All language subtitles for Americas Secret Space Heroes Series 1 1of6 Saturn V 1080p

NARRATOR: At the
beginning of the 1960s,

President Kennedy issues
an incredible challenge.

PRESIDENT KENNEDY:
I believe that this
nation should commit itself

to achieving the goal,
before this decade is out,

of landing a man on the moon

and returning him
safely to the Earth.

DON BINNS: I
thought he was nuts!

Technically it was unbelievable.

♪ ♪

DON BRINCKA:
There was going to be some
serious problems on the way.

NARRATOR:
Reaching the moon will require
a rocket of immense power:

the mighty Saturn V.

♪ ♪

ANDREW: This is a kind of power

that you really cannot
wrap your brain around.

NARRATOR: To succeed, those
involved will push engineering

to the limit.

JERRY: It was something bigger
than we have ever built before.

NARRATOR: They must
overcome catastrophic failures.

[Explosions]

MYRON: There were
massive problems with it

that just were overwhelming.

NARRATOR: And do it
all within a decade.

The goal: to build a
rocket to send men to the moon.

This is the story of the unsung
heroes who built the Saturn V.

[♪ theme music ♪]

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: December 21st, 1968.

Astronauts Frank Borman,
Bill Anders and Jim Lovell

prepare to embark
on a daring mission.

They hope to make history
by becoming the first humans

to leave Earth
and orbit the moon.

That means risking their lives
on board the first manned launch

of the giant Saturn V.

ED: We weren’t going
just to Earth orbit.

We were going to the moon
and back, 240,000 miles away.

NARRATOR: Engineers
have built a rocket weighing

6.2 million pounds and
containing over 3 million parts.

MISSION CONTROL:
15, 14, 13, 12, 11..

MYRON: If we had a failure the
damage could be overwhelming,

and of course the crew’s chance
of survival is very minimal.

MISSION CONTROL: 10, 9...

We have ignition
sequence. The engines are on...

4, 3, 2, 1, 0. We have lift off.

[Rocket engines roaring]

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The story of the Saturn V begins
here in Huntsville, Alabama.

In the 1950s, the city
becomes home to a group

of German engineers with a
specialist skill: rocketry.

During the Second World
War they are responsible

for developing the V-2 rocket,

the world’s first
liquid-propelled missile.

They’re led by the
charismatic Wernher Von Braun.

But when Nazi Germany collapses,

Von Braun and his team surrender

and are eventually
brought to Huntsville

to work on America’s
fledgling rocket program.

For 12 years they design
rockets for military use,

including the
Redstone and Jupiter.

Then, on October 4th, 1957,
the Soviets launch Sputnik 1,

the world’s first satellite.

The Space Race has begun
-- and the USA is trailing.

For rocket engineers like
Don Binns, it’s a bitter blow.

DON BINNS: I remember you’d
listen to Sputnik going round

and going beep,
beep, beep, beep, beep,

and it says, yes, they beat us,

and we’ll have to really
get our nose to the grindstone

and move ahead and
see if we can’t catch up.

MISSION CONTROL:
[unintelligible].
Lift off!

NARRATOR: In 1958 Von Braun’s
team successfully launch

America’s first
satellite, Explorer One,

on board their Juno rocket.

But Von Braun is
targeting a much bigger goal --

and he believes he has
the team to achieve it.

Among them was
army engineer Jim Odom.

JIM: Dr. Von Braun was one
of the most remarkable men

I’ve ever known.

He was a great leader, he
was a very good engineer.

And the team that
he brought over here

was absolutely outstanding.

NARRATOR:
Von Braun’s team have been
developing a pioneering series

of liquid-propelled
rockets called Saturn.

ANDREW: Von Braun
always had his eye on

bigger and
bigger booster rockets

that could launch larger
and larger payloads into space.

And he tried to solve
that problem by taking

smaller rockets and clustering
them together, and that was

the basis for the
very early Saturn rockets.

