All language subtitles for Americas Secret Space Heroes Series 1 4of6 Space Station 1080p

NARRATOR: In the mid-sixties
a small group of NASA engineers

start work on a radical idea.

To establish a
permanent human presence

in the lethal
environment of space.

JIM: We were doing something
that man had never done before.

TOM: A facility that
has to operate 24/7.

NARRATOR:
A dream that will become
the most expensive structure

ever built, costing
100 billion dollars.

ASTRONAUTS: That’s a
view you don’t see every day!

NARRATOR: The
International Space Station.

But to achieve this goal,

America must change
the course of history.

RUSSIAN SPACE AGENCY:
Houston, Flight (inaudible).

NARRATOR: And work
with a former enemy.

TOM: The Russians were
there with their space station

and we were not.

NARRATOR:
Engineers must overcome
seemingly impossible odds.

ASTRONAUTS: Let go! Let go!

GEORGE:
It was very intense. Adrenaline
was running very high.

RICK: We had a
spacecraft up there

and we weren’t
gonna give up on it.

PAUL: It was a perfect example
of ingenuity in the moment.

NARRATOR: This is the
story of the unsung heroes

who built the
International Space Station.

[♪ theme music ♪]

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: August 2016.

250 miles above the
Earth NASA astronauts

Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins

are undertaking a
critical spacewalk.

ASTRONAUTS: Okay,
I’m going to egress now

and then mate these
cables in the egress position.

MISSION CONTROL: That
sounds great Jeff, thanks.

NARRATOR: They must
fit a docking adapter

that will allow both
manned and unmanned spacecraft

from different countries

to visit the
International Space Station.

ASTRONAUT: Cover’s loose.

ASTRONAUT 2: Okay, I
will meet you at the back.

NARRATOR: It will be the latest
addition to an outpost in space

that has been permanently
occupied for sixteen years.

A 460-ton engineering marvel
the size of a football field.

Traveling at 17,500 miles
per hour, it orbits the Earth

every 90 minutes.

CATHLEEN:
Anyone here on Earth can
look up at an appointed moment

and see the International Space
Station orbiting overhead,

and that is a great testimony
to the engineering prowess

that went into it.

NARRATOR:
217 astronauts from fifteen
countries have lived on board,

many of them
gazing back at the Earth

from the
extraordinary glass cupola.

♪ ♪

ROD: I’m awed by the fact
that we’ve had crews in orbit

for all these years.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The term "space station"
dates back to the 1920’s.

But it’s Second World War rocket
pioneer Wernher Von Braun

who is among those imagining
an orbiting space station.

Von Braun heads up a group
of German rocket engineers

brought to the
U.S. after World War II

to work on America’s
early space program.

GEORGE: Dr. Von Braun
had the vision and the dream

even at the very earliest
days of human space flight.

NARRATOR: In 1952 he declares:

GERMAN VOICE: Development of the
space station is as inevitable

as the rising sun.

NARRATOR: Von Braun envisages
a huge 250-foot-wide wheel,

rotating slowly as
it orbits the earth.

♪ ♪

It’s a vision that would
be borrowed by movie maker

Stanley Kubrick for his sci-fi
.

♪ ♪

By the mid-sixties
NASA is consumed with

creating the rocket that
will take men to the moon.

Building a space
station isn’t a priority.

But at NASA’s Marshall
Space Flight Center in Alabama,

engineers, including
George Hardy and Jim Splawn,

are looking beyond the space
race and making new plans.

GEORGE: Apollo,
we learned, to go to

a destination in
space and return.

Now we wanted to
learn about living in space

and living for
extended periods of time.

NARRATOR:
But the Apollo missions
have been hugely expensive,

and from 1966 NASA’s
budget is cut by 44%.

Engineers are forced
to use their ingenuity

to design a space
station on the cheap.

RICK: We just kept
working on it until

something came up
that we could say, yeah,

we think we’re gonna go do
this and it’d probably work.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Their groundbreaking
idea is to transform

the top section of a Saturn
V rocket into a space station.

Engineers take their proposal
-- named Skylab -- to NASA,

who give it the green light.

But now they face
uncharted territory.

