July 24, 2025 • 26 mins
Storms threaten splashdown. A rogue officer defies orders. As the astronauts hurtle home, the final threat comes from Earth—and from within.
*
BUZZ - Series Credits
Created by Stephen Kronish
Directed by John Scott Dryden
Written by Stephen Kronish
with Matt Graham & Thompson Evans
Original music - Sacha Puttnam
Editing & Sound Design - Eloise Whitmore
Cast
Buzz Aldrin (older) - John Lithgow
Buzz Aldrin (younger) - Geoffrey Arend
Neil Armstrong - David Menkin
Mike Collins - Taylor Napier
Joan Aldrin - Julee Cerda
Gene Kranz - Philip Desmeules
Chris Kraft - Nathan Osgood
Deke Slayton - Patrick Poletti
Dr. Rachel Ludwig - Jennifer Armour
Walter Cronkite - Kerry Shale
Sir Bernard Lovell - Rufus Wright
Brian Duff - Akie Kotabe
Jan Armstrong - Natasha Arancini
Pat Collins - Valentina Arena
Ensemble - Eric Meyers, Laurel Lefkow, Greg Lockett, Christopher Ragland, Adam Sina, Phillipe Bosher, Eric Sirakian & Flynn Ivo
Children - Sadi Mitchell, Hugo Dryden and Uly Zarkovich Huff
Production
Script Editing - Mike Walker
Additional Material & Script Supervision - Alex Lynch
The Technical Consultant - Matthew H. Hersch
Studio Engineers - Mat Clark & Paul Clark
Trailers Producer - Jack Soper
Producer & Casting - Emma Hearn
Executive Producers - Jeremy Fox, John Scott Dryden, Stephen Kronish, Howard Stringer & Jason English
BUZZ is a production of Thoroughbred Studios, Goldhawk Productions & iHeartPodcasts
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Buzz, an audio drama for iHeart Podcasts starring John Lithgow
and Jeffrey Arran as buzz Aldren. This series is based
on real events. However, certain characters, names, incidents, locations, and
dialogue have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Chapter eleven, you look.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Lousy, Lieutenant, which you tell Captain D'Angelo.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Then unless we change the site of Columbia's splashdown, we're
looking at a disaster. And he reminded me that I
don't have clearance to even discuss Project thirty five. My
doing so would jeopardize the classified status of the satellite
and the lives of sixty Air Force pilots who are
about to attack.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
The North Vietnamese.
Speaker 6 (00:56):
What do we do?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
You're not doing anything. You're gonna go around Di Angelo
to the Vice Admiral.
Speaker 7 (01:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 8 (01:05):
I'd put you on a pretty thin I said.
Speaker 7 (01:07):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
All I know is we're running out of time.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
Once re entry begins, mission control will lose contact with
Columbia and any chance of saving them will be gone.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Colombia, Houston looks like you're in VHF range. Stand by
for radio check.
Speaker 9 (01:38):
I read you on VHF.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Telemetry shows that the CMRCS thrusters look fine. What do
we do for rein Dream eleven Central stand by waiting badly?
Thirty three minutes on my.
Speaker 10 (01:52):
Mark copy, Houston, Mark copy, mister Krantz, call for you
from Captain Willard Houston at Fleet Weather Station Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 11 (02:08):
He's calling about the Columbia splashdown.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
He says, it's urgent, Lieutenant Houston. This is Flight Director
Gene Krantz. What's the problem, sir?
Speaker 12 (02:19):
Apollo eleven cannot land in the target area selected?
Speaker 6 (02:23):
It can and it will.
Speaker 9 (02:26):
No, I mean, sir, there's a storm at those coordinates.
Speaker 6 (02:29):
There are storms in the Pacific all the time.
Speaker 12 (02:31):
These are typhoon conditions, sir. Thirty foot seas and winds
at altitude. Little Rip eleven's parish himself before they can deploy.
The command module will at the water at two hundred
miles an hour. The crew would be killed instantly.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Lieutenant, where is this information coming from?
Speaker 9 (02:51):
I'm not at liberty to say.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Sir, you'd better explain that.
Speaker 9 (02:55):
It's a matter of national security. Sir.
Speaker 6 (03:00):
Why is this the first I'm hearing of it? And
why is it you I'm hearing it from instead of
the Vice Admiral in charge of the recovery operation.
Speaker 9 (03:10):
Sir, going through a chain of command has proven impossible.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
Let me understand this, Your violating chain of command telling
me to alter the site of Columbia's splashdown, an operation
of immense complexity and cost, based on information whose source
you won't reveal.
Speaker 9 (03:31):
I can't reveal it, sir.
Speaker 6 (03:33):
Gene, Come in, Chris, Lieutenant Houston, I'll get back to you.
Stay by the phone, yes, sir, what's wrong, Gane? During
pre flight of Apollo one, someone decided to fill the
module with flammable instruction manuals and velcro fasteners, which accelerated
(03:57):
the fire that killed Grisome, White and Chat. And there
was no time to vet that decision with the Change
Review Board. What's that got to do with, Hi, Lieutenant
at weather Station Pearl wants me to change the site
of Columbia's splashdown because of typhoon conditions. That would be
a death sentence to Neil, Buzz and Mike. And there's
(04:20):
no time for the Change review Board now either.
