All language subtitles for The.Sixties.S01E07.720p.HMAX.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV_Subtitles01.ENG

The communists seemed to be

putting us on the defensive
on a number of fronts.

We are behind and
I'm sure they're making

a concentrated effort
to stay ahead.

We may get beaten more.

There are no quick,
cheap or easy

victories in this game.

We are aware of the

international implications
of the project

but we're not in this
thing for the race aspects.

Reporter:
Rockets for the lunar trip.

This will make this
one seem puny.

Already are
being dumped.

Reporter:
The first strives

toward the stars were
not without tragic setbacks.

(explosion)

You are aware of the risks?

We accept the risk,
what risks there are.

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.

♪ (The Sixties theme,
Composer Blake Neely) ♪

We have good many
very talented scientists.

But we did not make
a major effort

in this area for many years .

And we are now behind
and paying the price

of having the
Soviet Union exploit

a great propaganda
advantage,

with the flight
of the Sputnik,

as well as the flight of
Mr. Gagarin.

(rockets blasting)

Charles Collingwood:
I have Marvin Kalb,

CBS News Correspondent
in Moscow on the phone now.

Marvin, is there any
doubt at all in your mind

that this really happened?

That the Russians really
have put a man in space?

Marvin Kalb:
I'm almost certain

that the Russians did

fire a man into outer space.

His name is Gagarin,
he's 27.

It's a great historic
scientific feat.

At that
time, we didn't really know

whether a human could
survive in space.

In here, boom,

the Soviets send
this guy to space

and he survived.

Sergei Khrushchev:
Yuri Gagarin was

some saying had affected
American proudness

that we are ahead
of everybody now.

It was first
Sputnik set the line.

And now the first
man in space was Russian.

And you can understand that

this was really in
the middle of the Cold War.

There was competition
of the great super powers.

Could
you give us your view, sir?

About the Soviet achievement
of putting a man in orbit?

And what it would mean to
our space program as such?

Well, it is the most impressive,
scientific accomplishment.

I have already sent

congratulations
to Khrushchev

and to the man
who was involved.

Andrew Chaikin:
The space race

wasn't just about space.

It was about our
own sense of security.

It was this new
Cold War battleground.

And so it wasn't
very hard to

realize that if they
could put a man in orbit,

they could also put
an atomic bomb in orbit.

And suddenly,
the sky was menacing.

It means they're
getting ahead of us

and we certainly need to

start working hard
to catch up.

I think it's about time

America woke up
and did something about it.

I believe it's very impressive
for propaganda purposes

but I think if we
put our minds to it

that this country can
top that in six months.

(explosion)

From my
perspective as a kid.

We were in a race
against the Russians.

And the Russians
were the bad guys.

And they were
winning this race.

And that meant they
were superior to us.

And yet they
were the bad guys!

In 1960,
we had astronauts

and we hadn't had
anybody in space yet.

But we were kind
of knocking on the door

and getting ready to go.

We're a little bit behind.

We want to catch up.
We want to be the leaders.

There's
another question, Doctor,

and that is do we
have the stuff to do it?

What would you say
now that we must do to

match this or better it?

Well the United States
program

is based on
the philosophy

that we don't want
to pull a stunt

and risk a man's life.

For this reason,

there are certain
intermediate steps planned

before we put a man in orbit

that this was successful

then and only then will an
orbital attempt to be made.

Glynn Lunney:
The Mercury project

was our first real
response to the Sputnik

and to Yuri Gagarin's flight.

And it was a big deal for us.

I'll tell you because
all of a sudden we had

seven guys and they're
fighter pilot types,

very alpha-male guys,

fun to be around, you know.

It was like being
with rock stars.

Reporter:
It's a gala day in Houston

as its citizens turned
up by the tens of thousands

to give a Texas size welcome
to the U.S. space team.

They were
heroes even before

the public knew
their names.

They became warriors

on behalf of
the United States

against our

most feared enemy,
the Soviet Union.

What they
were hiring these guys for

was for mindset.

They wanted
experienced test pilots

who could observe and report

during a very violent
and dangerous activity.

As we develop
the space craft,

Almost everything we do

deals with the risky
side of business.

We recognize that
we can get killed

flying spacecraft.
Like they can get killed

buying a T-33s or T-38s
or driving my Corvette.

This is one of
the facts of life

for everyone
but we have a job

that is very fascinating
and it's worth the risk.

Al Shepard
was a natural leader.

He got the first
ride into space.

