"We choose to go to the moon." "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." " Look at that." " That's beautiful." "It's got to be one of the most proud moments of my life..." "I guarantee you." "Before painting the Sistine Chapel..." "Michelangelo had to first construct a massive scaffolding... to allow him access to the ceiling... without interfering with the chapel's daily use." "He had to develop special wax models so he could study the lighting effects... to be duplicated in the frescoes... and come up with a special slow-drying plaster." "He suffered constant deadline pressure from frustrated church officials... and the Pope, who just wanted the ceiling finished." "The work itself was uncomfortable and unending... with wet paint and plaster dripping in the face of the man... who was not, after all, a painter, but a sculptor." "Such challenges arise in all the great works of human imagination... be they the creation of our world rendered upon... the ceiling of a church... or the view of our world evident by making the voyage... from the Earth to the moon." "For a long time about the only people who gave much thought... of going to the moon were science fiction writers." "In October, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, and everything changed." "Suddenly, going to the moon was a possibility." "The question was:" "How do you do it?" "Four months after Sputnik..." "Wernher Von Braun briefed the head of the National Advisory Committee." "He presented the two best options for going to the moon." "There are two methods." "The first method we call Direct Ascent." "You build an enormous rocket, put a capsule on top." "Boom, you go straight to the moon." "The other method we call Earth Orbit Rendezvous." "Instead of using one huge rocket... we perform several launches with somewhat smaller rockets... each carrying a component of the spacecraft." "We put the pieces together in orbit... and off we go." "These two methods... these are the only ways of getting to moon?" "Yes." "Actually, there were other ideas." "So we started thinking:" ""What can we do right now?"" "Then it hit us." "The moon!" "You rendezvous on the surface of the moon." "The problem isn't getting a man to the moon." " That's easy." " It's not easy." " Relatively easy." " Pretty easy." " The problem is getting him back." " So we say..." "You send up some ships to the moon... with all the extra fuel and supplies to get back." "That way, when the astronauts arrive... everything they need to get home is already there." "We put a man on the moon as soon as possible." "Just get him there." " We can keep sending supply ships..." " Until we figure a way to get him back!" "Well, that's..." "No, I'm sorry, gentlemen." "There is no way on God's green Earth... we would ever... ever do anything like that." "I'm sorry." "It looked like either Earth Orbit Rendezvous... or Direct Ascent would be the way to go." "Either way we go... the spacecraft that lands on the moon is going to look like that." "Yes, just like that." "It doesn't have to look like this at all." "At Chance Vought Industries in Texas... an engineer named Tom Dolan hit upon an interesting idea." "You ever hear of a Russian rocket guy named Yuri Kondratyuk?" "In 1916 he realized something we seem to have forgotten today." "Gettin' to the moon is going to be all about weight." "Look at the size of this thing." "It's gotta be 60-70 feet tall." "A couple of hundred tons at least." "Do you really need to take all that to the surface?" "No." "Kondratyuk wondered..." "What I wonder is... what if you took along a smaller vehicle... lightweight... that you just used to land?" "Somethin'... like this." "But you could never reenter the Earth's atmosphere in that." "I know." "You come back on the spacecraft you took from Earth." "But that means you'd have to have a rendezvous in lunar orbit." "Exactly." "Von Braun calls his method Earth Orbit Rendezvous." "I call this Lunar Orbit Rendezvous." "Tom, we don't even know if rendezvous is possible in Earth orbit." "And you wanna do it around the moon?" "Wouldn't that be kind of dangerous?" "I don't know." "Would it?" "Well, Mr. Dolan, this is certainly a very interesting idea." "Why don't you let us think about it." "I've prepared a report." "I have everything I need right here." "Thank you for your time." "Chances are, Lunar Orbit Rendezvous would have ended up... as nothing more than a footnote in the history of space exploration... if a report on the idea hadn't landed on the desk of a NASA engineer... by the name of John Houbolt." "When he first started reading the report..." "Houbolt had the same reaction others did:" "Lunar Orbit Rendezvous seemed like just another farfetched scheme." "But the more he read, the more the idea made sense." "By the time John Houbolt finished the report... he knew this was it." "This was how you get to the moon." "Now, over the past few weeks I've prepared this report... on Lunar Orbit Rendezvous." "I think you'll find it interesting." "Look at Houbolt." "He reads the report, and he's Moses, come down from the mountain." " So he's a little enthusiastic." " A little enthusiastic?" "He's makin' a fool of himself." "You hear what happened in the Heaton Committee?" " Yeah." " And he even wasn't allowed... into the technical conference." "Well, he'll get the hint, and he'll give it up." "I hear he's going to write to Seamans." " He doesn't report to Seamans." " I know." " He could get canned." " I know." "Dear Dr. Seamans:" "Somewhat as a voice in the wilderness..." "I'd like to pass on a few thoughts on matters... that have been of a deep concern to me over the recent months." "I have tried, on numerous occasions..." ""To draw attention throughout NASA to the concept of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous." "Regrettably there has been little interest shown." "Now, do we wanna get to the moon or not?"" "Yes, sir." "Right away, sir." "It goes on like this for another eight pages..." "Then there's a 40-page report." "Good Lord!" "I can make a call." "He won't do it again." "Hold on." "I'll tell you what." "Draft a reply." "Say that his idea has merit and that I'm going to send it along to Brainerd." "And then see if this Mr. Houbolt isn't due a vacation soon... because, Dear God, he needs one." ""Somewhat as a voice in the wilderness."" "Does it have merit?" "Well, actually it's an intriguing notion." "It's a little risky, but it could save a lot of weight." "I don't think there's a chance in hell... that Lunar Orbit Rendezvous is the way we're gonna go... but it is interesting." "I'll see you at 3:00." "In July 1962, the idea that didn't have a chance in hell of succeeding... succeeded." "NASA selected Lunar Orbit Rendezvous as the way to go to the moon." "Now the question became:" ""Who would build the lander?"" "My name is Tom Kelly." "On the day after election day, 1962..." "I waited with the rest of the Grumman lander team... for a call from my boss, Joe Gavin." "Whoever's tapping the pencil, if you value your life, please stop." "Sorry." "Any word?" "Yeah, Frank." "We got the contract." "We're all just observing a moment of silence for the companies that didn't." "Look, this is crazy." "I mean, this might not happen for an hour or more." "Let's go back to work, and I'll let you know." "Hi, Joe." "We've been..." "I see." "Thanks." "Bye." "I'm afraid you're gonna have to tell your wives and kids the bad news." "You won't be seeing much of them for the next couple years... because we got the contract." "You did it, Tom." "No, I'm trying to hit the flashing." "The contract." "You did it." "Oh, well, we did it." "We all did it." "Quite a story, really." " "Local Long Island boy makes good."" " Yeah, yeah." ""Local Long Island boy convinces government... to give local Long Island company half a billion dollars."" "But the rubber balls you're gonna have to pay for yourself." "You know, if weight wasn't a factor, we'd have this thing done in a year." "True enough." "But weight's gonna be the most important factor." "If we could find some teeny-tiny astronauts we'd be done in a month." "They've given us seven years." "We might as well use 'em." "Seven years." "Well, let's get started." "Okay, specs call for five legs." "I think four will be better." "It'll be just as stable, and we won't have to worry... about interference with the thruster quads." "Let's go with an octagonal descent stage." "A round one's gonna end up being more trouble than it's worth." "Bob, how much do these windows weigh?" " I don't know." "A couple ounces?" " Bob." " The real ones?" " Yeah." "Five, six hundred pounds at least." " Really?" " Yeah." " Do we need 'em?" " Yeah, Tom." "I think the astronauts might wanna see where they're going." "Do they need windows this big?" "No..." "Of course they do." "Otherwise they wouldn't be able to see from their seats." " What?" " What if they don't need seats?" "They have to have seats, John." "Why?" "They can fly standing up." " Yes, but they have to land." " In 1/6 gravity." "And legs are great shock absorbers." "If they were standing, they'd be a lot closer to the window... which would increase their field of view... which would mean we wouldn't need such big windows in the first place." " What do you think?" " Well, I think it's interesting." "But I don't really see it." "Sorry." "Good try." "Let's help him see it." "What the heck is that?" "What we did instead of sleep." "Well, John." "I can certainly see it now." "Beautiful." "I gotta call Joe Gavin about the budget." "One more thing:" "Thermal shields." "Costing us way too much weight in the descent stage." "You know, I don't think we need shields." "Right, Frank." "It's gonna be 250 degrees in the sunlight... and minus 250 in the shade... but we don't need thermal shields." "Sarcasm's really helpful, Jim." "I just mean... maybe we can use something other than the shielding that's been used before." "It'll look kind of like that." "Mylar film between layers of kapton... with an outer layer of nickel foil." "How thin is the mylar?" " 1/8,000 of an inch." " Oh, well." "As long as it's good and sturdy." "We'll use a couple dozen layers all around." "More where we need it..." "by the thrusters." "It'll do the job." "Okay, well, we'll see how it goes in testing." "Now, hatches." "As it stands, we have two docking hatches." "We can't afford the weight." "I've been on the phone with Owen at NASA... and John Healey at North American, and we all agree." "We're gonna go with just the one docking hatch up top... and use a forward hatch for egress." "That means when they return they'll have to rendezvous and dock blind." "We're gonna put a window up top so the pilot can look up as he docks." "Another window?" "How much is that gonna weigh?" "I don't know." "It's gotta be less than a second docking hatch, right?" "That will require the astronaut flying the LEM... to make a 90-degree change in axis." "Left roll becomes left yaw." " But left yaw becomes right roll..." " Arnold." "Astronauts are smart." "They'll figure it out." "Apparently we're not done with the hatches." "I just got off the phone with Pete Conrad." "Because of the square backpacks, we're gonna have to put in a square hatch." "Did you like Ed swingin' around like Tarzan yesterday?" "Yeah." "Rope ladder's not gonna fly." "No." "I'll call the configuration control board." "We can put some rungs right on the forward leg." "Okay, one more thing." "It's no longer the Lunar Excursion Module any more." "Everybody feels that "excursion" sounds like it's gonna go out on a school trip." "From now on it's just the Lunar Module." "I'm still gonna call it the LEM for short." "John, you do whatever makes you happy." "Well?" "I guess we'd better start building them." "Let's make sure we film everything we do." "You wanna show NASA where its 500 million is going?" "Yeah." "I wanna show my kids where I was while they were growing up." "Every LEM would have to be handmade." "There was no supplier to order LEM parts from." "And because everything on a LEM was new, everything had to be tested... and tested again." "The thrusters... the engines... the deployment of the landing gear." "We had to know how a LEM would react... when exposed to intense sunlight or when pelted with dust." "We had to know how the landing gear would perform coming down on a slope." "Thousands of tests day after day... for years." "Some of the tests went well." "And some did not." "Is this why the leg snapped?" "Apparently I made the initial miscalculation a few months ago." "Everything has been based on that since then." "I'm sorry." "When did you find this out?" "Last night." "After the test I decided to go over my figures." "I understand if you..." "You know." "Go home." "And get some rest." "Look..." "Did you come to me right away when you found out about this... or did you try to cover your ass?" "You did a good thing." "Not this." "This is bad." "But as long as people speak up about their mistakes, we've got a shot." "They try to sweep it under the rug... and we're not gonna go to New Jersey, let alone the moon." "Get some rest." "Truth be told, we were behind schedule from the beginning." "But mistakes and miscalculations were only a small part of it." "The real problem is that a LEM isn't one spacecraft but two." "The lower half of the LEM..." "the descent stage... contains the engine that astronauts will use to control their landing." "After the moonwalks, the descent stage will serve as a launch platform... for the ascent stage..." "the cockpit of the LEM... which the astronauts will fly into lunar orbit... for their rendezvous with the command module." "Now, this particular ascent stage belonged to LEM 3." "LEM 1 and 2 were designed and built for unmanned test flights." "LEM 3 would be the first to be flown in space by astronauts." "We worked hand in hand with the astronauts... from the beginning of LEM program." "They showed us what we were doing right... and what we were doing wrong." "From early on much of their attention was given to LEM 3." "But it wasn't until a day in November, 1966... that NASA decided which crew would be the one to actually fly her." "I just got off the phone with Deke Slayton, gentlemen." "The crew assigned to take the LEM 3 into space... on the first manned flight of a lunar module is as follows:" "Commander Jim McDivitt... a Gemini vet, one of the best pilots in the program... command module pilot Dave Scott... another Gemini vet... and flying right beside McDivitt as his L.M. P..." "Rusty Schweickart, a rookie." "Now... any crew is a good crew." "But these guys..." "Well, I think we're pretty fortunate... because, gentlemen, this won't be an easy mission." "We're off the lake, Jim." "Can we talk business now?" "Well, if you insist." "I've been goin' over the mission plan... and it looks a little rough." " It is kind of ambitious, Jim." " Heck, it's not ambitious." "It's impossible." "Look, everyone's focusing on us flying the LEM." "It's only a small part of it." "Every mission's got a few things that's never been done before." "This one's got about ten:" "First manned launch of a LEM, first docking extraction of a LEM... first men in a LEM in space." "And we just go out and fly the LEM, right?" "Wrong." "Before we can even undock the LEM from the command module... we gotta make sure we can do an emergency transfer outside the craft." "Which means, Rusty... you're gonna have to do an E.V.A. On the