Speaker 8 (04:24):
How reliable is the forecast?
Speaker 6 (04:26):
Lieutenant says, it comes from a classified source. It couldn't name.
Because of its national security implications.
Speaker 8 (04:32):
In other words, you're supposed to change the splashdown side
based on nothing, but this kid say so not.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
In other words, those are the words. Now, what would you.
Speaker 8 (04:45):
Do if Columbia sinks? That's three more funerals. Not to
be cold blooded. It probably mean the end of the
Apollo program?
Speaker 6 (05:00):
What would you do? Chris?
Speaker 8 (05:04):
You're in the job I used to have, the job
I loved. I've been jealous of you as decision makers
since the minute they kicked me upstairs. I'm not jealous anymore.
Speaker 7 (05:23):
I'm Buzz Aldron and this is the story you think
you know, but you don't.
Speaker 13 (05:30):
Ignition sequence five ft five four.
Speaker 6 (05:37):
Don't I have one.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Them do with the quality?
Speaker 13 (05:41):
Babe here, I ain't a pet Paul Tramp for man
Mark by a plan.
Speaker 7 (06:00):
You're listening to, Buzz. This is the story of my
Greatest achievement, Chapter eleven. It was the night before Christmas
in seventy seven. My liquor store felt like a wee
bit of heaven. More scotch, I demanded, though already loaded
(06:25):
forgetting my credit was all, but he wrote it.
Speaker 10 (06:28):
I'll pay you next week right now.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
I'm shore Hey, come back when you grow.
Speaker 14 (06:33):
Come on, Freddy, how about some cheer for the holiday season.
Speaker 11 (06:38):
Oh ho ho, no cash, no cary.
Speaker 14 (06:42):
God, damn it, man, it's Christmas.
Speaker 11 (06:45):
Yeah, we've established that.
Speaker 15 (06:49):
Turn around.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
You prick on a wall right there, picture of me
signed by me personally.
Speaker 14 (06:59):
Your old man said, but it was his most prized possession.
Speaker 15 (07:02):
He was an idiot.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Plus he's dead.
Speaker 7 (07:08):
A few blocks down the street, I ran into some
guys who were ringing in the New year early in
the spirit of Christian charity. They shared their spirits. One
of them wore a sweatshirt that said no future, and
we discussed our limited prospects. Late into the otherwise silent night,
(07:41):
the phone woke me, but I didn't answer. It was
the darkest Christmas morning I never saw. Then I remembered
blackout curtains. Bob Hopes Christmas Show was on from Vietnam.
(08:04):
His guest of honor was Neil, the first Man on
the Moon. Bob didn't bother to mention Mike or me. Oh,
I lost my last friend when the goldfish died. So
I had no idea who was at the door, and
(08:27):
no intention of finding out.
Speaker 11 (08:29):
Bud, it's me, Joe, I called before.
Speaker 6 (08:36):
I hear the TV.
Speaker 16 (08:37):
Open up broughts of food.
Speaker 17 (08:43):
You can heat it later or come to the house.
Speaker 16 (08:48):
The kids want to see you and be alone today bus.
Speaker 7 (08:59):
I waited. I was sure she had gone, but there
she was.
Speaker 16 (09:08):
Hey, Hey, come on in, God, this place is disgusting.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
I've been meaning to dust.
Speaker 9 (09:21):
I dust.
Speaker 14 (09:22):
You need napal do I come to your house and
make snide remarks.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
You need help. You need to stop drinking.
Speaker 14 (09:35):
I'm cutting back mush.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
Because this is no life.
Speaker 16 (09:47):
You need to start going to meetings.
Speaker 6 (09:52):
I'll go with you. I go every day.
Speaker 7 (09:56):
Tears came to her eyes and to mine. I told
her I would We both knew I wouldn't. I was
going to tough it out alone, even though no one
ever does.
Speaker 15 (10:18):
This is Walter Cronkite, CBS News at Cape Kennedy. Apollo
eleven will soon re enter the Earth's atmosphere, surrounding the
command Module Columbia with temperatures nearing five thousand degrees, with
only a thin he hield keeping the module from burning up.
Speaker 6 (10:41):
Lieutenant Houston, this is Gene Kranz Admission Control.
Speaker 9 (10:44):
Sir, don't chames the splash downside.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
No, and I have no intention of doing so.
Speaker 9 (10:50):
Mister Krantz, I can't stress too.
Speaker 6 (10:52):
Strongly, and I'm not about to ask a vice admiral
to alter the recovery profile of his carrier group, which
has been planned for months, based on nothing more than
your hunch.
Speaker 9 (11:04):
Sir, I'm telling you what I know. If I told
you how, i'd know, i'd be court martialed. But if
that's what he'll take, I'll do it.
Speaker 16 (11:17):
We've heard, we're.
Speaker 6 (11:18):
Heard, Lieutenant. Are you a career man a flue ride?
Speaker 9 (11:29):
Sir?