TV Announcer:
The Shirley Temple Program

usually seen at this
time will not be presented

in order that
we may bring you the

following special broadcast.

Within the next few days
from this guarded wasteland,

the first American will
be launched into space.

He will not go into
orbit as Yuri Gagarin did,

but he will ride his
spacecraft 116 miles up,

and there
he'll hang weightless

for about five minutes.

Until gravity pulls him
back through the atmosphere

to the sea nearly
300 miles downrange.

Reporter:
Astronaut Shepard

making his way
to the elevator.

There are some applause

from the hundred
or so people.

And now Astronaut Shepard

ascends the gantry plane,

in a few moments will
be spaced in his capsule.

T-minus ten,
nine, eight, seven, six,

five, four, three, two,
one, zero, ignition.

Lift off.

Lift off at
34 minutes after the hour.

Roger, lift off,

and the clock has started.

All systems are go.

Some
lawmakers want to reward

the Medal of
Honor to Shepard.

All today appeared ready to

spend more money
on our space effort.

All agreed Russia
is still ahead.

But all of this
was beside the point

for the wife of the
first American astronaut.

Mrs. Alan Shepard at
Virginia Beach, Virginia

heard the news with relief.

Reporter:
Mrs. Shepard,

could you tell us,
what are your feelings

on this stupendous occasion?

I don't think
I have to tell you, do I?

I'm just so happy.

It was beautiful, I thought.

The Gagarin flight was a ten.

Al Shepard's flight
was a one or a two,

Okay, in terms of

the capability
that it demonstrated.

So, the Russians clearly
were ahead of us.

So, the attitude is,

we would like to
do something really big.

But small enough so
that we could accomplish it.

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.

No single space
project in this period

will be more
impressive to mankind

or more important
for the long-range

exploration of space.

(applause)

Lunney: I don't know how
he decided we could do that

because when
we heard about it,

we thought that they,
you know, lost their mind.

This is Walter Cronkite

reporting from
the cabin AC131

over Wright-Patterson Air
Force Space Dayton, Ohio.

This aircraft is
executing a maneuver

to make it and everyone
in it temporarily weightless.

This weightless
condition is one of many

that man must
learn to tolerate

or overcome to survive
a first trip to the moon.

Cronkite
was the perfect person

for space because
he was a space junkie.

He ended up covering

the early Mercury missions.

And he just became
encyclopedic on it.

Cronkite:
What are the hazards

and what are our
scientist doing

to ensure a man's survival

in the hostile environment
of outer space?

That is our story,

First man on the moon,

as the Prudential
Insurance Company

of America presents
the Twentieth Century.

This is
Marine Lieutenant Colonel

John H. Glenn Jr.
who within a few days

will be the first American

to fly in an orbit
around the world.

We're embarking on a
completely and new field here

of space science

and I'm happy and proud

that I can maybe
contribute a little bit

in my own way
in this new field.

John Glenn
came along next

and flew the first orbital
flight for an American.

To us, that was a huge deal

because now we
had an American hero.

Who could at least
stand up to Yuri Gagarin.

Godspeed John Glenn.
Three, two, one.

♪ (triumphant music) ♪

Shortly before
he supposed to

re-enter the atmosphere,

the word comes that

there's a possibility
that Glenn's heat shield

has detached from
the base of the capsule.

Chaikin: The only thing
holding the heat shield on
are three straps.

Which are attached
to the retro rockets.

So normally, the plan is

you fire the retrorockets
and then you let them go.

But now, it becomes clear
that if Glenn does that,

he might be burned alive.

He went
through this period of

intense higher build-up

where you lose
contact with them.

I express
the great happiness

and thanksgiving
of all of us

that Colonel Glenn
has completed his trip

and I know that this
is particularly felt

by Mrs. Glenn
and his two children.

It was quite a day.

I don't know what
you can say about a day

in which you see
four beautiful sunsets

in one day.

it's pretty interesting.

Jules Bergman: Now,
we know that Russia need not

and will not have
any monopoly

on man's space flight.

A new spirit has risen in US

missile men and
in our capital.

I know the growing pains
of project Mercury

a host of new
projects will be born.

Reporter:
Dr. Von Braun,

you could have
gone ahead faster

if you had more money
earlier, is that right?

Well, this is true.

Although there are
some limitations,

you know,
there's an old saying,

that it takes nine months
to have a baby.

Good thought.

(laughter)

Big rockets too.

Massimino: Von Braun
was perfectly placed

to get us off the planet.

He was a German,
rocket scientist .

That we are pretty
lucky to get after the war.

