All language subtitles for B T W S04E01 1080p WEB h264-BAE_track3_[eng]

(upbeat music)

- The night sky and
the lure of space

have always pulled on
the human imagination,

but exploration did
not really take place

until the mid 1900s.

But then it happened fast.

- We choose to go to the moon

in this decade and
do the other things.

Not because they are easy,
but because they are hard.

- Early space exploration,

it was both competitive
and collaborative,

but the media really
focused on the competition,

that was, these heightened
political tensions,

and an extension
of the Cold War.

- [TV Announcer] Reaction
was one of astonishment

and concern.

- On Sputnik 1 Soviet
space satellite.

- Research in space,
improved life on Earth

from the very beginning

and today the
International Space Station

is a symbol of
global collaboration.

- The amount of money
spent on the space program

is worth every penny.

I think there are things we
get from the space program

that are valuable to
our life on Earth.

- I'm Cray Novick.

- And I'm Myrna James.

It's time to go
Behind the Wings.

- [Cray] In this episode, we're
gonna explore the question.

How did human space flight start

and how is it
effecting us today?

To start, we headed to NASA's
Center for Human Flight,

Johnson Space Center.

To talk with NASA historian,
Jennifer Ross-Nazzal.

How did Johnson Space
Center first get started?

- In 1958, NASA was created.

- This is my first
opportunity to greet you

as Deputy Administrator of the

National Aeronautics and
Space Administration.

- It was created as a response
to the launch of Sputnik.

(suspenseful music)

- [TV Announcer] Today,
our new moon is in the sky,

a 23 inch metal sphere placed
in orbit by a Russian rocket.

- The first orbiting
satellite around the globe

and Congress was very
interested in establishing

an organization to put a
human being into space.

And there was a
group established

called the Space Task Group.

It was established about a month
after NASA came into being.

Its purpose really was
to put a man into space.

It was a manned
satellite program.

It became known as
Project Mercury.

- [TV Announcer] Project
Mercury is the name given

to the nation's manned
orbital space flight program.

- They were based out of
the Langley Research Center

but that group formed the
nucleus of what would become

the manned spacecraft
center here in Houston.

Once Kennedy gave his
speech in May of 1961,

that we were going to
land a man on the moon

by the end of the decade
and return him safely.

They realized they needed
an actual facility,

an actual center just
for human space flight.

Before that time human
space flight was seen

as sort of as a
passing fad, a fancy.

The deputy director
for NASA at that time,

likened it to shooting
a lady out of a cannon.

And so it was sort of fortuitous
that Kennedy proclaimed

that we were going to
achieve this amazing goal

by the end of the decade.

- 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.

- And so they started looking
around at other locations

all across the country and

Houston was one of
those locations.

So it was built essentially to
get us to that final end date

of landing a man on
the moon by 1969.

The individual who was in
charge of the Space Task Group

at the time, heard that
announcement and wondered,

my God how are we gonna
accomplish all of this?

And he had to figure out
how they were going to make

all of this work in a very
short time, in about nine years.

So that really was, you
know, a huge challenge,

but NASA had been
actually studying

how are we going to get
to the moon prior to this?

It just, you know,
increased the pace.

NASA was trying to figure
that out well before

President Kennedy
made this announcement

on the floor of Congress.

- Now it is time to
take longer strides,

time for a great new
American enterprise,

time for this nation to
take a clearly leading role

in space achievement,

which in many ways may hold
the key to our future on Earth.

- [Jennifer] It was definitely
a proxy war for the cold war.

You look at the
Kennedy administration,

they had the, the
Cuban missile crisis.

They also had, you know,
some other missteps

early on in the administration.

And, and you know,
this was an opportunity

for him to take something
and, and get a win.

You know, how could he
beat the Soviet Union?

And this was something
that they realized

we might be on more even
ground with the Soviet Union.

Sending a man to the moon

and returning him at the,
the end of the decade.

