0:00

Nine Days in July is a production of I

0:02

Heart Radio and Trade Traft Studios

0:04

in association with High five Content.

0:08

Just half an hour after the Saturn five

0:10

bearing Apollo eleven lifted off

0:12

from Cape Kennedy, Vice President Spirou

0:15

Agnew sat down with Walter Cronkite,

0:17

anchorman for the CBS Evening News.

0:20

After a brief discussion about the launch, Cronkite

0:23

said the following, you know, it's a nature of

0:25

the American and the people on the space

0:27

program, particularly to constantly

0:29

look beyond where we are. This

0:32

is the nature of the man who wants

0:34

to go to the Moon. However, Cronkite

0:37

reminded the Vice President that he had recently

0:39

said, I think the United States should

0:41

undertake a very ambitious new project

0:44

in space. I think we should attempt interplanetary

0:46

exploration in a man's sense. At

0:49

the time Agnew sat down with America's most

0:51

beloved newsman, Apollo eleven

0:53

had just reached dorbent, it would

0:55

be four more days before it reached the Moon,

0:58

and no one knew if the first lunar mission would

1:00

even be successful. Despite

1:02

that context, the Vice President of the

1:04

United States felt that American needed

1:06

to articulate a broad objective

1:08

for the future. It's very easy to

1:11

forego the optimistic, long

1:13

range approach to these things

1:15

because you can always find a hundred

1:18

reasons not to do it or why it may fail.

1:21

But with the way science has advanced

1:23

in the past fifty years,

1:26

I don't think we'd be out of line and saying,

1:28

for example, we're going to put

1:30

a man on Mars by the end of this century.

1:32

And when it came to Mars, Agnew's

1:34

objective was clear, and

1:37

I think we should do it by the end

1:39

of the century. In nineteen sixty

1:41

nine, the year nine seemed

1:44

a long way off. As of the

1:46

time of this recording was

1:48

already two decades ago, and

1:50

we are still decades from landing on Mars. If

1:53

ever, so, what happened, Why

1:55

did everything just stop? Where

1:58

did we go wrong? And is there any

2:00

hope for humanity's space faring

2:02

future. About

2:07

five hours before their planned splashed down,

2:10

the crew of Apollo eleven wake and prepare

2:12

for landing. Like excited kids

2:14

waiting to open presents on Christmas morning. They

2:17

are up even before Houston attempts

2:19

to rouse them. Apollo eleven Good

2:21

morning. To muse them

2:24

all, Roger, we saw you're up to turn around, and

2:27

we're you're probably leading your breakfast there

2:30

about the maroon bugle, all

2:32

of fanning by here to give you the morning news.

2:35

To hear it. It's the last day

2:37

of the news, okay. Apollo eleven

2:40

remains the prime story with

2:42

the world awaiting your landing

2:44

today at about the eleven

2:46

am used in time President

2:49

Nixon that surprised your wise with a phone

2:51

call from San Francisco just before reboarded

2:53

a plane to fly out to meet you. President

2:56

Nixon is flying out to the aircraft carry you're

2:58

assigned to retrieve the crew once

3:00

they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Eric

3:02

Canada says it has accepted

3:05

twenty three hundred reservations for

3:07

flights to the Moon and the past five days,

3:10

it might be noted that more than one has

3:13

been made by men for their mothers

3:15

in law. The fun stuff out of the way,

3:18

now it's time to get down to business. Remember

3:21

that last night before they went to sleep, mission

3:23

control informed the crew that a

3:25

sudden storm had moved into their landing zone.

3:28

The night before the caps that was forced

3:30

to land in the Pacific Ocean.

3:32

There n from Hawaii,

3:35

there were thunder storms, and so Mass

3:37

had decided to change to splashdown

3:39

location just that night before, two

3:42

hundred fifty miles closer to Samoa,

3:45

so the ship had to steam all not loan to get

3:47

down. That's John Wolfram. John

3:50

was a Navy seal who had already done one tour

3:52

in Vietnam and was about to embark on

3:54

another. But first he was chosen

3:56

to be part of A. Paulo Levin's recovery

3:58

team. I was the youngest. I am the team

4:00

at the town. We'll have lots

4:02

more from John, the first person to greet

4:05

the crew of Apollo eleven upon their return. In

4:07

just a minute. The weather

4:09

forecast in the landing area right

4:11

now is two thousands entered high

4:14

added ten miles when

4:17

about zero eight zero at eighteen

4:19

knots uh. You'll have about

4:22

three to second foot ways and it looks

4:24

like they'll be landing about ten

4:26

minutes before sunrise over okay,

4:31

Cluck shows where five and a half hours

4:33

away from entry interface

4:36

point at which Apollo living winner of the RK's atmosphere.

4:40

It really gets bigger up there, follow

4:44

eleven. There the hornet is on

4:46

the station, just far enough

4:48

off the target point to keep from

4:50

getting hit a recovery one are

4:53

the coppers. They're they're on station. However,

4:58

as John wolf From said, the Navy had to

5:00

race full speed ahead to the new landing

5:02

area in order to get on station on time.

5:05

The ship assigned to recover the capsule and crew

5:08

is the USS Hornet, an Essex

5:10

class aircraft carrier that saw action

5:12

up and down the Pacific during World War

5:14

Two. And I

5:17

guess we're expanding by for you to whip

5:19

into the entry attitude. Okay,

5:22

we just been thanking a couple of lass manufacturers.

5:25

Roger might hid that

5:29

may never come in there. Jim

5:31

Lovell told buzzing the crew to make sure they come in

5:33

B E F. That means blunt

5:36

and forward. That's the heat shield side

5:38

astor not humor. I can see the

5:40

moon flight and by the window, and it looked at what

5:43

I considered to be a correct sign. I

5:46

follow control at one fifty

5:49

minutes Follow eleven systems now eleven

5:51

thousand, four hundred sixty three nautical miles,

5:54

approaching at the velocity of seventeen thousand

5:56

three hut per second. We

5:59

were just under an our away

6:01

from the scheduled command

6:03

module of service Michul separation. If

6:08

you had fallen into a coma just after the first

6:10

Moon landing in nineteen sixty nine and

6:12

awoke in two thousand and nineteen, you

6:15

could be forgiven for assuming the mission sparked

6:17

a long and robust era of interstellar

6:20

exploration At DASA, The

6:22

truth is, enthusiasm for the Moon

6:24

mission started to wane almost immediately.

6:27

Though we returned to the Moon five more times,

6:29

it would have been six if Apollo thirteen hadn't

6:31

been forced to abort. Deploying ever more

6:33

sophisticated experiments and gaining greater

6:36

scientific insights, Apollo's

6:38

budget was soon slashed, and the entire

6:40

project was halted just three years

6:43

after Neil and Buzz first set foot

6:45

on the Moon. While some assumed

6:47

that the Moon was just the beginning of America's

6:50

exploration of space, others,

6:52

like those in control of the Federal Purse, felt

6:54

that we'd beat the Soviets and won the space race.

