Apollo Program_ A Disastrous Beginning

0:00Speaker 1:1961.

0:10Speaker 2:At the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. Just weeks later, the United States launched its first astronaut, Alan Shepard. He was welcomed home as a hero, But President John F. Kennedy knew that if the United States was to overtake the Soviet space program, it needed a bolder mission.

0:47Speaker 3: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.

0:58Speaker 2:As Kennedy addressed Congress, the United States had just 15 minutes of human spaceflight experience. No one knew if a moon landing was even possible, let alone in just nine years. It would be an unprecedented engineering and scientific undertaking, marked by heroism and tragedy. The incredible task of landing an astronaut on the moon would be known as the Apollo Program. Before NASA could start designing a spacecraft for its lunar mission, it faced some fundamental questions about how it would send astronauts to the Moon. Perhaps the man best placed to provide answers was NASA's top rocket scientist, Wernher von Braun.

1:59Speaker 2:Von Braun had spearheaded development of Nazi Germany's deadly V-2 rocket during World War II. It was the world's first long-range guided missile. After the war, he'd been recruited by the US military to assist their own rocket programme. He joined NASA as the first director of its Marshall Space Flight Centre in 1960. The most obvious way to complete a lunar landing was to send a single spacecraft from Earth to the Moon and back again. But a spacecraft large enough to carry all the necessary supplies, equipment and fuel for the journey would need an impossibly huge rocket to launch into space. Von Braun wanted to solve this problem by launching the spacecraft in pieces aboard smaller rockets, and assembling it in orbit around Earth. But there was still the problem of landing such a massive spacecraft on the Moon's surface. NASA engineer John Hobolt suggested another option, one initially considered far too dangerous by NASA's most senior engineers.

3:19Speaker 2:Not one, but two spacecraft would travel to the Moon, joined together. The first was a Command and Service Module, or CSM. It would provide fuel, power, supplies and living space for three astronauts, as they travelled to and from the Moon. The second spacecraft, the Lunar Excursion Module, or LEM, would land on the Moon. It would be piloted by two astronauts, whilst the third stayed behind to fly the CSM. Because the LEM only needed equipment and fuel for a lunar landing, it could be small and light. The huge savings in weight meant this spacecraft could be launched on one smaller rocket. Von Braun endorsed Hobolt's proposal, but the plan was high risk. To dock and undock the two spacecraft, NASA would need to invent new piloting techniques, and execute them flawlessly, because if anything went wrong, the astronauts would have no hope of rescue. NASA embarked on years of pioneering research and development. The spaceflights of Project Mercury and Project Gemini paved the way for Apollo. Over 16 crewed missions in just five years, American astronauts learned how to eat, sleep, work and walk in space. But President Kennedy didn't live

4:53Speaker 2:to see these achievements. He was assassinated in 1963.

5:00Speaker 4:Many years ago, the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, because it is there. Space is there.

5:14Speaker 1:And we're going to climb it.

5:16Speaker 4:And the moon and the planets are there. And new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.

5:21Speaker 3:And therefore, as we set sail.

5:24Speaker 4:We ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.

5:32Speaker 1:Thank you.

5:34Speaker 2:But before the Apollo program launched its first astronauts, it would face its darkest hour.

5:40Speaker 1:Hey, how are we going to get to the moon in a week?

6:03Speaker 2:The Apollo 1 crew were sealed inside their command module, conducting a dress rehearsal of the launch countdown. The test had been halted by constant communications problems, and command pilot Gus Grissom was becoming frustrated. Grissom was one of America's most experienced astronauts. He was a member of NASA's first astronaut group, the Mercury 7, who launched into space aboard tiny one-person capsules. His senior pilot was Ed White, the first American to walk in space. With them was rookie astronaut Roger Chaffee, a former spy plane pilot who flew reconnaissance missions during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Under enormous pressure to land an astronaut on the Moon by the end of the decade, NASA and its contractors had rushed the design of the complex Apollo spacecraft. Even after five years of development and testing, it was still riddled with defects.

7:09Speaker 2:During ground tests, astronauts struggled with coolant leaks, problems with the plumbing in the environmental system, and short circuits in the 20 miles of electrical wiring that filled the spacecraft. The crew were getting ready to resume the countdown. Within moments, flames ripped through the capsule, killing all three astronauts. Precisely how the fire started was never determined. But it was most likely a spark from damaged wiring, somewhere in the lower equipment bay. The atmosphere inside the command module was pure oxygen, and in this environment, even materials that were normally fire-resistant burst into flame. Within seconds, the spacecraft became an incinerator. The design of the spacecraft's heavy, multi-piece hatch made escape impossible. The inner hatch was fixed in place with six large bolts, which had to be manually unscrewed with a wrench. Even if the bolts could have been removed in time, the hatch opened inwards, and so it was sealed shut by the high pressure inside the capsule.

