Narrator: On July 21, 1969,
The eagle takes off from the moon with neil armstrong
And buzz aldrin aboard to meet michael collins in the orbiting ship.
Two men had just walked on the moon.
A triumphant moment for america,
One that could almost obliterate the numerous incidents
That led up to this moment.
Gene: The most stressful part occurred about, uh,
Halfway down to the surface of the moon.
Jack: It was awful, just awful.
Homer: I was worried that we were gonna have a surprise
That nobody had really thought about.
Narrator: Very quickly, the public would turn away from apollo,
The most expensive space program in history.
Only the dramatic flight of apollo 13 could capture the world's attention again.
Jeffrey: When it became a life and death mission,
People paid unbreakable attention at that point.
Fred: People have asked, could you take a poison pill or something?
Glynn: This was not a fixable problem.
Narrator: More than 50 years later, we thought we knew everything
There was to know about apollo.
But this nasa program still holds mysteries waiting to be revealed.
Jay: Neil told me in confidence and I'll never break that confidence.
Matthew: What happens on the moon often stays on the moon.
Narrator: Why did the apollo program end so abruptly?
What are the final secrets of an epic adventure that saw four presidents come and go,
Caused the deaths of three astronauts, and flirted with several other disasters?
This phenomenal story is not fiction.
It was a bet made by a president and 400,000 people, all focused on a single goal:
Bringing america to the moon.
(music)
Narrator: Before leaving the moon, where they'd spent more than 21 hours,
Neil armstrong and buzz aldrin tossed a package out the door of the lunar module,
Which was still open.
Inside was a patch with the names of white, grissom, and chaffee,
The three astronauts killed in the apollo 1 mission.
But the package also contained symbolic objects, of a more personal nature,
That were authorized by nasa.
Fred: We were, were allowed to carry this ppk,
Or personal preference kit.
Had to be very small, limited in weight,
It was vacuum packed.
What I had done, and most did, was you canvassed family members, friends,
To what you might carry for them.
Narrator: Neil armstrong's kit, though, wasn't detailed in any mission reports.
It may have included a personal item in memory of his daughter karen,
Passed away at 2 and a half years old.
Jay: Neil had lost a little girl.
And he called her "muffy."
Well, one of the craters on the moon on that he walked over to,
He called it a baby crater and he named it "muffy's crater."
He also left something of muffy's on the moon.
I know what it is, but I have never shared that with anyone because neil told me
In confidence and I'll never break that confidence.
Narrator: Very few people know what neil armstrong left on the moon for his daughter muffy.
When he died on August 25, 2012, at 82 years old, the astronaut took this secret,
Along with many others, to the grave.
Right or wrong, these secrets continue adding to the legend that began almost
45 years earlier, in the middle of July.
July 16, 1969.
At 9:32 in the morning in florida, an immense crowd gathered around the official
Stands at cape kennedy.
Some camped on site so as not to miss the event.
Jay: You had over a million people that had surrounded the cape.
They couldn't cram in any more.
Clogging the roads and everything.
Narrator: 3,500 journalists traveled from 55 countries to witness one event:
The liftoff of the saturn v rocket,
Destined to bring three men to the moon.
At the top of the rocket, more than 300 feet in the air,
Seated on the equivalent of 540 tons of tnt,
Three astronauts await the countdown.
Jean-françois: The crew was in a tiny cabin all the way at the very top; in other words,
Just 1 percent of all that lifted off was actually used
For the mission to the moon and back.
Philippe: Outside of the atomic bomb, at the moment when it lifted off,
The saturn v rocket made the loudest sound ever recorded by a manmade object.
At the time of the apollo 4 launch in 1967,
The vibrations were so strong that three miles away,
The ceiling tiles in the press area fell down and the windows vibrated.
Narrator: As they watched the incredible rocket disappearing in the blue florida sky,
No one was thinking any longer about the challenge faced by the saturn v designers.
Because when kennedy launched america toward conquering the moon in the early 1960s,
It didn't seem that such a machine could see the light of day.
