November 3, 2023 • 50 mins
In today's episode, we'll be taking a cosmic journey back in time to explore one of the most electrifying and iconic competitions in history: the Space Race. The Space Race was a competitive and politically charged period of space exploration and technological competition between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, primarily in the late 1950s and 1960s. It was a critical aspect of the broader Cold War rivalry and had significant implications for both countries' space programs and technological advancements. We'll delve into the political tensions, incredible achievements, and unforgettable moments that defined this remarkable era.
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
That was really nice.
No, I really liked that.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Alright cool.
That's my warm up.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
That's how you warm up.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I warm up, that's what I do.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
She's picking me, she has chosen.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
She's like I see you and I will go to you.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
We have a guest today on the podcast.
It's a cat, mamma Mia.
Mamma Mia in the building.
In the building Cooper, Did weshoot the wine?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
We always shoot the wine.
Yes yes, yes, soon, as I canfigure out what I'm doing with
my life.
No, I like that, I like that.
So we'll never be able to shootthis wine.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Alright, ready.
Alright, I like that.
No, that's very good.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Cheers mi amigo, Cheers, mi amigo.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Just the way I was supposed to be drinking Wine.
Shoot that shit.
Yeah, you know what else Shoots?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
What?
Where do they shoot, Ian?
They shoot into space.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Wow, just space, space or other countries.
Oh, enemies of America, enemiesof America will receive rockets
yeah.
Without warning, yeah, orRussia.
Coincidentally, they like to dothat.
They like missiles too.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
There's also a lot of other missiles being shot
around the world right now.
Yeah, but you know, what we'regoing to talk about the fun ones
today.
Yeah, we're going to talk aboutthe good, good, good, nice
rockets that progress, the spacerockets, our favorite kind of
rocket.
These ones are trulyprogressing.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, the ones that only carry a little bit of death
.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Just a little bit of death and destruction, because
welcome to drinking our waythrough history when we cover
the legendary.
That was a great segue, wasn't?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
it.
That was so good I almostdidn't see it coming.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Where we cover the legendary people, places,
spectacles and events thathistory has to offer, while
enjoying a thick pour of whiskey.
Thick, I am Cooper, I am IanWow, are you sure?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I had to think about it for a second.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
In today's episode, we will be taking a cosmic
journey back in time to exploreone of the most electrifying and
iconic competitions in historythe Space Race.
The Space Race was acompetitive and politically
charged period of spaceexploration and technological
(02:52):
competition between the UnitedStates and the Soviet Union
during the Cold War.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Put on your jackets.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Primarily, this was in the late 1950s and 1960s.
It was a critical aspect to thebroader Cold War rivalry and
had significant implications forboth countries, space programs
and technological advancements.
We'll dive into the politicaltension, incredible achievements
and unforgettable moments thatdefine this remarkable era.
(03:23):
So, ian, grab your whiskey,grab your wine, grab your drink,
sit back and prepare for astellar adventure through the
stars and history.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
You know, cooper, that was really, really good.
Thanks.
And what do all of thoseastronauts that went into space
have in common?
Big dicks, obviously, yeah,yeah.
And they also, all of them,every single one of them, in
order to become an astronaut,had to hit that like button, hit
that subscribe button, thatfive star review button.
Every single astronaut does it,so why not you?
(03:55):
Bam, bada boom and bada boom.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Be as good as an astronaut and hit that like
button.
Yeah, hit that five star button.
It takes a strong arm to dothat.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
you know, like kneel oh arm strong.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That was good.
Thank you, that was a reallygood one.
I'll be here all week.
I'll be here all week.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah.
So on July 20th of 1969, noiceAmerican astronauts Neil
Armstrong and Edwin Buzz Aldrinachieved a remarkable feat they
became the first humans to setfoot on the moon.
This extraordinaryaccomplishment was part of the
Apollo 2 mission and it tookplace eight years after
President John F Kennedy set abold national goal to land a man
(04:37):
on the moon before the 1960sended.
The challenge was issued inresponse to a competition
between the United States andthe Soviet Union, known as the
space race.
Yeah, to see which superpowercould send a person to the moon
first.
Because that's just the mosthuman shit I've ever heard.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
It's honestly the biggest.
Like big, big contest on theplanet, dude.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
That's all the space race is is just a measure of
schlongs.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
It also did a lot of good for the world, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
But the only reason it happened and this is
undeniable is because we wantedto prove we had bigger dicks
than the Soviet Union.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Kennedy wanted to win re-election.
Yeah, because he just had theBay of Pigs invasion.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, you fumbled that shit hard.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah, that sounds exactly right, he's like we need
to do something.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
So to understand the context of the space race we
kind of have to look a bitfurther back.
Right After World War II endedin the mid-20th century, a new
kind of conflict emerged, theCold War Now.
This struggle pitted two majorglobal powers against each other
the United States, a democraticand capitalist nation, and of
course the Soviet Union, acommunist country.
(05:50):
This rivalry extended into manyaspects of life, and one of the
most intense battlegroundsbecame space exploration.
Both sides aimed to demonstratethe superiority of their
technology, military strengthand, by extension, their
political and economic systems.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, they were going head to head, they were trying
to be number one top dog Head tohead.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
That's another way of saying dick-measuring context,
trying to put them side by sidefor a comparison.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
No, that's good, I see what you did there, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks forputting that together for me.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
They were putting their dicks together.
I'm putting jokes together.
We're good.
We're good baby.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Now, by the mid-1950s , the tensions of the Cold War
had seeped into the daily livesof people in both the United
States and the Soviet Union.
This was fueled by an arms race, the looming threat of nuclear
weapons, extensive spyactivities, the Korean War and a
war of words and ideas wagingthrough the media.
Yeah, yeah, lots of that, Lotsof propaganda going out there.
(06:49):
These tensions continuedthroughout the space race and
were amplified by significantevents like the construction of
the Berlin Wall in 1961, theCuban Missile Crisis in 1962, go
check out our podcast episodeon that shit.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I didn't even think about that, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
And the outbreak of the Vietnam War.
Oh, space exploration providedanother platform for this
intense competition.
On October 4th 1957, the SovietUnion achieved a major
milestone by launching aspacecraft called Sputnik
Sputnik, which is all over popculture world and the sci-fi
world right.
(07:26):
This marked the world's firstartificial satellite, a man-made
object, placed into Earth'sorbit.
The launch of Sputnik came as asurprise, and not a pleasant
one to most Americans, becausewe've straight up thought they
put a fucking death ray in thesky.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I you know, and I wouldn'tput it past them.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, yeah, but also like the technology wasn't there
.
This was very much likeeverybody in the news anchors
and everybody's like they'regonna melt our brains.
Space laser yeah, MarjorieTaylor Green with Space lasers
weird, interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, propaganda bullshit.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
False disinformation.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Ah yes, Not misinformation, but
disinformation.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Disinformation.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Disinformation specifically.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
You know that she said that.
Right who she's?
Uh, marjorie Taylor Greene.
She said that, like the warsomewhere is caused by Jewish
space lasers, hmm, well, we knowthem, jews, and they're space
lasers.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Let's just have a giant laser out there in the
shape of the star of David.
It just shoots money.
It just shoots money out of itStraight Jewish house.
Yeah, they just aim it atthemselves.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
It's like a self-sustaining system, and
that's how she made it toCapitol Hill.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, oh, no, actually that makes a lot of
sense.
No, I get it.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I get it Now this.
In the United States, space wasseen as the next frontier, a
logical extension of the grandAmerican tradition of
exploration.
It was crucial for the US notto fall behind the Soviets in
this new frontier.
Furthermore, the successfullaunch of Sputnik demonstrated
the formidable power of theSoviet Union's R7 missile, which
(09:01):
appeared capable of deliveringa nuclear warhead into US
airspace, which is pretty scary.
This made it ever more urgentfor the United States to gather
intelligence about the Sovietmilitary activities.
This is going in to straight upoperation paperclip, right.
Yeah, this rips from operationpaperclip.
Yeah, this goes into ProjectBluebird.
This is going into MK Ultrawith all the fucking acid.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, the.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
CIA is kind of involved.
Well, I mean, we don't reallytalk about it, but they're there
Like because they're the onesgathering the intel at the U-2
fucking spy planes and all thatshit, and it's this time would
be such a crazy time to be alive.
It would be fucking terrifying.
Well, okay, not as a citizen,as like, think of it like as a
government official or like anagency like the CIA or some shit
(09:46):
.
Bro, you get away witheverything.
Because it's just like we'retrying to come up with mind
control and have a men'scheering candidate.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yes, yes, I mean it's like.
It's like you're shooting theshit with your buddies playing
pool, drinking some brews, andyou're like God damn dude, I
just wish mind control was real.
And one of them's like hey man,you ever tried acid?
I'm pretty impressionable whenI take acid, but maybe we can
melt people's minds with this.
Yeah yeah.
Reframe the insane in themembrane.
(10:15):
That's actually where thatcomes from, insane in the
membrane.
Yeah, yeah, yeah Now, before thelaunch of Sputnik, the United
States was the leading worldpower and they had an edge in
terms of their nuclearcapabilities, which was
confirmed through U2 spy planeflights over the Soviet Union,
which is fucking funny, I thinkthat's right.
They're just flying, justchilling Yep.
These flights provided valuableintelligence that suggested the
(10:37):
US held the advantage in termsof nuclear weapons.
However, during a periodbetween 1955 and 1961, studies
revealed a concerning gap ineducation.
It was found that the SovietUnion was training two to three
times as many scientists peryear as the.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
United States.
They were trying to catch upfrom fucking operation paperclip
and capitalizing, stealing allthe goddamn German Nazi
scientists.
Yeah, yeah, you know thosegoddamn Nazi scientists.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
How great were they for society?
Werner von Braun got us to thefucking moon here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's what I think about theNazis.
Yeah, so, but yeah, they weretraining two to three times as
many scientists per year, whichis crazy to me, because it's I
feel like the Soviet Unionwasn't really giving them that
much of an option, though youknow what I'm saying.
They were kind of likeforcefully recruiting not like
(11:26):
forcefully, but stronglysuggesting recruiting to become
a scientist.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Oh, they were definitely pushing it within
their.
Yeah, they were.
They were recruiting and thenhaving strict schools developing
these people in minds into thisprocess.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Specifically for this purpose.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Now.
This raised concerns about thefuture of scientific and
technological progress in the U?
S.
The launch and orbit of Sputnikone, the Soviets first
artificial satellite, indicateda significant technological
advance advancement right.
This development was perceivedas a significant threat to U S
national security.
In response to this perceivedthreat, the U S government made
(12:03):
substantial federal investmentsin various areas, including
research and development,education and, of course,
national security.
In 1958, the United Statesresponded to the Soviet
achievement by launching its ownsatellite, Explorer one, or
Explorer I if we, if we likeRoman numerals.
Good job, Ian, Thank you.
This satellite was designed bythe U S army under the guidance
(12:26):
of rocket scientist WernerWerner von Braun.
There it is.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Around this one right , Werner von Braun.
Werner von Braun.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I don't know why I got a little French there, there
we go.
Now around.
How many differentnationalities can be pissed off
in one episode?
Now, around the same time,president Dwight D Eisenhower
signed an executive orderestablishing the national
aeronautics and spaceadministration, which obviously
is just NASA, a federal agencydedicated to, of course, space
(12:57):
exploration.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Do you know what NASA actually stands for, though?