- [Myrna] Man's giant leap,
Apollo 11 lands crew on moon.

The first Wright brothers
flight was in 1903

and then it was only
66 years later when

Neil Armstrong walked
on the moon in 1969.

- [Cray] A lot happened
in those 66 years.

The NACA or the National
Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics

had been around since 1915
and people had already

been thinking about
human space flight.

- These astronauts had
to learn everything,

every aspect of going to space.

From rocket propulsion
to orbital mechanics,
to what happens

to the human body when
they go to space. Right?

- So, how did the
first astronauts
prepare to go to space,

somewhere where no
one had been before?

- Astronauts train a lot, and
so do folks in flight control.

There's the saying that
you, you train as you fly,

you fly as you train. In
those early Mercury flights,

they did a lot of training cause

they weren't exactly
sure what to expect.

They put them through centrifuge
rides up in Pennsylvania.

They put them on the KC-135
which was a weightless aircraft.

They did a lot of simulations
of their missions,

what they were going
to be doing in orbit.

Same thing with
Gemini and Apollo,

they were working through
all of those missions

and working through
all of the requirements

for their flight.

They didn't just
get into the capsule

and go up in orbit and kind
of see how things worked.

There was a lot going on,

behind the scenes before
anyone ever went up.

- NASA has spent a lot of time
and throughout its history

of going into
remote environments

and what they call
analog environments.

So to put astronauts
or scientists

in extreme environments
all over the world.

We know the ones, for example,
like Antarctica is a classic.

Back in the days of
Gemini, Mercury and Apollo,

there was an interest in going
into remote jungle areas.

So then the Air Force
had a training program,

in tropical survival,
down in Panama.

And so NASA contracted
with the Air Force to

bring the astronauts like
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin,

and Michael Collins into
that survival program.

They went into the territory
of a tribe down there called

the Embera, which was and
still is a remote jungle area.

- [Jennifer] And so
they went down to Panama

at the Albrook Air Force Base

and they were working with
the, the Choco Indians.

So they were natives
of, of that area.

This was a really great
cross-cultural exchange

for astronauts and also for
the natives in, in Panama.

The idea basically behind
tropic survival school was

first of all, to
learn how to survive.

If God forbid your
capsule came down

in a jungle environment,
how would you handle that?

(somber music)

- We're in Panama
where it all started.

The first NASA astronauts
to walk on the moon

were trained here

for wilderness survival
by the indigenous people,

just in case.

(upbeat music)

- [Myrna] We've driven about
an hour outside of Panama city.

And we're about to get into
a dugout canoe a the motor.

And that's the only way
to get to his village.

We'll interview
Chief Zarco there.

(boat engine idling)

(speaking spanish)

(boat engine running)

(drums beating) (wind
instrument playing)

Chief Zarco, tell me
about your grandfather.

(drums beating)
(people chanting)

- People who were being
trained to go to the moon

and go into space,

acknowledged what they
could learn from you

and from your culture.

Chief Zarco, what were
some of the things

that the astronauts
learned here?

- Why is this area such an
ideal place to train astronauts?

- You know, they, they had
a lot of cross-cultural

interaction with
the Choco Indians.

Worked very closely
with the chief,

Antonio Zarco and you
know, encouraged them to

get to know the folks as,
as part of their training,

so that they would
feel comfortable.

And when they came back,
they did a debriefing

and talked about, well,
what did you learn?

And you know, they learned
that the jungle isn't as scary

as they thought it was.

The most important thing I
think that they walked away with

was the fact that,
it was important

to have this optimistic
point of view

when you went on a mission.
That you weren't going to die,

if you landed in the
jungle or desert,

because they did desert
survival training.

You know, it was important
to do the training

but to have optimism
that you were

going to make it out okay.

- Some of the astronauts
who trained in Panama,

actually were the ones
who walked on the moon.

