Narrator: Space...
The last great unknown.
NASA's mission...
To unravel the mysteries
of mankind's final frontier...
To search for new knowledge
and understanding...
- Man: - Godspeed, John Glenn.
...and to lead us
towards a peaceful
and unified future in space.
- President Kennedy: To the moon - and to the planets beyond.
- Armstrong: - The eagle has landed.
Narrator: We applaud
NASA's greatest achievements
and explore how their impacts
continue to shape how we view
our place in the universe.
- Armstrong: - That's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
- President Kennedy: - For the eyes of the world...
- Man: - Absolutely incredible.
...now look into space...
- Man #2: - Okay, here we go.
...to the moon
and to the planets beyond.
Man #3: Lift-off.
And we set sail on this new sea
to solve these mysteries,
to solve them
for the good of all mankind.
♪♪
Narrator: 1957 heralds
the unprecedented orbit
of the sputnik satellite,
launched by the Soviet union.
This milestone
sends waves of fear
throughout the U.S. government
- about - the technological superiority
of their cold war enemy.
Shortly thereafter,
a federal organization
whose sole purpose
is spearheading the American
space effort is born...
The national aeronautics
and space administration,
known as NASA.
Despite its cold war Genesis,
NASA is
a distinctly civilian agency
with a focus
on the peaceful exploration
of space and science.
Baker: President Eisenhower
wanted a space program
for science and technology
that was not based on the
military occupation of space.
And his emblem
was space for peace.
He was deeply concerned that
if left to their own devices,
the military would occupy space
and take the high ground.
Had that occurred,
you would never have seen
any of the great accomplishments
in science or engineering
that embraced the world.
Narrator: Thanks to Eisenhower’s
forward-thinking administration,
NASA remains the world's leading
manned-and-unmanned-
space-research agency
since its inception
in the late 1950s,
setting the precedent
for all present
and future spacefaring nations.
Man:
Ladies and gentlemen,
today we are introducing to you
and to the world
these seven men
who have been selected
to begin training
for orbital space flight.
These, ladies and gentlemen, are
the nation's Mercury astronauts.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Narrator:
On April 9, 1959,
NASA introduces the world
to the Mercury seven...
The astronauts selected
to pilot America's
first manned space program.
These men immediately become
national heroes.
Project Mercury's first goal
is to put a solo human
into earth's orbit...
Which is named freedom 7.
Freedom 7 was America's first
foray into human space flight,
and it came at a rather
difficult period in time,
because three weeks
before the launch of freedom 7,
Russia had successfully launched
Yuri Gagarin,
who became
the first human in space.
Narrator: From the Mercury
seven, astronaut Alan Shepard
is chosen to become the first
American to fly in space.
He pilots the Mercury-Redstone
launch vehicle,
a hybrid
of a U.S. army ballistic missile
- and a research and development - rocket
modified for human flight.
And on may 5, 1961,
Shepard leaves cape Canaveral
and leads the United States
into a new era
of manned space exploration.
Flight, this is m&o.
Man: Go ahead, m&o.
All subsystems status green.
- Roger, m&o. - Understand all systems green.
- Man #2: - 60 seconds and counting.
Man #3: T-minus one minute
and counting.
- -Status check... pressurization. - -Go.
- Lox tanking. - You are go.
- Water systems. - -Go.
T-minus 30 seconds.
Mercury capsule, go.
- All pre-start panel lights - are correct.
The ready light is on.
T-minus 15 seconds.
Check Mercury umbilical.
- Man #5: - Mercury umbilical clear.
- Mercury is entering - flight zone.
T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7...
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Engine start.
-Ignition.
Well, Roger. Lift-off,
and the clock has started.
This is freedom 7
reading you loud and clear.
The fuel is go.
1.2 G.
Cabin at 14 psi.
Oxygen is go.
All systems are go.
Flight lasts 15 minutes
and follows
a parabolic trajectory,
arcing over the earth's surface
to land in the ocean
302 miles downrange.
The main scientific objective
of project Mercury
is to determine man's capability
in the space environment
and the conditions under
which astronauts would work.
In contrast
to Yuri Gagarin's flight,
which was effectively
an automated flight...
Gagarin had the ability
to control the spacecraft,
but didn't...
Shepard's flight allowed him
to exercise some control
over the spacecraft.
Man: He's going
to hand-control movements now.
Switching to manual control
of the pitch attitude.
So Shepard genuinely took
real control of the spacecraft.
He wasn't just there
for the ride.
He wasn't simply baggage.
Narrator: After re-entry,
the capsule of freedom 7
lands by parachute
in the Atlantic ocean,
with Alan Shepard paving the way
for every NASA astronaut
and manned mission to come.
Baker: The initial
Mercury manned space flight
certainly helped lift
the spirits in America
of people who felt that
the Russians were racing ahead,
that they'd been eclipsed
with sputnik,
they'd been eclipsed
with Yuri Gagarin,
in the first months
of a president
who had criticized
the government it replaced
for sitting on their hands
while the Russians
rocked away into the future.
So, it was vital
to restore American pride
and to mobilize a can-do spirit
so that, weeks later,
when Kennedy announced
the decision to go to the moon,
people could believe it.
- President Kennedy: - 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.
Baker:Freedom 7
was a vital component
of Kennedy's moon program
that had been decided
before Alan Shepard
first went into orbit.
And, in fact, the announcement
of that decision
was held back
until Alan Shepard's flight
on the 5th of may, 1961.
Freedom 7 had to happen
for Kennedy's commitment
to go to the moon
to be publicly announced
and to be a funded program.
Otherwise, we would probably not
have been on the moon even yet.
- Narrator: - Freedom 7 is only the beginning
of Al Shepard's
space-flight career.
He serves as chief
of the astronaut office,
and then, in 1971, flies to the
moon as commander of Apollo 14.
Human space flight has changed
dramatically since 1961.
Today's flights
are complex, multi-crew,
multinational missions,
working together in the spirit
of international collaboration.
But the legacy of freedom 7,
Alan Shepard,
- and the pioneering - Mercury project
will be remembered every time
NASA launches humans into space.
-Godspeed, John Glenn.
-Roger.
The clock is operating.
We're under way.
Oh, that view is tremendous.
Beautiful.
Narrator: Coming up,
NASA's first spacewalk
doesn't go according to plan.
- Man: The flight director - says, "get back in."
McDivitt: This is Jim.
Narrator: As we celebrate
NASA's greatest achievements,
the epic spacewalk of
astronaut ed white is momentous.
♪♪
Once president Kennedy
announces plans
to land Americans on the moon
by the end of the 1960s,
NASA gets to work
developing the techniques
needed to support
these future moon missions.
NASA unveils its second manned
human space-flight program,
known as project Gemini,
in January 1962.
Gemini Bridges the Mercury
and Apollo programs,
designed to test the endurance
of astronauts and spacecraft
for extended moon missions.
Flights to the moon would
take over a week to complete,
and so
one of Gemini’s main aims
was to establish
the ability of humans
to withstand
long-duration space flight,
to understand
the physiological effects
of spending that much time
in a zero-gravity environment.
Narrator: Project Gemini
also develops techniques
for rendezvous
and docking spacecraft in orbit,
refines atmosphere re-entry
and splashdown procedures
so specific landing sites
are reached,
and perfects spacewalking.
