Original subtitles

- Hi, I'm Matthew Burchette.

- I'm Gene Kranz.

This is Behind the Wings.

Nice vest. - Thank you.

This program was made possible

by Wings Over The Rockies,

educating and inspiring people of all ages

about aviation and space endeavors

of the past, present and future.

(pleasant music)

This program made possible by...

- Little learners can read, write, talk,

sing and play at Arapahoe Libraries.

Make a playdate, join a storytime,

build a masterpiece and present a puppet show,

all in one morning.

More at arapahoelibraries.org.

- [Matthew] This episode made possible by...

- Do Denver's 300 days of sunshine

make the smiles a little wider?

They definitely make the energy here stronger.

So your family can enjoy every unexpected encounter

and outdoor adventure.

Denver, soak it all in.

(upbeat music)

- [Matthew] Now I say this a lot.

But how cool is this?

(helicopter propeller humming)

This is Lieutenant Zach Farrell.

Dr. Janet Kavandi.

The amazing Gene Kranz.

You've never seen aerospace like this.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

In 1962, President Kennedy challenged NASA

to send a man to the moon and back

before the end of the decade.

- We choose to go to the moon in this decade

and do the other thing--

- [Narrator] Under the direction of Vice President,

Lyndon B. Johnson, Congress appropriated funds

and NASA expanded its programs

to achieve President Kennedy's vision.

Two significant projects came before Apollo

to gain insights on space travel and survival.

The first was Project Mercury,

which sent the first American into space in 1961.

Six astronauts were successfully launched

during the Mercury program,

for a total of 54 hours in space.

From 1965 to 1966, Project Gemini

continued to develop techniques

for long duration space travel during 10 space missions.

The Gemini spacecraft carried a two astronaut crew

and advanced NASA's understanding of space rendezvous

and docking, re-entry and landing methods

and the effects of longer space flights on astronauts.

The first Apollo missions began in 1967 with Apollo one,

which was a flight test for the

Apollo Command and service module.

Tragically, a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal

killed all three crew members,

leading NASA to suspend manned Apollo flights for 20 months

while the module's shortcomings were addressed.

Over the next two years, Apollo 4 through 10

continued to prepare NASA for achieving the goal

of landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

- [Armstrong] Very, very fine grain.

As you get close to it, it's almost like a powder.

- [Matthew] On July 20th 1969,

history was made as Apollo 11 astronauts,

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin,

successfully landed on the moon's surface.

While astronaut, Michael Collins, orbited overhead.

After Apollo 11, NASA conducted six more missions

to the moon with Apollo 12 through 17.

Only Apollo 13 failed to make a lunar landing

when an accident in route to lunar orbit

forced the crew return to Earth.

The last mission, Apollo 17, occurred in December 1972.

Over the course of the Apollo program,

a total of 12 astronauts walked on the moon

where they conducted increasingly

sophisticated scientific studies,

yielding new insights into the evolution of the moon.

Each mission explored new areas of the lunar surface

and left behind scientific instruments

that continue to send back data to Earth years later.

Now, let's talk to someone who made Apollo history.

He was NASA's flight director for nine Apollo missions,

including Apollo 11, the amazing Gene Kranz.

In 2019, we celebrated the 50th anniversary

of the Apollo moon launch, Apollo 11.

What is it like to think back on that time?

- It's really a opportunity to actually think about

what America was in those days.

You know, the space program was just

one of the things that was moving.

You had the Civil Rights Movement,

you had the Peace Corps.

You know, all of America was in the process of moving,

and they're making something happen.

This is, I think, the change in today's world.

People want to watch things happen

as opposed to getting involved.

And for me, it was basically a,

I was 50 years younger,

the day I walked into Mission Control.

I mean, it just, it was just like I was back there

that day at that time in that place

with my team and with the leaders I had,

this was a time of leadership within our nation,

time of unity within our nation.

We were one moving towards a goal established

by President Kennedy.

Take the man to the moon, get him back safely

and do it within the decade.

Marvelous challenge.

- When you guys started the countdown

and all that's associated with it,

did you have any idea what it was gonna

do for the human race?

- We were so busy in those days.

We were flying just generally about a mission

every two to three months.