- [Neil Armstrong] OK. I'm
gonna step off the LEM now.

That's one small step for man.

One giant leap for mankind.

- The Earth as it
appears from the moon

is a very small
and fragile object.

And when you think
about it that's not a

inaccurate description.

Certainly a lot of the
things that we do down here

can affect the, the balance
in a very fragile way.

The, the greenhouse effect we're
noticing today, for example

the changes between
a healthy atmosphere

and an unhealthy atmosphere
are, are very subtle,

very, very fragile and you
sort of get that feeling

when you look at the at the
Earth from a great distance.

- Seeing the Earth from
space can cause a significant

psychological impact
called the overview effect.

To learn more we spoke with

cultural anthropologist
Dr. Deana Weibel.

- Deana, it's so great
to speak with you today.

What is the overview effect?

- So the overview effect is a
term that was actually coined

by a journalist Frank White,
who is also a researcher.

When people go into
space for the first time

and look from their
spacecraft to the Earth,

the awareness that
it's actually a planet

suddenly the borders
are not real anymore.

You see that they're imaginary.

You see that everything
is interconnected.

You see the Earth as
much more fragile.

And a lot of astronauts have
had this experience where

it was like a
sudden realization.

Something that caused
them to rethink

what it meant to
live on a planet.

Rethink things like
environmental awareness.

Some astronauts have become
really, really strongly focused

on getting information out
about global climate change

and other things we need to
do to protect the planet.

- Steve Lindsey, I'm so excited
to speak with you today.

And I almost don't
know where to start.

You've had such an
illustrious, amazing career.

- I, I applied and was
fortunate enough to get selected

in 1995 to the NASA astronaut
office, as an astronaut,

as a pilot astronaut.

So I spent 16 years at
NASA and while I was there

I was fortunate enough,
or blessed to fly

five space shuttle missions.

Two as pilot, three
as a commander.

- That's amazing.

- Yeah, I was very fortunate.

My final flight was the actually

the final flight of Discovery.

The trip in a space shuttle,

- [NASA Control] Go for main
engine start. (sparks sound)

- being on the
launchpad to orbit,

(fast violin music)

is eight and a
half minutes long.

- [NASA Control] We have main
engine start. (ignition noise)

- Most eight and a half
minutes of intensity,

you'll ever experience

- [Announcer] Two, one,
(rocket engines roaring)

and the final lift
off of Discovery,

a tribute to the
dedication, hard work

and pride of America's
space shuttle team.

- [Announcer] Discovery's
three main engines

are burning fuel at a
rate that would drain

an average swimming pool
in about 25 seconds.

The engines combined with
the solid rocket boosters

produce more than 7
million pounds of thrust.

Standing by for separation

of the twin solid
rocket boosters.

Discovery now traveling
2,695 miles an hour.

- [Myrna] I'm picturing
this extremely fast speed

that you're going.

And it makes me think
of the overview effect.

So what was that like?
Did that happen for you?

- I first saw the Earth
on my first flight.

We were during assent.

We were probably 50-60
miles high doing about

I don't know, Mach 12
or so during assent.

So the rockets are firing
and we actually did this

what's called a
roll to heads up,

to shift from ground
stations for communications,

to satellite communications
during assent.

And I was in the pilot seat
of course, pretty busy,

but when we did the
roll, rolled underneath

and I got my first
view of the Earth.

When you see Earth
from up there,

it does change perspective.

I think it changes
your perspective on

how small the planet is.

It changes almost
everybody's perspective

from an environmental
standpoint.

(somber music)

- Yeah, I remember
one of the first times

I looked out the
window from space

and I said to one of
my crew mates, I said,

what's that, what's that
thin film over the surface?

What is that?

They go, oh, that's
the atmosphere

almost looks like a contact
lens over somebody's eye,

how thin and fragile
it is compared to the,

you know, the size
of the planet.

Which is kind of
scary looking because

it's, you know the
most important thing

to our survival
is our atmosphere.

