January 2, 2020 • 40 mins
As Apollo 11 undertakes a series of intricate maneuvers to get into orbit around the Moon, we look at how the Apollo astronauts and the flight controllers in Mission Control trained for the Moon, and the painful toll their jobs—and the withering media spotlight—took on their families.
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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 Craft Studios in association with High five Content.
It's January twenty seventh, nineteen sixty seven, two and a
half years before the launch of Apollo eleven. Ed White,
Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffey. The crew of Apollo one
sit high atop their Saturn five rocket, sealed tight inside
(00:23):
their command module. This is a dress rehearsal for their
launch three weeks from now. The mood inside the capsule
matches the weather outside gray. Their calms with the outside
world are spotty and garbled every day. They've already been
in the capsule for hours and very likely have many
(00:44):
more to go. Their countdown clock is frozen while repair
teams work the radio issue. As they wait for the
training simulation to resume, something catches one of the astronaut's eyes.
He glances down and suddenly recoils in terror. A freight
electrical wire has sparked, igniting the combustible nylon material of
(01:07):
the seats in which the astronauts are strapped tight. Within seconds,
the fire has surged up the walls of the capsule.
Flames begin to lick the television camera recording the interior
of the command module. The atmosphere inside the command module
is pure oxygen. While oxygen itself is not flammable, high
(01:28):
concentrations of it make the things it permeates ignite at
far lower temperatures than the otherwise would They also burned
Hotter and faster technicians fight to get the hatch open.
Just seventeen seconds after the astronauts first report the fire,
(01:49):
the building pressure inside the vessel ruptures. The command module's
baultants are. One thing is hauntingly clear to everyone. The
astronauts inside the Command module have fallen silent. There are
(02:24):
times when achieving greatness requires the highest possible sacrifice. Apollo ones,
Ed White, Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee were the first
American astronauts to perish in the line of duty. They
paid the ultimate price, but it was not in vain.
During my flight training in the Navy, we were constantly
told that our manuals and training procedures were written in blood.
(02:47):
Some of those who came before us paid for the
lessons we were learning with their lives, ensuring none of
us would be lost in that way. Ever, again, the
same was true after the Apollo one fire. Everything changed
after that. The success of NASA and Apollo eleven would
be on the backs of every man and woman who
sacrifice to push the boundaries of human exploration. In this episode,
(03:09):
we're going to take a look at the sacrifices made
not only by Neil, Michael and Buzz, but also by
everyone who supported them professionally and personally. It's July nineteenth,
nineteen sixty nine, day four of the Apollo eleven mission,
the day we reached the moon. Cliff Charles Worth and
(03:31):
the Green team of flight controllers as just relieve, Glenn
Lenny's Black Team capcom now is Bruce McCandless. Paulo eleven
is twelve thousand, four eighty six nautical miles from the Moon,
approaching at a velocity of four thousand eighty seven ft
per second. Follow eleven, the follow eleven Morning again eleven,
(03:59):
Good morning. When you feel like God being, I've got
a flight plan updates. Remember when I told you in
the first episode that we were going to be following
the events inside a Paulo eleven in real time, day
by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute. Well
that's not exactly true. At seventies three hours zero zero
(04:22):
man stop CTC at approximately zero degrees role. But it
is when you're coming up on zero degrees role angle
around seventy three hours, you'd like you to stop what
you're hearing right now. That's most of what this podcast
would sound like if we really did it minute by minute.
Often nothing much happens until it does. Yeah, you read eleven.
(04:47):
It's right to find the mount but a very excite uh,
the very market of these dimensional aspects of happens come on.
It's how behind the boon glazes the guys live all
the way around the molony and grandmothers. Where there's no
(05:09):
Earth time are Sun time. Apollo eleven is being treated
to their own personal solar eclipse. This isn't an eclipse
that's visible from Earth, but rather one the astronauts inadvertently
created for themselves. They are now close enough to the
Moon that it appears larger than the Sun, and they
have fallen into its shadow. You heard Buzz mentioned the
Sun's corona. That's a diaphonous aura of plasma that surrounds
(05:32):
all stars, extending out for millions of miles. It's invisible
except during an eclipse, right now the astronauts are watching
ribbons of light shimmer and dance around a massive black
hole that is the Moon in complete silhouette has been
a real change for us. Now we're able to see
stars again, unrecognized constellations for the first time. All the
(05:55):
way here, we've only been able to see stars occasionally.
He goes, it's turned in the night up there, really
isn't We imagine deep space would be a wash with stars,
but with the Earth reflecting sunlight like a massive mirror,
it has made that nearly impossible, except now with the
Sun's light trapped behind the Moon. In mission control, everyone
(06:17):
is living vicariously through the cruise off. We've been having
raised somebody really spectacular and view worth the price of
the drip all or a lot of us down there
that would be willing to come along. As a Pauloa
Levin continues to enjoy the show. Houston kicks off their
day with the news. McCandless decides to tag team it
with backup lunar module pilot Fred hayes, it looks like
(06:40):
it's going to be impossible, and get away from the
fact that you guys are dominating all the news. Mccaron
an prop and Russia's headlining the Manja and calls Neil
bar of the ship. Pravda was the official newspaper of
the Soviet Union. It still exists today, though it's no
longer a mouthpiece of the state. Czar Of was the
(07:00):
honorific title given to the leader of Russia before the
revolution in nineteen seventeen. West Germany has declared Monday to
be Apollo Day. School Children in Bavaria have been given
the day off. Post office clerks have been encouraged to
bring radios to work, and Frankfurt is installing TV sets
in public places. BBC in London is considering a special
(07:23):
radio loan system to call people or the TV sets
in cases a change in the av a time on
the moon. Clearly, Apollo eleven has captured the imagination of
the entire world. This will be the most significant where
were you when moment at all of human history? And
everyone wants to bear witness, even the kids at camp
down in the news when Mike Junior was quoted as
(07:45):
replying yeah when somebody asked him if the Steady was
going to be in history, then after a sharp pause,
he asked, what is history? You might be interested in
annoying that. A Houston astrologer, Ruby Rahm says that all
the signs are right for your trip to the moon.
She says that Mail is clever, Mike's good judgment as
(08:07):
Buzz can work out into good problems. Thank you us there.
We appreciate that Rogers and Soil Michael Jr. History or
no dream better baby, So Roger will pass it along.
Like Apollo eleven is nearly to the moon. But we
have just long enough to talk about what life was
like back on Earth for Neil, Buzz and Michael and
(08:29):
their long suffering families. That these families, especially the astronauts
were living sort of double lives. They were their home
lives in Houston, and then the guys who are flying
their hot p thirty eight down to Cape Canavera where
they were training, and so they were absentee fathers for
(08:52):
the most part and sort of celebrities down in Florida.
And so the women had to deal with the very
unique challenge of keeping a family grounded while also sort
of promoting this space age dream that America was projecting
out into the world. That was Lily Copel. I'm a
(09:15):
writer and journalist and I wrote a book called The
Astronaut Wives Club. While the astronauts lived in Houston, a
large amount of their training took place in Florida, forcing
them away from their families for most of the week.
In a very real sense, the astronaut's wives were single mothers.
Barbara's Cernan, who was the wife of Jean Cernan, the
(09:35):
last man to walk on the Moon, said quite poignantly,
if you think going to the moon is hard, try
staying at home. They ran the house, juggling the finances,
mowing the lawn, fixing anything that broke, and helping the
kids with their schoolwork. Andy Aldrin, buzz and Jones's youngest
of three, was eleven the year his father left for
the Moon. It wasn't at home all that all. That's
(09:58):
just what my dad's job was. My mother was incredibly strong,
incredibly diplomatic, incredibly compassionate. You know, I'll be honest with that.
She emerges out of this whole thing as my biggest hero,
because it was incredibly difficult for her to manage all
the things that she had to manage without alarming the kids.
(10:19):
You know, the fact that I can say all of
this seemed normal is an absolute tribute to my mother.