So as soon as we finished one mission,

we basically debriefed, had a few days break, time off,

went into training, we got in the next mission.

I don't think any of us really recognized

the impact that we would have.

We'd go home when we'd read the newspaper and say,

"Yeah, that's pretty neat."

Okay, and they say,

I think about my people.

My people were the ones that was that,

I just loved them.

They were young pups, young kids,

basically, or on the console,

stepping up to one of the greatest responsibilities.

And they did it and they did it perfectly.

- Do you miss it?

- Yes, I do.

I look at it, you know, I sorta

connect it to the Panama Canal.

The Panama Canal, when it was built,

tied to oceans together.

Apollo 11, when we landed on the moon,

tied two worlds together, Earth and deep space.

And I think this was sort of a challenge

to the people that we have today.

Continue to press, explore, demand

as much as you can of yourselves,

make things happen.

Get involved.

- Where do you see us or where would you like

to see us in the next 50 years in space travel?

- I think there's many answers to that question.

I think the first thing I'd like to see

is see this country come together as one again.

Because I think that the key to our future

is establishing the unity necessary to be successful

in whatever you set out to do.

I would like to see us back on the moon

with stations there, permanent stations

on board the moon serving industrial,

economic doing military purposes right down the line,

and I guess I shouldn't say that,

military purposes on the moon,

but I think that we have to continue to address

the use of space for all reasonable activities

that we got there.

Then once we have learned to live on the moon,

we can then move further than that.

We can move into Mars.

We can continue this process of exploration.

But before that, you have to learn to live

in a hostile environment for an extended period of time.

I talk about this as if camping.

The first time you go out camping,

you think about all those things you brought

that you didn't need and those things that you forgot.

It takes about four or five times to get that together.

And I think that's one of the principal reasons

to go back to the moon.

I believe it to be.

I wish I was 50 years younger,

and I could be one of the young pups

in Mission Control today,

living that kind of an experience all over again.

- [Matthew] After my conversation with Gene,

it was time to explore a state that was significant

to the Apollo program and continues

to push the frontier of space travel, Ohio.

First stop, the small town of Wapakoneta.

If we're talking about Apollo,

why am I sitting on the front steps

of a house?

That's because this house was the boyhood home

of none other than Neil Armstrong,

the first man to walk on the Moon.

The other thing that's really interesting

is that he used to work for NASA

at the Glenn Research Center,

which at the time was called the Lewis Research Center.

That's just up the road in Cleveland.

And there is a ton of information there

that I wanna check out.

So, let's get going.

(gentle music)

So we drove up from Wapakoneta.

And now we're at the Glenn Research Center

here in Cleveland.

And I've got John Oldham,

who's the exhibit specialist here on campus.

Thank you so much, and I gotta say,

I understand you're actually a fan of Behind the Wings?

- Absolutely, love the show.

- Awesome. - Done a great job.

- Gotta get that plug in.

You heard him here, he said we're doing a great job.

So, tell us a little bit about

what Glenn Research has done for the Apollo program.

- [John] Sure, well, firstly,

the Glenn Research Center

started as the Lewis Research Center.

It was an aero center back in the 40s.

We didn't become Glenn until 1999.

That was ai honor of John Glenn, hometown guy.

But in the interim as Lewis Research Center,

we were faced with part of the big challenges of Apollo.

One of the things Glenn had been,

or Lewis had been working on at the time,

was hydrogen fuels.

Basically, we had to push a 363 foot tall,

7 million pound rocket in and get it to 17,500 miles an hour

in less than 100 miles.

So the fuel problem was solved

by the folks at Lewis with hard work,

dedication, and they were kinda the spear point

of getting hydrogen under control

that would later be used to enable us to do some missions.

So there were 16 missions that flew,

prior to manned missions to the moon,

that Glenn was involved with,

spacecraft like the Ranger Spacecraft rangers

were lunar probes that were

not quite capable of soft landing,

they made hard landings,

we'll leave it at that, on the moon.

They sent back some very nice pictures on their way in.

And in addition to that we had Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft

that would stay in orbit around the moon

and provide great photography and some data

to help us kinda pick those spots

where we would put ourselves eventually on the moon.

(upbeat music)

- [Matthew] All right, John,

you have a amazing set of toys,

but this, come on. - This is the real deal.

