Original subtitles

The images you will see in this film

were brought back by the Apollo astronauts

from their journeys to the moon.

Between 1961 and 1972,

some 400,000 people worked on NASA's moon landing program.

The moon landing remains mankind's greatest technological achievement to this day.

This is the story of the daring moon pioneers

from Apollo 1 to Apollo 17.

The official numbering of the Apollo missions began with Apollo 4.

Unmanned launch of the booster rocket in 1967.

A year later, the launches of Apollo 5 and Apollo 6 into a low earth orbit followed.

Both were further technical trials of the Apollo Hardware.

In 1967, a routine exercise led to a deadly mishap on the launching pad in Cape Kennedy.

The fatal mission was dubbed Apollo 1 to honor the memory of the 3 deceased astronauts.

Apollo 7 was the first manned Apollo mission.

The mission proved the ability of the spacecraft and crew

to function well during a longer operation.

The main goal was to prove that the command module

was able to link up again with the third stage of the rocket in orbit.

Docking maneuvers are the most important element of the Apollo program.

The Apollo spacecraft consists of 2 modules and the docked lunar module.

The service module.

This is where among other things the life-support systems,

the reaction control thrusters, and the main propulsion unit are located.

The command module.

This is where the astronauts live and navigate the spacecraft.

Before re-entering the earth's atmosphere,

the command module separates from the service module

and becomes the landing capsule with a heat shield.

The navigation is carried out using a sextant which focuses on fixed stars.

Water particles discharged by the spacecraft's own refuel system

make visibility more difficult.

The crew soon coins a name for the new star constellation.

Constellation Urion.

Space veteran Walter Schirra developed a bad cold on the very first day in space.

His experience from the earlier Mercury and Gemini missions was no help.

In no time at all, the commander had passed it onto his crew as well.

The astronauts have to keep blowing their noses.

Under the weightless conditions in space,

the orange juice and nasal discharge don't automatically flow downwards

when the crew has a cold.

Apollo 7 orbited close to the earth at a distance of about 260 kilometers.

The crew had the opportunity to take hundreds of photos of

the earth's thin atmosphere and the earth's surface.

Many of the places they photographed

had never had a camera lens focused on them until the Apollo 7 flight in 1968.

After 10 days, they had proved beyond doubt

that the Apollo Hardware was safe enough for the long flight to the moon.

Apollo 8 was able to be launched just 2 months later.

Apollo 8 marked the fulfillment of one of mankind's oldest dreams.

The first human beings set off to fly to the moon.

On December 24th, 1968, 3 days after launching,

the Apollo spacecraft braked before swinging into orbit around the moon.

While it was behind the moon, the spacecraft rotated on its own axis.

As it rose above the moon,

the earth came into the astronauts' field of vision.

Oh my God! Look at that picture over there!

There's the earth comin' up.

Wow, is that pretty!

The photo of our blue planet became an iconic picture.

For the first time, people became aware of how fragile the earth is.

This portrait of our home planet is regarded

as the mainspring of the environmental protection movement.

While orbiting the moon,

the astronauts read the first lines of the story of creation from the Bible.

Their Christmas message was heard by over a billion people.

For all the people back on earth,

we, the crew of Apollo 8

has a message that we would like to send to you.

In the beginning,

God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form and void.

And the darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, "Let there be light."

And there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good.

And God divided the light from the darkness.

And God called the light Day,

and the darkness he called Night.

And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,"

"and let it divide the waters from the waters."

And God made the firmament,

and divided the waters which were under the firmament

from the waters which were above the firmament.

And it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven.

And the evening and the morning were the second day.

And God said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place,"

"and let the dry land appear." And it was so.

And God called the dry land earth.

And the gathering together of the waters called he Seas.

God saw that it was good.

And from the crew of Apollo 8,

we close with good night, good luck,

a Merry Christmas

and God bless all of you,

all of you on the good earth.

The task of the Apollo 9 crew

was to test the lunar module for the first time in the vacuum of space.

The petals of the cladding around the third stage of the rocket were blown off.

And the lunar module was exposed in the upper section of the third stage of the rocket.

The Apollo spacecraft turned through 180 degrees to dock with the lunar module.