PLSS backpack... the first use of that." "Dave, we're gonna leave you alone in the command module." "First time that'll have happened." "Then the real fun begins." "First I pop the thruster, see if the LEM can fly." "If it can, Rusty and I fire the descent engine, take her on its maiden voyage." "We go out a hundred miles or so." "God willing, the ascent engine lights..." "first firing of that in space." "Then Rusty and I head back to you... for the first docking of a two-manned spacecraft." "All right, so it's only nine things that's never been done before." "Give me a hand with the trailer." "But you guys are right." "It's a lot for one mission." "Maybe too much." "If we get even half of it done we can call it a success." "I can't wait!" "While Scott went to Downey to work on the command module..." "McDivitt and Schweickart joined us on Long Island." "So gentlemen, you wanna go take the vehicle for a spin?" " Gee, Dad." "Can we?" " Sure." "As long as you don't bring her back empty." "The hardest part of getting the first lems to fly... was getting the thousands of systems and subsystems to work together." "Most of the time it was like having a ballroom full of dancers... dancing different steps to music that wasn't quite right for any of them." " Bring that T.L. Up." " Roger, T.C." "And T.T.C.A. Four jets down." "Copy, T.C." "T.T.C.A. Four jets down." "Well, that can't be good." "Now let's cycle that one more time." "Yep." "Roger, T.C." "You know, you look more and more like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape." "Funny you should say that." "I got guys digging a tunnel under the east fence." "Should reach the trees by Sunday." "Ready to start up again." "We think we've got it." "Let's do it." " T.F.I. Telemetry cal off." " Copy, T.C." " T.F.I. Power off." " Roger, T.C." " RD A off." " Copy that, T.C." "Oh, God bless it!" "Tom, what's up with the radar?" "Oh, hi, Lou." "Yeah, I know..." "I know what we're up against." "We will make the date." "I need to know if we can make the date." "If we can't, I'm gonna have to take some cash and move to South America." "Yep." " Arnie?" " Sure." " John?" " Yes, sir." "The other John?" "Sorry, Tom." "The cockpit's gonna take another three weeks." "We could use a few weeks ourselves." "Us too." "If we had it, we could certainly use it." "You know, Tom, I hear Bolivia... is really nice this time of year." "You know, this is so bad I can't even joke about it." "Perhaps the main reason we were behind schedule and over budget... was because budgets and schedules are based on previous experience... with similar projects." "We didn't know how much it'd cost to build the LEMs or how long it'd take." "All we really knew was how much time we'd been given... and that was running out." "LEM 3 was scheduled to be launched in the fall of 1968." "To make the launch, NASA needed delivery sometime that spring." "We were working as fast as we could..." "24 hours a day... seven days a week, and it wasn't enough." "In June, 1968 it was decided... that we'd ship LEM 3 to NASA as she was and finish the work at the Cape." "You know, I don't know what I'm so worked up about." "I mean, what's the worst that could happen?" "Well, we ship the LEM to NASA... we never get it to fly... the Russians beat us to the moon... and within ten years we're all living under the iron thumb of Communism." "Exactly." "Hey, remember when seven years seemed like a long time?" "Remember when this whole thing was only gonna cost 500 million?" "You know, I can't even remember when it was gonna cost a billion." "Unfortunately, moving LEM 3 to the Cape... did little to ease the pressure we were under." "Tom, there's still at least a hundred things wrong with it." " We'll get it fixed in time." " No, you won't." "There is no way in three months that thing is gonna be ready to fly." "Look, Jim, it's..." "It's a good machine." "Just needs a little fine-tuning." "That's all." "You don't have to whisper." "It can't hear you." "Look, I want it to go up as much as you do." "I know we're running out of time." "It's 18 months to the end of the decade... and we still haven't had a single manned Apollo flight." "I know that." "But that doesn't change the facts." "LEM 3 is not ready to fly." "And it won't be any time soon." "That's gonna have to be my recommendation to headquarters." "Now, with the LEM 3 not ready to fly... after Wally and the 7 crew go up with the C.S.M. In October... that means there won't be another Apollo flight until the spring, right?" "Right." "Well, maybe not." "George has come up with a rather wild idea." "How wild?" "Frank's mission is being scrubbed." "We've created a new C-Prime mission which will precede your mission." "What's the mission?" "Well, we're gonna send the command and service module... no lunar module... on a flight around the moon in December." "Really?" "What's Frank think?" "I haven't talked to Frank yet." "I'm talking to you first." "I don't want lose your crew's experience with LEM 3." "That's why we decided to send Frank on this mission ahead of you." "But I wanted to see what you had to say about it... before I told Frank." "I told him we'd stick with the mission we got." "Good." "Going around the moon sounds like a blast and all... but I really wanna fly the LEM." "That's pretty much what Dave said." "I called him in Downey." "He said he really wanted to fly the command module solo... get us out of his hair for a few hours." "I don't know though." "Maybe we're making a mistake." "Maybe we're missing out on some historical voyage." "I don't know, Jim." "Maybe." "But it sounds like they're just gonna be sightseeing." "With all the things we gotta do, our mission's fun." "Yeah, we got a great mission." "Providing that thing will fly." "In the fall of 1968 while work continued on LEM 3... the Apollo program finally got off the ground." "On October 11, just a few miles... from where LEM 3 was being fine-tuned..." "Apollo 7 was launched." "Two months later, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders... took Apollo 8 on its historic flight around the moon." "All that time, LEM 3 was being worked on around the clock." "By February 1969, George and the rest of the Grumman crew... had tested every circuit and tightened every bolt." "LEM 3 was ready." " I like the call sign." " Spider?" "It seemed appropriate." " How about the command module?" " Gumdrop." "When it came from North American it was all wrapped in blue plastic." "It's sort of what it looked like." "Maybe you should go up with us, make sure everything's okay." "I'd love to go up with you." "She's ready." "I know." " We'd better get back to the sim." " Yep." " She's a beautiful machine, Tom." " Isn't she?" " You really think it's beautiful?" " It looks like a toaster oven with legs." "But I'm not gonna tell him that." "Hold on a minute, Bill." "I gotta get him to the airport." "Look, he spent the last seven years of his life building that thing." "Let's give him a moment to say good-bye." "It stays up there, remember?" "Now as far as LEM 3 was concerned... that should have been it for me." "I should've been able to sit back in the SPAN room in Houston  watch the show." "But in the early hours of launch day... the pressure in one of LEM 3's fuel tanks was reading disturbingly high." "It's the helium tank?" "Actually, sir, the super critical helium." " How's it reading now?" " Still on the edge." "Meaning?" "Meaning we'd like to be down the middle of the tolerance band, but we're not." "Give me the worst case." "When the LEM heads away from the command module  they're throttling up... the tank could over-pressurize and the burst disk could blow." "We would lose the helium on the descent stage." "Now, they would not be stranded." "They'd still have the ascent engine." "But it would kill the mission." "Tom, I'll need the official Grumman position on this." "We're still within the limits." "It'll fly." "In the last few minutes before launch..." "I managed to put the tank pressure problem out of my mind for a moment." "I tried to imagine what it was like in LEM 3 just then." "Astronauts have said that sitting in the command module during a countdown... can be almost peaceful." "Must have been even more peaceful in LEM 3." "At least until..." "For the next ten minutes it must have been... like LEM 3 was stuck in a paint mixer in a hardware store." "And when it must have seemed the shaking would never stop, it did." "On the second day of the mission..." "Rusty became the first person to enter a LEM in space." "Later that day, shortly after Rusty and Jim extended the landing gear... something happened which brought the mission to a grinding halt." "Okay, I got gear out in front of me now." "Okay, landing gear deploy, safe?" "Roger, safe." "Sequence camera, off." "G.E.T. Is 45-1-1-3-5." "D.F.I. Telemetry cal off." "D.F.I. Power, off." "D.F.I., off." " RD A, off." " D.F.I. Power, off." "RD instrumentation A, off." "RD instrumentation A, off." "Okay, Deke." "I'm gonna have to recommend we scrub the E.V.A. Tomorrow." "We got you, Jim." "Jim, if Rusty doesn't do the E.V. A..." "I understand the ramifications, Dave." "I just don't think it's safe for you to do it." "I don't think we can put you in a pressurized suit... if it looks like you're gonna throw up." "We'll proceed with the checklist tomorrow." "We'll check out as many systems as we can without undocking." "It's just gonna have to be it." "If Rusty were to throw up in a suit, he'd likely asphyxiate and die... before Jim could get him back into the LEM and repressurize." "But if Rusty didn't test the backpack... the LEM couldn't undock from the command module." "When Jim cancelled the E.V.A. We all understood... but we were devastated." "LEM 3 would not fly." "The next day, as Rusty and Jim went through their checklist... the mood around NASA was pretty grim." "The mood lifted a little when one of Jim's air-to-ground transmissions... made everyone smile." " Well, almost everyone." " Houston, this is Apollo 9." "Go ahead, Apollo 9." "Houston, if some of our friends from Grumman are listening in..." "I suggest on the next LEM they give an extra go with a vacuum cleaner." "We got a few odds and ends floating around in here." "Roger, Apollo 9." "We'll pass that along." "Oh, well." "In a few minutes, even I would be smiling." "You look like you're feeling better." "I am." "I feel good." "How good?" "Real good." "Then what do you say you go outside?" "I think that's a good idea." " Yeah, Gumdrop, this is Spider." " Roger, Spider." "Yeah, Dave." "Rusty's feeling a lot better, and he looks better too." "I thought maybe he should go out on the porch and get some fresh air." "Hey, man!" "I like the sound of that." "For 45 minutes every available camera on Apollo 9... was put to use filming the first two-man space walk in history." "While Rusty stood on LEM 3's porch..." "Dave stood in the open hatch of the command module... to film Rusty's test of the backpack." "When one of Dave's cameras broke... he went back inside to fix it." "That gave Rusty something unheard of on an E.V. A:" "Free time." "For three minutes there was nothing for him to do but look at the Earth." "With the backpack tested... it was time to see if LEM 3 could fly." "That's a nice-looking machine." "It's not like an F-86, I'll tell you that." "It's an ungainly beast." "But it really flies." "Houston, Spider." "We are preparing to throttle up the descent engine." "Roger, Spider." "Then it was time to see if the decision I had made just before the launch... was the right one." "The tank'll be fine." "It'll hold." "Throttle to 20 percent." "It's a little rough." "Yeah, wasn't it?" "I think we swallowed a little helium." "Yeah, let's try it again." "Throttle to 40 percent." "Houston, Spider." "Everything looks good here." "It was a good burn." "Hey, keep track of us, will you, Davey?" "Roger that." "See you in a while." "Jim and Rusty took LEM 3 out 110 miles from the command module." "To get back to Dave they had to separate from the descent stage... then fire the ascent engine." "Thirteen feet per second." "Nine feet per second." "I have the interconnects." "Five, four, three... two, one, we have shutdown." "Roger." "We have a good burn." "No residuals." "And there goes half our spacecraft." "A short time later..." "LEM 3 redocked with the command module." "Her mission was over." "That's a song I haven't heard in a long time." " You all set, Rusty?" " Yeah, Jim." "All right." "I'll see you up at C.S.M." "I don't suppose they're gonna let anybody back up they think'll get sick." "I don't know, Rusty." "I'll tell ya... those few minutes I had outside while Dave was working on the camera..." "That was somethin' special." "I just wanted to say thanks." "The only reason it was even a question is I didn't want you to kill yourself." "And I'll try not to for the rest of the mission." "All right." "I'll see you inside." "Yep." "LEM 3 would fly one last time... but this time she would fly alone." "Okay, the tunnel's closed out, the pyros are armed." "We're all set." "All right." "So long, Spider." "Hope I didn't leave anything in there." "When I first saw the LEM I thought, "You gotta be kiddin'."" "But it kind of grows on you." "It really is a beautiful machine." "Listen to me." "I sound like Tom Kelly." "But you guys are right." "It's a lot for one mission." "Maybe too much." "If we get even half of it done we can call it a success." "I can't wait!" "Apollo 9 had shown that a LEM could fly." "At least in Earth orbit." "Two months later on Apollo 10, Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan... took LEM 4 down to within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface." "Look at that." "There's enough boulders to fill up Galveston Bay!" "Houston, we is goin', and we is down among 'em, Charlie!" "Now only one question about the LEM remains." "The biggest question of all." "And it will be up to the next LEM to answer it." "When I said good-bye to LEM 3, I felt like a proud parent... watching a child go off to college." "As I say good-bye to this LEM, I feel like a parent of centuries past... saying farewell as his child embarks for the New World." "To some people, that might sound like I'm stretching the point." "A LEM is not a child, it's a machine... and a machine doesn't have a soul." "We may yell at our toasters and name our cars... but in the end even a LEM is just a collection of wires... and circuits and nuts and bolts." "I don't know." "I think each LEM does have a soul." "It's a soul of all the people who built her... designed her... first dreamed of her." " What number is this one?" " This one is LEM 5." " Thank you for inviting us here today." " You're welcome, Mr. Houbolt." "Without you guys there might not be anybody here today." " Someone would have thought of it." " Maybe." "And this is the actual machine that's gonna land on the moon?" "Yep." " What are they calling this one?" " This one..." "This one is the Eagle." "Apollo 11 might never have happened... were it not for three very specific people." "You've probably never heard of Sergei Korolyov... but without him the Soviet Union might never have put a man into space... nor stirred the competitive juices of his American counterparts." "Wernher Von Braun was the German rocket scientist... who turned the weapons of World War Two... into the giant Saturn boosters of the space race 20 years later." "John F. Kennedy brashly vowed to send a man