Speaker 2 (13:06):
No, what does it stand for, cooper?
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Never a straight answer.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Always a gay answer.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Oh, that's a good second.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Never a straight answer.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
No, I do like that because facts, yeah, yeah,
because try and ask them aquestion about aliens.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Never a straight answer.
Well, maybe maybe not.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, it's past a boob.
I don't know, as they gotfucking ET down in the basement.
Yeah, I don't know, I don'tknow, that's NASA exactly, but
okay, they had their hands inthe pot, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
They're the ones who brought the alien to Area 51.
Yeah, exactly, we've seen.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Paul, we know what's going on.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah, they're in charge of strictly transport
whether that's into space or outof space.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Now Eisenhower also initiated two national security
focused space programs thatwould run alongside NASA's
efforts.
The first program, led by theUS Air Force, aimed to explore
the military potential of space.
This is where the space laserscome in.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
The space lasers my favorites.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
The second program managed by the CIA.
Fucking just acid guys at this.
Lsc for days also included theAir Force and a newly
established organization calledthe National Reconnaissance
Office, which was a classifiedentity until the early 1990s and
was codenamed Corona.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Naturally, Because sometimes, at the end of the day
, these scientists just like tolean back on a beach with a nice
cold Corona in line.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I have a feeling that they were thinking more of the
Corona of the spectrum of light.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
The sunrise.
Is that right?
That's where that.
That's what Corona is, right?
I don't know, man, I don't know.
I'm thinking ice cold brew, butyou might be right.
I'm going to define Coronaright now.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Actually, yeah, this is why we need a producer,
because a producer's job is tojust sit there and Google.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I was right.
It's a rare field, gaseousenvelope of the sun's and other
stars.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah, no, I still think they were thinking about
beer.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
This mission was to use orbiting satellites to
collect intelligence on theSoviet unions and its allies.
Yeah, so that was the code name, corona, corona.
Now, in 1959, the Soviet spaceprogram made another significant
stride with the launch of Luna,to the first space probe to
impact the moon.
Then, in April 1961, yuriGagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut
(15:29):
cosmonaut cosmonaut, yes, that'ssuch a cool name it is.
It is Achieved a historicmilestone, but becoming the
first person to orbit Earth.
Now, by this time they hadalready launched one.
I don't know if it was Sputnikthat had the dog there's a dead
dog floating its base.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah, there is a dead dog.
It's probably very nicelypreserved, though.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, I guess, because there's no air anymore.
That's hot.
Oh, that's kind of sad.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, it's just chilling.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
It's just sad that the dog died.
Yeah well, we did it to fuckingmonkeys.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
We did it to monkeys.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
We did it to monkeys, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
In Russia's defense granted we probably just
shouldn't have sent animals tospace.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
We had to.
I know it was either theanimals or us.
We had to measure our cocks.
We could have sent a fewRepublicans maybe instead.
Wow, Wow, Cooper drawn lines inhis hand.
So Yuri Gagarin, who had beenthe Soviet cosmonaut who
(16:32):
achieved the historic milestonebecoming the first person on
Earth.
He accomplished this aboard theVostik 1 spacecraft.
In response, the US initiatedProject Mercury, an effort to
send an American into space.
They're like we can do the red,white and blue two in space.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
And we're also closer to the sun.
I just want to say we're theclosest planet to the sun.
That's the name of our projectand you can't have that.
You can't have it, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
NASA engineers designed a smaller cone-shaped
capsule that was significantlylighter than the Vostok
spacecraft used by the Soviets.
The US conducted tests withchimpanzees to ensure the safety
of the capsule.
In March 1961, nasa conducted afinal test flight before the
(17:18):
Soviets pulled ahead with YuriGagarin's orbit.
Now, on May 5, 1961, americanastronaut Alan Shepard became
the first American in space,although he did not achieve
orbit.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, yeah, he was just out there a little bit.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
He's like hey, I can see it, but I can't go all the
way around.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
I got pretty high in the sky.
And I came back down from thesky Now.
On May 25, 1961, President JohnF Kennedy made an announcement
before a joint session ofCongress.
He unveiled an ambitious anddaring plan to safely send an
American astronaut to the moonbefore the end of the decade.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
We can do it Pretty bold.
In eight years we got thisbitch, you got to say it.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
We can do it in eight years.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
That's good Thank you yeah, yeah, for some reason I'm
real good at the Kennedy Wow.
Yeah, way better now than youwere during our Cuban Missile
Crisis.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
I know, I know I missed the mark on that man.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
It's like, don't worry, I've just been watching
JFK speeches.
For days I've literally beenworking on it now.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
You think I'm memorizing sales scripts?
No man, no, I'm memorizingKennedy.
I just got a new sales job.
Context, context, thank you.
Now, several political factorsinfluence Kennedy's decision in
the timing of this announcement.
Primarily, he felt immensepressure for the United States
to outpace and outperform theSoviet Union in the ongoing
(18:38):
space race.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
The space race, the space race, space race, space
race.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
This pressure, that's great.
That sounds great this pressure.
There are no echoes in space,by the way.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
There's no sound up in that bit.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
This pressure had been mounting since the shocking
launch of Sputnik by the SovietUnion just four years earlier.
You know because, to add to theembarrassment, yuri had become
the first human to journey intospace and reach orbit, while
Alan the American made historyas the first American in space
on May 5th.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Except he only fucking hit suborbital flight.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Right he wasn't.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
You didn't hit full orbit like the other guys.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
So everybody in America's, like we just can't
get it up all the way.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
You know like what we needed some fucking biagra for
a Seattleist.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Yeah, yeah, wow, I haven't even heard of that
company.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
You've been looking into those, if you use drinking
our way through history as apromo code on Seattleists.
You'll receive 5% off.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
No, also not the case .
You will pay the same amount.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
I wish as we do.
Wouldn't that be funny If wejust got sponsored by, like
Seattle, by an erectile, by aspondra, by a prill.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah, just cuz, just cuz.
No, that's good, that's good.
So, yeah, he didn't reach orbitand Yuri did.
So there was a lot of thiscompetition between the US and
the Soviet Union because theybeat us, you know.
And then, additionally, therewas the failed Bay of Pigs
invasion in mid-April of thatyear.
That further intensified thepressure on Kennedy right, he
(20:06):
was just feeling it from allsides, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
If you want to know more about the Bay of Pigs, go
check out our Cuban MissileCrisis, because we dive into
that and how horribly we fuckedup that.
Yeah, fuck that up.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
We tend to do that sometimes it was so bad.
I mean you think you look outat the Bay, see a bunch of pigs
swimming, you just wouldn't fuckwith it.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
They just had to shoot them all.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I don't know what the deal was.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Pigs almost became extinct.
Very surprised it never becamethe term pigs in a bucket.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Oh, is that where pig slaughter?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
comes from Pigs in a barrel.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Maybe it's a pig slaughter, you know, like a I
don't even think that's a termactually.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
I just said pig slaughter, yeah.
Yeah, it's where you go to apig slaughtering house.
They're slaughtering pigs, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
This episode is brought to you by Viagra.
Yeah.
Facing these challenges,kennedy wanted to announce a
program that had a realisticchance of success before the
Soviets achieved a similarmilestone.
After discussions with VicePresident Lyndon B Johnson, nasa
Administrator James Webb andother key officials, he
concluded that landing anAmerican on the moon would be an
(21:09):
incredibly challengingtechnological goal.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
However, it was also an area where the United States
had the potential to take thelead in space exploration, and I
also want to note real quickthat NASA's Administrator, james
Webb is who the James Webbtelescope is named after.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Really, I thought it was a different one.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
I'm just yeah, it wasn't his kid.
James Webb the second.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
That's why it's not called James Webb.
The second yeah, exactly, OK,yeah, yeah, Everybody would have
just gotten confused as likewhy?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
do we have two James Webb's telescopes?
Where was the first?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
one Plot twist, the satellite was launched before
his kid was born, and he'sactually James Webb the third.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
And they just.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It's like, yeah, your older brother's a satellite,
what?
Speaker 1 (21:51):
is this telescope.
In February 1962, john Glennbecame the first American to
actually orbit the Earth, nowmarking this huge step in this
race.
By the end of that year, nasahad laid the groundwork for its
lunar landing project, known asProject Apollo.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Oh no, it's like we all know how that worked out for
the first one.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Well, not most people Really.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah, I thought the Apollo fuck up was like a big
deal.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I mean at the time it was yeah, that's true, we
forget about the Zoomers.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
We do the Zoomers.
They don't know shit.
No, they don't.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
They don't know shit about fuck.
So between 1961 and 1964,nasa's budget saw nearly 500%
increase, which went from 500million to nearly 3.75 billion,
with a B B for bad bitch, b forbad 3.75 bad bitches.
The lunar landing programinvolved a massive workforce of
(22:51):
approximately 34,000 NASAemployees, an additional and an
additional 375,000 employeesworking for industrial and
university contractors.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Wow, I didn't realize that, like back then, I didn't
realize that.
I know it's massive now, but Ididn't know that it was this
huge, like doing that.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah, we're going to the moon man.
We know nothing about it.
We got to get a bunch of smartpeople.
Yeah, we got shit to do.
So these resources wereessential for the ambitious moon
mission.
Obviously Now, in 1961,alongside Project Mercury, which
consisted of six flights,project Gemini was initiated.
These projects, along with thenumerous experiments and test
flights, were crucial for thesuccessful landing.
(23:32):
Project Mercury aimed to orbita manned spacecraft around the
Earth, study human capabilitiesin space and safely recover both
the astronaut and thespacecraft, because both were
very expensive and, yeah,honestly, they probably would
have just well no, they probablywould have ditched the
astronaut, got the spacecraftthat they had there.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
No, that's a lot of learning.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
That's a lot of learning.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
You got to reteach somebody.
That's true.
They want to save that brain.
Yeah, knowledgeable enrichment.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Project Gemini, on the other hand, was focused on
developing space traveltechniques to support the Apollo
mission.
Gemini missions tested theendurance of astronauts in space
, the ability to perform tasksoutside the spacecraft, such as
spacewalks.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
God, how would you have liked to take in the first
fucking spacewalk, Like howterrifying.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Oh, it's got to be.
I'm just out there.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Sorry, Sorry.
I know I interrupted you there.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Oh yeah, but you're like you're just your space suit
away from dying.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Duff yes imploding A small tug on a tether, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah, it's very scary .
Scary Just to kind of thinkabout that.
I think the best way to visual,to understand how scary space
is is watching the Europa report, the.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Europa report.
Such a good movie, so good.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Jeb and I missions were also for the orbital
maneuvers needed to rendezvousand dock with another spacecraft
.
It's a lot of math.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
It's a lot of math and a lot of little rocket
flares.
Yeah, those rocket flares meanthe difference between life and
death, and it's literally aquarter of an inch, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
You know, yeah, if we saw Interstellar, it's the part
where Matt Damon blew up thefucking space station because he
was not proficient at his job,didn't do his math right, didn't
check his numbers, the projecttook place from 61 to 66,
ensuring that the Apollo programcould concentrate on its
primary mission without the needto develop these essential
techniques from scratch.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
The astronaut team that played a crucial role in
Project Gemini consisted ofthree groups the Mercury 7, the
new 9, and the astronaut classof 1963.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
They're just like.