Matthew: In 1961, neither the united states nor the soviet union had rockets powerful
Enough to send astronauts to the moon and bring them all the way back to earth.
No rocket like this had ever been constructed,
And people weren't entirely sure that it could work.
Narrator: To succeed at such a feat, america would stop at nothing.
Including enlisting the help of the one who, surely,
Was alone in the ability to design such a device,
And who would be named director of nasa marshall space flight center.
Wernher von braun, a brilliant german engineer.
Who was also a supporter of adolf hitler.
Jeffrey: Wernher von braun is a complicated historical figure.
He was a nazi.
The people who came over with him all worked for the nazi cause.
Roger: They knew a lot about building rockets.
They had built the v2 in world war ii,
That's the first ballistic missile that had any capability.
Narrator: Wernher von braun put his skills at nasa's disposal,
Just as he had several years earlier for the nazi dictatorship.
But without him, america would certainly never have been able to develop the most powerful
Rocket in history and beat the soviets.
The result was mind-boggling.
Saturn v was 363 feet tall with the command and service module, and 33 feet wide.
Matthew: The saturn 5 was a monster of a rocket.
No launch vehicle since the apollo moon landings has equaled the power
And capability of the saturn 5.
Narrator: When the final stage of the rocket left terrestrial orbit to go to the moon,
The crew had to manage a very delicate procedure:
The command and service module made a 180-degree rotation
While in space and re-docked with the eagle, the lunar module,
So it would be pointed ahead.
The rest of the rocket was then abandoned in space.
Then, the most crucial steps of apollo 11 began.
They all relied on a theory that was untested in real conditions:
Entering lunar orbit.
As early as 1959, even before kennedy's prophetic declaration,
Nasa had launched a series of studies on the best way
To send men to the moon, but no solution had been chosen.
Roger: There were three options that were possible that people were talking about
In terms of flying to the moon.
Narrator: At the start, the engineers had considered sending a single rocket,
Which would then take off again from the moon.
Or even to build a sort of space station to serve as a rear base.
The third option was not very popular.
It consisted of using a single, powerful rocket to send a combination of three modules:
Only one module, the lunar module, would descend to the moon,
While the command and service module, or csm, would wait for it in lunar orbit.
But few believed it was possible.
And at this historic moment, one man was particularly nervous.
His name was john houbolt.
The option of a single rocket propelling three modules
To the destination was far from a unanimous choice.
It would take one man's perseverance to bring this vision to life.
Roger: John houbolt, who was only one of many engineers
Who was thinking about these possibilities,
Decided to take it upon himself to carry that word
Forward to the nasa leadership and washington dc,
Which he did in 1961.
Jeffrey: Lunar orbit rendezvous was more complex in terms of moving parts,
But it was the kind of complexity that could be worked out
With just smart rendezvous and smart trajectory techniques.
Narrator: Nasa leadership was eventually convinced:
In 1962, lunar orbit rendezvous was chosen as the method
To go to the moon and return home.
On July 20, after 13 orbits of the moon to prepare for landing, the eagle,
With neil armstrong and buzz aldrin inside, prepared to disengage from the command
Module, piloted by michael collins.
For the first time in history, two astronauts approached the moon, to stand there.
In houston, in the control room, the engineers hold their breath.
Gene: Once the lunar module had separated from the command module
You could see the energy.
They were ready to go down to the surface of the moon.
Narrator: When the lunar module began its propelled descent to the moon,
Armstrong and aldrin again felt gravity on their bodies.
They knew then that the moon was close enough to exert its power of attraction.
Neil armstrong spotted the landing site, and everything was going according to plan.
But six thousand feet above the lunar surface,
The eagle's computers began flashing.
Alarms sounded, and errors 1202 and 1201 appeared on the screen.
Gene: The most stressful part occurred about, uh,
Halfway down to the surface of the moon.
When we started having a series of program alarms.
Where the computer indicated that it was too busy to get all the jobs done,
And it basically would work only the priority:
The guidance, navigation and control things.
Jay: They had found in simulations just a couple of days before that if they ran
Both systems that they had on board for landing,
That it would overload the computer and they'd get a 1201 alarm.