For an astronaut to walk
on the surface of the moon,
they must first leave
the safety of the spacecraft.
Bannister: E.V.A. Stands
for extra-vehicular activity,
which means the astronaut
is working outside
of the confines
of the spacecraft
essentially in free space.
It was critical as a part
of the preparations
for the lunar landing
because one of the main
objectives of the lunar landing
- is to work outside - of the spacecraft,
to leave the lunar module
and work in the lunar
surface environment.
It was also very important
to be able
to leave the spacecraft
in the event
that any repairs were required.
Narrator: The first NASA mission
to attempt an e.V.A.
Is Gemini iv,
with the unofficial goal
of proving the U.S.
Could catch up to the Soviets.
On June 3, 1965,
astronauts Jim McDivitt
and ed white
leave cape Canaveral
in the program's
new launch vehicle,
the Gemini-titan ii rocket.
♪♪
Man: Lift-off.
We have a lift-off
at 16 minutes after the hour.
It's climbing very nicely.
We have
a roll program initiated.
We have staging,
- and it's been confirmed - here on the ground.
- Man #2: - Thrust looks good, flight.
Thrust looks good
on the second stage.
And McDivitt, in a very,
very calm voice, said,
"it looks great up here."
-Final status check.
- Narrator: After - their third orbit around earth,
ed white opens the hatch
of the Gemini capsule
and makes history,
becoming the first
American spacewalker.
Man:
Okay, feet are out.
He's floating free.
Tethered to the spacecraft,
ed white floats
200 miles above the earth,
traveling
at 17,000 miles per hour.
- Bannister: - The footage of ed white's e.V.A.
Is one of the most recognizable
and iconic set of images
from the early period
of the space program.
Narrator: Ed white's e.V.A.
Proves the United States
could match
early Soviet achievements,
with NASA training and hardware
key to winning
the space race to the moon.
However, NASA's first spacewalk
doesn't go completely to plan.
A communications problem
means that mission control
can't establish radio contact
with Gemini iv
for the majority of the e.V.A.
- Man: - Gemini iv, Houston Capcom.
Gemini iv, Houston Capcom.
Bannister: Ground control
were very concerned
because the astronauts
were losing track of time.
The people on the ground
- were frantically trying - to get a signal
to the astronauts
to terminate the spacewalk.
Narrator: If the astronauts
- don't stick - to the mission timeline,
ed white could be spacewalking
on the night side
of the earth.
In total darkness,
it would be extremely difficult
to maneuver back to the capsule.
- Man: - Gemini iv, Houston Capcom.
Gemini iv, Houston Capcom.
- Narrator: - Finally, Jim McDivitt
notices and fixes an incorrect
switch configuration
in the capsule that reopens
communication channels
with mission control.
And as he did that,
Jim McDivitt said,
"we better see... we better
find out what Capcom think."
Capcom got the signal,
- and the immediate - response was...
- Man: The flight director says, - "get back in."
McDivitt: This is Jim.
Got any message for us?
Gemini iv, get back in.
Okay.
So, the audio coming from Capcom
is essentially mission control
telling the astronauts
to stop playing about
and get back into the capsule.
- Man: Roger. We've been trying - to talk to you for a while here.
- No, back in. - Come on.
[ Laughs ]
White: I'm coming.
Okay.
Narrator: Ed white's e.V.A.
Lasts just 23 minutes,
but NASA learns
a very important lesson
about how humans operate
in the vacuum of space.
Bannister: NASA discovered
that e.V.A. Is difficult.
Working in that space suit,
which is very constraining,
is really exhausting,
and the subsequent
Gemini E.V.A.S
all led to the astronauts
returning to the capsule
in a really overheated,
exhausted state.
Narrator: Eight Gemini missions
later, astronaut buzz Aldrin,
who would later walk on the moon
alongside Neil Armstrong,
conducts
the first extensive e.V.A.
- Man: - Gemini xii, Houston Capcom.
One minute to e.V.A. Record.
Beautiful job.
- Narrator: - His success is attributed
to his experience
as a scuba diver.
Aldrin pioneers the technique
of underwater
neutral buoyancy training,
which simulates an environment
similar to space.
Project Gemini
flies 10 manned missions
between 1965 and 1966,
firmly putting the United States
ahead of the Soviets
in the cold war space race.
To this day,
the neutral buoyancy training
developed
during the Gemini program
remains integral
to astronaut training.
Coming up, the red planet
reveals its mysteries.
"This is crazy.
This is science fiction."
- Narrator: - As we count down
NASA's all-time greatest
achievements,
the red planet
boldly stakes its claim.
♪♪
NASA gets a bird's-eye view
of planet Mars
from the mariner and viking
programs of the 1960s and '70s.
These historic missions
give us our first views
of the mysterious red planet
both from orbit
and on the dusty surface.
- Baker: - The exploration of Mars
could be considered one
of NASA's greatest achievements.
The early period
of its exploration
from 1965 to the late 1970s
saw NASA
achieve the first landing
on the surface of Mars
of two laboratories
that extensively analyzed,
trenched,
and photographed the surface
of two separate sites.
Narrator: After the early
pioneering Mars missions,
NASA goes on a hiatus.
It isn't until the early 1990s,
- when they begin developing - a new program
of landers and rovers
that could travel
across the martian surface
to investigate
multiple scientific sites.
We'd seen with Apollo
how the lunar roving vehicle
had been able
to move around various areas
of geologic interest
around a common site.
We wanted to do that with Mars.
Get it mobile.
Not just have a lander that
sat there, but could move on.
And, you know,
it's entirely coincidental
with the human spirit.
You climb one hill,
- you see another - and want to climb that.
And that's what these rovers
are capable of doing.
- Narrator: - After almost 20 years,
NASA triumphantly returns
to the red planet
with the
Mars pathfinder mission.
Pathfinder's goal is to deploy
the first free-ranging
wheeled robotic rover
on the martian surface.
Pathfinder houses a suite
of scientific instruments
to analyze the martian
atmosphere, climate,
and geology.
♪♪
After a 309-million-mile flight,
the spacecraft arrives
at Mars on July 1997.
In addition to
its scientific objectives,
pathfinder will test
an innovative descent
and landing system.
- Ojha: - The approach that was used
to try to successfully get
not just a lander,
but a rover onto Mars...
If you'd have read about it
in books 10 years earlier,
this is science fiction."
Narrator: If pathfinder could
successfully demonstrate
this new technology,
it would forever change
the way scientific probes
are deployed down
to a planet's surface.
The spacecraft
enters the martian atmosphere
at 4 miles a second.
It heats up to more
than 1,000 degrees centigrade,
but slows the spacecraft
down enough
so parachutes can be deployed.
Mars' atmosphere has got
such a low density
that even with these huge
supersonic parachutes,
it's still moving faster
than a car
speeding down a highway.
So the final stage for landing,
the lander and the rover
were cocooned
within a huge assembly
of airbags.
When pathfinder
impacted with Mars,
the first thing it did
was bounce.
In Mars' much lower gravity,
those bounces continued.
There were more than 15
in total.
And then finally, when the
spacecraft came to a standstill,
it only had a matter
of hours of battery power
for it to deflate its airbags,
turn it the right way up.