We're not giving you a name,it's so funny.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Now, these astronauts were responsible for piloting
the Gemini spacecraft duringthis program.
That's not just the fucking.
Why didn't they get a nickname?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
What did they do wrong?
We just got to get these guysin.
Do we have time for a name, sir?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
No, no, no.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Time for a name.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
It's not in the budget, it's not in the budget.
You get two nicknames.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
That's it you are the class of 1963.
Congratulations, sir.
That's when I graduated college.
Fuck you, class of 1963.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
It's 64.
63.
However, the Gemini programfaced tragic setbacks.
Three astronauts lost theirlives when their trainer jet
crashed during training,including both members of the
primary crew for the Gemini 9mission.
This unfortunate incident ledto the backup crew taking over
that mission, so it's like wegot second string in there.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, it's like replacement refs.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Susan, although these are highly trained astronauts,
I feel like those refs were nothighly trained refs All right,
maybe drastic comparison, butyou get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
All right, it's actually the same thing, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
So Apollo faced another major setback on January
27th of 1967.
Yeah, this was bad.
Yeah.
During a launch simulation forApollo 1, a deadly fire broke
out inside the spacecraft,resulting in the deaths of all
three astronauts aboard.
This tragically halted theprogram for more than 18 months.
During this time, nasaconducted extensive redesigns
(26:56):
and safety improvements beforethey were ready to send
astronauts into space again.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Maybe we should allow you to take off the seat belt
by yourself.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
That might have helped a little bit.
Bro, have you seen the picturesof Apollo 1 that burnt?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
I've seen the photos of the aftermath.
Yeah, yeah, it's basically likea.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
It's just a char inside.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
The wires and plastic and everything is bubbled and
boiled and it's just yeah.
And it was just sitting on thelaunch pad and they were just
doing testing, stuff of liketrying it out, trying it out,
Can we get this to go off andthat to go off?
And they fucking Like everybodywas trying to get in there but
it incinerated inside of thefucking craft.
(27:39):
Yeah, Like just, oh God.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
And it happened pretty quick too.
Yeah, it wasn't like a superslow burn.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
No, no, no, no, it wasn't like they slowly burned
to a crisp.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Now, granted, they were in their protective
spacesuits, I believe right.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I think those burnt pretty quick.
They're pretty fragile.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
They're not.
Yeah, they're fragile, butthere was like it's just you
could see it coming.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it'd be fucking terrifying, and
it was not as quick as OceanGate, yeah, yeah.
They had time to comprehend whatwas happening around them,
which is sad.
Yeah, the Apollo 1 fire was adevastating and challenging time
for NASA and its astronauts.
However, the safetyenhancements that followed
ensured that there were nofurther fatalities during the
Apollo program.
(28:17):
Simultaneously, the SovietUnion was working on its lunar
landing program, but had a muchslower process and progress due
to the internal debates that washappening about the necessities
of such a mission and also thedeath of the chief engineer of
the Soviet space program.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Well, it's a bureaucracy, it is.
And then the death, of course.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
But yeah, we had to put that fucking dog to space.
We're fine.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Like well, we did it.
We put dog in space.
What else do you want from us?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Well, we had men also orbit Earth.
He went around.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Earth.
He drank five bottles of vodkaper day.
I was going to say we sentseven bottles of vodka to space.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
It's full of it If he goes to moon.
We had to do so much vodka thatwe have to bring it In cases,
and he does not have vodka, hedies.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
He dies.
I don't know what accent weended in, but it wasn't Russian.
I think it was Russian.
Yeah, sure, We'll just call itRussian.
Yeah, those damn Rusky.
And actually when they got intospace, it was really tragic
when the Russians got into spacefor the first time.
We don't hear this mission alot, but they looked out into
the darkness and all they couldsee was a sniper barrel and Team
Ohoya was having a fuckingdistance, just picking them off
(29:21):
one by one.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
There I'll bring it all the way back to episode one.
Yeah, no, no, it's a throwback,it's a throwback.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Go back to episode one.
Great fucking episode, man, the.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
White Death lives.
The White Death lives and he'sin fucking space.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
God that's actually just a chunk of his face that
blew off by the bombs.
And it's just floating outthere with a mini sniper, just
taking out Ruskies.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
God, this would be a great like steampunk anime.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
It would be such a good steampunk anime from start
to finish.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
really, it really would be In December of 1968, a
significant milestone wasachieved when Apollo 8 was
launched.
It became the first mannedspace mission to orbit the moon.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
We couldn't orbit Earth, but we figured out the
moon.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
We're like you know what Fuck Earth.
We're just, we're going for it.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
We're gonna go further.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
This historic journey took off from NASA's vast
launch facility on MerrittIsland near Cape Canaver,
canaveral.
There we go, florida.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
If those Floridans can pronounce it, I think we
should be fine Florida's so flat, it's so weird.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, it's very flat.
Have you ever flown overFlorida?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
No, yes, actually for the sports unit.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah, for Deca.
Yeah, it is ridiculously flat,it is weird.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
It is weird.
Well, it's all like Swamplandand Everglades and all that Flat
, yeah, just very flat, and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah, we come from Colorado, so it's just weird to
see.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
For us, we're like mountains, mountains, mountains
and then you get to Kansas andit's like, oh fuck.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, but even when you fly over you just see like I
don't know, it's a differentkind of flat.
It's a different kind of flatright yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Because it's not segmented out into yeah, it's
not segmented out into squaresis what I was going to say.
I would say like farmland andstuff like that.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Kansas has at least like an A cup, you know, and
then Florida's just like.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
That's a concave.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
That's a concave city , that's plywood, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Wow.
Now, on July 16th of 1969, at9.32 am, one of the most
significant events in humanhistory unfolded, as Apollo 11
blasted off from Kennedy SpaceCenter.
The crew on board includedastronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz
Aldrin and Michael Collins thelesser known of the three, I
will say, Until he didn'tactually step on the moon.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
How much would that suck?
He was up in the command, itwas up in the space shuttle.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Oh my God, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
He never actually landed.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
He just forever went down in history as the guy
everyone forgets about.
That's great, oh my God, poorguy anyway.
So let's go ahead and talkabout the other two.
Armstrong, a 38 year oldcivilian research pilot, served
as the missions commander.
Apollo 11 embarked on an epicjourney covering a distance of
240,000 miles in just 76 hoursOn July 19th.
(32:11):
The spacecraft entered lunarorbit the next day at 1.46 PM.
The lunar module named Eagle,carrying Armstrong and Aldrin,
separated from the commandmodule where Collins remained.
He's like bye guys, it sucks,couldn't have been done without
him, like it literally couldn'thave been done without him and I
didn't even know this guyexisted.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
That's so crazy.
He's a very essential part ofthis mission.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
He really is he really all they did was go down
there and walk around andthey're like yay.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
They put a flag in the ground.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
That's true, Marica, fuck yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
There's also a stone there that says man walked here
in peace.
Love that in peace.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Like, who are they gonna fuck with?
Who's the issue on the moon?
If there was somebody on themoon, we'd go to war with them.
I tell you that much Honestly.
We really would.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
We colonized the moon .
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah, we did fucking colonize the moon, Like we just.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
America was the last country to colonize something.
I just realized that and it wasthe moon, and we just put a
flag on that bitch.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
And everybody else has been there since and they
just kind of like didn't.
Well, some people have.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Not everybody else, but yeah, you know what I mean.
Wow, interesting, interesting,it's just in our blood man.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
What can I say?
White people being white?
Yeah, that's, that's very true.
Yeah, so on July 19th.
Oh wait, no, no, no, sorry, setthe title of the episode the
space race, white people beingwhite, white people being white.
I mean it's Russia and Americatwo of the widest yeah.
Yeah, where the melting pot?
If the melting pot was made ofwhite chocolate?
(33:38):
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding, just kidding.
Two hours later, the eaglecommenced its descent to the
lunar surface, eventuallytouching down at 417 PM, just in
time for them to light up abull on the southwestern edge of
the Sea of Tranquility.
Yeah, they laid it down it wasthe 60s baby.
You guys hey, come on.
You think Buzz Aldrin wasn'tgetting this Buzz on?
(33:59):
I mean, geez, bro, it's 417.
You think that was an accident?
Speaker 1 (34:04):
No, no, on the Sea of Tranquility.
Come on, ok, collins, this isjust on the phone, are you guys?
Ok?
What was that Never been here,man?
Buzz, you're right here, man.
Yeah, I'm pretty blessed,collins, what's up?
Neil's not here man.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
So it was at this moment that Armstrong famously
radioed mission control inHouston Texas with the words the
eagle has landed, which is cool, which is cool.
We've all heard the recording,have we?
I have, I think a lot of mostpeople have.
I couldn't find it to download,really.
Yeah, oh, it's just on YouTube.
You could just YouTube MP3 thatshit.
Well, I didn't do that.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
It's not like you copyrighted it.
I didn't do that so you willnot hear that.
I'm sorry, we could have justplayed the sound bit.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Too Tragic Now at 10.39 PM.
Also, what time is this inreference to?
By the way?
Is it UTC?
I'm assuming UTC.
Yeah, it's like the standardtime for space for the world.
Like for science program, theyuse UTC.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Oh, I actually have no idea.
I was just thinking Easterntime, because DC is in Eastern
time.
I mean, maybe I don't know, andthat's who they're
communicating with, and theytook off from Florida, yeah, ok,
and they're communicating withHouston, ok.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
So 10.39 PM Eastern time or another time which was
five hours ahead of the originalschedule actually, which is
they just kind of sped it alongWith all the math.
I don't know how that happened.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
They probably accounted a lot for error.
Like just like it's going totake more process, let's just go
ahead and buffer, but let'sgive you 30 minutes extra to do
this task.
It takes you 20 minutes.
Let's plan for 15 minutes.
Yeah, ok, that actually makessense.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yeah, so at 10.39, five hours ahead, armstrong
opened the hatch of the lunarmodule and as he descended the
module's ladder, a televisioncamera attached to the craft
recorded his historic journeyand transmitted the images back
to Earth.
It was an extraordinary momentand hundreds of millions of
people worldwide watched in aweand anticipation.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Ok, so we're going to read this part and then I'm
going to tell you so.
At 10.56 PM, as Neil Armstrongtook his first steps onto the
moon's surface, he delivered thelegendary quote Shhh, that's
one small step for man.
Ha ha, ha ha.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
You made yourself laugh.
You made yourself laugh on thatone.
That's so funny.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
No, no, please try again.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
I can't.
No, that's it.
That's all you get.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for
mankind.
And that was the recording.
We found that sound bit.
His colleague, buzz Aldrinjoined him on the lunar surface
19 minutes later.
Because he's hitting that weed.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, he's like oh, I got to catch this photo quick.
I got to hit this bong in here.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Can't go in front of the camera.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Can't.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Get real, the president's going to be so
pissed.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Nixon's going to hate me.
We're so high in the sky rightnow that we need to be higher
Together.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
They explored the terrain, took photographs,
planted the American flag,conducted some basic scientific
experiments and even had aconversation with President
Richard.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Nixon, bro, that gives me chills Just thinking
about going for a fucking strollJust on the moon.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Walking around Doing a jump.
So I was on the phone withGrandpa Lyle earlier because
it's my birthday and he calledme and he said happy birthday.
And then I told him what wewere talking about today and
he's like oh yeah, I rememberwatching that live Because we
went out and bought a colored TVthe first color TV on our block
to watch this, and all theneighbors came in and we sat
(37:36):
down and we watched it.
