All language subtitles for When We Left Earth_ The NASA Missions - 01x02 - Friends and Rivals.CtrlHD.English.orig.Addic7ed.com

In 1969, a group
of astronauts change the world.

They ride the biggest rocket
ever built to the moon.

It's the culmination

of more than 10 years
of space pioneering

and a foundation
for more than four decades

of exploring worlds
beyond our own.

This is the story
of our greatest adventure.

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.

America has a new president

and a seemingly
impossible challenge.

"This president must be crazy.

How can we possibly do that
in nine years?"

We had had a total
of 20 minutes'

manned space-flight experience.

I was just amazed
at the courage of it

and almost the arrogance that we
could do something like that.

The Mercury missions
proved man can fly in space.

In Project Gemini, they'll learn
how to fly to the moon.

The flights to the moon
were gonna take 10 days.

We had to learn how to work
during that whole period.

We had to learn
how to live in space.

Could they operate
all right in zero gravity?

You know, "How do we
even get to the moon?"

Gemini missions
will carry two men --

something NASA
has never attempted.

September 17, 1962--

NASA announces
a second group of astronauts.

They call themselves
the New Nine.

There are nine of us --

four from the air force,
three from the navy,

and two civilians.

And they were a really good
group of people.

Great bunch of guys.
I liked all of them.

We really had a great group.

Many of America's
most famous astronauts

start out in Project Gemini --

Jim Lovell, Buzz Aldrin,

and Neil Armstrong.

10 Gemini missions are planned,

each more challenging and
more dangerous than the last.

Throughout
this entire process,

the risk
was constantly escalating

on each one of these missions.

So is the competition
among the astronauts.

At stake, the ultimate prize --

to be the first man on the moon.

We were all
extremely competitive,

and so,
from a competition standpoint,

I mean, we were right in there
all the time, you know.

I was bulletproof, invincible.

There's nothing I couldn't do.
Just give me a shot.

Don't tell me I can't do it,
'cause I can do it.

To do what we do, you have to be
a little arrogant.

NASA announces the crew

for America's first
two-man flight into space.

Rookie astronaut John Young.

My wife didn't want me to fly.

She thought I'd get killed.

I didn't think I would.

Flying in space next to Young,

Project Mercury veteran
Gus Grissom.

My friend.

This great guy.
Very, very great guy.

He and I first spent time
together

when we were doing
survival training

down in Panama.

John Young and Gus Grissom --

two of the most
perfectly paired crew members

that I've ever seen.

They seemed to have
a zest for space.

They were kids at heart.

It's almost like they were
going off on a joyride there.

To lift the new
two-man capsule into space,

NASA needs
a more powerful rocket.

The air force is developing
a new Titan missile.

But adapting it for Gemini
missions won't be easy.

One out of every five Titans
fails.

An 80% success rate
isn't good enough

if men are going to ride it
into space.

Well, it wasn't very --
It wasn't perfect.

A rocket is like
a controlled explosion

that is looking for any weakness
that it can find to get out.

I remember sitting, watching TV

with my mother and father
one day

when they were gonna show
a live launch down at the Cape.

And the thing just barely got
off the pad, when it blew up.

Of course, that wasn't exactly
a confidence builder

for my mother and dad.

Engineers check
and recheck every part

and install redundant systems
throughout the rocket

to make it more reliable.

Training simulates every phase
of a mission.

You couldn't just go in there

and get in a spacecraft
and do it.

Whatever you got assigned to do,

you did your darndest
to do it right.

Finally, NASA launches
two rockets that don't explode.

Gus Grissom and John Young

ride the next Titan missile
into space.

Gemini 3's mission objectives --

test-drive the new rocket
and capsule

and return to Earth alive.

Thousands of people
across the country,

at various places,

they're all going through
this building of the excitement,

heading towards the launch,

and this examination
of conscience

as to whether all that
should be done has been done

and nothing has been forgotten.

It's almost like
the Force is with you.

Stage 2 prevalves
coming open in five seconds.

T-minus 20 seconds.
Mark.

We were all
kind of holding our breath

to make sure they got up there

and did all the things
it was supposed to do.

It was white-knuckle time
in mission control.

Anything goes wrong,

and Grissom and Young
will be killed,

with millions of people
watching live.

10... 9...

8... 7...

6... 5...

4...

You think about your
procedures you're gonna run.

Frightened?

Never thought about it.

...2... 1.

Ignition.

Lift-off.

We got a roll program.

Roger. Roll.