The wives soon realized that they were each other's greatest
source of strength and supporting together's will was a name
the journalists gave the community. So women were sort of
living in this little tribal pack down in Houston, helping
communally raise the kids back in Houston. Because the men
(10:43):
were so busy training for their space flights. The wives
had a little motto for their own role, and that
was happy, proud, and thrilled because they next felt that
they could reveal the enormous anxiety, the fears of what
they were experiencing. This sisterhood of joint experiences, common pressures,
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mutual fears, and shared sacrifices was, by their own admission,
a bit like living in a neighborhood run by the
Stepford wives. They've always dreamed of the happiest investment they
have ever made. There were five houses that were adjacent
to the back of our house. Three of them were astronauts.
You couldn't swing a dead cat at our elementary school
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without him an astronaut's kid, so it was normal. I
thought my dad was cool because you get pole vauled,
not because he was an astronaut. Having astronauts around was
just normal for me. It was normal for everybody in
our community. None of the astronaut wives knew what they
were in for. When they got married. They expected the quiet,
ordered life of military spouses, but now they had to
(11:46):
attend ribbon cuttings and high society festivities. They had to
plaster smiles on their faces during ticker tape parades and
make small talk with first ladies. Their neighborhoods were invaded
by press and tour buses, and it wasn't unusual to
find tourists climbing trees or even jumping backyard fences just
to get a look at them. The astro families had
(12:07):
to be flawless. They had to project an image of
the all American Christian family because the world was watching.
The women of this family seemed to feel that they
owe it to the men of the family to look relaxed, rested,
and attractive at dinner time. And this was the height
of the Cold War, and there was the feeling that
America had to really sell and project to the world
(12:31):
all the ideals of the country, of the American dreams.
The choice lies between two opposing ideologies. On the one side,
socialist communism on the other side, democratic capitalism. The astronauts
and their families were on the forefront of this propaganda mission.
They were almost like America's first reality stars. You know.
(12:55):
There was such pressure um from NASA, from the US
government to maintained this perfect nineteen fifties going into the
sixties image, sort of the leave it to Beaver family.
It was bad enough that the families had to meet
NASA's impossible standards anytime they stepped out the front door,
but thanks to an exclusive deal with Life magazine, they
(13:17):
also had to maintain this illusion behind the closed doors
of their own homes. Life reporters were literally embedded with
the families before and during missions. Everything they did, said,
or war was scrutinized. It was totally awesome. The Life
guys were just great guys and they just wanted to
be my buddy. I enjoyed it. I think it's terrified
(13:39):
my mom. Well. The stories about the astronauts that appeared
in Life magazine were accurate. The pictures were anything, but
they frequently showed Neil, Buzz and Michael hanging out, laughing
and cooking together. But these men didn't do any of that,
not in real life. It was all made up, staged
by the magazine to sell copy. Andrew Chacken is a
space historian and science journalists and the author of A
(14:01):
Man to the Moon, The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts,
the basis of the HBO miniseries From the Earth to
the Moon. The thing about a space mission is that
you don't have to be best friends to carry it
out successfully. What you do have to do is be
consummate professionals. And Neil, Buzz and Mike were above all
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consummate professionals. They were superb astronauts. They completely respected each
other on a professional level, whether or not they connected
on a personal level at all. And I think Mike
Collins said it best when he used the phrase amiable strangers. Uh.
There was certainly no bad blood between them, but they
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weren't what you would call best buddies. They weren't the
kind of guys who would all go out drinking together.
But as a professional unit, they were superb and their
skills complemented each other. Eleven, Hearston, You're gold. Roll over
(15:10):
at the right go for l o I. Apollo eleven
is coming up on the moon fast. Now they are
just a few minutes away from l o I or
the Lunar orbit insertion burn. The spacecraft is about to
loop around the far side of the Moon, where they
will ignite the engine to slow them down and allow
them to enter lunar orbit. Follow eleven Anderson, all your
systems are looking good. Going around the corner. We'll see
(15:33):
on the other side over Radio signals can't penetrate the Moon,
so each time that Apollo moves behind the Moon, they
will be on their own. At seventy five hours, forty
one minutes, and twenty three seconds, exactly as predicted, Earth
loses radio contact with Apollo eleven. But just because Houston
can't hear the astronauts, it doesn't mean weekend I have.
(15:53):
The Moon is there in all of the splendor my
grain im okay here we come up and okay about kay.
Clearly Neil wants everyone's full attention. Don't worry, guys, there's
gonna be plenty of mood to see. Shortly. Name TIG
is time of ignition. The Command Service Module's primary rocket
and more than twenty pound thrust engine ignites. This is
(16:16):
Apollo control as minutes follow eleven should have started this
long burn duration six minutes to seconds. There's a reason
Armstrong needs his crew's complete attention. For every second of
this three hundred and sixty two second burn, Apollo eleven
is dropping more than eleven naut ago miles towards the Moon.
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If they are off by even ten seconds, they will
slam into the Moon's surface, rinding off moment and connected
daron I cam name and Pregner Nick. If something goes wrong,
it will be nearly half an hour until anyone in
mission control even knows there's a problem. Okay, y or okay,
(17:07):
one off and take bad any bad things I ever
said about as a beautiful birds good I get. Luckily,
there is no problem. Apollo elevin's engine has slowed the
vehicle to a sufficient degree that it's been captured by
lunar gravity. It is now only sixty nautical miles above
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the surface. Michael makes a joke about m I. T,
whose Draper Computer Laboratory built the spacecraft's computers, and on
whose computations they were relying to get them into orbit safely.
Today we take for granted the computers run so much
of our lives, But the idea of trusting your life
to a machine was still a foreign concept in nineteen
sixty nine. Clearly Michael and the others had some occasional doubts.
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They don't anymore. With the engines off, they finally get
a chance to cock at the mood. Well, I have
to vote with it. Can through that day brown and amazing, Yeah, yeah,
yet a fogel about. I'll get all back. Then. Back
in mission control, the public affairs officer makes an important announcement.
(18:15):
Where past the no burn acquisition time now? And we
have received no signal. If Apollo eleven had not slowed
itself and settled into orbit, Houston would have expected to
reacquire their signal right about now. The fact that they
haven't indicates that the burn was successful. It's very quiet
here in the control room. Most of the controllers seated
(18:37):
at their consoles, a few standing up, but very quiet.
There's one other reason Apolo eleven may not have re
established contact. It could have crashed on the dark side
of the moon. Everyone in mission control waits silently. The
guys in the capsule don't realize the apprehension building on Earth.
They are too spell dound by their view. Look the
(18:58):
great None of those meteors come by right there, get
the mountains going around? I guess clear, monsters, we think
of the Moon as a flat thing. From our vantage
point on Earth, we can't make out any definition. But
there are mountains on the Moon more than twenty one
thousand feet tall. That's a thousand feet taller than Denali,
the tallest mountain in North America. The largest note impact
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crater on the Moon is roughly six hundred miles wide
and eight miles deep. To Apollo eleven, soaring just sixty
miles above this astonishing topography, the view is like nothing
they have ever seen. Oh well, I need to spend
a lifetime just geologizing that one crater alone. You know,
that not how I'd like to spend my life, turns,
(19:42):
but that big over here coup. Come on, now, the
big mounts. Very name a geologist that there? I go crazy.