They watched the launch fromFlorida and then they all
collectively watched the landingat his place on the colored TV.
And he's like yeah, you sawBuzz get off, or not?
Buzz Armstrong jump off hisladder and the dust comes up and
then he says his little thing.
That's one small step for man,one giant leap for mankind.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I wonder if that was premeditated, or if he just
fucking freestyle that shit.
I have no idea, probably pushedBuzz back.
He's like hold on.
This is me.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
This is me and yeah, he's just like we got to watch
that live.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
That's pretty cool.
That's so crazy.
That's very, very cool.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Just to be there and he's like, yeah, it's one of
those things that sticks in yourmind for absolute eternity.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Do you think that we'll be alive for them landing
somebody on Mars?
Yeah, I think so too.
I think so.
I think that'll be a prettycrazy thing too.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Whoever that person is is fucking crazy You're
fucking crazy.
First of all, and I don't knowif they're ever going to make a
bang.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, that's the best thing we're not that advanced
yet and I know we're going totry before we're ready.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Oh, as humans do.
Yeah, we'll send a dog.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
The first astronaut gets up there.
The dog's just running aroundchillin.
Havin' a grand old time he'slike yeah, he's just chillin.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
There's two chimpanzees.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Actually, all of the animals that were sent into
space ended up landing on Mars.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
They're actually just , they would find you?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, there's a whole rainforest.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
By 11 AM on July 21,.
Both astronauts were backinside the lunar module and the
hatch was sealed.
They spent the night on themoon's surface.
How cool.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
What a slumber party.
What a Dude.
They were probably so giggly.
When cameras turned off, I, himand Buzz looked at each other
and I say him as Neil, becauseeverybody knows Armstrong but
him and Buzz looked at eachother and just had to have a
moment.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
They had to have.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
We just fucking did that shit.
Yeah, Like that's so wild to me.
I mean, obviously it's the samefor every astronaut that gets
to go to space, but first onesto fucking walk on a space rock.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Crazy, crazy, absolutely nuts.
So they spent the night thereand at 1.54 PM the Eagle
initiated its scent back to thecommand module.
Among the items left behind onthe moon was a plaque that read
here, men from planet earthfirst set foot on the moon, july
1969.
(39:49):
Ad.
We came in peace for allmankind forever.
Forever Any any wars after thisever never.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
But you know what's awesome?
Forever 1969.
The number 69 is on the moonright now.
Isn't that nice?
Even the moon's got it goingfor it, so fucking great.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
I just love that now, at 5 35 pm, armstrong and
Aldrin successfully docked withCollins and Collins was like sup
dude.
So how was it?
Was it good?
Speaker 2 (40:24):
How was it making history?
No, I was up here just doingall the fucking work.
It's like I saw so manyscrabbles you guys were just
playing with fucking rocks.
I was up here doing math now.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
finally, at 1256 am On July 22nd, apollo 11 began
its journey back to earth.
The spacecraft safely splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at
1250 pm On July 24th, concludingthe extraordinary mission which
had captured the imagination ofthe entire Mother fucking world
(40:54):
.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Just imagine the collective sigh of relief when
they actually touch down theocean.
Oh god, they're just like.
Oh, I really hope this fuckingworks Like, and we could just be
plummeting to our deaths nowhonestly, though, if they had,
do you think that would havebeen like kind of worth it,
because they had just walked onthe fucking moon?
Yeah, probably, I feel like Icould.
Even I would be like yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
I do it like you know .
You are making history.
Your name is going to forever.
Yeah, etched in the annals.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Imagine being one of those people that says the moon
landing isn't real and it's justlike, it's like, and I get
conspiracies and stuff, butthere's certain things you can't
take from us.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
There's no, can't take from humanity?
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Yeah, and we did that shit.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
I?
I love fun conspiracies, right?
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yeah, you know, and I like talking about how the moon
landing might be fake.
I love all that I love readinginto it, but I don't believe
there was no CGI in 1969.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Oh like we barely had arcade games that worked.
You know it's.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
We're trying to figure out Pac-Man and you know
they're like no, it's just 3dlike.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
But the flag waved and it's like it.
They moved it because he did itto put it so that it was
standing out.
Yeah, it's not just gonna be aheart, it's yeah like an
assholes.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Anyway, the moon landing marked a significant
victory for the United States inthe space race which it
commenced with the launch ofSputnik by the Soviet Union in
1957, about 12 years earlier,the US managed to win this race
by successfully landingastronauts on the lunar surface
in 1969.
Meanwhile, the Soviets madeseveral unsuccessful attempts to
send a lunar landing craftbetween 69 and 72, including a
(42:26):
launch pad explosion in July of1969.
So they're just basically likepanic sending people up.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
They're just press because they just keep having
the mindset of the Soviet Uniondoes not make mistakes, yeah,
but then a mistake happens andthey're like we need to erase
this.
This does not have to keepgoing.
Yeah because we don't makemistakes and then you just keep
replacing all the smart peoplewith dumber people who are
pretending to be smart.
Yeah you just end up with agiant explosion on your crack,
on your fucking launch pad.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Now, this competition between the two superpowers
garnered intense public interestand was widely covered in the
national media.
Television played a huge rolein this, allowing people to
witness these monumentalachievements in real time, like
our grandpa.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Astronauts became celebrated as the ultimate
American heroes, and the generalpublic followed their
adventures with great enthusiasm.
The space race created a senseof vicarious living through
these brave individuals.
On the other side, the Sovietswere often depicted as the
ultimate rivals, tirelesslystriving to outperform the
United States and Demonstratethe strength of their communist
system and then it died.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Yeah, the Union did not do well, it's not?
Yeah, after the moon landing,the US government's interest in
lunar missions began to winddown in the early 70s, which is
so fucking sad, like we did it.
And then politics came in andthey're like what else can we
distract the American peoplewith?
Speaker 2 (43:45):
yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Yeah, there were five more successful lunar landings
and one mission, apollo 13, hadto abort its lunar landing due
to technical difficulties.
So disappointing, which you canwatch in Apollo 13 with Tom
Hanks and those other guys.
The final, whose Collins?
(44:07):
Yeah, who's calling?
Do you think they named TomCollins after Collins?
Speaker 2 (44:11):
sorry, I felt bad for him.
Sorry, I'm not taking any calls.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Collin is but I'm not taking any calls.
So the final moonwalkersastronauts Eugene Saran and
Harrison Schmidt of the Apollo17 mission departed from the
lunar surface on December 14th1772.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
I believe that's Eugene Cernan.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Yep, yeah, what did I say?
Speaker 2 (44:34):
You forgot the end.
You said Saran or something.
Saran, good job, yeah, thankyou, of course.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Of course.
That's what I'm here for.
The Apollo program was anexpensive and labor-intensive
undertaking involving around400,000 engineers, technicians
and scientists, with a cost of$24 billion dollars, which is
roughly equivalent to almost ahundred billion dollars in
(45:02):
today's.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
I'm glad you put that in there, because I was
Definitely gonna be like Iwonder what that is in like
today's money a lot, a lot, alot of fucking money.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
In 1975 a pivotal moment in space diplomacy
occurred with the joint ApolloSoyuz Mission.
I think that's right.
So you use.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
So, yes, so you, so is S O.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Y U Z there we go.
I'd like to buy a vowel.
In this mission, three USastronauts were sent into space
aboard an Apollo spacecraftwhich docked an orbit with a
Soviet made Soyuz vehicle thesymbolic handshaking space and
you can find this picture.
It's really cool when theydocked.
I like meet at the dockingpoint.
Yeah like shaking.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah, a lot of people shake when they dock.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Actually, If you know , you know especially the
Mormons.
So between the two commandersof the space ships marked an
important development in USSoviet relations during the late
Cold War era.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Hot, take real fast.
Imagine if the docking wasn'twhat we all thought.
It was just the two spacecommanders just unzipped and
just Okay, docked.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
And they just like not at each other aggressively
and that's the most manlydocking.
I've ever seen.
Now.
This mission signified a momentof cooperation between the two
superpowers in the previouslycompetitive realm of space
Exploration no, I mean it'sactually a really, really cool
moment.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
You know what I mean, because, because the Cold War
had been going on, there was somuch tense tenseness between the
United States, tension, tense,tensacity.
There was so much tensacitybetween Between the Soviet Union
and the United States, but notjust on a political level, like
between the people, and I feellike this handshake really
(46:53):
really like To the actual people, the ones who make up 99% of
the population and not the 1%Politician bullshit.
No, no, fuck those guys likethat was a big moment for us,
yeah, for the little guys,because we were like, oh, like,
everybody's just a person.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (47:08):
it was a very cool moment, I think and.
I'm glad it ended that way.
The legacy of the space racehas left a lasting impact in
several key ways.
It's spurred remarkabletechnological progress, giving
rise to advancements likesatellite technology, which we
rely on for communication andnavigation, as well as
innovations in computing andmaterial science that continue
(47:28):
to shape our world today.
It promoted internationalcollaboration and space
exploration.
The joint efforts on theInternational Space Station
Exemplify how nations can worktogether for scientific and
technological goals.
And because we're all justfucking people, yep.
The space race inspiredcountless individuals to pursue
careers in science, technology,engineering and mathematics.
(47:49):
You know the STEM programcontributing to the growth of
these fields and future spaceendeavors.
The spirit of exploration andambitious goal-setting seen in
the space race persists today,with missions aimed at human
exploration of Mars and beyond.
The space race highlighted thepeaceful uses of space and
Emphasize the importance ofprotecting Earth's environment,
(48:12):
fostering diplomacy and globalenvironmental awareness, which
remain essential aspects of ourcontinued exploration and
preservation of our planet well,well said, thank you.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
I can't believe that all just came from the dome it
did.
Yeah, I'd freestyle that wholefucking thing.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
This is I and we also .
We didn't just to touch on thisreal quick we didn't really
talk about the fact that it madeus think about our own
environment and things like that.
It really we didn't talk aboutthat in the actual script, but
that was a huge Secondhand thingthat happened because of the
space race.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean we kind of touchedon it just here, but I mean
that that just goes into.
It's.
It's.
It's better just talked aboutthen actually diving into and,
yeah, go to a summit meeting andtalk to talk about it, no,
totally I wasn't, I wasn't, no,no, no, yeah, I get what you're
saying but uh but yeah, you know, I mean it really did.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
I mean you go up and everybody got to see that space
is full of fucking rocks andthat's the future of earth if we
don't fucking take care of it.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Yeah, you know, Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
it's kind of a, it's kind of a come to Jesus moment,
you know yeah, yeah, come toJesus.
Yeah, yeah, yeah man, the spacerace, space race.
I fucking love space and youknow it's crazy about this whole
thing.
I didn't bring up aliens once.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
We didn't touch aliens one time not one fucking
time.
How the?
Speaker 2 (49:30):
closest I got to an alien was Seymour Hoya up there.
Fucking blast it off sniperrifle, it's across the space
time continuum.
I love that Crazy and I thinkwe got into aliens on like every
other One that's about space.
We were like no.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Well, ian, do you have anything to say to?
Speaker 2 (49:53):
the children.
Well, of course, as usual,ladies and gentlemen, if you
have made it this far in thepodcast, you're a fucking
champion.
We appreciate you, we fuckinglove you, we fucking, we want to
stroke your metaphorical cocksbecause you're awesome and we
like awesome people.
