WEBVTT - July 19, 1969 / “Happy, Proud, and Thrilled” 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:02.800 Nine Days in July is a production of I Heart 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:06.920 Radio and trade Craft Studios in association with High five Content. 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.479 It's January twenty seventh, nineteen sixty seven, two and a 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:16.120 half years before the launch of Apollo eleven. Ed White, 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.640 Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffey. The crew of Apollo one 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.439 sit high atop their Saturn five rocket, sealed tight inside 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.680 their command module. This is a dress rehearsal for their 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:30.120 launch three weeks from now. The mood inside the capsule 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:34.879 matches the weather outside gray. Their calms with the outside 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:41.959 world are spotty and garbled every day. They've already been 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:44.680 in the capsule for hours and very likely have many 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:48.000 more to go. Their countdown clock is frozen while repair 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:50.640 teams work the radio issue. As they wait for the 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.480 training simulation to resume, something catches one of the astronaut's eyes. 0:00:55.040 --> 0:01:03.400 He glances down and suddenly recoils in terror. A freight 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:07.000 electrical wire has sparked, igniting the combustible nylon material of 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:10.920 the seats in which the astronauts are strapped tight. Within seconds, 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.240 the fire has surged up the walls of the capsule. 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.920 Flames begin to lick the television camera recording the interior 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:24.080 of the command module. The atmosphere inside the command module 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:28.160 is pure oxygen. While oxygen itself is not flammable, high 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:30.840 concentrations of it make the things it permeates ignite at 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.000 far lower temperatures than the otherwise would They also burned 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:45.760 Hotter and faster technicians fight to get the hatch open. 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.160 Just seventeen seconds after the astronauts first report the fire, 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:52.920 the building pressure inside the vessel ruptures. The command module's 0:01:52.960 --> 0:02:09.080 baultants are. One thing is hauntingly clear to everyone. The 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:24.560 astronauts inside the Command module have fallen silent. There are 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:29.880 times when achieving greatness requires the highest possible sacrifice. Apollo ones, 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.080 Ed White, Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee were the first 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:36.359 American astronauts to perish in the line of duty. They 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:39.640 paid the ultimate price, but it was not in vain. 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:43.160 During my flight training in the Navy, we were constantly 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.640 told that our manuals and training procedures were written in blood. 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:49.560 Some of those who came before us paid for the 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.919 lessons we were learning with their lives, ensuring none of 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.920 us would be lost in that way. Ever, again, the 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:59.280 same was true after the Apollo one fire. Everything changed 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:03.280 after that. The success of NASA and Apollo eleven would 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.440 be on the backs of every man and woman who 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:09.600 sacrifice to push the boundaries of human exploration. In this episode, 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.080 we're going to take a look at the sacrifices made 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:14.799 not only by Neil, Michael and Buzz, but also by 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:23.480 everyone who supported them professionally and personally. It's July nineteenth, 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.120 nineteen sixty nine, day four of the Apollo eleven mission, 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.880 the day we reached the moon. Cliff Charles Worth and 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.120 the Green team of flight controllers as just relieve, Glenn 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:40.680 Lenny's Black Team capcom now is Bruce McCandless. Paulo eleven 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:45.400 is twelve thousand, four eighty six nautical miles from the Moon, 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.960 approaching at a velocity of four thousand eighty seven ft 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:59.000 per second. Follow eleven, the follow eleven Morning again eleven, 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.400 Good morning. When you feel like God being, I've got 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:08.880 a flight plan updates. Remember when I told you in 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.240 the first episode that we were going to be following 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.280 the events inside a Paulo eleven in real time, day 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.919 by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute. Well 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:22.840 that's not exactly true. At seventies three hours zero zero 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:29.600 man stop CTC at approximately zero degrees role. But it 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.200 is when you're coming up on zero degrees role angle 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.440 around seventy three hours, you'd like you to stop what 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:38.080 you're hearing right now. That's most of what this podcast 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.599 would sound like if we really did it minute by minute. 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:45.920 Often nothing much happens until it does. Yeah, you read eleven. 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:54.720 It's right to find the mount but a very excite uh, 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:59.560 the very market of these dimensional aspects of happens come on. 