for the Saturn 5.
I was in charge of engineering
and testing of the second stage.
NARRATOR: NASA relied on
legacy employees like Odom,
who not only managed a critical
part of the Saturn 5 rocket,
but would continue on
as a project manager
for the Space Shuttle,
the Hubble Telescope, and the
International Space Station.
Twice earning Presidential
Commendations for his work.
The sheer gratification
of having met
the President's desire for
that milestone was outstanding.
If you look at the photographs,
the majority of the
people who worked
on Project Apollo,
they're white men.
That being said, there
were a significant number
of women who are contributing
and minorities who are
contributing as well.
Just before landing on the moon
was the most exciting part,
for some of us at least.
Three minutes before
Armstrong and Aldrin
touched down on the moon,
Apollo 11's lunar
lander alarms triggered.
Red and yellow lights
across the board.
Our astronauts didn't
have much time,
but thankfully, they
had Margaret Hamilton.
All of a sudden, the
priority alarms came on,
1201 and 1202.
And I knew that
those alarms came on
when it was an emergency
and they had no business
going on right then.
NARRATOR: A young MIT scientist
and a working mother in the 60s,
Hamilton led the team
that created the software
for the Apollo Guidance Computer
that was able to decipher
the emergency code
and avoid a mission abort.
NEIL: Eagle looking
great, your go.
I like to say not only was it
the first human on the moon,
but the first software
to run on the moon.
NARRATOR: In 2016,
Hamilton earned
the Presidential
Medal of Freedom,
the highest civilian honor,
for her work on Apollo 11.
She was also a pioneer
when it came to being
a woman in the working place
and as a software engineer.
I was the only
woman in the field.
There was a tremendous element
of just human hard work
that went into the
Apollo Program.
The ones that I remember
more than any other,
were the people who were putting
together the space suits.
You would see a room of
these women bent over
doing manual labor
with great precision,
slowly putting this suit
together for Neil Armstrong.
And you know, if one of them
slipped just a little bit,
he'd go out and say, one
small uh, wait a minute.
His life was dependent on
the quality of their work.
NARRATOR: Katherine Johnson,
whose tremendous
work was encapsulated
in the Oscar-nominated
2016 film, Hidden Figures,
was renowned for her
work as a human computer
throughout the Apollo missions,
including calculations for
the trajectory of Apollo 11.
After Sputnik in 1957,
people began to really think
about that problem
for the first time,
in terms of race, but in
terms of gender as well.
That created a paradigm shift
in the way people thought.
And we can no longer sit back
and try to solve problems
with the same group of people
that have always tried
to solve problems.
NARRATOR: Through
the Apollo Program,
doors were opened and future
generations were inspired.
I stayed glued to
the television set.
I can always remember saying,
I really wanna be
a part of that.
It was 11 years later I was
starting my career at NASA.
So, I get emotional when
I kind of think about it
because the likelihood
of me in 1969
being a part of
something like that
was about as far away
as the moon itself.
Only a few get a chance
to be the astronauts
and they are a special
group, no doubt about it,
but there is a special
group of people too,
the inside of this
agency that drives it,
that makes all of
those things happen.
NARRATOR: The
people behind Apollo
were up for every
challenge along the way,
but two elements would
constantly remain at odds,
technology versus time.
Could America develop
the technology needed
in the time allotted?
Well the Saturn
Program was always
gonna be a massive undertaking,
that would not
have been possible
without President
Kennedy's declaration.
NARRATOR: The
presidential support
gave the Apollo Program
the resources it needed
to be successful.
The United States spent
$25 billion on it,
which today would be
roughly $180 billion.
NARRATOR: The national
backing was crucial,
but with it came pressure.
Constant pressure, constant.
Well at that point,
I had not had
a vacation with my
family for over 10 years.
Without that team,
this mission never
would've been successful.
You had hundreds of thousands
of people across the country
committed to Kennedy's goal.
And they didn't want
it to be their fault
that that goal wasn't met.
NARRATOR: The first
technological challenge
was creating a launch vehicle
powerful enough to
get man to the moon.
The eventual solution
was the Saturn 5.
ASTRONAUT: The Saturn 5
rocket we sent into orbit
is an incredibly complicated
piece of machinery.
NARRATOR: Standing
363 feet tall,
weighing over six
million pounds,
the Saturn 5 still
holds the distinction
as the only vehicle to carry
humans beyond low Earth orbit.
At the point of
Kennedy's promise,
the most powerful rocket engine
could produce 188,000
pounds per thrust.
Wernher von Braun's
team and NASA calculated
they would need nearly
10 times that power
to get man to the moon.
Thus, the F-1 rocket
was conceived.
The F-1 was absolutely
necessary to propel
as large a vehicle as
we needed to design,
to go to the moon
with three men.
NARRATOR: The first
stage of the Saturn 5
consisted of a cluster
of five F-1 rockets
that would produce over 7.5
million pounds of thrust
needed to escape
the Earth's orbit.
It is still today, the most
powerful rocket engine NASA
has ever flown, but its
development had many challenges.
We had a great
deal of trepidation
about being able to do it
and especially when
our major problem
showed up on the F-1 engine,
which was a case of
combustion instability.
NARRATOR: Combustion
instability or, in essence,
an unpredictable possibility
that the rocket could explode.
The lives of those
astronauts depended on
what I said and
that gets to you.
NARRATOR: It took about two
years of trial and error
to finally get the
F-1 engine stabilized.