After docking, the lunar module was extracted from the third stage of the rocket.

The astronauts could start to clamor into the docked lunar module.

The first solo flight of the lunar module in the vacuum of space

after it had been undocked went without a hitch.

Secured only by a nylon cable,

Russell Schweickart left the lunar module.

He took a photo of his colleague, David Scott

who was just opening the hatch of the command module.

The astronauts spacesuits also passed the space test.

The goal of Apollo 10 was to test the lunar module in lunar orbit.

The astronauts tested all the maneuvers necessary for a landing

except for the landing itself.

On their flight to the moon,

the astronauts had no idea that they would have a brush with death during the mission.

The command module approached to within 110 kilometers of the moon's surface.

The lunar module had undocked from the command module

and swept down towards the earth's moon.

The moon appeared close enough to touch

only 15 kilometers separated the lunar module from its surface.

But disaster struck during the ascent back to the spacecraft.

The separation of the descent stage succeeded only after repeated attempts.

Then the reaction control engines and the reaction control thrusters failed.

Commander Tom Stafford assumed manual control.

At the very last moment,

they were able to prevent the module from crashing into the moon's surface.

An American bald eagle, the symbol of the United States

held an olive branch in its beak.

Illustrating that the crew of Apollo 11's intention was to land peacefully on the moon.

The launch rocket, Saturn V was 110 meters high.

Here it can be seen leaving the construction hole.

The Vertical Assembly Building is over 160 meters high,

so high that crowds even formed inside it.

A tracked vehicle carried the 300 ton Saturn V

to the launching pad some five and a half kilometers away.

Neil Armstrong reported back when he received the good wishes.

Thank you very much. We know it will be a good flight.

Good luck and Godspeed.

Astronauts reported, "Feels good."

T-15 seconds. Guidance is internal.

12, 11, 10, 9,

Ignition sequence starts. 6,

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.

All engines running.

Liftoff! We have a liftoff.

32 minutes past the hour. Liftoff on Apollo 11.

Apollo 11 started on July 16th, 1969 at 9:32 local time.

The start of Saturn V can be heard further away

than any other man-made noise except for that of an electronic bomb.

More than 2,000 kilometers away,

seismic measuring stations registered the shockwaves.

The journey to the moon is carried out in several stages by space vehicles,

which are jettisoned as soon as they have fulfilled their function.

This enables the spacecraft to get by with less starting ballast and fuel.

After 12 minutes, the Apollo spacecraft reached its cruising orbit,

180 kilometers above the earth.

Following a system check,

the Go for Translunar Injection Command was issued.

After the command, the third stage was reignited,

putting the spacecraft into lunar transfer orbit trajectory.

The flight to the moon could begin.

During Apollo 11's three-day journey,

live television pictures were broadcast.

The pilot of the lunar module demonstrated

how to put ham spread on a slice of bread under weightless conditions.

In the command module,

the display on the navigation computer shines brightly.

There was no keyboard with letters.

The astronauts have to enter pairs of commands

consisting of a letter-based abbreviation and a number combination.

A complete moon mission requires over 10,500 keystrokes.

In addition to the sextant and the navigation computer,

maps of the stars are also used for orientation in space.

They permit the astronauts to determine their position accurately at any time.

After a three-day journey of over 380,000 kilometers,

Apollo 11 reached its lunar orbit.

Neil Armstrong who was born in 1930

and who was fascinated by flying even as a child

and Buzz Aldrin, son of an army pilot and the same age as Armstrong

prepared to climb into the lunar module.

Then, the lunar module known as Eagle undocked from the command module.

OK, all flight controllers go-no-go for powered descent.

- Retro? - Go.

- FIDO? - Go.

- Guidance? - Go.

- Control? - Go.

- TELCOM? - Go.

- GNC? - Go.

- EECOM? - Go.

- Surgeon? - Go.

CAPCOM, we're go for powered descent.

Michael Collins remained in the command module

and watched his comrades hover away towards the surface of the moon.

Soon the approach towards the Sea of Tranquility

would become a balancing act.

From time to time, the radio contact between Houston and the lunar module broke down.