Yeah, so what we have here is an Apollo A7L.

It is the basic suit to go to the moon in.

This particular suit belonged to William Anders,

who was the Command Module Pilot for Apollo 8.

It was not a flown suit, it was his flight spare.

You know, bolt for bolt and stitch for stitch identical

in how they were made.

There were form made for the astronaut.

In this particular suit, you could not sit down.

There's no stitching in there to allow you.

If you remember Apollo 11 when Neil and Buzz landed,

they were standing.

When you landed in a lunar module,

you were not sitting in a chair.

There was no chair in the lunar module.

So you couldn't even bend all the way

because it would require things

that would compromise the safety of the suit

to the point where they decided to delete that.

- So on the helmet, - Yes

this does not look like the helmet that you see

in all the photographs. - Sure.

A lot of people believe that that big,

beautiful helmet with the gold visor

was the actual pressure helmet for the moon, it wasn't.

You have this pressure bubble

that keeps this astronaut breathing,

nice, breathable air.

You don't wanna take that out on the moon

and take the chance of tripping and breaking it.

If you had a hard hat you could put over that,

which is what they had.

They called the Apollo helmet, the LEVA,

the Lunar Excursion Visor Assembly,

and it was a hard hat that went over this

and had a series of visors, that gold visor,

that would lift.

So that was over the top of this bubble.

So you still required this.

- Can I try that on? - Absolutely.

Sure we can make that happen.

So you'll wanna tilt it back

and then back over your head just like that.

There you are.

- I love It.

I sound like really cool in here.

Aside from this super awesome space suit,

John had one more Apollo artifact to show me.

Let's do this. - Let's dive in.

- [Matthew] But before we get to that,

let's talk a little more about

what's currently going on at Glenn.

As one of 10 NASA centers around the country,

Glenn is situated on 350 acres of land

and contains more than 3000 employees.

Within their dedicated teams,

Glenn's primary purpose is to research,

develop and test innovative technology

for aeronautics and spaceflight.

Need an example?

Check this place out.

This is the SLOPE laboratory,

also known as the Simulated Lunar Operations Laboratory.

Part of their mission is to improve

how we get around on other planets' surfaces,

which explains the giant sandbox

in the center of the room.

It also explains this collection of unique tires.

They have exact replicas of the tires

used on the lunar rover, which were surprisingly light.

And newer models that will support

even heavier lunar vehicles.

Another lab doing interesting work

is the Exercise Countermeasures Laboratory,

which evaluates exercise devices

that astronauts use in space.

This lab simulates the zero gravity of space

by hanging test subjects from the ceiling

and having them run on this vertical treadmill.

Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to test it out.

But I did try on this super groovy harness

that was developed at Glenn

and is used by the astronauts

in the International Space Station.

Ever been told it's not rocket science?

Well, this lab is rocket science.

Specifically, it's the Electric Propulsion and Power Lab,

which, like the name implies, tests electric propulsion.

They're currently testing thrusters

in these huge vacuum chambers

that will ionize xenon gas and make it into a plasma

that's thrust out the back of spacecraft

to propel it forward.

Like I said, rocket science.

Back with John, the artifact he was dying to show me was

Apollo moon rocks.

- Let's dive in.

So the first rock I wanna show you is

a rock from Apollo 15.

So this rock has a name.

Its name is 15058.192.

The 192 is a section of that sample.

So this rock was sectioned off into multiple pieces.

And this piece was separated from those pieces.

So keep in mind, picked up in the vacuum

of space on the moon,

and the only atmosphere on earth

this rock has ever seen is nitrogen.

We use nitrogen as an inert gas

to keep from reacting with any of the minerals in that rock.

And these pieces were sealed in this material called Lucite.

My mom used to wax the kitchen floor

with Lucite floor wax, right,

similar kind of material but that's 50 years old,

it's been in that material for 50 years.

So it's protecting it and it's not seen our atmosphere.

- And this came from Apollo...

- 15.

So that is a Jim Irwin rock.

Jim Irwin is the actual astronaut who picked up that rock.

- [Matthew] Thanks, Jim.

- The rock I'm gonna show you now is quite different

and it was kinda special, even among moon rocks.

So this is a sample from Apollo 16.

This is lunar anorthosite.

