WEBVTT - July 17, 1969 / The Dream Team 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.440 Nine Days in July is a production of I Heart 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:06.520 Radio and trade Craft Studios in association with High five Content. 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:14.880 September three, in the air of Page or nine, Korea. 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:18.520 Do you hear that sound? That's the roar of a 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.759 Grummin F nine panther holding the stick is a twenty 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.840 one year old well boy. He's a newly minted lieutenant 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:29.560 junior grade and he's only been in the Navy for 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:33.280 two and a half years. It's the height of the 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:36.400 Korean War. Our pilot is in one of five U. S. 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:39.640 Navy Fighter jets flying over a narrow road known as 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:43.200 Green six. The ground is blurring beneath him at three 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:47.000 hundred and fifty miles per hour. The squadron's mission is 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:49.400 to bomb some freight yards and a bridge the enemy 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.360 is using to resupply their troops. Well, the men have 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.000 been warned they're going into a hot zone. None are 0:00:55.040 --> 0:01:02.440 prepared for what they encounter at three o'clock's slip information. 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.679 According to one of the pilots, the anti aircraft fire 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:08.480 was so thick it looked as if he could have 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:12.440 climbed out of his jet and walked on top Beyond 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:16.840 the pilot in the jet. Just in front of ours 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:23.399 is Lieutenant Frank Sistruct. He's heading for the bridge. The 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:27.679 lead panther is struck. Lieutenant Sistructs aircraft spirals into the ground, 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:31.839 exploding on impact. Our pilot doesn't have time to mourn 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:38.040 or panic. He inhales deeply and takes a His aircraft 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.440 is also hit. As he wrestles to maintain control, his 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:45.080 panther plows into a metal cable strung across the valley 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:48.639 as a booby trap for low flying aircraft. The cable 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:52.200 slices through the panther's right wing, sharing off nearly six feet, 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:56.160 narrowly missing the cockpit. Our pilot manages to stay locked 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.600 just long enough to return to friendly territory, but there 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.400 is no away. He's landing this plane. Facing an impossible decision, 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.320 He has no choice but to eject over a rice pat, 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.520 cracking his helmet in half and breaking his tailbone in 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:18.679 the process. This is a polo control at twenty two 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:23.119 hours forty nine minutes ground the lapsed time spacecraft communicator 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:26.919 here in mission control, Bruce McCandless is standing by to 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.960 make a call to the crew. It's July sev nineteen 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:34.880 sixty nine, day two of the Apollo eleven mission. Apollo 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.320 eleven has left planet Earth and is on its way 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.200 to the Moon. As the crew begins their first full 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:42.600 day in space, it's the perfect time to tell you 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.280 how Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins became the 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.160 Dream Team, as well as how a handful of kids 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.400 built Mission Control. But first, let's check in with the 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.400 capsule communicator, who's decided it's time to wake our crew 0:02:55.760 --> 0:03:00.959 with some morning news from Earth eleven. When you're really 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:03.040 to copy the eleven I've got in the morning nude. 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.280 This will become a tradition. Each day the capcom and 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:08.960 mission control will let the astronauts know what's going on 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:13.560 on the planet they left behind. Okay, we're all immigration 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:17.400 of facial and Louva. Laredo announced Wednesday that hippies will 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:20.360 be refused third Guard banner Mexico and large. They take 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:23.160 a bath and get haircut. It's sometimes hard to remember 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:25.920 given all of these clean cut NASA types running around 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:28.959 that nineteen sixty nine was also the epicenter of the 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:33.560 hippie movement. For historical context, the Woodstock Music Festival, perhaps 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.440 the most famous expression of hippie culture is less than 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.480 one month away. But the House of Lords was assured 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.720 one day that I made the American submarine would not 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:46.800 quote damage or a full unquote. They locked as monker 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.760 in one the British tabloid Daily Express said no one 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:55.560 will ever understand Lockness. Its conquest will be a greater 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.000 triumph than the conquest of the mood. Fitting then that 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:03.800 the old Georgia man named Dan Taylor built a yellow 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.280 submarine in his garage and shipped it to Scotland, where 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.880 he planned to fire biopsy darts into the creature so 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.640 scientists could figure out exactly what it was. Luckily, the 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:16.040 most famous sea monster in history was safe from the 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.240 midget sub The Locknest Monster was nowhere to be found. 