We talked before about what life was like for the
astronauts families while they are away, But exactly where the
astronauts up to that whole time? What were they doing
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that was so important that they missed months and even
years of time with their loving families. It has more
to do with Michael's geology comment than you might think
practice makes perfect. It's one of those things that's drilled
into every American school child. But it works for more
than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. It also works for
space exploration. Everyone working on Apollo eleven, from the crew
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and the spacecraft to the flight controllers and mission control
undertook a rigorous training regiment to prepare them for the
first mission to the mood, which makes you wonder, how
do you train for something no one has ever done before,
and what kind of toll does it take on the
families left behind Apollo, their teens Jim love them, and
any kind of an occupation that you're going to be
(20:47):
involved in, it's imperative that you have good training before
you do the actual things. Tratty was the one thing
that made everything successful. I mean, if we were sort
elects of days ago and trading, I don't think we
had ever done it. Amy share Title is a spacecraft historian, author,
and YouTuber extraordinaire. Nothing was left up to chance. No
(21:10):
one really knew it was going to happen for the
first time people walked on the Moon. So NASA's approaches
basically take every question out of the equation and run
through absolutely everything and make sure we know how everything's
gonna work. Neil, Buzz and Michael trained intensely for six
months for their nine day mission. It was, according to Michael,
the busiest six months of their entire lives. From January
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to July of nineteen sixty nine, the crew of APAUL
eleven log more than three thousand, five hundred and twenty
one training hours were roughly forty two hours a week
per man. They also did an additional twenty hours a
week studying. All astronauts received intensive academic training to assure
that they have achieved a common level of spaceflight knowledge.
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The least sexy, yet arguably the most important part of
the astronauts training took place in flight simulators, which perfectly
resembled the Command and un modules down to every last
switch and blinking light. In the complex computer operated electronic
mechanism called the Command Module simulator, the astronauts learned singly
and as a team, systems and characteristics of their three
(22:14):
man ship. In these simulators, the men practiced rendezvousing and
talking with other spacecraft, and of course, landing on the Moon.
The outside was a large mosaic of the actual place
we were going to land and and hanging over that
was a TV camera that was controlled by the controls
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in the lunar module, and I could actually control the
camera going down looking for places of land, and the
actual simulation of the speech and things like that of
lunar module. It was actually a marvelous device. It was
very accurate. Their instructors programmed system malfunctions, emergencies, and various
(22:56):
disasters to see how quickly and proficiently the crew could
react and how well they knew the spacecraft and its systems.
Neil put in more than ten weeks of eight hour
days in the LAMB trainer. Buzz put in even more.
Michael did half of his Command module simulator training by himself.
Since he was never going to see the inside of
the lemb during the mission or walk on the Moon,
there was no need for him to learn any of that.
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In all, the men calculated that they spent around two
thousand hours or eighty days in those simulators. According to Michael,
there was only one angry moment throughout the men's training.
During one of the simulated lunar descents, Neil was ordered
to abort the landing after the spacecraft began malfunctioning. Neil
disagreed with the order, thinking he could still land safely.
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He was wrong. The lambs smashed into the lunar surface,
breaking apart that night with several glasses of Scotch and him.
Buzz angrily ripped into Neil. It got so heated that
Michael slipped away to let them have at it. He
never did learn how they resolve things, but the next
morning they were back to their normal cells as if
nothing had ever happened. Well, we think of Apollo eleven
as the Moon ending mission. The truth is that Neil
(24:02):
and Buzz spent less than three of their more than
one hundred and ninety five hour long mission gallivanting across
the lunar surface. As such, training for their lunar v
A represented only four of their overall preparations. Simulators are
used to train astronauts to work in the one sixth
gravity on the surface of the Moon. They did some
things that they supported astronauts on their sides from cables
(24:24):
and had them run around a vertical track to see
about mobility. These the vomit comment, which is you know
flies and parable is to give you actual periods of
reduced gravity like on the moons, they could figure out
how to deploy instruments, how to walk. To become familiar
with the sensations of zero gravity or weightlessness. The astronauts
(24:44):
ride an aircraft applying precise trajectories. They also practiced in
a precursor of what is known today as the neutral
buoyancy simulator. Scuba training has given since another method of
simulating weightlessness is by working under water in special sally
constructed tanks. The astronauts enter the water weighted to provide
neutral buoyancy. The astronauts meticulously rehearsed the entire moonwalk. NASA
(25:10):
created fake indoor moonscapes, complete with a full sized lunar
module mock up encased in their spacesuits. The men practiced
exiting and entering the lamb and ran through every aspect
of the mission, from the tools they would use, the
experiments they would deploy, the rock samples they would collect,
and even the flag they would plant. However, not all
of their training took place indoors. Classroom work is supplemented
(25:31):
with field trips. The astronauts collecting samples on the surface
of the Moon will have the equivalent study of a
master's degree in geology. This is Harrison Schmidt. I'm astronaut
TU on Apollo sevent team. Before Harrison Schmidt became an
astronaut and later the only professional scientists to ever go
to the Moon, he was a geologist with a U
(25:53):
S Geological Survey at NASA. He pulled double duty training
future moonwalkers and what kind of rocks they should look
for once they were there. We tried to find earth
analogs for some of the things that we thought they
might encounter at the particular site. While their families remained
in Houston, the astronauts spent a lot of time trapesing
around the world, from Iceland to Hawaii, Texas to Arizona.
(26:16):
I tried to impart as much of the logic of
field geology as possible, because that's basically what they would
be trying to do on the Moon, is to observe
and sample and document their observations. So how did Neil do?
I was already very impressed with Neil Armstrong. He was
(26:36):
a great observer, and so I expected him to do
a very good job, and he did. It was outstanding.
John He collected one of the finest suites of samples
that has ever been collected, including my mission on Paulo
seventeen back in orbit around the Moon. A Paulo eleven
has finally rounded the bend in its catching sight of
(26:58):
the Earth. And if you can see the Earth, it
means the Earth can see them. All right, I want
very good nominals. I'll get out and everything looking good.
It was right perfect. The astronauts will now get their
first view of the area in which they will set
down tomorrow, the southwestern corner of a lava plane, dubbed
the Sea of Tranquility. That's getting The landing approach was great,
(27:22):
much like the pictures, but like the difference between watching
a real football game and one on dud for actually
be in here as you just heard. The Apollo eight
and ten missions snapped hundreds of images from the chosen
landing zone. This allowed scientists to determine the safest path
of approach and the flattest area in which to land.
(27:44):
R send her and M. We certainly wish we could
see it firsthand. Also or over Mount Maryland. President Point.
Mount Maryland, which sits at the southeast corner of the
Sea of Tranquility, was named by astronaut Jim Level during
Apollo Weight in honor of his wife. Its size and
orientation make it an easily recognizable landmark for Tomorrow's descent.
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The astronauts were not the only ones who trained extensively
for this mission. Unlike Neil Buzzin Michael, the flight controllers
who worked in the cathedral may have been able to
go home to their families every night, but they're hours
where every bit is demanding and their jobs every bit
is stressful. They sacrificed a lot to ensure that the
men in the spacecraft made it safely to the Moon
and back again. While four separate mission control teams rotated
(28:31):
through the different shifts to cover the entire mission, We're
going to focus on the White team, the one Jean
Krans led. Jean's team had been given the coveted lunar
landing shift. Geene likes the people he's working with. He
chose them personally. Mission controls Simulation Supervisor, or SIMSUP was
Dick Kuss, rail thin former Army sergeant. From a back
(28:52):
room full of computers, sending realistic mission redoubts to each
of the consoles. Coups could simulate just about any conceivable scenario.
Eight weeks before the launch of Apaul eleven Jean's White
team was confident and self assured. Coups put an end
to that. The coup must us looked at us and said,
that team's too cocky, that team needs to get a
(29:13):
few lessons, and he called his team up, and let's
put the screws to these guys. Seconds into their very
first session, they started showing problems with the lens as centenie.
If the lamb put down on the lunar surface, it
might never get back off again. Geane and his team
aborted the landing, and cous agreed with their decision. On
one of the next simulations, so many things began going
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wrong that the White team began drowning in data. They
couldn't sort through it fast enough. By the time they
recognized that the lamb was descending too quickly, it was
too late. The lamb was splattered across the creators. The
second month of training, we had a particularly bad day
where we couldn't seem to do anything right. We went
through a bad, bad, bad day. We had crashed, and
(29:59):
we had crashed, and then to avoid crashing, we'd become
unnecessarily conservative and we'd aboard when we could have landed,
and by the end of the day we sound pretty bad.
And this is the way it went again and again.