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.599 It's how behind the boon glazes the guys live all 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:08.680 the way around the molony and grandmothers. Where there's no 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.840 Earth time are Sun time. Apollo eleven is being treated 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:16.400 to their own personal solar eclipse. This isn't an eclipse 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.880 that's visible from Earth, but rather one the astronauts inadvertently 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:22.800 created for themselves. They are now close enough to the 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.560 Moon that it appears larger than the Sun, and they 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:28.560 have fallen into its shadow. You heard Buzz mentioned the 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.320 Sun's corona. That's a diaphonous aura of plasma that surrounds 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:36.120 all stars, extending out for millions of miles. It's invisible 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.840 except during an eclipse, right now the astronauts are watching 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.320 ribbons of light shimmer and dance around a massive black 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:47.039 hole that is the Moon in complete silhouette has been 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:50.760 a real change for us. Now we're able to see 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:54.919 stars again, unrecognized constellations for the first time. All the 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:58.600 way here, we've only been able to see stars occasionally. 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:01.919 He goes, it's turned in the night up there, really 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:06.560 isn't We imagine deep space would be a wash with stars, 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.520 but with the Earth reflecting sunlight like a massive mirror, 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:13.120 it has made that nearly impossible, except now with the 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:17.120 Sun's light trapped behind the Moon. In mission control, everyone 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:21.640 is living vicariously through the cruise off. We've been having 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:25.440 raised somebody really spectacular and view worth the price of 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:27.880 the drip all or a lot of us down there 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:31.000 that would be willing to come along. As a Pauloa 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.080 Levin continues to enjoy the show. Houston kicks off their 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:36.880 day with the news. McCandless decides to tag team it 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.159 with backup lunar module pilot Fred hayes, it looks like 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:42.080 it's going to be impossible, and get away from the 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:45.800 fact that you guys are dominating all the news. Mccaron 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:50.040 an prop and Russia's headlining the Manja and calls Neil 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:54.640 bar of the ship. Pravda was the official newspaper of 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.520 the Soviet Union. It still exists today, though it's no 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:00.400 longer a mouthpiece of the state. Czar Of was the 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:03.039 honorific title given to the leader of Russia before the 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:07.039 revolution in nineteen seventeen. West Germany has declared Monday to 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.600 be Apollo Day. School Children in Bavaria have been given 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:13.720 the day off. Post office clerks have been encouraged to 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:17.360 bring radios to work, and Frankfurt is installing TV sets 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:22.920 in public places. BBC in London is considering a special 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.400 radio loan system to call people or the TV sets 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.320 in cases a change in the av a time on 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:33.080 the moon. Clearly, Apollo eleven has captured the imagination of 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.440 the entire world. This will be the most significant where 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.040 were you when moment at all of human history? And 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.320 everyone wants to bear witness, even the kids at camp 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.560 down in the news when Mike Junior was quoted as 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.680 replying yeah when somebody asked him if the Steady was 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:51.640 going to be in history, then after a sharp pause, 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:56.240 he asked, what is history? You might be interested in 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:00.800 annoying that. A Houston astrologer, Ruby Rahm says that all 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:02.680 the signs are right for your trip to the moon. 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:07.480 She says that Mail is clever, Mike's good judgment as 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:11.200 Buzz can work out into good problems. Thank you us there. 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:16.320 We appreciate that Rogers and Soil Michael Jr. History or 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:20.119 no dream better baby, So Roger will pass it along. 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.440 Like Apollo eleven is nearly to the moon. But we 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:26.480 have just long enough to talk about what life was 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.200 like back on Earth for Neil, Buzz and Michael and 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:38.479 their long suffering families. That these families, especially the astronauts 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.240 were living sort of double lives. They were their home 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.360 lives in Houston, and then the guys who are flying 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.160 their hot p thirty eight down to Cape Canavera where 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:52.640 they were training, and so they were absentee fathers for 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:57.760 the most part and sort of celebrities down in Florida. 