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:26.640 That's Apollo control. Pollo eleven's distance from Earth is three 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:32.040 eight nautical miles velocity five thousand, four hundred eleven feet 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.880 per second. Uh, the Earth should be a lot more 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.159 in your field of you today, and I'm sure you're 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.680 a lot more qualified to tell us about that than 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:45.520 we are. It's true. Exactly one day after their Saturn 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:48.080 five left the Earth, Michael thinks to himself that his 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.960 home planet appears no larger than the watch face on 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:55.200 his wrist. It's really a fantasticing we all end view. 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:59.160 The view up there today is all about mission critical housekeeping, 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.680 ensuring their metallic home, currently moving at nearly thirty seven 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.600 hundred miles an hour, remains in tip top shape. This 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:11.880 means purging fuel cells, stirring oxygen tanks, recharging batteries, dumping wastewater, 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.640 and chlorinating their drinking water. All of it is essential 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.080 to getting them from here to where they need to go. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.080 Remember the story that opened our show, our pilot whose 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.279 F nine panther was so badly damaged that he had 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:28.920 to eject over a rice patty, breaking both his helmet 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:32.120 and his tailbone. While that pilot was none other than 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:36.080 Neil Armstrong. It's time to meet the astronauts of Apollo eleven. 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:41.679 Neil Armstrong was born on August fifth, nineteen thirty, in Wapakanetta, Ohio, 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.880 a small town of barely five thousand people. James Hansen 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:49.479 wrote Neil's definitive biography, First Man, from the time he 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:51.839 was this very small boy who became passionate about the 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.360 whole idea of airplanes, and as a boy, Neil just 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.640 begged his mother for the model airplane, and as he 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.800 got older, his model airplanes got more and more. Just 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:04.240 before his sixth birthday, Neil and his father skipped Sunday 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.159 school to take a ride in a Ford trimotor. Do 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:09.679 you remember the plane that Indiana Jones, Willie and Short 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.200 Round jumped out of in the beginning of Indiana Jones 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:15.760 and the Temple of Doom. That's a Ford trimotor. It 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.520 was there in those wicker seats that Neil realized he 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.520 wanted to spend the rest of his life in the sky. 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:24.479 At age fifteen, he began working in the stock room 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:27.320 of a local pharmacy, earning forty cents an hour to 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.800 pay for flying lessons. It's a little grass airfield outside 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.200 of his town of Waplicanetta, Ohio, where they were living. 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:36.680 Uh He soloed and got his pilot's license on the 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:39.560 dairy day of his birthday. Neil could pilot an aircraft, 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:41.960 but he wasn't even old enough to drive a car. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:46.520 At seventeen, Neil graduated from high school and began studying 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:50.760 aeronautical engineering at nearby Purdue University. While he'd been accepted 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:53.080 to m I T his family convinced him to take 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:56.440 advantage of a new post war government program that paid 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.000 for students tuition if they would commit to three years 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.640 flight service with the U. S. Navy. You finished two 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.000 years of schooling when the Korean War started, and so 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.039 he was notified that at the end of his second 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:11.360 year he would need to report to Pensacola, Florida, where 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:15.000 the naval aviation training took place. Then suddenly, in the 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:19.480 pre dawned darkness of June nineteen fifty, South Korean's what 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:25.440 jarred awake by living nightmare, unprovoked and unannounced, the Communist 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:32.960 latest war of conquest had begun. Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.680 Was born into a flying family on January nineteen thirty 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.600 in New Jersey. His father was a World War One 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.840 Army pilot and later served as the assistant commandant of 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:46.320 the Army's Test Pilot School. Young Edwin was the youngest 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.160 of three children. His sister, fay Anne, who was just 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.040 a year and a half older, struggled with the word brother. 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:57.520 She consistently pronounced it as buzzer. Edwin enjoyed her mispronunciation 0:07:57.600 --> 0:07:59.760 so much that he shortened it to buzz and a 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.600 opted it as his own. Buzz was a terrific student 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:06.520 and a champion football player in high school. His father 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:09.120 wanted him to attend the U. S. Naval Academy, but 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.200 Buzz stood up to him. He wanted to fly, not sail. 