Good lift-off.

That was a pretty good launch.

It was a Titan launch,

so, you know, it had quite
a few G's, going into orbit.

Piece of cake.

It was as close
as we could get to perfection.

The launch went perfectly.

The spacecraft
performed admirably.

It went swimmingly.

Grissom and Young ride
a converted ballistic missile.

For the first time, two
Americans fly together in space.

They practice changing altitude
and orbit --

critical maneuvers
on a trip to the moon.

Waiting for the capsule
in the Atlantic,

a recovery task force --

27 ships, 126 aircraft.

And we screwed up on reentry.

When we fired the retro-rockets,

we forgot that the Earth rotated
under us.

We forgot to put the rotation
of the Earth into the equation.

As a result,

Gemini 3 splashes down
off-target.

We were short.
We were 60 miles short.

When we started,
we were 190 miles short,

and Gus made it all up
but 60 miles of it.

After three orbits of the Earth,

waiting to be rescued

is the worst part of the mission
for Gus Grissom.

He was a little seasick,
you know.

I was an old navy guy,
so it meant nothing.

I'd been on a destroyer
for a year,

so nothing made me seasick.

Crowds fill Lower Manhattan

to welcome their heroes home.

It was raining and snowing,

and we were sitting there
in an open car.

As an old Texas boy,

I don't think being in the snow
is much fun.

But that's what we did.

NASA has less than five years

to land a man on the moon
before the end of the decade.

Every Gemini mission
will test a critical procedure

in the flight plan to get there.

The next big challenge
is walking in space --

an extravehicular activity,
or EVA.

EVA was a key element

that had to be accomplished
successfully

before we could go on
to the moon.

We had to learn
about what it's like

to get out of a spacecraft,

whether it's floating
around the Earth

or whether it's walking
on the moon.

We had to learn
how to live in space.

The biggest unknown --

how effective the human body
can be when weightless.

NASA engineers devise a way
to cheat gravity.

It's called the Vomit Comet --

a specially modified plane
that flies in huge arcs.

As it climbs steeply,
then drops,

the astronauts experience

up to 30 seconds
of weightlessness.

So far, astronauts have been
strapped to the seat.

No one knows what will happen
when they try to move around.

Well, we could push off
of the back end

and actually swim all the way

through the length
of the airplane.

We took things up to test,

and I enjoyed that particular
area of training --

the Vomit Comet.

A lot of people got sick
doing that.

It was sort of like
seasickness squared.

I really didn't look forward
to going into the vehicle again.

I said,
"I don't need that vehicle."

Z ero gravity
is only one problem.

There are other dangers
waiting outside the capsule.

How would man react to being in
orbit at 17, 300 miles an hour?

Would he get vertigo?

Would he become
extremely afraid?

Would he be extremely
uncomfortable out there?

Would he be able to work
out there?

All of these were the unknowns.

The space suit is the
astronaut's last line of defense

against the extreme conditions
in space.

You'd be 250
degrees-plus on the sunny side,

and, once the spacecraft rotated
and you were in the shade,

that you're minus-250 degrees.

Well, the suit
had to be designed

to work
in that kind of environment.

Space is a vacuum.

If the flight suit fails
or even tears a little,

the difference in pressure

would cause
the astronaut's blood to boil,

killing him instantly.

The suit was designed
to keep us alive.

It was risky,
and we accepted the risk.

We didn't become astronauts
to play it safe.

NASA's plan --

fly two more missions,
building to an EVA on Gemini 6.

But nobody at NASA knows

a Soviet cosmonaut
has already walked in space.

And it shocked a lot of people.

It caught us totally unexpected,

and, you know, we were
just barely flying in space

in our own little capsules.

They weren't even big enough
to be called "spaceships".

The news changes everything.

It meant I was
gonna have to work my ass off

to get it done
on the next flight.

I was called over
to Chris Kraft,

and, basically, he told me
the NASA administrator

had decided we're going to
try to conduct an EVA.

But then he said, "But I want
you to do it in secret."

Okay, stand by
for final status check.

The Soviets were still beating
us every step of the way,

and they didn't
want to advertise

we were going to do something

unless they were absolutely sure

that we were capable
of accomplishing it.

The man who gets the job

is rookie astronaut Ed White.

White will be the first American

to leave the capsule
and walk in space.

Ed White was --

You know, if we had a Boy Scout
in the space program,

I think Ed White epitomized
what a Boy Scout really is.

He was a good-looking young man,
he was very athletic,

very intelligent, smart,

had a passion
for what he was doing.