Narrator: Distracted by the alarm,
Armstrong didn't realize the onbod computer
Was taking them right toward a rocky slope of a crater.
The eagle was on a crash course with the lunar surface.
But something amazing happened in the cockpit: With tremendous calm,
Neil armstrong switches to manual mode and gives the mission everything he's got.
Jean-françois: We are trained to be what they call
"problem solvers" in english,
And neil armstrong had this mentality.
Narrator: The fuel reserves were running out.
A site had to be found immediately: There were only 60 seconds left.
Jeffrey: They had about three percent of their fuel left when they landed.
Roger: If they had gone a few more seconds, they probably would have been forced to abort.
Jeffrey: Unlike your car, when you're on empty, you know, "I bet I can squeeze 10 more miles
Out of this baby, just enough time to get off the road and get to a gas station."
In the lunar module, when you hit 0, whhh, your engine stops.
Narrator: With the lunar module's rocket fuel almost completely spent,
Armstrong manages to land in the sea of tranquility.
It is Sunday, July 20, 1969, at 3:17 pm and 39 seconds houston time.
He touches down so gently that buzz aldrin had to look at the control display.
Time stands still.
It is then neil armstrong broke the silence
With a sentence we would ever forget:
Neil: "houston, tranquility base here.
The eagle has landed."
Narrator: Capcom charlie duke had to raise his voice to reply amid the applause
And outing in the houston control room.
Without neil armstrong's calm under pressure,
Apollo 11 would have surely met a different end.
And behind his surprising personality, nasa knew early on that in this discreet man
Was the stuff heroes are made of.
Jean-françois: The thing that was a little frustrating with neil armstrong was,
When you asked him, "how was it on the moon?"
His classic response was, "I was just doing my job."
Jeffrey: He was extremely self-contained,
And it was hard for people to get close to him.
And like many astronauts, his first marriage failed.
And I think one of the reasons was he was a person who was so hard to reach.
Narrator: Besides the crew, there was another key element of the mission's success:
The lunar module, or lem, an unprecedented machine,
Incredibly complicated to build.
So it reached out to the grumman company, one of the biggest manufacturers
Of commercial and military aircraft.
Still, the lm would keep its engineers up at night: It had to be perfect, infallible,
And extremely light.
Philippe: In the beginning, grumman designed a spherical cabin with large glass windows,
With seats for the pilots.
The glass windows, if you want them to be airtight,
They're very heavy.
So they began to get rid of the glass windows.
Obviously, they also removed the pilots' seats.
Narrator: When grumman won the nasa bidding process in 1962,
At the time the $350 million budget was to enable it
To develop a comfortable module designed to fly only in the vacuum of space,
Unlike the command module.
Matthew: The skin of the lunar module was only about
As thick as three layers of aluminum foil.
If astronauts weren't careful,
They could kick through the walls of it with their boots.
Jim: They were able to sleep inside it while they were on the moon with hammocks,
It's not the ritz in terms of hotels, but it was roomy enough, so to speak.
Narrator: By the end of 1964, the lunar module plans were finally ready,
And grumman manufactured many prototypes.
Then, a first version of the final module was delivered to nasa.
If the agency hadn't run extra tests, apollo 11 would never have reached the moon.
The proposed module was shoddy and rushed, and the trials were catastrophic.
Philippe: When the lunar module was delivered to nasa, it had enormous flaws.
In particular, there were many leaks in the reservoirs
And the piping that carried the fuel.
It was like a sieve.
Narrator: The missions preceding apollo 11 allowed
For the lunar module to be finalized.
Its cost would exceed all of nasa's estimates: 13 million dollars at that time,
Or more than 93 million dollars today.
Still, one essential element could never be testedn real conditions.
The ascent engine that the upper stage would use to leave the moon.
If it started, the mission would be successful.
But there was no second chance in case of failure.
Armstrong and aldrin try not to think about their fateful departure from the moon.
For the moment, all that surrounds them is total silence.
They are on a desolate, empty, sterile celestial body.
But who would first set foot on this virgin soil?