SPIKE: Skylab gave you
an opportunity to have

a shirtsleeve
environment to run experiments

over a long period of time,
see how well men can survive

in space.

They weren’t too sure what
the long-term effects would be

until you
experimented and found out.

NARRATOR: First they must bolt
together their space station

using the third stage
of the Saturn V rocket.

A telescope is attached to
the old hydrogen storage tank,

which is stripped out
so humans can live inside.

To make living in
space more bearable,

it will have a few home comforts
like a kitchen and a shower,

along with a laboratory
and life support systems.

Two massive solar panel
arrays will provide power.

JIM:
The mood around the engineering
staff was pure excitement.

NARRATOR: This
full-size backup at

the Smithsonian’s
National Air and Space Museum

is testament to the engineers’
incredible ingenuity.

♪ ♪

But they now face the challenge
of keeping a spacecraft

in orbit for up to a decade.

TOM: Here you have a facility
that has to operate 24/7.

The maintainability
and operability was

the real challenge.
We’d never done that.

NARRATOR: To maintain Skylab,
astronauts will be required

to undertake longer
spacewalks than ever before.

JIM: This had never been
pushed to the extreme of

being able to stay out over just
a very short period of time,

like an hour or two.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: To test those
extremes, engineers must

first replicate zero
gravity conditions on Earth.

JIM: We were
trying to figure out,

how in the world
can we simulate that?

NARRATOR:
Jim and the team ponder the
problem over a working lunch.

JIM: In the mid-60s most
everybody brought their lunches.

We just called it the brown bag.

NARRATOR: A chance remark
leads to a light bulb moment.

JIM: One of the guys commented
that it had been a nice weekend,

they’d been to
the swimming pool.

He said, have you
guys ever watched

your wife swim underwater?

And we said, oh yeah,
yeah, hey you bet, you bet.

He said, that’s not
what I’m talking about.

What did her hair do?

Hair? Well I guess
it just sort of floats.

He said, is that an idea?

And we took that comment, and
that’s the way we got started,

underwater,
simulating weightlessness.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The
engineers waste no time.

A small pit at Alabama’s
Marshall Space Flight Center

is filled with water to
put their theory to the test.

But right away they hit a snag.

JIM: One of the first things
that we had to figure out is

how can we compensate
the flotation of a man

in a pressure suit
once he goes underwater.

We decided that we can
make a harness of lead weights

to put on him.

The weight counterbalances

the volume of air around the
body inside the pressure suit.

NARRATOR: It works. Engineers
make a man in a pressure suit

neutrally buoyant underwater
-- neither rising nor sinking.

JIM: We decided that we
should invite top management

to watch a test.

Go to the very top guy; and
that was Dr. Wernher Von Braun.

When he saw what we
were doing he’d say,

ja, ja, it’s good, it’s
good, keep going, keep going!

NARRATOR: Von
Braun gives the go-ahead

to upscale the experiment
into a million-dollar project.

75 feet in
diameter, 40 feet deep

and holding 1.3 million
gallons, it’s officially called

the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator.

But it’s nicknamed the Big Tank.

JIM: Why such a big tank?

We had fabricated a
full-scale mock-up of Skylab.

We could get all the ingredients
there that we needed to have

for the training
of the flight crew.

NARRATOR: Marshall’s
Neutral Buoyancy Simulator

is a vital part of
training astronauts to do

unscheduled repairs on
Skylab in zero gravity.

But nobody could have imagined

just how
critical it would become.

♪ ♪

May 14th, 1973.

The countdown approaches for
America’s first space station --

Skylab, packed into the top
section of a Saturn V rocket.

It’s the first step
to the ultimate goal

of a permanent human presence
in the most hostile environment

known to man.

MISSION CONTROL: Ignition
sequence has started. 5, 4, 3...

[Engines ignite]

All engines
running. We have liftoff.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
But just 63 seconds after
launch, Skylab is in trouble.

GEORGE: We
started seeing telemetry

that there’d been a failure.

PAUL: As the
rocket cleared the tower

and went up into
the clouds, suddenly,

the aerodynamic forces
grabbed a piece of this

micro-meteoroid shield that
protected actual lab itself.

SPIKE: We had a big problem.