Von Braun
was a futurist

and a visionary as
much as anything else.

He built the
team that became

America's brain trust
for rocketry.

I've come
to Texas today

to salute an outstanding
group of pioneers.

For headlines maybe
made by others

in other places.

History is being
made everyday

by the men and women

of the aerospace
medical center

without whom there
could be no history.

When he
was assassinated,

that was a personal blow.

It was a personal blow to us

because he was the guy
who got us on this track.

When President
Johnson came in,

you know, he was going to

continue implement what
President Kennedy had done.

Those two men together

led us to where we ended
up at the end of the decade.

Reporter:
Visiting Cape Canaveral

are the new astronauts.

The men who will
join the original seven

and ride the Gemini
and Apollo spacecraft.

They are the new
pioneers of space.

Lunney:
We were very fortunate

and that our country
always seemed to have

the right person ready

when the right
person was needed.

I give you
Neil Armstrong.

Neil Armstrong
was unflappable.

He was a natural aviator

and Armstrong just
seemed never to be ruffled.

Dave Scott:
Neil's a cool guy

as we all know.

And in fact all of the guys

that I was working
with at the time

are all exceptional pilots.

And so it's great
to be on a team like that

where they're all winners.

Gemini is the space
agency bridge to the future.

With it, we'll learn
man's true capabilities

and drawbacks from space.

And on the last
five Gemini flights,

we'll practice
several different

forms of rendezvous.

The skill needed
to re-supply

spacecraft to change cruise,

the ability to operate
at a new medium

that is both
fantastically rewarding

and terrifyingly dangerous.

Gemini, moreover,

is a rehearsal for Apollo,

the three-man spacecraft
that'll get us to the moon.

Reporter:
The Russian's surprise

with another first and the
first named Alexey Leonov

who they say
became the first man

to walk around in space.

When Leonov,

went outside in
the spacecraft,

we said, "No,
he couldn't have done that."

But the fact
that the Soviets

went outside successfully

and came back was a shocker.

The Soviet
Unions pushed Americans

back was part of
this game at the time.

I would say
for most to the sixties,

we had a sense
of being behind.

Reporter:
It was a perfect launch

and Scorpio 6 is on its
way to make space history.

Sol look, they see us.

-They see us.
-They see us.

S-O-L

No. No. It's not SOL!

-SOS!
-SOS!

Chaikin:
The astronauts just became

part of the fabric
of the country.

It was finding its way
into the popular culture.

If you grew up in the 50s,

you were watching
science fiction.

But if you grew
up in the 60s,

you were watching
it actually happen.

When Ed White
went out on the first EVA.

People were holding
their breath.

Chaikin:
There was a real push

to get a space walk
as soon as possible.

That turned out
to be Gemini 4

and Ed White's space walk

was just a magnificent thing.

He went out and he had this
little nitrogen bottle

to fire this little thruster
that could push this way,
and that way.

So he could
rotate himself around,

you know, and so on.

And it gave the appearance

of being a piece of cake.

There was absolutely
no sensation of falling.

There was very little
sensation of speed

other than the same
kind of sensation

that we had in the capsule.

I think as I stepped out,

I thought the
biggest thing was a

feeling of accomplishment

and one of the goals
at the Gemini 4 mission.

The next major breakthrough

will be the
bringing together

of two orbiting craft.

The Russians have made one
test in their program.

And presumably
have learned something.

We have not yet
made our first test.

So we must be
considered behind.

Ignition.

The primary
goal of project Gemini

was to perform
space rendezvous

without that
no moon mission.

Ignition.

With the lunar
orbit rendezvous technique.

Where the lunar module

flew back up
and rendezvoused

with the command module,

you have to bring these
two vehicles together

and to get them
close in such a way

that it wasn't
easy to dock them.

It took a fair bit of work.

That was the moment

when we pulled ahead
in the space race.

That was something

that the Russian's hadn't
even come close

to doing and
wouldn't accomplish

for a couple more years.

Lunney:
It was unknown

as to how we were
going to do that

when we first started

but we got good at
it and we mastered it

on Neil Armstrong's flight
on Gemini 8.

They found
another object in space

and they docked
them together

to make one big spacecraft,

a rocket on the
nose of the Gemini.

That was amazing.

So, it's night time,

power down,
have dinner

and get ready
for the next day.

And I happen to look
over at Neil's panel

and I saw his eight-ball

his altitude-gyro in a bank.

And I said,
"Neil, we're in a bank."

They got up to
one revolution a second.