Behind the scenes, nasa's decision allegedly sparked controversy.
And disappointments that were never acknowledged.
Philippe: Buzz aldrin had believed for a long time
That he would be the first to walk on the moon.
I think that this incident was poorly managed by deke slayton,
The head of the astronauts at the time,
Who left a gigantic ambiguity even though everyone wanted to know.
Narrator: Nevertheless, the decision would be logically clear: As the lm pilot,
Armstrong would be on the side nearest the door and could more easily exit first.
Roger: Never mind the fact that buzz aldrin would have dearly loved to have been
The first man on the moon and he wasn't the mission commander,
He did not have the decision-making power
For that particular decision.
Narrator: At 9:56 pm houston time, after long minutes attempting to pass through
The vessel's hatchway, neil armstrong set foot on the ladder
Between him and the moon's surface.
The whole world stopped breathing.
That moment would become one the most significant moments in modern history.
The image transmitted by the lem camera was mediocre,
But it was enough to unite the entire world.
Ed: The original pictures are really hard to tell what's going on.
If you could see neil's foot coming down on that picture,
You're a better man than I am.
Narrator: Armstrong let himself drop to the ground and pronounced the words
That would become etched in the stones of history.
Neil: That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
Narrator: Were these words premeditated or simply improvised?
Until his death in 2012, armstrong told the same story:
The words came to him once he was on the moon, not before.
And yet, after the astronaut's death, some accounts emerged suggesting
He prepared his statements in advance.
Jay: He told me, he says, "I don't want to say.
'we beat the russians, I don't want to say america did it,'
'I want, mankind did it.'
"his brother says, "don't tell mama, let her be surprised."
Narrator: From that first step, all the words and all the actions were transmitted live.
Neil armstrong began to methodically photograph the moon.
After 19 minutes, buzz aldrin final exited the spacecraft.
Jay: Buzz steps out onto the porch on the lander to go down, and so he says to neil,
"I'm getting ready to close the door."
And neil says, "ok, but don't lock it."
(laughs)
If they had locked themselves outside, then you'd have had a problem. (laughs)
Narrator: Before emerging onto the moon, buzz did a few tests with the ladder
And let himself jump to the ground.
The two astronauts then had to follow the checklist, sewn to the sleeves of their suits.
The extravehicular activity, or eva, goes perfectly.
On the ground, though, tensions remain high.
The astronauts' survival now depends on one element: Their spacesuits.
Jean-françois: Many people think it's just an airtight
Envelope, but it's much more than that.
Inside, there is a system controlling pressure, temperature,
The composition of the interior atmosphere, essentially, it's a spacecraft in its own right.
Narrator: An unprecedented technical feat, the apollo spacesuit would require
Five years of development.
Each model would cost over 100,000 dollars, but the manufacturer had free rein.
Homer: We had almost no limits.
And they spent a lot of money getting those suits developed.
Narrator: Made of 25 layers, te suit would have to protect the astronauts from meteorites
And extreme temperature changes.
But before apollo 11, the suit had never been tested in real conditions.
Homer: I was worried that we were gonna have a surprise that nobody had really thought about.
And, uh, no surprises; everything was exactly like we figured.
Narrator: The apollo 11 mission included many symbolic steps.
Among them: The placement of the american flag.
Contrary to lend, nasa hesitated for a long time before deciding
To send up such a symbol.
In fact, the stars and stripes were only put on board the lm a short time before takeoff.
So that it would fly even though there was no atmosphere, a supportive rod was added.
Philippe: At the moment when armstrong and aldrin placed the american flag,
It was ultimately the symbol of success.
At that moment, although the astronauts were describing everything they were doing,
Everything they were going to do, there's not another word.
There is total silence.
It lasts maybe 10 minutes, which is extremely long.
Narrator: A moment of silence, or of doubt?
No one can say.
The only certainty is that the image of buzz aldrin posing proudly before his flag
Was seen around the world.
Narrator: The mission was interrupted by a telephone call with richard nixon,
The president of the united states.
Pres. Nixon: Hello neil and buzz, I am talking to you by telephone from the oval room
At the white house,
And this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made
From the white house.