NARRATOR: The micro-meteoroid
shield is mission-critical,

as it wraps
around Skylab’s heart,

its laboratory
and crew quarters.

Made from aluminum,
it’s primarily designed

to protect astronauts from
the impact of cosmic debris.

SPIKE: There was enough air
trapped under it that expanded.

The vibration of
the dynamic pressure

grabbed ahold of the
top edge and ripped it off.

It was like peeling an orange.

GEORGE: It was bleak. I
felt the mission was lost.

NARRATOR:
The shield also performs
a second critical function

-- doubling up as a sunshade.

Exposed to the sun in space,
blistering temperatures will

soon make Skylab uninhabitable,
destroying the mission.

GEORGE: As soon
as we got on orbit

the temperatures
started going up.

Temperatures got to
125, maybe 130 degrees.

TOM: All the
environmental control systems,

the life support system,
the food, the electronics,

communication
systems, breathing systems.

GLYNN: Sooner rather than later
they needed to get some way

to control the thermal
conditions on the vehicle

or it would be lost in a number
of days for human habitation.

NARRATOR: The engineers are
now in a race against time.

Meanwhile, the crew, who
were scheduled to launch

the following day, are grounded.

Tom Moser is part of the team

scrambling to save the
roasting space station.

TOM: We devised a
parasol that could be unfurled,

just like an umbrella.

NARRATOR:
The parasol will shield Skylab
from the sun’s extreme heat.

But engineers must
create it from scratch.

GEORGE: Designing the parasol
to operate in zero gravity

was a tricky operation.

We could calculate some of
the effects that it would have,

but we haven’t got the time
that you would normally have

when you’re
designing space hardware.

NARRATOR: The team decides
to use the same material that

protects astronauts
from the heat of the sun.

But it’s useless unless
they figure out how to make

a supporting structure.

JIM: It was like, what in the
world do we have in our garages

or what can we go
to a store and buy

that might help us do this?

NARRATOR: Then,
inspiration strikes.

One of the engineers
thinks fishing rods might work.

The plan is to fasten
four of them together

to create the
engineering prototype.

GEORGE: We
needed a quick answer,

and I did think it
was rather ingenious.

NARRATOR: Fortunately there’s
a tiny airlock right next to

where the micro-meteoroid
shield would have been.

The idea is for an astronaut
to manually push the parasol

outside through this airlock.

Four spring-loaded arms
will then be extended to deploy

the 24 foot by 22 foot
makeshift fabric sun shield.

An inspired
solution, if it works...

TOM: There was a huge time
pressure to get that system

designed and
built and put up there.

NARRATOR: The engineers
manage to finish the parasol

in just ten days.

GEORGE:
It was very intense. Adrenaline
was running very high.

Even though there was
risk, if there was a chance

that this would work,
it needed to be tried.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: May 25th, 1973.

The Skylab crew prepares
for their delayed mission,

which is now a
daunting rescue operation.

No one, least of all astronauts
Pete Conrad, Joe Kerwin

and Paul Weitz, has any
idea just how bad the damage

to Skylab is.

Or if they can save it.

GEORGE: Your adrenaline is
up, your expectations are high.

You really couldn’t assess all
the damage until you got there.

There was an urgency.

[Engines ignite]

SPIKE: A certain
degree of apprehension:

What’s going to happen next?

ASTRONAUTS: Tally-ho the Skylab.

We got her in daylight at
1.5 miles, 29 feet per second.

MISSION CONTROL:
Roger, Pete, copy.

NARRATOR: Closing in on
the overheating space station,

Pete Conrad reports the damage
to the two main solar panels

back to mission control.

ASTRONAUT: A brief description
it is suspected solar wing 2

is gone,
completely off the bird.

MISSION CONTROL: Roger, copy.

PAUL: The solar array, one of
them is completely ripped off

trailing its own wires.

The other one is held
down, kind of pinioned

by one of the
straps of what’s left

of the micro-meteoroid shield.

NARRATOR:
These images reveal the
sun-blistered surface, exposed

where the micro-meteoroid
shield peeled off.

As the astronauts
dock, they’re faced

with an unprecedented challenge.

They must enter a spacecraft
cooking at 130 degrees

Fahrenheit to deploy an
untried device in zero gravity.