I think, makes you more
kind of in tune with,

you know, environmental causes.

I remember the rainforest in
south America looked different

on my first flight than it
did on my last 17 years later.

And then when you look
at the planet, you know,

you don't see political
borders during the daytime.

You do at night a little bit,
you know, countries, you know

sometimes use different
kind of light bulbs.

So it's easy to tell.

I'm on the International
Space Station,

but we're really
all on a spaceship,

traveling through space
called planet Earth.

And we're all part
of the same team.

- I know that you were on the
International Space Station

for basically a year.
How did that come about?

- Yeah, I was there
for nearly a year.

We launched in the March of
2015, landed in March of 2016.

It's one of the
greatest successes

of the International
Space Station program,

is that you can have two
countries that, you know,

historically can
be at, you know,

not on the most friendly
basis, unfortunately.

You can work
cooperatively on something

that's probably the most
challenging thing we do

and demonstrate that we can
work peacefully together

as a team and space is a
perfect place to do that.

And for us, you know, our
relationships as crew members

we have to rely on each
other for, you know,

friendship or help
with our work.

And literally at times
for each other's lives.

- Out of that
competitive atmosphere,

that defined early
space exploration

came a whole new vision
for collaboration.

And then the International
Space Station,

and so many countries
are involved.

- The International
Space Station, it's,

it's truly that international,

you have 258 astronauts
that have been there

from 20 different countries.

And then when it comes to the
countries involved in the ISS,

I mean, this is gonna test my
geography more than anything

but we've got the U.S.,

we've got this big one.

- Right, Russia, here.

- Russia.

- Enormous.

- You know, we
had, we had Canada.

Canada's up there.

- We have Japan right here.

- Japan. Yep.

- JAXA's very involved with
these with space activities.

- And then, I mean, you have
the European Space Agency,

which is gonna make up
a lot of the countries,

Belgium, Denmark,
France, Germany, Italy,

the Netherlands,
Norway, Spain, Sweden,

Switzerland, and the UK.

- The International Space
Station is just that,

it's truly international.

It's almost like in space,
where borders don't exist.

- The idea was that
this would be a good way

for NASA to get
experience working

on an International
Space Station.

That was the goal to have
our own space station.

We had our first
space station Skylab,

but this was going to
be a little different.

So this was an
opportunity for astronauts

to get some experience working
onboard a space station,

you know kind of this
building block for, for NASA.

The international aspect
of the space station

has been so vitally important.

That's probably the
most important legacy

that space station will have.

Many of the pieces of
hardware, for instance,

never met on the ground.

First time they met
was up in space.

And so just working
together, I think it's,

it's so vitally important.

We may not be able to
do it on the ground

but in space we've been able
to do it so successfully.

- Hi, this is Steve Lindsey,

Commander of the Space Shuttle
Discovery. Welcome aboard.

- You know, when you
look at the space station

and the international
partnership

and 16 nations up there
working together all the time,

that all gets blurred.

And we're, we're generally
speaking one team up there.

If you would've told me when
I was a pilot in the Cold War,

that within 10 years I'd
be flying with Russians.

- [Myrna] Yeah.

- [Steve] I would've
told you, you were crazy.

- [Myrna] Yeah.

- [Steve] But that changed.

- Right now, the plan
is to to de-orbit

the space station
around 2030, right.

And eventually you're
gonna have to do that.

I mean, things age,
they age in space.

You go out on a space
walk on the space station,

it's surprising just how
beat up it is outside.

And the sun is just brutal.

The changes of
temperatures of, you know,

plus or minus 270 degrees.

Thing gets hit on the outside.

There's a lot of
holes on the outside.

Fortunately, you know,
so far those holes

haven't penetrated the
pressurized volume.

But there is a lot
of damage to this.

So eventually you're gonna
have to put it in the,

in the Pacific Ocean.