NARRATOR: April 1961.

The Soviets launch the first
man into orbit, Yuri Gagarin.

For President John F.
Kennedy it’s the final straw.

He ups the stakes dramatically
for America’s rocket engineers.

PRESIDENT KENNEDY:
I believe that this
nation should commit itself

to achieving the goal,
before this decade is out,

of landing a man on the moon

and returning him
safely to the Earth.

♪ ♪

No single space
project in this period

will be more
impressive to mankind,

or more important for the
long-range exploration of space.

NARRATOR: Don Binns and his
colleagues are taken aback.

DON BINNS: When I heard
him make that announcement,

we all watched it on TV,
and I thought he was nuts.

I mean, it was an
amazing challenge.

Technically it was unbelievable.

ED: I couldn’t believe
it. I could not believe it.

We just needed
someone to step up and say,

let’s go to the moon,

because we were competing
big-time with the Russians.

Kennedy believed in us.

In fact he came to the Cape,

and Von Braun took
the President around

and showed him the
Saturn being tested.

NARRATOR: Von Braun comes
face to face with the man

who’s set this
seemingly impossible goal.

ED: And the question
he asked Von Braun was,

"Are we gonna beat the
Russians to the moon?"

Von Braun said,
"Yes, Mr. President,

we’re gonna beat the
Russians to the moon,

and we’re gonna do it within
the time frame you said."

End of conversation.

NARRATOR: This is the challenge
Von Braun has been waiting for,

and teams of engineers
across America begin work

on a mighty moon rocket.

DON BRINCKA: So there were
several different approaches,

and each one had some
technical disadvantages

and technical advantages,

and I would say Von Braun was
probably the primary influence

on what was actually selected.

NARRATOR:
The initial plan is to use a
method called Direct Ascent.

Assemble an enormous rocket,
and fly directly to the moon.

Then land a large spacecraft
on the lunar surface...

before blasting off and
returning directly to Earth.

It seems simple
enough... on paper.

But engineers soon
realize that building

such a giant rocket
by the end of the decade

simply isn’t feasible.

Von Braun favors a different
method, but finally decides

on a technique known as
lunar orbit rendezvous.

Head to the moon with
a smaller spacecraft --

one that shuttles the astronauts
to and from the lunar surface

-- while a mother
ship waits in lunar orbit.

The final element is a
rocket powerful enough

to take men to the moon.

WERNHER: This is what
we call the Saturn V,

and the takeoff weight
of this monstrous rocket

will be about 6
million pounds, or 3,000 tons.

NARRATOR: At the
Davidson Center in Huntsville,

the rocket’s huge size
can be fully appreciated.

This is one of
the three Saturn Vs

painstakingly restored
to a pristine condition

by the Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum.

They are the largest artifacts
in the institution’s collection.

After a multi-million-dollar
restoration project,

they now take pride
of place at displays

in Houston, Huntsville and
at the Kennedy Space Center

in Florida.

Looking at them, it’s
possible to understand

a key engineering
principle Von Braun uses

to create such a
powerful rocket.

The Saturn V isn’t
one rocket, it’s three --

stacked on top of each other --

known as stages.

ED: Staging was a
big deal in rocketry...

NARRATOR: Stage One
will use a cluster of five

giant F-1 engines to
lift the 3,000-ton rocket

to a height of 42
miles before separating.

ED: The booster drops away and
then the second stage ignites.

NARRATOR: Stage Two will
use five smaller J-2 engines

boosting the rocket to
115 miles above the Earth.

ED: And it drives the vehicle up
near the edge of Earth orbit,

and then the
third stage kicks in.

NARRATOR: Stage Three
has just one J-2 engine.

ED: That puts the spacecraft
and the third stage in orbit.

NARRATOR: Before
igniting a second time.

ED: And the reigniting of that
third stage was a big deal,

because that puts you
on a path to the moon.

