December 12, 2019 • 43 mins
You think you know this story, but you don’t. As Apollo 11 prepares to launch into the history books, we wake with the astronauts and won’t leave their side until their course is set for the Moon. Take a ride with us on the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever created—the Saturn V.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nine Days in July is a production of I Heart
Radio and Trade Traft Studios in association with High five Content. Okay,
off flight Controller's got I'll go for power decent retro FI.
Don't go guide and control Calcom, go Sergeant, go Capcom,
(00:24):
or go for power decent. We don't get any here
A year ago for a power decent over backer copy.
You think you knew this story, are right before good
A couple on day protoomum, but you don't proto auto
d R pop. But read that pop. But at the
(00:44):
border board day read that program alarm the trolbo toobo
to gether the reading on the twelve boat through program
alarm into the agg degree posy to pick that ray.
Feel it to be a little louder. Rock are hundred
(01:04):
ft down at nine things six hundred feet. They're four
hundred feet down at nine pay forward four hundred feet
Thannard faid down for app pouring forward three hundred feet.
I don't want anna wanna down If the astronauts inside
the lunar module are unable to reach the Moon surface.
Years of training, billions of dollars, and the hopes and
(01:28):
dreams of an entire planet work for nothing today. They
are like callouts. From now on will be fueled six day,
six day seconds, but they paid don't have down drip
into the right level. There is zero margin for error.
One miscalculation could cost them their lives third thurday seconds.
(01:53):
So much of the Apollo leven story you've heard is
the exact same moments, recycled and repeated over end over again.
But not here. This time you are going to hear
the stories behind the stories, the ones you've never heard.
For the next nine hours, we are going to stow
away aboard a tin can, soaring through space at twenty
(02:14):
four thousand miles an hour. We're also going to go
behind the consoles of mission control to meet the unsung heroes,
the men and women who didn't make the headlines but
whose stories deserve to be told and will be returning
to Earth to look into what was happening while Apolo
eleven raced to the Moon and how everything stopped cold
when the eagle touched down. Using never before heard mission audio,
(02:38):
I'm going to tell you the story of Apollo eleven
as it unfolded, day by day, hour by hour, minute
by minute. This was one of the most tumultuous eras
in American history. The profoundly unpopular Vietnam War was raging
on without an end in sight. Saia that we are
fired and stalemate same thing all only realistic, if unsatisfactory conclusion.
(03:04):
Back home, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. And
the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States,
Robert F. Kennedy, were assessments. Very sad news for all
of you, and that is that Martin Luther King and
was shot and was killed tonight. Remember, at the Democratic
National Convention, thousands of demonstrators clashed violently with police, National
(03:28):
guardsman or push thee hippie and anti war demonstrators back
a half a block or so from the hotel area.
On top of all of this, the United States was
embroiled in a cold war with its ideological nemesis, the
Soviet Union. Nuclear tipped violence seemed to be just one
thoughtless mistake away. Freedom as many difficulties, and democracy is
(03:57):
not perfect, but we have never had to put a
wall up to keep off people in smack in the
middle of This is the proxy war of a lifetime,
the race for space. I'll be up Apollo eleven is
about more than putting a man on the moon. Hanging
in the balance is the national pride and global grandstanding
(04:19):
of two superpowers on the brink of war. For many
who lived through this era, the United States seemed to
be coming apart at the seams. Not since the Civil
War had the country felt more divided or more angry.
Never had our democracy felt more brittle or imperiled. Sound familiar.
America needed a miracle. We needed a reason to reach
(04:42):
for a greatness beyond our misfortunes. We needed Apollo eleven.
No pressure right. I'm Brandon Phibbs. I'm a science documentary
producer and journalist. Before that, my office was the cockpit
of an S three Viking jet aircraft, and my job
(05:02):
was to hunt submarines for the United States Navy. I
invite you to join me as we embark on one
of the most thrilling adventures any human has ever undertaken.
This is nine Days in July. At exactly four fifteen
on the morning of July nineteen sixty nine, Neil Armstrong,
(05:25):
Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins waken their living quarters at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Launch Control all elements
at the countdown Apollo eleven for setting satisfactorily. At this time,
the crew was described as appearing to be rested, that is,
a fiddle and ready to go. More than one thousand
miles away Admission control in Houston, Texas, two dozen flight
(05:49):
controllers are powering up their equipment. Apollo eleven lifts off
the pad in a little over four hours. This is
the calm before the storm. The rest of America is
still to sleep, including the astronauts families, though I suspect
the night has not been especially considerate to the astronauts wives.
It's time to make history. Today is the day Apollo
(06:09):
eleven leaves for the Moon. Neil, Buzz and Michael have
a quick breakfast before reporting to the sud up room,
where a small army of technicians is waiting to help
them into their space suits, basically a spaceship shaped like
a human being. Once the astronauts are sealed in, they
are attached to horrible cases delivering pure oxygen, and just
(06:30):
like that, Neil buzzin Michael will not breathe outside air
or hear another human voice that is not coming through
a speaker for the next nine days back in Houston,
Gene Crantz is already awake. I have this incredibly spectacular
(06:51):
I mean just absolutely deep sleep, no dreams, no worries,
no nothing. But now he's pacing the house like a
caged animal. You got all this energy and you don't
have anything to do with it. You got no focus,
and you can't sleep. Heck, we had six kids and
and uh, MARTA's trying to figure out some way. Oh Jean,
what are you going to settle down? When are you
going to sleep? Jean's wife pushes him out the door.
(07:13):
Jean is one of four flight directors for Apollo eleven,
meaning the weight of the entire mission rests on his shoulders. Well,
he's not on duty this morning. He still wants to
be in mission control when Apollo eleven lifts off. Traditionally,
all flight directors show up in there and you find
a place to sit near three or four deep. Every
console is three or four deep. Nobody's gonna miss the
launch for the first lunar landing mission. Nobody. You know
(07:36):
Jean Crantz, even if you don't realize it. If you
saw the film with Pollo thirteen, he was the one
played by Ed Harris, you know the failure is not
an option. Guy, the guy whose wife made him a
new vest for every mission. Now why I pumped myself
up each time I get ready to do something. Stars
and traps. John Phillips sus I got probably thirty four
(07:56):
year records tapes and at this time also we had
eight act recorders, so I had him in the car.
It was every place i'd go, I'd have John Philip Sousa.
And this is why I get up to speed, get
the energy, get the adrenaline flowing. At around six three am,
Florida time, Neil, Buzz and Michael waved to the gathered guests,
(08:17):
press and other NASA employees and climb aboard a van
for a short trip to the launchpad eight miles away.
As they draw closer, they can see their Saturn five
bathed in giant Xenon lights, the tallest, heaviest, and most
powerful rocket ever created. Normally, Launchpad thirty nine A is
a beehive of activity and equipment, but today it is
(08:39):
eerily deserted. The weather is perfect, with only a light
breeze from the southeast, and temperatures are already climbing into
the mid eighties. Jim Lovell was the backup commander for
Apollo eleven. He flew to space on the Saturn five
twice aboard Apollo eight and apollow their team. What we
got off the vehicle, I started to walk up to
the elevator to go up to uh where we would
(09:02):
get inside the spacecraft. It was what have apprehensive to
the fact that this vehicle is sitting here with five
and a half billion pounds of high explosives, liquid oxygen,
liquid hydrogen. You know it happened, you know history. The
astronauts board the elevator and begin ascending to the top
of the rocket. Though they have yet to blast off.
(09:24):
The astronauts have already left the Earth. The Saturn five
rushing past them is an engineering marble. At three hundred
and sixty three ft, it is sixty ft taller than
the Statue of Liberty. It carries more than six million
pounds of rocket fuel and weighs as much as four
hundred elephants. Apollo said Launch Control at this time and
(09:45):
their time proof for Apollo eleven has quoted the high
speed elevator from inside the A level and the mobile launcher.
That's Jack King. He's an assid Public Affairs Officer. You're
going to be hearing a lot from nassa's p a
os this series. It was their job during the mission
to explain what was going on to the public. There's
a high speed elevator six minutes which will carry them
(10:06):
to the three level, the spacecraft level. Dick Gordon went
to space on Apollo twelve. As he looked down at
the Saturn five on launch day, it's suddenly hit him
and say, hey, this is real. That beach below is
that Saturn five is a living, breathing object. It's vetting
vapors and ice is falling off of it, and it's
(10:27):
a creature. There's just about to come alive. The Saturn
five consists of three stages, basically just gas tanks with engines.