If any chain
in that link had failed,
then this mission
would have been consigned
to the scrap heap.
And we need to remember that
when it comes down to Mars,
less than half of the missions
at that time
that had been dispatched
to the red planet
had resulted in success.
Narrator: Now down
on the martian surface,
the pathfinder lander opens,
releasing the rover to begin
its scientific investigation.
Pathfinder wasn't designed
to go and test
if there were bugs or bacteria
or, indeed, if there's anything
that existed on Mars in the past
or at the present time.
It was a geological
exploration mission.
However, the pathfinder mission
did suggest that Mars may have
had a wetter, warmer past,
and where there's water,
there's always
a possibility for life.
- Narrator: Collecting - over 8 million measurements,
16,500 images,
and outliving its design life
by 12 times,
pathfinder's
unprecedented mission
reshaped long-held
scientific theories about Mars.
But perhaps pathfinder's
greatest contribution
is how it has paved the way
for NASA's continuing
exploration of the red planet.
Baker:Pathfinder led
to spirit and opportunity
in the new century.
2004, they landed.
More than 10 years,
opportunity was moving
across the surface,
visiting different sites,
traveling more than 25
kilometers across the surface.
A mission that was designed
to last for three months
has lasted more than 10 years,
and that has been followed
by an extraordinary new level
of capability
with the 1-ton
curiosity lander...
...that, lowered on a sky crane,
is the new way
we will be sending big landers
and rovers to Mars.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Man: Time to see where
our curiosity will take us.
Baker: And in 2020,
a copy of that vehicle
with different instruments
will gather up samples
and leave them at a location
that a future lander will visit
for returning to earth.
And that itself
will be precursor
to the first human footprints
on the red planet,
which could easily come
in the 2030s.
- Ojha: - But the missing link
that made our modern rovers
possible
was the pathfinder mission.
What a tremendous legacy
to have.
What NASA achieved
in that magical summer of 1997,
deploying for the first time
a martian rover,
really paved the way
for the successes
and the future explorations
that the agency is currently
planning for the red planet.
- Narrator: - NASA's innovative Mars rovers
continue to rewrite
our understanding
of the red planet.
The legacy NASA began in 1997
with the pathfinder mission
will, one day, culminate
in an international
human expedition
to set foot on Mars.
Coming up, NASA boldly travels
into uncharted territory.
- Holdaway: - Those objects weren't stars.
They were all galaxies.
And a typical galaxy
has 200 billion stars.
Narrator: NASA's mission
to explore the cosmos
continues as we venture
beyond the asteroid belt
into the outer solar system.
♪♪
In the early 1970s,
there is a hunger
within the scientific community
to know more
about the four outer planets
that dominate
our solar system...
Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, and Neptune.
If more can be understood
about these gas giants,
it could unlock secrets
to the history
and formation of our earth
and the solar system.
Ambrosi: Exploring the solar
system in which we live
enables us to understand more
about how our own earth
was formed.
To understand our position
in the evolution
of the solar system,
let alone the galaxy,
we needed to get out there
beyond the asteroid belt
and really get to grips
with what those planets
were about.
That was voyager.
Narrator: NASA does not have the
luxury of time on their side.
This plan to explore
the deepest, darkest,
and most inhospitable regions
of our solar system
must take advantage
of a favorable alignment
of the four outer planets
that would not occur again
until the 22nd century.
Bannister: The voyager program,
the voyager missions,
that would allow the spacecraft
to fly by planets
and use the gravitational energy
of the flyby
to increase the velocity
of the spacecraft
and change the trajectory,
change the direction
- in which the spacecraft - was moving
in order to encounter
another planet.
So it was almost like a game
of planetary billiards.
Narrator: This favorable
planetary alignment
would occur in the late 1970s
and allow NASA to harness
gravitational assistance
to slingshot
the two voyager probes
from one planet to the next.
Exploiting gravity in this way
not only reduces the need
to carry
large quantities of fuel,
but also has a huge impact
on the mission timeline.
Without
the gravitational flybys
that this alignment
made possible,
it would have taken 30 years
for the voyagers
to reach Neptune,
instead of 12 years,
which was ultimately possible.
♪♪
Narrator: Launched a few weeks
apart in the summer of 1997,
the twin probes of voyager 1
and voyager 2 set sail
for their one-way tour
through our solar system.
After 18 months,
the voyager spacecraft
arrive at Jupiter in 1979.
Bannister: The voyager program
really transformed
our view of the solar system,
and at Jupiter,
voyager showed us
the first-ever active volcanism
- at a place - other than the earth
with Jupiter's
innermost moon, Io,
and they were found to be
the signature
of an enormous volcanic plume
rising from the surface
of this extremely
turbulent moon of Jupiter.
It was really one
of the landmark discoveries.
The dynamics
of the famous great red spot,
this enormous storm,
that has a size equivalent
to that of the earth
was studied in great detail.
The Saturn encounter
was arguably
the most photogenic
of the voyager program.
- One of - the most famous discoveries
that voyager made at Saturn
was the existence
of what are known
as Shepherd moons.
In the outer ring system
of Saturn,
there are two very small moons,
- which were moving on - either side of these rings,
- and these became known - as the Shepherd moons
- because - the gravitational influence
- of those moons - actually Shepherds
those particles
into a stable orbit
and makes the existence
of these rings possible.
Narrator: At this point, the two
voyager probes part company
to follow
very different trajectories,
with voyager 1 heading
to Saturn’s largest moon.
Titan is
a very interesting moon.
It's a very enigmatic moon.
It was known from
ground-based observations
that this largest moon
of Saturn had an atmosphere
which was very rich in methane,
and methane is of great interest
in terms of the ability
of a moon or a planet
to sustain life.
But a consequence of that
was that the trajectory
would take the voyager 1
spacecraft out of the plane
in which the planets move,
and therefore voyager 1
would not be able
to encounter Uranus and Neptune.
Narrator: However,voyager 2
continues on its mission
towards Uranus and Neptune.
Bannister: The real star
of the Uranus encounter
was that the planet has quite
a significant magnetic field,
and the structure of this
magnetic field is very unusual.
It has a corkscrew shape...
Something that isn't seen
in any of the other planets.
And this is one of the most
discoveries of voyager
in terms of the planet itself.
Narrator:Voyager 2 has
its final planetary encounter
with Neptune in 1989...
The outermost of the gas giants
and the most distance planet
in our solar system.
- Neptune came as - a complete surprise.
The atmosphere was found
to be very dynamic.
It had this glorious blue color,
which had been hinted at
in telescopic observations
from the earth.
What really wasn't expected
was the amount of activity
in the atmosphere,
the existence
of a dark blue storm
very similar to the great
red spot of Jupiter,
the existence of auroral
features on Neptune,
the existence
of nitrogen geysers
on Neptune's largest moon,
Triton,
which has a surface
that is the coldest surface
anywhere in the solar system.
- Narrator: But voyager's farewell - to the planets
isn't the end of their mission.
On their trajectories,
it was only a matter of time
before both voyager spacecraft
would leave our solar system.
And in August 2012,
35 years after it launched,
voyager 1 becomes
the first space probe
to pass into the region
between the stars known
as interstellar space.
Harrison:Voyagers 1 and 2 are
now leaving the solar system.