NARRATOR: Meeting
Kennedy’s deadline

will push the rocket engineers
to the breaking point,

as they prepare to
take on the one of the

greatest engineering challenges
the world has ever seen.

[Rocket engines igniting]

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: At 363
feet tall, even today,

the mighty Saturn V rocket
is still the largest rocket

ever built.

[Rocket engines igniting]

♪ ♪

Restored by the
Smithsonian Institution,

an example stands with
other Apollo artifacts

in the National Air and
Space Museum in Washington, DC.

This fully renovated Saturn
shows that the mighty rocket

has a cluster of
five F-1 engines

powering the first stage.

Myron Pessin is one of
the first stage engineers.

MYRON: The biggest engines
we had built up to that time

were 200,000 pounds of thrust.

This was a million and
a half pounds of thrust.

NARRATOR: Each engine is
20 feet long, 12 feet across,

and, at 10 tons,
heavier than a school bus.

Five of these
engines will fire the rocket

and three astronauts
to a height of 42 miles.

So they must be rigorously
tested, and become man-rated.

MYRON: To qualify the F-1
engine we called man-rated,

we required 500
successful starts,

which means you have
to fire a lot of engines.

NARRATOR: Test-firing the
cluster of five F-1 engines

presents a huge challenge.

So engineers construct
giant stands in Huntsville

and at NASA’s
Mississippi test facilities

on the banks of the Pearl River.

Ron Tepool is involved in the
test firings here in Huntsville.

RON: The engines would
have gone up on Level 10,

which is at where those
two holes are up there.

NARRATOR: But to ensure
the test stand isn’t engulfed

by searing rocket exhaust,

engineers
construct a giant deflector

that can withstand the
blast and direct it sideways.

RON: If they all five fired
down through that aspirator,

and the heat came
out and deflected up

about 500 feet out,
and 100 feet into the air,

this deflector is cooled
with water from the pump house

that supports this test stand

that has a capability of 280,000
gallons of water per minute.

NARRATOR: April 1965...

Engineers prepare to test-fire
the cluster of five F-1 engines

that will eventually power
the Saturn V’s first stage.

Ed Buckbee was NASA’s
press officer at the time.

ED: I was called in
by my boss, and he said,

magazine is
sending their photographer down

to cover this test firing."

He sets up his
camera, and I said,

"You know, when it does
ignite you’re going to see

this huge ball of fire
come out of the engines,

and for a moment
there won’t be any noise,

and all of a sudden
the sound will hit you

and you’re gonna feel
the vibration in your chest

and the heat will
come up your pants leg,

and it’s really rather
scary when the first time

you see one of these."

He looked at me
and said, "Young man,

I’ve covered fires,
tornadoes, wars, floods.

I think I can handle this."

[Alarm]

[Booster firing]

I looked at the photographer.

He had turned and was
running across the field

away from the firing test,

and he never got one
picture of the firing

of the Saturn V booster.

NARRATOR: The firing of these
engines has a profound effect

on the people living in
neighboring Huntsville.

ED: You could feel the ground
vibrate some distance away,

several miles away I’m told,

but if we were getting cloud
cover, what would happen was,

the sound would go
up, ricochet back down

somewhere in the city.

[Booster firing]

We would have people
calling about windows broken,

and chandeliers
shaking and coming apart.

NARRATOR: But it’s not just the
windows that are shattering.

[Explosion]

Testing quickly uncovers a
critical problem with the F-1.

One that’s causing them to
catastrophically disintegrate...

in seconds.

Reaching the moon within
the decade will remain a dream

unless engineer Sonny Morea
and his team can fix this flaw.

SONNY: It was the
program’s showstopper.

We would not have gone to the
moon until we had a fix on that.

We would not risk the
astronauts on that vehicle

when we had an engine that
could blow up underneath them.

LEE: This became a big enough
issue that we were concerned

that we were going to
impact the goal that was set

to get to the
moon in the decade.

A team was put
together to solve this problem

that put the best minds
together, from around the world.