to the moon and return him safely... long before it was known to be possible." "Korolyov, Von Braun and Kennedy... working at a time when politics, economics and technology... were being defined by mankind's breaching of outer space... were the keystones in the bridge... that carried another celebrated trio on their historic voyage... from the Earth to the moon." "You fellas all know what we're doing here, right?" " Think so." " Just shootin' the shit." "Informal." "No big deal." "Coffee klatch kind of stuff we can cut into... anytime during our broadcast of the mission." "Are we underdressed, Emmett?" "Not at all, boys." "I'm just a creature of habit." "I can't go on the air without puttin' on my tie." "We'll be on the air from the moment you cross through the equigravisphere... right up through the big moment." " I'm gonna need all the help I can get." " I don't know, Emmett." "Cronkite worked us over." "I don't know how much we have left for you." "Let me worry about Cronkite." "I've got good stuff on each of you, but don't get too formal about it." "Say any damn thing you please, any damn thing you want." "Neil, I'll start with you." "Then you, Buzz." " Mike, you'll be Tail-End Charlie." " I'm always Tail-End Charlie." "Forget what I just said." "We'll start with you." "Now, Mike, you have a role unlike any other human being in the world." " Are we beginning now?" " Oh, yeah." "They started rolling the minute I sat down." "We are having an informal chat with these three men... who need no introduction." "This is Apollo Saturn Launch Control." "We can now count down for Apollo 11... the flight to land the first men on the moon." "We're on time at the present time... for our planned liftoff of 32 minutes past the hour." ""T" minus 60 seconds and counting." "We've passed "T" minus 60." "Fifty-five seconds and counting." "Last I reported back when we received the good wishes." ""Thank you very much." "We know it will be a good flight."" "Good luck and Godspeed." "Forty seconds away from the Apollo 11 liftoff." "All second-stage tanks now pressurized." "Thirty-five seconds and counting." "We are still go with Apollo 11." "Thirty seconds and counting." "Astronauts report it feels good." ""T" minus 25 seconds." "Twenty seconds and counting." ""T" minus 15 seconds." "Guidance is internal." "Twelve, eleven, ten, nine..." "Ignition sequence starts." "Six, five, four, three, two, one..." "Liftoff." "We have a liftoff." "That was four days ago." "It was witnessed in person by over a million people in Florida... and billions of people on television around the world." "It was history." "I'm Emmett Seaborn." "You are watching NTC's special coverage of Apollo 11... to the Sea of Tranquility." "The date is July 20." "The year: 1969." "If everything goes according to plan... an event will take place today... that will forever mark the 20th day of the seventh month of the year." "I can guarantee that you'll remember this day... where you are and what you are doing." "This is a day mankind has anticipated... ever since we first lifted our eyes unto the nighttime sky... and wondered what marvels wait for us up there... on the face of our beautiful, mysterious companion in the cosmos." "Today is the day we find out." "Today is the day... we set foot on the moon." "There is a mood of intense anticipation here for very many reasons." "Worldwide viewing audience estimated at 400 million." "The French press is dominated by Apollo 11." "The journey of Apollo 11 will continue." "Hope they don't bring too many germs down here." " Wanna go to the moon?" " Yes, if possible, I'd very like to." " The beginning of the moon landing..." " Man's first step being watched by all the world, united in a way never before possible..." "It's a groovy trip, but there are more important things to do first." "It will be a revelation to all mankind... that the universe and the creation... is so much greater than anybody ever realized." "Just how do you land on the moon?" "That is the task at hand today for the crew of Apollo 11... and it has been the subject and preoccupation of a great many people... for a great many months... including Jay Honeycutt, NASA flight simulation supervisor." "Tell me, Jay." "The simulation facilities are all computer driven... but how lifelike are they really?" "All the problems we create in a simulator... can happen in the flight... and the crew sees the moon as it would be outside the window." "The simulator performs just as the LEM would." " The lunar module." " Right." "Under whatever circumstances we can create." "So, if things go south in the simulator..." "The crew has to take whatever steps necessary to save the mission." "Or, theoretically, their lives." "Yes." "The landing begins at 50,000 feet above the lunar surface... when Armstrong and Aldrin are given the go for power descent." "At 46,000 feet Armstrong will roll the LEM onto its back." "At 7,500 feet the computer's final landing program..." "P-64... will commence... pitching the LEM forward from face up to about 30 degrees from vertical... allowing Armstrong and Aldrin to see the lunar surface." "As they approach the landing site the most crucial information will be... altitude, rate of descent, horizontal velocity... and propellant remaining." "If they get below about 80 seconds of fuel remaining... the "quantity" light will illuminate." "At that point they've got 60 seconds to decide whether or not to land... leaving them 20 seconds of fuel... to either get down or level off their descent and abort." "At six feet, if all goes well... probes extending from the landing gear will touch the surface... and they will get the "contact" light." "Armstrong will then shut off the descent engine and they will drop... gently to the surface... and mankind will never be the same again, blah, blah, blah." "The landing is, by far, the most difficult part of this mission." "Getting to the moon isn't easy." "Neither is walking on it." "Or blasting off, docking and going home." "But the landing, that's the thing:" "One shot, no second approaches... a quarter of a million miles from home." "For the next three months... we will do everything in our power to see that these men land safely... which means, for the next three months we must do everything in our power... to kill them." "So, how many times have you "killed" the crew of Apollo 11?" " Well, many times." " Hundreds of times?" "Thousands?" "It's for their own good." "I understand the crew kept training in the simulators up to the last minutes." "Armstrong and Aldrin were in the simulator at the Cape... right up till the day before the launch." "How did they do?" "Did they make a good landing?" "Emmett, they were absolutely perfect." "I appreciate your coming by." "Thanks for putting up with me." "Now, some time ago... well before they entered the flight crew health stabilization program... prior to last Wednesday's launch..." "I had the special opportunity..." "well, honor, really... to chat with Michael Collins, as well as Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong." "We're chatting with these three men who need no introduction." "Starting with you, Michael Collins." "While your crewmates walk around in the Sea of Tranquility... you'll be all alone... the only member of the human race... completely cut off from mother Earth." "Won't it get terribly lonely?" "Well, Emmett, I'll be plenty busy with some interesting mission objectives." "Of course I'll have a great view to look at." "And I'm taking along a few good books, just in case." "Okay." "Okay." "Now, Mr. Neil Armstrong." "The moon." "A lot of cockamamie theories about landing on it... and how it would be impossible." "But the point is, being the first to do it... you don't know exactly what's gonna happen." "I mean, how do you physically train for such a thing?" "One way is to climb into an aircraft we call the flying bedstead." "The L.L.R.V. The lunar landing research vehicle." " Right." " Essentially, a big jet engine... turned on its end." "Yeah." "It's a tricky machine." "The demands it places on a pilot... are very similar to the demands I'll be facing making the moon landing." " Neil, you're clear to start." " Roger." "Five hundred feet." "The winds are a little gusty." " You are go for lunar sim." " Roger." "Go for lunar sim." "Computer to sim mode." "Beginning descent." "I've got a touchdown point." "Sixty seconds of fuel." "Comin' down through 200 feet." "Got a light." "Attitude control." "I've lost thrusters." "You all right?" "So, you walked away in one piece to fly another day." "Pretty much." "I did bite my tongue pretty bad, but..." "Incredible." "Neil, let me wax a little philosophic here." "You've lifted off, flown to the moon... without biting your tongue." "You're finally climbing down the Eagle's ladder... about to set foot on the moon." "What will be going through your mind then?" "I just hope I don't trip." "Will there be something said, some act performed?" "Do you have something ready to say?" "I wanna say, Frank..." "I was inspired by what you guys did." "Reading from Genesis." "That was great." "Yeah, well, we're being sued by an atheist." "So, with all these kings and queens and presidents, who was your favorite?" "Oh, the pope." "He's the best." "Listen to me. "The pope, he's the best."" "When did you decide to say that?" "After a P.A.O. Up in Washington took me aside and told me... more people would be watching us than ever watched anyone in human history." "We'd better have something appropriate to say." "What are you guys gonna say?" "If you had any balls you'd say, "Oh, my God!" "What is that thing?"" "Then scream and cut your mike." "Seriously, now." "A verse?" "Quotes?" "Dedication?" "Truthfully..." "I'm concentrating pretty much on the landing... but I do have faith that if everything goes well... something appropriate will occur." " Why don't you surprise us?" " Okay." "On to you, Buzz." "Your official position on the crew is listed as lunar module pilot... which is something of a misnomer... since you don't actually pilot the LEM as much as safeguard it." " Is that fair to say?" " Yes." "It'll be my job to see to it that the LEM is a healthy machine... all systems are running smoothly, feeding Neil the data he needs." "If anything requires a special course of action, I will take that action." "There are a lot of things we know about you." "We know that you were a combat pilot in the Korean War... that you earned a PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology... in orbital mechanics." "We know that you're a spiritual man." "Your wife is named Joan... and your life has been chronicled and featured... and photographed... ever since the mission of Apollo 11 placed you in the world spotlight." "You're also gonna be the second man to walk on the face of the moon." "But, shoot, Buzz, wouldn't you like to be the guy that gets out first?" "Well, Emmett, the important thing to remember here is that..." "Neil and I will be landing on the moon... at the same time." "Who gets out first is relatively insignificant." "We'll review all this with Deke later." "I've been reviewing the flight plan... both the current one and last year's, as well as the Gemini flight plans... and there's something I think could bear some scrutiny as we head into the sims." "Neil, it's this question about which one of us should get out first." "Have you given that any thought?" "To be honest with you, Buzz, I've been more concerned with the landing." "In Gemini the pilot did the E.V.A. While the commander stayed on board." "Buzz, look." "I appreciate the historical significance of this thing... and I'm not gonna rule anything out right now... but whatever we decide... it should be what's best for the mission." "Have you given it any thought?" "I wish it wasn't even an issue." "I'd rather be on the second landing... so we could just worry about the science and not the eyes of history or whatever." "Have you thought about asking for another mission?" "Yeah." "But you can't." "I go on 11, or I don't go at all." "Do you want to get out first?" "Well, it might as well be me." "Don't you think?" "Yes." "I do." "Walking on the moon will be a tangible achievement... but what it will represent is where all of mankind is right now... and what we can do and where we can go... if we put to use the great gifts we've been given." "God love Neil." "He's a good man." "But I'm afraid he's so consumed by the physical task of landing..." "I don't know how much attention he's prepared to give to the larger issue... of what we're doing and what it means to the world." "Some measure of attention should be paid to the meaning of the task... by whichever one of us takes that first step." "Since the mission parameters are still in the planning stage... and the order of the crew egress is yet to be determined..." "I took the liberty of calling George Low." "He's one of the administrators." "I told him that for the good of the mission... a decision should be made as to which of us... should get out first..." "Neil or myself." "Hey, guys." "Buzz, I got a call from George Low." "He told me you felt a decision had to be made... that it was bad for morale." "Okay, so here's the decision." "Neil gets out first." "He's the commander." "He's the senior astronaut." "And besides that, the way that hatch opens... it'd be damned difficult for the L.M.P. To get out first... unless you two switch places." "You'll both be wearing hard suits and backpacks, so that's not gonna happen." "I see what you mean." "Okay." "So the issue's settled." "So, were it not for a decision in the design phase of the lunar module... a 50-50 coin toss of which way the hatch opens... you've might've ended up the first man to walk on the moon instead of Neil." "Possibly." ""Possibly."" "Michael Collins, last time we left you... you were still flying around the moon in the command module." "Catching up on my reading." "Let me be pragmatic and deal with a hard issue here for a minute." "What if something goes wrong?" "You've trained to come back to Earth... as the sole survivor of Apollo 11, haven't you?" "Nobody likes to dwell on such things... but that is one of the scenarios that we practice in flight simulation." "Well, in fact, all three of you... train constantly for things going wrong, don't you?" "Neil?" "Buzz?" "You even practice crashing, don't you?" "Actually, Emmett, we practice avoiding crashes." "We're gonna pick up at pitch over minus 30." " Everybody ready?" " Ready, Flight." "Okay, gents." "And here we go." "Eagle, this is Houston." "We are ready to commence full-up sim... beginning at pitch over minus 30." "Pitch over in five, four, three, two, one, mark." " Pitch over." " We're in P-64." "Showing 6,000 feet." "Down at 100 feet per second." "Looks good." "Readout P.D., 40 degrees." "Forty degrees." "That's good." "I like that." "Five thousand feet, Flight." "I'm gonna check my manual attitude control." "Roger." "Manual attitude control is good." "We copy." "Looks good from here." " How you lookin', Guidance?" " Good." "They're right on the marks." "Thirty-five hundred, still at sixty." "Looking good." "Oops." "We've lost our AGS." "We're still getting that." "Shall we cycle an AGS breaker?" "Yeah." "Flight, tell them to cycle the DEDA breaker." "Eagle, this is Houston." "Cycle the DEDA breaker." "Roger, Houston." "Cycling the DEDA breaker." "And while they're looking at that..." "Okay, Houston, we've got the