Speaker 1: Buzz an audio drama for iHeart Podcasts starring John Lithgow
Speaker 1: and Jeffrey Errand as buzz Aldrin. This series is based
Speaker 1: on real events. However, certain characters, names, incidents, locations, and
Speaker 1: dialogue have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Chapter three, I've
Speaker 1: been married four times.
Speaker 2: The triumph of hope over experience. It's an old joke,
Speaker 2: but I'm an old man. If you're one ring where
Speaker 2: that optimism comes from. When you're facing an immovable deadline
Speaker 2: to get to the moon and the technology's undependable at best,
Speaker 2: hope is all you have. Several of the projections.
Speaker 3: If we lose pressure in the tunnels between the command
Speaker 3: and lunar modules during redocking, we risk a catastrophic explosion.
Speaker 3: We may need to get Rockwell's design team to reconceptualize
Speaker 3: the entire ringlatch mechanism.
Speaker 4: That all mean we'll still be doing calculations when the
Speaker 4: Russians send up their next mission.
Speaker 2: Chris Kraft, former director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, never
Speaker 2: took his eyes off the prize.
Speaker 5: Well, then, Chris, that's what we'll be doing. We'll go
Speaker 5: when we're ready, And not a minute before I lost
Speaker 5: one crew. I'm not about to have it happen again.
Speaker 2: For flight director Gene Krantz, Apollo eleven was a mission
Speaker 2: fueled by equal parts liquid nitrogen and guilt. More on
Speaker 2: that later.
Speaker 5: There are three men in this room whose lives depend
Speaker 5: on the ring latch mechanism working to maximum efficiency.
Speaker 6: Neil, I think we go even if it's a fifty
Speaker 6: to fifty.
Speaker 4: Chance, buzz, I'll risk it at twenty percent.
Speaker 7: Would you get into a jet with those odds I have?
Speaker 4: That's the business we're in, Mike.
Speaker 7: The business we're in is doing the job and coming
Speaker 7: back alive in that order of priority. Maybe for you,
Speaker 7: but as far as I'm concerned, this isn't about swinging
Speaker 7: decks or five beta kapakes. I'm a general son. He
Speaker 7: taught me the difference between acceptable risk and suicide. So
Speaker 7: if it comes down to a choice between a mission
Speaker 7: that pushes risk beyond what's acceptable and seeing my kids
Speaker 7: grow up, I'm staying on the ground.
Speaker 2: I remember wondering what kind of pilot thinks like that.
Speaker 2: It took seeing my own kids grow up for me
Speaker 2: to realize what kind of father doesn't. And if failing
Speaker 2: technology and dissension among the crew wasn't problematic enough. What
Speaker 2: we feared most suddenly became a reality.
Speaker 8: In France.
Speaker 9: Let's check that out, sir. We intercepted a Soviet radio transmission.
Speaker 9: We launched a zond and one on a lunar trajectory.
Speaker 5: Jesus Christ, can you put it through?
Speaker 9: Did you translate one hundred and eighty seconds and a
Speaker 9: fight of the zond and one down range sixty five
Speaker 9: kilometers alther tuode five zero sixteen.
Speaker 3: Seventeen based on a free return trajectory, they'll reach lunar
Speaker 3: orbit in seventy two.
Speaker 4: Hours and we won't have launched, and there goes your
Speaker 4: place in history.
Speaker 6: Jesus, buzz. If that's what you think this is about.
Speaker 5: Knock it off, all of you, Dmitri.
Speaker 9: We're only hearing Russian ground control no voices from inside
Speaker 9: the spacecraft. Pro We know the zond could be unmapped.
Speaker 7: No, there's a crew on board three possibly four.
Speaker 4: CIA says they're flying with a live escape tarer.
Speaker 9: The Russians haven't done a successful Earth orbit.
Speaker 5: They don't give a damn about testing.
Speaker 2: It's about landing men on the Moon before we do.
Speaker 8: What do I tell the press?
Speaker 2: Nothing?
Speaker 3: I have to give him some kind of information.