Speaker 6 (11:31):
You'd be willing to sacrifice that ride and face legal charges?
I would, well Son, That's all I need.
Speaker 18 (11:42):
To know, Parler. Revan Houston, We're going to move your
aim point down range one hundred and fifty nautical miles.
Speaker 17 (12:01):
I will a shift at this stage of things.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
Repeat Houston, Columbia.
Speaker 13 (12:06):
This is flight. We need a hundred and fifty mile
adjustments so we can guarantee up list control.
Speaker 17 (12:13):
That's out of range of the recovery carrier, but.
Speaker 13 (12:16):
Hopefully not of its helicopters.
Speaker 14 (12:18):
Hopefully. Why the hell are we just learning about this now?
Speaker 13 (12:22):
Can't really go into that.
Speaker 14 (12:23):
Eleven Columbia is not a submarine. Houston, we go down.
We're not coming back up.
Speaker 13 (12:30):
Roger Buss. The USS Hornet is at full speed to
the new aim point designation.
Speaker 14 (12:36):
Houston will lose you in communications as we re enter plasma,
and that's a matter of minutes from now. How will
we know if the rescue choppers will make.
Speaker 13 (12:46):
We're doing our best, Columbia. The new coordinates are thirteen
degrees nineteen minutes north one six nine or ten minutes
west over.
Speaker 6 (12:57):
Copy ten eleventh century.
Speaker 13 (12:59):
I've got it.
Speaker 18 (13:00):
Update for about four items on your entry pad. You
are max G zero six to three, your gamma at
four hundred K six four eight, your range to go
on the EMS one four zero three three, and your
retro time for v circular zero.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Two one four over copy.
Speaker 18 (13:23):
We see you getting ready for service module separation. Your
go for pyro.
Speaker 17 (13:27):
Arm jettisoning in three two one Houston.
Speaker 14 (13:35):
We've got the service module going by a little high
and to the right.
Speaker 17 (13:39):
Apolloa revenue, Houston, You're cleared for landing, about to enter
Earth atmosphere. Communications blackout for the next ten minutes. Those
choppers are on the way.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
Every minute's gonna count.
Speaker 17 (13:55):
Eight Shield registry eight hundred degrees twelve hundred.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
Fourteen climbing.
Speaker 15 (14:08):
The communications blackout between the three astronauts and flight control
in Houston has begun, and the temperature surrounding the Command
module's heat shield will reach approximately five thousand degrees.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
Boys, we're in full comms blackout.
Speaker 11 (14:28):
Anything you want to say that nobody in the world
can ever hear.
Speaker 17 (14:32):
I'm done with the fireworks. Let's get this bucket home.
I need a shower and a proper meal.
Speaker 11 (14:39):
Buzz Buzz.
Speaker 7 (14:49):
I found myself on Pacific Coast Highway with no memory
of how I got there. As I looked at the moon,
lots of things ran through my mind, planting the flag,
the ticker tape parades, the metal of freedom.
Speaker 6 (15:06):
You know what you have to do.
Speaker 7 (15:09):
I turned toward the voice. I instantly recognized my mother
stood at the edge of the cliff. She'd committed suicide
ten years before.
Speaker 11 (15:19):
It's time you join me.
Speaker 14 (15:21):
I don't want to, not yet.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
It's because of you I had to leave.
Speaker 14 (15:28):
I know that's what you wanted me to think.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
It's true.
Speaker 11 (15:35):
I'm sorry, don't be I'm glad.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Why come along now, Buzz.
Speaker 6 (15:48):
You've been keeping me waiting long enough.
Speaker 15 (16:05):
Command Module Columbia will remain in communications blackout for roughly
six more minutes. All we can do is guess at
the tension that the engineers of Mission Control must be feeling.
Not to mention the families of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin,
and Mike.
Speaker 6 (16:24):
Collins Uss Hornet, this is Mission Control, Houston. Do your
choppers have any sign of the command module.
Speaker 9 (16:35):
You send that's a negative roger? How far are they
from Arabic siting?
Speaker 15 (16:41):
Approximately fifteen miles from information we're getting from mission control
is that the Columbia's heat shield is now over the
five thousand degree mark. An e malfunction of the shield
will be catastrophic at this point.
Speaker 19 (16:59):
Columbia, this is Houston.
Speaker 15 (17:01):
Do you read.
Speaker 19 (17:06):
Come in Colombia, Colombia, please acknowledge. This is mission control.
You've got a room full of guys afraid.
Speaker 15 (17:17):
To move.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
Colombia. This is flight Please acknowledge. Hornet.
Speaker 15 (17:28):
Do you have visual negative Houston?
Speaker 13 (17:30):
Zero?
Speaker 6 (17:31):
Visual capcom change frequency to one four.
Speaker 13 (17:41):
This is all eleven our position one three three zero
one five?
Speaker 12 (17:50):
Do you copy?
Speaker 6 (17:52):
It's good to good to hear you. Neil. What's your
altitude and condition?
Speaker 13 (17:59):
Were okay? One thousand, five hundred feet and shoots out?
Speaker 19 (18:03):
Do you have a visual on the recovery helicopters negative.