AGS back." "Houston, is your..." "We copy." "Disregard." "Neil, H-dot." "We're dropping." "I think we got 'em, gents." "We're coming down too fast." "Neil, abort." "They've exceeded H-dot max." "Eagle, this is Houston." "We recommend you abort." "Don't be afraid to call an abort." "We can't afford to hesitate." "That goes for you too, Neil." " I was waiting for your read." " Don't forget the delay." "1.3 seconds can be a long time." "You might not want to wait for our read." " Roger that." " Anybody got anything else?" " Buzz, anything to add?" " Nope." "It's all been covered." "Okay, that's it, guys." "Thanks, Gene." "See ya." " Neil, are we finished?" " Yeah." "The loop was wide open." "Everyone was listening." "Here, Houston, Marshall, Washington." "They were all listening." "It was a disaster." "We should've aborted." "There was no reason not to." "Maybe he was waiting on Houston." "It wasn't a situation we needed advice about." "We crashed it so hard we broke the simulator." " It's gonna go down as a crew failure." " You fellas wanna keep it down?" "We should've aborted." "I think I'm gonna call it a night." "Neil, we crashed." "Buzz, sims are for learning." "We had four successful aborts before that one." "I wanted to see what would happen if we waited for Houston." "If it was anyone's failure, it was theirs, not ours." "If you're worried we'll catch some hell for it, I'll tell everyone the score... but I don't think there's any point in rubbing Gene's nose in it." "He knows what happened." "Hey, you know, I've been going through the mission plan." "They've given us lots of time after we land to fix any problems we have... but they've scheduled a four-hour rest period before we do the E.V.A." "What do you say we move the rest period till after the E.V.A.?" "That way, if everything's shipshape we'll get out there as soon as possible." " Get some sleep, Buzz." " Yeah." "Okay, let's shift gears here." "Michael, tell me about your design for the patch." "You're the artist." "What does it mean?" "I cheated a bit by copying the eagle... from a National Geographic." " We're not gonna hold that against you." " Thank you." "We all talked about it." "The eagle, it's obvious, is the LEM." "It's also a symbol of America, without being too overt." "It carries an olive branch to show that we go to the moon in peace." "But your names aren't on it." "Why none of your names?" "Because going to the moon... is larger than us as individuals." "The Earth represents, well, everyone... because the mission is bigger than nations... or politics." "What is significant... is that... for the first time in the history of our civilization... a man is going to set foot on the moon." "Not that man's name." "The only English word is "Apollo."" "That way the whole world can read it and maybe claim it as their own." "Well, if that's the case, why don't we just let history record the rest." "Good luck to you... and Godspeed Apollo 11." "Thank you." "At this moment the crew is preparing... for the challenges of the hours to come... more than likely with the attitudes of professional men anywhere... who have a long workday ahead." "Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin are mortal men... and yet their talents, their disciplines and their choices... have placed them here, in the third week of July, 1969... at a place and time unique in the cosmos." "These three men are on their way to a distant place... where no man has gone before." "With them go our dreams, our desires and our good wishes... but not only for their safe passage in return." "We hope too for their efforts to signal a transformation of our common globe... into a braver, bolder, better world for us all." "Done." "Everything looks good in here." "You're front-page news pretty much everywhere in the world, boys." "Oh, Neil, you'll be happy to know the Russian newspaper Pravda... is calling you the czar of the mission." "Well, the czar is brushing his teeth right now, but I'll pass that along." "Roger that." "Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning... there's one asking that you watch out for a lovely girl with a big rabbit." "An ancient Chinese legend says that a beautiful girl named Chongo... has been living up there for 4,000 years." "She was banished to the moon because she stole the pill for immortality... from her husband." "Her companion, a large rabbit... should be standing on his hind feet under the shade of a cinnamon tree." "Okay." "I'll be sure to tell them to keep an eye out for the bunny girl." "Okay." "Go/no go for undocking." " FIDO." " Go, Flight." "GUIDO." "RETRO." " BOOSTER." "TELMU." " That's affirm, Flight." " G.N.C." " Go, Flight." " EE COM?" " Go, Flight." " SURGEON." " Go." "Go for undocking." "Columbia?" "Houston." "You are go for undocking." "Roger, Houston." "Go for undocking." "Take it easy on the lunar surface." "I hear you huffing' and puffin', I'm gonna start bitchin' at you." "Roger that, Michael." "Okay, here you go." "Probe." "Extend." "Release." "Beautiful." "Four down and locked." "Houston, the Eagle has wings." "You got a pretty fine-looking flying machine there, Eagle... despite the fact you're upside-down." "Somebody's upside-down." "You guys take care now." "For every American, for people all over the world... this has to be the proudest day of our lives." " The greatest audience..." " They feel the tension in London..." "Audiences estimated at 12 million..." "The LEM began to disappear behind the moon..." "Has been traveling on the far side of the moon... beyond radio contact with Mission Control." "The goal for the descent orbit insertion..." "A 30-second burn that drops the Eagle to 10 miles above the lunar surface... and prepares them for their final descent." "We're only moments away from a flurry of activity... that will, if all goes well... find Armstrong and Aldrin safely on the moon." "Eagle, Houston." "Do you read?" "Eagle, this is Houston." "Eagle, Houston." "Do you read?" "Eagle, Houston." "Do you copy?" "Roger." "We copy." "Eagle, Houston." "Can we get a status on your burn?" "We're at good burn, Houston." "On time, no residuals." "Ten minutes to power descent." "Let's get their sun check, then go around the horn." "Eagle, Houston." "We're ready for that sun check." "Roger, Houston." "Sun check to three marks." "Noun 20 minus noun 22." "Plus 0.19." "Plus 0.16." "Eagle, Houston." "We only copied three of the marks." "Please repeat the sun check." "Over." "Houston, Eagle." "How do you read now?" "Eagle, we're getting oscillations in your high gain." "Over." "Say again, Houston." "We didn't copy." "Flight, TELMU." "We've lost MISFIN." "Proctor, we've lost MISFIN." "Flight, Guidance." "I've lost data." "We keep losin' 'em." "Clock's running, fellas." "I want a go/ no go for power descent." "Columbia, this is Houston." "We've lost all data with Eagle." "Please have them reacquire on high gain." "Over." "Eagle, this is Columbia." "Houston would like you to reacquire on the high gain." "They've lost data with you." "Over." "Roger." "We copy." "Houston, Eagle." "How do you read me now?" " You got us locked up, TELMU?" " We're real weak, Flight." "Are your systems go?" "That's affirm, Flight." " Guidance, you happy?" " Go, Flight." " FIDO?" " We're a little low, but no problem." " EE COM?" " Go, Flight." " G.N.C." " Go." " SURGEON." " We're go." "CAPCOM, we are go for power descent." "Eagle, Houston." "If you read, you are go for power descent." "Roger." "Understand." "Stabilization and control circuit breakers... deca gimbal A.C. Closed." " Command override off." " Command override is off." " Gimbal enable." " Gimbal enable." " Rate scale, 25." " Twenty-five." " Thrust translation, four jets." " Four jets." " Balance couple on." " Balance couple is on." " T.C.A. Throttle minimum." " Throttle is at minimum." " Throttle, auto C.D.R." " Auto C.D.R." " Stop button, reset." " Stop button is reset." "Abort, abort stage, reset." "Engine arm descent, seven seconds." "Yes, proceed." "Proceed." "Five, four... three, two, one... zero." "Ignition." "Throttle up." "Burn looks good." "Eagle, your burn looks good." "Rate of descent looks good." "AGS and PINGS agree." "R.C.S. Pressure is good." "DIPS pressure is good." "Uh, Eagle, you are still looking good and coming up on three minutes, over." "We went by our three-minute point early." "We're gonna land long." "Houston, our position checks downrange show us to be a little long." "We are going to roll over and have you check our altitude." "Roger." "We copy." "Rolling over." "Houston, you're lookin' at Delta "H."" "Flight, Radar looks good." "Two thousand feet, Delta "H."" "Roger, 2,000-foot Delta "H." Let me know when he accepts it." "Program alarm." "It's a 1202." "1202?" "Is that radar?" "No. 1202, that's in the software." "We didn't have this in the sim." "What is it?" "Give us a reading on 1202 program alarm." "It's..." "It's..." "We have it." "It's a temporary overload." "It's not fatal." "We're okay, as long as it's intermittent." " We're go on that, Flight." " On that alarm?" "If it's only intermittent, we'll be go." " Eagle, we are go on that alarm." " Roger." " AGS and PINGS look real close." " Give us a pitch over time, Houston." "Eagle, you are 30 seconds to P-64." "Roger." "I've got the window." "Roger." "We have got good data." "We're looking good and coming up in 30." "P-64." "Five thousand feet is good." "One hundred feet per second is good." " I want a go/no go on landing." "GUIDO." " Go, Flight." " RETRO." "BOOSTER." " Go, Flight." " TELMU." " That's affirm, Flight." " G.N.C. EE COM." " Go, Flight." " SURGEON." " Go." " CAPCOM, go." " Eagle, you are go for landing." " Go for landing." "Over." " Roger." "Understand." "Go for landing." "Three thousand feet." " Give me an L.P.D." " Forty-seven degrees." "Pretty rocky area." "I'm going to manual." "Roger, Eagle." "Fifty-eight forward." "No problem." "Six hundred feet, down at nineteen." "Program alarm 1201." "Guidance, are your systems go?" "Same type." "We're go, Flight." " Go." " We are go." "Same type." "We are go." "You're pegged on horizontal velocity." "Three hundred feet, down three and a half." "Forty-seven forward." "Slow it up." "One and a half down." "Ease 'er down." " Two-fifty." "How's the fuel?" " Seven percent fuel remaining." "Down at two and a half." "Nineteen forward." "Altitude velocity lights are on." "We lost our radar." "Three and a half down." " 220 feet, 13 forward." " Gonna be right over that crater." "160 feet, 51/2 down." "Quantity light." "Sixty seconds to go/no go." "Looks like a good area here." "Take 'er down." "Sixty feet, down two and a half." "Two forward." "Forty feet, down two and a half." "Thirty seconds of fuel." "Four forward." "Drifting to the right a little." "Twenty feet." "Picking up some dust." "I can't see it." " Contact light." " Shut down." "Okay, engine off." " A.C.A. Out of detent." " Out of detent." "Auto." " Mode control both auto." " Both auto." " Descent engine command override off." " Command override off." " Engine arm off." " Engine arm off." "413 is in." "We copy you down, Eagle." "Houston, Tranquility Base here." "The Eagle has landed." "Roger, Tranquility." "We copy you on the ground." "We got a bunch of guys about to turn blue, but we're breathing again." "Be advised there's lots of smiling faces in this room and all over the world." "There's two up here." "And one in the command module." "Sounded great from up here." "You guys did a fantastic job." "All right, flight controllers." "Going around the horn for stay/ no stay." " All right." "FIDO." " Stay, Flight." " GUIDO." " Stay, Flight." " RETRO." " Stay." " TELMU." " Stay." " BOOSTER." " Stay." " G.N.C." " Stay, Flight." "Houston, Tranquility." "Go, Tranquility." "Over." "Our recommendation at this point is an E.V.A., with your concurrence... starting at about 8:00 this evening, Houston time, three hours from now." "Stand by." "Well, we'll let you think about that one." "Tranquility Base, Houston." "We thought about it, and we support it." "We are go for an early E.V.A. Over." "Roger." "There's something I'd like to do, if you don't mind." "I cleared it with Deke." "After all the grief Frank and the others got for reading from Genesis... it can't be specific." "Something I want to do." "Houston, Tranquility." "Over." "Tranquility, Houston." "Go ahead." "Roger." "This is the LEM pilot." "I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in... whoever or wherever they may be... to pause a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours... and to give thanks... in his or her own way." "Over." "Roger, Tranquility Base." ""I am the vine, and you are the branches." "Whoever remains in me, and I in him... will bear much fruit... for you can do nothing without Me."" "You're even." "That's good." "You have plenty of room on your left." "You're a little close on the right." "Pack down a little bit." "Pack down." "That's it." "Doin' fine." "You got it." "Okay, Houston, I'm on the porch." "Roger, Neil." "Standing by for your TV." "Okay, we're getting a picture on the TV." "Okay, I just checked this." "Getting back up to that first step." "It's not even collapsed too far, but it's adequate to get back up." "I'm at the foot of the ladder." "The LEM footpads are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches... although the surface appears to be very fine grain, when you get close to it." "It's almost like a powder." "I'm gonna step off the LEM now." "That's one small step for man... one giant leap for mankind." "Okay, I'm on the top step." "I can look down over the R.C.U. And landing gear pads." "You got three more steps, then a long one." "It's a very simple matter to hop down from one step to the next." "Yes, I found that can be very comfortable." "Walking is also very comfortable." "You got it." "That's a good last step." "Beautiful view." "Magnificent desolation." "Isn't that somethin'?" "Magnificent sight out here." "Translation and Subtitles by Captions, Inc." "Los Angeles" "We choose to go to the moon." "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." " Look at that." " That's beautiful." "This is one of the most thrilling moments of my life I guarantee you." "The great adventure of going to the moon may never happen again in our life." "Manned space flight will continue... and there is adventure to be found in high Earth orbit." "Robots have already gone to other worlds:" "The valleys of Mars, the clouds and moons of Jupiter." "There is a brand of adventure to be had... in such a long-distance mode of human participation." "But the satisfaction and the sudden emptiness of an adventure completed... are intangible human concepts." "The argument can be made that mankind cannot bear witness to an event... unless one of mankind has experienced the adventure firsthand." "Not necessarily first, mind you, just firsthand." "It is certainly not necessary to be Neil Armstrong... to have experienced the great adventure found... in a voyage from the Earth to the moon." "Hey, Beano, turn around and give me a big smile!" "My name is Al Bean." "That's me, standing in the Ocean of Storms on November 21, 1969." "There I am again, five very heady days later... aboard our recovery ship where they set up a quarantine trailer... for me and my two crewmates:" "Pete Conrad, my skipper... and Dick Gordon, our command module pilot." "They were Gemini veterans who are about as cool as they come." "Everyone knew