NARRATOR: Sonny and his
colleagues pinpoint the cause.

SONNY: Combustion
instability is a frequency

that gets set up
whenever anything burns.

One of the ways to
think about it is,

if they’re familiar with
a candle burning in a room,

you know that the candle
flickers during the burning.

Part of that flickering is
the fact that it’s unstable,

the fire is unstable.

NARRATOR: Like the candle,
liquid propellants injected

into the rocket chamber
burn in an unstable way,

creating powerful shock
waves that rapidly oscillate

until the force
shakes the engine apart.

[Explosion]

Finding a solution will take
America’s top engineering minds

the best part of two years.

SONNY: We went to a process that
involved the use of baffles.

Now if you look at the face
of the rocket engine in here,

the face of the injector,

you’ll notice that there
are several compartments.

NARRATOR: It works like this:

Instead of the propellants
entering the combustion chamber

as regulated jets, the
baffles interrupt the flow,

subtly changing
the way they ignite

and reducing
combustion instability.

The 1st stage of of the
Saturn V is back on track.

♪ ♪

The second stage is
taking shape on the other side

of the country, at
Seal Beach, California.

But the engineers of
North American Aviation

are way behind schedule.

ANDREW: The engineers who
were building the second stage

of the Saturn V found themselves
in a kind of a squeeze.

The first stage of the Saturn
V had already been defined,

and the third stage
had also been designed

before the second stage
was even being developed.

There was this
constant battle to save weight,

and the burden
fell on the engineers

who were
designing the second stage.

NARRATOR: The second
stage must lift astronauts

to a height of 115 miles.

It has to be incredibly
powerful yet incredibly light.

When complete, just 9% of
its total weight is metal;

91% will be liquid propellants.

ANDREW: They had to find every
way they could possibly think of

to save weight in that stage,

thinning the metal to the point
where you really sort of worry,

is this okay to do?

NARRATOR: Many months are
spent skimming every last ounce

of metal from stage two --
but it’s still not enough.

Engineers need to find another
weight saving solution --

quickly.

ANDREW: The stroke of
genius that they came up with

was to do what was
called the common bulkhead.

If you look
inside the second stage,

you’ve got one
tank for liquid oxygen

and another tank
for liquid hydrogen.

And those two tanks take
up a certain amount of space.

Somebody realized,

what if we could merge
the two tanks together

and create a single
curved divider between them?

NARRATOR: Having a common
bulkhead reduces the height

of the stage by almost 10 feet,

and sheds an
impressive four tons of weight.

It’s a breakthrough for
the Stage Two engineers,

but the schedule has
slipped even further.

Kennedy’s deadline
looks unachievable.

NARRATOR: And in November
1963, NASA ups the pressure.

Against the wishes of Von Braun,
NASA shortens the schedule

by removing several of
the team’s test launches.

ANDREW: Their concept
was that you would launch

the Saturn rocket with one
live stage and two dummy stages

on its first mission.

If that worked, then
the next time you would add

a live second stage.

You’d still have a
dummy third stage,

and if that worked,
well, then you could launch

all three stages as live stages.

NARRATOR: But NASA now want to
accelerate the launch schedule

and test the live
rockets all at once.

The first batch of launches
-- Apollos 1, 2, 3 and 5 --

will use Von Braun’s
smaller Saturn IB rocket.

The Saturn V’s first unmanned
flight will become Apollo 4,

followed by a
second unmanned launch

eventually called Apollo 6.

The first Apollo astronauts will
finally fly into Earth orbit

on Apollo 7.

And Apollo 8 will
send men to orbit the moon

for the very first time.

JIM: That was a big change
for us here in Huntsville.

DON BINNS: I thought, wow,
this is gonna be a lot of work,

because that means that we’re
gonna have to retest the stage,

we’re gonna have to re-certify
it, make it man-rated.

It was a big step forward.

Big step forward.

NARRATOR: The clock is
ticking, and the engineers

are about to face disaster.