Cous was relentless. Gine and his men were simply not
fast enough to keep up with all the problems Couse
was sending their weight. Jeane felt unsure of his every call, second,
(30:21):
guessing his every instinct. Worse, his indecisiveness was wearing off
on his team. It was there only a couple of weeks,
but it seemed a lifetime where we could not do
anything right. It wasn't long before the Powers that Be
asked Jane if they needed to push Upaul Levin's launch date.
The White Team didn't appear ready. Jean insisted they would be,
and training was now and Apollo was about as real.
(30:43):
I mean, you would get the sweaty palms and the
pressure was on in a training episode. It no longer
was training, It was real, and the same emotions, the
same feelings, the same energies, the same adrenaline would flow
and was was causing all this time. But he decided
my team wasn't ready, so I kept beating us up
(31:06):
and beating us up and beating us up. The White
Team hunkered down. They practically lived at their consoles like
the astronants. They were training so hard to keep safe.
They spent more time at work than with their families.
But the tide was finally beginning to turn. They were
making real progress, responding faster now morning control. The simulations
weren't getting any easier, but they were getting better. They
(31:29):
had successfully landed the lamb a half dozen times now,
and finally they felt ready. On July five, just a
week and a half before the launch of Apollo, Levin
Geane and his White team sat down for their final simulation.
The final training runs, invariably are supposed to be confidence builders.
It's to the point now, this is the last time
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we're gonna have an opportunity. Generally, things are going to
go right during the course of the mission. So let's
stay within the box. Let's build the conf done so this, Dame, etcetera.
Who's didn't see it that way? The test started with
a lunar module beginning its descent, and midway through the
descent training we saw a series of computer program alarms,
(32:16):
and we had never seen these before in training. We
had never studied these before in training. Down in front
of the guidance position was twenty six year old Steve Bales.
According to Jean, Steve was the quintessential nerd with thick
glasses unlike most people. Jean actually meant that as a compliment.
I was on the guns console and a program alarm
(32:37):
came up, and I've never seen it before. My backgroom
expert jer Garment had never seen it before. The alarm
read twelve oh one. Since Neil and Buzz were already
in Florida in quarantine, astronauts Dave Scott and Jim Irwin,
we're filling in for them. In the simulated LAMB, Steve
heard them demanding an explanation for the alarm over the radio,
but he didn't have one to give them. Steve began
(32:58):
rushing through the pages of a soft to wear handbook
on his desk looking for an answer. He knew that
at any moment, Jean was going to be breathing down
his neck. His mind flashed back to that lamb splattered
on the moon. Every second counts. Finally he found it,
twelve o one executive overflow. The computer was overloaded with
tasks and threatening to crash. But why everything seemed to
(33:21):
be working just fine? Suddenly another series of alarms rang out.
It was the same alarm again. What the hell was
going on? Steve couldn't wait any longer. He had to
make a decision. He decided to air on the side
of caution. My guide, this officer, Steve Bales, decided we
had to abort. I was really seething. I mean, this
(33:42):
really frustrated a sick There's no I mean, he's the
Boston in training. He's going to call the shots, and
I was really ready to kill CU's at this time.
I said, pay him that we thought we had done
everything right. And cous comes into us and he says no,
he says he didn't do everything right. You should not
have aborted for those computer pro m alarms, but you
should have done has ignored those alarms. More bewildered than ever,
(34:05):
Jeane cornered Steve Bales. So after the debriefing, GANE want
to talk to you, I said, Okay, said, I want
you to go find out every one of these lams.
I don't care what they are, and I want you
to at least make a cheat sheet so that you'll
know what to do if they come up. I said, Jane,
you've gotta be kidding. I got ten other things to do.
(34:25):
We got one to go to the take off of
the Saturn. I've got this and doing us on this
and this and this. Said, I don't care. I want
you get done. I got a call about ten o'clock
that evening that said the training people were right. We
had made the wrong decision. Sure the computer was overloaded,
but it wouldn't have affected safety of flight or any
(34:46):
of the critical systems. They could have landed on the Moon.
If Geane and his people had been better prepared, they
would have known that. Why did I tell you this story?
When a Paula Levin begins It's lunar de scent for real,
the reason will be them glaringly obvious, because while everyone
in mission control may have gone home angry, only Dick
cous is punishing training will literally save the mission. On July,
(35:16):
standing by for acquisition, television is now on. Apollo eleven
has come out from behind the mood. The schedule has
our trio starting a TV transmission as soon as they
catch sight of Earth. It's time to describe the new
view out their windows. Fertility doesn't look very fertile to me.
I don't know the name. It may have been named
(35:38):
otographers King I'm sane and made one of the one
of the early agreemably accurate maps of the class clown
Michael making a joke and brainiac Neil showing off, and
we're getting a good view of the track leading into
the landing right now, Okay, this is very point. Neil
is walking the audience through Tomorrow's descent, checking it against
(36:02):
the lunar roadmap. They get a real good, uh look
at that Tomorrow afternoon. As a paul lepant passes out
of communication range again, the astronauts realize that the exterior
skin of the spacecraft is covered in a discolored sheen
they can't quite identify. Michael suddenly realizes exactly what they're
looking at. Well, lamb and condamnate urine particles all over,
(36:25):
No more and not turn away the bone. Michael decides
to run another of his experiments, moat things rolling over,
I'm thank you. Having finished peeing into a condom like hose,
Michael discards the waist liquid through a urine dump nozzle
on the outside of the spacecraft, inspiring them to discuss
the unique properties of fluid dynamics in space but they're like, no,
(36:46):
one's got a little little curve in it. Yeah, a
little paper in it that came to the surface and
went there's an epispheric grap I think what really happened
is we're rolling, but now it's time for a quick
dinner and then bed were betting. I'm going over to
wait at a dude, we're all eight, didn't be twenty nine?
(37:08):
This is a pottle control Houston at eighty three hours
forty three minutes. So now to the flight of Pollo eleven.
We expect the next time we acquire a Pollo eleven,
Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and buzz Aldan will have a gun.
Their rest period that the last me a week or
a d center. Wh okay, I want to get there.
(37:31):
My parther amazing quickly at Jack, but I didn't seem
weird at all of me. Look out here to the
man going by, well, aren't to day? Went three? Well, Maria,
next day? Erect carry on booted day. How the men
think they're going to be able to get any sleep
tonight is beyond me. And they're not the only ones
back on Earth, as the astronaut's families and Gean trans
(37:53):
and his White team prepare for bed. Everyone is surely
asking the same question, are we ready? Did our training
cover everything we're bound to encounter? Did we train for
everything we could? Did we forget something crucial? And the
fact is no one can answer that. Tomorrow, Neil, Buzz
and Michael will do something no one in all of
(38:13):
human history has ever done before. If they're successful, they'll
go down in history, their names will be known the
world over throughout all time. Or they'll fail and I
hundreds of thousands of miles from everyone they love. Day
four is over. Tomorrow is Day five July, the day
(38:34):
human beings first attempt to step foot on another world.
And as we'll hear on our next episode, it very
nearly didn't happen. This podcast is a production of I
Heart Radio and trade Craft Studios, Executive producers Ashe Seroia
and Scott Bernstein, in association with High five Content and
(38:57):
executive producer Andrew Jacobs. Amazing research and production assistance by
associate producers Brian Schosau and Natalie Robomed. Our incredible editor
is Bill Lance. Original music by Henry ben Wah Special
thanks to Andy Aldrin Lily Copel, the author of the
Astronaut Wives Club, historian Amy Shira Title, the author of
(39:20):
the upcoming Fighting for Space Apollo thirteens, Jim Level Apollo seventeens,
Harrison Schmidt, and Mission Controls Steve Bales. Special thanks to
everyone at NASA who made this podcast possible, especially the
incredible technological wizardry of consulting producer Ben Feist, who's responsible
(39:40):
for organizing and cleaning the eleven thousand hours of mission
audio you're hearing selections from in this podcast. Special thanks
also to consultant Gina Delback. Licensing rights and clearances by
Deborah Carea. 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
(40:03):
and reviews, and chat about it on social media. Our
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 Craft Studios in association with High five Content.