they'd be going to the moon, unlike me." "This was my first space flight." "I would be forever known as the fourth man to set foot on the lunar surface." "Pete and Dick wanted to be on the first landing... but I'd have been happy to be on the 93rd." "Funny, Beano." "You're a dead man!" "Crying out loud, I had the President of the United States calling me." "Good morning, Mr. President." "Me, Al Bean." "Last guy in his astronaut group to even fly." " We take our jobs very seriously." " The commander in chief... promoted all three of us to Navy captains." "Thank you very much, sir." "Yes, sir." "Congratulations, Captain Bean." "Captain Gordon." " Captain Conrad." "Captain Bean." " Captain Conrad." "Captain Gordon." "People were treating me with great care... making sure we hadn't come home with any alien diseases." "Careful not to puncture his brain, Doc." "That is very funny, Dick." "You're a very funny pilot." "We hadn't, but one of the cameras conked me pretty good during splashdown." "It was my own damn fault." "I was supposed to remove it and put it under my seat... like it said on the checklist." "I guess I was so happy the parachutes had worked that I said..." ""I'll just leave it there on its window mount."" "That is stupid." "If it had hit me in the center of the forehead... it would have probably killed me... which would have been a really sad situation." " Hit the breakers." " I'm doing it." " What?" " Are you okay?" "Yeah, I think so." "I'm fine." " Did you get knocked out?" " What?" "Actually, I had, but I didn't realize it until later." "Hell, the whole trip I didn't have too much luck with cameras." "I'll explain that later." "Bump or not, I was alive and well." "So were my friends." "We made it, and we made it well." " Let me disinfect that for you." " Ow!" "Maybe we weren't dignified enough to be heroes." "It wouldn't matter." "'Cause we were the second mission to land on the moon." "History's ultimate anticlimax." "Somehow, I fit right in." "Flying with Pete and Dick was the sweetest thing about the mission for me." "We were a true team." "At one point, I even kind of saved the day." "I didn't know what to expect." "I was a complete rookie." "We'd done countless simulated launches... so I did the same things I did during all of those." "Roger, STC." "Main bus tie bat B/C switch, on, up." "I kept busy checking the console... making sure our command module, Yankee Clipper, was ready to go." "Looks like this launch is gonna be a wet one." "No big deal for an all-Navy crew." "We can handle it." "The rain was considered a bother, but nothing to worry about." "Apollo 12, you are go for launch." "Roger." "Go for launch." "Me and my best buddies were ready for the adventure of a lifetime." "Al Bean, you are going to the moon." "Y'all can come along if you like." "13, 12, 11... ten, nine..." "We have ignition sequence start." "The engines are on." "Four, three... two, one, zero." "The first few moments after liftoff, you're vibrating pretty good." " The clock is running." " Then you really start to move." " Clear the tower." " Roger." "Clear the tower." "I got a pitch-and-roll program, and this baby is really going." "Roll complete." " Mark one bravo." " Got you on that." "This thing moves, doesn't it?" "Baby!" "We had just over half a minute of trouble-free launch... and then all hell busted loose." " What the hell was that?" " I just lost a whole bunch of stuff." "We just had a whole bunch of buses drop out." "What have we got here?" "A/C bus 1 light, all the fuel cells." "Okay, Houston, we just lost the platform, gang." "I don't know what happened." "We had everything drop out." "I got three fuel cell lights, an A/C bus light, a fuel cell disconnect..." "A/C bus overload 1 and 2, main bus A and B out." "We had some big glitch here." " I got A/C." " You got A/C?" "Maybe it's the indicator." " What's on the main bus?" " 24 volts." "That's low." "We've got a short of some kind, but I can't believe that's accurate." " Flight, EECOM." " Go, EECOM." "I think it's a fuel cell bus failure." "They've been thrown off-line somehow." "That must be why we're getting garbage here." "Can they try SCE to aux?" "Gerry Griffin had never heard that command before." "Most of the people in Mission Control hadn't." "Tell them." "Apollo 12, Houston." "Try SCE to auxiliary." "Over." "FCE to auxiliary?" "What the hell is that?" "I'm not sure even Pete knew what that was, but one person did." "I know what that is." "SCE to aux." "We're getting good telemetry again." "Try to reset your fuel cells." " Reset fuel cells." " Wait for staging." "Hang on." "Okay, Houston." "GDC is good." "We got a good S-2, gang." "We copy that, Pete." "You're looking good." "Poor Gerry Griffin." "We were his first mission as flight director... and he had dealt with more malfunctions than anybody had ever seen." "Now we'll straighten out our problems here." "I don't know what happened." "I'm not sure we didn't get hit by lightning." "That's exactly what had happened." "Before our first stage had finished doing its job... observers back on the ground later reported... that not just one... but two bolts of lightning rode our exhaust contrail... all the way back down to the pad and hit the tower." "That was a hell of a simulation." "I think we need a little more all-weather testing, guys." "Al's got all the buses back on-line." "We'll square up our platform when we get into orbit." "So I had done my part to help out in a crisis." "Of course, we owe a lot to that EECOM fella, John Aaron." "But to me, the real hero was Pete Conrad." "He kept his hand on the abort handle the entire time." "But he kept his cool and he never used it." "Once I got into Earth's orbit..." "I found space flight was everything it was supposed to be." "Take a look at this." "Those are campfires down there." " That's something, isn't it?" " Yes." "Beautiful." "Down there, people were gathered around man's most primitive discovery." "Here the three of us were... riding 250,000 miles into space on a flame." "Man, that sky is black." "Yes, it is." "How we looking, Dickie?" "You all finished realigning the platform?" " I is finished." " Outstanding." "That will give them something to write about tonight." "I bet all our wives fainted." "I'll bet they did when they heard you call about 18 lights." "Every time I close my eyes, all I see are those damn lights." " What a way to start." " Terrible way to break in Al Bean." "That's okay." "I don't mind." "Not everybody was thinking about how Al Bean was enjoying the mission." "In Houston, unbeknownst to us, there was serious concern... that the lightning had damaged our pyrotechnic system... that would deploy our parachutes." "If we run the tel checklist... we test everything they need to get home... except one big item:" "Deployment of the chutes." "Yeah, but if the barometric switches and timers have failed... the crew can deploy the chutes manually." "But if the pyros had already been fired..." "Once they're gone, pushing the deploy button won't do anything at all." " Is there any way to check the pyros?" " Only visual inspection, from outside." "All right, I'll let you know." "They finally decided that if it had... we'd be just as dead splashing down now as ten days from now." "So they might as well send us to the moon." "Sugar" "Ah, honey, honey" "You are my candy, girl" "And you got me wanting you" "Come on now!" "Honey" " Honey?" " Yeah." "Oh, sugar, sugar" "Damn it!" "I wish I could shit." "I don't have the slightest inclination, but I know what will happen." "It's gonna be the first shit on the lunar surface." " Okay, Al, your turn." " Excuse me?" "I don't want to take any time out on the moon." "Go down there and try to make a poop." "Why are you laughing?" "You're next." "I didn't know that as commander you had that kind of authority." "He thinks he can control our bowel movements." "On family trips, didn't your mother make you go before you left?" "This is the longest damn vacation you boys have ever been on... and in this vehicle I am your mother." "I want you to work at it." "I'm serious." "I'll see what I can do." "Fortunately, at this point, we had time to debate such issues." "I'm sure you're dying to know how it all turned out." "Once again, this is Emmett Seaborn." "Those of you who have been with us all night... are going to see quite a treat." "No, they didn't broadcast my bowel movement around the world." "In fact, they didn't broadcast much at all." "Here's where my bad luck with the TV cameras comes in." "The color camera aboard Apollo 12 is a substantial improvement... over the black-and-white unit Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had... at the Sea of Tranquility." "Conrad and Bean are setting up now." "Oh, boy." "Look at that." "I was in charge of setting up the TV camera on the tripod... so that those people who stayed up all night to see a rerun... could watch us on the moon." "This would have worked out great had I not accidentally done something... that I wasn't supposed to do." "In all our months of training, we never had the actual camera." "All we had was a block of wood." "This procedure needs to be completed in four minutes." "I knew where I was supposed to put it and where the sun would be." "Someone probably told me to keep the lens shaded or something." "Don't point it at the sun." "Set the focus at infinity." "But there were so many things to digest in training to walk on the moon..." "I guess I just forgot it." "We have a pretty bright image on the TV." "Can you move it or stop it down?" "I'll stop it down." "That's as far as it goes, Houston." "How does it look to you?" "Still looks the same." "Why don't you try shifting the scene." " How's that?" " Looks the same." "We have a bright image at the top... and then blacked out about eighty percent at the bottom." "That's coming in better." "What change did you make?" "I hit on the top with my hammer." "We didn't have a thing to lose." " Skillful fix." " Yeah." "I hit it with this hammer." "That's skilled craftsmanship." "Let me try it again." "We're still not getting a good picture, and you're running a tad behind." "Press on and we'll try to get back to it later if we have time." "Houston, let me move it around so the back is to the sun." "Maybe that will help." "When all was said and done, nothing happened." "It's hard to get a TV repairman to make a house call in Anytown, USA... and impossible, of course, on the moon." "The vidicon tube was fried beyond repair... so that was the end of color TV from the Ocean of Storms." "They probably knew on the ground exactly what I had done wrong... but nobody wanted to say anything." "From Houston, this is Emmett Seaborn." "I just hope I didn't disappoint anyone." "What the fuck happened up there?" "Forget it." "Let's go." "What happened was I had screwed up." "No one would ever get to see any more of us walking on the moon." "Not even Dick, who was stuck in orbit while we explored the surface." "I felt bad about that... but flying solo in Yankee Clipper was considered more important... than being the commander's sidekick on the moon." "Got it." "Lock inner mast." "Lock outer mast." "Extend locked legs." "We've done that." "I clearly remember the last moments we spent before we separated." "We could have never gotten down there or home again if it weren't for that man." "In all the time we trained together..." "Dick Gordon never once showed resentment when people would introduce me... as "the guy who was going to the moon with Pete Conrad."" "Never a trace of sarcasm." "Never an ironic remark." "He was in line for a command of his own." "He was holding out to walk on the moon on Apollo 18." "Unfortunately, there never was an Apollo 18... so this was as close as he ever got." "I guess we gotta close her up now." "I wish this son of a bitch fit three people." "At that moment, with all the challenges ahead of us... all I could think was one thought:" "Sure hope I see you again." "Of course, I never said it out loud." "Nervous?" "How did we get out here anyway?" "I just hope I can find a place to land." "And I hope I can set it down all right." "You'll do fine." "You'll do just fine." "Just don't bring her in too low, too fast." "Thanks a lot." " I'm just trying to help." " Thanks very much." " You know I'm here for you." " I know you are." "Big help." "Unlike Neil and Buzz... our mission called for us not just to land wherever the ground looked good." "On 11, they were lucky to land almost three miles from where they had planned." "But we had a target... which had been waiting for us in the Ocean of Storms for two years:" "An unmanned probe named Surveyor 3." "If future missions were gonna explore the moon in depth..." "Apollo 12 would have to demonstrate a precise touchdown was possible." "Forty-two feet." "Coming down at three." "Start the clock." "Forty." "Coming down at two." "Looking good." "Thirty-two." "Thirty feet." "Down at two." "Plenty of gas, babe." "Hang in there." "Eighteen feet." "Coming down at two." "He's got it made." "Come on in there." "Twenty-four feet." "Contact light." "Shit." " Pro!" " Yeah!" "Okay, engine arm off." " You got your commander light off?" " Yep." " I'll cycle the main shutoff valve." " Okay." "Good landing." "Outstanding." "That was incredible." "Yeah!" "Houston, we're in real good shape." "You guys did outstanding targeting." "That thing was right down the middle." "Beautiful!" "It was a real pleasure riding with the number one aviator." "Way to go." " Look out there." "Isn't it beautiful?" " Man, that's beautiful." "That is something else." "That is amazing." " Unbelievable." " Oh, my God." " You want to ask them?" " Yeah." "All right." "Houston, Intrepid." "Go, Intrepid." "Where are we?" "By all the numbers and delta vectors and crater sightings... it looked like we were right where we wanted to be." "But it wasn't until Dick made a flyover pass... that we found out how good a job Pete had done bringing us down." "Houston, I have Snowman." "I believe I have the LEM on the northwest corner of..." "I have Intrepid." "He's the only thing that casts a shadow down there." "He's on the Surveyor crater... about a third of the way on the Surveyor crater... to the head of the snowman." "And I have Surveyor." "Roger, Clipper." "Good eyeball." "Well done." "Ed, it's almost as good as being there." "Almost." "Pete had done it." "With the help of the targeting people on the ground... he had proven that pinpoint accuracy was possible when landing on the moon." "He had set down our lunar module a stone's throw away... from our primary mission objective..." "A short moon walk of about 200 yards... just like he said he would." "Not long after that... sometime very early in the morning back in Houston..." "Pete Conrad proved something else." "He proved to me and the world just how eloquent a man he can be." "Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr." "Only the third human being to set foot on the moon." "Who can forget Neil Armstrong's immortal words." "Let's watch and listen to the words Conrad has chosen... to mark this moment in history." "That may have been a small one for Neil, but it's a long one for me." "There you have it." "After training with him for months, we'd all become accustomed... to Pete's colorful use of language." "You stupid..." "This thing's about to piss me off." "I finally get the cocksucker turning, then it locks up again." "I'm spending more time trying to