Speaker 5: Damn it, Brian, I'm talking a complete muse blackout.
Speaker 7: Okay.
Speaker 5: I don't want our people to think that Russians have
Speaker 5: beaten us unless there's absolute proof that that's the case.
Speaker 3: Undt.
Speaker 5: Meanwhile, we proceed back to work. At least the question
Speaker 5: of replacing Buzz becomes moot.
Speaker 9: Is it?
Speaker 5: Facts are facts, Chris. If the Russians get there first,
Speaker 5: they get there.
Speaker 2: There was a picture on the wall in Gene Krantz's
Speaker 2: office Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffey, the crew of.
Speaker 10: Apollo one bishop control off.
Speaker 2: They died in a flash fire on the launch path.
Speaker 2: Jeane was flight director. I never saw Jeane cry until
Speaker 2: that day, and I hadn't seen it since.
Speaker 5: All we can do is make sure Apollo eleven's the
Speaker 5: best and safest mission it can be. Doctor Ludwig raised
Speaker 5: doubts about Buzz's ability to work with Neil and Mike,
Speaker 5: and the disaster of his life is likely to be
Speaker 5: after the.
Speaker 4: Mission to work together, because they're professionals, His life afterward.
Speaker 7: Is none of our concern.
Speaker 11: If this was a system's defect, we'd replace it. I
Speaker 11: still have nightmares about gus Ed and Roger. I can
Speaker 11: still hear them screaming, Apollo. I was an accident we
Speaker 11: couldn't prevent.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, I was having nightmares of my own, nightmares I
Speaker 2: couldn't shake. If Ludwig had known about them, she wouldn't
Speaker 2: have had me ground it, she'd have had me committed.
Speaker 2: I'm Buzz Aldrin, and this is the story you think
Speaker 2: you know, but you don't.
Speaker 10: Infrequent five five four, perfect quality Beavior, the angle l
Speaker 10: one arapermand part.
Speaker 2: You're listening to, Buzz. This is the story of my
Speaker 2: greatest achievement. Chapter three.
Speaker 9: Uh, the Soviets Sunden one is downrange forty eight hundred.
Speaker 2: The Soviets were on their way to the Moon, leaving
Speaker 2: us in their backwash, or so we.
Speaker 9: Thought altitude approaching one hundred and thirty a mile.
Speaker 2: Their launch surprised us. Oh what happened, But not as
Speaker 2: much as their radio transmission going silent less than twenty
Speaker 2: minutes into its flight.
Speaker 9: They may have changed frequency.
Speaker 5: Could be a satellite malfunction.
Speaker 6: No, sir, it's not.
Speaker 3: The satellite canyon's still transmitting.
Speaker 6: What about the relay stations in Guam and Perth, both active.
Speaker 3: So's Jodrell Bank in the UK and Punta de l
Speaker 3: Este in Uruguay.
Speaker 2: Did we trust the Russians? In a word, niet.
Speaker 5: They could have cut the transmission themselves, so we're in
Speaker 5: the dark until they plant their flag.
Speaker 6: Or kept their flight path undetected while they track hours
Speaker 6: so they could destroy Apollo eleven as it approaches the
Speaker 6: moon or after it lands.
Speaker 4: I'll call Barkley at cia in teed O'Rourke at the Pentagon.
Speaker 5: Dieck set up a whiteboard track the Russians progress based
Speaker 5: on presumed speed and trajectory.
Speaker 6: Gotcha, what do you say?
Speaker 8: Both?
Speaker 3: Another beer?
Speaker 12: Why not?
Speaker 4: The night is young?
Speaker 3: Anything for an American hero much obliged path.
Speaker 2: The night was geriatric. By the time I got home,
Speaker 2: Joan was asleep on the couch, an empty bottle on
Speaker 2: the floor. When I first met her, she didn't touch
Speaker 2: the stuff. I chalked it up to a theatrical career
Speaker 2: that never took off. I mean, it couldn't have been
Speaker 2: my fault, not in a million years. At the same time,
Speaker 2: across town, Rachel Ludwig was digging up more dirt on me.