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:14.800 There was no US Air Force yet, so if you 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.200 wanted to fly in the military and you didn't like boats, 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.600 you joined the Army Air Corps. Buzz did just as 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:22.280 well at West Point as he did in high school, 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:26.160 graduating third in his class. The Korean War had broken 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.640 out during his junior year, and he now chose to 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:31.240 transition out of the Army and into the brand new 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:33.960 Air Force, even though he knew he'd be heading straight 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:45.800 for the front lines. Like Buzz, Michael Collins's father was 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.520 in the Army, assigned to a base in Rome, Italy, 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:53.160 when Michael entered the world on Halloween Day ninety Over 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:57.080 the next seventeen years, Michael called eight different military bases home. 0:08:57.559 --> 0:08:59.839 One of those bases was in Puerto Rico, where a 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.760 teenage Michael took his first plane ride aboard a Grumm 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.160 and Widgeon, a small aircraft that could take off and 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:08.080 land in the water. He even took controls for part 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:12.240 of the flight and was immediately hooked. Michael finished high 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.120 school in Washington, d c. His mother was keen for 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:17.079 him to work as a diplomat, but Michael wanted to 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:20.600 follow his father into military service. He attended West Point 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.720 and graduated in nineteen fifty two, two years after Buzz, 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.760 with a bachelor's degree in military science. Buzz graduated third 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:32.559 in his class. Michael, I went to West Point primarily 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.280 because it was a free and good education. When I 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:41.079 graduated from the Military Academy, there was no Air Force academy, 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:43.040 but we had a choice of either going into the 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:46.400 Army or the Air Force. The Air Force seemed like 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.400 a more interesting choice. Had he not transition to the 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:53.600 Air Force, we wouldn't be talking about him today. This 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.720 is control. The ignation time for this mid course correction 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:02.199 will be twenty six hours, four four minutes fifty seven seconds. 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.120 Back in Apollo eleven, more than one hundred and eight 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:07.760 thousand miles from the Earth and traveling at more than 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.120 thirty four hundred miles, the crew is preparing to make 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:14.360 a minor course correction. Yesterday, the third stage of the 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.800 Saturn five launched Apollo eleven toward the Moon. Isaac Newton 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.040 is currently piloting Apollo eleven. An object in motion will 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.760 stay in motion unless acted upon by some other force, 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.600 but the crew does need to make small course corrections 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:30.040 here and there. One minute to the burn, the duration 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:37.040 will be three seconds burning shut down. There's the burn 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:41.199 complete that you caught me in our residual term. What 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:43.880 was a good burn. Apollo eleven will now begin a 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.839 series of passive thermal control burns. The astronauts have dubbed 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:51.679 this barbecue mode because the spacecraft spins like a rotisserie 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.440 chicken to ensure one side of the spacecraft is not 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.040 always exposed to the blistering heat of the sun. And 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:06.679 now recovered an opulent rap out of the row of 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:10.880 car driving up down. That was Michael. Ever, the class 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.319 clown chances are if someone on this mission is cracking 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:17.880 a joke or horsing around, it's Michael. He and Buzz 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:20.880 are chatting with astronaut Jim Level, who has temporarily taken 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.760 over at Capcom out of the deal of the airborne again. 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.600 Bud about Daddy, I've been having a ball floating around 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:31.600 in air. Lovel and Buzz shared a far smaller capsule 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:34.760 three years earlier on their Gemini mission. But that's jumping 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:37.840 too far ahead in our story. When we last checked 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.839 in with our cruise younger selves, becoming astronauts wasn't even 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:43.760 on their radar screens. They had far larger things to 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.040 worry about, like surviving one dred and forty collective combat 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:49.959 missions in the skies over Korea. That's one hundred and 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:52.280 forty different times when our boys could have suffered the 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.240 same fate as the more than thirty six thousand American 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.760 war fighters who perished in the Korean War. When Neil's 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.520 number got called, he just nineteen. A year or so later, 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:06.360 he'd already made his first aircraft carrier landing. In late 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:10.199 nineteen fifty, he became the youngest officer at VF fifty one, 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:14.280 the Screaming Eagles, the Navy's first all jet fighter squadron. 