[Explosion]

Because the
Saturn V is so large,

Wernher Von Braun and his team
of rocket engineers design it

to be made of three
individual rockets, or stages,

stacked on top of each other.

This method of rocket building
allows each stage to be built

by a different
aerospace company.

But developing
space technology means

entering uncharted territory
-- and that can be risky.

On January 20th, 1967,
the Douglas Aircraft Company

is testing a third stage prior
to delivery to Cape Kennedy

in Florida.

Don Brincka is
the man in charge.

DON BRINCKA: It was
the third vehicle that was

coming through our
facility for a static firing.

And that’s when we’d
load it with propellants

and we go through
our normal countdown.

We were just getting ready,

a few minutes from
actually firing the stage.

[Explosion]

NARRATOR: Not only does the team
lose an entire third stage,

but also the test
stand suffers major damage.

January 27th, 1967...

While engineers investigate
the failure of Stage Three,

preparations are
made for Apollo 1 --

slated to be the first
manned Apollo mission,

and the first in
American history to carry

three astronauts into space.

Today they’re performing
a routine countdown test.

ED: We’ve got three
guys in a spacecraft,

pressurized, suited up.

NARRATOR: Across the country
in California, Don Brincka

is investigating his
Stage Three failure.

He calls Cape Kennedy.

DON BRINCKA: I was on the phone.

We were talking
about some of the things

that we were
looking and when he said,

"Whoops, wait a
minute, we got a problem.

Something’s going on
here on the capsule.

I can’t talk to you anymore."
And then blank the phones went.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Unbeknownst
to Don, during the call

a fire breaks out
in the Command Module.

Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White
and Rodger Chaffee are killed.

NASA concludes that the
likely cause of the fire

is faulty wiring,
which created a spark.

In the pressurized,
oxygen-rich atmosphere

of the Command Module,
that spark became a raging fire

in a matter of minutes.

For all involved with
Apollo, it’s a brutal reminder

the smallest mistake can
have devastating consequences.

ED: I think the
Apollo 1 fire was a shock

to the guys that were
close to the program.

Again, they were so confident

that these things were
gonna fly successfully.

NARRATOR: The Apollo
schedule slips again

as NASA redoubles its
efforts to improve safety.

But for the
engineers at Douglas,

it’s valuable time to understand

what caused the catastrophic
failure of their third stage.

Like Apollo 1, the culprit
is tiny -- a weak solder weld

on a helium tank.

♪ ♪

January 1967.

The three stages
of the first Saturn V

are finally ready for assembly.

They arrive at Cape Kennedy.

The challenge now is
stacking them together.

♪ ♪

This is NASA’s giant
vehicle assembly building.

LEE: It’s something
like about 525 feet tall.

On occasion it
had its own weather,

and there were
times, and I saw it myself,

where there were
clouds up there.

All the stages came in
through this south entrance.

Part of the structure are
the huge overhead cranes.

They would handle
several hundred tons

with such intricacy.

If you were lowering one of
them and you touched an egg

laying on the floor it
would sense that resistance

before breaking
the egg and stop.

NARRATOR: The first
Saturn V is assembled

with breathtaking
precision -- but it’s still

a three-and-a-half-mile
drive to the launch site.

LEE: So, you open those big
doors, those 450-foot doors

and roll that thing out!

And now that’s where
you really drew a crowd.

NARRATOR: This is the crawler --

the largest-moving
land vehicle ever built.

It needs a team of 30
engineers and technicians

to drive the 6.2-million-pound
rocket and its launch tower

on a road trip that
lasts up to 12 hours

to the furthest launch pad.

♪ ♪

MISSION CONTROL:
Houston. Flight now confirmed

that they are a
go for the flight,

as are all other
aspects of the mission.

NARRATOR: November 9th,
1967 -- Apollo 4 is poised

for the first unmanned
launch of the Saturn V rocket.