Failure will mean the loss of
America’s first space station.

It’s the moment of truth for the
fishing-rod-inspired parasol.

ASTRONAUT: So we are
progressing slow but sure,

and everything
so far is working.

NARRATOR: Engineering and
flight teams in mission control

hold their breath.

♪ ♪

The makeshift parasol
deploys without a problem.

ASTRONAUTS: We can see
the ends of all the rods.

It’s completely
free of anything.

There’s nothing hanging it up.

GEORGE: As the crew
got the parasol out,

I mean, it was jubilation.

NARRATOR: But the
celebrations are short-lived.

The station’s survival
also depends on deploying

the one remaining solar panel.

PAUL: The solar panels
for the Skylab is the way

that they have enough power
to do any of the experiments,

to keep everything
working, to keep it cool.

How they generate power
for all of the equipment.

NARRATOR: Pete Conrad
and Joe Kerwin now face

an extraordinarily
demanding repair job.

A critical spacewalk to
free the stuck solar panel.

PAUL: The only way to do that
was to have two of the crew

go out and do a spacewalk;
reach down to the base

of where that strap is
holding onto the solar array,

cut it and then pull
the solar array out.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
It’s at this moment that Jim
Splawn’s big tank at Marshall

comes into its own.

JIM: All the time
that this was going on,

we had air to
ground communications.

We were ready to help
them in any way we could.

NARRATOR: In the
water, a backup crew mirror

the astronauts’ every move.

Bob Crippen was part of
the Skylab support team.

BOB: They had a device that
was kind of a like a long pole

with a cutter on the end of it

like somebody
might use to trim trees.

NARRATOR: But can a design
based on a $65 tree pruner

really save a $2.5
billion space station?

♪ ♪

America’s dream of a long-term
human presence in space

is on a knife edge.

If Pete Conrad and
Joe Kerwin can’t free

Skylab’s one
remaining large solar panel,

it won’t have
enough power to survive.

Everything rests on
a single spacewalk.

MISSION CONTROL: Skylab, we’re
reading you loud and clear.

ASTRONAUT: Okay,
Houston, we’re out there.

There looks like enough
room to get the cutter.

PAUL: So the solar
array, it’s been pinioned down

by a small strap
that’s ripped off of

the micro-meteoroid shield.

BOB: Joe Kerwin was
operating the device.

GEORGE: He was able to get into
position and work the cutter.

BOB: Pete managed to put
in an extra pressure on it.

ASTRONAUT: Let go! Let go!

BOB: He went flying
away from the spacecraft.

NARRATOR:
The only thing preventing
Pete Conrad spiraling

into space is a 60-foot
cord fixed to the airlock.

BOB: He was constrained by the
umbilical, which held him in.

But you have to know Pete.

He would say "Wahoo"
or something like that

when he went out flying.

ASTRONAUT: All right,
that’s got it! [laughs]

BOB: That would have
probably scared the Dickens

out of anybody
else, but not Pete.

JIM: Pete Conrad said,

"This is just like the
water tank at Marshall,

except it’s a
little bit deeper,"

so that was a good compliment.
It was a good compliment.

♪ ♪

GEORGE:
The recovery of that mission
was almost indescribable pride,

just to be a little part of it.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Two more
crews will visit Skylab

to carry out scientific
and medical experiments,

including the
effects of weightlessness.

The last manned
mission leaves Skylab in 1974.

Five years later, it slowly
reenters the Earth’s atmosphere,

showering debris over
the Australian outback.

GEORGE: It was a bit
of sadness, I suppose,

but a great
sense of satisfaction

on what had been accomplished.

NARRATOR: The legacy of Skylab’s
engineers is a stepping stone

to meet the next
epic challenge in space.

In 1984, President Reagan gives

a State of the Union address

that echoes John F. Kennedy’s
historic moonshot goal.

PRESIDENT REAGAN: Tonight, I
am directing NASA to develop

a permanently
manned space station

and to do it within a decade.

[Applause]

NARRATOR: This orbiting space
station will be named Freedom.

Canada, Japan and the
European Space Agency

all sign up to
the ambitious idea.