Speaker 13 (18:08):
Houston, Apollo eleven, twelve hundred feet still no visual on
the choppers.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Repeat, no visual, Hornet, this is Houston. What's the position
of recovery helicopters.
Speaker 9 (18:22):
Proceeding towards the side?
Speaker 13 (18:23):
Houston splashed down? Where are the choppers?
Speaker 6 (18:28):
One hundred feet.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Fifty splash down.
Speaker 15 (18:43):
We've just heard from mission control that Colombia has splashed down,
repeating that Columbia has splashed down in Pacific waters as
calm as.
Speaker 17 (18:56):
A bathtub, Houston, Columbia, we're upside down, repeat, upside down
in the ocean. Water's coming in through the hatch.
Speaker 18 (19:10):
Roger, Mike, inflate your flotation bag.
Speaker 17 (19:15):
Roger, flotation bags activated. Houston. We've turned right side up.
Waters stopped coming in, but there's a good foot and
a half in the module.
Speaker 18 (19:31):
Columbia. Recovery helicopters are putting their divers in the water.
Speaker 15 (19:37):
In several moments, the module's hatch will open so that
the Apollo eleven crew can get their first breath of
fresh air. You know, almost a week.
Speaker 7 (20:02):
We were given sterile flight suits in case we brought
lunar contaminants back to Earth. Then what seemed like the
entire crew of the Hornet, all five thousand welcomed us.
Speaker 9 (20:18):
The nail, Buzz and Mike.
Speaker 20 (20:21):
I say this not only because I had the honor
to be President of the United States, but particularly because
I have the privilege of speaking for so many and
welcoming you back to Earth.
Speaker 21 (20:35):
This is the greatest week in the history of the
world as the creation. As a result of what you've done,
the world has ever been closer together before.
Speaker 7 (20:53):
They kept us in quarantine for twenty one days. We
were poked, pricked, prodded, debriefed, details defoliated, able to see
our wives through the windows of the lunar receiving laboratory,
but unable to touch or talk to them with any
degree of privacy. When the quarantine was over, we toured
(21:18):
America and the world, where we were treated like heroes,
even though we weren't. Then it was over, I planned
my life for one thing. Now that thing was done,
but I still had to live. You've seen that I
didn't do it very well, at least not as well
(21:39):
as Neil and Mike.
Speaker 20 (21:40):
It's my pleasure to present to the faculty of the
University of Cincinnati, our newest professor of Aeronautics, the first
man to set foot on the Moon.
Speaker 15 (21:51):
Bil Armstrong.
Speaker 17 (21:54):
Beat Mike Collins, Apollo eleven astronaut and now curator of
the Aeronautics and Space muse here at the Smithsonian Institution.
Speaker 7 (22:04):
I said I wanted to make money sitting on boards
of directors, and I did. But boards want winners on
their teams. I started an engineering consultancy business, but I
looked at customers through a haze of depression when I
could see them at all. By seventy eight, I found
(22:25):
myself in a phone booth on the Pacific Coast Highway,
calling the woman who had been right about me all.
Speaker 9 (22:32):
Along, Rich Ludwig.
Speaker 14 (22:40):
Buzz Aldrin.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
Surprised, only then it's taken so long.
Speaker 14 (22:50):
I need to quit drinking.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
I was hoping you could help me.
Speaker 9 (23:02):
How badly do you want it?
Speaker 7 (23:08):
People think Apollo eleven was my greatest accomplishment, Not even close.
It's forty five years of sobriety. Those half million miles
through space were nothing compared to the discovery of the
unchartered territory that was buzz Aldrin. I like to think
(23:29):
I'm a better father, a better man than I was before.
Have I mellowed you be the judge.
Speaker 11 (23:38):
Bart Sibril, a conspiracy theorist who claims the Apollo eleven
moon landing was a hoax, yesterday, confronted former astronaut Buzz
Aldron outside a hotel in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 12 (23:49):
Why don't you.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Swear on this bible that you walked on the Mirth Hotel?
Speaker 11 (23:53):
Cybril she the bible in Aldren's face as the encounter escalator.
Will you get away from from swear on you?
Speaker 7 (23:58):
You don't know what you're talking. Raveman died during the
Apolloble race.
Speaker 15 (24:03):
You on the night and I'm more inside.
Speaker 11 (24:06):
You're a.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Buzz, starring John Lithgow and Jeffrey errand is created by
Stephen Cronish and directed by John Scott Dryden. It is
written by Stephen Cronish with Matt Graham and Thompson Evans.
Original music is by Sasha Putnam, editing and sound design
by Elouise Widmore. The part of buzz Aldren is performed
(24:46):
by John Lithgow and Jeffrey errand Neil Armstrong by David Menken,
Mike Collins, Taylor Napier, Joan Aldren, Julie Sardo, Gene Krantz,
Philip Demel, Chris Kraft, Nathan Osgood, Dieke Slayton, Patrick Paletti,
Doctor Rachel Ludwig, Jennifer Armour, Walter Cronkite, Carrie Shale, Sir
(25:13):
Bernard Lovell, rufus Wright, Brian Duff, a Key, Katabi, Jen Armstrong, Natasha,
Aaron Cheney and Pat Collins Valentina Arena. Other parts are
performed by Eric Myers, Laurel Lefkoe, Greg Lockett, Christopher Ragland,
Adam Cina, Philip Boscha, Eric Sirikayan and Flynn Ivo. The
(25:37):
children are Sadie Mitchell, Hugo Dryden and Julie Zarkovich Huff.