- One of the most
important things that came

from that experience
was the twin studies.

Cause you have an
identical twin brother.

Who's also an astronaut.

- Yeah. Because my brother
and I were identical twins,

we're genetically very, very
similar, almost like, you know

99.9% genetically similar,
that they felt like

that they could get
some good science data.

- So the NASA twin study,
the idea was born to try

and get more genetic information

and more molecular information

and other types
from people in space

for longer periods of time.

That's a little bit
complicated to do.

So what they thought was,

if we're gonna use a very
small number of people

that they should be twins.

That would allow us the ability
to study one twin in space

and the other twin on Earth.

Doing that would allow
us to better understand

the differences that weren't
related to genetics. Right?

Because they should have a
fairly similar genetic profile.

- For something to be
statistically significant.

You need a lot of samples.

- Right.

- And this is kind
of a sample of one.

Having said that, it's
also a longitudinal study.

So you can get statistically
significant data

by studying the same thing
over a long period of time.

Meaning Mark and I.

- So the goal was then to
study them for one year

and Scott Kelly was the
astronaut who was in space.

And so both of the Kelly
brothers gave enormous amount

of time, willingness,
blood samples,

every kind of
tissue we could get,

psychological testing,
physiologic testing,

over that entire year period.

And so at the time it
was really the longest

and most comprehensive
scientific study

that had been done
to that point.

- So that became part
of the science program

and it got the most attention,

more attention than
the other science

which was actually
probably more important

but just didn't have
that kind of like

cache human interest cache that,

- Right.

- [Scott] That a story
about two twin brothers

doing a science experiment
on the space station has.

- Give us some, a few nuggets,

of the results of
the twin studies.

- Well, there were
a lot of experiments

and you know I didn't
give these experiments

any more attention
or less attention

than I did everything
else that we were doing.

To the researchers, all
of 'em, their, their,

their science is
the most important.

And during the
course of that year

we had 400 different
experiments going on,

the year I was on
the space station.

- That's incredible.

- Yeah. So this
was, I don't know,

it was probably 10 or
15 different studies.

You know, some of them
were on human cognition.

Like how does your brain change

over the course of being
in space from, you know,

your ability to perform
certain tasks and functions?

What we would do is, you
know, I would collect data

or most, mostly it was
like science samples,

but there were tests
that I would do.

And then my brother would do
the same ones on the ground.

And I'll tell you what
you gotta give him credit,

cause he didn't
even work for NASA.

I think they were gonna pay him.

But it was like so little that
he said, eh, don't bother.

I don't wanna deal with the
tax headache from being paid,

you know, it's a
really small amount.

- So why is space
exploration so important?

- You know, I think
it's important for
a number of reasons.

We are, you know,
genetically speaking,

I think explorers. Right?

If we, if we didn't
have that gene,

we would still be living
in a cave somewhere.

We have this desire to
see what's, you know,

over the horizon,
what's over the ocean,

you know, what's in outer space.

And what it gives to our
society, to our economy,

to our national security,
is worth every penny.

- If you look at at history,
that's what human beings do.

We've, we've always explored.

Well before
Christopher Columbus,

you know well
before the Vikings,

that's just something
that that human beings do.

And I think that's
just a continuation
and an extension of,

of what we've done in the
past and will continue to do.

And it's extremely important.

It's extremely vital, beneficial
to the American public,

to the globe.

(somber music)

As space exploration
transitioned

to becoming more collaborative,

it set the stage for
how it can benefit life

right here on Earth.

But it's not just about going
outwards, going to the moon.

It's also about
looking back at Earth.

What can we learn about
our own blue planet?

- Looking back at
the Earth from space

gives us a whole new
perspective on our planet.

- And that's what
we're gonna look at

in the next episode
of Behind the Wings...

satellites and their sensors.
Exploring the question -

what can we learn
about the Earth

by looking back from space?

(upbeat dance music)