ROD: The goal is to provide
a laboratory in space to do

science and engineering research
to advance exploration.

[Engines firing]

NARRATOR: But tragedy
is just around the corner.

MISSION CONTROL:
Challenger, go with throttle up.

[Explosion]

NARRATOR: As the world reels
from the Challenger disaster,

the American space
program is put on hold.

♪ ♪

In contrast, their Cold
War rival’s are thriving.

The Soviets have launched
seven Salyut space stations.

JAY: Having not
landed on the moon,

they focused their
space program onto

how to do these long
missions in Earth orbit.

NARRATOR: Just two weeks after
Challenger, the Soviets launch

the first module of their new
space station -- called Mir.

TOM: The Russians were
there with their space station

and we were not.

NARRATOR:
But in 1989 the beginning
of the fall of communism

tips the Soviet space program

into financial and
political turmoil.

America isn’t
faring much better.

Space station Freedom is
stuck at the design stage

thanks to
holdups and budget cuts.

NASA needs a radical rethink
if they’re to meet the goal

of the President.

♪ ♪

In 1993, America
does what for decades

would have been unthinkable,

asking its former
Cold War enemy Russia

to join forces on a newly named
International Space Station,

or ISS.

CATHLEEN: Since the launch
of the Mir the Soviets had

a near-permanent
human presence in orbit,

and that taught
them a great deal.

It was a vast
resource that I don’t think

the Americans could
have shied away from.

NARRATOR: NASA are
charged with designing

the biggest-ever structure
to be assembled in space.

Their solution is
for a series of modular

or segmented sections
to be joined together.

Rod Jones was a member of
one of the ISS design teams.

ROD: What we learned
from looking at the Mir

was that if you put
modularity into your design,

you can extend and
perpetuate the vehicle life

for a much
longer period of time.

Modularity allows you to add
things to the space station,

take things away. It allows
you to shift functionality

around the space station.

NARRATOR: But can these
former enemies work together

to create a new space station?

[Engines igniting]

June 27th, 1995.

Space Shuttle
Atlantis lifts off to dock

with Russian space station Mir.

ASTRONAUTS: Capture confirmed.
Capture is confirmed.

Atlantis is now docked
with the Russian space station.

NARRATOR: It’s the first of nine
missions that dock with Mir --

allowing the two
countries to pave the way

for the
International Space Station.

CATHLEEN: Mir became a
destination for studying

the engineering, the
science and human factors

in human space flight.

NARRATOR: With their
old rivalries set aside,

construction of the
ISS modules gets underway.

But their dream will be tested,

as both sides
encounter a critical problem.

♪ ♪

The dawn of 1993.

America’s dream of a permanent
human presence in space

is under threat.

With NASA strapped for cash,

the only way of
realizing their goal

is to work with the Russians.

But a major engineering
challenge stands in the way.

PAUL: Because we wanted
to get the Russians on board

the International
Space Station program,

we had to get them launching
from their own launch sites,

and those are up at
about 52 degrees latitude.

[Engines igniting]

NARRATOR: The Russians
launch all their rockets

from Kazakhstan, into a
52-degree orbital angle.

And this is where the ISS
will be assembled in space.

But for the Americans
that presents a huge problem.

The space shuttle usually
launches from Cape Kennedy,

into a much lower orbital
angle of around 30 degrees.

The trouble is, to reach
the greater 52-degree angle,

the shuttle loses the boost it
gets from the Earth’s rotation

that helps fling it into orbit.

Bottom line, by carrying heavy
ISS components, the shuttle

doesn’t have enough power to
launch into the steeper angle.

BOB: To fly at
those higher inclinations

and carry a large
payload you need more power.

NARRATOR: Astronaut
Mike Massimino is a veteran

of two shuttle missions.

MIKE: To get to that higher
inclination requires more power,

which means more fuel, but
you can’t add endless fuel,

because you’re constrained
by the size of your tank.

NARRATOR: Engineers are forced
to look at the only other option

-- make the shuttle lighter.

They calculate it
needs to lose 13,500 pounds

to give it enough power
to lift ISS components.

They shave nearly
half by redesigning

the shuttle’s storage
racks and even the crew seats.

But they still need to
lose another 7,000 pounds.