6:57

Why did we need to keep going back, Andy

7:00

Aldren, It was kind of inevitable.

7:02

We got into race, we won the race, and so after

7:04

the race, you've kind of warmed down a little bit, and

7:07

then you go look for the next race. And it wasn't one.

7:10

What happened after Apollo was kind of the normalization

7:12

of space. There were a few significant

7:15

last gasps. Rather than

7:17

let its left over rockets go to waste, the

7:19

US built a space station under the third stage

7:22

of a Saturn five. Between nineteen

7:24

seventy three and seventy four. Sky

7:26

Lab was occupied for about twenty four weeks,

7:29

demonstrating that humans can live and work in space

7:32

for long periods of time, what more

7:34

leisure. It was not uncommon for the

7:36

men of sky Lab who indulge themselves

7:38

in the fluidity of movement in zero

7:41

G. And in July of ninety

7:43

exactly six years after Neil, Buzz

7:46

and Michael went to the Moon, a command

7:48

module docked in Earth orbit with a Russian

7:50

Soyu spacecraft and three US

7:52

astronauts and two Soviet cosmonauts

7:55

visited each other's spacecraft. With the final

7:57

goodbye. The astronauts of Apollo

8:00

and the cosmonauts US ended

8:02

their historic meeting in space, and

8:05

that was it. After decades

8:08

of intense rivalry, the space race

8:10

was officially over and Apollo

8:13

was grounded. It wasn't just the Apollo

8:15

spacecraft coming down, it was the curtain

8:17

the last Apollo mission once

8:20

he beat the Soviets, who care Space

8:22

historian Amy Shearer title Nixon

8:24

okayed a space shuttle program,

8:27

but hecated as the Shuttle to nowhere.

8:30

It was just a vehicle that could go up. It

8:32

couldn't go very far. It couldn't land

8:34

anywhere but on a runway. So we ended up

8:36

in like NASCAR and space. We ended

8:38

up just kind of like running labs. While I was

8:41

alive for the sky Lab and Apollo Soyus

8:43

missions, I was too young to remember them. I

8:45

grew up with a Space Shuttle. I remember seeing

8:48

the prototype Enterprise during its international

8:50

tour in nineteen three, which, as

8:52

a colossal Star Trek fan even then, delighted

8:55

me to no end. As an adult, I

8:57

was lucky enough to witness three Space shut launches

8:59

and a landing. I loved that ship.

9:02

But while the space shuttles did great things, including

9:05

launching the Hubble Space Telescope, which gave us

9:07

an unparalleled look at our galactic home,

9:09

and lift off of the Space Shuttle Discovery

9:12

with the Hubble Space Telescope our

9:14

window on the universe, and building

9:16

the International Space Station, ensuring

9:18

we've had humans living and working in space

9:20

continuously for more than two decades.

9:23

Tonight, I am directing Nasha to develop

9:25

a permanently manned space station, and

9:27

to do it within a decade. The

9:31

Space Shuttle was an indisputable technological

9:34

step backwards. We went from

9:36

a spacecraft capable of deep space

9:38

flight to one that couldn't even leave

9:41

lower th orbit. It was a perfect landing

9:43

as the Atlantis touched down after a

9:45

thirteen day mission delivering supplies

9:48

to the International Space Station, a

9:50

final voyage that brings the Shuttle programming

9:53

to an end. And when the last Space

9:55

Shuttle touched down on July twenty one, two

9:57

thousand and eleven, America no longer

10:00

had the technology to get to space.

10:03

To get to and from the International Space Station,

10:05

it had to begin buying seats on Russian

10:08

spacecraft. Spacecraft

10:12

distance eight thousand, ninety will

10:14

bring autical miles a lot of the nineteen

10:16

thousand, five twelve second

10:19

back in ninety nine. Apollo

10:21

eleven is nearly home. Rescue

10:23

and the aircraft are reported on the

10:25

station and Horner

10:28

helicopters containing with swimmers

10:31

are reported. Airborne weather

10:33

still holding real fun the recovery area, and

10:36

I signed going down on Steal

10:38

darkn as you heard earlier, the

10:40

crew will splash down just before sunrise.

10:43

As they draw nearer to the Earth, they find themselves

10:46

shrouded in the darkness of the Earth's night

10:48

side. They are now traveling down

10:50

the barrel of a forty mile wide entry

10:53

corridor. In the command module,

10:55

Michael swears he can feel the gravity

10:57

of his planet pulling him home. The

11:00

men swallow anti nausea pills. Assuming

11:02

everything goes according to plan, they will

11:05

soon be bobbing in seas with three to six

11:07

foot waves. The men have gone over

11:09

their entry checklists numerous times

11:11

already. They have too much time on their

11:13

hands, and it's beginning to create some anxiety.

11:16

And we're about ten minutes away from the scheduled

11:19

separations time. Now it's

11:21

time to lose the service module, the largest

11:23

portion of their spacecraft, containing most of their

11:25

power, fuel and rocket engine. They

11:28

can't enter the atmosphere if it's still attached.

11:31

We see you getting ready for sent Everything wants

11:33

to find to find down here, we're

11:37

awaiting confirmation of separation. When

11:40

Apollo eleven launched, it weighs six

11:42

million pounds. The only thing left

11:44

of the once massive Saturn five is

11:47

the eleven thousand pound triangular shaped

11:49

station wagon sized command module.

11:51

Once detached, thrusters on the service

11:54

module fire to push it far from the crew.

11:56

They don't want it burning up anywhere near them.

11:59

Away confirmed separation. Now from on

12:02

my ground reading telemetry, we can

12:04

confirm separation. And

12:06

also was mindul taking good carabous? You want

12:08

to take you to a

12:12

camp in Houston.

12:14

I used to look at mighty fine here your player

12:16

for landing. I appreciate

12:19

every d gears down a lock

12:21

more astronaut humor. We

12:24

got the modulet going by a

12:26

little high coming across now

12:29

right to left. Buzzes. Words that you just

12:31

heard were actually classified for

12:33

years. The thrusters that were supposed

12:36

to move the service module away didn't

12:38

work properly. The crew is about

12:40

to begin their re entry and the service

12:43

module is diving into the atmosphere right

12:45

beside them. Hello, I'm gonna lined

12:47

up right down the mid a little bit. Entry corridors

12:51

now thirty five thousand, five seventy

12:53

eight ft per second. We're a minute

12:55

in forty five seconds from entry. Blackout

12:58

will begin eighteens second after

13:02

once the ship strikes the atmosphere and becomes

13:04

wreathed in plasma calms with mission

13:07

control will be impossible. They

13:09

will be coming down in the blind over

13:12

the hill. You're looking mind to find that we're

13:16

an entry time black guys.