And anorthosite represents the older parts of the moon.

That's 4.2 billion years old.

And the biggest surprise we found in these two samples,

and consistently in all of the 842 pounds we brought back,

40% oxygen by weight.

The moon is full of oxygen, it's mineral oxygen,

it's gonna require some work,

it's gonna take some chemistry,

it's gonna take some physical

and mechanical processes to do that,

but it's loaded with oxygen, so.

(pleasant music)

- [Matthew] We have seen some amazing things

here on the Glenn Research Center's campus.

But now we're talking to Doctor Janet Kavandi,

who flew on STS-91, 99 and 104,

a full fledged astronaut.

Thank you so much for being here.

- It is my pleasure.

- So Glenn is one of 10 research centers

scattered throughout the country.

What percentage does Glenn play

in this whole overall kind of push to get back to the moon?

- [Janet] There are, you know, maybe four centers

that really push the space side,

and that would be the Johnson Space Center,

the Kennedy, the Marshall.

And then we are probably next

with contributions to spaceflight.

- Well you guys are kind of important.

You're doing propulsion.

- [Janet] Yeah, the propulsion part is kinda,

so there's two kinds of propulsion too.

There's chemical propulsion.

So if you see the vehicles launch off the pad,

there's a lot of fire and stuff, right.

That's Marshall's specialty. - [Matthew] Okay.

- And what we did is electric propulsion system.

So I believe you saw--

- [Matthew] We saw that earlier,

which is really cool stuff. - [Janet] Yeah,

which is the xenon.

Yeah, low thrust, but very very energy efficient.

- [Matthew] That is really cool.

Now on the space side of things,

you, you've got Orion working, the Gateway

and who knows what else.

- [Janet] Oh, a lot of stuff.

So, let's start with Orion, okay.

So with Orion, we have a new crew capsule

that will go back to the moon.

Under the capsule where the crew sits

there's a module called the service module.

And the Glenn Research Center is responsible for that.

And it is actually manufactured in Europe

in Bremen, Germany by Airbus.

And then they have shipped the first element

to the Kennedy Space Center.

It's being integrated with the crew capsule,

and then we will bring that whole integrated stack here

to the Plum Brook station in Sandusky, Ohio,

and we will do vacuum testing on that module

in the world's largest vacuum chamber.

So it's very important to make sure that we

test this vehicle properly

to make sure it doesn't have any flaws

so that when we put humans on it for the first time,

that will be safe for them to fly.

- Do we have kinda a rough estimate

of date when that might happen?

- [Janet] Yeah, well the equipment will come here

this fall and test here,

and then we will ship it back

and we should be able to fly by the end of 2020.

- And that's the unmanned mission?

- [Janet] That's the unmanned mission.

- Okay, and then between unmanned to man will be?

- [Janet] Yeah, it'll be a couple of years

probably in between.

And in this case, we wanna put humans on the moon

but we're doing it to stay for longer periods of time.

And we're going to do a lot more science.

Learn how to build habitats on the moon,

how to protect ourselves from radiation,

how to grow food on the surface of the moon,

and just be sustainable.

Because what we learn there,

we can take input on Mars at a future date.

- Talking with John, he showed us some moon rocks.

And I asked him if I could have one.

And he so rudely said no,

but since you run the joint,

can I have a moon rock?

- [Janet] No.

Even if I were able to give you one,

I would not give you one.

I can't have one.

- [Matthew] That's right.

You come first.

All right, fair enough.

While I didn't get a moon rock,

Doctor Kavandi scheduled me a tour

of Glenn Research Center's second facility

in Sandusky, Ohio, Plum Brook Station.

The facilities here are designed to simulate

environmental conditions found on Earth,

in low Earth orbit,

on the surfaces of planets and in deep space.

Meeting us in the world's largest

space environment simulation chamber

is the director of NASA's Plum Brook Station,

General David Stringer.

- You're standing in the Vibro-Acoustic Test Complex.

A fancy name for a very strong facility,

six to eight foot thick reinforced concrete walls.

We have a reverberate acoustic test chamber

with 36 horns in it, the most powerful in the world.

You wanna make sure that the pressure

of going into space doesn't somehow

snap mechanical components in spacecraft.