On the tippy top is a needle like structure. That's
the launch escape tower. It's there to yank the astronauts
free in the event of an emergency during launch. Directly
beneath the tower is a metallic gum drop. That's the
Command module. That's what our astronauts will spend the next
(10:50):
nine days. In the cylindrical section just beneath it is
the service module. So where's the lunar module, the spidery
looking moonship that will actually make the voyage to the
surface of the Moon that's hidden away inside of a
compartment on top of the third stage. Remember this configuration
because it will become very important in a couple of minutes. Shortly,
(11:10):
we'll expect us and it's Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins
to come across Swing arm nine. The follow as time
empathy to the White Home and a standby to board
the spacecraft. The p AO only mentions Neil and Michael
because two flights below their final destination, the elevator pauses
for Buzz to step off. The loading area above is
(11:31):
simply too small to accommodate everyone at once. As the
elevator pulls away, Buzz welcomes the chance to steal a
couple contemplative moments. In the distance, he can see numerous
camp fires flickering on the beaches spectators who have been
camping out for days. He can see the vehicle assembly
building where the Saturn five's pieces were mated together by area.
(11:51):
It is one of the largest buildings in the world.
It's four walls enclose eight full acres and on human
Florida days, rain clouds have been known to form inside
the one story building. Once it was complete, the Saturn
five was perched on top of the crawler transporter, a
vehicle the size of a baseball infield, which began the
(12:11):
slow process of moving to launch pad at one mile
a gym level. Recalls pausing on the gantry as the
enormity of what he was about to do sunk in.
I had a few moments to look down, and there
I saw the lights of the press people going into
their press sites to get set up to watch the launch,
(12:34):
and I thought, we're going to the boom. I mean,
all this training and all this navigation training and everything else,
you know, I just took it as part of everyday
type of working. But that sort of forgetting where I
was going, and uh, it was suddenly the realization said, hey,
they're serious about this. The space pat command of Neil
(12:57):
Armstrong and they command Module Violet. Michael Collins, now proceeding
a class to swing arm into the small white homb
that attaches at the spacecraft level. At just shy of
seven am, Neil climbs off the elevator and enters the
white room, the space connecting the Saturn five to the
support structure. The unchallenged lord of the White Room is
(13:19):
Pad Leader Gunther, vent bespectacled and bow tied. The rail
thin Gunter is responsible for the Saturn five from the
moment it arrives at the pad till the moment he
seals the astronauts inside their capsule. The astronauts consider him
to be a good luck charm. They never want to
fly without. Der Pad Furer a nickname given to Gunter
by Mercury astronaut John Glenn. You heard that right, der
(13:42):
Pad Furer. During World War Two, Gunter was a flight
engineer for the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force. He immigrated
to America after the war, where he found work in
the burgeoning space program. If it seems peculiar that a
former Nazi is enmeshed at such a high level in
the U S Space program, gerg your loins. Gunter is
one of nearly two thousand x Nazis on Nassa's payroll.
(14:04):
How the hell did that happen? We'll get back to that.
Neil grabs the handrail and swings himself inside the command module.
It's roughly the size of a SUBU outback. He takes
this position at the left of the capsule, the place
reserved for the mission commander. The spacecraft commander Neil Armstrong
now aboard the Apollo eleven space class at the level
(14:27):
at the pad. Morning, Nail, good, welcome aboard. I feel
like a good mone Michael, the command module pilot, takes
his seat on the right. Eventually, Buzz is called up
and drops into the center seat for the lunar module pilot.
The gang's all here, though he once served in the Navy.
(14:49):
Kneels the civilian now and a former test pilot. The
other two are officers of the U. S. Air Force.
Each of the men was born in ninety Each way
is a hundred and sixty five pounds, and each are
within an inch of the same height five ft eleven inches.
Neil is the quintessential calm, cool and collected personality. He
is unruffled, unassuming, and always laser focused. He never opens
(15:12):
his mouth unless he has something important to say. The
primary objective is is the ability to demonstrate that man
mankind in fact can do this kind of a job.
Buzz couldn't be more different. He is blunt and opinionated. Luckily,
his abrasive opinions are backed up by one of the
greatest brains at NASA. We certainly have the utmost confidence
(15:35):
of total six that Michael is the peacemaker he once
called Neil and Buzz amiable strangers. No one remembers Michael.
He didn't walk on the Moon, and so history has
declared him Apollo eleven's official third wheel. But he was
the glue, the fun one, witty, lighthearted, and quick with
a joke. We're going nine seven percent of the way there,
(15:56):
and that suits me just fine. These guys weren't friends.
They definitely weren't getting beers after work, but they were
pros with a job to do. Together, they are about
to crack history wide open. At all. Three astronauts now
avoids the spacecraft. Gunter and his technicians strapped the astronauts
in disengage their portable oxygen and begin hooking them up
(16:18):
to the ship's internal life support system and communications. Neil
gives the thumbs up, and the White Room team seals
the hatch. At this time or this in the process
of closing the hatch on the Apollo eleven spacecraft, the
astronauts are now cut off from all human contact they
won't see another person for the next nine days. For
the next two and a half hours, the astronauts run
(16:40):
through checklists. At this point in the countdown, spacecraft command
and Neil Armstrong once again appears to be the basic
worker in the spacecraft as he's performing a series of
alignment checks associated with a guidance system in the spacecraft.
The astronauts are subdued working inside the tunnel vision of
their training, but Michael Steele a moment of self reflection
(17:01):
as the only one not descending to the moon surface,
he realizes that the odds of him getting back in
one piece are far better than the two men flanking
ten minutes away from our plan lifts up the access
arm retracts. The men in the capsule feel a jolt.
In Houston, mission Control is a beehive of activity. Seconds
(17:24):
after Apollo eleven takes flight. The men and women in
this building will take over responsibility of the rocket from
the launch center in Florida. Gene Crantz is sitting in
the back. He catches sight of Cliff charles Worth, the
flight director for the launch. Charles Worth is the conductor
choreographing a room of finally two instruments. Charles Worth calls
for the room's attention. It's time to get a go
(17:46):
no go for launch sequence. He found fun go Fight, Go,
Busch Control Networks, you get it in everything has run
his life operations speed. When the countdown clock reaches t
(18:11):
minus nine minutes, Charles Worth orders the doors to mission
control locked. Jean bows his head in silent prayer. Three
and a half miles away minimum safe distance from the launchpad,
the grandstands are packed with invited guests and dignitaries. Three
thousand newsmen from fifty six countries stand by to file
to day's story. I think it's really a great event
(18:32):
for a man from just our planet, not just the
United States, to get on a do you actually be
on another world? Along miles of grid luck roads, bridges,
sand flats and beaches, more than a million spectators hold
their breath. Janet Armstrong, Neil's wife, and their sons Mark
and Ricky, have escaped the crush of onlookers and snooping
press by sleeping aboard a small yacht floating in the
(18:55):
Banana River. Unsurprisingly, Janet didn't get a wink of sleep
last night. Collins and Joe Aldron watched from the privacy
of their homes, glued to their television sets, like an
estimated five hundred and thirty million people across the globe.
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Mike Collins where make the flight of
Apollo eleven. Let's take a look at their activities, beginning
(19:16):
last night at dinner. Andy Aldrin, buzz is youngest, remembers
the morning, well, I was home with mom, which kind
of annoyed me. I wanted to be at the launch,
and Mom told me that we couldn't go to the
launch because NASA didn't want us there because if something happened,
they think it would just be really horrible for the
(19:38):
family to be on camera with, you know, a national tragedy.
It would be decades before Andy would discover the truth.
NASA had no problem with them being there. Pat Collins
and his mother were merely trying to guard their privacy
and brittle emotions in case something went catastrophically wrong. I've
seen pictures of my mom during that time, and she's
(20:00):
literally very, very anxious, but I didn't notice it at
the time. The only place on Earth where people are
not sitting in front of their television sets is the
Soviet block there on the other side of the planet.
The workday is coming to a close, just like any
other day. Apollo eleven will not be televised. Everything, all
(20:28):
the years of research, testing, training, and even the deaths
of beloved colleagues has led to this moment. It's one
minute seconds on the Apollo missions, the flights to land
of the first men on the Moon. All indications are
coming in to the control center at this time indicate
we are of gold. Neil Armstrong. Just we put it back.
(20:50):
It's been a real smooth countdown. We passed the fifty
second month. Power transfer is complete while on internal power
with the launch vehicle at this time, and a good
an report. It feels good. Ten nine ignition sequenced. Jim
Leble paints the scene inside the command module before the liftoff.