13:18

Very shortly, there's

13:21

a black guy at am

13:24

Houston time, four thousand

13:26

feet above Australia, Columbia,

13:28

hits the atmosphere and more than thirty six

13:30

thousand ft per second, or ten

13:32

times faster than a rifle bullet. We

13:35

had to be able to use

13:37

the atmosphere to slow us all the way down,

13:40

uh until we got into a velocity

13:43

that will allow us to put up the parish. That

13:45

was Apollo eight and Apollo thirteen astronaut

13:48

Jim Level. Tracy Caldwald Dyson

13:50

is a current NASA astronaut. She went to

13:52

space twice, once on the Space Shuttle and

13:54

the second time to live aboard the International

13:57

Space Station. To get home from that trip,

13:59

she had to take a ride in a Russian soy Use

14:01

capsule and you see the the atmosphere

14:04

that you're about to go through, and then you fire

14:06

this one burn. It's a long burn,

14:09

and it's directed precisely

14:11

to put you at the right angle and at

14:13

the right spot to pass through the atmosphere.

14:16

If Michael didn't calculate the precise right

14:18

angle, the command module will be vaporized

14:21

too shallow, and it will bounce off the atmosphere

14:24

and be flung into space. The

14:26

blackness the guys were talking about earlier is

14:28

now gone. Out their tiny windows.

14:30

The astronauts now begin to see ravenous

14:33

flames as ionized gases

14:35

created by the heat re entry begin enveloping

14:37

the ship. Calms are gone

14:40

for the next four minutes. No one on Earth

14:42

will know what's going on inside apollow eleven,

14:45

or indeed whether they successfully made

14:47

it through the atmosphere or disintegrated

14:49

on re entry. Where three minutes

14:52

since entry blackout

14:54

shoot in about three minutes fifty three

14:57

seconds after entry, or

15:00

about eleven minutes lay back

15:02

in mission control, Evans at Capcom

15:04

optimistically attempts to raise the ship.

15:11

There is no answer. Inside Columbia,

15:13

the astronauts can no longer see the service

15:16

module. They are enveloped in incandescent

15:18

protoplasm. If you could see them right

15:20

now, they appear as a blazing

15:23

comment. The

15:26

astronauts are falling through a tunnel of colors

15:29

orange, yellow, blue, even lavender,

15:32

which finally gives way to pure white.

15:34

Michael feels as if he's sitting inside of an

15:37

enormous light bulb. Jim Level.

15:39

We could, of course look out the windows and see the

15:41

hate shield material. Flaky's all as

15:44

the flames going passed

15:46

us. You never go through grade school thinking

15:48

you're going to be in the middle of a fireball, but that's

15:51

exactly what happens as you go through

15:53

the atmosphere. Your spacecraft is a

15:55

blating and designed to do that. Pieces

15:57

of embers as your window,

16:00

and you can smell the charring, so you

16:02

can feel the g forces building. What

16:05

they can't see is that the service module

16:07

is being torn into fiery pieces. If

16:09

any of the dying vessels fragments collide

16:11

with the command module, it will almost certainly

16:14

kill everyone aboard. Right,

16:31

we tried going to the Moon again. Inspired

16:33

by all that that has come before, and

16:36

guided by clear objectives, today

16:38

we set a new course for America's

16:40

space program. We will give NASA

16:42

new focus and vision for

16:44

future exploration. We will build

16:47

new ships to carry man forward

16:49

into the universe, to gain a new

16:51

foothold on the Moon, and to prepare

16:54

for new journeys to the worlds beyond our

16:56

own on January two

16:58

and four, President H. W. Bush

17:00

said, we will undertake extended

17:03

human missions to the Moon as early

17:05

as with the goal

17:07

of living and working there for

17:10

increasingly extended periods of

17:12

time. We even tested one of the rockets

17:14

that was going to get us there, the Cognition

17:17

lift off of Harry's one X festing

17:20

concepts for the future of

17:23

new rocket design. On

17:25

top of the arias was going to be a new command

17:27

module named Oriyan, and

17:29

blueprints were being drafted for a new lunar

17:32

module dubbed Altaire. However,

17:35

when the Obama administration took over, they

17:37

found the program over budget and behind

17:39

schedule, and they shut it down. Yes,

17:42

pursuing this new strategy will require

17:44

that we revise the old strategy.

17:46

In part. This is because the old strategy, including

17:49

the constellation program, was not fulfilling

17:51

its promise in many ways, and in the organization

17:54

like NASA, where lead times for developing

17:56

technology are so long, if

17:58

you suddenly change the general objective of things

18:00

every four years, it has a huge

18:03

impact. We have to stop pushing the reset

18:05

button every time there's a change of power.

18:07

In Washington, they've been pushing the reset

18:10

button on NASA again. And again and again,

18:12

and it's been really harmful to

18:15

the progress of the program. To keep moving

18:17

the goal post the entire football stadium.

18:20

That's destructive. That was NASA chief

18:22

historian Bill Berry and Apollo historian

18:25

Andrew Chaken. Under Obama,

18:27

NASA proposed a new mission landing

18:30

humans on an asteroid, but that too

18:32

soon withered on the vine, and all the while

18:35

American astronauts kept getting two and from

18:37

space on Russian equipment. Then

18:40

in two thousand and seventeen, nearly a decade

18:43

after Constellation was shelved, NASA

18:45

announced the Artemis program. Fifty

18:48

years ago, we went to the Moon. We

18:51

called it Apollo. Well

18:54

many people don't know is that Apollo had

18:57

a twin. She was a woman named

18:59

Artemis, the goddess of the Moon.

19:02

As Tracy calledwell Dyson. She

19:06

represents our next

19:08

era of exploration in space.

19:11

Artemis encompasses how we're

19:14

going to get to the Moon and what we're gonna do

19:16

when we get there. NASA's goal is

19:18

landing the first woman in man on the Moon. By

19:21

just four years from now, we are

19:24

returning to the Moon as a new generation

19:26

of explorers, this time

19:29

to stay. Artemists

19:31

is intended to be the first step in setting

19:33

up a long term human presence on the Moon

19:36

and perhaps even creating a lunar economy.

19:38

And this is all to explore the surface

19:41

of the Moon and utilize the resources

19:43

there. We found an ideal

19:46

fuel in the soul

19:48

when materials on

19:51

the Moon for fusion power production.