Completely overloaded, the computer on board module

homed in on a location 4.5 kilometers short of the planned landing area.

Commander Neil Armstrong kept his cool

and navigated a lunar module using the hand controls,

preventing a crash landing in a field covered with the scree.

The flight controllers at Mission Control in Houston held their breath.

Down 2 and a half.

Forward. Forward.

Good.

40 feet, down 2 and a half.

Kicking up some dust.

30 feet, 2 and a half down.

Faint shadow.

Michael Collins still orbiting the moon reported via radio

the fuel levels still available for the Eagle to land.

30 seconds.

With just 20 seconds of fuel in reserve,

the lunar module landed on the surface of the moon on July 20th, 1969.

Contact light.

Okay. Engine stop. ACA out of detent.

Mode control, both auto. Descent engine command override off.

Engine arm off.

413 is in.

We copy you down, Eagle.

Houston...

Tranquility Base here.

The Eagle has landed.

6 and a half hours later.

Neil Armstrong's words went into the annals of history.

I'm now I'm going to step off the LM.

That's one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

The astronauts documented their two and a half hour extravehicular activity

with photos and sixteen millimeter films.

Buzz Aldrin carried a scientific platform across the moon's surface

that later activated the long term experiments.

One special feature was the stereo camera with which was possible

to take 3D photos of the surface of the moon.

The 3D camera made by Eastman Kodak took stereoscopic flash pictures

and provided information about the state of the moon's surface

and dust from two different perspectives.

The shots of the fine lunar sand can only be made on the spot

because it would become detached from the lunar rock during the journey back to earth,

or a formation made purely of sand would lose its original shape.

A memorial plaque attached to the latter of the lunar module

was dedicated before the return to earth.

Here men from the planet earth first set foot upon the moon.

July 1969, A.D.

We came in peace for all mankind.

A heat shield protects the landing capsule from overheating

at temperatures exceeding 4,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

The 3 parachutes open in time and 4 days after leaving the moon,

the Apollo 11 crew landed in a Pacific Ocean.

The recovery of the astronauts took place under strict quarantine procedures.

The space travelers looked like aliens from another world.

They wore biological isolation suits

since there were fears

that the astronauts might have brought germs back with them from the moon.

Initially, they were transferred to

the mobile quarantine facility on board the recovery ship USS Hornet,

where their 21 days in quarantine began.

Not even their wives were allowed to access.

The mobile quarantine facility was carried in a military transport aircraft

to the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston.

The quarantine continued in the lunar receiving laboratory.

There, samples from Apollo 11 were examined

including almost 22 kilograms of rock and moon dust.

For 2 weeks, the astronauts were subjected to a series of medical tests

and interviews about their experiences on the moon.

Parades honoring the astronauts were held in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins won the US's race against the Soviet Union

to stage the first landing on the moon.

They became indispensable evidence of western supremacy.

The tragedy was that their indispensability meant

that they would not experience another spaceflight.

No one was prepared to risk the death of a space hero.

The destination of Apollo 12 was the ocean of storms.

And the start of the trip to the moon was indeed a stormy one for the crew.

November 14th, 1969.

While the crew was on its way to the launching pad,

a violent thunderstorm raised above Cape Kennedy.

President Nixon and his entourage didn't suspect

that they were about to witness a near catastrophe.

In the firing room, over 400 engineers were monitoring the start of Saturn V.

The firing room is part of the Kennedy Space Center Complex in Florida.

Once the rocket leaves the launching pad,

the flight controllers over 1,400 kilometers away in the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston Texas

assume responsibility for the continuation of the flight.

There in the Mission Control Center,

they monitored the entire mission around the clock until splashdown.

Their radio call sign is Houston.

Flight controller, John Aaron at Mission Control

was responsible for the electrical systems onboard Apollo 12.

During the starting phase, lightning struck the Saturn V twice.

Only Aaron was able to interpret the confusing signals on the display correctly.

Neither flight director, Jerry Griffin admission control

nor the crew of Apollo 12,

nor the technicians in the firing room

knew the life-saving solution

when all the electronics in the spacecraft failed

and a mission threatened to abort.

10, 9, 8. Ignition sequence start.