(21:11):
We can start to hear things happen, you know, maybe
with a five or six seconds to go, we hear
the rumbling of the fuel started to float down into
the engine at a m the Saturn five engines ignite.
The vehicle pours out flame, building thrust, but it doesn't move.
Hold down lamps keep it in place where the edge
(21:33):
is the knife Before the liftoff, there's a tremendous war
roar of the spacecraft is shaking back and forth. Uh,
and you're just sitting there hoping that everything works. So
okay five or three two one, they're all all engine
running at zero. Explosive bolts released the vehicle. You might
(21:56):
think it erupts off the pan, but it doesn't. This
is the point at which gravity is the strongest and
the ship is the heaviest. Walter cunning Gown who flew
aboard Apollo seven. It's not a sudden acceleration. It's not
like a cat shot on an aircraft carrier. I mean
that is like that, and you see spots in front
of your eyes. With this, you're starting out with zero
(22:16):
velocity and it's just a slow building. It's like a
train behind you that's just building up. Ripped off let
the thirty two minute they are ripped off on a
follow eleven, not on her boat. Janet Armstrong tightly clutches
her son Ricky as her husband's rocket emerges from the
Royaling Smoke and Flames power program. On reporting their role
(22:41):
in pitture program, which you put topolo and living on
a proper heading. That's Neil letting everyone know that the
Saturn five is clear of the tower and angling itself
to its proper heading. The other voice you hear is
astronaut Bruce McCandless at the capcom or capsule communicator position
in Michig Control. Bill Anders flew on Apollo eight and
remember is his launch like it was yesterday. We had
(23:02):
simulated essentially everything we could think of, and yet the
very first seconds of the flight were a total surprise
to everybody. On the violent sideways movement and massive noise,
Thomas Mattingly Abolo sixteen launch man Apollo was really dramatic.
It feels just like a challenge. It's shaking and banging
(23:26):
and pushing hard, and there is no doubt there's something
really gigantic is going on. Neil's left hand is wrapped
around the aboard handle. One quick twist would activate the
launch escape tower and lift the command module free from
the Saturn five, assuming he even knows there's a problem.
Bill Anders recalls that the first phase of the ascent
(23:47):
was so noisy it was impossible to communicate with the
men sitting right next to it. Had there been a
need to abort, detected on my instruments, I could not
have relayed that. Michael wonders how the headlines will read
tomorrow if Neil A. Sidentally rotates that aboard handle moonshot
falls into ocean. Last transmission from Armstrong was oops altitudes
two miles and you're good at one a minute, down
(24:12):
range one mile, altitude three four miles. Now velocity two
thousand per second. We're through the region of maximum dynamic pressure. Now.
Maximum dynamic pressure is the point at which the Saturn
five is under the greatest amount of physical stress. Is
it attempts to smash its way through the densest part
(24:32):
of the atmosphere. Bill anders. As we burned out on
the first stage, we were hitting about out of the
six or eight g s. You're back in your seat,
hardly lift your arms. You have trouble breathing to try
to reach out. It's like you had a light in
your hand. The first stage of the Saturn five rocket
is made up of five clustered F one engines. These
(24:55):
are the largest, most powerful rocket engines ever designed. The
nozzles are so low large that the Apollo leven spacecraft
can fit inside them. Each one weighs more than nine
tons and produces seven point five million pounds of thrust.
How much is that. It's equivalent to roughly thirty seven
forty seven jumbo jets pumping out more power than eighty
(25:16):
five Hoover dams. In the two minutes of their use,
they gobble up twenty tons of fuel per second. When
they're done, the Saturn five will have gone from a
dead stop to fifteen times faster than the speed of
a rifle bullet, and it will achieve that speed while
carrying one hundred and thirty tons, about as much weight
(25:37):
as ten full school buses. Think of the Saturn five
three stages as a relay race. One runner circles the track,
and when they get back to the point at which
they began, they hand the baton off to another teammate,
who carries it from there. That's also how the Saturn
five gets its payloaded. Do orbiting gave. A couple of
(26:02):
the first stage's engines begin to shut down. The higher
the Saturn five goes, the less Earth's gravity is working
against it. The mass of the vehicle is now dropping
by more than thirteen metric tons per second if it
keeps accelerating at the same speed that was necessary to
get it off the ground. It is going to overshoot
its intended orbit and fling the crew into deep space
(26:22):
down range thirty five miles thirty miles high standing by
for the hardboard engine cuts down. Now, just two minutes
and forty two seconds after launch, the Saturn's first stage
shuts down completely. Apollo eight's bill anders, then the engine
is cut off. You go from a plus six G
to a minus one. I felt like I was going
(26:44):
to be catapulted right through that instrument panel. Explosive charges debtonate,
severing the two stages. The first stage tumbles back towards
the planet. Half a second later, at just shy of
nine oh five am, the second stag age engines ignite.
They will fire for six minutes, elevating the payload to
(27:04):
more than one hundred miles in altitude. The spacecraft is
currently traveling at more than sixty three hundred miles per hour.
This is the point at which the G forces are
the greatest. The astronauts are nearly four times heavier than
their normal weight. Power und the arm from confirming both
the engine skirt separation and the launch escape tower separations go. Today,
(27:33):
they finally gave me a wines that last voice you
heard was Michael. While Neil and Buzz both have their
own windows, the launch escape tower blocked Michael's view. He
is finally getting his first look outside the ship. Down
range two seventy miles, altitude eighty two miles, velocity twelve thousand,
four hundred seventy. The second stage is done at nine
(27:55):
minutes and nine seconds. It is jettison and falls back
to Earth, but for time, the astronauts taste witlessness. At
am the third and final stage comes to life. They're
gently pushing them back into their couches. A follow eleven
that then you are gonna firm to go for urban
habit and go velacinating certain twenty five th six A
(28:22):
follow eleven, it says jison. They booster has been configured
for orbital code. Folk spacecraft are looking good or The
third stage blasts what remains of the Saturn five into
a one and three nautical mile high Earth orbit. Do
you remember playing tag as a kid? Think of orbit
as base. It's a safe place where the astronauts can
(28:44):
hang out for a while. If something didn't work right,
they can turn around and head home. But if everything
went according to plan, they finally have a chance to
catch their breath. Apollo eleven will now circle the Earth
one and a half times. The third stage remains its
(29:07):
job is not yet done. The crew removed their helmets
and gloves and unbuckle from their restraints. The pressures of
gravity have lifted. They begin to levitate euphorically in micro
gravity and begin unstowing and checking their equipment. Michael decides
that Buzz should take some pictures. Ever since Wally Shara
bought his own Hasselblad from a local Houston camera shop
(29:29):
and used it to take the first pictures from space.
A word Mercury eight. The Swedish company has been manufacturing
cameras for Nassa. They had to be as light, as small,
and as rugged as possible. Plus they had to work
in the vacuum of space and in temperatures as high
as two hundred and forty eight degrees fahrenheit in the
sun and negative eighty degrees fahrenheit in the shade town
(29:53):
that was Neil. The astronauts find themselves on the dark
side of the Earth, lost in the planet's shadow. They
moved caut a lee about the cabin. It takes a
while for the inner ear to acclimate to micro gravity.
Rapid movements reduce even the most iron stomached metro to
a nauseous mess. A real need to picture that here, real,
(30:22):
There's just one problem. They can't find the camera. Everybody's
seen a half of breast bloating bird at two lights
for sunrise. No, but I mean where you want to
get it before the l T L I is translunar injection.
This is the upcoming burn which is going to propel
the spacecraft out of Earth orbit and toward the Moon.
(30:44):
The vehicle's acceleration will impart one point five g s,
and anything not secured inside the cabin, like a camera,
becomes a potentially deadly projectile. Ah. Here it is Planet
Ye floating on the alf all over standing collection. Clearly
(31:06):
the guys are having fun with the camera. Michael is
spoofing Cecil B. De Mill, the legendary film director of
the Greatest Show on Earth and the Ten Commandments. He
were ready to go ahead with the in the docking probe,
and you know with the RN's hot fire when you're
ready to monitor. So did you go ahead with the probe? Now?
(31:28):
Remember when I told you to keep in mind how
everything on top of the Saturn five was configured. Here's why.