Speaker 12: Aldrin Junior Edwin Eugene MMP evaluation administered by doctor Paul McCone,
Speaker 12: January twenty eighth, nineteen sixty three.
Speaker 9: Okay, in your family history, Colonel, other indications of mental illness, depression,
Speaker 9: drug or alcohol abuse.
Speaker 4: Categorically no, My parents are as solid as a rock.
Speaker 11: Your grandparents same.
Speaker 6: On both sides.
Speaker 2: Yes, good?
Speaker 9: Did you know your grandparents?
Speaker 4: My mother's father died before I was born.
Speaker 2: What was the cause of his death?
Speaker 4: Natural? As far as I know.
Speaker 2: I knew further, but I wasn't about to let the
Speaker 2: end of his life be the ruination of mine.
Speaker 11: Shipped off from Charleston, South Carolina.
Speaker 12: Yea, Rachel Ludwig Slayton.
Speaker 8: What can I do for you?
Speaker 11: Dike?
Speaker 6: You can go to the window and open the drapes
Speaker 6: and look out to the parking lot.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I see you in the phone.
Speaker 6: Booth the l Paradise Motel. The R and the S
Speaker 6: are burned out. Is this the best accommodation NASCA come
Speaker 6: up with?
Speaker 8: I like the anonymity.
Speaker 6: I thought we'd have heard from you after you saw.
Speaker 8: A Buzz It didn't go well.
Speaker 6: I've got a final simulation today, docking procedure. Buzz wrote
Speaker 6: the book on it. That's what put him on the
Speaker 6: crew in the first place.
Speaker 12: I'm not changing my recommendation. You and mister Krans can
Speaker 12: pressure me all you want, but Colonel Aldren should not
Speaker 12: be a part of Apollo eleven, no matter what happens
Speaker 12: in the simulation.
Speaker 6: I agree, So does Gene Krantz more or less.
Speaker 12: Really, but Craft doesn't. Is that because he loves Oldren
Speaker 12: or he hates me?
Speaker 6: Yes? And because he sees everything he's ever worked for
Speaker 6: slipping away. It's killing him?
Speaker 12: Rachel, How do I get him to see that replacing
Speaker 12: Colonel Aldren is the best thing for the mission and
Speaker 12: for the colonel himself.
Speaker 6: It'll take more than seven year old memos and evaluations.
Speaker 6: It would take something current and irrefutable.
Speaker 2: Back at the Aldron house, Joan and I were getting dressed.
Speaker 2: It was feeding time, not for Popo the chimp, but
Speaker 2: for the vultures from the press.
Speaker 8: Mm hmm, how's your head centered on my shoulders? Why?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 4: You knocked back the best part of a bottle last
Speaker 4: night while.
Speaker 8: You wererapping the All American boy?
Speaker 4: I think you just ought to slow down.
Speaker 8: Popo doesn't mind.
Speaker 2: Are you ready?
Speaker 8: Let's do this hurdle question?
Speaker 5: Are you?
Speaker 6: Are you holding up?
Speaker 9: Okay?
Speaker 1: I think all the wives are happy through old and
Speaker 1: so proud.
Speaker 4: Believe me, they're a lot stronger than we are without
Speaker 4: them holding down the four.
Speaker 3: In dramatic arts from Rutgers. Did you have aspirations of
Speaker 3: a career on Broadway or in Hollywood?
Speaker 8: My role here is well more fulfilling than anything.
Speaker 4: I'd like to amplify my response on orbital docking procedures.
Speaker 4: It was the subject.
Speaker 2: Of my doctorate.
Speaker 4: The increase in velocity of the chaser craft carries it
Speaker 4: to a higher orbit than the target. Docking occurs at
Speaker 4: a rate of point one feet per second to point two.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Colonel Aldron.
Speaker 6: Thanks fellas, question later fell.
Speaker 8: No more questions.
Speaker 4: Thank you, see you, honey.
Speaker 6: Don't you ever cut me off?