Myron Pessin was chief engineer
for the shuttle’s external tank.

MYRON:
The demands on us were extreme
to get that 7,000 pounds.

NARRATOR: So engineers come
up with a radical solution.

Make a new external tank from
a revolutionary metal alloy

called Weldalite.

MYRON: These
aluminum lithium alloys were

higher strength and lighter.

NARRATOR: But
Weldalite is so new

it’s barely beyond
the development stage.

MYRON: The material properties
were still somewhat uncertain.

But we all felt it was an
acceptable risk to go forward

with this because of
the national need for it.

NARRATOR: In February 1998 NASA
takes delivery of the shuttle’s

new super
lightweight external tank.

Now assembly of the largest
and most expensive structure

in space can begin.

But to succeed, the
15 different ISS modules

must be docked precisely
250 miles above the earth.

MIKE: You had all
these different pieces

that needed to fit
together in space.

I thought to myself,
there’s no way that this stuff

is all gonna work.

You know, you can’t get
things to fit together in,

you know, in your kitchen.

How are we gonna get
this to work in space

with different countries
and different languages

and rocket ships and
all this other stuff?

How’s it gonna work?

NARRATOR: On November 20th the
Russians take the first step.

[Engines igniting]

MISSION CONTROL:
Liftoff of the Proton rocket

of the Zarya Control module.

The International
Space Station is underway.

NARRATOR: Zarya will provide the
initial propulsion and power

for the ISS, along
with communications systems

and docking ports
for future modules.

♪ ♪

The pressure is
now on the Americans.

For the ISS to progress any
further, the first U.S. module,

the Unity Node, must
be connected to Zarya

in the lethal vacuum of space.

December 4th, 1998.

Commander Robert
Cabana and his crew

prepare for an
unprecedented mission.

MISSION CONTROL: We
have main engines start.

4, 3, 2, 1, liftoff of
the Space Shuttle Endeavor,

with the first American element

of the
International Space Station,

uniting our efforts in space.

NARRATOR: Two days later
they rendezvous with Zarya;

unload the Unity Node;

and inch it toward
the Russian module.

ASTRONAUTS: Houston, Endeavor,
we have capture of Zarya.

NARRATOR: The first
stage of the ISS is born.

Engineers have
enabled two former enemies

to build a
permanent structure in space.

♪ ♪

These two modules are
the first of what will grow

into an enormous
15-module space station.

Seven modules are delivered
from the U.S., five by Russia,

two by Japan,
and one from Europe.

But there are limits to what you
can cram into a space shuttle.

Transporting this
giant jigsaw into space

will be an epic challenge.

ROD: We made the
modules as big as we could,

to fit them in the shuttle.

The length of a module, it
became like a baloney slice,

how much can you
afford to launch?

And that’s where you cut it off.

NARRATOR: It takes thirteen
years, 37 shuttle flights,

160 spacewalks and
over a thousand hours

to construct the ISS in orbit.

But building it is
only half the battle.

♪ ♪

Allowing astronauts to be self-
sufficient in space long-term

creates a new raft of
engineering challenges.

JENNIFER: So this is
almost a liter of water,

and to get this into space
is about 48,000 US dollars.

NARRATOR: But there’s another
source of water on the ISS:

the astronauts themselves.

♪ ♪

Jennifer Pruitt is part
of the team who designed

this ingenious
assembly to distill urine

by creating artificial gravity.

JENNIFER: This whole part is
the centrifuge that’ll spin.

So the urine will be
sprayed out along the back wall

as it spins.

The heavy dense fluid
will stick to the wall,

and the lighter
steam as it evaporates out

will be sucked through
the center through that mesh

on to the next
part of the system.

So at the end this is the
good clean urine distillate

that you get.

This is what will go on to the
water processor assembly later

on and then will be the water
that the astronauts will drink.

NARRATOR: Since its installation
on the ISS in 2008,

85% of the water in urine
has been recycled in this way.

Just hours after
peeing, an astronaut

can be drinking fresh water.

JENNIFER: That’s what’s
great about space station.

This is something that
had never been done before,

but it is so important for
long term humans into space.