After A Paul eleven initiates the coming trains lunar injection,
they will undertake one of the single most difficult and
dangerous elements of the entire mission. The command service module
will separate from the third stage, make a you turn
dock with a lunar module and pull it out slightly
(31:53):
one already open data, We confirm existion and the throats go.
Two hours and forty four minutes into their mission. At
eleven forty six am Houston time, Apollo eleven is finally
on its way. Right, you know, there's a little tiny
pretty grating the founds. The old FLA can be praga
(32:20):
brecond phenomenal, right, they were we have cut off the
last we have had a t l I cut off
seven article. That's more than twenty four thousand miles an hour,
more than enough to escape the Earth's gravitational field. He's
(32:41):
been eleven said and gave up right, all right, you're
eleven will pass that on and it's sly looks like
you're rolling your roy now. We have no complaints with
any of the three stages on that. That right was beautiful.
Michael glances out the window at Earth launch Day. Crowd
is probably still stuck in bumper to bumper traffic trying
(33:03):
to get home. He thinks on the yacht where Janet
Armstrong and her kids are hiding out from the press,
no champagne bottles have been popped. According to Neil's wife,
there will be no celebrating until her husband is back home.
Your Gopher separation. It's time to separate the command module
from the Saturn five and retract the lunar module. Shortly
(33:26):
after noon in Houston, Michael takes over the controls everywhere
they used them about the sad explosive bolts free the
Command Service Module from the Saturn five third stage. Expertly,
Michael uses short thruster bursts to ease the spacecraft forward.
Tucked beneath and behind it, hidden inside the third stage
(33:48):
garage rests the lunar module. It's spider like legs tucked
tight to its body, we can Michael guides the Command
Service Module out to a distance of one or so
feet and rotates it around so that the CSMs docking
port is aligned with that of the lunar module. Michael
uses thrusters to slowly close that distance. Neil and Buzz
(34:11):
help him site navigating. No, I don't think he's a
little bit alright, alright, They are now looking directly at
the top of the lunar module. To Michael, the docking
port looks like a malevolent black eye. Four conical shroud panels,
which protected the lunar module during launch, peel away like
the opening petals of a flower. The moonship dubbed the
(34:32):
Eagle begins to gleam in the sunlight. All right, lul look,
it's time to see if the hundreds of hours Michael
spent alone in the command module trainer preparing for just
this moment payoff. If he can't get the lunar module out,
(34:52):
their moonshot is over before it begins. Then that they
were closing at at last the fact he must maintain
steady and slow rate of speed. Too fast and they'll
have a head on collision, likely damaging or destroying both craft.
As they nuzzle ever closer, the command modules thrusters caused
the eagles metallic skin to ripple, damn the command service
(35:16):
modules Probe slides into the eagles docking port and three
latches snap closed. Michael has done. It is done. Yeah,
it felt good for me. Next, Michael must reverse plucking
the lunar module free when we're ready for lambent petion.
Al right, here go for let me jack. Apollo eleven
(35:39):
is now a complete spacecraft and all of this took
barely more than four hours from their launch. The Saturn
fives job is now complete. This is a control at
four hours thirty four minutes, where about five minutes away
from the evasive maneuver that wasn't sure there will be
no whole problems of recontact between the spacecraft and the
(36:01):
S four beast stage of the launch vehicle. What's left
of the Saturn five is now too far from Earth
to fall back and burn up on re entry, and
it's also too close for comforts. Looking good were standing?
The Apollo eleven sends a command of the third stage
to jettison all of its remaining fuel in space, any
kind of ejection acts as a propulsive force. Venting the
(36:24):
fuel sends the third stage tumbling away from the astronauts.
It will ultimately be thrown into an orbit around the Sun,
and it remains there to this day. And just like that,
the astronauts can finally relax. They peel themselves out of
their bulky space suits, a difficult task considering their trapped
inside a capsule the size of a station wagon. Eventually
(36:45):
they ease into white, two piece nylon jumpsuits. Suddenly the
cabin feels much larger. Back at mission control, Jeane Krantz
and his white team are relieving Cliff Charlesworth and his
Green team. Gene is anxious to get into the light
director chair and started shift. It's here that he feels
most at home. Hello, Apollo, Levan Houston. The advice you're
(37:07):
apparently white name is come over REVERSI we can see
as a service hesitate to com. That was Charlie Duke.
He's taking over Bruce McCandless's capcom seat for the shift.
Neil wants to know if Mission Control would like some
video of the view outside their windows the old anytime
you want to turn it on. We're ready over okay,
uh juson. We are ascendant of Birthtown. Right now we're
(37:32):
seeing the center of the views of the spacecraft and
the eastern Pacific Ocean. We can't clearly see the western
coast of North America, the United States, the Samuel Kane Valley,
the High Sierras, California, elect to go down as far
(37:56):
as a Copulco, as was so often the case, Seeing
are marbled blue and white globe made a profound impression.
The astronauts were all struck both by how imaginary our
planet's borders are and how fragile it seemed. Everything tearing
the Earth apart. Wars, protests and assassinations are invisible from
(38:17):
Apollo Levin's lofty vantage point Apollo twelves. Dick Gordon said,
we have been asked a lot what don't we discovered
when we went to the Moon. Collectively, I should say
that we discovered the Earth, very delicate planet, sitting out
there in a black of the blackest black you'll ever
see it, just devoid of any color whatsoever. And it's
(38:40):
been described like a Christmas tree armament hanging out there.
You can terminate, You're convenience. We've got enough, stay their
job done. The crew decides to begin their sleep period
a couple of hours early. They've earned it. At eight
pm in Houston, the rest of America isn't far behind.
(39:02):
In mission control, Jean and his White team settle in
for a quiet night of monitoring Apollo eleven as it
races silently toward destiny. This is Apollo Control at fourteen hours,
six minutes into the flight of Apollo eleven. The mission
is progressing very smoothly. All spacecraft systems are functioning normally
at this time, and the flight surgeon reports that all
(39:25):
three crewmen appear to be sleeping. At the present time.
Apollo eleven is sixty six thousand, five hundred fifty four
nautical miles from Earth and traveling at a speed of
about seven thousand, ninety five ft per second, which would
be about forty eight hundred miles. Throughout the history of
(39:47):
our species, humankind has always been driven by an innate
desire to explore, to see what is outside the cave,
over the mountain, across the ocean. Civilization was spread into
the sales of ancient sailing ships. The age of exploration
pushed back the frontiers of the then known world and
traced the shape of the planet's contours. Later expeditions crossed continents,
(40:09):
braved oceans of ice to find the North and South Poles,
and later still tamed the skies in aircraft that could
outrun sound. Compared to every other expedition undertaken throughout the
sweep of human history all paled in comparison to the
enormity of Apollo eleven. Either Neil, buzzin Michael will die
reaching for something unprecedented in the two hundred thousand years
(40:31):
of modern human history, or they will triumph and cement
their names in eternity. Before they left for the Moon,
a reporter asked Neil Armstrong to lay odds on their success.
He stopped to think about the answer for several long
seconds before replying, The odds that he and his colleagues
succeed in touching down on the Moon in four days
(40:53):
is equal to the odds that none of them ever
see Earth or their loved ones ever again. There is
still so much that could go wrong. Day one is over.
Day two, July, the crew's first full day in space,
begins with our next episode. We're gonna jump back in
time to learn who Neil, Buzz and Michael are and
(41:15):
exactly what happened in their lives to put them right
here right now. It's not nearly as straightforward as you
might think, and we will go inside the inner sanctum
that is Mission Control to learn how a handful of
men and women, most of them just out of College
made this mission possible. This podcast is a production of
(41:40):
I Heart Radio and trade Craft Studios. Executive producers Ashe
Serobia and Scott Bernstein, in association with High five Content
and executive producer Andrew Jacobs. Amazing research and production assistance
by associate producers Brian Showsau and Natalie Robomed. Our incredible
editor is Old Lands. Original music by Henry ben Wah.
(42:03):
The experts who contributed to this episode were Apollo eleven
astronaut Jim Lovell and Andy Aldrich. Special thanks to everyone
at NASA who made this podcast possible, especially the incredible
technological wizardry of consulting producer Ben Feist, who's responsible for
organizing and cleaning the eleven thousand hours of mission audio.
(42:24):
Your hearing selections from in this podcast. Licensing rights and
clearances by Deborah CAREA special thanks also to consultant Gina
dell Back. This is a brand new podcast and we're
so excited to be sharing it with you. Help us
spread it far and wide, tell your friends, leave ratings
and reviews, and chat about it on social media. Our
(42:44):
hashtag is nine D I J. We would love to
hear what you think. New episodes come out each week,
so be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Brandon Phipps. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll
see you next episode.