Cooper.
Speaker 1 (50:09):
Yeah, all that awesome.
Okay.
So stay beautiful bitches cuz.
We fucking love you, we fuckinglove you.
That was really nice.
No, I really liked that.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Alright cool.
That's my warm up.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
That's how you warm up.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I warm up, that's what I do.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
She's picking me, she has chosen.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
She's like I see you and I will go to you.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
We have a guest today on the podcast.
It's a cat, mamma Mia.
Mamma Mia in the building.
In the building Cooper, Did weshoot the wine?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
We always shoot the wine.
Yes yes, yes, soon, as I canfigure out what I'm doing with
my life.
No, I like that, I like that.
So we'll never be able to shootthis wine.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Alright, ready.
Alright, I like that.
No, that's very good.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Cheers mi amigo, Cheers, mi amigo.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Just the way I was supposed to be drinking Wine.
Shoot that shit.
Yeah, you know what else Shoots?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
What?
Where do they shoot, Ian?
They shoot into space.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Wow, just space, space or other countries.
Oh, enemies of America, enemiesof America will receive rockets
yeah.
Without warning, yeah, orRussia.
Coincidentally, they like to dothat.
They like missiles too.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
There's also a lot of other missiles being shot
around the world right now.
Yeah, but you know, what we'regoing to talk about the fun ones
today.
Yeah, we're going to talk aboutthe good, good, good, nice
rockets that progress, the spacerockets, our favorite kind of
rocket.
These ones are trulyprogressing.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, the ones that only carry a little bit of death
.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Just a little bit of death and destruction, because
welcome to drinking our waythrough history when we cover
the legendary.
That was a great segue, wasn't?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
it.
That was so good I almostdidn't see it coming.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Where we cover the legendary people, places,
spectacles and events thathistory has to offer, while
enjoying a thick pour of whiskey.
Thick, I am Cooper, I am IanWow, are you sure?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I had to think about it for a second.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
In today's episode, we will be taking a cosmic
journey back in time to exploreone of the most electrifying and
iconic competitions in historythe Space Race.
The Space Race was acompetitive and politically
charged period of spaceexploration and technological
(02:52):
competition between the UnitedStates and the Soviet Union
during the Cold War.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Put on your jackets.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Primarily, this was in the late 1950s and 1960s.
It was a critical aspect to thebroader Cold War rivalry and
had significant implications forboth countries, space programs
and technological advancements.
We'll dive into the politicaltension, incredible achievements
and unforgettable moments thatdefine this remarkable era.
(03:23):
So, ian, grab your whiskey,grab your wine, grab your drink,
sit back and prepare for astellar adventure through the
stars and history.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
You know, cooper, that was really, really good.
Thanks.
And what do all of thoseastronauts that went into space
have in common?
Big dicks, obviously, yeah,yeah.
And they also, all of them,every single one of them, in
order to become an astronaut,had to hit that like button, hit
that subscribe button, thatfive star review button.
Every single astronaut does it,so why not you?
(03:55):
Bam, bada boom and bada boom.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Be as good as an astronaut and hit that like
button.
Yeah, hit that five star button.
It takes a strong arm to dothat.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
you know, like kneel oh arm strong.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That was good.
Thank you, that was a reallygood one.
I'll be here all week.
I'll be here all week.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah.
So on July 20th of 1969, noiceAmerican astronauts Neil
Armstrong and Edwin Buzz Aldrinachieved a remarkable feat they
became the first humans to setfoot on the moon.
This extraordinaryaccomplishment was part of the
Apollo 2 mission and it tookplace eight years after
President John F Kennedy set abold national goal to land a man
(04:37):
on the moon before the 1960sended.
The challenge was issued inresponse to a competition
between the United States andthe Soviet Union, known as the
space race.
Yeah, to see which superpowercould send a person to the moon
first.
Because that's just the mosthuman shit I've ever heard.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
It's honestly the biggest.
Like big, big contest on theplanet, dude.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
That's all the space race is is just a measure of
schlongs.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
It also did a lot of good for the world, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
But the only reason it happened and this is
undeniable is because we wantedto prove we had bigger dicks
than the Soviet Union.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Kennedy wanted to win re-election.
Yeah, because he just had theBay of Pigs invasion.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, you fumbled that shit hard.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah, that sounds exactly right, he's like we need
to do something.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
So to understand the context of the space race we
kind of have to look a bitfurther back.
Right After World War II endedin the mid-20th century, a new
kind of conflict emerged, theCold War Now.
This struggle pitted two majorglobal powers against each other
the United States, a democraticand capitalist nation, and of
course the Soviet Union, acommunist country.
(05:50):
This rivalry extended into manyaspects of life, and one of the
most intense battlegroundsbecame space exploration.
Both sides aimed to demonstratethe superiority of their
technology, military strengthand, by extension, their
political and economic systems.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, they were going head to head, they were trying
to be number one top dog Head tohead.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
That's another way of saying dick-measuring context,
trying to put them side by sidefor a comparison.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
No, that's good, I see what you did there, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks forputting that together for me.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
They were putting their dicks together.
I'm putting jokes together.
We're good.
We're good baby.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Now, by the mid-1950s , the tensions of the Cold War
had seeped into the daily livesof people in both the United
States and the Soviet Union.
This was fueled by an arms race, the looming threat of nuclear
weapons, extensive spyactivities, the Korean War and a
war of words and ideas wagingthrough the media.
Yeah, yeah, lots of that, Lotsof propaganda going out there.
(06:49):
These tensions continuedthroughout the space race and
were amplified by significantevents like the construction of
the Berlin Wall in 1961, theCuban Missile Crisis in 1962, go
check out our podcast episodeon that shit.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I didn't even think about that, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
And the outbreak of the Vietnam War.
Oh, space exploration providedanother platform for this
intense competition.
On October 4th 1957, the SovietUnion achieved a major
milestone by launching aspacecraft called Sputnik
Sputnik, which is all over popculture world and the sci-fi
world right.
(07:26):
This marked the world's firstartificial satellite, a man-made
object, placed into Earth'sorbit.
The launch of Sputnik came as asurprise, and not a pleasant
one to most Americans, becausewe've straight up thought they
put a fucking death ray in thesky.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I you know, and I wouldn'tput it past them.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, yeah, but also like the technology wasn't there
.
This was very much likeeverybody in the news anchors
and everybody's like they'regonna melt our brains.
Space laser yeah, MarjorieTaylor Green with Space lasers
weird, interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, propaganda bullshit.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
False disinformation.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Ah yes, Not misinformation, but
disinformation.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Disinformation.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Disinformation specifically.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
You know that she said that.
Right who she's?
Uh, marjorie Taylor Greene.
She said that, like the warsomewhere is caused by Jewish
space lasers, hmm, well, we knowthem, jews, and they're space
lasers.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Let's just have a giant laser out there in the
shape of the star of David.
It just shoots money.
It just shoots money out of itStraight Jewish house.
Yeah, they just aim it atthemselves.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
It's like a self-sustaining system, and
that's how she made it toCapitol Hill.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, oh, no, actually that makes a lot of
sense.
No, I get it.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I get it Now this.
In the United States, space wasseen as the next frontier, a
logical extension of the grandAmerican tradition of
exploration.
It was crucial for the US notto fall behind the Soviets in
this new frontier.
Furthermore, the successfullaunch of Sputnik demonstrated
the formidable power of theSoviet Union's R7 missile, which
(09:01):
appeared capable of deliveringa nuclear warhead into US
airspace, which is pretty scary.
This made it ever more urgentfor the United States to gather
intelligence about the Sovietmilitary activities.
This is going in to straight upoperation paperclip, right.
Yeah, this rips from operationpaperclip.
Yeah, this goes into ProjectBluebird.
This is going into MK Ultrawith all the fucking acid.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, the.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
CIA is kind of involved.
Well, I mean, we don't reallytalk about it, but they're there
Like because they're the onesgathering the intel at the U-2
fucking spy planes and all thatshit, and it's this time would
be such a crazy time to be alive.
It would be fucking terrifying.
Well, okay, not as a citizen,as like, think of it like as a
government official or like anagency like the CIA or some shit
(09:46):
.
Bro, you get away witheverything.
Because it's just like we'retrying to come up with mind
control and have a men'scheering candidate.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yes, yes, I mean it's like.
It's like you're shooting theshit with your buddies playing
pool, drinking some brews, andyou're like God damn dude, I
just wish mind control was real.
And one of them's like hey man,you ever tried acid?
I'm pretty impressionable whenI take acid, but maybe we can
melt people's minds with this.
Yeah yeah.
Reframe the insane in themembrane.
(10:15):
That's actually where thatcomes from, insane in the
membrane.
Yeah, yeah, yeah Now, before thelaunch of Sputnik, the United
States was the leading worldpower and they had an edge in
terms of their nuclearcapabilities, which was
confirmed through U2 spy planeflights over the Soviet Union,
which is fucking funny, I thinkthat's right.
They're just flying, justchilling Yep.
These flights provided valuableintelligence that suggested the
(10:37):
US held the advantage in termsof nuclear weapons.
However, during a periodbetween 1955 and 1961, studies
revealed a concerning gap ineducation.
It was found that the SovietUnion was training two to three
times as many scientists peryear as the.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
United States.
They were trying to catch upfrom fucking operation paperclip
and capitalizing, stealing allthe goddamn German Nazi
scientists.
Yeah, yeah, you know thosegoddamn Nazi scientists.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
How great were they for society?
Werner von Braun got us to thefucking moon here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's what I think about theNazis.
Yeah, so, but yeah, they weretraining two to three times as
many scientists per year, whichis crazy to me, because it's I
feel like the Soviet Unionwasn't really giving them that
much of an option, though youknow what I'm saying.
They were kind of likeforcefully recruiting not like
(11:26):
forcefully, but stronglysuggesting recruiting to become
a scientist.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Oh, they were definitely pushing it within
their.
Yeah, they were.
They were recruiting and thenhaving strict schools developing
these people in minds into thisprocess.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Specifically for this purpose.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Now.
This raised concerns about thefuture of scientific and
technological progress in the U?
S.
The launch and orbit of Sputnikone, the Soviets first
artificial satellite, indicateda significant technological
advance advancement right.
This development was perceivedas a significant threat to U S
national security.
In response to this perceivedthreat, the U S government made
(12:03):
substantial federal investmentsin various areas, including
research and development,education and, of course,
national security.
In 1958, the United Statesresponded to the Soviet
achievement by launching its ownsatellite, Explorer one, or
Explorer I if we, if we likeRoman numerals.
Good job, Ian, Thank you.
This satellite was designed bythe U S army under the guidance
(12:26):
of rocket scientist WernerWerner von Braun.
There it is.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Around this one right , Werner von Braun.
Werner von Braun.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I don't know why I got a little French there, there
we go.
Now around.
How many differentnationalities can be pissed off
in one episode?
Now, around the same time,president Dwight D Eisenhower
signed an executive orderestablishing the national
aeronautics and spaceadministration, which obviously
is just NASA, a federal agencydedicated to, of course, space
(12:57):
exploration.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Do you know what NASA actually stands for, though?
Speaker 2 (13:06):
No, what does it stand for, cooper?
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Never a straight answer.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Always a gay answer.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Oh, that's a good second.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Never a straight answer.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
No, I do like that because facts, yeah, yeah,
because try and ask them aquestion about aliens.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Never a straight answer.