Ed White was probably

what everyone thought
an astronaut should be.

White's partner
on Gemini 4 is Jim McDivitt.

At NASA, they're known
as the Gemini twins.

I knew Ed White for a long time.

We had gone to University
of Michigan together.

We lived on the same street.
Our kids knew each other.

We went through test-pilot
school in the same class.

Ed and I were very close.

We were extremely close friends.

Gemini 4 will also be

America's longest
space flight yet --

four days, 62 orbits.

Putting an EVA into
any flight for the first time

is a bold step,

but, you know,
that was part of the mission.

In those days,
we were taking big steps.

That is a risky business.

If Ed White's EVA
is successful,

it will move the entire space
program closer to the moon.

But many think NASA
is moving too fast.

A problem on the EVA
could keep the U.S.

from getting to the moon
on Kennedy's schedule.

NASA scrambled around
kind of hurriedly

and, in my estimation, without
a great deal of safety factor,

had Ed go EVA on Gemini 4.

I was not in favor of it.

Even at NASA,

few people know Gemini 4

is accelerating
America's first spacewalk.

Our EVA was
very confidential at the time.

We had not announced
we were gonna do this,

and we were doing all of
our training at night,

and only a group
of maybe 30 or 40 people

even knew we were gonna try it.

NASA announces
the first American spacewalk

just a few days before
the launch of Gemini 4.

Launch time
is a very critical time.

Everybody's keyed up.

Everybody's got to do
a good job.

The hardware's got to work.

Walking out was --

My first thought was,

"My God, this is just like
it's on television."

But you, you know, you've got
your mind on other things.

I was probably going over
the launch things I had to do,

and you're not thinking
about girls

and comic strips.

You know, you're --
It's a business.

We have a roll program
initiated.

8.5 G's, you're really
being pushed into the seat.

And, all of a sudden, it stops,
and you're floating.

It's a lot of fun.

The crew went through
the preparation process.

They reported we were ready.

Gemini 4.

I had a tracking station
make sure

that all of the safety criteria
had been met

and this was now okay
to open up the hatch.

Okay, we're giving a "go"
for your EVA at this time.

Okay.

Roger.
Flight, let's go, okay?

After we got the hatch open,

Ed stood up in the seat
and got ready to go,

and -- and we cleared him to go.

And then he took and pushed off
on the seat.

My feet are out.

I think I'm dragging
a little bit,

so I don't want to fire the gun
yet.

Okay, I'm separating
from the spacecraft.

Ed White is flying
at 17,000 miles per hour,

200 miles above the Earth.

Okay, I'm out.

If the space suit fails,

the difference in pressure
will kill him instantly.

If the lifeline fails, he'll
literally be lost in space.

The only thing to do
would be to disconnect him

and let him float around
out there.

I mean, you know,
these are things

that's in everybody's mind.

We didn't have a plan.

We didn't have a checklist on
how you kill your best friend.

As White floats in space,

a glove drifts
out of the capsule.

I don't even know
whose glove it was.

I don't know
whether it was his or mine.

Today those pictures
are -- are classic.

They're still overpowering today

to realize, number one, it's
been done and that we did it.

It blew me away.

Ed White floats
in space for 36 minutes

but has to be inside the capsule
before day turns to night.

We told him to get
back in the spacecraft,

and he sort of didn't hear us.

He didn't really
want to recognize,

okay, that the EVA's over, time
to get back in the spacecraft.

He was very reluctant
to get back in.

He was having a good time
out there.

I would have been reluctant
to get back in, too.

I told him to get the
hell back in the spacecraft,

'cause he was staying out
too long.

He was gonna be out in the dark.

That's the only time
I've ever spoken

without being spoken to,
into space.

The EVA is NASA's
riskiest mission yet

and a critical part
of any flight to the moon.

I don't know
if you can read me now,

but does that parachute
look great!

Ed White's spacewalk
will always be

one of the genuine highlights
of the space program.

Gemini 4 propels
the space program

a giant leap
closer to the moon --

at least, until the next EVA.

After the first U.S. spacewalk,

Project Gemini tackles one of
the most difficult procedures

in the flight plan to the moon.

Probes show it's possible
to land on the lunar surface,

but the moonwalkers will
need to fly the lunar lander

back to their orbiting capsule
for the voyage home.

It's called "rendezvous".

It will demand the most precise
flying of any mission yet.

Astronauts for Gemini 7

are Commander Frank Borman
and Pilot Jim Lovell.