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.

All engines running. Commit. Liftoff! We have a liftoff.

11:22 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Roger. Clear the tower.

I got a pitch and a roll program, and this baby's really going.

Roger, Pete.

It's a lovely lift-off. It's not bad at all.

Roll's complete.

Roger, Pete.

The first lightning strike occurred 36 seconds after launch.

What the hell was that?

Then the second strike.

The firing room was in an uproar.

The telemetry data from the Saturn V went mad.

And back at Mission Control, no one knew what had happened.

The displays on the monitors were indiscernible.

Commander Conrad reported a power failure.

Okay, we just lost the platform, gang.

I don’t know what happened here.

We had everything in the world drop out.

Roger.

I got three fuel cell lights, an AC bus light,

a fuel cell disconnet, AC bus overload 1 and 2,

Main bus A and B out.

John Aaron remembered a simulation which had taken place one year previously.

An obscure switch command SCE to AUX.

Apollo 12, Houston, try SCE to Auxiliary, over.

FCE to Auxiliary. What the hell's that?

SCE, SCE to Auxiliary.

Astronaut Alan Bean flicked the switch,

which then resulted in the instrument displays onboard Apollo 12

once more being connected to the power system.

Comm reports the reading is back.

Okay. I have a good GDC,

and Al has got the fuel cells back on,

and we'll be working on our AC buses.

Right, Pete. Your fuel cells look good down here.

Now we'll straighten out our problems here.

I don't know what happened...

I'm not sure we didn't get hit by lightning.

Apollo 12 reached the orbit.

Think we need to do a little more all-weather testing.

Amen.

We have reset all the fuel cells.

We have all the buses back on the line,

and we'll just square up the platform when we get into orbit.

Roger, Pete. That sounds good.

Hey, that's one of the better sims, believe me.

We've had a couple of cardiac arrests down here too, Pete.

Well, I tell you. I think I forgot it during that boost phase.

We ought to talk to you about all that good happening.

That's a terrible way to break Al Bean into space flight, I'll tell you.

The highlight of Apollo 12 was a precise landing in the ocean of storms.

Just 163 meters away from a lunar probe Surveyor 3,

which had landed on the moon in 1967.

2 years before the landing of Apollo 12.

Commander Charles Pete Conrad dismantled parts of Surveyor 3.

Later, they would be examined on earth for remains of terrestrial bacteria,

which might have survived the harsh conditions on the moon.

The results remain the subject of controversy to this day.

Okay, Houston. I'm going to move the TV camera now.

The pilot of the lunar module, Alan Bean

carried a television camera to a new location.

For a brief moment, the camera tube was exposed to direct sunlight.

The camera was destroyed immediately.

So from the very start of the extravehicular activity,

television broadcasts were no longer possible.

The US television stations may do with actors

who imitated the actions of the astronauts like marionettes.

The sound transmissions were used as stage directions.

Look at the rock. Let's take some of that bedrock.

Despite the TV camera's failure,

the astronauts succeeded in taking fascinating shots of the moon's surface.

Designed by Hasselblad,

the camera documented a 360 degree pan around the spot

where the lunar module Intrepid had landed.

During their return flight to earth,

the crew witnessed a solar eclipse.

The difference was that unlike an eclipse of the sun on earth,

it was not the moon that obscured the sun,

but rather the earth that passed in front of our home star.

Apollo 13 is regarded as NASA's most successful failure.

Jim Lovell, John Swigert, and Fred Haise had to fight for their lives.

Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here.

John, say again, please.

Ah, Houston, we've had a problem.

Main B bus undervolt.

Roger. Main B bus undervolt.

Stand by, 13. We're looking at it.

We had a pretty large bang associated with the CAUTION AND WARNING there.

After almost 56 hours of flight and 300,000 kilometers away from the earth,

oxygen tank number 2 exploded.

The reason was a short circuit in the thermostat.

The adjacent oxygen tank number 1 was also affected.

Its contents emptied entirely into space within 130 minutes.

The flight controllers calculated

that the 3 fuel cells that were fed with oxygen from the two tanks

would only continue to work for a few more hours.

The water and power supply to the spacecraft threatened to break down.