Script editing by Mike Walker. Additional material at Script supervision
by Alex Lanch. The technical consultant is Matthew H. Hirsch.
Studio engineers were Matt Clark and Paul Clark. The trailer's
producer is Jack Soper. Buzz is produced and cast by
(26:01):
Emma Hearn. The executive producers are Jeremy Fox, John Scott Dryden,
Stephen Cronish, Howard Springer and Jason English. Buzz is a
production of Thoroughbred Studios, Goldhop Productions and iHeart podcasts,
Buzz, an audio drama for iHeart Podcasts starring John Lithgow
and Jeffrey Arran as buzz Aldren. This series is based
on real events. However, certain characters, names, incidents, locations, and
dialogue have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Chapter eleven, you look.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Lousy, Lieutenant, which you tell Captain D'Angelo.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Then unless we change the site of Columbia's splashdown, we're
looking at a disaster. And he reminded me that I
don't have clearance to even discuss Project thirty five. My
doing so would jeopardize the classified status of the satellite
and the lives of sixty Air Force pilots who are
about to attack.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
The North Vietnamese.
Speaker 6 (00:56):
What do we do?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
You're not doing anything. You're gonna go around Di Angelo
to the Vice Admiral.
Speaker 7 (01:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 8 (01:05):
I'd put you on a pretty thin I said.
Speaker 7 (01:07):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
All I know is we're running out of time.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
Once re entry begins, mission control will lose contact with
Columbia and any chance of saving them will be gone.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Colombia, Houston looks like you're in VHF range. Stand by
for radio check.
Speaker 9 (01:38):
I read you on VHF.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Telemetry shows that the CMRCS thrusters look fine. What do
we do for rein Dream eleven Central stand by waiting badly?
Thirty three minutes on my.
Speaker 10 (01:52):
Mark copy, Houston, Mark copy, mister Krantz, call for you
from Captain Willard Houston at Fleet Weather Station Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 11 (02:08):
He's calling about the Columbia splashdown.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
He says, it's urgent, Lieutenant Houston. This is Flight Director
Gene Krantz. What's the problem, sir?
Speaker 12 (02:19):
Apollo eleven cannot land in the target area selected?
Speaker 6 (02:23):
It can and it will.
Speaker 9 (02:26):
No, I mean, sir, there's a storm at those coordinates.
Speaker 6 (02:29):
There are storms in the Pacific all the time.
Speaker 12 (02:31):
These are typhoon conditions, sir. Thirty foot seas and winds
at altitude. Little Rip eleven's parish himself before they can deploy.
The command module will at the water at two hundred
miles an hour. The crew would be killed instantly.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Lieutenant, where is this information coming from?
Speaker 9 (02:51):
I'm not at liberty to say.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Sir, you'd better explain that.
Speaker 9 (02:55):
It's a matter of national security. Sir.
Speaker 6 (03:00):
Why is this the first I'm hearing of it? And
why is it you I'm hearing it from instead of
the Vice Admiral in charge of the recovery operation.
Speaker 9 (03:10):
Sir, going through a chain of command has proven impossible.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
Let me understand this, Your violating chain of command telling
me to alter the site of Columbia's splashdown, an operation
of immense complexity and cost, based on information whose source
you won't reveal.
Speaker 9 (03:31):
I can't reveal it, sir.
Speaker 6 (03:33):
Gene, Come in, Chris, Lieutenant Houston, I'll get back to you.
Stay by the phone, yes, sir, what's wrong, Gane? During
pre flight of Apollo one, someone decided to fill the
module with flammable instruction manuals and velcro fasteners, which accelerated
(03:57):
the fire that killed Grisome, White and Chat. And there
was no time to vet that decision with the Change
Review Board. What's that got to do with, Hi, Lieutenant
at weather Station Pearl wants me to change the site
of Columbia's splashdown because of typhoon conditions. That would be
a death sentence to Neil, Buzz and Mike. And there's
(04:20):
no time for the Change review Board now either.
Speaker 8 (04:24):
How reliable is the forecast?
Speaker 6 (04:26):
Lieutenant says, it comes from a classified source. It couldn't name.
Because of its national security implications.
Speaker 8 (04:32):
In other words, you're supposed to change the splashdown side
based on nothing, but this kid say so not.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
In other words, those are the words. Now, what would you.
Speaker 8 (04:45):
Do if Columbia sinks? That's three more funerals. Not to
be cold blooded. It probably mean the end of the
Apollo program?
Speaker 6 (05:00):
What would you do? Chris?
Speaker 8 (05:04):
You're in the job I used to have, the job
I loved. I've been jealous of you as decision makers
since the minute they kicked me upstairs. I'm not jealous anymore.