It's January twenty seventh, nineteen sixty seven, two and a
half years before the launch of Apollo eleven. Ed White,
Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffey. The crew of Apollo one
sit high atop their Saturn five rocket, sealed tight inside
(00:23):
their command module. This is a dress rehearsal for their
launch three weeks from now. The mood inside the capsule
matches the weather outside gray. Their calms with the outside
world are spotty and garbled every day. They've already been
in the capsule for hours and very likely have many
(00:44):
more to go. Their countdown clock is frozen while repair
teams work the radio issue. As they wait for the
training simulation to resume, something catches one of the astronaut's eyes.
He glances down and suddenly recoils in terror. A freight
electrical wire has sparked, igniting the combustible nylon material of
(01:07):
the seats in which the astronauts are strapped tight. Within seconds,
the fire has surged up the walls of the capsule.
Flames begin to lick the television camera recording the interior
of the command module. The atmosphere inside the command module
is pure oxygen. While oxygen itself is not flammable, high
(01:28):
concentrations of it make the things it permeates ignite at
far lower temperatures than the otherwise would They also burned
Hotter and faster technicians fight to get the hatch open.
Just seventeen seconds after the astronauts first report the fire,
(01:49):
the building pressure inside the vessel ruptures. The command module's
baultants are. One thing is hauntingly clear to everyone. The
astronauts inside the Command module have fallen silent. There are
(02:24):
times when achieving greatness requires the highest possible sacrifice. Apollo ones,
Ed White, Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee were the first
American astronauts to perish in the line of duty. They
paid the ultimate price, but it was not in vain.
During my flight training in the Navy, we were constantly
told that our manuals and training procedures were written in blood.
(02:47):
Some of those who came before us paid for the
lessons we were learning with their lives, ensuring none of
us would be lost in that way. Ever, again, the
same was true after the Apollo one fire. Everything changed
after that. The success of NASA and Apollo eleven would
be on the backs of every man and woman who
sacrifice to push the boundaries of human exploration. In this episode,
(03:09):
we're going to take a look at the sacrifices made
not only by Neil, Michael and Buzz, but also by
everyone who supported them professionally and personally. It's July nineteenth,
nineteen sixty nine, day four of the Apollo eleven mission,
the day we reached the moon. Cliff Charles Worth and
(03:31):
the Green team of flight controllers as just relieve, Glenn
Lenny's Black Team capcom now is Bruce McCandless. Paulo eleven
is twelve thousand, four eighty six nautical miles from the Moon,
approaching at a velocity of four thousand eighty seven ft
per second. Follow eleven, the follow eleven Morning again eleven,
(03:59):
Good morning. When you feel like God being, I've got
a flight plan updates. Remember when I told you in
the first episode that we were going to be following
the events inside a Paulo eleven in real time, day
by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute. Well
that's not exactly true. At seventies three hours zero zero
(04:22):
man stop CTC at approximately zero degrees role. But it
is when you're coming up on zero degrees role angle
around seventy three hours, you'd like you to stop what
you're hearing right now. That's most of what this podcast
would sound like if we really did it minute by minute.
Often nothing much happens until it does. Yeah, you read eleven.
(04:47):
It's right to find the mount but a very excite uh,
the very market of these dimensional aspects of happens come on.
It's how behind the boon glazes the guys live all
the way around the molony and grandmothers. Where there's no
(05:09):
Earth time are Sun time. Apollo eleven is being treated
to their own personal solar eclipse. This isn't an eclipse
that's visible from Earth, but rather one the astronauts inadvertently
created for themselves. They are now close enough to the
Moon that it appears larger than the Sun, and they
have fallen into its shadow. You heard Buzz mentioned the
Sun's corona. That's a diaphonous aura of plasma that surrounds
(05:32):
all stars, extending out for millions of miles. It's invisible
except during an eclipse, right now the astronauts are watching
ribbons of light shimmer and dance around a massive black
hole that is the Moon in complete silhouette has been
a real change for us. Now we're able to see
stars again, unrecognized constellations for the first time. All the
(05:55):
way here, we've only been able to see stars occasionally.
He goes, it's turned in the night up there, really
isn't We imagine deep space would be a wash with stars,
but with the Earth reflecting sunlight like a massive mirror,
it has made that nearly impossible, except now with the
Sun's light trapped behind the Moon. In mission control, everyone
(06:17):
is living vicariously through the cruise off. We've been having
raised somebody really spectacular and view worth the price of
the drip all or a lot of us down there
that would be willing to come along. As a Pauloa
Levin continues to enjoy the show. Houston kicks off their
day with the news. McCandless decides to tag team it
with backup lunar module pilot Fred hayes, it looks like
(06:40):
it's going to be impossible, and get away from the
fact that you guys are dominating all the news. Mccaron
an prop and Russia's headlining the Manja and calls Neil
bar of the ship. Pravda was the official newspaper of
the Soviet Union. It still exists today, though it's no
longer a mouthpiece of the state. Czar Of was the
(07:00):
honorific title given to the leader of Russia before the
revolution in nineteen seventeen. West Germany has declared Monday to
be Apollo Day. School Children in Bavaria have been given
the day off. Post office clerks have been encouraged to
bring radios to work, and Frankfurt is installing TV sets
in public places. BBC in London is considering a special
(07:23):
radio loan system to call people or the TV sets
in cases a change in the av a time on
the moon. Clearly, Apollo eleven has captured the imagination of
the entire world. This will be the most significant where
were you when moment at all of human history? And
everyone wants to bear witness, even the kids at camp
down in the news when Mike Junior was quoted as
(07:45):
replying yeah when somebody asked him if the Steady was
going to be in history, then after a sharp pause,
he asked, what is history? You might be interested in
annoying that. A Houston astrologer, Ruby Rahm says that all
the signs are right for your trip to the moon.
She says that Mail is clever, Mike's good judgment as
(08:07):
Buzz can work out into good problems. Thank you us there.
We appreciate that Rogers and Soil Michael Jr. History or
no dream better baby, So Roger will pass it along.
Like Apollo eleven is nearly to the moon. But we
have just long enough to talk about what life was
like back on Earth for Neil, Buzz and Michael and
(08:29):
their long suffering families. That these families, especially the astronauts
were living sort of double lives. They were their home
lives in Houston, and then the guys who are flying
their hot p thirty eight down to Cape Canavera where
they were training, and so they were absentee fathers for
(08:52):
the most part and sort of celebrities down in Florida.
And so the women had to deal with the very
unique challenge of keeping a family grounded while also sort
of promoting this space age dream that America was projecting
out into the world. That was Lily Copel. I'm a
(09:15):
writer and journalist and I wrote a book called The
Astronaut Wives Club. While the astronauts lived in Houston, a
large amount of their training took place in Florida, forcing
them away from their families for most of the week.
In a very real sense, the astronaut's wives were single mothers.
Barbara's Cernan, who was the wife of Jean Cernan, the
(09:35):
last man to walk on the Moon, said quite poignantly,
if you think going to the moon is hard, try
staying at home. They ran the house, juggling the finances,
mowing the lawn, fixing anything that broke, and helping the
kids with their schoolwork. Andy Aldrin, buzz and Jones's youngest
of three, was eleven the year his father left for
the Moon. It wasn't at home all that all. That's
(09:58):
just what my dad's job was. My mother was incredibly strong,
incredibly diplomatic, incredibly compassionate. You know, I'll be honest with that.
She emerges out of this whole thing as my biggest hero,
because it was incredibly difficult for her to manage all
the things that she had to manage without alarming the kids.
(10:19):
You know, the fact that I can say all of
this seemed normal is an absolute tribute to my mother.