Narrator: Facing the camera, the two astronauts listened to their president's words,
Marked with the intensity of the occasion.
Only armstrong would speak.
Neil: Thank you, mr. President.
It's a great honor and privilege for us to be here.
Narrator: Petrified by the moment, buzz aldrin did not say a single word.
A short time later, neil armstrong took the most iconic photograph
Of the apollo program.
The astronaut appears in the reflection on buzz aldrin's helmet.
There is no other clear image of armstrong on the moon.
Jean-françois: This photograph is the stuff of myths;
It's the first photo from the apollo program I had hanging in my bedroom
When I was a kid.
Narrator: The two astronauts had been outside the lunar module for two hours
And they already had to go back in.
Glynn: When the science people first learned that we were only going to do
A two-hour eva they were very upset with that.
They wanted to do lots of stuff.
Philippe: Armstrong and aldrin didn't walk on the moon,
They had a quick shuffle on the moon.
Only armstrong, at the end of his outing, ventured further, but he was seen to disappear.
He took a photo of the landing site from far away, and no one knew until seeing that photo
After he returned that he had made it that far.
Narrator: Neil armstrong and buzz aldrin would also take with them
The first array of lunar samples.
Nearly 50 pounds on this first mission, and nearly 900 pounds in total
By the end of the apollo program.
Jim: When neil armstrong and buzz aldrin brought back the containers
Of rocks that they collected
These were distributed to hundreds of laboratories around the earth,
Europe, asia, united states.
And so we were able to date those rocks and see that
There were over 3 billion years old, really, really ancient.
Narrator: Before leaving, buzz aldrin took one last photograph.
His footprints left on the gray, dusty soil.
The one that all the magazines captioned as the first steps on the moon, up close.
The real neil armstrong's first step, in truth,
Was obliterated by the coming and going of the two astronauts.
Instead, this photograph shows one of the astronauts' last steps.
The astronauts, in turn, grabbed hold of the ladder
That separated them from the upper stage of the lem.
The mission was filmed from start to finish, and yet, some moments still raise questions
Until very recently, such as whether neil armstrong left something on the moon
For his deceased daughter.
Matthew: What happens on the moon often stays on the moon
And to this day, we're not exactly sure
What the astronauts did, what they left,
And what they took with them.
Narrator: Michael collins, orbiting alone for more than 24 hours in the command module,
Prepared to welcome back his crewmates.
He never had the chance to see the moon from close up, but his role had been essential.
Jack: Mike collins had the horrible responsibility that either,
Do what he could to rescue his crewmen or come back without them.
He was trained to do that.
Narrator: Collins's only fear was that the lm's ascent engine wouldn't work,
Because it had never been tested in real-world conditions.
Roger: The ascent stage, which is on top of
Sort of the boxy bottom part of the lunar module
Has its own engine but, it's a uh, a solid-fueled engine.
You light that thing and it takes off like a roman candle.
That's, you can't throttle it, you can't control it, it'll take you back up to orbit
And that's it.
Narrator: The moment was so stressful that buzz, with his cumbersome suit,
Accidentally broke one of the ignition buttons while reentering the cabin.
It was impossible to lift off.
A new unforeseen turn of events, for a mission return that already seemed perilous.
So much so that president richard nixon had a farewell speech prepared
In case of failure.
Matthew: A speech was prepared for president richard nixon, which celebrated
The achievements of the astronauts,
And asked the nation to commemorate their sacrifice.
Jeffrey: "fate has ordained that two men who went to the moon to explore in peace
Will remain on the moon to rest in peace."
Narrator: If buzz aldrin hadn't had the ingenious idea
Of using a basic pen to press down on the broken button,
Nixon might have had to give his prerepared mournful speech.
And the eagle would never have taken off from the moon.
But history was written differently.
Immediately at ignition, the astronauts felt the explosion of the engine
That would detach the first stage of the lm.
The american flag, installed too close to the ship,
Was blown over by the wind from the propulsion.
Collins adjusted his trajectory to receive his fellow astronauts.