Speaker 7 (05:23):
I'm Buzz Aldron and this is the story you think
you know, but you don't.
Speaker 13 (05:30):
Ignition sequence five ft five four.
Speaker 6 (05:37):
Don't I have one.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Them do with the quality?
Speaker 13 (05:41):
Babe here, I ain't a pet Paul Tramp for man
Mark by a plan.
Speaker 7 (06:00):
You're listening to, Buzz. This is the story of my
Greatest achievement, Chapter eleven. It was the night before Christmas
in seventy seven. My liquor store felt like a wee
bit of heaven. More scotch, I demanded, though already loaded
(06:25):
forgetting my credit was all, but he wrote it.
Speaker 10 (06:28):
I'll pay you next week right now.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
I'm shore Hey, come back when you grow.
Speaker 14 (06:33):
Come on, Freddy, how about some cheer for the holiday season.
Speaker 11 (06:38):
Oh ho ho, no cash, no cary.
Speaker 14 (06:42):
God, damn it, man, it's Christmas.
Speaker 11 (06:45):
Yeah, we've established that.
Speaker 15 (06:49):
Turn around.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
You prick on a wall right there, picture of me
signed by me personally.
Speaker 14 (06:59):
Your old man said, but it was his most prized possession.
Speaker 15 (07:02):
He was an idiot.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Plus he's dead.
Speaker 7 (07:08):
A few blocks down the street, I ran into some
guys who were ringing in the New year early in
the spirit of Christian charity. They shared their spirits. One
of them wore a sweatshirt that said no future, and
we discussed our limited prospects. Late into the otherwise silent night,
(07:41):
the phone woke me, but I didn't answer. It was
the darkest Christmas morning I never saw. Then I remembered
blackout curtains. Bob Hopes Christmas Show was on from Vietnam.
(08:04):
His guest of honor was Neil, the first Man on
the Moon. Bob didn't bother to mention Mike or me. Oh,
I lost my last friend when the goldfish died. So
I had no idea who was at the door, and
(08:27):
no intention of finding out.
Speaker 11 (08:29):
Bud, it's me, Joe, I called before.
Speaker 6 (08:36):
I hear the TV.
Speaker 16 (08:37):
Open up broughts of food.
Speaker 17 (08:43):
You can heat it later or come to the house.
Speaker 16 (08:48):
The kids want to see you and be alone today bus.
Speaker 7 (08:59):
I waited. I was sure she had gone, but there
she was.
Speaker 16 (09:08):
Hey, Hey, come on in, God, this place is disgusting.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
I've been meaning to dust.
Speaker 9 (09:21):
I dust.
Speaker 14 (09:22):
You need napal do I come to your house and
make snide remarks.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
You need help. You need to stop drinking.
Speaker 14 (09:35):
I'm cutting back mush.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
Because this is no life.
Speaker 16 (09:47):
You need to start going to meetings.
Speaker 6 (09:52):
I'll go with you. I go every day.
Speaker 7 (09:56):
Tears came to her eyes and to mine. I told
her I would We both knew I wouldn't. I was
going to tough it out alone, even though no one
ever does.
Speaker 15 (10:18):
This is Walter Cronkite, CBS News at Cape Kennedy. Apollo
eleven will soon re enter the Earth's atmosphere, surrounding the
command Module Columbia with temperatures nearing five thousand degrees, with
only a thin he hield keeping the module from burning up.
Speaker 6 (10:41):
Lieutenant Houston, this is Gene Kranz Admission Control.
Speaker 9 (10:44):
Sir, don't chames the splash downside.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
No, and I have no intention of doing so.
Speaker 9 (10:50):
Mister Krantz, I can't stress too.
Speaker 6 (10:52):
Strongly, and I'm not about to ask a vice admiral
to alter the recovery profile of his carrier group, which
has been planned for months, based on nothing more than
your hunch.
Speaker 9 (11:04):
Sir, I'm telling you what I know. If I told
you how, i'd know, i'd be court martialed. But if
that's what he'll take, I'll do it.
Speaker 16 (11:17):
We've heard, we're.
Speaker 6 (11:18):
Heard, Lieutenant. Are you a career man a flue ride?
Speaker 9 (11:29):
Sir?
Speaker 6 (11:31):
You'd be willing to sacrifice that ride and face legal charges?
I would, well Son, That's all I need.
Speaker 18 (11:42):
To know, Parler. Revan Houston, We're going to move your
aim point down range one hundred and fifty nautical miles.
Speaker 17 (12:01):
I will a shift at this stage of things.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
Repeat Houston, Columbia.
Speaker 13 (12:06):
This is flight. We need a hundred and fifty mile
adjustments so we can guarantee up list control.
Speaker 17 (12:13):
That's out of range of the recovery carrier, but.
Speaker 13 (12:16):
Hopefully not of its helicopters.
Speaker 14 (12:18):
Hopefully. Why the hell are we just learning about this now?
Speaker 13 (12:22):
Can't really go into that.
Speaker 14 (12:23):
Eleven Columbia is not a submarine. Houston, we go down.
We're not coming back up.
Speaker 13 (12:30):
Roger Buss. The USS Hornet is at full speed to
the new aim point designation.