- They're the two man-made things - that are the furthest away
from earth of anything
that we've ever made.
- They're literally going - through the boundaries
of the solar system
into interstellar space,
which doesn't sound
like a big thing
- when you're used to "Star Trek" - or "star wars" or whatever,
but to actually leave the sphere
of influence of the sun,
- leave the place we live - in that way
is actually
a fantastic achievement.
And it's the beginnings
of us exploring
the rest of the universe.
That, to me, is iconic.
It's a major step.
Narrator: The voyager program
has given us
a deeper understanding
of our place within
and what exists beyond
our solar system.
And in the 40 years
since its launch in 1977,
it continues to explore
and enrich our understanding
of our place among the stars.
Coming up,
the revolutionary telescope
that changes our understanding
of astronomy forever.
Never even knew
that these planets existed
when Hubble was launched.
♪♪
Narrator: It's inconceivable
that one mechanical marvel
could change our understanding
of the cosmos,
but that's exactly what happens
with NASA's next innovation.
♪♪
Named for the great
American astronomer,
Edwin Hubble, the Hubble space
telescope is one of the largest
and most versatile scientific
instruments in space.
NASA dreams up this
pioneering piece of engineering
in the late 1960s
with the goal of answering
one of the biggest questions
in astronomy.
The Hubble space telescope
is a unique instrument.
- It had some particular - science goals,
and one of the major ones
was to learn more
about how far away
distant galaxies are,
and as a result of that,
work out more accurately
how old the universe was.
Narrator: By placing the
telescope into earth's orbit,
Hubble overcomes
many of the limitations
of ground astronomy
and peers deeper into
the universe than ever before.
The telescope was built
because of this need
- to try to get instruments - outside the earth's atmosphere,
to improve our view
of the universe.
It's very difficult
to do observations
- that are very precise - from the ground
because the atmosphere
gets in the way.
Movement in the atmosphere
makes images less sharp
than they would be if you could
view things from space.
So being up above
the atmosphere gives you
this absolutely
unrestricted view,
but also the atmosphere blocks
some of the important radiation
that astronomers like to use,
such as ultraviolet light
and infrared light,
so Hubble gives us access
to a much broader spectrum
of light
than we can see
from the surface of the earth.
Narrator:
Beginning in 1978, NASA leads
an international collaboration
with the European space agency
to design and construct
the most sophisticated
space telescope ever built.
Complete with 400,000 components
and 26,000 miles of wiring,
Hubble is carried into orbit
by a space shuttle in 1990.
- Man: Close and lock your visors, - and you all have a good trip.
Man #2: Roger that.
We are go
for main engine start.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
And lift-off
of the space shuttle discovery
with the Hubble space telescope,
our window on the universe.
-Overall program.
-Roger all,discovery.
Narrator: The telescope
is deployed
at an altitude of 380 miles...
The space shuttle's
highest orbit to that date.
Man: You got a go
for H.S.T. Deploy ops.
- Man #2: That's outstanding. - Thank you.
- Man #3: First glimpse, - the space telescope
looks like it's in great shape.
Man #4: Roger that.
Thank you.
Narrator:
Now, outside the distortion
of earth's atmosphere,
Hubble will unlock secrets
to the universe
no one could have imagined.
♪♪
Ojha: Hubble has rewritten
the astronomical textbooks
in so many ways.
We've all seen
the spectacular images
that have been sent back.
We've seen areas
where stars are being created...
The "pillars of creation" image
in the eagle nebula.
We've seen what happens
at the end of stars' life
- where we've got - the supernova remnants.
And we've seen wonderful images
of entire galaxies.
You know... island universes,
collections of billions
of stars.
- And you ask - 100 different astronomers,
and you get 100 different
favorite Hubble images.
The Hubble space telescope
has been incredibly successful.
- It was designed - for seven years of life,
and here we are,
more than three times
past its design life.
Narrator: Hubble is
the only space telescope
designed to be serviced
by astronauts while in orbit.
Between 1993 and 2009,
five space shuttle missions
repair and upgrade the telescope
to keep it equipped
with cutting-edge technology.
Holdaway:
Because of the shuttle's ability
to go up to Hubble and fix it,
but also take up new technology,
it's been possible
to convert Hubble
into a 1970s-designed spacecraft
and telescope into a
1990s/2000-designed spacecraft.
- So, one very good example - of that
is that there is
a small patch of sky
where, when Hubble was launched,
there wasn't
a single star visible.
Seven years later,
they took up
a new camera to Hubble,
and they looked again
at that area of space
to see
if they could find any stars.
Narrator:
Known as the Hubble deep field,
the image that is captured
is perhaps the most significant
of Hubble’s career.
Barstow: The Hubble deep field
is a very, very long exposure,
and the deep field
was the first attempt
to look as far out
into the distant reaches
of the universe
as it's possible to go.
Hubble was tasked with looking
at what seemed to be
a blank field of sky.
It was in the constellation
of Fornax.
And in terms of size,
this was a size of sky
smaller than a 1-millimeter-
by-1-millimeter square
drawn on your thumb
and held out at arm's length.
What Hubble did
on more than 800 orbits
is look at that same patch of
sky again and again and again,
catching more and more photons,
and it was an exposure time
of nearly a million seconds.
What emerges are 10,000 dots.
- Holdaway: - But those objects weren't stars.
They were all galaxies.
And a typical galaxy
has 200 billion stars.
For me, this is
the most mind-blowing image
that's ever been taken
in astronomy.
- Barstow: The impact of the deep - field is particularly remarkable
because you can see all these
faint smudges of light
that are galaxies
that were being born
before our own solar system
galaxy ever existed.
- Narrator: The Hubble telescope - is responsible
for capturing some of the most
detailed deep-space images
ever taken,
with many observations
leading to breakthroughs
in astrophysics.
- Barstow: It's hard to quantify - the contribution
that Hubble has made.
- In particular, - it's helped us learn
about the age of the universe.
- We didn't know that - very precisely
before Hubble was launched,
and now we can say the universe
is about 14 billion years old,
give or take a little bit.
And that's a major advance.
But it hasn't just
given us information on that.
We can now study planets
orbiting other stars
and even examine
their atmospheres
using the instrumentation
that's on board Hubble.
We never even knew
that these planets existed
when Hubble was launched.
The biggest contribution
of Hubble, I think,
the public imagination
as to what lies out there,
how exciting it is,
how wonderful astronomy is,
how beautiful the universe is,
how extraordinarily humbling it
is to sit and look at pictures
from light-years away
of objects and structures
light-years across.
And in a world that's struck
with its own deeply incisive
and divisive concerns
and difficulties,
lifting our spirits
to the wonders of the heavens
can be
a greatly satisfying pastime,
and something to turn to
that just lights up
a whole new understanding
about what we are
as human beings.
♪♪
[ Radio chatter ]
Narrator:
Whether meeting manned-
space-flight milestones...
- Man: - We have lift-off.
...or spearheading
deep-space research,
NASA pushes our technological
and intellectual boundaries
with each
of its monumental achievements.
But the greatest of them all
must surely be visiting
another world.
- Armstrong: - The eagle has landed.
Narrator:
In its top-five achievements,
NASA continues
to blow our minds
and expand the edges
of innovation
as it boldly leads
mankind into the future.