But they weren't yet home free:
Now they would have to navigate entry into earth's atmosphere.
Jack: The atmosphere pushing back as hard as it does,
So you're coming in at 36,000 miles per hour
And it's trying to stop you, that's where the g-force kicks in,
And they had to control stick by their leg.
It's sort of like a rollercoaster ride it would make through the atmosphere
As it came in, keeping it, trying to slow it down.
Narrator: On July 24, 1969, almost 200 hours after liftoff,
The apollo 11 capsule plunged into the pacific.
Jim: The spacecraft was swabbed with disinfectant and the astronauts
Were placed into quarantine as soon as they came back.
And the samples were analyzed and of course
It soon became clear that that there was no chance
Of contamination from life brought back from the moon.
Narrator: The crew went on a world tour.
Apollo became the symbol of american superpower.
The story could have ended with this victory.
Gene: We no sooner finished apollo 11 then we're getting ready for apollo 12.
So, we didn't have too much time to, uh,
Reflect upon the past;
It's to prepare for the future.
Narrator: To reaffirm its smashing success,
Nasa launched apollo 12 in November of 1969.
The mission was a success, bolstered by two extravehicular activities,
And more than 31 hours spent on the lunar surface.
And yet, the public wasn't watching anymore.
Kennedy's challenge had been met, the feat was immense,
But the agency still decided to continue with apollo 13.
One mission too many.
Jeffrey: The country had lost interest.
When it became a life and death mission, people paid
Close, unbreakable attention at that point.
Narrator: On April 11, 1970, james lovell, jack swigert,
And fred haise lifted off aboard the apollo 13 mission,
To general indifference.
After 55 hours in flight, swigert performed a routine
Task on the hydrogen and oxygen tanks.
A few minutes later, the astronauts felt a shock,
And the whole craft began to vibrate.
Fred: Both vehicles were metal vehicles,
So I guess the thing I would relate it to
Is if you were in a big tin can
And somebody hit it on the side with a sledgehammer.
It was that kind of reverberation of sound.
Narrator: They didn't know it yet, but the number 2 oxygen tank had just exploded.
At the time, they thought a meteorite had collided with them.
Fred: Jim lovell had already started his way floating back up through the tunnel
To get back to the mother ship.
And had made the call, "houston, we've had a problem."
Jim: Uh, houston, we've had a problem.
Glynn: At first we said, "well, whatever it is we'll fix it and get on with it."
But, it soon occurred to us, you know, in a matter of a few minutes,
That this was not a fixable problem.
Narrator: The alarms and emergency lights went off.
Voltage in the electrical systems was dropping.
In a few minutes, what started as a small problem became a desperate situation.
Without energy or oxygen, the astronauts had no chance of survival.
Matthew: The alternatives were terrible: Being stuck in space, never to return,
Slowly running out of oxygen;
Crashing into the lunar surface;
Or perhaps burning up as their spacecraft entered
The earth's atmosphere too fast to slow down,
Leaving the astronauts as cinders floating in the air.
Fred: My instant feeling was just a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach,
Because I knew we had lost the landing.
Narrator: On earth, some 200,000 miles away from the crew: Panic ensues.
Houston has already canceled the apollo 13 mission
And is now trying to save its three men.
Jay: Flight director gene kranz looked at everybody.
He says, "we're going to get these guys back.
Failure is not an option."
Ed: Kranz had said everybody to shut up basically.
He didn't say it that way, but basically everybody knew not to say anything.
The only communication would be going on would either be something wrong
Or a call-out on fuel, or a call-out from the crew.
Narrator: Gene kranz then decided to use an untried method: To avoid exhausting
Reserves and save time, he asked the crew to cut all electrical systems.
It was a decision with heavy consequences.
Gene: It's sort of like the lights in your home, if you want to conserve electricity,
You turn 'em all off but one.
And that's basically what we did.
Fred: Lunar module likely went down to about mid-30s fahrenheit we did not have adequate
Clothing for that situation. We, uh, ended up putting on
All our spare underwear, ended up with three sets on.
So that was the best we could do.