Speaker 14 (12:36):
Houston will lose you in communications as we re enter plasma,
and that's a matter of minutes from now. How will
we know if the rescue choppers will make.
Speaker 13 (12:46):
We're doing our best, Columbia. The new coordinates are thirteen
degrees nineteen minutes north one six nine or ten minutes
west over.
Speaker 6 (12:57):
Copy ten eleventh century.
Speaker 13 (12:59):
I've got it.
Speaker 18 (13:00):
Update for about four items on your entry pad. You
are max G zero six to three, your gamma at
four hundred K six four eight, your range to go
on the EMS one four zero three three, and your
retro time for v circular zero.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Two one four over copy.
Speaker 18 (13:23):
We see you getting ready for service module separation. Your
go for pyro.
Speaker 17 (13:27):
Arm jettisoning in three two one Houston.
Speaker 14 (13:35):
We've got the service module going by a little high
and to the right.
Speaker 17 (13:39):
Apolloa revenue, Houston, You're cleared for landing, about to enter
Earth atmosphere. Communications blackout for the next ten minutes. Those
choppers are on the way.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
Every minute's gonna count.
Speaker 17 (13:55):
Eight Shield registry eight hundred degrees twelve hundred.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
Fourteen climbing.
Speaker 15 (14:08):
The communications blackout between the three astronauts and flight control
in Houston has begun, and the temperature surrounding the Command
module's heat shield will reach approximately five thousand degrees.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
Boys, we're in full comms blackout.
Speaker 11 (14:28):
Anything you want to say that nobody in the world
can ever hear.
Speaker 17 (14:32):
I'm done with the fireworks. Let's get this bucket home.
I need a shower and a proper meal.
Speaker 11 (14:39):
Buzz Buzz.
Speaker 7 (14:49):
I found myself on Pacific Coast Highway with no memory
of how I got there. As I looked at the moon,
lots of things ran through my mind, planting the flag,
the ticker tape parades, the metal of freedom.
Speaker 6 (15:06):
You know what you have to do.
Speaker 7 (15:09):
I turned toward the voice. I instantly recognized my mother
stood at the edge of the cliff. She'd committed suicide
ten years before.
Speaker 11 (15:19):
It's time you join me.
Speaker 14 (15:21):
I don't want to, not yet.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
It's because of you I had to leave.
Speaker 14 (15:28):
I know that's what you wanted me to think.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
It's true.
Speaker 11 (15:35):
I'm sorry, don't be I'm glad.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Why come along now, Buzz.
Speaker 6 (15:48):
You've been keeping me waiting long enough.
Speaker 15 (16:05):
Command Module Columbia will remain in communications blackout for roughly
six more minutes. All we can do is guess at
the tension that the engineers of Mission Control must be feeling.
Not to mention the families of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin,
and Mike.
Speaker 6 (16:24):
Collins Uss Hornet, this is Mission Control, Houston. Do your
choppers have any sign of the command module.
Speaker 9 (16:35):
You send that's a negative roger? How far are they
from Arabic siting?
Speaker 15 (16:41):
Approximately fifteen miles from information we're getting from mission control
is that the Columbia's heat shield is now over the
five thousand degree mark. An e malfunction of the shield
will be catastrophic at this point.
Speaker 19 (16:59):
Columbia, this is Houston.
Speaker 15 (17:01):
Do you read.
Speaker 19 (17:06):
Come in Colombia, Colombia, please acknowledge. This is mission control.
You've got a room full of guys afraid.
Speaker 15 (17:17):
To move.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
Colombia. This is flight Please acknowledge. Hornet.
Speaker 15 (17:28):
Do you have visual negative Houston?
Speaker 13 (17:30):
Zero?
Speaker 6 (17:31):
Visual capcom change frequency to one four.
Speaker 13 (17:41):
This is all eleven our position one three three zero
one five?
Speaker 12 (17:50):
Do you copy?
Speaker 6 (17:52):
It's good to good to hear you. Neil. What's your
altitude and condition?
Speaker 13 (17:59):
Were okay? One thousand, five hundred feet and shoots out?
Speaker 19 (18:03):
Do you have a visual on the recovery helicopters negative.
Speaker 13 (18:08):
Houston, Apollo eleven, twelve hundred feet still no visual on
the choppers.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Repeat, no visual, Hornet, this is Houston. What's the position
of recovery helicopters.
Speaker 9 (18:22):
Proceeding towards the side?
Speaker 13 (18:23):
Houston splashed down? Where are the choppers?
Speaker 6 (18:28):
One hundred feet.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Fifty splash down.
Speaker 15 (18:43):
We've just heard from mission control that Colombia has splashed down,
repeating that Columbia has splashed down in Pacific waters as
calm as.
Speaker 17 (18:56):
A bathtub, Houston, Columbia, we're upside down, repeat, upside down
in the ocean. Water's coming in through the hatch.
Speaker 18 (19:10):
Roger, Mike, inflate your flotation bag.
Speaker 17 (19:15):
Roger, flotation bags activated. Houston. We've turned right side up.