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.640 Here's Hanson again. Once that squadron was then its pilots 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.120 were ready to go. They got aboard their carrier, the Essex, 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:24.520 which headed over to the Sea of Japan, where they 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.360 began operations to fly over North Korea during the Korean War. 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.120 Neil flew nearly eighty combat missions over Korea, including the 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.920 one we profiled at the beginning of this podcast. His 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.559 active duty commission ended when he was only twenty two, 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:41.240 and he transferred back to the United States. As Neil 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:45.280 was leaving Korea, Buzz was just getting there. After his 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.360 initial flight training, Second Lieutenant Aldren had to decide what 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:52.199 kind of aircraft he wanted to pilot. His father recommended bombers. 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:55.120 Once again, Buzz stood up to his old man and 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:59.920 chose fighters. In late nineteen fifty two, Buzz began patrolling 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.360 an area of Korea the serviceman dubbed MiG Alley, looking 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:07.240 for enemy fighters heading south to terrorize American troops. On 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.120 May fourteenth, nineteen fifty three, he was in his F 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.240 eighty six Saber when he spotted an enemy aircraft below him. 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:16.040 Luz locked his guns on his target and shot the 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.720 plane down. Less than a month later, the tables were 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.800 turned a MiG surprise Buzz and moved in behind him 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.880 for the kill. Buzz had only one chance, a high 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:28.319 gi maneuver in which he kept crossing over the MiG's 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.520 direction of travel while cutting his speed. Buzz hoped his 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:35.640 adversary would miscalculate and overshoot him. His plan worked. The 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:42.679 fifty caliber machine gun brought the enemy plane down Back 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:46.480 on Apollo eleven. Michael Collins, of course, is joking around 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.200 with Jim Level about all the housekeeping chores Houston has 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:51.839 the crew doing. I've been very busy so far. I'm 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:56.360 working for it, tagging afternon. I've been cooking and sleeping 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:59.080 and almost going and then well, you know the years, 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.280 your little house, big thing. It was very convenient the 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:04.800 way they put the food preparations. That's right next to 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:09.599 the math days, everything right next to everything that was 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:13.800 armstrong reminding level than in a spacecraft this small, everything's 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:17.960 within arm's reach. While the crew takes a break for lunch, 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:22.600 Bruce McCandless returns to the capcomposition. I gred that music 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:34.840 got here in the background thing. Okay, ye, Michael's having 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.000 a joke at Bruce's expense. The crew is enjoying Angel 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:41.480 of the Morning by Merrily Rush and the Turnabouts. Shortly 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:45.160 after they conclude their lunch, the crew passes a significant milestone. 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:49.480 A Polo eleven distance from the Moon is one five thousand, 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:54.120 seven hundred nine nautical miles. At the present time. In 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.600 terms of distance, Apollo eleven has just passed the halfway 0:14:57.680 --> 0:14:59.920 point on its trip to the Moon. In terms of time, 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:02.680 they still have more than a day's journey. Based on 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:06.200 the present trajectory, a Polo eleb and will enter the 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.960 lunar sphere of influence at an elapsed time of sixty 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:13.800 one hours, thirty nine minutes fifty eight seconds. The lunar 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:16.480 sphere of influence is that point at which the gravity 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:20.320 of the Moon becomes stronger than the gravity of the Earth. Yeah, 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:29.160 are you that way? How are you fine? Team? Today? 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.400 The White teams bright at Bucky Dale, wherever learned down there. 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:38.440 It's time to meet Neil, Buzz and Michael's co pilots 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.400 and mission control. These are the guys who keep a 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:45.320 close watch over the spacecraft's trajectory, hardware, and software, as 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.160 well as the crew's health. These unsung heroes are the 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.240 backbone of every NASA mission. They operate out of a 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:55.360 place they initiated, reverently referred to as the Cathedral. The 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.000 high priest of the cathedral is the flight director, whose 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:02.000 call sign is simply flight. These men were responsible for 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.600 overseeing every element of any given mission while a mission 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.360 was in progress. Not even the NASA administrator or the 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.520 President of the United States could countermand in order given 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.320 by flight. If they wanted to overrule him, they had 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:18.800 to fire him. Flight supervises a hive mind of brilliant kids. 