turn these frigging bolts... than any goddamn else thing." "Goddamn." "Son of a..." "Cocksucker." "Goddamn it." "Turn around and give me a big smile." "I had a special moment for myself to mark my getting to the moon." "When you are selected to become a member of the astronaut corps... you wear a special silver pin." "It gets replaced by a gold pin when you actually fly a mission." "I had worn my silver pin for six years." "Being selected for Apollo 12, I wouldn't be needing it anymore." "I wanted to put it in a special place where it would rest forever." "What better place than in the Ocean of Storms." "I joined NASA in the third group of 14 astronauts in 1963." "So did Dick Gordon who flew with Pete in Gemini 11." "While he and the rest of the group were jockeying for seats... on lunar landing flights..." "I was assigned to the Apollo Applications Program... the space station which came to be known as Skylab." "Pete called it "Tomorrowland."" "Planning things so far in the future... who knew if they'd ever become a reality or not." "While I was tucked away in some far-off corner... it seemed everyone else was assigned mission after mission." "I sort of felt like the forgotten man." "But I kept an eye on what my peers were doing... all the guys I used to commiserate with about not getting to fly." "Walt Cunningham made the crew of Apollo 7." "Bill Anders, Apollo 8." "Rusty Schweickart, Apollo 9." "That left just me." "But there were others from our group that were not so fortunate." "Ted Freeman was flying his T-38 at a couple hundred miles per hour... when a goose smashed in the Plexiglas of his cockpit." "He was killed." "Charlie Basset died along with Elliot See... when Elliot crashed into a building at the McDonnell plant in St. Louis." "Roger Chaffee was on the crew of Apollo 1... killed in the fire with Gus Grissom and Ed White." "Then there was C.C. Williams." "He was supposed to be the original lunar module pilot on Apollo 12... along with Pete and Dick." "He had spent the night before our astronaut physicals... jumping up and down to compress his spine." "There was a six-foot height limit, and C.C. Was a shade over six feet even." "He was a superb astronaut who impressed everyone he met... but C.C. Was killed when his T-38... went into a spin over the swamps of Tallahassee." "He had been cruising at 24,000 feet when his controls locked... and the plane went into a steep dive." "He didn't have time to bail out." "At that point, I wasn't even hoping to fly Apollo anymore." "It just hurt too much to think about it." "But I guess somebody was looking out for me." "Somebody named Pete Conrad." "Al, you got a minute?" "Hi, Pete." "Sure." "What can I do for you?" "I just talked to Deke." "How'd you like to go to the moon with Dick and me?" "Do you think you can give up all this excitement?" "You okay?" "You're on board." "Mm-hmm." "It was such a shock... it took some time to really sink in." "Once on the moon, I had little time to think about such things." "I heard once the real cost of us being there... was about a million dollars for each minute." "Pete and I did our best to stretch every penny of America's money." "We're not just astronauts." "Suddenly, we're meteorologists, seismologists... geologists, geochemists, you name it." "Pete and Al, Houston." "Looks like you did your job." "We're getting data back." "Houston, you don't know how happy I am." "We're picking up your heavy footsteps going by the seismometer." " It's great." " Our bosses couldn't see us... but now they knew how fast we were working." "Man, are you dirty." "This is dirt dirt." "Remember how they took care of these experiments?" "In training you needed gloves to touch them." "Tell them it's important to keep the experiments free of dust." "Dr. Wilson asks you guys not to forget... to keep the connectors and experiments free of dust." "Roger." "Dirt or no dirt, everything worked fine." "While we were laughing and chatting away... poor Dick was trying to get work done." "Okay, Clipper." "You did not copy all of that PAD." "Is that affirm?" "Ed, if you want to talk to me, you'll have to take it off relay... so Pete and Al won't cut you out." "It's impossible to hear anything with those guys yakking." "There were so many things for us to remember to do on the moon... that we needed some kind of cheat sheet that would always be within reach." "Both of us had drafted a checklist to wear on our sleeves... but the actual flight item was made up by the ground crew just before launch... and put in our suits without our even seeing them... until we were on the moon." "Thanks to Dave Scott and the rest of our backup crew... we had a little extra reading to do." "Look at your checklist." "That's the terrain for me!" "With a 30-minute extension to our EVA..." "I was able to get the core sample tube in and out of the ground." "Pete and I got up our first load of moon rocks." "We dusted each other off, then I started back up the ladder." "Just like that, the first of my two four-hour moon walks was over." "It's impossible to truly appreciate something when it's happening." "I suppose I had flashes of thought like:" ""How did I get to the moon?"" "But if you put yourself in my place... your head would be filled with so many checklists and procedures... that all you could do, really, was look at the panel readouts... upon which your life depends... feeling bad about that lost TV camera." "It wasn't the reason we came to the moon." "I know we're all human and we mess up... but I sure felt bad about it." "I seem to be a bit more sensitive about such things than my colleagues." "Pete and Dick are more typical of the astronaut personality:" "Unflappable, confident, fun loving." "As for me, one out of three ain't bad." "We did have fun together." "We were the most close-knit of any crew that ever flew." "Pete even got us matching gold Corvettes... customized for our positions on the crew:" "CDR for commander..." "CMP for command module pilot... and LMP for me, the lunar module pilot." "Those men were then and still are my best friends." "If you're gonna do all this work to get to the moon, it should be fun." "I probably should have taken a sleeping pill, but that wasn't manly." "Finally, I was able to put work aside... allow myself a moment of peace, a moment of calm." "Finally, I got to sleep." "That doesn't sound right." "It's okay." "No warning lights." " The cabin pressure is okay." " It's the cooling pump." "Helium regulator's nominal." "It's not the burst disk." " It's the cooling pump." "It's okay." " Yeah?" " Cooling pump?" " Yeah." "I guess you're right." "I am." "Back to sleep." " Since you're up..." " Yeah?" "What?" " I've been awake for a while." " You have?" " Why didn't you say anything?" " This neck ring is cutting into my neck." "The cocksucker is killing me." "They snugged up my boot too tight, and it's pulling on the one side." "We have to re-lace it." "Now that we were up, I started thinking about the EVA to come:" "Our second and last." "We were planning to take a very historic photo... using a special timer we had snuck on board." " Hurry up." " Let's go." " Come on." "Sit down." " You got it set up?" "All the photographs from Apollo 11 were of Buzz taken by Neil... one astronaut with maybe the other guy reflected in his visor." "We had the idea to use this timer... and get both me and Pete in the picture... and not tell anyone about it until the film was developed." " It was a great idea." " Electric man." "The trick was finding the right moment so Houston wouldn't catch on." "By the time we made it to the Surveyor... we had less than an hour left outside in the Ocean of Storms." "Our first order of business was that secret photo." "I had practiced finding the timer plenty of times and never had trouble." "I had the whole procedure down to a few seconds." "The result would have been magnificent." "Had I been able to find the damn thing." "I'll be darned." " Isn't it in there?" " Let me look one more time." "Wait." "What's in your bag here?" " It's just a film magazine." " I'll try at this end." "I knew I was wasting precious time." "If it didn't turn up quick, it would be criminal to continue the search." " So..." " I've had it." " Forget it." " All right." "Let's mosey down there and grab what we came here for." "In 1967, Surveyor's TV camera had broadcast... the first-ever television pictures from the surface of the moon." "We aimed to take that camera home... so they could study the long-term effects of the moon... on manmade machines." "Getting it would mean we had completed all of our mission objectives." "We got her." "I got it." "Got something for you." "After more than three hours of hard work on the moon..." "I probably wasn't the most imaginative person." "Had I been thinking fully... that's when we would have taken the picture with that timer." "We could have shook hands standing in front of Intrepid." "It would have been a great picture, but I didn't think of it." "There was just one last thing to do." "None of us had forgotten the reason I was privileged enough to be there." "We made it, C.C." "We left C.C.'s wings on the lunar surface." "He's the reason there's four stars on our mission patch, not just three." "Then that was it." "Our walk on the moon was officially over." "I had spent seven hours and 45 minutes walking on the moon." "In a person's lifetime, that's nothing but a blink." "But what my eyes witnessed there at the Ocean of Storms... still fuels me... still fills me with a sense of wonder that is hard to put into words." "What a neat ride!" "Al said it was okay." "So was the flag." "Neil and Buzz's ascent had knocked the crap out of their flag." "They could send a man to the moon, but they couldn't think... to place the flag 50 feet away from a rocket engine... so it wouldn't get blown over." " Check our range and range rate." " Okay." "Intrepid, Houston." "You are ten seconds to LOS." "We'll pick you up again at 142:21:31 through honeysuckle." "Roger, Houston." "We'll see you on the other side." "What do you say?" "Want to take a minute and fly this vehicle?" "Even though I was called the lunar module pilot... the only way I'm supposed to fly the LEM... is in an emergency." " You got it." " I got it." "Some people might want the commander to fly all the time." "Some commanders might do just that." " How's it feel?" " It feels real good." " Oh, man." "It's better than the sim." " A lot better." "Yeah." "It really feels great." "It's unbelievable." "Man." "I don't know if anyone in Houston would have criticized Pete... but we were on the far side of the moon." "And they had no way of knowing." "So, for a few moments on Apollo 12... the lunar module pilot actually piloted the lunar module... thanks to my good friend, Pete Conrad." "Howdy, fellows!" "Jesus!" "Did you have to bring back half the moon with you?" "You ain't messing up my nice, clean spacecraft." "Strip down and wipe yourselves off before you come in here." "I mean it." "Go." "He's right." "You're filthy." "Welcome home, fellows." "Can I get you anything to drink?" "Water?" "Any beverage at all?" "Careful not to flip any breakers with anything hanging out." "Attitude:" "Dead minimum." "When we were out of our suits... we had to strap in and jettison the lunar module." " Spacecraft control SCS." " All right." "We're all set to jettison the LEM in about a minute." "You know, if we were to lose the hatch... when we blow the LEM... and one day someone was to find us floating around up here like this... they might be pretty confused." "At least we'll go out of this world the same way we came in." "You two." "You didn't come into the world in that suit?" "Man, I hope not." "After a day of lunar orbit photography... getting stereo photos of possible landing sights for Apollo 13 and 14... and when every piece of equipment was stowed... and checked off the flight plan... we prepared for the big burn that would take us home." "HRB forward, check." "All right." "We're just waiting for the DSKY." "I feel sort of like that song:" "Is That All There Is?" "I was just thinking the exact same thing." "Not that it wasn't amazing." "Just that the whole experience didn't feel like a headline." "It was real, and I had lived it." "Falling through the sky after a trip to the moon... is no more surreal an experience than getting there in the first place... or walking on its surface." "It's just one more step, one more planned event... that comes about because of science and imagination and effort." "You can go through all the manuals... all the procedures and checklists... all the graphs and blueprints that show how it's possible to do what we did... to go where we had gone." "You might be impressed that such a complicated thing was even attempted." "So impressed even that you... wouldn't realize that the three people who made the journey... and undertook all the challenges contained within it... were, in essence... not that much different from yourself." " Damn, that shower feels good." " When it doesn't feel that good... you'll know you're officially home from the moon." "They should let us out of here." "I don't have any diseases." "Me neither." "I just want to grab me some cajun food and a couple of beers." "How about you, Al?" "You back from the moon yet?" "Yeah, I'm back." "I'm back from the moon." " What are you laughing at?" " Yeah." "What's so funny?" "I don't think I'll ever forget... when all that good stuff was lighting up... and then CAPCOM called up SCE to auxiliary." "I didn't know what the hell that meant... and you were awfully quiet, I might add." "All I hear is Al Bean's voice, two octaves higher than normal... saying, "I know what it is."" "The best record of what it was like to have gone to the moon and return... is not in the tangible evidence of the endeavor." "It's not in the things we took or brought back." "It wouldn't have been in the TV footage we never got... which I beat myself up over for half the mission." "It's in the individual consciousness and vision... of the human beings who made the trip." "People like Dick Gordon, Pete Conrad and even me." "My, that sun is bright." "It feels good." " Let's go." " Yeah." "In the end, what I have left are memories." "Almost like it was a trip to the seashore... or a drive in the country." "They mix together in a constant stream... of thoughts and images that come and go... like all memories do." "The most precious things I brought back with me... were the same things I left with:" "My two best friends." "I realize when you go through any endeavor, any journey... whether across town or to the moon and back... all that matters is sharing the experience with people that you love." "That's what makes life special." "Because, ultimately, that's all there is." "That's really all there is." "There's a place up ahead and I'm going" "Just as fast as my feet can fly" "Come away Come away if you're going" "Leave the sinking ship behind" "During their flight to the moon... the crew of Apollo 13 made a live color television broadcast... back to Earth that was largely ignored." "Moments after the end of the TV show, an explosion occurred... which put the lives of the crew in danger... and made it impossible for any further pictures to be seen back home." "The remaining dramatic days of the flight played themselves out... by way of only the faint radio voices of the crew... the sketchy telemetry data from the crippled spacecraft... and the