19:54

It's called helium three. Apollo seventeen

19:56

moonwalker and geologist Harrison Schmidt

19:59

Iste imp that fuse with

20:01

itself produces absolutely no radio

20:03

activity. It creates energetic

20:06

particles that can be converted to electricity

20:09

at much higher efficiencies than any

20:12

other kind of power systems. Artemis

20:14

is the most ambitious thing NASA has

20:16

done since Apollo. It is nearly done

20:18

building the SLS, a new rocket

20:20

even larger and more powerful than

20:23

the Saturn five. NASA is building

20:25

the Space Launch System, comprising

20:27

of a cargo hold and exploration upper

20:29

stage, a massive course stage, and two

20:31

extended solid rocket boosters. Altogether,

20:34

this is the world's most powerful rocket

20:36

and it exceeds the legendary Saturn five of

20:39

the Apollo era in numerous ways. The

20:42

fl F is Space Launch

20:44

System, and it is the greatest

20:47

rocket we've ever built. Yes, it

20:49

will be more powerful than the Saturn five.

20:52

The Ryan Capsule is the spacecraft

20:55

that is going to return humans

20:57

to the Moon and destinations

21:00

beyond. Just as the Command Module

21:03

is the only part of the Saturn five to survive

21:05

the trip, so two is the Orion Capsule

21:07

the only thing to survive Constellation. This

21:09

is their deep space human rated

21:12

spacecraft called Orion. The crew module.

21:14

We're up to four astronauts will live and work throughout

21:16

the flight, and while the original Command

21:18

Module could hold only three people, the Orion

21:21

Capsule has seating for four. Other

21:24

than the new lemb which will discuss in just a moment,

21:26

NASA has added something to the Apollo architecture,

21:29

the Gateway. Building on the lessons learned

21:31

from the International Space Station, the key

21:34

to sustainable lunar missions is establishing

21:36

an orbiting lunar outpost that we call Gateway,

21:39

a small space station. The Gateway will

21:41

be placed in orbit around the Moon and provide

21:44

the astronauts living quarters and their research

21:46

lab. The Apollo missions were

21:48

inspired by a space race.

21:51

Artemis is also a global partnership.

21:54

We're not a race, We're a partnership.

21:57

We're going to explore the Moon for purposes

22:00

that benefit mankind to learn more

22:02

about it and use it as

22:04

a platform to then go further.

22:07

I'm profoundly grateful that we

22:09

are setting our sights on the Moon again

22:11

after so much time when the

22:14

Moon seemed to be sideline. However,

22:17

Chicken is skeptical, and I just am

22:19

not convinced that we can, even

22:22

with the most talented people that we have at

22:24

NASA and elsewhere. It's asking

22:26

a lot to do it in just five years.

22:29

But I'm glad we're talking about it. I want

22:31

to see it happen. I just don't

22:33

want to see us do it without the

22:36

same care and the same diligence,

22:38

because if we don't do those things, we're

22:41

gonna pay the price that they paid an Apollo

22:44

with accidents and perhaps

22:46

even fatal accidents. And he's not the

22:48

only one. Space historian Amy Sharer

22:50

title feels the same way. Yeah, I feel

22:52

like we're in that compleateding where we have to manage

22:55

expectations with the reality of how hard

22:57

space it. That's fine, because space is hard,

22:59

but you know, let's let's be realistic and say

23:02

we're going to do this, and we're going to do it in the time

23:04

that it needs to take. For her part, Tracy

23:06

Caldwell Dyson, who's in line to be the first

23:08

woman on the moon, thinks NASA is

23:10

doing just that. We know things take

23:13

time, and they take

23:15

time because human lives are at

23:17

stake. Everything in space takes

23:19

longer. And then in this day and age

23:22

where everything is so instant, we

23:24

have to take time or else

23:27

we're not gonna get there smartly,

23:29

and then we could end up parting somebody in the

23:31

process. One of the ways NASA is

23:33

hoping to alleviate time and stress is

23:36

by allowing commercial interests to take

23:38

over human and cargo flights to the I s s.

23:41

That way they can focus on bigger things.

23:43

There are a group of billionaires Elon

23:45

Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and

23:48

some others who are leading sort of the growth

23:50

of a commercial private space industry

23:53

that has been over the last decade

23:55

or so slowly eroding

23:58

the government's long held but not lee

24:00

on space. That's Chris Davenport.

24:03

I'm a reporter at the Washington Post, where

24:05

I write about space and um

24:07

also the author of a book called The Space

24:10

barns Well. NASA and other global governments

24:12

have dominated space exploration given

24:14

its expense and risk. Private

24:17

entrepreneurs Chris is aptly named

24:19

space Barns are beginning to move

24:21

in on their domain, bringing with them new

24:23

technologies and innovative manufacturing

24:26

processes that drive costs

24:28

down and get the job done faster. First

24:30

and foremost elon Musk SpaceX.

24:33

I mean, they are the ones who sort of broke

24:35

down the barriers from the very beginning and

24:37

said we are going to enter this market and

24:39

try to disrupt the space launch market.

24:42

And they've been successful in doing that, and

24:44

they've gotten multiple contracts from NASA

24:47

to the tune of billions of dollars to

24:49

fly first cargo and supplies

24:52

to the International Space Station, which

24:54

they've been doing now for a number of years.

24:57

And SpaceX along with Boeing

24:59

have contracts to fly people

25:02

to the International Space Station. And then you

25:04

have Blue Origin, which was founded by

25:06

Jeff Bezos. Bezos, who owns

25:08

Amazon, is the richest man in the world.