♪♪
With the explicit goal
of taking humans
to the moon and back.
Originally intended to be
a standard earth-orbit mission,
this becomes
the boldest decision
in the history
of human exploration.
Rumor had it that the Russians
were preparing their cosmonauts
for a lunar mission,
so NASA opts to send the
three-man crew of Apollo 8
across the vast ocean of space,
orbit the moon,
and hopefully return
safely to the earth.
- Ojha: - Apollo 8 was the most audacious
human space-flight mission
in history.
This mission was going to go
hundreds of times further
in distance
than what had been achieved
until then in low-earth orbit.
- Although they had tested out - all of the hardware
and the systems in earth orbit,
they had never left
earth orbit with humans,
so it was a big risk.
It really was starting
human exploration of deep space.
- Narrator: - With its new lunar objective,
- Apollo 8 - would not only keep the U.S.
Ahead in the space race,
but also set record-breaking
technological benchmarks.
The importance of Apollo 8
for the program
was that we needed
to demonstrate
that we could operate
the Apollo spacecraft
in an environment
that no manned spacecraft
had ever worked before
between earth and moon,
where there was continuous
sunlight 24 hours a day,
and that the thermal control
and that the communications
at those great distances
could operate in this
completely new environment,
and that the rocket motors
could fire it
into and out of lunar orbit...
Essential for a landing.
- Narrator: - The Apollo 8 astronauts
become the first human beings
to harness the brute force
of the mighty Saturn v rocket,
the most powerful machine
ever built by man.
Ojha: It was the first time
that a human crew
had ridden a Saturn v rocket.
NASA took this audacious risk
of not only putting
a human crew on board,
but also sending them
on a mission
way beyond high-earth orbit,
only a few thousand miles away.
This mission was going to go
a quarter of a million miles.
Narrator:
NASA's revised mission
leaves Apollo 8 astronauts
frank Borman,
Jim Lovell, and bill Anders
preparing for a launch nearly
three months ahead of schedule.
And in December 1968,
Apollo 8 is ready
to make history.
♪♪
Man: Vehicle now
is completely pressurized.
45 seconds.
Final reports
coming from frank Borman
aboard the spacecraft.
T-minus 15, 14, 13...
12, 11, 10, 9...
We have ignition sequence start.
The engines are on.
[ Beeping ]
4, 3, 2, 1.
We have lift-off.
Lift-off!
The clock is running.
Man #2: Clock's clear.
Clock started, frank.
Roger, clock.
The tower is clear.
- Apollo 8, - you're looking good.
Man #3: Roger.
Baker: The weight of a warship
lifting into the air.
- Harrison: - It was just an enormous machine.
It was a phenomenal thing
to watch.
- Michael: - Apollo 8, Houston.
Your trajectory and guidance
are go. Over.
Thank you, Michael.
- Yeah, - you're looking real good, frank.
[ Beeping ]
♪♪
Collins: Apollo 8, Houston.
You are go for staging. Over.
- Borman: Thank you, Houston. - Apollo 8.
- The first stage - was very smooth,
and this one
was smoother.
Apollo 8,
you are go for...
Over. Go for...
Baker: Here we were,
leaving earth
and breaking that bond
with our home planet
to place men
within the gravitational grip
of another world in space.
It was awesome.
Narrator: Astronauts Borman,
Lovell, and Anders
become the first humans
to travel beyond
low earth orbit.
After three days,
Apollo 8 arrives at the moon
and enters lunar orbit.
- This is Apollo - control, Houston.
- There's a cheer - in this room.
- We've got it. - We've got it.
Apollo 8
now in lunar orbit.
Apollo 8, Houston.
What does the old moon
look like from 60 miles? Over.
The moon
is essentially gray.
No color.
We can see quite
a bit of detail.
- The craters - are all rounded off.
- There's quite - a few of them.
Roger. Understand.
- Narrator: One of the mission's - primary goals
is to photograph
planned landing sites
for future Apollo missions,
and over the next 20 hours,
the crew collects 700 images
of the lunar surface
in unprecedented detail.
- On their ninth - orbit of the moon,
the crew sends a Christmas Eve
message back to earth,
which is watched by the largest
global television audience
in history.
Anders: For all the people
back on earth,
the crew of Apollo 8
has a message
that we would like
to send to you.
"In the beginning, god created
the heaven and the earth,
and the earth was
without form and void,
and darkness was upon
the face of the deep,
and god said,
'let there be light.'
and there was light."
- Baker: - This was no longer a nation
fulfilling its national
aspirations,
but it was a world
collectively represented
by three humans traveling
in orbit around another world
and invoking a spiritual
sense of identity
that Rose above
the petty bickering.
It made people realize
there was something
bigger, grander,
and even more meaningful
to the human spirit.
- Borman: - And from the crew of Apollo 8,
we close with good night,
good luck, merry Christmas,
and god bless all of you,
all of you on the good earth.
Narrator: Another memento
of the Apollo 8 mission is
a never-before-seen view
of our home planet.
Known as "earth rise,"
this photograph is snapped by
astronaut bill Anders
and is believed to be
the most reproduced image
in human history.
Baker: The pictures of earth
from space mobilized
an environmental movement
in the United States
that we have an earth
that's very fragile.
If we continue to rampage
through its resources,
consuming them at the prodigious
and profligate rate
that we will soon have a dry
and dusty bowl
- such as that - that we see in the world
we went to visit, the moon,
and saw an earth
that was so different,
so beautiful,
so full of life, but so fragile.
Narrator: Apollo 8's successful
first flight to the moon
paves the way
for the lunar landings to follow
and allows NASA
to achieve president Kennedy's
goal
of placing a man on the moon
by the end of the 1960s.
Perhaps Apollo 8's
greatest legacy
is that in our quest
to study the moon,
humanity truly
discovers the earth,
and only by leaving our planet
behind
can we look and see for the
first time our whole world.
Coming up, a space plane
right out of a Sci-Fi novel.
Man: 2, 1, zero.
And lift-off.
Narrator: As we celebrate
NASA's greatest achievements,
the groundbreaking shuttle
is heralded
as the first foray
into sustainable space flight.
NASA's space shuttle
is the first
in a new breed of spacecraft.
Based on a radically new
approach to space travel,
the goal...
To replace the existing method
of launching costly
manned capsules
on expendable rocket boosters
with a reusable spacecraft.
Not only would such a vehicle
reduce the cost
of space exploration,
increasing America's access
to earth's orbit,
but it could also support
NASA's ambitious future
of permanently manned
space stations.
The shuttle was conceived
as a reusable launch vehicle
when it was obvious that
throwing these rockets away
after only one use
was going to be unsustainable
if the flight rates
went up and up and up.
It would bankrupt
the space program.
- Narrator: - The design of the space shuttle
- resembles a conventional - aircraft
with two wings and a tail.
In this configuration,
the shuttle is more like
a space plane
that can glide back to earth,
land on a runway,
and be ready
for its next mission.
A unique feature of the shuttle
design is its large cargo bay,
allowing the vehicle to ferry
a wide variety
of scientific payloads
into orbit.
This would enable NASA
to easily deploy satellites
and, for the first time,
capture and return payloads
back to earth.
Harrison: The shuttle was really
meant to be a multifaceted tool.