So you test the shape in a wind tunnel

to find out what the force of gravity,

the G-loads are on a device.

And then you can build the device,

put it in here, check it against that launch environment,

and then inspect it afterwards

to see if you've snapped anything.

The second thing you're on here, we're standing on,

it's called a modal plate,

which allows you to find out

what the natural frequency of that object is,

if you don't know it.

Everything that's man made, and even you and I,

have a natural frequency.

If you hit it, it vibrates.

You take multiples of that frequency

and exploit it on this table here

which can handle 75,000 pounds or so

of spacecraft vibrated at a G this way,

a G this way and a G and a half this way,

that's exceptional.

Why?

Because things on a spacecraft might slosh.

So we'll test things that have tanks

with fluid, full, empty and half full,

because you wanna see if there's a coupled effect

to you operating on a facility like this.

So we can do that. - That's amazing.

- Then when you turn around

you get to see a reinforced concrete door

that's 5 million pounds.

So on the other side of that,

which we can't see today, alas,

because it's under vacuum,

is the biggest thermal vacuum chamber in the world.

It's a hundred feet wide, 122 feet tall.

- [Matthew] Who besides NASA would actually

use something that large?

- Anybody who wants to get results

in a space that large to fit their spacecraft.

We tested the SpaceXs, payload fairings,

we've tested the Ariane 5 payload fairing

built by Oerlikon, now named RUAG,

for European space agencies.

- So earlier you mentioned Mars rovers.

Have those been tested in the vacuum chamber?

- Actually, the inflation bags.

The rovers came down in little bags

that looked like chewing gum

surrounding a rover that would split

on the surface of Mars.

The bags were inflation tested in the last facility we saw,

the in-space propulsion facility.

And then we brought them in here

and slammed them against rocks from Hawaii,

pretending to be Martian rocks on an inclined plane,

to see if they would tear.

The last test was successful

after they'd launched both spacecrafts to Mars.

- Wow, better to know here than up there.

- It's much cheaper and easier to fix it

before you launch than after.

- General, I hear that Orion is coming to town

into this facility.

Remind us a little bit of exactly what Orion is.

- Sure.

So, Orion is the replacement for the space shuttle.

So it draws on Apollo design

in that it has a crew module,

which Lockheed Martin is primed for,

and it has a service module, a power pack, as Apollo did.

The service module in this case

is built by European Space Agency,

three countries, Italy, Germany, and France,

based out of Bremen, Germany,

assemble the service module.

They join in Kennedy Space Center.

And that assembly will come here to test.

And so through that great big door

is where the testing will happen for

about four months or so. - Wow.

- Including about 60 days of thermal vacuum test

to do two thermal cycles, super hot, super cold.

And then once again, to make sure that it can stand

the cold and vacuum of space,

and then not at a vacuum, just in the space that it's in,

it will get electromagnetic interference testing,

sparking radio waves in

to bay the spacecraft in that radio wave

and see if the spacecraft electronics, the avionics,

are interrupted in any way. - Okay.

That is really cool stuff.

I love how much goes on here.

NASA is great about sharing their facilities

and their knowledge with other companies

and other countries.

That is a win win for everybody.

It's one of the most significant milestones

in the field of aerospace.

And even 50 years later,

the accomplishments of the Apollo program

are still being celebrated around the world.

From gaining incredible insights

from NASA icon, Gene Kranz,

to visiting the boyhood home of Neil Armstrong,

and even seeing what NASA has in store for the future.

We've taken you behind the wings of the Apollo program.

Hi, I'm Matthew Burchette.

- I'm Gene--

(Matthew laughs)

- The awesome drive from Wapakoneta to...

Say that fast.

Doc, Doctor, Are you a doctor?

- No. - Oh okay.

We were on a roll.

Mister Ben...

- We're now on a B roll.

- Yeah.

(Matthew and David laughing)

(upbeat music)

- Little learners can read, write, talk,

sing and play at Arapahoe Libraries.

Make a playdate, join a storytime,

build a masterpiece and present a puppet show

all in one morning.

More at arapahoelibraries.org.

- Do Denver's 300 days of sunshine

make the smiles a little wider?

They definitely make the energy here stronger.

So you can enjoy the blue skies

and mountain view sunsets.

Denver, soak it all in.