The Apollo 13 mission had to be aborted.

The lunar module Aquarius now became a lifeboat.

The problem was that the Aquarius was only designed for two people.

The carbon dioxide level in the air rose to a dangerous level.

The astronauts risked suffocation.

NASA had to improvise.

Using items on board like bags, sticky tapes,

flight plans and the commander's sock,

they made an adapter for the air purification system.

It wasn't possible for the spacecraft to return directly to earth.

The return journey began with a Swing-By maneuver around the moon.

The temperature in the lunar module sank to 32 degrees Fahrenheit in order to save power.

On April 17th, 1970, 6 days after the launch,

Apollo 13 swung into orbit around the earth.

The lunar module was separated.

It would burn up over the South Pacific Ocean.

On board was a radionuclide battery.

This nuclear battery was in a protective casing that would survive re-entry intact.

And that had been specially constructed for just such a situation.

To this day, the radionuclide battery

containing 3.9 kilograms of plutonium-238 lies at a depth of 6,000 meters on the seabed.

The radio silence caused by ionization lasted longer than expected.

The cause was that the angle of re-entry was flatter than had been calculated

because the scientists forgot to allow for the fact that there was no moonrock on board.

This would have increased the weight of the capsule,

thereby making the trajectory steeper.

Had the astronauts on board burned to death during re-entry?

The agonizing radio silence continued.

Odyssey, Houston is standing by. Over.

Apollo 13 should be not a blackout at this time.

We're standing by for any reports of ARIA acquisition.

Okay, Joe.

Okay. We read you, Jack.

After over 4 minutes of radio blackout,

there were sighs of relief all around.

The lives of the three men on board had been saved.

Apollo 13 showed how the men at Mission Control and the astronauts on board

were able to master an apparently impossible task.

New space heroes were born.

The landing area of Apollo 14 was the Fra Mauro highlands,

which had originally been the goal of Apollo 13.

The lunar module Antares was to be extracted from the third stage of the rockets.

The attempts to link up the command module and the lunar module

dragged on for over 2 hours without success.

3 times in succession, the docking maneuver failed.

Moreover, a peeling layer of paint designed

to reduce heating up of the command module by the sun

impaired their sight.

The reason for the failed attempts at docking lay in the clasps of the docking mechanism.

After the command module has docked with the lunar module,

the clasps are supposed to ensure a stable connection

with the self locking clasps refused to snap shut.

The linkup only succeeded after 6 docking attempts.

The solution was brute force.

The reaction control thrusters of the command module

provided an extra thrust during the docking with the lunar module.

The lunar module Antares separated from the mothership in lunar orbit

and the landing could start.

But soon an unexpected problem occurred.

The computer in the lunar module received a signal to abort.

If the command abort is received during the descent to the moon's surface,

the module automatically begins an emergency ascent back up into orbit.

It was the onerous task of a computer programmer, Don Eyles to solve the problem.

A speck of dust had got caught up in the switch

and had prompted the command abort.

Eyles had to reprogram the lunar module

so that it would ignore the faulty signal.

The software was tested successfully in a simulator in Cape Kennedy.

And then another problem occurred.

The landing radar was not transmitting any data.

Just 5,500 meters above the landing area,

the astronauts succeeded in getting the equipment to function again.

During their extravehicular activities,

the astronauts used an unpowered handcart.

The Modular Equipment Transporter, or MET for short.

At this point in time, the lunar rover hadn't yet been constructed.

The radionuclide batteries supplied the Central Station with power.

The Central Station was the heart of the installation.

It distributed power to the measuring equipment and transmitted data back to earth.

Apollo 14 was packed full of experiments.

The Apollo lunar surface experiments package

was an instrument cluster used to conduct long-term lunar experiments.

The lifespan of the instruments was generally about 1 to 2 years.

They primarily measured seismic activities,

the composition of the solar wind,

the gravitation and the moon's magnetic field.

At Mission Control,

the data were analyzed by scientists from different fields.

On their second day on the moon,

commander Alan Shepard and the pilot of the lunar module, Edgar Mitchell

planned to reach the upper edge of the Cone moon crater.