The wives soon realized that they were each other's greatest
source of strength and supporting together's will was a name
the journalists gave the community. So women were sort of
living in this little tribal pack down in Houston, helping
communally raise the kids back in Houston. Because the men
(10:43):
were so busy training for their space flights. The wives
had a little motto for their own role, and that
was happy, proud, and thrilled because they next felt that
they could reveal the enormous anxiety, the fears of what
they were experiencing. This sisterhood of joint experiences, common pressures,
(11:05):
mutual fears, and shared sacrifices was, by their own admission,
a bit like living in a neighborhood run by the
Stepford wives. They've always dreamed of the happiest investment they
have ever made. There were five houses that were adjacent
to the back of our house. Three of them were astronauts.
You couldn't swing a dead cat at our elementary school
(11:25):
without him an astronaut's kid, so it was normal. I
thought my dad was cool because you get pole vauled,
not because he was an astronaut. Having astronauts around was
just normal for me. It was normal for everybody in
our community. None of the astronaut wives knew what they
were in for. When they got married. They expected the quiet,
ordered life of military spouses, but now they had to
(11:46):
attend ribbon cuttings and high society festivities. They had to
plaster smiles on their faces during ticker tape parades and
make small talk with first ladies. Their neighborhoods were invaded
by press and tour buses, and it wasn't unusual to
find tourists climbing trees or even jumping backyard fences just
to get a look at them. The astro families had
(12:07):
to be flawless. They had to project an image of
the all American Christian family because the world was watching.
The women of this family seemed to feel that they
owe it to the men of the family to look relaxed, rested,
and attractive at dinner time. And this was the height
of the Cold War, and there was the feeling that
America had to really sell and project to the world
(12:31):
all the ideals of the country, of the American dreams.
The choice lies between two opposing ideologies. On the one side,
socialist communism on the other side, democratic capitalism. The astronauts
and their families were on the forefront of this propaganda mission.
They were almost like America's first reality stars. You know.
(12:55):
There was such pressure um from NASA, from the US
government to maintained this perfect nineteen fifties going into the
sixties image, sort of the leave it to Beaver family.
It was bad enough that the families had to meet
NASA's impossible standards anytime they stepped out the front door,
but thanks to an exclusive deal with Life magazine, they
(13:17):
also had to maintain this illusion behind the closed doors
of their own homes. Life reporters were literally embedded with
the families before and during missions. Everything they did, said,
or war was scrutinized. It was totally awesome. The Life
guys were just great guys and they just wanted to
be my buddy. I enjoyed it. I think it's terrified
(13:39):
my mom. Well. The stories about the astronauts that appeared
in Life magazine were accurate. The pictures were anything, but
they frequently showed Neil, Buzz and Michael hanging out, laughing
and cooking together. But these men didn't do any of that,
not in real life. It was all made up, staged
by the magazine to sell copy. Andrew Chacken is a
space historian and science journalists and the author of A
(14:01):
Man to the Moon, The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts,
the basis of the HBO miniseries From the Earth to
the Moon. The thing about a space mission is that
you don't have to be best friends to carry it
out successfully. What you do have to do is be
consummate professionals. And Neil, Buzz and Mike were above all
(14:23):
consummate professionals. They were superb astronauts. They completely respected each
other on a professional level, whether or not they connected
on a personal level at all. And I think Mike
Collins said it best when he used the phrase amiable strangers. Uh.
There was certainly no bad blood between them, but they
(14:46):
weren't what you would call best buddies. They weren't the
kind of guys who would all go out drinking together.
But as a professional unit, they were superb and their
skills complemented each other. Eleven, Hearston, You're gold. Roll over
(15:10):
at the right go for l o I. Apollo eleven
is coming up on the moon fast. Now they are
just a few minutes away from l o I or
the Lunar orbit insertion burn. The spacecraft is about to
loop around the far side of the Moon, where they
will ignite the engine to slow them down and allow
them to enter lunar orbit. Follow eleven Anderson, all your
systems are looking good. Going around the corner. We'll see
(15:33):
on the other side over Radio signals can't penetrate the Moon,
so each time that Apollo moves behind the Moon, they
will be on their own. At seventy five hours, forty
one minutes, and twenty three seconds, exactly as predicted, Earth
loses radio contact with Apollo eleven. But just because Houston
can't hear the astronauts, it doesn't mean weekend I have.
(15:53):
The Moon is there in all of the splendor my
grain im okay here we come up and okay about kay.
Clearly Neil wants everyone's full attention. Don't worry, guys, there's
gonna be plenty of mood to see. Shortly. Name TIG
is time of ignition. The Command Service Module's primary rocket
and more than twenty pound thrust engine ignites. This is
(16:16):
Apollo control as minutes follow eleven should have started this
long burn duration six minutes to seconds. There's a reason
Armstrong needs his crew's complete attention. For every second of
this three hundred and sixty two second burn, Apollo eleven
is dropping more than eleven naut ago miles towards the Moon.
(16:37):
If they are off by even ten seconds, they will
slam into the Moon's surface, rinding off moment and connected
daron I cam name and Pregner Nick. If something goes wrong,
it will be nearly half an hour until anyone in
mission control even knows there's a problem. Okay, y or okay,
(17:07):
one off and take bad any bad things I ever
said about as a beautiful birds good I get. Luckily,
there is no problem. Apollo elevin's engine has slowed the
vehicle to a sufficient degree that it's been captured by
lunar gravity. It is now only sixty nautical miles above
(17:30):
the surface. Michael makes a joke about m I. T,
whose Draper Computer Laboratory built the spacecraft's computers, and on
whose computations they were relying to get them into orbit safely.
Today we take for granted the computers run so much
of our lives, But the idea of trusting your life
to a machine was still a foreign concept in nineteen
sixty nine. Clearly Michael and the others had some occasional doubts.
(17:52):
They don't anymore. With the engines off, they finally get
a chance to cock at the mood. Well, I have
to vote with it. Can through that day brown and amazing, Yeah, yeah,
yet a fogel about. I'll get all back. Then. Back
in mission control, the public affairs officer makes an important announcement.
(18:15):
Where past the no burn acquisition time now? And we
have received no signal. If Apollo eleven had not slowed
itself and settled into orbit, Houston would have expected to
reacquire their signal right about now. The fact that they
haven't indicates that the burn was successful. It's very quiet
here in the control room. Most of the controllers seated
(18:37):
at their consoles, a few standing up, but very quiet.
There's one other reason Apolo eleven may not have re
established contact. It could have crashed on the dark side
of the moon. Everyone in mission control waits silently. The
guys in the capsule don't realize the apprehension building on Earth.
They are too spell dound by their view. Look the
(18:58):
great None of those meteors come by right there, get
the mountains going around? I guess clear, monsters, we think
of the Moon as a flat thing. From our vantage
point on Earth, we can't make out any definition. But
there are mountains on the Moon more than twenty one
thousand feet tall. That's a thousand feet taller than Denali,
the tallest mountain in North America. The largest note impact
(19:20):
crater on the Moon is roughly six hundred miles wide
and eight miles deep. To Apollo eleven, soaring just sixty
miles above this astonishing topography, the view is like nothing
they have ever seen. Oh well, I need to spend
a lifetime just geologizing that one crater alone. You know,
that not how I'd like to spend my life, turns,
(19:42):
but that big over here coup. Come on, now, the
big mounts. Very name a geologist that there? I go crazy.
We talked before about what life was like for the
astronauts families while they are away, But exactly where the
astronauts up to that whole time? What were they doing
(20:03):
that was so important that they missed months and even
years of time with their loving families. It has more
to do with Michael's geology comment than you might think
practice makes perfect. It's one of those things that's drilled
into every American school child. But it works for more
than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. It also works for
space exploration. Everyone working on Apollo eleven, from the crew
(20:25):
and the spacecraft to the flight controllers and mission control
undertook a rigorous training regiment to prepare them for the
first mission to the mood, which makes you wonder, how
do you train for something no one has ever done before,
and what kind of toll does it take on the
families left behind Apollo, their teens Jim love them, and
any kind of an occupation that you're going to be
(20:47):
involved in, it's imperative that you have good training before
you do the actual things. Tratty was the one thing
that made everything successful. I mean, if we were sort
elects of days ago and trading, I don't think we
had ever done it. Amy share Title is a spacecraft historian, author,
and YouTuber extraordinaire. Nothing was left up to chance. No
(21:10):
one really knew it was going to happen for the
first time people walked on the Moon. So NASA's approaches
basically take every question out of the equation and run
through absolutely everything and make sure we know how everything's
gonna work. Neil, Buzz and Michael trained intensely for six
months for their nine day mission. It was, according to Michael,
the busiest six months of their entire lives. From January
(21:32):
to July of nineteen sixty nine, the crew of APAUL
eleven log more than three thousand, five hundred and twenty
one training hours were roughly forty two hours a week
per man. They also did an additional twenty hours a
week studying. All astronauts received intensive academic training to assure
that they have achieved a common level of spaceflight knowledge.