Well, maybe maybe not.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, it's past a boob.
I don't know, as they gotfucking ET down in the basement.
Yeah, I don't know, I don'tknow, that's NASA exactly, but
okay, they had their hands inthe pot, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
They're the ones who brought the alien to Area 51.
Yeah, exactly, we've seen.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Paul, we know what's going on.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah, they're in charge of strictly transport
whether that's into space or outof space.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Now Eisenhower also initiated two national security
focused space programs thatwould run alongside NASA's
efforts.
The first program, led by theUS Air Force, aimed to explore
the military potential of space.
This is where the space laserscome in.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
The space lasers my favorites.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
The second program managed by the CIA.
Fucking just acid guys at this.
Lsc for days also included theAir Force and a newly
established organization calledthe National Reconnaissance
Office, which was a classifiedentity until the early 1990s and
was codenamed Corona.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Naturally, Because sometimes, at the end of the day
, these scientists just like tolean back on a beach with a nice
cold Corona in line.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I have a feeling that they were thinking more of the
Corona of the spectrum of light.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
The sunrise.
Is that right?
That's where that.
That's what Corona is, right?
I don't know, man, I don't know.
I'm thinking ice cold brew, butyou might be right.
I'm going to define Coronaright now.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Actually, yeah, this is why we need a producer,
because a producer's job is tojust sit there and Google.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I was right.
It's a rare field, gaseousenvelope of the sun's and other
stars.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah, no, I still think they were thinking about
beer.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
This mission was to use orbiting satellites to
collect intelligence on theSoviet unions and its allies.
Yeah, so that was the code name, corona, corona.
Now, in 1959, the Soviet spaceprogram made another significant
stride with the launch of Luna,to the first space probe to
impact the moon.
Then, in April 1961, yuriGagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut
(15:29):
cosmonaut cosmonaut, yes, that'ssuch a cool name it is.
It is Achieved a historicmilestone, but becoming the
first person to orbit Earth.
Now, by this time they hadalready launched one.
I don't know if it was Sputnikthat had the dog there's a dead
dog floating its base.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah, there is a dead dog.
It's probably very nicelypreserved, though.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, I guess, because there's no air anymore.
That's hot.
Oh, that's kind of sad.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, it's just chilling.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
It's just sad that the dog died.
Yeah well, we did it to fuckingmonkeys.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
We did it to monkeys.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
We did it to monkeys, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
In Russia's defense granted we probably just
shouldn't have sent animals tospace.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
We had to.
I know it was either theanimals or us.
We had to measure our cocks.
We could have sent a fewRepublicans maybe instead.
Wow, Wow, Cooper drawn lines inhis hand.
So Yuri Gagarin, who had beenthe Soviet cosmonaut who
(16:32):
achieved the historic milestonebecoming the first person on
Earth.
He accomplished this aboard theVostik 1 spacecraft.
In response, the US initiatedProject Mercury, an effort to
send an American into space.
They're like we can do the red,white and blue two in space.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
And we're also closer to the sun.
I just want to say we're theclosest planet to the sun.
That's the name of our projectand you can't have that.
You can't have it, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
NASA engineers designed a smaller cone-shaped
capsule that was significantlylighter than the Vostok
spacecraft used by the Soviets.
The US conducted tests withchimpanzees to ensure the safety
of the capsule.
In March 1961, nasa conducted afinal test flight before the
(17:18):
Soviets pulled ahead with YuriGagarin's orbit.
Now, on May 5, 1961, americanastronaut Alan Shepard became
the first American in space,although he did not achieve
orbit.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, yeah, he was just out there a little bit.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
He's like hey, I can see it, but I can't go all the
way around.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
I got pretty high in the sky.
And I came back down from thesky Now.
On May 25, 1961, President JohnF Kennedy made an announcement
before a joint session ofCongress.
He unveiled an ambitious anddaring plan to safely send an
American astronaut to the moonbefore the end of the decade.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
We can do it Pretty bold.
In eight years we got thisbitch, you got to say it.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
We can do it in eight years.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
That's good Thank you yeah, yeah, for some reason I'm
real good at the Kennedy Wow.
Yeah, way better now than youwere during our Cuban Missile
Crisis.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
I know, I know I missed the mark on that man.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
It's like, don't worry, I've just been watching
JFK speeches.
For days I've literally beenworking on it now.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
You think I'm memorizing sales scripts?
No man, no, I'm memorizingKennedy.
I just got a new sales job.
Context, context, thank you.
Now, several political factorsinfluence Kennedy's decision in
the timing of this announcement.
Primarily, he felt immensepressure for the United States
to outpace and outperform theSoviet Union in the ongoing
(18:38):
space race.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
The space race, the space race, space race, space
race.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
This pressure, that's great.
That sounds great this pressure.
There are no echoes in space,by the way.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
There's no sound up in that bit.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
This pressure had been mounting since the shocking
launch of Sputnik by the SovietUnion just four years earlier.
You know because, to add to theembarrassment, yuri had become
the first human to journey intospace and reach orbit, while
Alan the American made historyas the first American in space
on May 5th.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Except he only fucking hit suborbital flight.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Right he wasn't.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
You didn't hit full orbit like the other guys.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
So everybody in America's, like we just can't
get it up all the way.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
You know like what we needed some fucking biagra for
a Seattleist.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Yeah, yeah, wow, I haven't even heard of that
company.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
You've been looking into those, if you use drinking
our way through history as apromo code on Seattleists.
You'll receive 5% off.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
No, also not the case .
You will pay the same amount.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
I wish as we do.
Wouldn't that be funny If wejust got sponsored by, like
Seattle, by an erectile, by aspondra, by a prill.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah, just cuz, just cuz.
No, that's good, that's good.
So, yeah, he didn't reach orbitand Yuri did.
So there was a lot of thiscompetition between the US and
the Soviet Union because theybeat us, you know.
And then, additionally, therewas the failed Bay of Pigs
invasion in mid-April of thatyear.
That further intensified thepressure on Kennedy right, he
(20:06):
was just feeling it from allsides, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
If you want to know more about the Bay of Pigs, go
check out our Cuban MissileCrisis, because we dive into
that and how horribly we fuckedup that.
Yeah, fuck that up.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
We tend to do that sometimes it was so bad.
I mean you think you look outat the Bay, see a bunch of pigs
swimming, you just wouldn't fuckwith it.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
They just had to shoot them all.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I don't know what the deal was.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Pigs almost became extinct.
Very surprised it never becamethe term pigs in a bucket.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Oh, is that where pig slaughter?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
comes from Pigs in a barrel.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Maybe it's a pig slaughter, you know, like a I
don't even think that's a termactually.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
I just said pig slaughter, yeah.
Yeah, it's where you go to apig slaughtering house.
They're slaughtering pigs, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
This episode is brought to you by Viagra.
Yeah.
Facing these challenges,kennedy wanted to announce a
program that had a realisticchance of success before the
Soviets achieved a similarmilestone.
After discussions with VicePresident Lyndon B Johnson, nasa
Administrator James Webb andother key officials, he
concluded that landing anAmerican on the moon would be an
(21:09):
incredibly challengingtechnological goal.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
However, it was also an area where the United States
had the potential to take thelead in space exploration, and I
also want to note real quickthat NASA's Administrator, james
Webb is who the James Webbtelescope is named after.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Really, I thought it was a different one.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
I'm just yeah, it wasn't his kid.
James Webb the second.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
That's why it's not called James Webb.
The second yeah, exactly, OK,yeah, yeah, Everybody would have
just gotten confused as likewhy?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
do we have two James Webb's telescopes?
Where was the first?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
one Plot twist, the satellite was launched before
his kid was born, and he'sactually James Webb the third.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
And they just.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It's like, yeah, your older brother's a satellite,
what?
Speaker 1 (21:51):
is this telescope.
In February 1962, john Glennbecame the first American to
actually orbit the Earth, nowmarking this huge step in this
race.
By the end of that year, nasahad laid the groundwork for its
lunar landing project, known asProject Apollo.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Oh no, it's like we all know how that worked out for
the first one.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Well, not most people Really.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah, I thought the Apollo fuck up was like a big
deal.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I mean at the time it was yeah, that's true, we
forget about the Zoomers.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
We do the Zoomers.
They don't know shit.
No, they don't.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
They don't know shit about fuck.
So between 1961 and 1964,nasa's budget saw nearly 500%
increase, which went from 500million to nearly 3.75 billion,
with a B B for bad bitch, b forbad 3.75 bad bitches.
The lunar landing programinvolved a massive workforce of
(22:51):
approximately 34,000 NASAemployees, an additional and an
additional 375,000 employeesworking for industrial and
university contractors.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Wow, I didn't realize that, like back then, I didn't
realize that.
I know it's massive now, but Ididn't know that it was this
huge, like doing that.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah, we're going to the moon man.
We know nothing about it.
We got to get a bunch of smartpeople.
Yeah, we got shit to do.
So these resources wereessential for the ambitious moon
mission.
Obviously Now, in 1961,alongside Project Mercury, which
consisted of six flights,project Gemini was initiated.
These projects, along with thenumerous experiments and test
flights, were crucial for thesuccessful landing.
(23:32):
Project Mercury aimed to orbita manned spacecraft around the
Earth, study human capabilitiesin space and safely recover both
the astronaut and thespacecraft, because both were
very expensive and, yeah,honestly, they probably would
have just well no, they probablywould have ditched the
astronaut, got the spacecraftthat they had there.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
No, that's a lot of learning.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
That's a lot of learning.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
You got to reteach somebody.
That's true.
They want to save that brain.
Yeah, knowledgeable enrichment.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Project Gemini, on the other hand, was focused on
developing space traveltechniques to support the Apollo
mission.
Gemini missions tested theendurance of astronauts in space
, the ability to perform tasksoutside the spacecraft, such as
spacewalks.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
God, how would you have liked to take in the first
fucking spacewalk, Like howterrifying.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Oh, it's got to be.
I'm just out there.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Sorry, Sorry.
I know I interrupted you there.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Oh yeah, but you're like you're just your space suit
away from dying.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Duff yes imploding A small tug on a tether, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah, it's very scary .
Scary Just to kind of thinkabout that.
I think the best way to visual,to understand how scary space
is is watching the Europa report, the.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Europa report.
Such a good movie, so good.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Jeb and I missions were also for the orbital
maneuvers needed to rendezvousand dock with another spacecraft
.
It's a lot of math.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
It's a lot of math and a lot of little rocket
flares.
Yeah, those rocket flares meanthe difference between life and
death, and it's literally aquarter of an inch, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
You know, yeah, if we saw Interstellar, it's the part
where Matt Damon blew up thefucking space station because he
was not proficient at his job,didn't do his math right, didn't
check his numbers, the projecttook place from 61 to 66,
ensuring that the Apollo programcould concentrate on its
primary mission without the needto develop these essential
techniques from scratch.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
The astronaut team that played a crucial role in
Project Gemini consisted ofthree groups the Mercury 7, the
new 9, and the astronaut classof 1963.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
They're just like.
We're not giving you a name,it's so funny.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Now, these astronauts were responsible for piloting
the Gemini spacecraft duringthis program.
That's not just the fucking.
Why didn't they get a nickname?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
What did they do wrong?
We just got to get these guysin.