One of the things that
we had to test out in Gemini

was the ability to rendezvous
with another vehicle.

They would start talking
about using Gemini 7

as a target for Gemini 6.

Two spacecraft --
Gemini 6 and 7--

must find each other in orbit
and fly just inches apart.

And in order to do that,

we would have to have
two Titans launch,

one right after the other,
on time.

And we said,
"Okay, we'll give it a try."

Rendezvous
was absolutely critical.

It involved a whole lot of work,
and nobody had done it before.

The main thing that I think
everyone that was associated

with any mission wanted to do
was to do it well.

...4... 3...

2... 1... 0.

Ignition.

Engines start.
We have a lift-off.

Gemini 7 blasts off first.

- We're on our way, Frank.
- Yep.

Stand by for stages.

Roger. Staging.

Rocket engines blasting off

cause massive destruction.

NASA crews have to rebuild
the launchpad

for Gemini 6
in just three days --

a job that usually takes weeks.

And you can tell him that
the pad-preparation schedule

is going very well.

The pad-preparation
schedule for Gemini 6

is going real well.

Gemini 6 rolls out to the pad

as Gemini 7 waits in space.

Borman and Lovell will spend
14 days in orbit --

America's longest mission --

to study the effects
of long-term weightlessness.

The maximum time
to go to the moon

would be about two weeks.

A lot of the medical community
said that there might be

some body functions
that don't perform.

And nobody had done
that, to that date.

And so I launched with probes
in my head.

They even wanted to put a probe
in an artery.

I drew the line on that,

and told them, no, I didn't
think we'd do that this time.

As NASA prepares to launch

Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford
in Gemini 6,

another test rocket is fired
in the direction of Gemini 7.

Ignition.

We did that
because the Defense Department

was interested
in tracking Soviet missiles.

Borman and Lovell
test military technology

to track a missile from space.

Every rocket has a signature

that you can tell one rocket

from a different type
of a vehicle.

And we had a device on board

that was able to take
that signature.

It was kind of a little bit
of apprehension

to see this thing come
towards you.

Back on the ground,

Pad 19 is ready
to launch Gemini 6.

The word from the Cape is,
we are "go."

The prime pilots
for the Gemini 6 flight,

Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford,

are now on their way
to Launch Complex 19

to board their spacecraft.

T-minus 48,
and all still going well

with our Gemini 6 countdown
here at Launch Complex 19.

We will have ignition at zero.

And some three seconds
after ignition,

the launch vehicle will lift off

on the start
of the Gemini 6 flight.

They've gone through
a complete checklist once again,

and we are counting.

2 to go.

They're cleared for takeoff.

Roger. Adios.

Minus 5... 4...

3... 2... 1.

Ignition.

...Gemini 6.

...pressure is lowering slowly.

Roger, Gemini 6.
Monitor and take pressures.

Oxidizing pressure
is down to about 32.

A faulty valve
causes the engine to shut down

just seconds before the rocket
would have exploded.

Okay, we're just
sitting here breathing.

Here's two guys up there,
going through this trauma.

We put the Titan on the pad
and start the engine,

and the damn thing shut down.

Stafford and Schirra
are lucky to walk away.

Gemini 7, Houston.

We were wondering if you saw
the ignition at the Cape.

We were in perfect position,

but we never saw the ignition.

We were waiting
for the lift-off.

With Gemini 7 waiting in space,

Gemini 6 has the smallest launch
window of any NASA flight.

Then, within three days,
we fixed that issue,

fixed that problem,
and launched again.

Gemini 6, you are go.

- You hear the man. Go.
- Go.

...3... 2... 1.

Ignition.

Engine start.

We've got a real lift-off.

The clock is running.

Roll complete.

Roger.

Cabin pressure sealed at 5.5.

50 seconds.

Okay, their orbit is 87 by 140.

From a lower orbit,

Gemini 6
is catching up to Gemini 7.

How are the 7 boys doing?
Did they go over a while ago?

They sure did.

They're about five minutes
ahead of you.

Roger.

But when Gemini 6
came up to rendezvous,

we saw them coming up
from below.

There's nothing more
the ground crew can do.

The pilots are now
in complete control.

We could have bumped each other.

One of the things
we want to make sure

was "Could you slow down?"

We didn't want to have a device

where we misjudged
our velocities

and then slammed
into each other.

300 feet.

It was still dark out,

but we could see the jets firing
from Gemini 6.

180 feet.