25:11

A lot of people don't even realize that Jeff

25:13

Bezos has a space company, but

25:15

he does, and they're building a whole suite

25:18

of vehicles. In fact, Blue

25:20

Origin will be the lead company designing and

25:22

building the new lunar module for the artist

25:25

project. Let me show you something. This

25:28

is Blue Moon. We've been working on this lander

25:31

for three years. This is

25:33

an incredible vehicle and it's

25:35

going to the Moon. And you're seeing

25:37

NASA initially being I

25:40

think reluctant, are wary

25:42

of that, and now more and

25:44

more starting to embrace

25:46

that, saying if we are going to go back to

25:48

the Moon or on to Mars, we're gonna need these

25:51

companies. One of the biggest things companies

25:53

like SpaceX and Blue Origin are doing is

25:55

rebooting how we make rockets. Since

25:58

they were first invented, rockets have

26:00

been a one and done piece of equipment. And

26:03

Ellen looked at that, and Jeff Bezos looked at

26:05

that and said, you know, we're never going to

26:07

lower the cost of space. We keep throwing

26:09

away the most expensive part of

26:11

the hardware. Imagine if after

26:14

flying from Los Angeles to New York, United

26:16

Airlines threw away the seven thirty seven

26:18

that brought you there. That's essentially what

26:21

we're doing in space right now. So they

26:23

are working on building rockets

26:26

that deliver their payloads to orbit

26:28

and then fly back down to Earth and

26:31

land on land or land on

26:33

a ship at sea. During the Cold War, space

26:36

exploration was driven by intense political

26:38

and ideological rivalries. Today

26:41

space has become ego driven. Davenport

26:44

once asked Elon Musk about his rivalry

26:46

with Bezos, and Musk told him if

26:49

I had a button that I could press and

26:51

make Jeff Bezos Blue Origin go

26:53

away, I would not press that

26:56

button. And I think that's because he understands

26:58

how important it is to have competition

27:01

and to be driven by rivals. Competition

27:03

is the best rocket fuel. But Elon Musk

27:06

is not satisfied with merely shuttling cargo

27:08

and people to the International Space Station. He

27:11

and NASA have their eyes set much

27:13

higher. The reason for creating

27:15

SpaceX was to accelerate

27:18

humanity becoming a space bearing civilization to

27:21

a point where we could potentially become

27:23

a multiplanet species. All

27:26

of Humanity's eggs are in one basket,

27:28

and should something happen to

27:30

the Earth, you know, like if an asteroid would

27:33

hit the Earth, we're toast. We're

27:35

going the way of the dinosaur. And his

27:38

goal was to sort of have a backup

27:40

um, the way you would back up your hard drive, but

27:42

for humanity, and that's Mars, to make

27:45

it a place where humanity could

27:47

go and to extend the light of consciousness

27:50

well into the future and sort of as an insurance

27:53

plan. Eleven

28:00

th Back

28:03

in mission control, Ron Evans is

28:05

still trying to raise Neil, buzzing Michael

28:07

in the command module. If Columbia survived

28:10

re entry, they should have regained contact

28:12

again by now, even

28:20

through ray standing by. Be

28:23

nice to get that confirmation and minutes gone by

28:25

now since they scheduling

28:28

opening to the mains. On the USS

28:30

Hornet spotters scan the sky with

28:32

binoculars. Give us

28:34

the word. We're getting

28:36

nothing from a mission control or from

28:38

the spaceship, reports

28:41

Sonic Colon. One

28:44

of the sailors cries out he thinks he sees

28:46

something falling through the clouds aboard

28:49

his helicopter. Rescue swimmer John Wolfer

28:51

sees it too. We looked up from the helicopter.

28:53

You can see the capsule burning back to

28:56

the atmosphere. A

28:58

momentary eventual of high attack has

29:01

now disappeared behind cloud and FLO

29:03

elevens and standing by for your desty

29:05

reading over FULO

29:08

eleven east and your destry reading

29:10

plays over at

29:19

that was new They've made it dog

29:25

they are, and they're obviously all right

29:27

shoots have deployed eleven

29:30

cos right on. Well, you take

29:32

that to Some

29:35

of the more sensational moments

29:37

are when the parachutes open up and

29:40

it feels like it brings the whole copsle to a slam

29:42

stop, and then it spins,

29:45

and then it sways back and forth, and the

29:48

whole time you're just hoping that you keep your cookies

29:50

and should be on main shoots. It

29:53

is like one of the craziest ride you've ever had

29:55

in your life. Eight minutes after first hitting

29:57

the atmosphere, the command modules slowed

29:59

enough for three large red and white parachutes

30:02

to open. They had to deploy at

30:04

just the right time. If they opened too

30:06

late, the capsule would hit the water too violently

30:09

too early, and they'd likely drift off course

30:11

far from rescue. For the crew of Apollo

30:14

eleven, the view outside their windows

30:16

went from the inky blackness of space to

30:18

the nucleus of a fireball and is

30:20

now the dazzling azure blue of

30:22

the earth sky. We're cast four

30:25

minutes and with that, mission

30:28

control's work is done. With the

30:30

shoots deployed, tactical operational

30:32

command transfers from mission control to

30:35

the U S s Hornet, I

30:46

have an Eric, I

30:48

have a three part flashed

30:55

down. They're

31:00

back from the Moon. As for not time

31:02

strong Aldrin and Collins landing

31:05

in the Pacific Ocean southwest

31:07

of Hay, Apollo eleven splashes

31:09

down eight hundred and twenty five nautical miles

31:11

southwest of Honolulu, about thirteen

31:14

nautical miles from the recovery show inside

31:16

the capsule, Mike Collins is astonished

31:19

at how blue the ocean looks Imagine

31:21

after nine days of monochrome black

31:24

and then gray and then black again, what dropping

31:26

into a violet ocean must look like their

31:29

eyes. Jim Lovell splash

31:31

down for me was very exhilarated.

31:34

I could feel the bobby of the

31:37

ocean and the spacecraft, and

31:39

suddenly I realized that, my

31:41

gosh a home. Everything

31:44

worked out now if the Navy

31:47

would be very careful and not to

31:49

let the spacecraft sake on us, but

31:52

we were safe. In Houston. Buzzes

31:54

son Andy is watching the news on splash

31:57

down day. We had a lot of people over at the house,

31:59

and hind everyone that was

32:01

associated with my dad or mom seemed

32:04

to show up. Andy wishes he was aboard the

32:06

U. S. S. Hornet, not so much because he wants

32:08

to be among the first to greet his dad, but

32:10

rather because he's eleven years old and

32:13

aircraft carriers are cool. There was

32:15

sort of a collective sigh of relief

32:17

when it was all done. His mother, Joan, can

32:19

finally relax. Her husband and

32:21

his two shipmates survived the greatest

32:24

feat humans ever attempted, and would

32:26

soon be on their way home as conquering

32:28

heroes. At this moment in time,

32:31

Joan has no idea of the challenges

32:33

and heartaches to come, but if she

32:35

had, she would surely have taken some strength

32:37

in the fact that she had just faced the most profoundly

32:40

difficult nine days of her life and

32:42

come out on the other side a hero to

32:45

her children. My mother was incredibly

32:48

effective at not letting

32:50

us know what happened. I didn't sense her

32:52

anxiety at all. It just reflects

32:54

the incredible strength that my mom showed

32:57

throughout this whole process. After the splashdown,

33:00

Janet Armstrong stood on her front yard and

33:02

in front of the gathered press, thanked everyone

33:04

in America for their thoughts and prayers.

33:07

The entire experience, she said, was quite

33:09

simply out of this world and

33:40

when the capsule hit the ocean

33:42

water. I think mars Alden was

33:44

supposed to flip a lever the jets in those

33:46

parachutes, but his hand got knocked up

33:48

to lever because of the jolt, and

33:51

the wind carried the capsule upset.