Speaker 2: You understand me?
Speaker 7: Ever, I swear to God.
Speaker 6: Duff you were losing them.
Speaker 4: No one gives a goddamn about Joan's theatrical career.
Speaker 6: As a matter of fact, they do. I'll never understand
Speaker 6: orbital rendezvous, but they.
Speaker 8: Want to connect with you as if you're a typical
Speaker 8: American family. That's what we're selling.
Speaker 4: Maybe that's what it's about for you. But I'm an
Speaker 4: engineer and a pilot, not a salesman.
Speaker 2: Duff was always spouting off about us being a typical
Speaker 2: American family. But we weren't, so why should we Why
Speaker 2: should I have to pretend we were. We weren't just
Speaker 2: a husband and wife. We were a team. Joan supported me,
Speaker 2: and I let her to me. It was about integrity.
Speaker 2: I thought I had it, and NASA didn't. Another on
Speaker 2: my list of attributes. I was pretentious as hell. Little
Speaker 2: did I know my bigger problem had been watching us
Speaker 2: from down the block, waiting for me to leave.
Speaker 12: Yes, missus Aldrin, I'm Rachel Ludwig, flight surgeon for Apollo eleven.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I know who you are. Come in, Thank you,
Speaker 8: thanks right through here.
Speaker 10: Thanks?
Speaker 12: Oh well, having a chimp for a pet.
Speaker 8: It's it's that's most people's reaction. Buzz bought, I'm back
Speaker 8: from Panama last year for Christmas. Isn't the right popo?
Speaker 8: And now you're part of the family.
Speaker 12: From what I've seen you do well with the press.
Speaker 12: I was a theater major, happy, thrilled, proud, it's an act.
Speaker 12: Saying it for the thousand time and making it sound
Speaker 12: like it's the first that's an act.
Speaker 8: Have a seat.
Speaker 12: I would have thought Colonel Aldren would have told you
Speaker 12: not to see me in light of my recommendation that
Speaker 12: he'd be replaced as a member of the crew.
Speaker 8: My husband is one of the strongest men I've ever met.
Speaker 12: You know, I'm also a psychiatrist.
Speaker 8: And the strongest physically and emotionally.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 12: Questions have been raised as to whether he's capable of
Speaker 12: being lunar module pilot and if he can maintain an
Speaker 12: emotionally stable life.
Speaker 8: After the mission.
Speaker 12: Questions raised by you based on existing data.
Speaker 8: You know him better than anyone. Are there any insights
Speaker 8: that you could get. He's confident, competent.
Speaker 12: His family history indicates a strong predisposition to depression, alcohol abuse,
Speaker 12: and suicide.
Speaker 8: Every family has a history.
Speaker 12: Missus Aldren, I know you want what's best for your
Speaker 12: husband and your family, and.
Speaker 8: What's best for him is to go to the moon.
Speaker 8: How can you question that?
Speaker 12: If confidence and competence were.
Speaker 8: All there, that is all that matters. There are two
Speaker 8: buzz aldrons.
Speaker 12: One of them has all the qualities you've mentioned, but
Speaker 12: the other is critically damaged.
Speaker 8: I think you know that. I think you should go.
Speaker 12: Not flying would hurt the astronaut, but it might just
Speaker 12: save the man.
Speaker 8: You're out to destroy him. And I Won't help You
Speaker 8: Get out of My House.
Speaker 13: Out Buzz, starring John Lithgow and Jeffrey Errand, is created
Speaker 13: by Stephen Cronish and directed by John Scott Dryden.
Speaker 8: Chapter three is written by Stephen.
Speaker 1: Kronish and Matt Graham. Original music is by Sasha Putnam.
Speaker 1: Sound designed by Elouise Whitmore. The producer is Emma Hearn.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Jeremy Fox, John Scott Dryden, Stephen Cronish,
Speaker 1: Howard Stringer and Jason English. Buzz is a production of
Speaker 1: Thoroughbred Studios, gold Hawk Productions and iHeart Podcasts.