So we decided to
undock from the Agena

which we suspected
was the problem

and then the Gemini started
spinning very rapidly

and we figured out that,
"Oh, it's the Gemini."

The only
way that they were able to

get out of this
thing was for him to

fire his thruster.

They had to
stop the spinning spacecraft

before it spun so much
that they passed out.

We got down
alive and Neil said,

"I think we'll both
have another chance

and we did."

Reporter:
The Week in Space.

CBS News coverage
of the astronaut Gene

Cernan's Gemini 9.

Two and a half
hour walk in space

reporting from the
CBS News space center,

Correspondent
Walter Cronkite.

Cronkite: The
space walk is over.

The hatch has been
a locked closed again.

Cernan is safely
back in the spacecraft

as with the disappointing
space walk in the true sense.

The only thing
we did not do well

was EVA,
Extra Vehicular Activity.

For the last flight,
Gemini 12,

Buzz brought in the idea of
training in the water tank.

I was
a scuba diver from 1957.

So, I knew a bit about
dealing with currents

and moving around.
And space walking

It was very delicate
moving and you balance

so you don't exert yourself.

So I started
training underwater.

Buzz put
all that together

and the final EVA was done

very much by the book.

It was a big success.

So I was standing
up in a hatch and

looking around and look at
couple of pictures of Texas

and the astrodome
and I decided to,

"Well, let me just turn
around and take a picture."

Nothing unusual about that,

but that was the
first selfie in space.

Gemini 12, Gemini 12,
Houston...

When Gemini was
over, the team of people,

the planners, the astronauts

and the people
in the control center

were completely synced.

When we came out with
confidence in ourselves.

It was like, "Let us
have this Apollo stuff.

We're going to
take it to the moon

as fast as we possibly can."

I recognized it
that there is some risk.

People might
look at our work

as perhaps dangerous.

But we just try to take
as much as that out

the best we can,
we can during a pretesting

and make sure the
systems are good.

I think we train in it
and work in it so much that

and understand
that well enough that

we don't look at it,
in this view point.

Roger Chaffee:
How far I want to go?

I want to go as far as

NASA goes and during my
useful time as a pilot to them.

I'd like to go
on a moon flight and

if we go to Mars
I'd like to go on that.

NASA looking ahead

to the first manned
Apollo flight.

Now this is an early
version that was intended

only for test flights
in Earth orbit.

And they've had
a lot of problems

with the spacecraft
but they figure

that you develop
any new spacecraft

you're going to have bugs.

The
regularly schedule program

will not be seen
at this time

in order to bring
you this special program.

It was all over

in one stunned
horrifying second.

At T minus 10 minutes
in a simulated countdown .

An electrical spark
apparently shot out

and ignited the 100
percent oxygen on the cabin

on close circuit TV screens.

Horrified engineers
watch the burst of flames

and smoke envelop
Grissom, White and Chaffee .

They heard their last
word of shocking surprise.

The flames enveloped
Apollo one,

the crewmen never
had a chance.

News of the tragedy

reached the
White House shortly

after formal signing
of a 60 nation space treaty.

President Johnson
immediately send condolences

to the families
of the astronauts.

Then he issued this statement,

"Three valiant young men

have given their lives
and service to the nation.

We mourn the great lost

and our hearts go
out for their families."

The Apollo fire

was a shock to those
of us in the program.

It was a real shock.
It was devastating.

How could we put
these guys in there?

How could we not see
how dangerous it was?

How can we do that?

)

(gunshots)

There's reason
to believe that

establishing
a deadline of 1970

for the moon flight
contributed to their deaths.

NASA has acknowledged

that success had dulled
its earlier apprehensions,

but it's determined

not to let it revive
fears paralyze it's

future efforts and that
seems the proper attitude.

Your option
is either to stop

or you keep going
and in some ways

it's almost insulting
to their memory to stop.

What you want to do is
you want to fix the problem

and you want
to keep going.

You want to
achieve that goal

and that's what those
guys would have wanted.

Any endeavor
is going to meet

with tragedy and failure.

That's the way
human kind has progressed,

the complete reorganization
of the Apollo space program

without a doubt happened
because of the fire.

Reporter:
At the Langley Center

an accomplished
lunar acrobat Amos Spady

gave some basic training

and moonwalking
to this reporter.

Yes, I feel like Peter Pan.

He was like
a big kid at a candy store.

When you doing TV

and you want to talk about
something happening

the best way to do it
was go and do it yourself.

And Walter enjoyed it.

Cronkite: What happens
if I fall over on my face?