33:53

Now, the last thing you want to be attached

33:55

to in the water is a parachute. One

33:58

of two things is going to happen. I the

34:00

parachute will fill with water and drag you wonder,

34:02

or it will catch the wind like a sail and begin

34:05

dragging you away. As soon as

34:07

Columbia hit the water, Buzz was supposed

34:09

to trip a circuit breaker, jettisoning the shoots

34:11

and allowing Michael to deploy inflatable

34:13

balloons to keep the capsule upright,

34:16

but the impact was so violent that his hand

34:18

was knocked off the switch, and by the time he was

34:20

able to find it again, the gum drop was

34:22

already inverted, with each of the men hanging

34:25

upside down in their seats. Earlier,

34:27

Michael Bett Neil a beer that they'd stay upright.

34:30

He just lost that bed. They flipped

34:33

some splitches I think Mark Collins did that

34:35

would inflate these blooms. And they took the whole

34:37

a minister that capsule the upright. As

34:40

they hang upside down with the balloons inflating,

34:43

Michael thinks, how wrongly oriented everything

34:45

looks back in a world with gravity

34:47

for the first time in nine days, tops

34:49

and bottoms are real things again. Got

34:57

in position and I'm standing. Then they go, and

35:01

as I'm looking down at that capsule,

35:04

I realized the world was watching, so I

35:06

didn't want to make any mistakes. John

35:11

Wolfram jumps from the hovering helicopter and

35:14

swims over to Columbia. It's lower half

35:16

charred and blackened from re entering. The

35:18

capsule is still warnder to touch. John

35:21

attaches a sea anchor, basically a large

35:23

cloth bucket designed to fill with water

35:25

and keep the vessel more or less where it is that

35:32

I was supposed to get a thumbs up in the astronauts.

35:34

I saw them grinning back at me. I

35:37

relayed that to the National helicopter

35:40

that was circund above and let him mold the Okay,

35:49

right, we're going. There's

35:52

two more frogmen. They jumped in and

35:54

together we put this floatation bladder

35:57

around the capsule, and

36:01

then after that was completed, they dropped

36:03

down a wrapped if we implanted in and

36:05

then we got trashed right in front of the hatch

36:07

store where the ash nuts would come out.

36:13

Next come the bigs biological

36:15

isolation garments. Do you swimmer with? The

36:17

biological isolation garments is in the

36:20

next to the space crap. That's Lieutenant

36:23

Clancy Handelberg of Chippewa falls

36:25

within a const NASA is concerned

36:27

that the astronauts may have brought something harmful

36:29

back with them from the Moon. Because

36:31

of this, the rescue divers are all wearing

36:34

protective gear, and they brought biggs

36:36

for the Apollo eleven crew to put on as well. The

36:38

fear of alien pathogens is in the forefront

36:41

of everyone's minds. Nine

36:43

is the same year that Michael Crichton's The Andromeda

36:46

Strain came out about the deadly outbreak

36:48

of an extraterrestrial micro organism.

36:51

Neil opens the command module hatch so

36:53

twenty five year old Lieutenant Haddleberg can hand

36:55

them their suits. If there are moonbugs,

36:58

they were just released into our atmosphere and ocean,

37:01

so much for that plan is

37:04

now transferring to the crew. Haddleberg

37:07

reseals the hatch inside Columbia

37:09

Neil, Buzz and Michael stand unsteadily.

37:12

After a week and a half in space, Earth

37:14

normal gravity feels well aliens.

37:17

The men swallow several more anti nausea

37:19

meds. The last thing they want to do is

37:22

throw up inside their biohazard suits.

37:24

A big sama now spraying the hatch

37:26

area and the top deck and

37:29

around the hatch. Command

37:31

modger with it, even in stamina. While

37:33

the crew changes, Lieutenant Haddleberg uses

37:35

a large brush to scrub the exterior

37:37

of Columbia with a sudsy decontaminant,

37:40

just in case it's covered in spacebugs. First,

37:43

after

37:46

they downed them, they came out into the raft,

37:49

Haddelberg washed them all down. Once

37:51

all the astronauts are decontaminated, they

37:53

climb aboard the raft. They are

37:55

splashed by waves, and even though they're

37:57

covered head to toe, they can feel the fresh

38:00

and cold. Michael wants nothing more

38:02

than to rip off his suit, splash cold

38:04

water all over his face, and inhale

38:06

the fresh sea air. They are burning

38:09

up inside those suits. Hold

38:11

on recovery is

38:16

one by one. Neil, Buzz and Michael

38:18

are lifted into a hovering helicopter. As

38:23

the helicopter with the Apollo eleven crew begins

38:26

making its way back to the Hornet. John Wolfrem

38:28

and the rest of the Navy seals decided to grab

38:30

a little memento of the occasion. When

38:32

no one was looking. We stripped off huns with

38:34

that gold coil that was burned

38:37

off from coming back through

38:39

the atmosphere and put it

38:41

down our website for souvenirs. We knew

38:43

that once the castle got out board the usas

38:46

Hornet Marine super Garden, so

38:49

we got our souvenirs first. Aboard

38:51

the helicopter, Michael and Buzz stand

38:53

precariously on unsteady legs. Now

38:56

that gravity is once again a factor, their

38:58

body fluids are moving in very different ways

39:00

than they have for the past week and a half. When

39:04

the helicopter touches down on the Hornet, the

39:06

flight elevator descends to the hangar deck,

39:08

where the men are escorted to a mobile quarantine

39:10

chamber, a modified airstream trailer.

39:13

Their face plates are so fogg up they can hardly

39:15

see anything, but they can hear a band playing.

39:18

They will remain in this trailer until they reach

39:20

the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston

39:23

three days from now at which point they

39:25

will be transferred to a larger quarantine facility

39:27

for the next three weeks. Back

39:30

in Houston, flight controllers begin

39:32

lighting cigars and waving small American

39:34

flags above them. All glowing

39:37

on the main display screen are the words

39:39

John F. Kennedy uttered the Congress nearly

39:41

ten years earlier. I believe that

39:43

this nation should commit itself to

39:46

achieving the goal before

39:48

this decade is out of landing

39:50

a man on the Moon and returning him safely

39:53

to the Earth. And so this

39:55

nation has locked

39:57

inside the trailer with Neil, Buzz and Michael are

39:59

two NASA representatives, including a

40:01

flight surgeon, who gives each of the men a quick

40:04

physical. Next, they enjoy a quick

40:06

but much needed shower while they

40:08

wait for the celebration outside to begin. The

40:10

men are shown several videos covering their

40:12

landing and moonwalk. Buzz said that they

40:15

were sitting there watching these

40:17

tapes and it suddenly dawned on him

40:20

that he and Neil and Mike

40:23

were removed from that. He

40:25

turned to Neil and he said, Neil,

40:28

we missed the whole thing. The mood

40:30

on the USS hornet is jubilant. The

40:32

mobile quarantine trailer is surrounded by

40:34

euphoric sailors and NASA personnel

40:37

from the midst of the melee. President Richard

40:39

Nixon appears and greets the astronauts

40:41

through a large window. This is the greatest

40:44

week and the history of the world since

40:46

the creation, because as a result

40:48

of what happened in this week, the world

40:50

is bigger infinitely, as a result

40:53

of what you've done, the world

40:55

has never been closer together before. And

40:57

we just thank you for that, and I own

41:00

I hope that all of us in government,

41:02

all of us in America, that as a result

41:04

of what you've done, we could do our job

41:06

a little better. We can reach for the stars,

41:09

just as you have raised so far from the stars.