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.360 And so the women had to deal with the very 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:05.520 unique challenge of keeping a family grounded while also sort 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:11.280 of promoting this space age dream that America was projecting 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:14.880 out into the world. That was Lily Copel. I'm a 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.640 writer and journalist and I wrote a book called The 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.560 Astronaut Wives Club. While the astronauts lived in Houston, a 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:25.600 large amount of their training took place in Florida, forcing 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:27.520 them away from their families for most of the week. 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.200 In a very real sense, the astronaut's wives were single mothers. 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:35.600 Barbara's Cernan, who was the wife of Jean Cernan, the 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:39.480 last man to walk on the Moon, said quite poignantly, 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:42.880 if you think going to the moon is hard, try 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:47.119 staying at home. They ran the house, juggling the finances, 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:49.839 mowing the lawn, fixing anything that broke, and helping the 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.160 kids with their schoolwork. Andy Aldrin, buzz and Jones's youngest 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.640 of three, was eleven the year his father left for 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.440 the Moon. It wasn't at home all that all. That's 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:02.320 just what my dad's job was. My mother was incredibly strong, 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:07.640 incredibly diplomatic, incredibly compassionate. You know, I'll be honest with that. 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:10.840 She emerges out of this whole thing as my biggest hero, 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.880 because it was incredibly difficult for her to manage all 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:19.160 the things that she had to manage without alarming the kids. 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:21.680 You know, the fact that I can say all of 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:25.320 this seemed normal is an absolute tribute to my mother. 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.640 The wives soon realized that they were each other's greatest 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:32.120 source of strength and supporting together's will was a name 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:35.320 the journalists gave the community. So women were sort of 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:39.319 living in this little tribal pack down in Houston, helping 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:43.520 communally raise the kids back in Houston. Because the men 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:47.080 were so busy training for their space flights. The wives 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:49.640 had a little motto for their own role, and that 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:54.320 was happy, proud, and thrilled because they next felt that 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:59.760 they could reveal the enormous anxiety, the fears of what 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:05.520 they were experiencing. This sisterhood of joint experiences, common pressures, 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:09.760 mutual fears, and shared sacrifices was, by their own admission, 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:11.840 a bit like living in a neighborhood run by the 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:16.440 Stepford wives. They've always dreamed of the happiest investment they 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:20.920 have ever made. There were five houses that were adjacent 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.480 to the back of our house. Three of them were astronauts. 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:25.760 You couldn't swing a dead cat at our elementary school 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:29.440 without him an astronaut's kid, so it was normal. I 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:31.320 thought my dad was cool because you get pole vauled, 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.400 not because he was an astronaut. Having astronauts around was 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.200 just normal for me. It was normal for everybody in 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:40.920 our community. None of the astronaut wives knew what they 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.640 were in for. When they got married. They expected the quiet, 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:46.679 ordered life of military spouses, but now they had to 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.960 attend ribbon cuttings and high society festivities. They had to 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:53.120 plaster smiles on their faces during ticker tape parades and 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.920 make small talk with first ladies. Their neighborhoods were invaded 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:00.120 by press and tour buses, and it wasn't unusual to 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:03.800 find tourists climbing trees or even jumping backyard fences just 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.120 to get a look at them. The astro families had 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:10.240 to be flawless. They had to project an image of 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.760 the all American Christian family because the world was watching. 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.319 The women of this family seemed to feel that they 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:19.439 owe it to the men of the family to look relaxed, rested, 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:22.520 and attractive at dinner time. And this was the height 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.880 of the Cold War, and there was the feeling that 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:30.880 America had to really sell and project to the world 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:35.600 all the ideals of the country, of the American dreams. 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:40.520 The choice lies between two opposing ideologies. On the one side, 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:46.920 socialist communism on the other side, democratic capitalism. The astronauts 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:50.440 and their families were on the forefront of this propaganda mission. 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:55.040 They were almost like America's first reality stars. You know. 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:58.839 There was such pressure um from NASA, from the US 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:04.640 government to maintained this perfect nineteen fifties going into the 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.640 sixties image, sort of the leave it to Beaver family. 