Orientation is difficult.

In almost 4 and a half hours, the astronauts only travel about 3 kilometers.

They deviate from their route and lose variable time.

Their oxygen consumption is higher than planned.

The astronauts are sweating profusely

because they have to drag the heavy MET through the deep moon dust.

They are running out of time.

The oxygen supply from the life support system

the astronauts are carrying on their backs is running out.

Frustrated, the moon scientists have to abandon their mission of exploration.

On the high-resolution picture of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from 2009,

we can see that the astronauts had missed the edge of the Cone crater by just 30 meters.

Apollo 12 astronauts, Alan Bean,

who became a successful painter after his active time at NASA

recorded in a painting something that has gone down in the annals of sport.

The first game of golf on the moon.

For this, commander Alan Shepard smuggled an iron head of a golf club and two golf balls on board.

He used a sample extraction tool as a shaft.

Straight as a die! One more!

Miles and miles and miles.

Apollo 15 was a mission with a main focus on geology.

For commander Scott, it was the third space flight after Gemini 8 and Apollo 9.

The landing area was the Hadley Rille in the Apennine mountains of the moon.

One of the highest Lunar Rangers.

On July 30th, 1971,

the lunar module Falcon headed towards the curve of the Hadley Rille, the so-called Elbow.

In spite of the mountainous terrain,

the lunar module lands safely on the moon's surface.

The astronauts gazed down into the 370 meter deep Hadley Gorge.

Extinct lever froze and collapsed lever veins formed a fantastic landscape.

The panorama photo shows the overwhelming Hadley Massif,

which is 4.6 kilometers high and 25 kilometers wide.

The astronauts were able to use the lunar rover for the first time.

In spite of the defective front steering,

the vehicle which could travel at up to 12km/h

proved ideal for lunar exploration across greater distances.

Thanks to the lunar vehicle and improved spacesuits,

the astronauts were able to spend a total of over 18 hours outside the lunar module

and collect some 77 kilograms of lunar rock.

Among the astronauts' tasks was also the franking of stamps in the vacuum of the moon.

This marked the start of the stamp affair of Apollo 15.

In addition to the approved envelopes,

the astronauts also took envelopes that had not been approved with them on board,

which they then sold to a German collector for a considerable sum of money.

When NASA learned later what had happened,

a formal investigation against the Apollo 15 crew was initiated.

NASA reprimanded the astronauts.

And this marked the end of the active space careers of Scott, Worden, and Irwin.

First day of issue.

What could be a better place to cancel this stamp than right here at Hadley Rille?

After franking the stamps, commander Scott aimed to prove before a live camera

that the law of falling bodies also applied on the moon.

He proposed dropping a hammer and a feather at the same time.

Despite their different weights,

both objects should hit the ground at the same time

because there was no air resistance in the vacuum prevailing on the moon.

Would Galileo Galilei's law of falling bodies be equally valid on the moon?

Well, in my left hand, I have a feather.

In my right hand a hammer.

I guess one of the reasons we got here today

was because of the gentleman named Galileo a long time ago

who made a rather significant discovery about falling objects in gravity fields.

and we thought 'Where would be a better place to confirm his findings than on the moon?'

And so, we thought we'd try it here for you.

The feather happens to be, appropriately, a falcon feather for our Falcon.

And I'll drop the two of them here and, hopefully,

they'll hit the ground at the same time.

How about that?

How about that?

This proves that Mr. Galileo was correct in his findings.

In honor of the astronauts and cosmonauts who had died during the exploration of space,

Scott placed his statuette, the fallen astronaut on the moon's surface.

The names of the members of the Apollo 1 crew were also listed on the aluminum plaque.

On a cold January day in 1967,

Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee had been on their way to a routine exercise.

It was known as the plugs-out test

and involved the cutting off of all connections

between the rocket and the spacecraft and the service center.

The test was considered quite safe.

Neither a fire brigade nor the tower team for the capsule was in attendance.

As he climbed into the capsule,

Grissom noticed an unpleasant smell of sour milk.

The radio contact kept cutting out.

Then a fire broke out.

Fed by the pure oxygen in the command capsule,

the exit hatch could not be opened

because the pressure inside was too high.