Engineers have spent
millions of man hours

trying to meet
Kennedy’s deadline.

MISSION CONTROL: ...15...
ignition sequence starts.

5, 4, we have ignition. We have
lift off. We have lift off.

[Engines roaring]

♪ ♪

ED: I think people
were shocked with this,

with the power and
the size of the Saturn V.

♪ ♪

JIM: When you
watch a Saturn V launch

and realize that you’ve
invested a part of your life,

when you realize that
it’s really gonna work,

the gratification
level is just outstanding.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: After just
two and a half minutes,

the first stage
separates perfectly.

The second stage takes over.

DON BINNS: It’s amazing how
long you can hold your breath.

We had ignition on the second
stage, and ignition was good,

and all our flight parameters
were essentially perfect.

After that, you know, I
was able to breathe again.

NARRATOR: The spacecraft sends
a constant stream of telemetry

from thousands of
individual readings

to the flight
directors and engineers.

So far it’s working
exactly as planned.

Stage Three ignites
for the first time,

and then for the second time.

♪ ♪

The mission is a
complete success.

The next Saturn V to
be launched is Apollo 6,

and, after that,
a manned Apollo 8.

After today’s launch,
what could possibly go wrong?

MISSION CONTROL:
This is Launch Control. T
minus 60 seconds and counting.

First stage now pressurizing.

We’re coming up on the power
transfer in a matter of seconds.

Status report still
indicates all is well.

NARRATOR: Five months after the
triumphant launch of Apollo 4,

NASA prepares to bring
President Kennedy’s goal

one step closer, with
a second unmanned launch

of the Saturn V -- Apollo 6.

MISSION CONTROL: We have
ignition sequence start.

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 -- we
have commit, we have lift off.

NARRATOR: From the ground,
it looks like a perfect launch.

MISSION CONTROL: We have
cleared the tower, we have...

NARRATOR: But the engineers
know something is very wrong.

MISSION CONTROL:
[unintelligible].

NARRATOR: Telemetry shows
that the rocket is vibrating

in a violent up and down motion.

It’s known as the pogo problem.

MYRON: I was told we had pogo.

Pogo is this is a vertical
oscillation, like a pogo stick.

NARRATOR: Senior
Project Engineer George Phelps

has seen the pogo
phenomenon before.

GEORGE: The pogo
problem was very serious.

The crew module,
which was unmanned,

experienced somewhere
between 8 and 10 G’s of force,

which, had there been crew
aboard, could have killed them.

NARRATOR: Next, Stage Two.
Five minutes into its burn,

there’s more bad news.

Engine number two begins
to sputter and lose thrust.

Then, it shuts
down all together.

Moments later engine
number three also shuts down.

MISSION CONTROL: We’ve
lost Engine 2 and Engine 3.

NARRATOR: The engineers
can only watch in horror.

MALE: We’ve lost the engines?
MALE: That’s affirmative.

MALE: Roger. We think
we have two engines out.

Don’t get nervous.

MALE: Roger that.

GEORGE: This stage is
designed for one engine out,

and there were
two engines out...

NARRATOR: The onboard computer
tries to save the rocket.

GEORGE: The computer said,
"Hey, you guys are in trouble,"

and it started to lift the
vehicle back onto a vertical --

more or less vertical
trajectory in order to get

this third stage and
the crew module into orbit.

MALE: IGM seems to be
bringing it in, flight.

MALE: Roger.

MALE: I say it’s
look and go flight.

NARRATOR: The team prepares
to fire the third stage engine

for the second time to
send the Command Module

on its designated trajectory.

But it doesn’t light.

All three stages of the rocket
have had critical problems

that must be solved
before it can fly again.

The pogo problem with
the first stage occurs

when vibrations in the engine’s
thrust and combustion chambers

match the natural vibration
of the rocket in flight.

They amplify each
other, and generate vibrations

up and down the
length of the rocket.

Fortunately, the
engineers discover a solution.