reports from the media that suddenly found itself... as blind to the events as the rest of the world... a world which had become bored with TV shows from outer space." "One of the biggest stories of the year became one with no TV pictures... only talking heads... all waiting to see whether three human beings would survive... a voyage from the Earth to the moon." "Out the right window now, you can see our objective:" "The moon." "I'll zoom in on it and see if this brings it in better." "We see it, 13." "It's beginning to look bigger to us now." "I can see quite distinctly some of the features with the naked eye." "So far, though, the moon looks pretty gray with some white spots." "Roger." "Okay, Houston, for the benefit of our television viewers... we've just about completed our inspection of Aquarius... and now we're proceeding back into Odyssey." "Okay, Jim." "We think you ought to conclude it from there now." "Any time you want to terminate TV, we're all set to go." "It's been a great show." "Roger." "This is the crew of Apollo 13... wishing everyone there a nice evening." "Good night." "Okay, 13, we've got a few housekeeping details for you to take care of." "Go ahead, Houston." "Press Center." "No, I can talk." "Nothing." "Roll right to 0-6-0 and null your rates." "Copy that. 0-6-0." "So, what are you doing for dinner?" "We'd like you to check your C-4 thruster isolation valve." "Okay, Jack." "How about lunch?" "We've got one more item for you, 13." "When you get a chance, we'd like you to stir your cryo tanks." "Okay, Houston, stand-by." "Yeah, we got space." "As a matter of fact, we've got a whole lot of space." "Yeah." "That's why we call it the Space Center." "Dave, who delivers good take-out?" "Okay, Houston, I believe we have a problem here." "This is Houston." "Say again, please." "Houston, we've had a problem." "We've had a main B bus undervolt." "Okay, 13." "Main B undervolt." "All right, Houston." "We had a pretty large bang with caution and warnings." " What does that mean, a "bang"?" " I don't know." "Some kind of jolt." " They had a main B bus undervolt." " You're kidding." " They're losing power?" " I don't know." " Could it be an instrumentation problem?" " I think it's more serious." " Lovell said they're venting something." " What the hell could they be venting?" "They could be running out of oxygen and electricity." " It could have been a meteorite." " It could have been a reindeer." " You'll have to improvise." " Why?" " I just got McAfee out of bed." " Emmett, you're on in 90." "I need handbooks for the command, service, lunar modules." "They're not having problems with the LEM." "They'll have to go somewhere if Odyssey keeps losing oxygen." " Yeah, but..." " Mr. Seaborn." "You know Warren Moburg, new vice president of the news division." "I've been a great fan of yours ever since radio." "They're powering down Odyssey and moving to the LEM." " Get me mission rules." " We're on it." "Julie, check the wire." "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then." "You're busy, but let me introduce you to Brett Hutchins from the Chicago bureau." "It's an honor, sir." "I'm here to do a piece on the Astros, the baseball team." "He's not just a sports reporter." "Give this boy any kind of story..." "Excuse me." "Glad to see you're working the upper management." "A mole at CBS says they've got something about trajectory and spin." " What about trajectory and spin?" " I don't know." " Transcripts." " One minute." " Somebody better have notes." " I did them." " We don't have it, son." " CBS is saying a possible meteorite." " It wasn't a meteorite." " How do you know?" "Larry, there are 48,700 electrical connections... in the command module alone." " Forty." " The chances of one of them fritzing... are a lot better than being hit by a meteorite." "Here it is, but it's totally routine." "They asked them to roll right at 0-6-0 and null..." " Null their rates?" " Yeah, that's it." " What else?" " Something here about C-4 thrusters." " Check C-4 thruster valve?" " Yeah." " Bingo!" " Coming to us in 30." " Who are you calling?" " A little birdie in the ops center." "They've had trouble with those thrusters before." "Ten cents says something inside that ship blew up." " There is no time." " Don't stand there." "Find out what kind of crap they're feeding Cronkite." "It is not known yet just what happened." "Perhaps it was hit by a meteoroid." "Perhaps there was an explosion." " Anything I can do?" " Get me the Astros-Cubs score." " What do you think?" " I hope it wasn't a meteorite." "It doesn't matter." "Those poor guys are screwed." "No one can predict these things precisely." "There appears to be no better than a ten percent chance... that the crew of Apollo 13 will make it home alive." "Rosen's predicting they won't make it back." "I just need a yes or a no." "Can you look me in the eye and say this came from outside the ship?" "We're on in 15." "What's he doing?" "I don't know what he's doing." "Sorry to intrude, but we're on in ten." "Thank you." "You owe me a dime." " I never took the bet." " Is he always like this?" "Emmett Seaborn is following that story." "Apollo 13 is America's 23rd manned space flight, and tonight it appears... that no previous mission has ever posed a greater risk to the lives of its crew." "NASA's flight controllers, having successfully guided four missions..." "It's Brett Hutchins." "Are you watching your TV?" "I'd love to be out there." "Who loves baseball more than me?" "I have to stay here and pitch Moburg a piece on the astronauts' families." "Yeah, I know they're under wraps." "Screw NASA." "It's worth a shot, right?" " Great." "Yeah." " As a result... the astronauts will likely use the lunar module's engine... to send them on a slingshot course..." " around the moon and back to Earth." " Thank you." "Good-bye." "But is the relatively tiny Aquarius up to the task?" "That, unfortunately, is a question that no one can answer." "13, Houston, we're water critical in the LEM... so we'd like to use as little as possible." "We'd like to make a free return maneuver of a 16-foot-per-second burn... in about 37 minutes." "Could you give us a little bit more time?" "We're working up a PAD for it." "What do you think about doing it at that time?" "We'll give it a try, Houston, if that's all we got." "Press Center." "Please hold." "They're not telling us anything." "I can't make 15 minutes." "Copy." "We've tentatively scheduled the briefing for 11:30." " Is that Houston time?" " Yes." "That's 15 minutes after the final." "I'm sorry." "We're doing the best we can." " How do I get a desk?" " Good luck." "Press Center, please hold." "Sam." " Not now, Shirley." " New York Times wants an exclusive." " Tell them I'll call later." " Call their office." "Hal, are the astronauts out of oxygen?" "If they were, they wouldn't be breathing." " So, they are breathing?" " Yeah." " Are they wearing space suits?" " They're in their shirt sleeves." " Excuse me." "Yeah?" " I have calls from Reuters and the AP." "If we don't handle this thing, it will spread like kudzu." ""Crew equipped with suicide pills"?" "Are suicide pills included in the crew rations?" "Are those the same little pills the CIA uses?" "Guys, there are no suicide pills, period." "I'll cover all this in greater detail at the press conference." "Excuse me." "The nets want to patch into the loop." " Cronkite wants to remote from ops." " I'll deal with Cronkite." "Protocol is flying Jack Swigert's folks into town." "We're to make sure there's no press and..." " And that." " How did he get here?" " Probably through a sewer." " They're finally putting you to work." " What are you doing here, Stan?" " I don't know if you've heard... but I'm now the vice president's press representative... for the National Aeronautics and Space Council." "I heard." "What are you doing here?" "Surely, you haven't forgotten Vice President Agnew's visit tomorrow." "Yeah, I guess it did slip my mind." "People, we'll try to move this along as quickly as possible... because, obviously, we have matters to attend to in Mission Control." "I assume that Deke Slayton, Chris Kraft... and Colonel James McDivitt need no introduction." "The command module's never been powered down in flight before." "Are you certain you can power it back up?" "While it's true that we've never done it before... every time we've pushed the hardware, it's done more than we thought it would." "We're confident that this is going to work." " The astronauts' families..." " Raise your hands, please." "Max." "Deke, any more information on what may have caused the damage... to the service module?" "Frankly, that is still a mystery." "We probably won't know anything... until we jettison the service module and get a good look at the thing." "With three astronauts crowded into the LEM... isn't there a chance the CO2 levels could get dangerously high?" "That is something we are looking at." "We are studying ways to fit Odyssey's lithium hydroxide filters into Aquarius." "We don't have an answer yet." " Will the astronauts' families..." " What about the reports... that the crew will run out of water and oxygen before reaching Earth?" "Let me answer that." "Apollo 13 is on the non-free return trajectory... it needed to reach its target at Fra Mauro." "Our first priority is to get it on a slingshot route... that will use the moon's gravity... to whip it around the backside and bring them back home." "We're overdue for the happy line." "Let's give them 20." "To answer Jerry's question... it will still take four days for the crew to get home... and we are concerned about consumables." "That's why we'll have a second speed-up burn... a PC plus two... two hours after the craft has reached the far side of the moon." "It will be about 8:00 this evening." " If the situation remains stable..." " Ignition." "We'll have the thing under control... and return the crew safely to Earth within three days." " Liftoff." " Sir!" "Forty percent." "Aquarius, you're looking good." "Auto shutdown." "You're looking at 1685 now." "You're go in the residuals." "No trim required." "No trim." "Is that right?" "That's affirmative." "No trim required." "Listen, I know we scheduled that interview with Jane tomorrow... but we'll have to postpone." " I totally understand." " I'll make it up to you." "When this thing is all over, you'll get the first exclusive." " That's great." "I appreciate that." " Sure." " Can we talk about the press pool?" " Emmett, don't start that." "We understand that you need to bring these men home." "We don't want to compromise that, but we're in the dark." "You want pool reports from the control center?" "Mission Control's across the courtyard 100 yards from here... where we aren't allowed to be." "Unless we know what you know when you know it, we'll start getting paranoid." "We'll have a press pool of two... one print, one broadcast, rotated every two hours... in the visitors' gallery where they can monitor the flight director's loop." "We hear everything he hears... but no taping or broadcast of the flight controller's communications." "Damn it, Hal." "You know it's the right thing to do." " What about the families?" " I'm sorry?" "Will NASA make the families available for interviews... or comments as the situation unfolds?" "Brett, these individuals are private citizens." "Oh, please. "Private citizens"?" "For the last ten years these private citizens... have availed themselves of free clothes, free cars and junkets." "NASA paraded them around like prized poodles." "Now when the going gets tough, the tough issue a quarantine?" "Uh-huh." "Interview the families when the loved ones are safely home." " I think we all understand that, Hal." " Actually, I think it's important..." "Like I said, it's just not gonna be a problem." " Appreciate that." " Thanks, Hal." " Mr. Hutchings..." " Hutchins." "Call me Brett." " What are you doing?" " Just trying to get a story." "Look, son, these family members are ordinary people, regular folks." "Who signed up to be historic figures courtesy of the U.S. Taxpayer." "Nobody put a gun to their head and made them do this." "Don't the shareholders have a right to know the real cost of the space program?" "There are better ways to build a relationship with NASA." "I don't want a relationship with NASA." "Do your job however you do it, but keep it out of my corner." "I'm trying to get something accomplished here." "Me too." "I'm standing in front of the house... of Commander Jim Lovell, the astronaut who's trapped in orbit." "What's your name?" "How do you spell it?" " Should we get this?" " The paper boy?" "Why don't we just interview their dog?" "This is ridiculous." "It's the paper boy." "Good work, morons." "Give me a couple minutes." "Hi, I'm Brett Hutchins." "Are you one of the reporters?" "Yeah." "My mom told me not to talk to any reporters." "That's fine." "I was..." "I'm in a bind, and I wanted to know if I can use your telephone?" "My mom told me to keep the reporters off our property." "Of course." "That's good." "I wouldn't want you to disobey your mom." "But I'll be real fast." "I'll be on and off, you know?" "Like a jackrabbit." "What's your name?" "Doris." "That's my mother's name." "At the Lovell household, the vigil continues." "Each passing moment bringing new hope and new terrors." "A mother comforting a young son... pointing the path of his father's desperately-prayed-for return." " Stop." "Did you shoot this from a tree?" " How did you know?" "How do we know they're not pointing at the clouds saying, "I see a horsey"?" " It's obvious what they're saying." " If you read lips." "Larry, this is brilliant reporting." " This is reporting?" " Yes." "Houston, we're burning 40 percent." "Houston, copy." "One hundred percent." "Roger, Aquarius." "You're looking good." "Aquarius, you were looking good at two minutes and still looking good." "Roger." "Don't forget descent rate one off." "Ten seconds to go." "This is Apollo Control at 79 hours, 28 minutes." " The crew of Apollo 13 is currently..." " Roger." "Shutdown." "Are you reading our 1640, Houston?" "We're reading it." "Good burn, Aquarius." "What's happening here?" "History." "Now we want to power down as soon as possible." "Roger." "Understand." "Suggest you just read off the circuit breakers... you want us to power down, as you did yesterday for us." "We have a procedure ready to send up to you here in about two minutes." "Let us know when you're all ready to take it." "Just going to the head, son." "I'm sorry, sir." "You can't leave the area without an escort." "If you can, just wait till the next shift." "Are you telling me I gotta wait an hour to take a piss?" "Of course not." "Thanks." "You look as bad as I feel." "Let's not do this again sometime soon." "Paul." "Don't ask." "People keep forgetting how cold it is up there." "It's hard to think straight when it's that cold." "Let's talk about the nuke problem." "How'd you know about that?" "First of all, I would not characterize it a "nuke problem."" "All I know is LEM's got a nuclear reactor on board." "Technically, but it's got less than eight pounds of plutonium." "It's the battery for the lunar surface experiments." " But instead of leaving it on the moon..." " It's flying home to mama." "The boys at the Atomic Energy Commission are about to go ape shit." "Is that what you're saying?" "Apparently, the AEC doesn't think it makes for good public relations... to bring