You're going
17,000 miles an hour.

- You're 200 miles up.
- 120 feet.

The two capsules are
attempting to fly in formation

just inches apart.

No two spacecraft
have ever been this close.

Ask them
what their range is now.

About 20 feet.

We're in formation with 7.
Everything is "go" here.

Roger. Congratulations.
Excellent.

Thank you.
It'll be a lot of fun.

They just came up and stopped,

and there we were, together --

you know, nose to nose,
side to side.

It was a really fine sight.

We could see
through the windows.

We could see Tom and Wally
quite well.

Gemini 7, this is 6.

If you can hold it in the yaw
for just a little while,

we'll try to get in real close

and try to get
all those close shots.

The two pilots

fly their capsules
in tight formation

for 270 minutes --

three orbits of the Earth.

The control system
on Gemini was so good

that you could fly
within six inches of one another

without bothering anything.

Rendezvous demonstrates

how far the space program
has come in just four years.

And then it's over.

Gemini 6 fires its thrusters
and heads home.

Lovell and Borman
are alone in space again.

Their remaining task --
complete the two-week mission,

proving astronauts can survive
a trip to the moon.

Tom and Wally spent
a total of 19 hours in space.

I would have gladly traded rides
with them at that point.

By the time they left,

the interior of Gemini 7
was getting to be,

you know the odors
were starting to float around.

And nine days had gone by before
Frank looked at me and said,

"Jim, I think this is it."

He said, "I've got to go."

I said, "Can't you wait
five more days?"

The last three days were bad.

It's NASA's
longest mission in space --

more than enough time for
a round-trip flight to the moon.

Fortunately, Jim Lovell kept
his wonderful sense of humor up,

and it was, "No problem.
No problem at all."

We were very happy when we got
back down on the carrier.

Gemini 7 flies nearly
6 million miles in 14 days.

In those two weeks,

the sun rises and sets on Lovell
and Borman more than 400 times.

It was very difficult to walk.

My legs hadn't been used
for two weeks,

and I actually had to command
my legs,

"Left, right, left, right,"

to walk down the deck
of the carrier.

We learned one hell of a
lot about how to do rendezvous.

With each Gemini flight,

NASA acquires another skill
necessary to reach the moon.

One last critical maneuver
remains -- docking --

two craft linking together
in space.

The first crew to attempt it

are Dave Scott
and Commander Neil Armstrong.

Rendezvous, docking, and
operating combined spacecraft

was a key element
of the Apollo strategy.

We wanted to prove that ability
on Gemini 8.

...6... 5...

4... 3...

2... 1.

Ignition.
Lift-off.

Armstrong will rendezvous

then dock their capsule

with an unmanned
Agena target vehicle

160 miles above the Earth.

It was a lot of opportunity
for things to go wrong

and make the approach or
the docking a dicey situation.

After a successful docking,

the combination began
a slow roll.

The roll rate became
uncomfortably high,

and we were unable to determine
the cause of the problem.

We disconnected our spacecraft
from the Agena.

Our roll rate
continued to accelerate.

A thruster is stuck,

spinning the capsule
out of control.

Our orbit
was primarily over ocean areas,

out of range
of flight controllers

at tracking stations.

We were on our own.

When the roll rate increased

to more than 400 degrees
per second,

our vision
was beginning to degrade.

To regain control,

Armstrong counters with
a different set of rockets.

Neil Armstrong had to power up
the reentry control system

in the Gemini spacecraft.

Fortunately,
that solved the problem.

Armstrong steadies
the spacecraft

but burns fuel he needs
for reentry,

triggering an immediate abort
of the mission.

They have to settle
for a backup landing site,

far from recovery efforts

already deployed
in the Atlantic.

We were obliged to land

at the next-closest
landing area,

which was near
the Pacific island of Okinawa.

That remains as the record
for the furthest distance

from the original
planned landing site.

Gemini 8 accomplishes
its primary mission objective.

The secondary objective --
an extended EVA --

is handed off to Tom Stafford
and Gene Cernan on Gemini 9.

We were on
the fast track to get to Apollo.

We were flying a Gemini flight
every six weeks.

There are
four Gemini missions left.

The moon now seems within reach.

Things changed
when we got to Gemini 9.

To go to the moon,

astronauts have to learn to work
in the vacuum of space.

Engineers scramble to devise
new training techniques,

but nobody really knows

what working in weightlessness
will be like.

Gemini 9 will attempt
the longest spacewalk yet.