41:11

The astronauts will later be treated to a state

41:13

dinner and Michael will finally get

41:16

that Martini he's been craving. In

41:20

our first episode, I mentioned that humankind

41:23

has always been driven by an innate desire

41:25

to explore. There are times

41:29

in human history when people have struck

41:31

out beyond the known universe,

41:34

has gone over the next hill into the next valley,

41:37

got on a boat and cross the ocean. And

41:39

the Apollo program was one of those times when

41:41

people really and truly were

41:44

exploring and pushing the boundaries of human

41:46

understanding and investigating new

41:48

places that no one had ever seen before. Once

41:51

client, the unexplored hill on the

41:53

horizon now becomes familiar

41:56

territory. But that's the thing about

41:58

exploration, isn't it. There's always

42:00

another mountain, there's always another

42:02

horizon calling to us. Going to

42:04

the Moon is super important, but

42:07

the ultimate goal is to go to Mars. I

42:09

think Mars is the next logical

42:12

destination. I think the Moon

42:14

is absolutely in the critical path to get to

42:16

Mars. The next real advance

42:19

of space flight is to go back to

42:21

the Moon. And then used the architecture

42:24

of going to the Moon and expanded to

42:27

go to Mars. And I'm positive

42:30

that man, one day we'll

42:32

go to Bars. Why because it's

42:34

there. Robert Zubran was five years

42:36

old when spot Nick flew, and

42:39

while to the adults it may have been terrifying,

42:42

to me as a small kid,

42:44

it was exhilarating. It meant that these

42:46

stories that I was already reading about this

42:49

space faring future science fiction, we're

42:51

going to be true, and I

42:54

wanted to be part of it. Robert is an aerospace

42:56

engineer, the president of the Mars Society

42:59

and the author of the The case for Mars.

43:02

I was seventeen when we landed on the Moon. And if

43:04

anybody had told me then that I'd be sixty

43:06

seven and we wouldn't be on the Moon,

43:08

and in fact on Mars, I would

43:10

have thought they were crazy. Apollo

43:13

was the last to rob the people that won

43:15

World War Two and a political

43:17

class that could work together to accomplish great

43:19

ends, whether it was World War Two, the Interstate

43:22

Highway system, the development

43:24

in nuclear energy, or Apollo. What

43:27

great accomplishments has the US government

43:29

achieved since three

43:32

Without a goal, you don't achieve anything, and the human

43:34

spaceflight program has been drifting for

43:37

almost fifty years. Apollo

43:41

inspired Americans, showing them

43:43

that they were capable of doing great things.

43:46

It motivated tens of thousands of people

43:49

to go into engineering, and was the bedrock

43:51

on which our modern computerized and technological

43:54

world is based. But for Zubrin,

43:57

we are living off of Apollo's favors. Just

44:01

days after Apollo eleven returned to Earth,

44:03

Verni von Braun, the architect of the Saturn

44:06

five, began drawing up plans for

44:08

a Mars mission for Robert and

44:10

many in the space industry. We should

44:12

have listened to von Braun. We

44:14

never should have abandoned the Moon, but rather

44:17

used it as an outward bound school where

44:19

we could learn to live off planet, honing

44:22

our skills for our next trek into the

44:24

unknown Mars. For

44:26

Zubrin, there are three reasons to go

44:29

to Mars. For the science, for

44:31

the challenge, and for the future the

44:33

science. There's profound science

44:36

to be discovered by going to Mars.

44:38

Mars was once a warm and wet planet. The

44:41

early Mars was very similar to the early

44:43

Earth. I mean, I'm convinced that there was once

44:45

life on Mars and there probably still is.

44:47

Second is the challenge. I believe

44:50

that civilizations are like individuals.

44:53

We grow when we challenge ourselves, we stagnate

44:55

when we do not. And then finally,

44:57

there's the future. If we do what we can

44:59

do in our time, which has established

45:02

that first human foothold on Mars, then

45:05

you know, five years from now there

45:07

will be new branches of human civilization.

45:10

And we're talking about new nations, new

45:12

cultures, new languages, new literatures,

45:15

new traditions, new contributions

45:17

to technology and invention and social thought,

45:20

new heroes, new tales of

45:22

great deeds that will be used to inspire people

45:25

that will go further. And if

45:27

you have it in your power to create something

45:30

brand and wonderful, then you

45:32

should. Robert believes this so strongly

45:34

that he thinks NASA should skip the Moon and divert

45:37

all of its energies to Mars. We're

45:39

not going to fully inspire the next

45:41

generation of youth by replicating

45:44

a feat done by their grandparents

45:46

generation. We're going to inspire them

45:48

by going to a new world to

45:50

do what has been done before, to see

45:52

what hasn't been seen before, to discover

45:55

what was never known before. That's why

45:57

we're gonna to Mars, and that's why this fool

45:59

inspire of the next generation. And yet

46:01

I hear some of you asking what about our problems

46:04

back here on Earth. As we discussed

46:06

on the outside of this podcast, the America

46:08

of nineteen sixty nine bears an uncomfortable

46:11

resemblance to the America of two thousand

46:13

and nineteen. For every York

46:15

Pennsylvania, there's a Ferguson Missouri.

46:18

For every Vietnam, there's Afghanistan.

46:21

For every Cold War, there's Russian

46:23

meddling in our elections. For every looming

46:26

impeachment of Richard Nixon, there's a looming

46:28

impeachment of Donald Trump. For every

46:30

protest in favor of civil liberties, voting

46:33

rights, and equal pay, there's well,

46:36

you know, and now we're setting our

46:38

sights on the moon and beyond. Are

46:41

we fools to try this again? The

46:43

criticisms leveled by civil rights leaders

46:45

who protested all of the money spent on Apollo

46:48

at the expense of the nation's most vulnerable

46:51

remain both valid and omnipresent.

46:53

Today, fifty years on,

46:56

not much appears to have changed. And

46:58

yet I'm reminded of the words of NASA's

47:01

Bill Dunford, who said, why should

47:03

we worry about what's going on outside the cave?