Nine Days in July is a production of I Heart
Radio and Trade Traft Studios in association with High five Content. Okay,
off flight Controller's got I'll go for power decent retro FI.
Don't go guide and control Calcom, go Sergeant, go Capcom,
(00:24):
or go for power decent. We don't get any here
A year ago for a power decent over backer copy.
You think you knew this story, are right before good
A couple on day protoomum, but you don't proto auto
d R pop. But read that pop. But at the
(00:44):
border board day read that program alarm the trolbo toobo
to gether the reading on the twelve boat through program
alarm into the agg degree posy to pick that ray.
Feel it to be a little louder. Rock are hundred
(01:04):
ft down at nine things six hundred feet. They're four
hundred feet down at nine pay forward four hundred feet
Thannard faid down for app pouring forward three hundred feet.
I don't want anna wanna down If the astronauts inside
the lunar module are unable to reach the Moon surface.
Years of training, billions of dollars, and the hopes and
(01:28):
dreams of an entire planet work for nothing today. They
are like callouts. From now on will be fueled six day,
six day seconds, but they paid don't have down drip
into the right level. There is zero margin for error.
One miscalculation could cost them their lives third thurday seconds.
(01:53):
So much of the Apollo leven story you've heard is
the exact same moments, recycled and repeated over end over again.
But not here. This time you are going to hear
the stories behind the stories, the ones you've never heard.
For the next nine hours, we are going to stow
away aboard a tin can, soaring through space at twenty
(02:14):
four thousand miles an hour. We're also going to go
behind the consoles of mission control to meet the unsung heroes,
the men and women who didn't make the headlines but
whose stories deserve to be told and will be returning
to Earth to look into what was happening while Apolo
eleven raced to the Moon and how everything stopped cold
when the eagle touched down. Using never before heard mission audio,
(02:38):
I'm going to tell you the story of Apollo eleven
as it unfolded, day by day, hour by hour, minute
by minute. This was one of the most tumultuous eras
in American history. The profoundly unpopular Vietnam War was raging
on without an end in sight. Saia that we are
fired and stalemate same thing all only realistic, if unsatisfactory conclusion.
(03:04):
Back home, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. And
the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States,
Robert F. Kennedy, were assessments. Very sad news for all
of you, and that is that Martin Luther King and
was shot and was killed tonight. Remember, at the Democratic
National Convention, thousands of demonstrators clashed violently with police, National
(03:28):
guardsman or push thee hippie and anti war demonstrators back
a half a block or so from the hotel area.
On top of all of this, the United States was
embroiled in a cold war with its ideological nemesis, the
Soviet Union. Nuclear tipped violence seemed to be just one
thoughtless mistake away. Freedom as many difficulties, and democracy is
(03:57):
not perfect, but we have never had to put a
wall up to keep off people in smack in the
middle of This is the proxy war of a lifetime,
the race for space. I'll be up Apollo eleven is
about more than putting a man on the moon. Hanging
in the balance is the national pride and global grandstanding
(04:19):
of two superpowers on the brink of war. For many
who lived through this era, the United States seemed to
be coming apart at the seams. Not since the Civil
War had the country felt more divided or more angry.
Never had our democracy felt more brittle or imperiled. Sound familiar.
America needed a miracle. We needed a reason to reach
(04:42):
for a greatness beyond our misfortunes. We needed Apollo eleven.
No pressure right. I'm Brandon Phibbs. I'm a science documentary
producer and journalist. Before that, my office was the cockpit
of an S three Viking jet aircraft, and my job
(05:02):
was to hunt submarines for the United States Navy. I
invite you to join me as we embark on one
of the most thrilling adventures any human has ever undertaken.
This is nine Days in July. At exactly four fifteen
on the morning of July nineteen sixty nine, Neil Armstrong,
(05:25):
Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins waken their living quarters at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Launch Control all elements
at the countdown Apollo eleven for setting satisfactorily. At this time,
the crew was described as appearing to be rested, that is,
a fiddle and ready to go. More than one thousand
miles away Admission control in Houston, Texas, two dozen flight
(05:49):
controllers are powering up their equipment. Apollo eleven lifts off
the pad in a little over four hours. This is
the calm before the storm. The rest of America is
still to sleep, including the astronauts families, though I suspect
the night has not been especially considerate to the astronauts wives.
It's time to make history. Today is the day Apollo
(06:09):
eleven leaves for the Moon. Neil, Buzz and Michael have
a quick breakfast before reporting to the sud up room,
where a small army of technicians is waiting to help
them into their space suits, basically a spaceship shaped like
a human being. Once the astronauts are sealed in, they
are attached to horrible cases delivering pure oxygen, and just
(06:30):
like that, Neil buzzin Michael will not breathe outside air
or hear another human voice that is not coming through
a speaker for the next nine days back in Houston,
Gene Crantz is already awake. I have this incredibly spectacular
(06:51):
I mean just absolutely deep sleep, no dreams, no worries,
no nothing. But now he's pacing the house like a
caged animal. You got all this energy and you don't
have anything to do with it. You got no focus,
and you can't sleep. Heck, we had six kids and
and uh, MARTA's trying to figure out some way. Oh Jean,
what are you going to settle down? When are you
going to sleep? Jean's wife pushes him out the door.
(07:13):
Jean is one of four flight directors for Apollo eleven,
meaning the weight of the entire mission rests on his shoulders. Well,
he's not on duty this morning. He still wants to
be in mission control when Apollo eleven lifts off. Traditionally,
all flight directors show up in there and you find
a place to sit near three or four deep. Every
console is three or four deep. Nobody's gonna miss the
launch for the first lunar landing mission. Nobody. You know
(07:36):
Jean Crantz, even if you don't realize it. If you
saw the film with Pollo thirteen, he was the one
played by Ed Harris, you know the failure is not
an option. Guy, the guy whose wife made him a
new vest for every mission. Now why I pumped myself
up each time I get ready to do something. Stars
and traps. John Phillips sus I got probably thirty four
(07:56):
year records tapes and at this time also we had
eight act recorders, so I had him in the car.
It was every place i'd go, I'd have John Philip Sousa.
And this is why I get up to speed, get
the energy, get the adrenaline flowing. At around six three am,
Florida time, Neil, Buzz and Michael waved to the gathered guests,
(08:17):
press and other NASA employees and climb aboard a van
for a short trip to the launchpad eight miles away.
As they draw closer, they can see their Saturn five
bathed in giant Xenon lights, the tallest, heaviest, and most
powerful rocket ever created. Normally, Launchpad thirty nine A is
a beehive of activity and equipment, but today it is
(08:39):
eerily deserted. The weather is perfect, with only a light
breeze from the southeast, and temperatures are already climbing into
the mid eighties. Jim Lovell was the backup commander for
Apollo eleven. He flew to space on the Saturn five
twice aboard Apollo eight and apollow their team. What we
got off the vehicle, I started to walk up to
the elevator to go up to uh where we would
(09:02):
get inside the spacecraft. It was what have apprehensive to
the fact that this vehicle is sitting here with five
and a half billion pounds of high explosives, liquid oxygen,
liquid hydrogen. You know it happened, you know history. The
astronauts board the elevator and begin ascending to the top
of the rocket. Though they have yet to blast off.
(09:24):
The astronauts have already left the Earth. The Saturn five
rushing past them is an engineering marble. At three hundred
and sixty three ft, it is sixty ft taller than
the Statue of Liberty. It carries more than six million
pounds of rocket fuel and weighs as much as four
hundred elephants. Apollo said Launch Control at this time and
(09:45):
their time proof for Apollo eleven has quoted the high
speed elevator from inside the A level and the mobile launcher.
That's Jack King. He's an assid Public Affairs Officer. You're
going to be hearing a lot from nassa's p a
os this series. It was their job during the mission
to explain what was going on to the public. There's
a high speed elevator six minutes which will carry them
(10:06):
to the three level, the spacecraft level. Dick Gordon went
to space on Apollo twelve. As he looked down at
the Saturn five on launch day, it's suddenly hit him
and say, hey, this is real. That beach below is
that Saturn five is a living, breathing object. It's vetting
vapors and ice is falling off of it, and it's
(10:27):
a creature. There's just about to come alive. The Saturn
five consists of three stages, basically just gas tanks with engines.