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.480 And I say kids because for most of the men 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.920 helming these consoles, this was their first job out of college. 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:29.600 Why are they so young? Simple? NASA needed flight controllers 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:34.560 fluent in the latest emergent technologies, meeting computers. Bill Barry 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.600 is NASA's chief historian who's an expert on going into space. 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:42.560 Nobody that that capability didn't really exist in MR Control. 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:46.480 Their average ages about six uh and so it's a 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:51.160 really young group of folks who really set the stage 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:55.040 for getting to the Moon and really create our space program. 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:59.600 I'm Steven Bales. I was the guidance officer on Apollo 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.200 level the time to follow eleven mission flew. I was 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:05.840 the people that led us were older than example Jean 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.960 Kransmas Ticks, I believe, and then we call them the 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:15.160 older folks older. If you picture Mission Control in your mind, 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:17.440 it looks like something straight out of a movie. A 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:21.399 high tech control center dominated by massive display screens flanked 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:24.720 by four long rows of twenty consoles. The first of 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.680 our four rows is known as the trench. These guys 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:30.360 job was monitoring what the ship was doing and where 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:32.520 it was going. Let's take a look at our mission 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:37.520 control roster. The Flight Dynamics Officer or FIDO, supervises the 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:41.399 spacecraft's trajectory over the course of the entire mission. Guido 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:45.440 is the guidance officer. He monitors Apollos onboard systems, making 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:47.920 sure where the spacecraft is and where it thinks it 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:51.000 is are aligned. When we get to the moon landing, 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:53.159 you're going to get to know Steve Bales and this 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:58.040 console very well. Retro is the Retro fire officer. His 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:02.280 job is getting the crew back home again. Taken together, Fido, Guido, 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:06.840 and Retro are Apollo eleven's ground pilots. Behind the trench 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:09.679 is a second row of consoles, which includes the surgeon. 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:13.200 That position is occupied by a medical doctor responsible for 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:17.000 monitoring the health of the crew. To avoid chaos and confusion, 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.119 the astronauts only ever communicate with a single person in 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:24.080 mission control, the capsule communicator or capcom. You should already 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.920 know this position pretty well. The person in this seat 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:30.919 is always an astronaut. The flight director oversees everything from 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:34.119 the third row. The final top row is reserved for 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:38.040 various agency management and the public affairs officer giving play 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:42.040 by play commentary for the public. Obviously, these guys can't 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:46.199 stay at their console. Apollo eleven had four rotating shifts, 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:50.359 divided into the black, White, Green, and Maroon teams. And 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:53.199 that's not even everybody. There were also hundreds of other 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.840 mission control technicians working in various back rooms throughout the building, 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.840 directly supporting each of the consoles we just ran through, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.639 plus nearly two dozen more. Oh and one last thing. 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.720 This was a man's world, if ever there was one. 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.720 But that didn't mean there weren't women already taking pick 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:16.680 axes to that glass ceiling. I was tired, is what 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:19.920 was called a computerst It occurred to me that I 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.240 was as smart as those guys, that we're earning a 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.840 lot more million than I was. That's Poppy north Cut. 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:29.280 She had a degree in mathematics and was hired by TRW, 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:32.240 a NASA contractor, to check the work of the male 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:36.679 engineers in mission control. Unlike her male colleagues who were salaried, Poppy, 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:39.600 because she was a woman, was hourly and not paid 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:43.000 beyond nine hours a day. My supervisor would come around 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.520 and tell me, you know, at six o'clock, state law 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:47.480 says we can't pay you. And I would just say, 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.640 I understand that. I just keep on working. Poppy would 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.040 not only come in early and stay late, she would 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.840 bring her work home with her, going over everything until 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:58.680 she knew it backwards and forwards. I think that was 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.880 the real key to want I got promoted and other 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:05.200 people didn't. I really became a member of the team. 