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:11.199 It was bad enough that the families had to meet 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.480 NASA's impossible standards anytime they stepped out the front door, 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:17.719 but thanks to an exclusive deal with Life magazine, they 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:20.439 also had to maintain this illusion behind the closed doors 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.960 of their own homes. Life reporters were literally embedded with 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:29.320 the families before and during missions. Everything they did, said, 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:33.480 or war was scrutinized. It was totally awesome. The Life 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:35.800 guys were just great guys and they just wanted to 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:39.120 be my buddy. I enjoyed it. I think it's terrified 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:41.640 my mom. Well. The stories about the astronauts that appeared 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.840 in Life magazine were accurate. The pictures were anything, but 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.600 they frequently showed Neil, Buzz and Michael hanging out, laughing 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.440 and cooking together. But these men didn't do any of that, 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.840 not in real life. It was all made up, staged 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.280 by the magazine to sell copy. Andrew Chacken is a 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.440 space historian and science journalists and the author of A 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.520 Man to the Moon, The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:07.680 the basis of the HBO miniseries From the Earth to 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.319 the Moon. The thing about a space mission is that 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.800 you don't have to be best friends to carry it 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:17.880 out successfully. What you do have to do is be 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:22.960 consummate professionals. And Neil, Buzz and Mike were above all 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:29.680 consummate professionals. They were superb astronauts. They completely respected each 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:33.600 other on a professional level, whether or not they connected 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.280 on a personal level at all. And I think Mike 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:41.760 Collins said it best when he used the phrase amiable strangers. Uh. 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:46.240 There was certainly no bad blood between them, but they 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:49.880 weren't what you would call best buddies. They weren't the 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.200 kind of guys who would all go out drinking together. 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:57.560 But as a professional unit, they were superb and their 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:09.880 skills complemented each other. Eleven, Hearston, You're gold. Roll over 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.680 at the right go for l o I. Apollo eleven 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:15.720 is coming up on the moon fast. Now they are 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:17.920 just a few minutes away from l o I or 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:21.480 the Lunar orbit insertion burn. The spacecraft is about to 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:23.640 loop around the far side of the Moon, where they 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.280 will ignite the engine to slow them down and allow 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.480 them to enter lunar orbit. Follow eleven Anderson, all your 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.160 systems are looking good. Going around the corner. We'll see 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:36.680 on the other side over Radio signals can't penetrate the Moon, 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:39.600 so each time that Apollo moves behind the Moon, they 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:43.080 will be on their own. At seventy five hours, forty 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.600 one minutes, and twenty three seconds, exactly as predicted, Earth 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:50.560 loses radio contact with Apollo eleven. But just because Houston 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:53.120 can't hear the astronauts, it doesn't mean weekend I have. 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.440 The Moon is there in all of the splendor my 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.320 grain im okay here we come up and okay about kay. 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:04.600 Clearly Neil wants everyone's full attention. Don't worry, guys, there's 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.760 gonna be plenty of mood to see. Shortly. Name TIG 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:12.600 is time of ignition. The Command Service Module's primary rocket 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.400 and more than twenty pound thrust engine ignites. This is 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:22.160 Apollo control as minutes follow eleven should have started this 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:27.280 long burn duration six minutes to seconds. There's a reason 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.880 Armstrong needs his crew's complete attention. For every second of 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:34.040 this three hundred and sixty two second burn, Apollo eleven 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.960 is dropping more than eleven naut ago miles towards the Moon. 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.360 If they are off by even ten seconds, they will 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:44.680 slam into the Moon's surface, rinding off moment and connected 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:50.960 daron I cam name and Pregner Nick. If something goes wrong, 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:53.400 it will be nearly half an hour until anyone in 0:16:53.440 --> 0:17:07.040 mission control even knows there's a problem. Okay, y or okay, 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:13.560 one off and take bad any bad things I ever 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:20.479 said about as a beautiful birds good I get. Luckily, 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.440 there is no problem. Apollo elevin's engine has slowed the 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:26.199 vehicle to a sufficient degree that it's been captured by 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:30.160 lunar gravity. It is now only sixty nautical miles above 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.760 the surface. Michael makes a joke about m I. T, 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.760 whose Draper Computer Laboratory built the spacecraft's computers, and on 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.240 whose computations they were relying to get them into orbit safely. 