On the tippy top is a needle like structure. That's
the launch escape tower. It's there to yank the astronauts
free in the event of an emergency during launch. Directly
beneath the tower is a metallic gum drop. That's the
Command module. That's what our astronauts will spend the next
(10:50):
nine days. In the cylindrical section just beneath it is
the service module. So where's the lunar module, the spidery
looking moonship that will actually make the voyage to the
surface of the Moon that's hidden away inside of a
compartment on top of the third stage. Remember this configuration
because it will become very important in a couple of minutes. Shortly,
(11:10):
we'll expect us and it's Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins
to come across Swing arm nine. The follow as time
empathy to the White Home and a standby to board
the spacecraft. The p AO only mentions Neil and Michael
because two flights below their final destination, the elevator pauses
for Buzz to step off. The loading area above is
(11:31):
simply too small to accommodate everyone at once. As the
elevator pulls away, Buzz welcomes the chance to steal a
couple contemplative moments. In the distance, he can see numerous
camp fires flickering on the beaches spectators who have been
camping out for days. He can see the vehicle assembly
building where the Saturn five's pieces were mated together by area.
(11:51):
It is one of the largest buildings in the world.
It's four walls enclose eight full acres and on human
Florida days, rain clouds have been known to form inside
the one story building. Once it was complete, the Saturn
five was perched on top of the crawler transporter, a
vehicle the size of a baseball infield, which began the
(12:11):
slow process of moving to launch pad at one mile
a gym level. Recalls pausing on the gantry as the
enormity of what he was about to do sunk in.
I had a few moments to look down, and there
I saw the lights of the press people going into
their press sites to get set up to watch the launch,
(12:34):
and I thought, we're going to the boom. I mean,
all this training and all this navigation training and everything else,
you know, I just took it as part of everyday
type of working. But that sort of forgetting where I
was going, and uh, it was suddenly the realization said, hey,
they're serious about this. The space pat command of Neil
(12:57):
Armstrong and they command Module Violet. Michael Collins, now proceeding
a class to swing arm into the small white homb
that attaches at the spacecraft level. At just shy of
seven am, Neil climbs off the elevator and enters the
white room, the space connecting the Saturn five to the
support structure. The unchallenged lord of the White Room is
(13:19):
Pad Leader Gunther, vent bespectacled and bow tied. The rail
thin Gunter is responsible for the Saturn five from the
moment it arrives at the pad till the moment he
seals the astronauts inside their capsule. The astronauts consider him
to be a good luck charm. They never want to
fly without. Der Pad Furer a nickname given to Gunter
by Mercury astronaut John Glenn. You heard that right, der
(13:42):
Pad Furer. During World War Two, Gunter was a flight
engineer for the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force. He immigrated
to America after the war, where he found work in
the burgeoning space program. If it seems peculiar that a
former Nazi is enmeshed at such a high level in
the U S Space program, gerg your loins. Gunter is
one of nearly two thousand x Nazis on Nassa's payroll.
(14:04):
How the hell did that happen? We'll get back to that.
Neil grabs the handrail and swings himself inside the command module.
It's roughly the size of a SUBU outback. He takes
this position at the left of the capsule, the place
reserved for the mission commander. The spacecraft commander Neil Armstrong
now aboard the Apollo eleven space class at the level
(14:27):
at the pad. Morning, Nail, good, welcome aboard. I feel
like a good mone Michael, the command module pilot, takes
his seat on the right. Eventually, Buzz is called up
and drops into the center seat for the lunar module pilot.
The gang's all here, though he once served in the Navy.
(14:49):
Kneels the civilian now and a former test pilot. The
other two are officers of the U. S. Air Force.
Each of the men was born in ninety Each way
is a hundred and sixty five pounds, and each are
within an inch of the same height five ft eleven inches.
Neil is the quintessential calm, cool and collected personality. He
is unruffled, unassuming, and always laser focused. He never opens
(15:12):
his mouth unless he has something important to say. The
primary objective is is the ability to demonstrate that man
mankind in fact can do this kind of a job.
Buzz couldn't be more different. He is blunt and opinionated. Luckily,
his abrasive opinions are backed up by one of the
greatest brains at NASA. We certainly have the utmost confidence
(15:35):
of total six that Michael is the peacemaker he once
called Neil and Buzz amiable strangers. No one remembers Michael.
He didn't walk on the Moon, and so history has
declared him Apollo eleven's official third wheel. But he was
the glue, the fun one, witty, lighthearted, and quick with
a joke. We're going nine seven percent of the way there,
(15:56):
and that suits me just fine. These guys weren't friends.
They definitely weren't getting beers after work, but they were
pros with a job to do. Together, they are about
to crack history wide open. At all. Three astronauts now
avoids the spacecraft. Gunter and his technicians strapped the astronauts
in disengage their portable oxygen and begin hooking them up
(16:18):
to the ship's internal life support system and communications. Neil
gives the thumbs up, and the White Room team seals
the hatch. At this time or this in the process
of closing the hatch on the Apollo eleven spacecraft, the
astronauts are now cut off from all human contact they
won't see another person for the next nine days. For
the next two and a half hours, the astronauts run
(16:40):
through checklists. At this point in the countdown, spacecraft command
and Neil Armstrong once again appears to be the basic
worker in the spacecraft as he's performing a series of
alignment checks associated with a guidance system in the spacecraft.
The astronauts are subdued working inside the tunnel vision of
their training, but Michael Steele a moment of self reflection
(17:01):
as the only one not descending to the moon surface,
he realizes that the odds of him getting back in
one piece are far better than the two men flanking
ten minutes away from our plan lifts up the access
arm retracts. The men in the capsule feel a jolt.
In Houston, mission Control is a beehive of activity. Seconds
(17:24):
after Apollo eleven takes flight. The men and women in
this building will take over responsibility of the rocket from
the launch center in Florida. Gene Crantz is sitting in
the back. He catches sight of Cliff charles Worth, the
flight director for the launch. Charles Worth is the conductor
choreographing a room of finally two instruments. Charles Worth calls
for the room's attention. It's time to get a go
(17:46):
no go for launch sequence. He found fun go Fight, Go,
Busch Control Networks, you get it in everything has run
his life operations speed. When the countdown clock reaches t
(18:11):
minus nine minutes, Charles Worth orders the doors to mission
control locked. Jean bows his head in silent prayer. Three
and a half miles away minimum safe distance from the launchpad,
the grandstands are packed with invited guests and dignitaries. Three
thousand newsmen from fifty six countries stand by to file
to day's story. I think it's really a great event
(18:32):
for a man from just our planet, not just the
United States, to get on a do you actually be
on another world? Along miles of grid luck roads, bridges,
sand flats and beaches, more than a million spectators hold
their breath. Janet Armstrong, Neil's wife, and their sons Mark
and Ricky, have escaped the crush of onlookers and snooping
press by sleeping aboard a small yacht floating in the
(18:55):
Banana River. Unsurprisingly, Janet didn't get a wink of sleep
last night. Collins and Joe Aldron watched from the privacy
of their homes, glued to their television sets, like an
estimated five hundred and thirty million people across the globe.
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Mike Collins where make the flight of
Apollo eleven. Let's take a look at their activities, beginning
(19:16):
last night at dinner. Andy Aldrin, buzz is youngest, remembers
the morning, well, I was home with mom, which kind
of annoyed me. I wanted to be at the launch,
and Mom told me that we couldn't go to the
launch because NASA didn't want us there because if something happened,
they think it would just be really horrible for the
(19:38):
family to be on camera with, you know, a national tragedy.
It would be decades before Andy would discover the truth.
NASA had no problem with them being there. Pat Collins
and his mother were merely trying to guard their privacy
and brittle emotions in case something went catastrophically wrong. I've
seen pictures of my mom during that time, and she's
(20:00):
literally very, very anxious, but I didn't notice it at
the time. The only place on Earth where people are
not sitting in front of their television sets is the
Soviet block there on the other side of the planet.
The workday is coming to a close, just like any
other day. Apollo eleven will not be televised. Everything, all
(20:28):
the years of research, testing, training, and even the deaths
of beloved colleagues has led to this moment. It's one
minute seconds on the Apollo missions, the flights to land
of the first men on the Moon. All indications are
coming in to the control center at this time indicate
we are of gold. Neil Armstrong. Just we put it back.
(20:50):
It's been a real smooth countdown. We passed the fifty
second month. Power transfer is complete while on internal power
with the launch vehicle at this time, and a good
an report. It feels good. Ten nine ignition sequenced. Jim
Leble paints the scene inside the command module before the liftoff.