GEORGE: We put
dampeners, a dampener,

to absorb these
vibrations, to make them safe.

It doesn’t get rid
of them necessarily --

but it minimizes them. It’s like
a shock absorber in your car.

NARRATOR: But what went wrong
with the second and third stages

is a mystery.

Telemetry reveals a
sudden drop in fuel pressure

on both engines.

It’s a telltale
sign of a fuel leak.

And it’s traced to the failure

of the engines’
fuel igniter lines.

But how could the
engineers have missed this?

ANDREW: What they had
missed with those J-2 engines

was that they were always
being tested at sea level,

where the moisture in the
air would form a coating of ice

around the propellant lines,

and that actually ended up
giving them extra resilience,

extra strength against those
powerful vibration forces.

Once you got up above
most of the atmosphere,

there was no
moisture, there was no ice,

and it shook the heck
out of those fuel lines

and caused the problems.

NARRATOR: If the Stage Two
and Three J-2 engines failed

because of a weak pipe,

why was the number three
Stage Two engine shut down?

GEORGE: As engineers, we pulled
out all the block diagrams

and the schematics
and all that stuff,

and a guy, he says,
"You know what happened,

I think those
wires were crossed."

NARRATOR: It’s the
simplest of mistakes.

The wiring for engine two and
engine three has been crossed --

meaning the onboard
computer sent a signal

to shut down a
perfectly healthy engine.

Von Braun and his team
have solved all the problems

discovered by Apollo 6.

October 11, 1968 -- NASA
successfully launches Apollo 7.

The first manned
Apollo mission uses

the smaller Saturn IB rocket,

placing its three astronauts
in Earth orbit for 11 days.

But Von Braun and his team
are ready to go much further...

ANDREW: They
understood their system.

That’s what allowed them to
have the confidence to say,

we’re gonna fly people
on the third Saturn V,

and once you put people
on it it doesn’t matter

whether you’re gonna go to Earth
orbit or go to the moon --

so let’s go ahead and do it.

NARRATOR: December 21st, 1968.

Astronauts Frank Borman,
Bill Anders and Jim Lovell

are about to put their lives
in the hands of the engineers

who’ve built the Saturn V
-- as they set out to become

the first humans to
fly around the moon.

MISSION CONTROL: Mark T minus
three minutes and 30 seconds

and counting.

We’ve completed our
communications checks

with the Apollo
astronauts in the cabin

and communications are go.

NARRATOR: With the
lessons learned from Apollo 6

and the successful first
orbital flight of Apollo 7,

NASA is ready to
reach for the moon.

Engineers can only sit and wait
as the 3-man crew of Apollo 8

prepares to make history.

MISSION CONTROL: 35
seconds and counting...

ED: You know this
was the first time that

we had huge
turnout of the press.

It was huge because, number one,
the first time we had a crew

on the Saturn V ever.

Secondly, we weren’t
going just to Earth orbit,

we were going to the moon
and back, 240,000 miles away.

MALE: 12, 11, 10, 9 -- we
have ignition sequence start.

The engines are
on -- 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.

We have commenced, we
have, we have lift off...

[Engines roaring]

We have left the tower.

MISSION CONTROL: Apollo
8, you’re looking good.

ASTRONAUT: Roger.

NARRATOR: As Apollo 8
thunders from the pad,

its crew are the
first to experience

the awesome accelerating
force of the mighty F-1 engines.

MISSION CONTROL:
Apollo 8, Houston.

You are a go for staging, over

ASTRONAUT: Roger.

NARRATOR: This time
both stages work perfectly.

ASTRONAUT:
Houston, it’s Apollo 8.

MISSION CONTROL: Yeah, we hear
you loud and clear, Apollo 8.

ASTRONAUT: Okay. Well, the
first stage was very smooth,

and this one is smoother.

MISSION CONTROL:
Understand -- smooth and
smoother, looks good here.

ED: Hearing the crew
talk while on that rocket

was a really
moving experience.