We never understood it,
but we found a way
to counteract it.
NARRATOR: Once the F-1
engines did their job,
the first stage was dispatched
and the job of the second
stage was to propel
the Apollo spacecraft
even further into space.
As JFK's deadline loomed,
NASA was forced to adopt
drastic, groundbreaking measures
to increase productivity.
Normally we like to fly the
first stage, get it working,
then fly the first and second
stage and get it working,
and then add the third stage,
but we were running out of time.
NASA Headquarters came
up with the notion
of what we call an all up.
We would put the first Saturn
5 all live stages at one time.
NARRATOR: It was a bold move
that had never been done before.
In my judgment, probably
one of the biggest decisions
from a vehicle standpoint that
were made and having done it,
it allowed us to
meet the schedule.
NARRATOR: Manufacturing
a capable launch vehicle
was only part of the challenge.
Creating a way to guide the
Apollo spacecraft was the other.
Much of the computer and
software technology needed
was being invented in real time.
The Apollo Guidance Computer
was the most intricate and
complex control computer
and navigation computer
that existed at the time.
NARRATOR: Apollo's
computer took advantage
of every burgeoning
breakthrough in technology.
It was one of the
first computers to rely
on integrated circuits
or microchips,
which allowed for a more
compact, lighter computer.
Digital computer
development was brand new.
We had to work within
the weight limits
that the Saturn boosters
could put into orbit.
NARRATOR: The Apollo
Guidance Computers
were relatively small,
weighing a mere 70 pounds,
but by today's standards,
very rudimentary.
The amount of memory
in a Saturn rocket
in Apollo capsule is less than
what I got in my cell phone.
Back then, computers were
programmed using punch cards.
They ran one program at a time.
NARRATOR: We take for granted
how our computers today
can easily switch from
one program to another.
Multitasking had to be
invented for Apollo.
This level of
computer programming
was the beginning
of an industry.
There was no field in what we
did in software engineering,
but that's what we were doing
without realizing
that it was a field.
NARRATOR: Before
the Apollo Program,
vehicles were not regularly
controlled by computers.
Airplanes at the time were
pulleys and hydraulics,
you had a pilot that
actually pulled on a lever
and it pulled on a lever and
those actually actuated things.
And so it's the first time
that you have a digital
flight control system
that a human life depended on
and that could successfully
control a platform
as complex as the
Apollo spacecraft were.
NARRATOR: And there was
little margin for error.
It had to be reliable,
it had to not only work,
but it had to work
the first time.
NARRATOR: And in the end,
through the people and the
technology, it all worked.
It's great to look
back on, perhaps,
what is one of the
greatest human achievements
in engineering ever done.
How they were able to do that
with such little computing
capability is amazing.
NARRATOR: Coming up next,
how Apollo 11 remains
a beacon of inspiration
and what the next giant leap
will be in space exploration.
NARRATOR: 50 years
later, Apollo 11 has left
an indelible mark on the
generations who have followed.
With Project Apollo,
one of the important
heritages of that program
is the idea that if we can
do something so challenging
and so bold and so
grand, what can't we do?
The Apollo and
the Saturn Program
hired and inspired
so many young people.
It inspired me to
end up in science
and mathematics and engineering.
Being able to look
back 50 years ago,
I think will inspire our current
engineers to work together
to really achieve something
we haven't done in 50 years,
which is pretty cool.
NARRATOR: Between public
and private partnerships
as well as international
space programs,
resources are intensifying
to accomplish more
than ever before.
We're in a golden age
of space exploration.
Currently, we have
more human spacecraft
being developed than ever
in United States history.
NARRATOR: With each mission,
momentum is building
to follow in the
footsteps of Apollo 11
and put man back on the moon.
Human beings haven't been
beyond low Earth
orbit since 1972.
There's a lot that we still
don't know about the moon.
It's gonna be an
exciting 10 years or so.
We'll see launches
multiple times a year,
targeting, going
back to the moon.
It'll be a next
generation's defining moment
that they'll be able to
put people on the moon
and keep them there and
bring them back safely.
What I see next is having
hundreds of people living there,
maybe permanently, maybe for
just an extended period of time
doing research and building
up different things,
and then, hopefully,
eventually, Mars will be next.
NARRATOR: While
returning to the moon
may be the next stop,
Mars continues to
loom in the distance
as mankind's next
extraordinary leap.
NASA ought to be renamed NAMA,
the National Aeronautics
and Mars Administration
and I think that should
be our next national goal.
It doesn't have to be done
the day after tomorrow
or in a huge hurry, but it
should be done, I think.
NARRATOR: Wherever mankind
continues to explore
throughout the great
unknown of outer space,
it will all be made possible
by the work of
hundreds of thousands
who collectively made one
giant leap a half century ago.
To see the reaction
to the general public
to landing on the moon,
made it all worthwhile.
It was a profound
moment for our country.
Thank goodness it worked, right?
It's reflecting back
on what our legacy
will be to mankind.
I was a part of it, a
very important part of it.
It's wonderful.
It made me feel so
proud to be an American
and we had carried
this stuff off.
And I look at the flag, perhaps,
today a little bit differently.
ASTRONAUT: Responsibility
for this flight
lies first with history
and with the giants of man
who have preceded this effort.
To those people, tonight
we give a special thanks,
and to all the other people
listening and watching tonight,
good night from Apollo 11.