- It was a logical thing to do, - a logical step.
In particular,
you're looking for a tool
that you could use
to mend spacecraft,
a tool that you could use
to service an international
space station, for example,
or any space station.
You could launch things from it.
Narrator: After nearly a decade
of development and testing,
NASA's space shuttle fleet
finally goes into service
in April 1981
and launches a new era
of manned space exploration.
Man: Firing chain is armed.
Go for main engine start.
Tony:
Okay... pre-starts complete.
Man #2: Thank you, Tony.
[ Speaking indistinctly ]
We're ready to go.
- Copy that. - On my Mark.
3, 2, 1, Mark.
Diller: ...2, 1, zero.
And lift-off.
On the shoulders
of the space shuttle,
America will continue the dream.
Man: The space shuttle
spreads its wings
for this journey into history.
Roll program.
Roger roll,discovery.
Roll program complete.
4 1/2 million pounds
of hardware and humans,
heads down, wings level,
on the proper alignment for its
8 1/2-minute ride to orbit.
Go with throttle up.
- Roger. - Go throttle up.
The space shuttle is traveling
almost 2,600 miles an hour,
at 21 miles in altitude,
24 miles downrange.
Standing by for solid rocket
booster separation.
A good solid rocket booster
separation.
The main engine steering
the shuttle on a pinpoint path
to its preliminary orbit.
Narrator:
Between 1981 and 2011,
NASA's fleet
of five space shuttles
flies a total of 135 missions.
♪♪
- During their 30 years - of service,
the shuttles carry more
than 350 astronauts
to and from orbit
and allow mankind to push
the boundaries
of humanity's space exploration.
♪♪
The shuttles launch and repair
hundreds of satellites,
act as orbital science
laboratories,
and assist in the construction
of the international
space station,
the largest and most
complex structure
assembled in space.
Baker: The shuttle's main
objective was,
of course, as a routine
ferry back and forth
between the surface
of the earth and near space.
But clearly no other
vehicle at the time
on the drawing board
or conceived
could possibly have assembled
the 400-ton
international space station
that has been permanently
manned since the year 2000
and may very well have at least
three decades of life
for scientists
from all over the world.
- Narrator: - Originally billed as a vehicle
that would launch twice a month,
in reality, shuttle missions
average four a year.
And the operational costs
of the program
are higher than anticipated
due to the extensive
maintenance required
to keep a reusable
spacecraft in service.
The safety of the vehicle
is also questioned
following the tragic losses
of space shuttles challenger
and Columbia
and their respective crews.
But inquiries into both
incidents
reveal that management problems
at NASA were to blame
- rather than flight engineer - complacency
or the reliability
of the shuttle hardware,
concluding that, tragically,
both disasters
could have been avoided.
Sometimes the failings
of the shuttle
overshadow its achievements,
but make no mistake.
This experimental space plane
sets a staggering benchmark
for the future
of reusable spacecraft.
Holdaway: I think the lasting
legacy for the shuttle
is that it is possible to both
bring the vehicle back
and astronauts back
in the same vehicle
that they went up on,
and that there is at least
no other practical possibility
of reducing cost to orbit,
but there's still
a long way to go yet.
Narrator: What started as
a truly space-age concept
evolves into an iconic vehicle
like no machine ever built.
The space shuttle is a gateway
to earth orbit that,
for millions around the world,
symbolizes the adventure
and spirit of exploration.
- Harrison: You have to sort of - stand to one side
and not ignore the fact that
a huge amount has been achieved
by this general-purpose tool
that has allowed us
to do a huge amount
- that a lot of us - have benefited from
in terms of the machinery
we can get up there,
machinery we can maintain.
Even if it's from people
understanding the universe
- because they can see - the images from Hubble
that was launched to the shuttle
then managed
to shuttle missions.
Just bringing people
together...
That can only be
good for mankind.
- The shuttle played - a huge part in that,
and we should
never forget it.
Narrator:
Retiring in 2011,
NASA's space shuttle fleet
paves the way
for the vital next step
in man's space flight
and enables the technological
world we now enjoy
and should be forever heralded
as one of NASA's
greatest achievements.
Lindsey:
The end of a historic journey,
and to the ship that has led
the way time and time again,
we say farewell,discovery.
Narrator:
Coming up, a home in space
like we've never seen before.
Baker: You cannot now put
the genie back in the bottle.
A precedent has been set.
This is the way forward.
Narrator:
As we count down NASA's
all-time greatest achievements,
the international space station
redefines what we call home.
Undoubtedly the greatest
international collaboration
in the history
of human space exploration,
the international space station
is a habitable science
laboratory
parked in low earth orbit...
♪♪
...home to a multinational crew
of six astronauts
who live and work in space,
the I.S.S. Advances
our long-duration space
flight capabilities.
But despite being the blueprint
for global space cooperation,
the international space station
was born of the cold war.
- Ojha: - Back in the 1980s,
relations between
the Soviet union
and the United States
were still pretty much
in a deep freeze.
Now, NASA had plans
for its own
space station, freedom.
- But the budgets - were ballooning,
and NASA realized
that its aspirations
for having a long-duration
capability for space flight
were gonna be pretty
much on the shelf
for as long as the shuttle
program was going on.
At the same time,
the Soviet union
had spectacularly built up
human space flight experience
through the series
of Salyut space stations
culminating in the Mir program.
NASA had done nothing
like this since Skylab
in the early 1970s.
- Narrator: - Although the Skylab program
had been a resounding success
for NASA,
the agency is in desperate
need of space station freedom
to advance
its orbital operations.
When the Soviet union collapses
at the beginning
of the 1990s,
it gives NASA
a golden opportunity
to support and collaborate
with the new Russian
space agency.
And in 1993, plans
for space station freedom
are merged with Russia's
proposed Mir-2 project
to form the first international
space station program.
A global partnership
of 15 nations works together
despite differences
in language, politics,
and manufacturing styles
to plan and complete
the greatest
engineering project in history.
You should think
of the space station
as a gigantic Lego set,
where bits and pieces
are launched into space
and then bolted together
actually in orbit.
It's far too big to be
launched from the ground,
and we actually don't
have a launch vehicle
that's physically capable
of taking
that whole structure
into space on its own,
so you have to launch it
in pieces
and assemble it in orbit.
Narrator: The modular design of
the international space station
allows different bays
and components
- to be engineered - and manufactured
by five different
space agencies
around the world.
This unprecedented technological
and political partnership
sees Russian,
Japanese, European,
and Canadian space agencies
working alongside NASA
to operate and service
the I.S.S.
- Baker: The international nature - of the space station
as a program
rather than an individual
mission or event
that NASA has ever achieved,
to bring together
the nations of the world
to what is now the full
international space station.
- Narrator: - The international space station
is a unique scientific platform
where research into biology,
physics, and astronomy
converges with technological
developments in innovation.
In this orbiting laboratory,
crew members conduct
advanced experiments
that would not be
possible on earth
with the unified goal
of sharing breakthroughs
in knowledge for
the betterment of humanity.
Ojha:
The I.S.S. Truly is humanity's
orbital space science outpost.
The research that's
being done on board
is giving us new insights
into so many different areas,
from material science
to fundamental physics
because some of the insights
gained
from instruments on the station
are giving us new ideas
about the structure
and possible future fate
of the universe.