We only had 20 minutes
of space-flight experience,

and that was Ed White.

Went out with a little gun,

was able to propel himself
around space,

and get back in without
a great deal of difficulty.

He gave us a sense of

"Well, it looked kind of easy,
frankly."

We had a fairly complicated set
of things to do on Gemini 9.

This is only
our second walk in space,

and we know very little about
what we're gonna encounter.

This is a dangerous mission.

Gene Cernan
has a lot of work to do

on NASA's
most ambitious spacewalk.

Gemini 9 was my first flight.

I would have done
anything I was asked to do.

I knew I was good enough
to do it.

...Gemini 9.

We open the hatch.

Tom Stafford held my feet down
so I wouldn't just float out.

And I just got the top half
of my body out.

I stuck my head out into...

truly a different world,
if you will.

And then my job
was to crawl hand over hand

to get back to the back
of the spacecraft.

Cernan has to
flight-test a new jetpack

mounted in the rear
of the capsule.

But just getting there
is hard work.

I had nothing really to hold on
to except a couple handlebars.

Okay, Tom,
how's it look down there?

The vacuum of space
offers no resistance.

Even simple tasks
are a massive struggle.

You are the most
helpless creature in the world

on the end of a string,

floating in zero gravity
in space.

Suddenly realizing my visor
was getting fogged up.

The visor fogged up.
Here he was, in effect, blind.

It was obvious
that he was in trouble.

And he was struggling like
the devil to hold his location.

My heart rate
was running 140, 150, 160--

at times, 170.

It was scary to us,

because you could hear
this labored breathing --

you know, 20% past
your max heart rate.

Doctors at mission
control are seriously concerned

he'll lose consciousness and not
make it back to the capsule.

I couldn't determine the degree
of the difficulties

that he was in up there.

- Gemini 9.
- Go ahead, 9.

Okay, he's fogging real bad.

Cernan finally gets to
the jetpack and straps it on.

But he's too exhausted
to fly it.

It was time to basically call
the EVA off.

I'm giving it a no-go.

It was a nightmare
getting back in the spacecraft.

The EVA is a failure.

If a physically fit astronaut
can't work in space,

nobody's going to the moon.

I was disappointed.

I didn't get the job done.
I let my colleagues down.

I was disappointed.

I don't think I'd like to do
this again. Would you?

Two more Gemini
missions attempt space walks.

Both fail for the same reason.

NASA modifies the space suit
and training methods.

A rookie astronaut, Buzz Aldrin,
will try again on Gemini 12.

Buzz Aldrin was the perfect guy
for that EVA

because he had approached it
in almost a textbook fashion.

An avid deep-sea diver,

Aldrin practices
for the next EVA underwater

to simulate
a weightless environment.

It was just a very natural thing

to maneuver slowly
from one position to another.

The tools,
the techniques, the training --

he made sure they got
all put together

in this new environment
of neutral buoyancy training.

He trained in there,
he'd come back up,

he'd say what he had learned,

what needed to be done
differently.

You had the divers, you had the
instructors watching this thing.

And, all of a sudden,
these things made sense to us.

I had sufficiently rehearsed

the different parts of it

so that I felt quite confident

that everything I had to do

would leave me in a very
positive, control condition.

NASA has one more
chance to get it right.

Ignition.

Lift-off.

Aldrin's first mission
would be Gemini's last.

Aldrin conducts three EVAs.

He spends more than five hours
walking in space.

Buzz learned
not to fight zero gravity

but to use zero gravity
to his advantage.

I actually felt a little guilty

about doing such simple tasks
in the back of the spacecraft.

He never got overheated.

His heart rate never went up

because he learned
to take it easy,

he had the proper tools,
he had the proper footholds,

and we leaned a lot about how
we could proceed in the future.

From that day on
through to the current day,

we have never had
a major problem

associated with the conduct
of an EVA.

Project Gemini ends in triumph.

The stage is set
for our greatest adventure.

Gemini was an unsung hero

in terms of the readiness
of the American space program

to go do Apollo
in many, many ways.

We had learned
the new technologies of space.

We had learned to work
with computers.

We had learned to navigate.
We had learned to dock.

Perhaps the most important way

was to create the team of
people, the band of brothers,

that were ready to go do Apollo
when the time came.

Ignition.

Engine start.

We've got a real lift-off.

By the time we finished
Gemini program,

we had a solid foundation
in technology,

we had the solid foundation
in a team,

and we had the confidence to use
the team and the technology now

to take the step --
go to the moon.