8:43Speaker 2:The risks of spaceflight were well understood at NASA, But Grissom, White and Chaffee did not die during a rocket launch or in orbit. They died on the ground, during a routine test, with help close at hand. The tragedy of Apollo 1 left NASA's public image in tatters. If the Apollo program was to survive, the next mission had to be a success. After a series of uncrewed test flights, the next mission to carry astronauts would be Apollo 7. Learning from the failures that caused the Apollo 1 fire, NASA redesigned the Apollo spacecraft. The new Block 2 model had fireproof wirings, and spacesuits made with non-flammable cloth. At launch, the capsule was pressurised with a safer oxygen-nitrogen mix, and its new single-piece hatch could be opened in just seven seconds.

10:00Speaker 2:The lunar module was still in the design phase, and would be tested on later flights. The Apollo 7 crew had been the Apollo 1 backups. Like Gus Grissom, Mission Commander Wally Schirra had been part of the original Mercury 7 astronaut corps. Their mission was to give the new Apollo spacecraft a thorough shakedown. 5.

10:24Speaker 4:4, 3, 2, we have ignition.

10:29Speaker 1:Commit liftoff.

10:31Speaker 4:We have liftoff.

10:33Speaker 2:Schirra and his crew put the Apollo spacecraft through its paces for the first time. They performed navigation exercises and practiced docking maneuvers, using their spent rocket booster as a target. Apollo 7 accomplished all its objectives. The mission was a success. The Apollo program was back on track. And its next step would truly be a giant leap. In April 1968… A CIA report suggested that the Soviet Union was about to send cosmonauts around the Moon. To stop the Soviets beating America to another first, Apollo 8, originally intended as a test of the lunar module in Earth orbit, would instead be sent on a mission to orbit the Moon.

11:32Speaker 2:The furthest any human had travelled from the surface of the Earth was 850 miles. Apollo 8's crew would travel 240,000 miles from home, with no hope of rescue if their spacecraft failed. The mission commander was Frank Borman, an Air Force colonel, test pilot and aeronautical engineer. His command module pilot was Jim Lovell, who knew Borman better than most. On Gemini 7, the two men spent a record-breaking and gruelling 14 days orbiting the Earth in a tiny spacecraft.

12:10Speaker 2:Joining them was Bill Anders. His job would be to survey the Moon's surface for future landing sites. Travelling to the Moon required the largest rocket NASA had ever designed. Bormann, Lovell and Anders would be the first astronauts to ride the mighty Saturn V.

12:33Speaker 1:At over 110 metres tall, it dwarfed all.

12:36Speaker 4:Previous American rockets.

12:45Speaker 2:Its five enormous F-1 engines burned through half a million gallons of kerosene and liquid oxygen in just two and a half minutes, delivering a combined thrust of seven and a half million pounds. Second and third stages carried the spacecraft to Earth orbit and onwards to the Moon. It took the Apollo 8 crew three days to travel to the Moon. But they did not fly alone Like all Apollo missions, Apollo 8 was carefully managed from the Mission Operations Control Room in Houston, Texas, popularly known as Mission Control.

13:28Speaker 2:Teams of flight controllers operated round the clock, overseeing the spacecraft's trajectory and every one of its onboard systems. All voice communications to the spacecraft passed through the Capsule Communicator, or CAPCOM. a position always filled by a fellow astronaut. The flight director had overall responsibility for the mission, and the final say in every decision. When Apollo 8 reached the Moon, the crew had to fire their large SPS engine to slow down and be captured by the Moon's gravity.

14:06Speaker 2:If the engine didn't fire for precisely the correct amount of time, Apollo 8 could crash into the Moon, or be hurled into deep space. It was impossible to communicate with the crew whilst they were behind the moon. The staff at Mission Control waited nervously for news.

14:29Speaker 4:Apollo 8, Houston, over. Go ahead, Houston, this is Apollo 8.

14:41Speaker 3:But we've got it. We've got it.

14:43Speaker 4:Apollo 8 now in lunar orbit.

14:47Speaker 2:Borman, Lovell and Anders were the first humans to view the lunar surface close up. But the most incredible thing they saw was their home planet. On the third orbit, Anders captured one of history's most remarkable photos.

15:02Speaker 1:Earthrise.

15:03Speaker 2:Earthrise. The image was peaceful, but 1968 had been a difficult year for the United States. The nation was bitterly divided over the war in Vietnam. Black Americans were still fighting for their civil rights. Martin Luther King was assassinated in April, and Bobby Kennedy in June. But for NASA at least, the success of Apollo 8 brought hope. For the first time, it seemed possible they might meet President Kennedy's goal, and land an astronaut on the Moon before the end of the decade. But the lunar module was still untested, and landing on the Moon held many unknowns.

15:51Speaker 2:There would be no room for error.

15:56Speaker 1:Houston, we've had a problem here.

15:58Speaker 2:Say again, please.

16:00Speaker 4:Houston, we've had a problem.

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