30 seconds after the fire broke out, the astronauts had suffocated.

Their bodies became fused with the nylon suits and seats.

The accident was a grave setback for the Apollo program,

which was still in its infancy.

Numerous changes were made to the Apollo modules and at the spacesuits.

The exit hatch could be opened in an emergency

even when the pressure inside was much higher.

The cables and insulation materials were made fireproof.

The atmosphere on board was replaced by an oxygen-nitrogen mixture in the starting phase.

It was not until over one and a half years later

that the first manned Apollo space flight could take place.

Apollo 7

Before returning to earth,

Apollo 15 released a subsatellite to measure the gravity and magnetic fields.

The subsatellite discovered a magnetism anomaly around the Reiner Gamma Region.

The magnetic field is strong enough to deflect the solar wind.

There was a moment of anxiety during splashdown.

One of the braking parachutes failed to open.

Two parachutes were just adequate to ensure a safe landing.

The goals of Apollo 16 with a lunar highlands and the rocky material

thought to be there from the earliest days of the moon's existence.

While the lunar module Orion was located on the backside of the moon,

the main propulsion unit of the Apollo spacecraft was to be ignited.

But the reserve system gave rise to uncontrollable vibrations.

According to the rules of the mission,

the pilot of the command module, Thomas Mattingly

did not carry out the ignition.

The spacecraft was thus unable to swing into an orbit around the moon.

Together, the flight controllers of the Manned Spacecraft Center in Texas,

the mathematicians at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

and the engineers at North American Rockwell in South California

were able to isolate the problem.

This was followed by simulations that soon paid off.

As soon as the main propulsion unit was switched on,

the vibrations of the reserve propulsion unit were no longer dangerous.

Commander John Young and lunar module pilot Charles Duke

landed in the Descartes Highlands, just six hours behind schedule.

That's a pretty outstanding picture here, I tell you.

Come on, a little bit closer.

Okay, here we go. Big one.

Off the ground. Once more.

- There we go. - Good.

I'd like to see an Air Force salute.

Charlie, but I don't think they salute in the Air Force.

Yes, sir. We do.

And fly high and straight and land soft.

- Okay, Charlie, say when. - Here we go.

Do it again.

One for you.

Okay, wait a minute, one more.

- This looks like a good time for some good news here the House passed - Okay.

- This looks like a good time for some good news here the House passed - Got it?

the space budget yesterday, 277 to 60,

which includes the vote for the Shuttle.

Beautiful.

Wonderful.

Tony, again I'll say it, with that salute,

I'm proud to be an American, I'll tell you.

What a program

and what a place and what an experience.

And I'll say it too.

So am I.

The country needs that Shuttle mighty bad.

NASA used a spectrograph for the distant ultraviolet light.

The camera had to be kept cool

and was therefore positioned in the shadow of the lunar module.

The astronauts aimed at the astronomical targets by hand.

Okay.

Thus the camera showed the earth's geocorona,

which is made of hydrogen

and which extends across up to fifteen and a half times the earth's radius.

Multiple lighting makes the earth's polar lights.

It's the sun that atmosphere and the stars in the background clearly visible.

The moon traveler's undertaken a number of excursions.

They travel a total of over 26 kilometers with the lunar rover.

The intensive geological training on the earth pays off on the moon.

Over 96 kilograms of rock and soil samples are carried back to earth.

Where are you going to wreck it, John?

Charlie, your sample collection bag is open. Rock might come out.

Okay.

Really friable, right?

Man, you found a real rock.

Look at that piece! Let me get it, John.

It is a very friable rock, and it's the most shocked rock I've ever seen.

It's just pure white.

Good show!

Okay.

We see that one went all the way in.

Not quite.

The heat flow experiment is designed

to measure tectonic and volcanic activity on the moon.

An unfortunate error by commander Young

makes this the biggest disappointment on the Apollo 16 mission.

The probe is out of the ground up to B-8.

Right on the line between B-7 and B-8.

Okay. Baker 7 and 8.

We copy, Flight.

Roger.

- Charlie - What?

Something happened here.

What happened?

I don't know.

Here's a line that pulled loose.