We had to keep telling ourselves

these guys are
going to the moon.

This rocket’s taking
these guys to the moon,

and this had
never happened before.

NARRATOR: All five J-2
engines fire flawlessly,

accelerating the astronauts
to four miles a second.

MISSION CONTROL:
Apollo 8, Houston.

Your trajectory and
guidance are go, over.

ASTRONAUT: Thank you, Michael.

MISSION CONTROL: Yeah, you’re
looking real good, Frank.

ASTRONAUT: Very good.

ED: We’d begin to hear things
like second stage shut down.

Okay, so you know
second stage is shut down.

And then they announce
separation third stage.

♪ ♪

GEORGE: It actually is
another one of those, "Phew,"

a sigh of relief.

ASTRONAUT: [unintelligible] the
ignition. Guidance, initiate.

NARRATOR: After less
than two Earth orbits,

the engineers take
another deep breath.

It’s time for the three
men to be fired to the moon.

The critical maneuver, called
trans-lunar injection -- or TLI.

GEORGE: We’re sort of
uptight because you have to

accelerate the vehicle
to 24,000 miles an hour

to escape the gravitational
forces of the Earth.

NARRATOR: If the
burn is a success,

the path of
humanity will change forever

as the crew of Apollo 8
become the first people

to leave Earth’s orbit.

MISSION CONTROL:
Apollo 8, Houston.

ASTRONAUT: Go ahead, Houston.

MISSION CONTROL: Apollo 8,
you are a go for TLI, over.

ASTRONAUT: Roger, we understand.
We are a go for TLI.

NARRATOR:
The whole program now rests
on this single engine burn.

ASTRONAUT: Ignition.

MISSION CONTROL:
Roger ignition.

♪ ♪

Apollo 8, Houston.

You’re looking good here
right down the center line.

ASTRONAUT: Roger, Apollo 8.

♪ ♪

Okay, we got [unintelligible],
right on the money.

MISSION CONTROL: Roger,
understand [unintelligible].

DON BRINCKA: That was
a very profound moment,

because it was a
major step in what we hoped

was going to be
space exploration.

NARRATOR: As Apollo 8 and
its crew head for the moon,

the engineers on Earth
who dedicated their lives

to building the Saturn V reflect
on an historic achievement.

DON BINNS: I had
given birth to that baby.

I remember looking out at
the pad, and it was gone,

and I thought, God, the love of
my life has gone away from me.

And she’ll never come back.

NARRATOR: The success
of Apollo 8 paves the way

for the first lunar landing,
Apollo 11, in July, 1969.

The Saturn V engineers had
beaten Kennedy’s deadline.

But the Saturn
V’s work isn’t over.

It successfully
launches seven more missions --

six to the moon --

as well as America’s first
space station, Skylab, in 1973.

Today the Saturn V rockets,

restored by the Smithsonian
Institution, draw large crowds.

But preserving
their engineering legacy

has another important mission --

to inspire a new
generation of rocket engineers.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Pushing
out into the solar system --

not just to visit, but to stay.

Last month we
launched a new spacecraft

as part of a
re-energized space program

that will send
American astronauts to Mars.

NARRATOR: To achieve
these bold ambitions

requires the development of
an extraordinary new rocket.

Called the Space Launch
System, or SLS for short,

it will be even more powerful
than the mighty Saturn V.

R.H. Coates is one of the
engineers working on its design.

R.H.: The Space Launch
System owes a great deal

to the legacy of the Saturn V.

One of the key enablers for
the Saturn V was to utilize

lightweight liquid
hydrogen propellent.

That legacy, that
learning to design

those high-
performance upper-stage engines

also went into the
Space Launch System.

We are definitely standing
on the shoulders of giants

by what we learn
from Saturn Apollo.

NARRATOR: Only a few of the
original engineers are left

to appreciate the
impact of their achievements,

as mankind continues
its quest to break free

from the confines of our planet
-- and head out to the stars.