home radioactive material." "Look, this battery is encased to survive a collision... or explosion without contaminating anything." "As long as it doesn't bonk somebody on the head." "Are you gonna quote me?" "For Christ's sake, give me a little credit." "What's the plan?" "The plan is to throw a wrinkle into a mission... that's already got 11,000 too many wrinkles in it." "It's like:" "Forget about the astronauts, we got politics to worry about." "What I'm asking you is:" "What do they want you to do about it?" "We're floating an idea to adjust the trajectory so we can dump the sucker... in the deepest trench in the Pacific." "If we don't have enough to worry about already." "Emmett says he has a major break." "Something about nuclear radiation and a trench and the LEM." " He thinks New York should cut in." " Your call." "Yeah, I know." "Maybe we should save this for the six." "I'll talk to you later." "Aquarius, is the noise any better now?" " Negative." " How do you read us now?" "We still have noise." "I'll tell you what we need." "Get the right procedures here before we get all balled up." "Okay, Jim, we'll look at it some more." "Freddo, I'm afraid this will be the last moon mission for a long time." "Do you agree with Commander Lovell's assessment that... this will be our last flight to the moon?" "I'm sure we've all been in situations... where we've found ourselves under pressure... and we make a comment that we might have phrased differently... under other circumstances." "Having said that, there are... a lot of questions that we need answers to..." " Didn't Agnew cancel his visit?" " Yeah." "So, what's he doing here?" " Emmett's story about the AEC..." " Your exclusive." " Deep background, of course." " Okay, shoot." "This administration is urging NASA... to develop an unmanned probe to Neptune." "A probe to Neptune?" "Find some room in today's story for that." "We have these three guys who may wind up orbiting Neptune themselves... so column inches are a little tight... but I'll keep you in mind." "Your loss." " Mr. Craig." " Yes." "I enjoyed your piece on the Lovell family." "Good to hear it 'cause..." "I understand you're looking to plant a story about a probe to Neptune." "As a matter of fact, I am." "I know a way I can make it worth your while." " Mrs. Swigert." "Dr. Swigert." " Yes." " And you're?" " Jeff Jordy, sir." "I'm with the NASA Office of Protocol." "Welcome to Houston." "I'm sorry about the circumstances." "I hope you have a pleasant flight." "I just hope we didn't miss them." "Come on!" " Just go!" "Excuse us!" "Let's go!" " I can't go." "There are the Swigerts right now." "Come on!" "Go!" "Thank you, Stanley Craig." "Hi, Dr. And Mrs. Swigert." "Brett Hutchins, NTC." "How do you do?" "Get in okay?" "Safe and sound?" "Administration officials say they remain committed to space exploration." "This aired just after the press conference this morning." "...their intentions to endorse an unmanned mission to Neptune... sometime in the near future." "Why is Brett Hutchins shilling for Stanley Craig?" "Sam, Jeff Jordy for you on line two." "Thanks, Shirl." "Langfitt." "Hold on." "Guess who just ambushed Jack Swigert's folks at the airport?" "At Mission Control, I'm Brett Hutchins." "I know Jack's doing what he loves the most... and I know he's in the best of hands:" "God's hands." "You son of a bitch." "Don't you think these people have been through enough?" " We got to get him out of there." " I think he gives it drama." "Lose it, please." "Come on." "Brett, they want you on remote in 23 minutes." "Yes." "We're leaving." "Now." "I can finish this." "Trust me." "Go ahead." "Edit three." "Hold on." "It's Emmett Seaborn for you." "He's not here." "Right." "There's a story that remains untold, and that is the story... of the excruciating toll on the families of these three brave men." "Thank you." "The untold story of the excruciating toll on the families..." "This afternoon I had an exclusive interview... with the parents of command module pilot Jack Swigert." "They're coming to us in 90." " Sarah." " How's my level?" " I need a favor, son." " We're on in 60." "I need you to pull this story." "Excuse me?" "We're both in this for the long haul." " What's going on?" " Hell if I know." " What are you talking about?" " Son, you don't want to burn bridges." " Thank you for your advice, but..." " No, I mean... to ambush a defenseless, old couple like that... is beneath the dignity of our profession." "I'd love to debate ethics in journalism right now, but I have a job to do." " There's a camera over your shoulder..." " Yeah?" " Thank you." "How are my levels?" " We're on top of it." "Get him out of there." "Tell Larry we're pulling the Swigerts footage." " What?" " What?" " We'll just rewrite your lead." " Damn it!" "I'm just trying to help you, son." " Nobody wants to see a mother in pain." " They do if it's news!" "That's not news!" "It's invasion of privacy!" "You think America wants to know about PC burns and passive thermal rolls?" "That's not news, man!" "That is Sominex!" "Now, please, leave me alone and just let me do my job!" "Ten." "Five, four... three, two..." "Thank you, Howard." "A few hundred yards from where I'm standing... over 1,000 journalists from 83 countries are monitoring every beat and tick... of this star-crossed mission." "But the untold story remains the excruciating toll... the last few days have had on the families... of these three very brave men." "I believe in the space program." "I believe it's worthy." "I believe this country needs heroes." "But I think it's not just the astronauts... it's all the men at NASA." "They're all heroes." "And I know that Jack would..." "That's a great piece of film." "It's been said that Apollo represents the greatest engineering achievement... in the history of mankind." "This, we're told, is the pride of our civilization..." " the triumph of technology over nature." " Hit us while we're down." "But Apollo 13 teaches us... that the price of technology is measured not in dollars... but in a mother's love for her son." "At Mission Control, I'm Brett Hutchins." "Kid can't even write in English, for God's sake." "Listen to this:" ""The price of technology is measured not in dollars... but in a mother's love for her son."" "If he keeps this up, they'll shut us out." " In ten." " I got to go." "From our Houston bureau where Emmett Seaborn is following that story." "The astronauts of Apollo 13 face new uncertainties... as they prepare for tomorrow's fiery descent through the Earth's atmosphere." "The first big test will come early tomorrow... when the crew brings Odyssey's electrical systems..." " What do I say to him?" " Just tell him it's the assignment." "I don't think it's gonna wash." "Don't worry about it." " When do you think we'll know that?" " We should know that in a few hours." "Thanks, Emmett." " And we're clear." " And we're out." "New York would like you to stay in the studio tomorrow." " Here?" " Yeah." "They think it would be better if you were holding down the fort here... and if Brett or somebody fed the descent reports into you from Mission Control." "Feeds them to me?" "Who's on air?" " You both are, but..." " Then he feeds them to New York." "That's where the show originates." "What am I doing?" "Providing perspective." "You could take it up with New York." "I shouldn't have to beg." "Aquarius, Houston." "Go ahead." "Okay, here's the big story." "Your attitude looks good except in rolls... so we'd like you to do the following:" "In minimal impulse pings, we'd like you to trim to zero pitch... which is about where you are now... to 008 degrees in roll... which is about 16 degrees from your present roll attitude... and to zero degrees in yaw, which is about where you are now." "We'd like you to do the body access align 400 plus 5-400..." "Could you help me?" "I'm not sure..." "How does that sound?" "Over." "Are you saying I'm rolled the wrong way?" "That's right, Jim." "I'm sorry." "Apollo 13 is 45,000 miles from Earth... and moving at 7,000 miles an hour." "Its course now adjusted so we should see it land in the Pacific... some five hours from now." "The helicopter carrier lwo Jima is on station there." "The weather, which has been on-again, off-again... is now on again." "Some of the spacecraft's most critical moments are approaching." "In about 20 minutes, at 7:23 Houston time... the astronauts will jettison their crippled service module." "At 10:53, they will cast off the lunar lander... that has been their lifeboat ever since the power failed on the main ship... some 82 hours ago." "What we don't know in the final hours of this extraordinary mission... is how the damaged spacecraft will stand up to the trauma... of re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere." "How do we tell whether the heat shield's been damaged?" "Drop it through the atmosphere and see if they survive." "Were Odyssey's heat shields damaged by the explosion?" "Will the pyrotechnics that deploy the parachutes... needed to slow the capsule... from a fatal 300 miles an hour... to a gentle 20 for splashdown function properly?" "We're getting word from Brett Hutchins that the astronauts... are about to jettison the service module." " Yes, Howard." "That procedure..." " Let's go directly to Brett." " We'll get it from the source." " Thank you, Howard." "In just a few minutes, the astronauts aboard the crippled Apollo 13... will jettison their service module... which was mysteriously damaged only two days into the mission... forcing them to abandon all hopes of a lunar landing." "With any luck, the crew will get a view of the damaged service module... to determine what may have caused the cataclysmic malfunction." " Are we icing Brett Hutchins?" " You bet." "Don't." "We have rules." "We can't reward someone for breaking them." "We can't afford to alienate a network." "This is Apollo Control Houston... at 140 hours, 15 minutes into the mission." "Apollo 13 presently 34,350 nautical miles out from the Earth... traveling at a speed of 12,846 miles per hour." "Meanwhile, in the Mission Control viewing room, the crowd is increasing." "Already here are Senator Phil Hart of Michigan..." "Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Science and Technology..." "California Representative George Miller, Chairman of the House Space Committee..." "For the post-mission press conference... the senator will make the opening statement." "The congressman's been more closely identified with the program." " You have absolutely no shame, Fred." " Gentlemen." "Sorry, boys." "Administrator Paine should make the opening..." "If they don't make it through re-entry, who wants to go first?" "Okay, Houston." "Do we have a go for pyro arm?" "Stand by for a go on pyro arm and LEM jettison." "The astronauts are about to jettison the lifeboat that has served them so well." "Are there any dangers in this maneuver?" "This is a moment of high suspense for the astronauts... their families and everyone on the ground at Mission Control." "Just answer the goddamn question!" "...reverse thrusters to back them away from the LEM." "They've wanted to hold onto their LEM lifeboat for as long as possible." "The SCC's logic is on." "Just copied that." "You are go for pyro arm, go for LEM jettison." "Real fine." "Ten seconds." "Five." " LEM jettisoned." " Okay, that was the LEM." " At 141:30 ground elapsed time." " Copy that." "Farewell, Aquarius... 10:43 a.m. Yeah." "Quote this: "Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank you." Yeah." "This is Apollo Control... at 142 hours, 30 minutes." "Apollo 13 is presently 6,000 miles from Earth... traveling at a speed of 25,000 miles per hour." "Re-entry expected to begin in ten minutes." "In four minutes, the leading edge of the command module... will bite into the atmosphere." "And, as the accelerating ship encounters the thickening air... friction will begin to build... generating temperatures of 4,000 degrees across the face of the heat shield." "If this energy generated by the infernal descent... were converted to electricity... it would equal 86,000 kilowatt hours... enough to light up Los Angeles for one and a half minutes." "If it were converted to kinetic energy... it could lift every man, woman and child ten inches off the ground." "For the craft, however, it will have but one effect." "As temperatures rise, a dense cloud of ionized gas will surround the ship... reducing communication to a hash of static for about three minutes." "If radio contact is restored at the end of this time, controllers will know... that the heat shield is intact... and the spacecraft did survive." "If not, they will know that the crew was consumed in flames." "Odyssey, Houston." "We just had one last time around the room... and everybody says you're looking great." "I know all of us want to thank all you guys down there... for the very fine job you did." "That's the nicest thing anybody's ever said." "All right, LOS in about a minute or a minute and a half." "In entry attitude, we'd like omni charlie." "And welcome home." "Thank you." "Apollo 13 is re-entering the atmosphere." "We are awaiting reacquisition of signal in approximately three minutes." "Odyssey, Houston." "Standing by." "Over." " Okay, Joe." " Okay, we read you, Jack." "We're looking at the weather on TV." "It looks just as advertised:" "Real good." "A remarkable end to a four-day ordeal... as the astronauts streak homeward..." "We still have to wait for the drogue chutes and the main parachutes." "They could have been damaged... by exposure to low temperatures when the heating elements... were powered down." "I guess it's not over till it's over." "The Soviets learned that almost three years ago... when the parachute of their Soyuz 1 capsule failed to open... and Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed on impact." "Jesus." "Anything make him happy?" "He's just filling air." "We've got a couple of good drogues." "There go the mains." "Emmett, it looks good from here." "What do you think?" "I think it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." "Houston, this is Odyssey." "We're in stable one, the ship is secure... and our buoyancy's holding." "What did we learn?" "Perhaps the limits of technology... at least when it comes to protecting us from our own hubris." "But those are issues for another day." "What matters now is that three great men... are safely aboard the USS Iwo Jima... and steaming for home." "In Houston, this is Emmett Seaborn." " Thank you, Emmett." " We're clear." "I'm getting too old for this." " Good job." " Thanks." "That was a hell of a job." "Could we talk..." "I've been promised the first post-mission interview with Gene Kranz." "If I was at Mission Control instead of here..." "I'd be doing it right now, instead of a half hour from now." "You get it?" "I get it, all right." " Where the hell were you?" " At our downtown spa." " Mr. Seaborn." " Where is he?" " Who?" " Gene to me, Mr. Kranz to you." " We're setting up in a VIP room..." " Let's go." "Sorry." "You getting too big for me now?" " Congratulations, Gene." "Hell of a job." " Thank you, sir." " What are you doing here?" " Huh?" "Yeah, they told me you were staying downtown." "Who told you that?" "Heck, you're here." "Why not let the A team take over?" "Excuse me, gentlemen." "Yes?" "Look, Emmett... if it's a problem, you can do the interview." "I don't mind." "No, it's okay." "I..." "I got work to do."