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.520 Today we take for granted the computers run so much 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.040 of our lives, But the idea of trusting your life 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.480 to a machine was still a foreign concept in nineteen 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.840 sixty nine. Clearly Michael and the others had some occasional doubts. 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.640 They don't anymore. With the engines off, they finally get 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:58.280 a chance to cock at the mood. Well, I have 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:04.720 to vote with it. Can through that day brown and amazing, Yeah, yeah, 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:11.680 yet a fogel about. I'll get all back. Then. Back 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:15.440 in mission control, the public affairs officer makes an important announcement. 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:20.080 Where past the no burn acquisition time now? And we 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:23.560 have received no signal. If Apollo eleven had not slowed 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:26.359 itself and settled into orbit, Houston would have expected to 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.159 reacquire their signal right about now. The fact that they 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.679 haven't indicates that the burn was successful. It's very quiet 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:37.560 here in the control room. Most of the controllers seated 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:41.840 at their consoles, a few standing up, but very quiet. 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:44.760 There's one other reason Apolo eleven may not have re 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.720 established contact. It could have crashed on the dark side 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:51.720 of the moon. Everyone in mission control waits silently. The 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.720 guys in the capsule don't realize the apprehension building on Earth. 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:58.560 They are too spell dound by their view. Look the 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:02.160 great None of those meteors come by right there, get 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:06.240 the mountains going around? I guess clear, monsters, we think 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:08.640 of the Moon as a flat thing. From our vantage 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.359 point on Earth, we can't make out any definition. But 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:13.720 there are mountains on the Moon more than twenty one 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.280 thousand feet tall. That's a thousand feet taller than Denali, 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.760 the tallest mountain in North America. The largest note impact 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:24.160 crater on the Moon is roughly six hundred miles wide 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:28.680 and eight miles deep. To Apollo eleven, soaring just sixty 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:32.560 miles above this astonishing topography, the view is like nothing 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.320 they have ever seen. Oh well, I need to spend 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.119 a lifetime just geologizing that one crater alone. You know, 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:42.399 that not how I'd like to spend my life, turns, 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:47.600 but that big over here coup. Come on, now, the 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:53.360 big mounts. Very name a geologist that there? I go crazy. 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:57.439 We talked before about what life was like for the 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:00.600 astronauts families while they are away, But exactly where the 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.399 astronauts up to that whole time? What were they doing 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:05.960 that was so important that they missed months and even 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.560 years of time with their loving families. It has more 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:12.000 to do with Michael's geology comment than you might think 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:15.640 practice makes perfect. It's one of those things that's drilled 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.520 into every American school child. But it works for more 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.479 than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. It also works for 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:25.720 space exploration. Everyone working on Apollo eleven, from the crew 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:28.560 and the spacecraft to the flight controllers and mission control 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:32.159 undertook a rigorous training regiment to prepare them for the 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.200 first mission to the mood, which makes you wonder, how 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:37.480 do you train for something no one has ever done before, 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:39.919 and what kind of toll does it take on the 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:44.119 families left behind Apollo, their teens Jim love them, and 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:47.720 any kind of an occupation that you're going to be 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:52.760 involved in, it's imperative that you have good training before 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.840 you do the actual things. Tratty was the one thing 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:59.920 that made everything successful. I mean, if we were sort 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:02.920 elects of days ago and trading, I don't think we 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:07.240 had ever done it. Amy share Title is a spacecraft historian, author, 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.919 and YouTuber extraordinaire. Nothing was left up to chance. No 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:12.439 one really knew it was going to happen for the 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:15.840 first time people walked on the Moon. So NASA's approaches 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.560 basically take every question out of the equation and run 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:21.000 through absolutely everything and make sure we know how everything's 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:24.520 gonna work. Neil, Buzz and Michael trained intensely for six 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:27.879 months for their nine day mission. It was, according to Michael, 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:32.080 the busiest six months of their entire lives. From January 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:35.000 to July of nineteen sixty nine, the crew of APAUL 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.160 eleven log more than three thousand, five hundred and twenty 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:41.000 one training hours were roughly forty two hours a week 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:44.119 per man. They also did an additional twenty hours a 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:49.120 week studying. All astronauts received intensive academic training to assure 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:51.920 that they have achieved a common level of spaceflight knowledge. 