47:06

We have so many problems here inside the cave.

47:08

Why should we waste time trying to figure out

47:10

agriculture. We have so much work

47:13

to do hunting and gathering. Why should

47:15

we spend so much effort messing about in boats?

47:18

We have so many issues right here on land.

47:20

Why should we fiddle with those computers. There's

47:23

so much calculating that still needs to be done

47:25

with these pencils. Why should

47:27

we explore space? We have

47:30

so many problems right here on Earth?

47:33

It's all about how we prioritize our future.

47:36

After all, NASA's entire fifty

47:38

year budget is roughly equal to what

47:41

this country spends on its military in

47:43

just one year. Historically,

47:46

NASA's grandest steps have

47:48

stimulated our economy, supercharged

47:51

our innovation, created astonishing

47:53

spinoff technologies, broadened

47:55

our science, inspired new generations

47:57

with new opportunities, and remind

48:00

at us to look up from our domestic squabbles

48:02

and take in the cosmic perspective. Asking

48:05

if space exploration is a sensible use

48:07

of our money is a reasonable and rational

48:10

question, but it cannot be the only

48:12

question. We must also ask

48:15

what everything we've learned and everything we've

48:17

derived been possible without it? Would

48:20

our revolutions in computing and communications,

48:23

in medicine and transportation, in

48:25

astrophysics and planetary sciences

48:28

come about without Apollo? Would

48:30

we understand our own planet, including

48:33

the peril it's in right now because of our

48:35

thoughtlessness, if we had not dared

48:37

to step off world. Beyond

48:40

the political victories and the scientific insights,

48:43

the Space program gave a mangled America

48:46

hope, hope that a better future

48:48

is within reach. Throughout

48:50

our history, from the Mayflower to the

48:52

modern refugee crisis. Humans

48:54

have left the safe or the familiar to

48:57

undertake a bold mission to a

48:59

new world old, and we can

49:01

do it again. Before

49:04

Explorer George Mallory departed to scale

49:06

matt Everest, he was asked why he was undertaking

49:09

such a difficult and perilous quest,

49:12

because it is there. He answered,

49:14

well, space is there, and we're going

49:16

to climb it, and the moon and

49:18

the planet Sada and new hopes

49:21

for knowledge and peace of THEA. And

49:23

therefore, as we set sail, we

49:26

asked God's blessing on the most

49:28

hazardous and dangerous and

49:30

greatest adventure on which man has

49:32

ever invoked. During

49:38

the cruise voyage back to the United States, aboard

49:40

the U S. S. Hornet, Michael excused

49:42

himself and left his colleagues. The

49:45

Columbia had been connected to the mobile quarantine

49:47

facility by an air tight tunnel, and Michael

49:49

claimed aboard alone, taking

49:51

it all in one last time. The

49:54

Apollo eleven mission lasted one and

49:56

nine hours, eighteen minutes

49:59

and thirty five and in that

50:01

time the ship traveled nearly one

50:03

million miles. Michael

50:05

pulled a pen from his pocket and, in

50:07

an act understood by anyone who has ever

50:10

wanted to ensure that they are remembered

50:12

for something they did or saw, scribbled

50:15

the following graffiti on one of the command

50:17

modules Equipment Bay Panels Apollo

50:20

eleven alias Columbia,

50:23

the best ship to come down the line. God

50:26

bless her Michael Collins, Command

50:29

Module Pilot. That

50:31

note and the vessel it adorns now

50:34

rest in the lobby of the Smithsonian's Air

50:36

and Space Museum in Washington, d

50:38

C. A tangible testament to

50:41

nine extraordinary days in

50:43

July. This

50:47

podcast is a production of I Heart Radio

50:49

and Trade Traft Studios, executive

50:51

producers Astroea and Scott

50:54

Bernstein, in association with High

50:56

Five Content and executive brucer

50:58

Andrew Jacobs. This spectacular

51:01

series was his brilliant idea, amazing

51:03

research and prorection assistance by associate

51:06

producers Brian Schasso and Natalie

51:08

Robomed. Our incredible editor

51:11

is Bill Lance. Original music

51:13

by Henry ben Wa, Licensing

51:15

rights and clearances by Deborah Correa.

51:18

Special thanks also to consultant Gina

51:20

Delvac Studio space generously

51:23

provided by Gabby and Helen Phibbs,

51:25

the experts who contributed to this final episode

51:28

where Andy Aldred Navy seal John

51:30

Wolfram, journalist Chris Davenport,

51:33

author of the Space Barons, NASA

51:35

Chief historian Bill Berry, Andrew

51:37

Chaikin, the author of A Man on the Moon,

51:40

Robert Zubrin, the author of The Case for

51:42

Space and The Case for Mars. Space

51:45

historian Amy Shearer title the author

51:47

of Fighting for Space out later this month,

51:50

Apollo thirteens, Jim Lovell, Apollo

51:52

seventeens, Harris and Schmidt, and current

51:54

NASA astronaut Tracy Calledwell Dyson.

51:57

In addition to the works just mentioned, the

52:00

following books were essential in shaping

52:02

this series. Carrying the Fire

52:04

by Michael Collins, Magnificent

52:06

Desolation by Buzz Aldren, Failure

52:09

Is Not An Option by Gene Krantz, First

52:12

Man by James Hansen, and Two

52:14

Sides of the Move by Alexei Leonov

52:16

and David Scott. This podcast

52:19

would have been impossible without the

52:21

profound assistance of so many people

52:23

at NASA, people like Bert Ulrich,

52:26

Sandra Johnson, Brandy Dean, Gregory

52:28

Wiseman, and Stephanie Sherrolds. NASA's

52:31

Apollo eleven Flight Journal, compiled

52:33

by David Woods, Ken mctaggard

52:36

and Frank O'Brien was absolutely

52:38

indispensable, and of course, the

52:40

incredible technological wizardry of

52:43

consulting producer Ben Feist, who

52:45

is responsible for organizing and cleaning

52:47

the eleven thousand hours of mission

52:50

audio you heard selections from in this

52:52

podcast. Lastly, I want

52:54

to acknowledge I Heart's own Noel

52:56

Brown, Tristan McNeil, Crystal

52:59

Waters, and David Wasserman for

53:01

their unbroken and tireless assistance.

53:04

We hope you enjoyed this podcast. If

53:06

you did, please help us spread it far

53:09

and wide, tell your friends, leave

53:11

ratings and reviews, and chat about it

53:13

on social media. You can subscribe

53:15

to nine Days in July wherever you get

53:17

your podcasts. I'm Brandon

53:20

Phibbs. Thank you so much for

53:22

listening