(21:52):
The least sexy, yet arguably the most important part of
the astronauts training took place in flight simulators, which perfectly
resembled the Command and un modules down to every last
switch and blinking light. In the complex computer operated electronic
mechanism called the Command Module simulator, the astronauts learned singly
and as a team, systems and characteristics of their three
(22:14):
man ship. In these simulators, the men practiced rendezvousing and
talking with other spacecraft, and of course, landing on the Moon.
The outside was a large mosaic of the actual place
we were going to land and and hanging over that
was a TV camera that was controlled by the controls
(22:35):
in the lunar module, and I could actually control the
camera going down looking for places of land, and the
actual simulation of the speech and things like that of
lunar module. It was actually a marvelous device. It was
very accurate. Their instructors programmed system malfunctions, emergencies, and various
(22:56):
disasters to see how quickly and proficiently the crew could
react and how well they knew the spacecraft and its systems.
Neil put in more than ten weeks of eight hour
days in the LAMB trainer. Buzz put in even more.
Michael did half of his Command module simulator training by himself.
Since he was never going to see the inside of
the lemb during the mission or walk on the Moon,
there was no need for him to learn any of that.
(23:18):
In all, the men calculated that they spent around two
thousand hours or eighty days in those simulators. According to Michael,
there was only one angry moment throughout the men's training.
During one of the simulated lunar descents, Neil was ordered
to abort the landing after the spacecraft began malfunctioning. Neil
disagreed with the order, thinking he could still land safely.
(23:39):
He was wrong. The lambs smashed into the lunar surface,
breaking apart that night with several glasses of Scotch and him.
Buzz angrily ripped into Neil. It got so heated that
Michael slipped away to let them have at it. He
never did learn how they resolve things, but the next
morning they were back to their normal cells as if
nothing had ever happened. Well, we think of Apollo eleven
as the Moon ending mission. The truth is that Neil
(24:02):
and Buzz spent less than three of their more than
one hundred and ninety five hour long mission gallivanting across
the lunar surface. As such, training for their lunar v
A represented only four of their overall preparations. Simulators are
used to train astronauts to work in the one sixth
gravity on the surface of the Moon. They did some
things that they supported astronauts on their sides from cables
(24:24):
and had them run around a vertical track to see
about mobility. These the vomit comment, which is you know
flies and parable is to give you actual periods of
reduced gravity like on the moons, they could figure out
how to deploy instruments, how to walk. To become familiar
with the sensations of zero gravity or weightlessness. The astronauts
(24:44):
ride an aircraft applying precise trajectories. They also practiced in
a precursor of what is known today as the neutral
buoyancy simulator. Scuba training has given since another method of
simulating weightlessness is by working under water in special sally
constructed tanks. The astronauts enter the water weighted to provide
neutral buoyancy. The astronauts meticulously rehearsed the entire moonwalk. NASA
(25:10):
created fake indoor moonscapes, complete with a full sized lunar
module mock up encased in their spacesuits. The men practiced
exiting and entering the lamb and ran through every aspect
of the mission, from the tools they would use, the
experiments they would deploy, the rock samples they would collect,
and even the flag they would plant. However, not all
of their training took place indoors. Classroom work is supplemented
(25:31):
with field trips. The astronauts collecting samples on the surface
of the Moon will have the equivalent study of a
master's degree in geology. This is Harrison Schmidt. I'm astronaut
TU on Apollo sevent team. Before Harrison Schmidt became an
astronaut and later the only professional scientists to ever go
to the Moon, he was a geologist with a U
(25:53):
S Geological Survey at NASA. He pulled double duty training
future moonwalkers and what kind of rocks they should look
for once they were there. We tried to find earth
analogs for some of the things that we thought they
might encounter at the particular site. While their families remained
in Houston, the astronauts spent a lot of time trapesing
around the world, from Iceland to Hawaii, Texas to Arizona.
(26:16):
I tried to impart as much of the logic of
field geology as possible, because that's basically what they would
be trying to do on the Moon, is to observe
and sample and document their observations. So how did Neil do?
I was already very impressed with Neil Armstrong. He was
(26:36):
a great observer, and so I expected him to do
a very good job, and he did. It was outstanding.
John He collected one of the finest suites of samples
that has ever been collected, including my mission on Paulo
seventeen back in orbit around the Moon. A Paulo eleven
has finally rounded the bend in its catching sight of
(26:58):
the Earth. And if you can see the Earth, it
means the Earth can see them. All right, I want
very good nominals. I'll get out and everything looking good.
It was right perfect. The astronauts will now get their
first view of the area in which they will set
down tomorrow, the southwestern corner of a lava plane, dubbed
the Sea of Tranquility. That's getting The landing approach was great,
(27:22):
much like the pictures, but like the difference between watching
a real football game and one on dud for actually
be in here as you just heard. The Apollo eight
and ten missions snapped hundreds of images from the chosen
landing zone. This allowed scientists to determine the safest path
of approach and the flattest area in which to land.
(27:44):
R send her and M. We certainly wish we could
see it firsthand. Also or over Mount Maryland. President Point.
Mount Maryland, which sits at the southeast corner of the
Sea of Tranquility, was named by astronaut Jim Level during
Apollo Weight in honor of his wife. Its size and
orientation make it an easily recognizable landmark for Tomorrow's descent.
(28:09):
The astronauts were not the only ones who trained extensively
for this mission. Unlike Neil Buzzin Michael, the flight controllers
who worked in the cathedral may have been able to
go home to their families every night, but they're hours
where every bit is demanding and their jobs every bit
is stressful. They sacrificed a lot to ensure that the
men in the spacecraft made it safely to the Moon
and back again. While four separate mission control teams rotated
(28:31):
through the different shifts to cover the entire mission, We're
going to focus on the White team, the one Jean
Krans led. Jean's team had been given the coveted lunar
landing shift. Geene likes the people he's working with. He
chose them personally. Mission controls Simulation Supervisor, or SIMSUP was
Dick Kuss, rail thin former Army sergeant. From a back
(28:52):
room full of computers, sending realistic mission redoubts to each
of the consoles. Coups could simulate just about any conceivable scenario.
Eight weeks before the launch of Apaul eleven Jean's White
team was confident and self assured. Coups put an end
to that. The coup must us looked at us and said,
that team's too cocky, that team needs to get a
(29:13):
few lessons, and he called his team up, and let's
put the screws to these guys. Seconds into their very
first session, they started showing problems with the lens as centenie.
If the lamb put down on the lunar surface, it
might never get back off again. Geane and his team
aborted the landing, and cous agreed with their decision. On
one of the next simulations, so many things began going
(29:35):
wrong that the White team began drowning in data. They
couldn't sort through it fast enough. By the time they
recognized that the lamb was descending too quickly, it was
too late. The lamb was splattered across the creators. The
second month of training, we had a particularly bad day
where we couldn't seem to do anything right. We went
through a bad, bad, bad day. We had crashed, and
(29:59):
we had crashed, and then to avoid crashing, we'd become
unnecessarily conservative and we'd aboard when we could have landed,
and by the end of the day we sound pretty bad.
And this is the way it went again and again.