Do we have time for a name, sir?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
No, no, no.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Time for a name.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
It's not in the budget, it's not in the budget.
You get two nicknames.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
That's it you are the class of 1963.
Congratulations, sir.
That's when I graduated college.
Fuck you, class of 1963.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
It's 64.
63.
However, the Gemini programfaced tragic setbacks.
Three astronauts lost theirlives when their trainer jet
crashed during training,including both members of the
primary crew for the Gemini 9mission.
This unfortunate incident ledto the backup crew taking over
that mission, so it's like wegot second string in there.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, it's like replacement refs.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Susan, although these are highly trained astronauts,
I feel like those refs were nothighly trained refs All right,
maybe drastic comparison, butyou get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
All right, it's actually the same thing, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
So Apollo faced another major setback on January
27th of 1967.
Yeah, this was bad.
Yeah.
During a launch simulation forApollo 1, a deadly fire broke
out inside the spacecraft,resulting in the deaths of all
three astronauts aboard.
This tragically halted theprogram for more than 18 months.
During this time, nasaconducted extensive redesigns
(26:56):
and safety improvements beforethey were ready to send
astronauts into space again.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Maybe we should allow you to take off the seat belt
by yourself.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
That might have helped a little bit.
Bro, have you seen the picturesof Apollo 1 that burnt?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
I've seen the photos of the aftermath.
Yeah, yeah, it's basically likea.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
It's just a char inside.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
The wires and plastic and everything is bubbled and
boiled and it's just yeah.
And it was just sitting on thelaunch pad and they were just
doing testing, stuff of liketrying it out, trying it out,
Can we get this to go off andthat to go off?
And they fucking Like everybodywas trying to get in there but
it incinerated inside of thefucking craft.
(27:39):
Yeah, Like just, oh God.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
And it happened pretty quick too.
Yeah, it wasn't like a superslow burn.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
No, no, no, no, it wasn't like they slowly burned
to a crisp.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Now, granted, they were in their protective
spacesuits, I believe right.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I think those burnt pretty quick.
They're pretty fragile.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
They're not.
Yeah, they're fragile, butthere was like it's just you
could see it coming.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it'd be fucking terrifying, and
it was not as quick as OceanGate, yeah, yeah.
They had time to comprehend whatwas happening around them,
which is sad.
Yeah, the Apollo 1 fire was adevastating and challenging time
for NASA and its astronauts.
However, the safetyenhancements that followed
ensured that there were nofurther fatalities during the
Apollo program.
(28:17):
Simultaneously, the SovietUnion was working on its lunar
landing program, but had a muchslower process and progress due
to the internal debates that washappening about the necessities
of such a mission and also thedeath of the chief engineer of
the Soviet space program.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Well, it's a bureaucracy, it is.
And then the death, of course.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
But yeah, we had to put that fucking dog to space.
We're fine.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Like well, we did it.
We put dog in space.
What else do you want from us?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Well, we had men also orbit Earth.
He went around.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Earth.
He drank five bottles of vodkaper day.
I was going to say we sentseven bottles of vodka to space.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
It's full of it If he goes to moon.
We had to do so much vodka thatwe have to bring it In cases,
and he does not have vodka, hedies.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
He dies.
I don't know what accent weended in, but it wasn't Russian.
I think it was Russian.
Yeah, sure, We'll just call itRussian.
Yeah, those damn Rusky.
And actually when they got intospace, it was really tragic
when the Russians got into spacefor the first time.
We don't hear this mission alot, but they looked out into
the darkness and all they couldsee was a sniper barrel and Team
Ohoya was having a fuckingdistance, just picking them off
(29:21):
one by one.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
There I'll bring it all the way back to episode one.
Yeah, no, no, it's a throwback,it's a throwback.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Go back to episode one.
Great fucking episode, man, the.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
White Death lives.
The White Death lives and he'sin fucking space.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
God that's actually just a chunk of his face that
blew off by the bombs.
And it's just floating outthere with a mini sniper, just
taking out Ruskies.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
God, this would be a great like steampunk anime.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
It would be such a good steampunk anime from start
to finish.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
really, it really would be In December of 1968, a
significant milestone wasachieved when Apollo 8 was
launched.
It became the first mannedspace mission to orbit the moon.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
We couldn't orbit Earth, but we figured out the
moon.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
We're like you know what Fuck Earth.
We're just, we're going for it.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
We're gonna go further.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
This historic journey took off from NASA's vast
launch facility on MerrittIsland near Cape Canaver,
canaveral.
There we go, florida.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
If those Floridans can pronounce it, I think we
should be fine Florida's so flat, it's so weird.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, it's very flat.
Have you ever flown overFlorida?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
No, yes, actually for the sports unit.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah, for Deca.
Yeah, it is ridiculously flat,it is weird.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
It is weird.
Well, it's all like Swamplandand Everglades and all that Flat
, yeah, just very flat, and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah, we come from Colorado, so it's just weird to
see.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
For us, we're like mountains, mountains, mountains
and then you get to Kansas andit's like, oh fuck.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, but even when you fly over you just see like I
don't know, it's a differentkind of flat.
It's a different kind of flatright yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Because it's not segmented out into yeah, it's
not segmented out into squaresis what I was going to say.
I would say like farmland andstuff like that.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Kansas has at least like an A cup, you know, and
then Florida's just like.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
That's a concave.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
That's a concave city , that's plywood, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Wow.
Now, on July 16th of 1969, at9.32 am, one of the most
significant events in humanhistory unfolded, as Apollo 11
blasted off from Kennedy SpaceCenter.
The crew on board includedastronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz
Aldrin and Michael Collins thelesser known of the three, I
will say, Until he didn'tactually step on the moon.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
How much would that suck?
He was up in the command, itwas up in the space shuttle.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Oh my God, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
He never actually landed.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
He just forever went down in history as the guy
everyone forgets about.
That's great, oh my God, poorguy anyway.
So let's go ahead and talkabout the other two.
Armstrong, a 38 year oldcivilian research pilot, served
as the missions commander.
Apollo 11 embarked on an epicjourney covering a distance of
240,000 miles in just 76 hoursOn July 19th.
(32:11):
The spacecraft entered lunarorbit the next day at 1.46 PM.
The lunar module named Eagle,carrying Armstrong and Aldrin,
separated from the commandmodule where Collins remained.
He's like bye guys, it sucks,couldn't have been done without
him, like it literally couldn'thave been done without him and I
didn't even know this guyexisted.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
That's so crazy.
He's a very essential part ofthis mission.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
He really is he really all they did was go down
there and walk around andthey're like yay.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
They put a flag in the ground.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
That's true, Marica, fuck yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
There's also a stone there that says man walked here
in peace.
Love that in peace.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Like, who are they gonna fuck with?
Who's the issue on the moon?
If there was somebody on themoon, we'd go to war with them.
I tell you that much Honestly.
We really would.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
We colonized the moon .
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah, we did fucking colonize the moon, Like we just.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
America was the last country to colonize something.
I just realized that and it wasthe moon, and we just put a
flag on that bitch.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
And everybody else has been there since and they
just kind of like didn't.
Well, some people have.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Not everybody else, but yeah, you know what I mean.
Wow, interesting, interesting,it's just in our blood man.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
What can I say?
White people being white?
Yeah, that's, that's very true.
Yeah, so on July 19th.
Oh wait, no, no, no, sorry, setthe title of the episode the
space race, white people beingwhite, white people being white.
I mean it's Russia and Americatwo of the widest yeah.
Yeah, where the melting pot?
If the melting pot was made ofwhite chocolate?
(33:38):
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding, just kidding.
Two hours later, the eaglecommenced its descent to the
lunar surface, eventuallytouching down at 417 PM, just in
time for them to light up abull on the southwestern edge of
the Sea of Tranquility.
Yeah, they laid it down it wasthe 60s baby.
You guys hey, come on.
You think Buzz Aldrin wasn'tgetting this Buzz on?
(33:59):
I mean, geez, bro, it's 417.
You think that was an accident?
Speaker 1 (34:04):
No, no, on the Sea of Tranquility.
Come on, ok, collins, this isjust on the phone, are you guys?
Ok?
What was that Never been here,man?
Buzz, you're right here, man.
Yeah, I'm pretty blessed,collins, what's up?
Neil's not here man.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
So it was at this moment that Armstrong famously
radioed mission control inHouston Texas with the words the
eagle has landed, which is cool, which is cool.
We've all heard the recording,have we?
I have, I think a lot of mostpeople have.
I couldn't find it to download,really.
Yeah, oh, it's just on YouTube.
You could just YouTube MP3 thatshit.
Well, I didn't do that.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
It's not like you copyrighted it.
I didn't do that so you willnot hear that.
I'm sorry, we could have justplayed the sound bit.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Too Tragic Now at 10.39 PM.
Also, what time is this inreference to?
By the way?
Is it UTC?
I'm assuming UTC.
Yeah, it's like the standardtime for space for the world.
Like for science program, theyuse UTC.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Oh, I actually have no idea.
I was just thinking Easterntime, because DC is in Eastern
time.
I mean, maybe I don't know, andthat's who they're
communicating with, and theytook off from Florida, yeah, ok,
and they're communicating withHouston, ok.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
So 10.39 PM Eastern time or another time which was
five hours ahead of the originalschedule actually, which is
they just kind of sped it alongWith all the math.
I don't know how that happened.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
They probably accounted a lot for error.
Like just like it's going totake more process, let's just go
ahead and buffer, but let'sgive you 30 minutes extra to do
this task.
It takes you 20 minutes.
Let's plan for 15 minutes.
Yeah, ok, that actually makessense.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yeah, so at 10.39, five hours ahead, armstrong
opened the hatch of the lunarmodule and as he descended the
module's ladder, a televisioncamera attached to the craft
recorded his historic journeyand transmitted the images back
to Earth.
It was an extraordinary momentand hundreds of millions of
people worldwide watched in aweand anticipation.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Ok, so we're going to read this part and then I'm
going to tell you so.
At 10.56 PM, as Neil Armstrongtook his first steps onto the
moon's surface, he delivered thelegendary quote Shhh, that's
one small step for man.
Ha ha, ha ha.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
You made yourself laugh.
You made yourself laugh on thatone.
That's so funny.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
No, no, please try again.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
I can't.
No, that's it.
That's all you get.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for
mankind.
And that was the recording.
We found that sound bit.
His colleague, buzz Aldrinjoined him on the lunar surface
19 minutes later.
Because he's hitting that weed.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, he's like oh, I got to catch this photo quick.
I got to hit this bong in here.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Can't go in front of the camera.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Can't.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Get real, the president's going to be so
pissed.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Nixon's going to hate me.
We're so high in the sky rightnow that we need to be higher
Together.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
They explored the terrain, took photographs,
planted the American flag,conducted some basic scientific
experiments and even had aconversation with President
Richard.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Nixon, bro, that gives me chills Just thinking
about going for a fucking strollJust on the moon.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Walking around Doing a jump.
So I was on the phone withGrandpa Lyle earlier because
it's my birthday and he calledme and he said happy birthday.
And then I told him what wewere talking about today and
he's like oh yeah, I rememberwatching that live Because we
went out and bought a colored TVthe first color TV on our block
to watch this, and all theneighbors came in and we sat
(37:36):
down and we watched it.
They watched the launch fromFlorida and then they all
collectively watched the landingat his place on the colored TV.
And he's like yeah, you sawBuzz get off, or not?