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.119 The least sexy, yet arguably the most important part of 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.720 the astronauts training took place in flight simulators, which perfectly 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:01.720 resembled the Command and un modules down to every last 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:05.800 switch and blinking light. In the complex computer operated electronic 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:11.000 mechanism called the Command Module simulator, the astronauts learned singly 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:14.760 and as a team, systems and characteristics of their three 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:19.000 man ship. In these simulators, the men practiced rendezvousing and 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:22.240 talking with other spacecraft, and of course, landing on the Moon. 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:26.720 The outside was a large mosaic of the actual place 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:30.400 we were going to land and and hanging over that 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:35.560 was a TV camera that was controlled by the controls 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:39.359 in the lunar module, and I could actually control the 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:43.760 camera going down looking for places of land, and the 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:46.480 actual simulation of the speech and things like that of 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:51.800 lunar module. It was actually a marvelous device. It was 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:56.959 very accurate. Their instructors programmed system malfunctions, emergencies, and various 0:22:56.960 --> 0:22:59.880 disasters to see how quickly and proficiently the crew could 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:03.000 react and how well they knew the spacecraft and its systems. 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:05.560 Neil put in more than ten weeks of eight hour 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:08.040 days in the LAMB trainer. Buzz put in even more. 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:11.480 Michael did half of his Command module simulator training by himself. 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:13.440 Since he was never going to see the inside of 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:15.280 the lemb during the mission or walk on the Moon, 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:17.399 there was no need for him to learn any of that. 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:20.400 In all, the men calculated that they spent around two 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:25.800 thousand hours or eighty days in those simulators. According to Michael, 0:23:26.040 --> 0:23:28.639 there was only one angry moment throughout the men's training. 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:32.040 During one of the simulated lunar descents, Neil was ordered 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:35.960 to abort the landing after the spacecraft began malfunctioning. Neil 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:38.640 disagreed with the order, thinking he could still land safely. 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:42.240 He was wrong. The lambs smashed into the lunar surface, 0:23:42.359 --> 0:23:46.200 breaking apart that night with several glasses of Scotch and him. 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:49.240 Buzz angrily ripped into Neil. It got so heated that 0:23:49.280 --> 0:23:51.800 Michael slipped away to let them have at it. He 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:54.200 never did learn how they resolve things, but the next 0:23:54.200 --> 0:23:56.240 morning they were back to their normal cells as if 0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:59.280 nothing had ever happened. Well, we think of Apollo eleven 0:23:59.359 --> 0:24:01.960 as the Moon ending mission. The truth is that Neil 0:24:02.000 --> 0:24:04.040 and Buzz spent less than three of their more than 0:24:04.080 --> 0:24:07.320 one hundred and ninety five hour long mission gallivanting across 0:24:07.320 --> 0:24:10.399 the lunar surface. As such, training for their lunar v 0:24:10.560 --> 0:24:14.840 A represented only four of their overall preparations. Simulators are 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:17.520 used to train astronauts to work in the one sixth 0:24:17.600 --> 0:24:20.439 gravity on the surface of the Moon. They did some 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:24.480 things that they supported astronauts on their sides from cables 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:28.040 and had them run around a vertical track to see 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:30.560 about mobility. These the vomit comment, which is you know 0:24:30.760 --> 0:24:33.719 flies and parable is to give you actual periods of 0:24:33.720 --> 0:24:36.040 reduced gravity like on the moons, they could figure out 0:24:36.280 --> 0:24:40.320 how to deploy instruments, how to walk. To become familiar 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:44.680 with the sensations of zero gravity or weightlessness. The astronauts 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:49.240 ride an aircraft applying precise trajectories. They also practiced in 0:24:49.240 --> 0:24:51.840 a precursor of what is known today as the neutral 0:24:51.880 --> 0:24:55.720 buoyancy simulator. Scuba training has given since another method of 0:24:55.760 --> 0:25:00.240 simulating weightlessness is by working under water in special sally 0:25:00.320 --> 0:25:04.560 constructed tanks. The astronauts enter the water weighted to provide 0:25:04.600 --> 0:25:10.200 neutral buoyancy. The astronauts meticulously rehearsed the entire moonwalk. NASA 0:25:10.280 --> 0:25:13.879 created fake indoor moonscapes, complete with a full sized lunar 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:17.440 module mock up encased in their spacesuits. The men practiced 0:25:17.480 --> 0:25:19.959 exiting and entering the lamb and ran through every aspect 0:25:19.960 --> 0:25:22.359 of the mission, from the tools they would use, the 0:25:22.400 --> 0:25:25.280