Narrator: In 2005, the station's
sophisticated facilities
opened up
to institutes and scientists
outside of government agencies,
leading to economic, medical,
and environmental
innovations for earth.
With all eyes on mankind's next
giant leap in space exploration,
the station is paving the way
for future missions
to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
Our mission to Mars is gonna
be a very difficult thing to do.
Although we have
the basic technology,
it's going to take at least
seven or eight months
to send people to Mars.
- Then they have to stay there - for about a year
before they can come back,
- which is another seven - or eight months.
So we're really talking
about a round trip
that lasts more than two years.
The difficult logistic point
- is to work out - how to survive
for that length of time,
- not just from - a physical point of view,
- but actually if you're going - on a long journey,
you might have to learn
how to grow food,
and one of the things
that the space station
is a good platform for is
learning how to grow things
in low-gravity conditions.
What we have learned is
how multiple agencies
from different parts
of the world can collaborate
even when there are
political differences,
and if we are go to Mars,
in my mind,
it's almost guaranteed to be
an international mission.
- Narrator: - The international space station
- is the largest and most complex - construction
ever assembled in space,
a project which,
after a decade of success,
has proven its worth
as an out-of-this-world
science lab,
- pioneering techniques - for building
and maintaining
equipment in orbit.
Perhaps the station's
greatest accomplishment
is its blueprint
for achieving goals together
that single nations
alone could not accomplish.
Ojha: The I.S.S. Program
from the start
was politically driven,
but what's emerged from it
has been a fantastic tribute
to cooperation
between so many space agencies
around the world.
You cannot now put the genie
back in the bottle.
A precedent has been set.
This is the way forward,
and it's a great way
for settling
political difficulties...
Sleeves rolled up,
working together.
Narrator: Just two decades since
the end of the cold war,
the international space station
embodies what global cooperation
can achieve.
The I.S.S. Is humanity's first
firm foothold for life in space,
our springboard for visiting
destinations
beyond earth's orbit,
and another giant leap
in mankind's quest
to explore the final frontier.
Coming up, NASA conducts
a life-saving mission.
- Swigert: Houston, - we've had a problem.
- Lousma: Stand by. - They got a problem.
- -We got more than a problem. - -Okay, listen, you guys.
Narrator: The Apollo lunar space
program is cemented in time
for the scale of its ambition
and accomplishments.
But one of the greatest
moments in NASA's history
is nearly its worst.
In April 1970, the Apollo
program is in full swing.
The last 16 months has seen
12 men fly to the moon
and four walk on its surface.
Astronauts Fred Haise
and Jack Swigert
trained alongside
Apollo 13 commander
and veteran astronaut
Jim Lovell
for NASA's
most ambitious mission yet.
Apollo 13 really went
to take a step further
than the previous two Apollos
that had been on the moon.
They had landed in areas
called mare,
the sort of flat plain,
so you only looked at the rocks
that were right on the surface,
and there's a lot of interest
in what's happening down below
the surface of those mare.
So, Apollo 13's aim
was to go to an impact crater
where some huge collision
had happened with an asteroid.
That impact had
thrown material out
and it dug it out
from low regions of the crust,
and Apollo 13 was targeted
to try and get to rocks
that were characteristic
of a different age of the moon
compared to Apollo 12.
Narrator: Apollo 13 launches
to explore the moon
and follow in the successful
lunar footprints
of Apollos 11 and 12.
But just 56 hours
into the mission,
the spacecraft suffers
a devastating malfunction.
- Lousma: - Apollo 13, Houston.
We'd like you to stir up
your cryo tanks.
Swigert:
Okay. Stand by.
- Lovell: - About 56 hours,
all three of us heard
a rather large bang,
just one bang.
[ Static ]
- Okay, Houston, - we've had a problem here.
- This is Houston. - Say again, please.
- Lovell: Houston, we've had - a problem.
- Stand by. - They got a problem.
- -We got more than a problem. - -Okay, listen, you guys.
Fuel cells one and three
are offline.
Right.
That's what we're reading.
Narrator: When an onboard
oxygen tank ruptures,
two of the spacecraft's
three fuel cells
begin bleeding precious power.
We got to get a pressure
readout on that thing.
O2 quantity
number two is zero.
-That's the end right there.
-I can't believe that.
- Baker: - The mood in mission control
was immediately
one of disbelief.
- I have absolutely no clue - what happened.
- Something happened - to the fuel cells
and the oxygen tank.
Lovell: When I looked up and saw
both oxygen pressures...
One absolutely at zero
and the other one going down...
It dawned on me
and I'm sure Jack and Fred
about the same time
that we were, indeed,
in serious trouble.
- Roger. - We copy you're venting.
Narrator: Not only is oxygen
vital to keeping the crew alive,
but the spacecraft's
three fuel cells
cannot generate power
without it.
It was quite apparent to me
- that it was just - a question of time
that the command
module was gonna be dead.
We were still 70 to 80 hours
away from the earth.
Narrator: Without power,
the spacecraft would shut down,
communications systems
would die,
and the crew would be
stranded in space.
Baker:
Within two hours, the third
fuel cell had to be shut down.
That's the only means
of electrical power
for everything needed
to get the crew back
to earth alive.
Narrator:
200,000 miles from earth
and trapped
in a dying spacecraft,
the crew of Apollo 13 faces
a life-and-death crisis.
NASA has just one chance
to bring their men safely home.
Lovell: We knew that the command
module was gonna lose power.
- The only way to survive - this situation
was to transfer
to the lunar module,
and we started going through
procedures to get power on.
The initial reaction
was stabilization,
to get the whole mission stable
so that we could at least
buy a bit of time.
Assign people to study
how we keep the crew alive
and how we keep
our options open.
Narrator: With its own
independent life support,
power,
and communication systems,
the lunar module acts
as a lifeboat.
But with a limited
45-hour life-span intended
for a two-man crew,
NASA ground teams
work around the clock
to keep three men alive
for the 90-hour flight
back to earth.
- Barstow: The main difficulty - that the astronauts had
is they were losing
power all the time,
and they had to find a way
of maintaining power
for the whole duration
of the flight.
To support three men
for 3 1/2 days,
the whole way in which it was
operated had to change.
Narrator:
To combat the astronauts'
dwindling consumables,
NASA instructs the crew
to power down the lunar module,
preserving the spacecraft's
limited water
and electrical supply.
However, the crew suffers
serious dehydration,
and the temperature inside
the lunar module plummets.
Lovell: There was sort of
a chilling coldness.
The walls were perspiring.
The windows were completely wet.
And it wasn't too healthy.
I recall that it was like
reaching into the freezer
for the food.
Baker: There was ice forming
on the inside of the windows.
- The crew were - beginning to suffer
under those
appalling conditions.
It was a dire state.
It was a real,
real emergency situation.
- Narrator: - The Apollo lunar space program
is one of NASA's most
ambitious accomplishments,
but the Apollo 13 mission
nearly becomes a disaster.
Surviving on the minimal power
reserves of the lunar module,
- the crew is further - jeopardized
by the carbon dioxide buildup
on board the spacecraft.
Bannister:
When you breathe oxygen,
you exhale carbon dioxide,
and that carbon dioxide,
if you don't do
anything about it,
builds up in the sealed
environment
of the space capsule
and becomes a poison.