Waters stopped coming in, but there's a good foot and
a half in the module.
Speaker 18 (19:31):
Columbia. Recovery helicopters are putting their divers in the water.
Speaker 15 (19:37):
In several moments, the module's hatch will open so that
the Apollo eleven crew can get their first breath of
fresh air. You know, almost a week.
Speaker 7 (20:02):
We were given sterile flight suits in case we brought
lunar contaminants back to Earth. Then what seemed like the
entire crew of the Hornet, all five thousand welcomed us.
Speaker 9 (20:18):
The nail, Buzz and Mike.
Speaker 20 (20:21):
I say this not only because I had the honor
to be President of the United States, but particularly because
I have the privilege of speaking for so many and
welcoming you back to Earth.
Speaker 21 (20:35):
This is the greatest week in the history of the
world as the creation. As a result of what you've done,
the world has ever been closer together before.
Speaker 7 (20:53):
They kept us in quarantine for twenty one days. We
were poked, pricked, prodded, debriefed, details defoliated, able to see
our wives through the windows of the lunar receiving laboratory,
but unable to touch or talk to them with any
degree of privacy. When the quarantine was over, we toured
(21:18):
America and the world, where we were treated like heroes,
even though we weren't. Then it was over, I planned
my life for one thing. Now that thing was done,
but I still had to live. You've seen that I
didn't do it very well, at least not as well
(21:39):
as Neil and Mike.
Speaker 20 (21:40):
It's my pleasure to present to the faculty of the
University of Cincinnati, our newest professor of Aeronautics, the first
man to set foot on the Moon.
Speaker 15 (21:51):
Bil Armstrong.
Speaker 17 (21:54):
Beat Mike Collins, Apollo eleven astronaut and now curator of
the Aeronautics and Space muse here at the Smithsonian Institution.
Speaker 7 (22:04):
I said I wanted to make money sitting on boards
of directors, and I did. But boards want winners on
their teams. I started an engineering consultancy business, but I
looked at customers through a haze of depression when I
could see them at all. By seventy eight, I found
(22:25):
myself in a phone booth on the Pacific Coast Highway,
calling the woman who had been right about me all.
Speaker 9 (22:32):
Along, Rich Ludwig.
Speaker 14 (22:40):
Buzz Aldrin.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
Surprised, only then it's taken so long.
Speaker 14 (22:50):
I need to quit drinking.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
I was hoping you could help me.
Speaker 9 (23:02):
How badly do you want it?
Speaker 7 (23:08):
People think Apollo eleven was my greatest accomplishment, Not even close.
It's forty five years of sobriety. Those half million miles
through space were nothing compared to the discovery of the
unchartered territory that was buzz Aldrin. I like to think
(23:29):
I'm a better father, a better man than I was before.
Have I mellowed you be the judge.
Speaker 11 (23:38):
Bart Sibril, a conspiracy theorist who claims the Apollo eleven
moon landing was a hoax, yesterday, confronted former astronaut Buzz
Aldron outside a hotel in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 12 (23:49):
Why don't you.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Swear on this bible that you walked on the Mirth Hotel?
Speaker 11 (23:53):
Cybril she the bible in Aldren's face as the encounter escalator.
Will you get away from from swear on you?
Speaker 7 (23:58):
You don't know what you're talking. Raveman died during the
Apolloble race.
Speaker 15 (24:03):
You on the night and I'm more inside.
Speaker 11 (24:06):
You're a.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Buzz, starring John Lithgow and Jeffrey errand is created by
Stephen Cronish and directed by John Scott Dryden. It is
written by Stephen Cronish with Matt Graham and Thompson Evans.
Original music is by Sasha Putnam, editing and sound design
by Elouise Widmore. The part of buzz Aldren is performed
(24:46):
by John Lithgow and Jeffrey errand Neil Armstrong by David Menken,
Mike Collins, Taylor Napier, Joan Aldren, Julie Sardo, Gene Krantz,
Philip Demel, Chris Kraft, Nathan Osgood, Dieke Slayton, Patrick Paletti,
Doctor Rachel Ludwig, Jennifer Armour, Walter Cronkite, Carrie Shale, Sir
(25:13):
Bernard Lovell, rufus Wright, Brian Duff, a Key, Katabi, Jen Armstrong, Natasha,
Aaron Cheney and Pat Collins Valentina Arena. Other parts are
performed by Eric Myers, Laurel Lefkoe, Greg Lockett, Christopher Ragland,
Adam Cina, Philip Boscha, Eric Sirikayan and Flynn Ivo. The
(25:37):
children are Sadie Mitchell, Hugo Dryden and Julie Zarkovich Huff.
Script editing by Mike Walker. Additional material at Script supervision
by Alex Lanch. The technical consultant is Matthew H. Hirsch.
Studio engineers were Matt Clark and Paul Clark. The trailer's
producer is Jack Soper. Buzz is produced and cast by
(26:01):
Emma Hearn. The executive producers are Jeremy Fox, John Scott Dryden,
Stephen Cronish, Howard Springer and Jason English. Buzz is a
production of Thoroughbred Studios, Goldhop Productions and iHeart podcasts,
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