(21:11):
We can start to hear things happen, you know, maybe
with a five or six seconds to go, we hear
the rumbling of the fuel started to float down into
the engine at a m the Saturn five engines ignite.
The vehicle pours out flame, building thrust, but it doesn't move.
Hold down lamps keep it in place where the edge
(21:33):
is the knife Before the liftoff, there's a tremendous war
roar of the spacecraft is shaking back and forth. Uh,
and you're just sitting there hoping that everything works. So
okay five or three two one, they're all all engine
running at zero. Explosive bolts released the vehicle. You might
(21:56):
think it erupts off the pan, but it doesn't. This
is the point at which gravity is the strongest and
the ship is the heaviest. Walter cunning Gown who flew
aboard Apollo seven. It's not a sudden acceleration. It's not
like a cat shot on an aircraft carrier. I mean
that is like that, and you see spots in front
of your eyes. With this, you're starting out with zero
(22:16):
velocity and it's just a slow building. It's like a
train behind you that's just building up. Ripped off let
the thirty two minute they are ripped off on a
follow eleven, not on her boat. Janet Armstrong tightly clutches
her son Ricky as her husband's rocket emerges from the
Royaling Smoke and Flames power program. On reporting their role
(22:41):
in pitture program, which you put topolo and living on
a proper heading. That's Neil letting everyone know that the
Saturn five is clear of the tower and angling itself
to its proper heading. The other voice you hear is
astronaut Bruce McCandless at the capcom or capsule communicator position
in Michig Control. Bill Anders flew on Apollo eight and
remember is his launch like it was yesterday. We had
(23:02):
simulated essentially everything we could think of, and yet the
very first seconds of the flight were a total surprise
to everybody. On the violent sideways movement and massive noise,
Thomas Mattingly Abolo sixteen launch man Apollo was really dramatic.
It feels just like a challenge. It's shaking and banging
(23:26):
and pushing hard, and there is no doubt there's something
really gigantic is going on. Neil's left hand is wrapped
around the aboard handle. One quick twist would activate the
launch escape tower and lift the command module free from
the Saturn five, assuming he even knows there's a problem.
Bill Anders recalls that the first phase of the ascent
(23:47):
was so noisy it was impossible to communicate with the
men sitting right next to it. Had there been a
need to abort, detected on my instruments, I could not
have relayed that. Michael wonders how the headlines will read
tomorrow if Neil A. Sidentally rotates that aboard handle moonshot
falls into ocean. Last transmission from Armstrong was oops altitudes
two miles and you're good at one a minute, down
(24:12):
range one mile, altitude three four miles. Now velocity two
thousand per second. We're through the region of maximum dynamic pressure. Now.
Maximum dynamic pressure is the point at which the Saturn
five is under the greatest amount of physical stress. Is
it attempts to smash its way through the densest part
(24:32):
of the atmosphere. Bill anders. As we burned out on
the first stage, we were hitting about out of the
six or eight g s. You're back in your seat,
hardly lift your arms. You have trouble breathing to try
to reach out. It's like you had a light in
your hand. The first stage of the Saturn five rocket
is made up of five clustered F one engines. These
(24:55):
are the largest, most powerful rocket engines ever designed. The
nozzles are so low large that the Apollo leven spacecraft
can fit inside them. Each one weighs more than nine
tons and produces seven point five million pounds of thrust.
How much is that. It's equivalent to roughly thirty seven
forty seven jumbo jets pumping out more power than eighty
(25:16):
five Hoover dams. In the two minutes of their use,
they gobble up twenty tons of fuel per second. When
they're done, the Saturn five will have gone from a
dead stop to fifteen times faster than the speed of
a rifle bullet, and it will achieve that speed while
carrying one hundred and thirty tons, about as much weight
(25:37):
as ten full school buses. Think of the Saturn five
three stages as a relay race. One runner circles the track,
and when they get back to the point at which
they began, they hand the baton off to another teammate,
who carries it from there. That's also how the Saturn
five gets its payloaded. Do orbiting gave. A couple of
(26:02):
the first stage's engines begin to shut down. The higher
the Saturn five goes, the less Earth's gravity is working
against it. The mass of the vehicle is now dropping
by more than thirteen metric tons per second if it
keeps accelerating at the same speed that was necessary to
get it off the ground. It is going to overshoot
its intended orbit and fling the crew into deep space
(26:22):
down range thirty five miles thirty miles high standing by
for the hardboard engine cuts down. Now, just two minutes
and forty two seconds after launch, the Saturn's first stage
shuts down completely. Apollo eight's bill anders, then the engine
is cut off. You go from a plus six G
to a minus one. I felt like I was going
(26:44):
to be catapulted right through that instrument panel. Explosive charges debtonate,
severing the two stages. The first stage tumbles back towards
the planet. Half a second later, at just shy of
nine oh five am, the second stag age engines ignite.
They will fire for six minutes, elevating the payload to
(27:04):
more than one hundred miles in altitude. The spacecraft is
currently traveling at more than sixty three hundred miles per hour.
This is the point at which the G forces are
the greatest. The astronauts are nearly four times heavier than
their normal weight. Power und the arm from confirming both
the engine skirt separation and the launch escape tower separations go. Today,
(27:33):
they finally gave me a wines that last voice you
heard was Michael. While Neil and Buzz both have their
own windows, the launch escape tower blocked Michael's view. He
is finally getting his first look outside the ship. Down
range two seventy miles, altitude eighty two miles, velocity twelve thousand,
four hundred seventy. The second stage is done at nine
(27:55):
minutes and nine seconds. It is jettison and falls back
to Earth, but for time, the astronauts taste witlessness. At
am the third and final stage comes to life. They're
gently pushing them back into their couches. A follow eleven
that then you are gonna firm to go for urban
habit and go velacinating certain twenty five th six A
(28:22):
follow eleven, it says jison. They booster has been configured
for orbital code. Folk spacecraft are looking good or The
third stage blasts what remains of the Saturn five into
a one and three nautical mile high Earth orbit. Do
you remember playing tag as a kid? Think of orbit
as base. It's a safe place where the astronauts can
(28:44):
hang out for a while. If something didn't work right,
they can turn around and head home. But if everything
went according to plan, they finally have a chance to
catch their breath. Apollo eleven will now circle the Earth
one and a half times. The third stage remains its
(29:07):
job is not yet done. The crew removed their helmets
and gloves and unbuckle from their restraints. The pressures of
gravity have lifted. They begin to levitate euphorically in micro
gravity and begin unstowing and checking their equipment. Michael decides
that Buzz should take some pictures. Ever since Wally Shara
bought his own Hasselblad from a local Houston camera shop
(29:29):
and used it to take the first pictures from space.
A word Mercury eight. The Swedish company has been manufacturing
cameras for Nassa. They had to be as light, as small,
and as rugged as possible. Plus they had to work
in the vacuum of space and in temperatures as high
as two hundred and forty eight degrees fahrenheit in the
sun and negative eighty degrees fahrenheit in the shade town
(29:53):
that was Neil. The astronauts find themselves on the dark
side of the Earth, lost in the planet's shadow. They
moved caut a lee about the cabin. It takes a
while for the inner ear to acclimate to micro gravity.
Rapid movements reduce even the most iron stomached metro to
a nauseous mess. A real need to picture that here, real,
(30:22):
There's just one problem. They can't find the camera. Everybody's
seen a half of breast bloating bird at two lights
for sunrise. No, but I mean where you want to
get it before the l T L I is translunar injection.
This is the upcoming burn which is going to propel
the spacecraft out of Earth orbit and toward the Moon.
(30:44):
The vehicle's acceleration will impart one point five g s,
and anything not secured inside the cabin, like a camera,
becomes a potentially deadly projectile. Ah. Here it is Planet
Ye floating on the alf all over standing collection. Clearly
(31:06):
the guys are having fun with the camera. Michael is
spoofing Cecil B. De Mill, the legendary film director of
the Greatest Show on Earth and the Ten Commandments. He
were ready to go ahead with the in the docking probe,
and you know with the RN's hot fire when you're
ready to monitor. So did you go ahead with the probe? Now?
(31:28):
Remember when I told you to keep in mind how
everything on top of the Saturn five was configured. Here's why.
After A Paul eleven initiates the coming trains lunar injection,
they will undertake one of the single most difficult and
dangerous elements of the entire mission. The command service module
will separate from the third stage, make a you turn
dock with a lunar module and pull it out slightly
(31:53):
one already open data, We confirm existion and the throats go.