Narrator:
Lithium hydroxide cannisters
scrub the air supply
of carbon dioxide,
but with the command
module powered down,
the lunar module's scrubbing
system is overworked,
designed to just support
two men for two days,
not three men for four days.
Bannister:
It wasn't possible to take
the lithium hydroxide crystals
from the command module
- and place them - in the lunar module
because the shapes
were different.
- Cruise: - The command module cannisters
were square cross-section,
and... believe it or not...
The ones in the Lem
were round cross-section.
- I mean, it could easily - have been the end
of the rescue mission
had they not solved it.
Narrator: NASA has mere hours
to engineer a system
that patches
the square cannisters
into the lunar module
life-support system
using only what the astronauts
have available to them.
- Swigert: Ground read us up - a procedure
- in order to adapt - some of the cannisters,
and as they read this thing up,
Jim and I constructed
one of these things.
- Cruise: - Cut a piece of tape this long,
- put it up there, - do this, do that.
It worked a treat, you know.
- Within an hour of - switching it on,
the carbon dioxide
levels were way down,
and they were through
that really serious,
considerable problem.
- Lovell: There were moments - when I didn't know
how much consumables we had,
- whether we could - make it back or not,
but in a situation like that,
- there's only one thing - you can do.
You just keep going,
and you just keep thinking up
where you can get
more consumables,
and so that's exactly
what we did.
- Narrator: - It is without question
that one of NASA's
greatest triumphs
during the Apollo 13 rescue
was the way mission control
successfully stretched out
the dwindling life-support
consumables.
Had those consumables
not been monitored
and economized as accurately,
the mission and the crew
would've been lost.
Ojha: In the entire history
of human space flight
dating back to 1961,
Apollo 13 was the most
dangerous episode
in which the crew
has successfully survived.
What happened
in mission control
and by the crew themselves
showed that the NASA spirit
at the time was
absolutely up to the challenge
not only of getting
human beings to the moon,
but returning them
to earth safely
when you've got multiple
emergencies coming up
that are threatening
your crew's survival
again and again and again.
Man: The extremely loud applause
as Apollo 13 comes through
loud and clear on
the television display here.
Cruise: I regard Apollo 13
as an immensely
impressive example
of engineering.
The systems engineering,
the organizational engineering
were so solid,
were so intelligent,
were so well-structured that
when the accident happened,
the organization was found
- totally capable - of dealing with it,
and I can't imagine why anybody
would want to be anything
other than an engineer.
Man: ...That could be made
of this flight
- is the initiative - that people have
when suddenly faced
with an unusual situation.
I think it's amazing the way
that people can respond so fast
to get this job done.
Narrator: The safe return
of the Apollo 13 crew
is a testament to the caliber
and dedication
of the engineers and astronauts
of the Apollo lunar program
and is universally regarded
as NASA's finest hour.
Coming up, an unimaginable task
with an impossible deadline.
Man: For a magical moment,
humanity was united as one.
Narrator:
NASA pushes our technological
and intellectual boundaries
with each of its
monumental achievements,
but the greatest of them all
must surely
be visiting another world.
Kennedy: 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.
No single space project
in this period
will be more
impressive to mankind
- or more important - for the long-range
exploration of space.
And none will be so difficult
or expensive to accomplish.
Narrator:
On the 25th of may, 1961,
president John F. Kennedy
challenges the United States
to put a man on the moon
by the end of the decade.
We choose to go
to the moon in this decade
and do the other things
not because they are easy,
but because they are hard.
Narrator: And perhaps the
greatest engineering challenge
in the history of mankind,
NASA has a mere eight years
to pioneer the technology
to shoot men into deep space
and return them
safely to the earth.
But in 1961, rocket technology
isn't powerful enough
to reach the moon.
A lunar lander
hasn't been designed.
Space suit technology
is in its infancy.
And we don't even know
if humans can survive
in the vacuum of space.
In 1961, walking on the moon
is science-fiction.
But by 1970,
it must be science fact.
And in July 1969,
Apollo 11 makes history
as Neil Armstrong
and buzz Aldrin
become the first of 12
astronauts to walk on the moon.
Armstrong: Tranquility base
here. The eagle has landed.
- Duke: - We copy you down, eagle.
- You got a bunch of guys - about to turn blue.
We're breathing again.
Thanks a lot.
I'm at the foot
of the ladder.
That's one small step
for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
- Baker: The six Apollo lunar - landing missions
demonstrated
the most audacious attempt
to challenge humans
on the technological frontiers
of the 20th century
that could ever have been put
before a single group of people.
Ojha: For a magical moment,
humanity was united as one.
People were saying,
"you did it for us."
- It wasn't seen that - the United States
had set foot on the moon.
It was the human race,
and so, for me,
that's the magic of Apollo 11
and all of those
subsequent missions.
- Narrator: - In the afterglow of Apollo 11,
NASA lands five more
exploration missions
on the surface of the moon,
each more advanced
and ambitious than the last.
Baker: Of the six Apollo lunar
landing missions,
the last three were incredibly
productive scientifically
because they built on
the previous flights
in a very big way.
They had a lunar module
that could stay
three full working days
on the surface,
that had a lunar roving vehicle
that could carry the crew miles
to different sites of geological
and scientific interest.
It carried a much
larger suite
of experiments to operate
for nearly 10 years
after the crew returned,
sending information
back to scientists
all over the world.
That prodigious
outpouring of data
was really one of
the greatest achievements
of the whole Apollo program
and transformed it
from a political objective
in getting to the surface
ahead of the Russians
into a very,
very major scientific endeavor.
Narrator:
This unprecedented scientific
yield unlocks the history
and evolution of our planet
and the solar system,
and the benefits
of NASA's Apollo program
are even far more
wide-reaching for us all.
Sending human beings
to the moon laid the groundwork
for exploration of the rest
of our solar system...
Sending robotic explorers
off to Mars, Venus.
But they also laid the way
for international collaboration.
- Sending people up to - the international space station,
- working together - for a common cause
would not have been possible
without the technology developed
through the Apollo missions.
- Hopefully, although it's NASA's - greatest achievement to date,
there's gonna be plenty more
equally exciting
achievements down the line
for exploring the solar system.
Narrator:
Between 1968 and 1972,
24 men fly to the moon
and 12 walk upon its surface
for the benefit of all mankind.
The flags
and footprints symbolize
not only NASA's
greatest achievement,
but the achievement
of an entire generation
and the promise of
mankind's future in space.
Harrison: It's the world
taking the next steps.
It's not just NASA,
and NASA's been fantastic
and led the way,
but all these voyages in space,
we're all doing this together.
Narrator: Whatever the future
may hold for space exploration,
it's clear that
what NASA has achieved
in just a few decades
has forever defined
how we live
on our home planet
and how we will explore
our future in space.
I personally like to think
the greatest achievement of NASA
is that it is
a civilian-based agency,
actually international
in its aspirations
to draw in a world community
of scientists and researchers
and to inspire
the next generation
of students, scientists,
and engineers
to literally go where
no one else has gone before,
and be
the representational catalyst
for all spacefaring nations
to follow it to the exploration
of the solar system and beyond.
...captions by Vitac...
www.Vitac.com
captions paid for by
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