Uh-oh.

What is that?

What line is it?

That's the heat flow. You've pulled it off.

I don't know how it happened.

The simulated attempts of repairs on earth

turn out to be too time consuming.

The heat flow experiment can no longer be carried out.

During the return to earth,

at a distance of 310,000 kilometers from his home planet,

the pilot of the command module undertakes a spacewalk for almost an hour and a half.

He retrieves film cassettes from the scientific instrument module.

At the beginning of December 1972, Apollo 17 set off for the moon.

For the first time, there is a scientist on board, the geologist Harrison Schmitt.

It is the first night launch for the Saturn V,

and at the same time, the last mission of the Apollo moon landing program.

17, Houston. You're in Go for orbit. Go for orbit.

Those are kind words, Robert. We'll go for orbit here.

On the way to the moon, the crew took the first picture of the entire earth.

The picture of the Blue Marble was possible

because the launch took place shortly after the new moon.

The crew of Apollo 17 broke a number of records.

Their mission lasted for over 12 days.

The astronauts spent almost 23 hours on missions outside the spacecraft

and they brought over 110 kilograms of rock samples back to earth.

They landed in the Taurus-Littrow valley on the southeastern part of the Sea of Serenity.

The Mare Serenitatis was formed some 3.9 billion years ago,

following the impact of a massive celestial body.

A talent for improvisation was called for

when the right rear wing of the lunar rover broke off.

With the help of adhesive tape, staples and a lunar map,

The damage to the vehicle was repaired.

Without the wheel cover, moon dust flew around the pilots.

And it became impossible to drive by sight.

The powder-like moon dust presented a huge problem.

It was as rough as sandpaper

and crept into the connecting elements of the spacesuits,

making them extremely difficult to close,

so that they were airtight.

It therefore became essential for survival

that the fine powder was carefully brushed off

before clamoring back into the lunar module.

Oh, thank you, Geno. It looks much better.

The television camera also needed constant cleaning.

The fine powder caused the spacesuits to become statically loaded.

Inside the lunar module, the moon dust smelled like burnt gunpowder

because it reacted with the oxygen present there.

The space travelers in Apollo 17 had finally become mine workers.

Orange colored glass beads

were scattered around the 110-meter crater known as Shorty.

The glass fragments are 3.64 billion years old

and are the remains of a volcanic eruption.

For the geologist Schmitt, the discovery was the find of a lifetime.

Oh, hey!

- Wait a minute. - What?

Where are the reflections? I've been fooled.

There is orange soil!

Well, don't move it until I see it.

It's all over!

Orange!

Don't move it until I see it.

I stirred it up with my feet.

Hey, it is! I can see it from here! It's orange!

Wait a minute, let me put my visor up.

It's still orange!

Sure it is!

Crazy!

Orange!

An improvised variation on the song, The Fountain in the Park

made the Apollo 17 astronauts Cernan and Schmitt a world-famous singing duo.

I was strolling on the moon one day...

in a merry, merry month of December

No. May.

May. May's the month.

That's right.

May is the month.

When much to my surprise,

a pair of funny eyes...

Shortly before a lunar module took off for the last time from the moon,

the astronauts left behind a memorial plaque

with a message of peace for all mankind.

Here man completed his first exploration of the moon,

December 1972, A.D.

May the spirit of peace

in which we came

be reflected in the lives of all mankind.

This is our commemoration

that will be here

until someone like us

'til some of you who are out there who are the promise of the future

come back to read it again

and to further the exploration and the meaning of Apollo.

99 Proceeded. 3, 2, 1. Ignition.

We're on our way, Houston.

Rates are good.

The departure of the astronauts Cernan and Schmitt on December 14th, 1972

marked the end of the Apollo missions to the moon.

Since then, no human beings have returned to the moon.

Between 1969 and 1972,

12 space travelers set foot on the moon's surface.

The pioneering deeds of the Apollo astronauts

continue to inspire us right up to this day.

Thanks for watching. I've been practicing English listening.

If you find any errors in this English subtitle, please let me know. Thanks.

2018.05.22. English Dictation & Sync : hillandtoe2@hotmail.com (Byung-wu Park)