NARRATOR: Smart engineering
like this has allowed the ISS

to be permanently
inhabited since the year 2000

by hundreds of astronauts.

♪ ♪

But lingering in orbit
exposes space stations

to a potentially
catastrophic event.

A high-speed impact.

♪ ♪

November 2016.

The International Space Station

celebrates sixteen years
of full-time habitation.

It’s traveled more
than 2.5 billion miles

and been visited by
85 manned missions.

A phenomenal
engineering achievement.

But even the ISS is not immune

to a nightmare scenario.

MIKE: There are just
a couple of things that

you’re really worried
about when you’re in space.

You’re always kind of like, all
right, kind of living on edge.

One is a fire.
That would be bad.

The major problem
is, if you got hit,

you would be in a
life-threatening situation.

NARRATOR: More than a hundred
million fragments of debris

orbit our planet traveling
up to 17,500 miles per hour.

At those speeds even the tiniest
piece can do serious damage.

A fleck of paint
gouged this crater

into the windshield
of a space shuttle.

Damage to the
ISS is unavoidable.

DANA: The International Space
Station, it’s getting hit.

It’s getting hit all the
time. This is a major risk.

NARRATOR: The ISS is protected
by a layer of shielding.

The frame is made of two
thin plates of aluminum.

The outer bumper layer causes
debris to fragment on impact.

Inside are six
layers of ceramic fiber

and Kevlar fabric stuffing.

An inner layer of
aluminum catches what’s left

of the energy of the impact.

It’s a huge
advance in shield design

since the single layer of
aluminum used to protect Skylab.

At the NASA Johnson
Space Center, Dana Lear

is using a high-pressure
gas gun to test-fire a particle

at a potential new layer.

If successful, it could be
a new first line of defense

for the ISS.

[Impact]

♪ ♪

DANA: Okay, there’s a small
hole here in this outer layer

we call the bumper shield.

This is the first layer that’s
encountered by space debris.

When it passes through
that bumper it actually

tears the particle up.

So, let me take
the outer bumper off.

The second layer, it’s not
perforated, and you can see

that the particle
has been broken up

into small particulates.

NARRATOR:
There are seven layers of this
new material being tested.

A metal alloy that’s 90% iron.

DANA: If we go down to the
last layer, you can see that

we haven’t penetrated
any further into the shield,

and certainly didn’t penetrate
down to the pressure wall.

So, this works really good.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Like Wernher Von
Braun sixty-five years ago,

visionary engineers
today see space stations as

a stepping stone to
explore distant worlds.

MIKE: We learned very valuable
lessons putting together

the space station.

That’s going to be
invaluable experience

of how to engineer a big
project on a place like Mars.

NARRATOR: April 8th, 2016.

[Engines igniting]

A SpaceX cargo rocket launches
a revolutionary new piece

of technology that
could change the way

we build space
stations in the future.

MIKE: In space engineering,
because you’re limited

by the amount of
weight you can take with you,

you need to miniaturize
as much as possible.

MISSION CONTROL: Good morning
from Mission Control Houston.

We bring you the installation of

the Bigelow Expandable Activity
Module referred to as BEAM.

NARRATOR: BEAM is a
lightweight, flat-pack module,

flown to the ISS in a
small package, attached

and then expanded.

Instead of heavy aluminum,
BEAM is made from layers

of insulating material covered
with a silica fiber cloth.

It also has an
ingenious key feature.

NATHAN: During the expansion
we had rip stitch straps.

They would essentially open up

and allow the module
to gradually expand.

So it was pretty awesome.

ASTRONAUTS: ISP
success, DVC complete.

MISSION CONTROL: Houston copy.

NARRATOR: If successful, BEAM
will undergo a two-year trial

on board the ISS.

NATHAN: This is a
stepping stone to see humans

on Mars eventually.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The soaring achievement of
the ISS owes an enormous debt

to a previous
generation of NASA engineers.

Their ingenuity triumphed over

seemingly insurmountable
obstacles to save

America’s first space station.

RICK: We had some challenges,
but we managed to overcome them.

GEORGE: Some of
NASA’s greatest days.

JIM: You can look back now and
you just gotta grin a little bit

because it was
such a success story.

And it’s all about the
people pulling together

and getting the big job done.