Buzz Armstrong jump off hisladder and the dust comes up and
then he says his little thing.
That's one small step for man,one giant leap for mankind.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I wonder if that was premeditated, or if he just
fucking freestyle that shit.
I have no idea, probably pushedBuzz back.
He's like hold on.
This is me.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
This is me and yeah, he's just like we got to watch
that live.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
That's pretty cool.
That's so crazy.
That's very, very cool.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Just to be there and he's like, yeah, it's one of
those things that sticks in yourmind for absolute eternity.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Do you think that we'll be alive for them landing
somebody on Mars?
Yeah, I think so too.
I think so.
I think that'll be a prettycrazy thing too.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Whoever that person is is fucking crazy You're
fucking crazy.
First of all, and I don't knowif they're ever going to make a
bang.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, that's the best thing we're not that advanced
yet and I know we're going totry before we're ready.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Oh, as humans do.
Yeah, we'll send a dog.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
The first astronaut gets up there.
The dog's just running aroundchillin.
Havin' a grand old time he'slike yeah, he's just chillin.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
There's two chimpanzees.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Actually, all of the animals that were sent into
space ended up landing on Mars.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
They're actually just , they would find you?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, there's a whole rainforest.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
By 11 AM on July 21,.
Both astronauts were backinside the lunar module and the
hatch was sealed.
They spent the night on themoon's surface.
How cool.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
What a slumber party.
What a Dude.
They were probably so giggly.
When cameras turned off, I, himand Buzz looked at each other
and I say him as Neil, becauseeverybody knows Armstrong but
him and Buzz looked at eachother and just had to have a
moment.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
They had to have.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
We just fucking did that shit.
Yeah, Like that's so wild to me.
I mean, obviously it's the samefor every astronaut that gets
to go to space, but first onesto fucking walk on a space rock.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Crazy, crazy, absolutely nuts.
So they spent the night thereand at 1.54 PM the Eagle
initiated its scent back to thecommand module.
Among the items left behind onthe moon was a plaque that read
here, men from planet earthfirst set foot on the moon, july
1969.
(39:49):
Ad.
We came in peace for allmankind forever.
Forever Any any wars after thisever never.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
But you know what's awesome?
Forever 1969.
The number 69 is on the moonright now.
Isn't that nice?
Even the moon's got it goingfor it, so fucking great.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
I just love that now, at 5 35 pm, armstrong and
Aldrin successfully docked withCollins and Collins was like sup
dude.
So how was it?
Was it good?
Speaker 2 (40:24):
How was it making history?
No, I was up here just doingall the fucking work.
It's like I saw so manyscrabbles you guys were just
playing with fucking rocks.
I was up here doing math now.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
finally, at 1256 am On July 22nd, apollo 11 began
its journey back to earth.
The spacecraft safely splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at
1250 pm On July 24th, concludingthe extraordinary mission which
had captured the imagination ofthe entire Mother fucking world
(40:54):
.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Just imagine the collective sigh of relief when
they actually touch down theocean.
Oh god, they're just like.
Oh, I really hope this fuckingworks Like, and we could just be
plummeting to our deaths nowhonestly, though, if they had,
do you think that would havebeen like kind of worth it,
because they had just walked onthe fucking moon?
Yeah, probably, I feel like Icould.
Even I would be like yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
I do it like you know .
You are making history.
Your name is going to forever.
Yeah, etched in the annals.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Imagine being one of those people that says the moon
landing isn't real and it's justlike, it's like, and I get
conspiracies and stuff, butthere's certain things you can't
take from us.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
There's no, can't take from humanity?
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Yeah, and we did that shit.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
I?
I love fun conspiracies, right?
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yeah, you know, and I like talking about how the moon
landing might be fake.
I love all that I love readinginto it, but I don't believe
there was no CGI in 1969.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Oh like we barely had arcade games that worked.
You know it's.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
We're trying to figure out Pac-Man and you know
they're like no, it's just 3dlike.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
But the flag waved and it's like it.
They moved it because he did itto put it so that it was
standing out.
Yeah, it's not just gonna be aheart, it's yeah like an
assholes.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Anyway, the moon landing marked a significant
victory for the United States inthe space race which it
commenced with the launch ofSputnik by the Soviet Union in
1957, about 12 years earlier,the US managed to win this race
by successfully landingastronauts on the lunar surface
in 1969.
Meanwhile, the Soviets madeseveral unsuccessful attempts to
send a lunar landing craftbetween 69 and 72, including a
(42:26):
launch pad explosion in July of1969.
So they're just basically likepanic sending people up.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
They're just press because they just keep having
the mindset of the Soviet Uniondoes not make mistakes, yeah,
but then a mistake happens andthey're like we need to erase
this.
This does not have to keepgoing.
Yeah because we don't makemistakes and then you just keep
replacing all the smart peoplewith dumber people who are
pretending to be smart.
Yeah you just end up with agiant explosion on your crack,
on your fucking launch pad.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Now, this competition between the two superpowers
garnered intense public interestand was widely covered in the
national media.
Television played a huge rolein this, allowing people to
witness these monumentalachievements in real time, like
our grandpa.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Astronauts became celebrated as the ultimate
American heroes, and the generalpublic followed their
adventures with great enthusiasm.
The space race created a senseof vicarious living through
these brave individuals.
On the other side, the Sovietswere often depicted as the
ultimate rivals, tirelesslystriving to outperform the
United States and Demonstratethe strength of their communist
system and then it died.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Yeah, the Union did not do well, it's not?
Yeah, after the moon landing,the US government's interest in
lunar missions began to winddown in the early 70s, which is
so fucking sad, like we did it.
And then politics came in andthey're like what else can we
distract the American peoplewith?
Speaker 2 (43:45):
yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Yeah, there were five more successful lunar landings
and one mission, apollo 13, hadto abort its lunar landing due
to technical difficulties.
So disappointing, which you canwatch in Apollo 13 with Tom
Hanks and those other guys.
The final, whose Collins?
(44:07):
Yeah, who's calling?
Do you think they named TomCollins after Collins?
Speaker 2 (44:11):
sorry, I felt bad for him.
Sorry, I'm not taking any calls.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Collin is but I'm not taking any calls.
So the final moonwalkersastronauts Eugene Saran and
Harrison Schmidt of the Apollo17 mission departed from the
lunar surface on December 14th1772.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
I believe that's Eugene Cernan.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Yep, yeah, what did I say?
Speaker 2 (44:34):
You forgot the end.
You said Saran or something.
Saran, good job, yeah, thankyou, of course.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Of course.
That's what I'm here for.
The Apollo program was anexpensive and labor-intensive
undertaking involving around400,000 engineers, technicians
and scientists, with a cost of$24 billion dollars, which is
roughly equivalent to almost ahundred billion dollars in
(45:02):
today's.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
I'm glad you put that in there, because I was
Definitely gonna be like Iwonder what that is in like
today's money a lot, a lot, alot of fucking money.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
In 1975 a pivotal moment in space diplomacy
occurred with the joint ApolloSoyuz Mission.
I think that's right.
So you use.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
So, yes, so you, so is S O.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Y U Z there we go.
I'd like to buy a vowel.
In this mission, three USastronauts were sent into space
aboard an Apollo spacecraftwhich docked an orbit with a
Soviet made Soyuz vehicle thesymbolic handshaking space and
you can find this picture.
It's really cool when theydocked.
I like meet at the dockingpoint.
Yeah like shaking.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah, a lot of people shake when they dock.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Actually, If you know , you know especially the
Mormons.
So between the two commandersof the space ships marked an
important development in USSoviet relations during the late
Cold War era.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Hot, take real fast.
Imagine if the docking wasn'twhat we all thought.
It was just the two spacecommanders just unzipped and
just Okay, docked.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
And they just like not at each other aggressively
and that's the most manlydocking.
I've ever seen.
Now.
This mission signified a momentof cooperation between the two
superpowers in the previouslycompetitive realm of space
Exploration no, I mean it'sactually a really, really cool
moment.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
You know what I mean, because, because the Cold War
had been going on, there was somuch tense tenseness between the
United States, tension, tense,tensacity.
There was so much tensacitybetween Between the Soviet Union
and the United States, but notjust on a political level, like
between the people, and I feellike this handshake really
(46:53):
really like To the actual people, the ones who make up 99% of
the population and not the 1%Politician bullshit.
No, no, fuck those guys likethat was a big moment for us,
yeah, for the little guys,because we were like, oh, like,
everybody's just a person.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (47:08):
it was a very cool moment, I think and.
I'm glad it ended that way.
The legacy of the space racehas left a lasting impact in
several key ways.
It's spurred remarkabletechnological progress, giving
rise to advancements likesatellite technology, which we
rely on for communication andnavigation, as well as
innovations in computing andmaterial science that continue
(47:28):
to shape our world today.
It promoted internationalcollaboration and space
exploration.
The joint efforts on theInternational Space Station
Exemplify how nations can worktogether for scientific and
technological goals.
And because we're all justfucking people, yep.
The space race inspiredcountless individuals to pursue
careers in science, technology,engineering and mathematics.
(47:49):
You know the STEM programcontributing to the growth of
these fields and future spaceendeavors.
The spirit of exploration andambitious goal-setting seen in
the space race persists today,with missions aimed at human
exploration of Mars and beyond.
The space race highlighted thepeaceful uses of space and
Emphasize the importance ofprotecting Earth's environment,
(48:12):
fostering diplomacy and globalenvironmental awareness, which
remain essential aspects of ourcontinued exploration and
preservation of our planet well,well said, thank you.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
I can't believe that all just came from the dome it
did.
Yeah, I'd freestyle that wholefucking thing.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
This is I and we also .
We didn't just to touch on thisreal quick we didn't really
talk about the fact that it madeus think about our own
environment and things like that.
It really we didn't talk aboutthat in the actual script, but
that was a huge Secondhand thingthat happened because of the
space race.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean we kind of touchedon it just here, but I mean
that that just goes into.
It's.
It's.
It's better just talked aboutthen actually diving into and,
yeah, go to a summit meeting andtalk to talk about it, no,
totally I wasn't, I wasn't, no,no, no, yeah, I get what you're
saying but uh but yeah, you know, I mean it really did.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
I mean you go up and everybody got to see that space
is full of fucking rocks andthat's the future of earth if we
don't fucking take care of it.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Yeah, you know, Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
it's kind of a, it's kind of a come to Jesus moment,
you know yeah, yeah, come toJesus.
Yeah, yeah, yeah man, the spacerace, space race.
I fucking love space and youknow it's crazy about this whole
thing.
I didn't bring up aliens once.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
We didn't touch aliens one time not one fucking
time.
How the?
Speaker 2 (49:30):
closest I got to an alien was Seymour Hoya up there.
Fucking blast it off sniperrifle, it's across the space
time continuum.
I love that Crazy and I thinkwe got into aliens on like every
other One that's about space.
We were like no.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Well, ian, do you have anything to say to?
Speaker 2 (49:53):
the children.
Well, of course, as usual,ladies and gentlemen, if you
have made it this far in thepodcast, you're a fucking
champion.
We appreciate you, we fuckinglove you, we fucking, we want to
stroke your metaphorical cocksbecause you're awesome and we
like awesome people.
Cooper.
Speaker 1 (50:09):
Yeah, all that awesome.
Okay.
So stay beautiful bitches cuz.
We fucking love you, we fuckinglove you.
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