Two hours and forty four minutes into their mission. At
eleven forty six am Houston time, Apollo eleven is finally
on its way. Right, you know, there's a little tiny
pretty grating the founds. The old FLA can be praga
(32:20):
brecond phenomenal, right, they were we have cut off the
last we have had a t l I cut off
seven article. That's more than twenty four thousand miles an hour,
more than enough to escape the Earth's gravitational field. He's
(32:41):
been eleven said and gave up right, all right, you're
eleven will pass that on and it's sly looks like
you're rolling your roy now. We have no complaints with
any of the three stages on that. That right was beautiful.
Michael glances out the window at Earth launch Day. Crowd
is probably still stuck in bumper to bumper traffic trying
(33:03):
to get home. He thinks on the yacht where Janet
Armstrong and her kids are hiding out from the press,
no champagne bottles have been popped. According to Neil's wife,
there will be no celebrating until her husband is back home.
Your Gopher separation. It's time to separate the command module
from the Saturn five and retract the lunar module. Shortly
(33:26):
after noon in Houston, Michael takes over the controls everywhere
they used them about the sad explosive bolts free the
Command Service Module from the Saturn five third stage. Expertly,
Michael uses short thruster bursts to ease the spacecraft forward.
Tucked beneath and behind it, hidden inside the third stage
(33:48):
garage rests the lunar module. It's spider like legs tucked
tight to its body, we can Michael guides the Command
Service Module out to a distance of one or so
feet and rotates it around so that the CSMs docking
port is aligned with that of the lunar module. Michael
uses thrusters to slowly close that distance. Neil and Buzz
(34:11):
help him site navigating. No, I don't think he's a
little bit alright, alright, They are now looking directly at
the top of the lunar module. To Michael, the docking
port looks like a malevolent black eye. Four conical shroud panels,
which protected the lunar module during launch, peel away like
the opening petals of a flower. The moonship dubbed the
(34:32):
Eagle begins to gleam in the sunlight. All right, lul look,
it's time to see if the hundreds of hours Michael
spent alone in the command module trainer preparing for just
this moment payoff. If he can't get the lunar module out,
(34:52):
their moonshot is over before it begins. Then that they
were closing at at last the fact he must maintain
steady and slow rate of speed. Too fast and they'll
have a head on collision, likely damaging or destroying both craft.
As they nuzzle ever closer, the command modules thrusters caused
the eagles metallic skin to ripple, damn the command service
(35:16):
modules Probe slides into the eagles docking port and three
latches snap closed. Michael has done. It is done. Yeah,
it felt good for me. Next, Michael must reverse plucking
the lunar module free when we're ready for lambent petion.
Al right, here go for let me jack. Apollo eleven
(35:39):
is now a complete spacecraft and all of this took
barely more than four hours from their launch. The Saturn
fives job is now complete. This is a control at
four hours thirty four minutes, where about five minutes away
from the evasive maneuver that wasn't sure there will be
no whole problems of recontact between the spacecraft and the
(36:01):
S four beast stage of the launch vehicle. What's left
of the Saturn five is now too far from Earth
to fall back and burn up on re entry, and
it's also too close for comforts. Looking good were standing?
The Apollo eleven sends a command of the third stage
to jettison all of its remaining fuel in space, any
kind of ejection acts as a propulsive force. Venting the
(36:24):
fuel sends the third stage tumbling away from the astronauts.
It will ultimately be thrown into an orbit around the Sun,
and it remains there to this day. And just like that,
the astronauts can finally relax. They peel themselves out of
their bulky space suits, a difficult task considering their trapped
inside a capsule the size of a station wagon. Eventually
(36:45):
they ease into white, two piece nylon jumpsuits. Suddenly the
cabin feels much larger. Back at mission control, Jeane Krantz
and his white team are relieving Cliff Charlesworth and his
Green team. Gene is anxious to get into the light
director chair and started shift. It's here that he feels
most at home. Hello, Apollo, Levan Houston. The advice you're
(37:07):
apparently white name is come over REVERSI we can see
as a service hesitate to com. That was Charlie Duke.
He's taking over Bruce McCandless's capcom seat for the shift.
Neil wants to know if Mission Control would like some
video of the view outside their windows the old anytime
you want to turn it on. We're ready over okay,
uh juson. We are ascendant of Birthtown. Right now we're
(37:32):
seeing the center of the views of the spacecraft and
the eastern Pacific Ocean. We can't clearly see the western
coast of North America, the United States, the Samuel Kane Valley,
the High Sierras, California, elect to go down as far
(37:56):
as a Copulco, as was so often the case, Seeing
are marbled blue and white globe made a profound impression.
The astronauts were all struck both by how imaginary our
planet's borders are and how fragile it seemed. Everything tearing
the Earth apart. Wars, protests and assassinations are invisible from
(38:17):
Apollo Levin's lofty vantage point Apollo twelves. Dick Gordon said,
we have been asked a lot what don't we discovered
when we went to the Moon. Collectively, I should say
that we discovered the Earth, very delicate planet, sitting out
there in a black of the blackest black you'll ever
see it, just devoid of any color whatsoever. And it's
(38:40):
been described like a Christmas tree armament hanging out there.
You can terminate, You're convenience. We've got enough, stay their
job done. The crew decides to begin their sleep period
a couple of hours early. They've earned it. At eight
pm in Houston, the rest of America isn't far behind.
(39:02):
In mission control, Jean and his White team settle in
for a quiet night of monitoring Apollo eleven as it
races silently toward destiny. This is Apollo Control at fourteen hours,
six minutes into the flight of Apollo eleven. The mission
is progressing very smoothly. All spacecraft systems are functioning normally
at this time, and the flight surgeon reports that all
(39:25):
three crewmen appear to be sleeping. At the present time.
Apollo eleven is sixty six thousand, five hundred fifty four
nautical miles from Earth and traveling at a speed of
about seven thousand, ninety five ft per second, which would
be about forty eight hundred miles. Throughout the history of
(39:47):
our species, humankind has always been driven by an innate
desire to explore, to see what is outside the cave,
over the mountain, across the ocean. Civilization was spread into
the sales of ancient sailing ships. The age of exploration
pushed back the frontiers of the then known world and
traced the shape of the planet's contours. Later expeditions crossed continents,
(40:09):
braved oceans of ice to find the North and South Poles,
and later still tamed the skies in aircraft that could
outrun sound. Compared to every other expedition undertaken throughout the
sweep of human history all paled in comparison to the
enormity of Apollo eleven. Either Neil, buzzin Michael will die
reaching for something unprecedented in the two hundred thousand years
(40:31):
of modern human history, or they will triumph and cement
their names in eternity. Before they left for the Moon,
a reporter asked Neil Armstrong to lay odds on their success.
He stopped to think about the answer for several long
seconds before replying, The odds that he and his colleagues
succeed in touching down on the Moon in four days
(40:53):
is equal to the odds that none of them ever
see Earth or their loved ones ever again. There is
still so much that could go wrong. Day one is over.
Day two, July, the crew's first full day in space,
begins with our next episode. We're gonna jump back in
time to learn who Neil, Buzz and Michael are and
(41:15):
exactly what happened in their lives to put them right
here right now. It's not nearly as straightforward as you
might think, and we will go inside the inner sanctum
that is Mission Control to learn how a handful of
men and women, most of them just out of College
made this mission possible. This podcast is a production of
(41:40):
I Heart Radio and trade Craft Studios. Executive producers Ashe
Serobia and Scott Bernstein, in association with High five Content
and executive producer Andrew Jacobs. Amazing research and production assistance
by associate producers Brian Showsau and Natalie Robomed. Our incredible
editor is Old Lands. Original music by Henry ben Wah.
(42:03):
The experts who contributed to this episode were Apollo eleven
astronaut Jim Lovell and Andy Aldrich. Special thanks to everyone
at NASA who made this podcast possible, especially the incredible
technological wizardry of consulting producer Ben Feist, who's responsible for
organizing and cleaning the eleven thousand hours of mission audio.
(42:24):
Your hearing selections from in this podcast. Licensing rights and
clearances by Deborah CAREA special thanks also to consultant Gina
dell Back. This is a brand new podcast and we're
so excited to be sharing it with you. Help us
spread it far and wide, tell your friends, leave ratings
and reviews, and chat about it on social media. Our
(42:44):
hashtag is nine D I J. We would love to
hear what you think. New episodes come out each week,
so be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Brandon Phipps. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll
see you next episode.
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