Narrator: As the command module continued to lose its oxygen,
Houston made a choice that was surely the only option for survival.
The crew abandoned the command module and entered aquarius, the lunar module,
Which had not suffered damage.
Designed for only two men, the lunar module would have to save three.
The public, no longer interested in apollo,
Suddenly had great concern for this catastrophic scenario.
Jeffrey: Suddenly we cared about these men,
And we cared about their children
And we cared about their wives,
And we loved them in the way you can love a public figure and want them to come home.
Narrator: But inside aquarius, the crew was on the verge of suffocating.
Matthew: The lunar module in which the three astronauts
Had to spend their time was not designed to hold three people.
And very quickly the atmosphere became poisoned
With the carbon dioxide that the astronauts would exhale.
Fred: People have asked, "did you have, could you take a poison pill or something?"
No, there was no plans of any sort for that.
It'd be very easy, we'd just open the hatch.
You're in space, and you'd be gone in an instant.
You don't need to carry anything.
Narrator: Within minutes, houston found a brilliant idea:
Adapt the more efficient filters from the command module
To aquarius in order to purify the air.
Gene: We had to learn to package up some square filters that we had over
In the dead command module.
And put them in the round hole for the lunar module.
Narrator: The technique worked perfectly, allowing the crew to gain a few extra hours
Of survival and to fight to the bitter end.
In manual control, swigert and haise modified the two vessels'
Trajectory to return to earth.
But with a command module that was only partially functional, maneuvering was perilous.
Lovell went so far as to use his watch to time the ignition of the engines.
Fred: We could not shoot stars, because with the debris field around the spacecraft
From the explosion, if you looked out the windows,
You couldn't discern what was stars from debris.
Narrator: For more than five minutes, radio communications were cut.
It was impossible for houston to know if the crew had taken the correct trajectory.
The tension was unbearable.
Jack: It was awful, just awful, and so when they came back online and after 5 minutes
And said, you know, "apollo 13 here, we, we read you,"
It's like, what in the world happened?
It was like this miracle.
On April 17, 1970, apollo 13 landed successfully in the pacific.
The incredible adventure would be followed by the entire world.
Jeffrey: What made apollo 13 wonderful is that it was a great human tale.
If it hadn't happened in real life, somebody would have wanted to write
It as a great work of fiction; a great human tale of ingenuity and survival.
Narrator: The final chapter in the apollo story is much less joyful.
Nasa had planned to take the program through apollo 20.
But the apollo 13 accident and the vietnam war shifted political priorities.
On September 20, 1970, nasa announced the definitive halt to the program,
Even though three saturn v rockets had been manufactured.
Apollo 17 would be the final mission.
Pres. Kennedy: We choose to go the moon in this decade
Narrator: Kennedy had galvanized an entire nation with his prophecy and brought
A total of 12 astronauts to the moon, but nixon was the man to shatter the dream.
Gene: The president said, "this may be the last time in this century."
And we thought, "good lord.
We've worked so hard; we've got to the moon; we've done all these things here;
And now we're not going back.
We're giving up the high ground."
Philippe: Nixon openly predicted that before the end of the 20th century,
We wouldn't return to the moon.
He was right: Even now as of the early 21st century,
No one has returned.
Narrator: Never has the american space agency experienced the level
Of frenetic energy it did during the decade of apollo.
The scientific and political consequences of the program have been significant.
But after a feat of this magnitude, what might the future hold?
Roger: There's also a lot of people who are anxious about what's new,
What's on the horizon, what are we going to do next?
Narrator: The moon hasn't been visited in the last half-century.
Funding has been reduced substantially.
But scientists are still dreaming of the next phase,
Millions of miles from the cradle of humanity, earth.
Jeffrey: Nasa's budget is currently $20 billion dollars,
Compared to that 60 billion back then.
And we want to go to mars.
Glynn: We can always do better than we think.
Look at apollo.
I mean, that was virtually impossible to do.
In the time frame that we had.
Virtually impossible.
And yet, it got done.
That's a good way to think about it.
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Captioned by subtitlepro llc