Cous was relentless. Gine and his men were simply not
fast enough to keep up with all the problems Couse
was sending their weight. Jeane felt unsure of his every call, second,
(30:21):
guessing his every instinct. Worse, his indecisiveness was wearing off
on his team. It was there only a couple of weeks,
but it seemed a lifetime where we could not do
anything right. It wasn't long before the Powers that Be
asked Jane if they needed to push Upaul Levin's launch date.
The White Team didn't appear ready. Jean insisted they would be,
and training was now and Apollo was about as real.
(30:43):
I mean, you would get the sweaty palms and the
pressure was on in a training episode. It no longer
was training, It was real, and the same emotions, the
same feelings, the same energies, the same adrenaline would flow
and was was causing all this time. But he decided
my team wasn't ready, so I kept beating us up
(31:06):
and beating us up and beating us up. The White
Team hunkered down. They practically lived at their consoles like
the astronants. They were training so hard to keep safe.
They spent more time at work than with their families.
But the tide was finally beginning to turn. They were
making real progress, responding faster now morning control. The simulations
weren't getting any easier, but they were getting better. They
(31:29):
had successfully landed the lamb a half dozen times now,
and finally they felt ready. On July five, just a
week and a half before the launch of Apollo, Levin
Geane and his White team sat down for their final simulation.
The final training runs, invariably are supposed to be confidence builders.
It's to the point now, this is the last time
(31:50):
we're gonna have an opportunity. Generally, things are going to
go right during the course of the mission. So let's
stay within the box. Let's build the conf done so this, Dame, etcetera.
Who's didn't see it that way? The test started with
a lunar module beginning its descent, and midway through the
descent training we saw a series of computer program alarms,
(32:16):
and we had never seen these before in training. We
had never studied these before in training. Down in front
of the guidance position was twenty six year old Steve Bales.
According to Jean, Steve was the quintessential nerd with thick
glasses unlike most people. Jean actually meant that as a compliment.
I was on the guns console and a program alarm
(32:37):
came up, and I've never seen it before. My backgroom
expert jer Garment had never seen it before. The alarm
read twelve oh one. Since Neil and Buzz were already
in Florida in quarantine, astronauts Dave Scott and Jim Irwin,
we're filling in for them. In the simulated LAMB, Steve
heard them demanding an explanation for the alarm over the radio,
but he didn't have one to give them. Steve began
(32:58):
rushing through the pages of a soft to wear handbook
on his desk looking for an answer. He knew that
at any moment, Jean was going to be breathing down
his neck. His mind flashed back to that lamb splattered
on the moon. Every second counts. Finally he found it,
twelve o one executive overflow. The computer was overloaded with
tasks and threatening to crash. But why everything seemed to
(33:21):
be working just fine? Suddenly another series of alarms rang out.
It was the same alarm again. What the hell was
going on? Steve couldn't wait any longer. He had to
make a decision. He decided to air on the side
of caution. My guide, this officer, Steve Bales, decided we
had to abort. I was really seething. I mean, this
(33:42):
really frustrated a sick There's no I mean, he's the
Boston in training. He's going to call the shots, and
I was really ready to kill CU's at this time.
I said, pay him that we thought we had done
everything right. And cous comes into us and he says no,
he says he didn't do everything right. You should not
have aborted for those computer pro m alarms, but you
should have done has ignored those alarms. More bewildered than ever,
(34:05):
Jeane cornered Steve Bales. So after the debriefing, GANE want
to talk to you, I said, Okay, said, I want
you to go find out every one of these lams.
I don't care what they are, and I want you
to at least make a cheat sheet so that you'll
know what to do if they come up. I said, Jane,
you've gotta be kidding. I got ten other things to do.
(34:25):
We got one to go to the take off of
the Saturn. I've got this and doing us on this
and this and this. Said, I don't care. I want
you get done. I got a call about ten o'clock
that evening that said the training people were right. We
had made the wrong decision. Sure the computer was overloaded,
but it wouldn't have affected safety of flight or any
(34:46):
of the critical systems. They could have landed on the Moon.
If Geane and his people had been better prepared, they
would have known that. Why did I tell you this story?
When a Paula Levin begins It's lunar de scent for real,
the reason will be them glaringly obvious, because while everyone
in mission control may have gone home angry, only Dick
cous is punishing training will literally save the mission. On July,
(35:16):
standing by for acquisition, television is now on. Apollo eleven
has come out from behind the mood. The schedule has
our trio starting a TV transmission as soon as they
catch sight of Earth. It's time to describe the new
view out their windows. Fertility doesn't look very fertile to me.
I don't know the name. It may have been named
(35:38):
otographers King I'm sane and made one of the one
of the early agreemably accurate maps of the class clown
Michael making a joke and brainiac Neil showing off, and
we're getting a good view of the track leading into
the landing right now, Okay, this is very point. Neil
is walking the audience through Tomorrow's descent, checking it against
(36:02):
the lunar roadmap. They get a real good, uh look
at that Tomorrow afternoon. As a paul lepant passes out
of communication range again, the astronauts realize that the exterior
skin of the spacecraft is covered in a discolored sheen
they can't quite identify. Michael suddenly realizes exactly what they're
looking at. Well, lamb and condamnate urine particles all over,
(36:25):
No more and not turn away the bone. Michael decides
to run another of his experiments, moat things rolling over,
I'm thank you. Having finished peeing into a condom like hose,
Michael discards the waist liquid through a urine dump nozzle
on the outside of the spacecraft, inspiring them to discuss
the unique properties of fluid dynamics in space but they're like, no,
(36:46):
one's got a little little curve in it. Yeah, a
little paper in it that came to the surface and
went there's an epispheric grap I think what really happened
is we're rolling, but now it's time for a quick
dinner and then bed were betting. I'm going over to
wait at a dude, we're all eight, didn't be twenty nine?
(37:08):
This is a pottle control Houston at eighty three hours
forty three minutes. So now to the flight of Pollo eleven.
We expect the next time we acquire a Pollo eleven,
Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and buzz Aldan will have a gun.
Their rest period that the last me a week or
a d center. Wh okay, I want to get there.
(37:31):
My parther amazing quickly at Jack, but I didn't seem
weird at all of me. Look out here to the
man going by, well, aren't to day? Went three? Well, Maria,
next day? Erect carry on booted day. How the men
think they're going to be able to get any sleep
tonight is beyond me. And they're not the only ones
back on Earth, as the astronaut's families and Gean trans
(37:53):
and his White team prepare for bed. Everyone is surely
asking the same question, are we ready? Did our training
cover everything we're bound to encounter? Did we train for
everything we could? Did we forget something crucial? And the
fact is no one can answer that. Tomorrow, Neil, Buzz
and Michael will do something no one in all of
(38:13):
human history has ever done before. If they're successful, they'll
go down in history, their names will be known the
world over throughout all time. Or they'll fail and I
hundreds of thousands of miles from everyone they love. Day
four is over. Tomorrow is Day five July, the day
(38:34):
human beings first attempt to step foot on another world.
And as we'll hear on our next episode, it very
nearly didn't happen. This podcast is a production of I
Heart Radio and trade Craft Studios, Executive producers Ashe Seroia
and Scott Bernstein, in association with High five Content and
(38:57):
executive producer Andrew Jacobs. Amazing research and production assistance by
associate producers Brian Schosau and Natalie Robomed. Our incredible editor
is Bill Lance. Original music by Henry ben Wah Special
thanks to Andy Aldrin Lily Copel, the author of the
Astronaut Wives Club, historian Amy Shira Title, the author of
(39:20):
the upcoming Fighting for Space Apollo thirteens, Jim Level Apollo seventeens,
Harrison Schmidt, and Mission Controls Steve Bales. Special thanks to
everyone at NASA who made this podcast possible, especially the
incredible technological wizardry of consulting producer Ben Feist, who's responsible
(39:40):
for organizing and cleaning the eleven thousand hours of mission
audio you're hearing selections from in this podcast. Special thanks
also to consultant Gina Delback. Licensing rights and clearances by
Deborah Carea. 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
(40:03):
and reviews, and chat about it on social media. Our
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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