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:09.000 Poppy was assigned to the retro flight controller. Her job 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:11.800 was to help compute the trajectories that ensured the Apollo 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:15.399 spacecraft traveled to and from the Moon safely. She was 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.280 the first woman to ever work in mission control. I 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:20.159 didn't know I was going to be the first three 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:22.600 knowledge and during mission control when I walked in there, 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:25.440 and you're certainly aware that you stand out and that 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:28.440 you're an object of attention, and it's it's always a 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:32.200 little uncomfortable, especially if your whole idea is that you 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:33.919 want to be a member of the team. I mean, 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.040 you want to blend into the team. You don't want 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:40.320 to be standing out. Poppy was tall, blond, and beautiful. 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:44.080 She did stand out. ABC's Jules Bergman once interviewed her, 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:47.120 asking how much attention do men in mission control pay 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:50.840 to a pretty girl wearing miniskirts? Yeah, she was swimming 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.399 in a sea of sexism. My feeling was that it 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.560 was important for women and men for that matter, to 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:58.760 know that women could do these jobs. So you had 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:00.719 to put up with a certain amoun out of that stuff. 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:04.800 And with that, let's return to Apollo eleven, where Michael 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:07.600 is running an experiment to mess with mission control, because 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:09.720 that's what astronauts with a bit of spare time in 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:15.080 their hands. Do you got any maddict right, I'm trying 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:17.160 to do some running in light down here, and I'm 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:20.879 wondering curiosity where they break my heart rate up? Uh? 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:25.119 Well they will spring in acting here momentarily said Michael 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:28.760 is running in place in zero gravity. He's curious if 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:32.639 the exertion, without actually impacting any surfaces, will increase his 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:36.000 heart rate and show up on the flight surgeon's monitors. Soon, 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:43.040 Neil and Buzz decided to join him very inflat I'd 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:44.800 like to see that night. Why don't you give us 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:50.760 a TV picture of that one? Everybody's running from levon 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:55.520 Houston Mike, we say about a ninety so hardly now right, 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:00.720 there's a reasonable Michael decides to haul to his experiment. 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:11.680 Remember there are no showers on Apollo eleven. After the war, 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:14.879 Neil went back to school. Korea had hijacked his degree, 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:17.359 and now it was time to jump back in. That 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:22.480 wasny too, It was really old man. We have this 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:24.920 image of Neil as a stick in the mud, but 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:28.440 he joined a fraternity, wrote and co directed to student musicals, 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:31.720 and played in the Purdue All American Marching Band, and 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:34.840 of course he continued flying. At a party one night, 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:39.040 he met Janet Elizabeth Sharon, a home economics major NASA 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:43.920 historian James Hanson. Janet grew up in suburban Chicago, a 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:47.280 very different kind of upbringing than Neil. She went to 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:51.240 Purdue and she was very popular there. She's a very 0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:55.959 attractive and vivasious young woman. Neil told his roommates later 0:22:56.080 --> 0:22:58.639 that night that he just met his future wife, but 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.320 it still took him three years to find the askar 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:03.520 out of a date. He was not the sort of 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:07.440 person to rush into anything. In January of nineteen fifty five, 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:11.320 Neil graduated Perdue with a degree in aeronautical engineering. The 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:14.800 following year, he married Janet. Soon the happy couple moved 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:17.480 to a small off the grid cabin in southern California, 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:20.639 where Neil began work as an experimental research test pilot 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:23.920 at Edwards Air Force Base. Edwards is the flight test 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:26.680 center of the United States Air Force Air Research and 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:33.360 Development Command. Here, men in search of truth fly into 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:36.560 the world of the future. Edwards is the place where 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:40.720 all the really hot and new experimental airplanes were being tested. 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:44.399 It was here, nearly a decade earlier that Chuck Yeager 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:46.920 first broke the sound barrier in the Bell X one 0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:51.119 Glamorous Glennis, and he does it the first human to 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:57.440 attract the sound barrier. Decades later, the facility would become 0:23:57.480 --> 0:24:00.359 a NASA campus and be renamed the Neil A Strong 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:04.080 Flight Research Center. But we're clearly getting ahead of ourselves. 0:24:05.240 --> 0:24:08.480 Neil's fellow pilots were astonished at his flying prowess, as 0:24:08.520 --> 0:24:11.240 well as his ability to master dozens of different aircraft. 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:14.960