Speaker 1: Ignition sequence start. You think you know the story of
Speaker 1: Apollo eleven, but you don't. What you know is only
Speaker 1: a small part of the most profound human achievement in history.
Speaker 1: I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving
Speaker 1: the goal of landing a man on the Moon and
Speaker 1: returning him safely to the Earth. Less than three weeks
Speaker 1: after launching the first American into space, a trip that
Speaker 1: lasted only fifteen minutes, the President went before Congress and
Speaker 1: charged the country with landing on the Moon before the
Speaker 1: end of the decade. And why so that we could
Speaker 1: wallop the Russians? Could I need to look? This was
Speaker 1: one of the most tumultuous eras in American history. The
Speaker 1: profoundly unpopular Vietnam War was raging on without an end
Speaker 1: in sight. Back home, at the Democratic National Convention, thousands
Speaker 1: of demonstrators clashed violently with police. They said they were
Speaker 1: there to protest the war, poverty, racism, and other social illiments.
Speaker 1: Some of them were also determined to provoke a confrontation.
Speaker 1: The United States seemed to be coming apart at the
Speaker 1: seems America needed a reason to reach for a greatness
Speaker 1: beyond our misfortunes. We needed Apollo left speed. Pulling off
Speaker 1: Kennedy's audacious vision required hundreds of thousands of people, tens
Speaker 1: of thousands of companies, and tens of billions of dollars
Speaker 1: to go to the moan and this decay and do
Speaker 1: the other things, not because they are easy, but because
Speaker 1: they are on. Using never before heard mission audio, I'm
Speaker 1: going to take you through the family lives that fueled
Speaker 1: the astronauts, the political intrigue that cleared the way, and
Speaker 1: the collective drive of the country that pushed us into
Speaker 1: the future. This is Nine Days in July. New episodes
Speaker 1: arrive every Thursday through February six. Listen to Nine Days
Speaker 1: in July on the radio app, on Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.