Nothing at all.

Very simple, very soft,
slow motion inside.

Cronkite: So I fall
over on my face to see?

Right. Let yourself fall.

-Really?
-Right.

Okay, here I go.

Nothing to it!

Won't you to try
jumping a little bit.

Cronkite:
Here I go. Wee!

This is just really
for fun and games.

What do you for
a living, Amos?

(laughter)

Mr. Von Braun,
what do you see

in the way of the vehicle

in which we travel
in space in the next

35 years already
in the last 15 years

we built up this system
of rockets to the point

your model doesn't
even fit in the roof

any longer.

Are we going far
beyond Saturn 5?

I think there would
be a continued need

for some such a workhorse
and just rather

arbitrary how big
it will be on this--

as long they're just big.

The Saturn Five is

like the mythic monument
human audacity.

No matter how you look at,
at this thing was

just a mind blower.

Saturn Five was actually

three big rockets
stacked on top of each other.

With a spacecraft on the
very top with three guys

and you knew that
that sucker was

going some place.

It had a purpose in mind

that it was
going some place.

You get to
December of 1968

and Frank Borman and
James Lovell and Bill Anders

have actually been
training to fly

the first flight
around the moon.

James Lovell:
We kind of feel that

this flight has
set the pace to begin

in earnest our lunar
landing Apollo program.

Walter Cronkite:
The countdown to lift off

for Apollo 8 has now

T-minus 50 minutes
and counting.

This will be a
first manned flight

of the Saturn five,

a largest rocket
man has ever built

and it has the explosive
potential in its fuel

of 2.5 million
tons of TNT.

Broadcasting launch
of the Saturn Five,

I never got over it.

We have ignition
sequence start.

And I'm supposed to be

talking all through this.

The engines are on.

It's hard
to talk when you're

holding your breath.

Three,
two, one, zero.

Three,
two, one, zero,

we have commit,
we have lift-off.

3:01 AM Eastern
standard time.

We have cleared the tower.

There's
the rumble in our building.

It looks good.
It looks like a good flight.

This building is shaking

under us.
A camera platform is shaking

but what a beautiful flight.

TV Announcer:
We interrupt this program

to present another
and a series

of onboard television
transmissions

from the Apollo 8
Space Capsule

brought to you by Tang

the instant breakfast drink

chosen for Gemini
and Apollo astronauts.

Apollo 8 now

175,450 miles from earth

and about to be pulled
in by the moons gravity.

The astronauts have
now truly left the earth

and its gravity.

For this second telecast,

Frank Borman has
fixed the TV camera

on a bracket below
his window and

turned Apollo 8
so it faces the earth.

And now, here are
the television pictures

coming through from
the Apollo control.

Houston,
what you're seeing

is the Western Hemisphere.

I can see it's the
south western part

of the United States.

And it appears now that
the east coast is cloudy.

Apollo 8 around
Christmas of 1968

showed us the
craters of the moon

and then showed us
the earth at the same time

and spoke to us and
read the Book of Genesis.

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 the Seas, and
God saw that it was good.

And from the
crew of Apollo 8,

Merry Christmas and
God bless all of you,

all of you on
the good Earth.

The far
side of the moon

and the Earth rise.

For the first time
seen by human eyes

as well as that
television broadcast.

From in orbit,
around the moon--

I'm sorry on Christmas Eve?
Holy smokes.

Who wrote that?

Who's the genius
who wrote that script?

Pretty dang good.

(cheering)

1968 was a tough
year for the country.

Assassinations,
bad stuff happen in Vietnam

and people were kind of down.

It was a great
way to end it with

people going around
the moon for the first time.

No one's been
able to do it since

beside United States.

(cheering)

Then, Apollo 9
goes up a few months later,

does everything
it needs to do

in earth orbit,
then, you have Apollo 10

that does the same
thing that Apollo 9 does

but except that
they fly to the moon

to do it in lunar orbit.

The lunar module goes down to

within a few miles
of the lunar surface.

That works fine,
they come back.

No one has paid
attention to Apollo 10.

Apollo 10 risked
death like everybody

and it's just
this forgotten thing.

Yeah. They did that too.

What a shame they didn't
get to land on the moon.

And just a few months later,

it came down to Apollo 11.

What kind of a physical
sensation do you expect

that actual touchdown?

I hope.
I hope that...

it will be relatively mild

and there's no
intention to make

a smooth touchdown
the way we'd

prefer to come in the
several feet per seconds

so that we will
collapse the struts.

So that the bottom step
on the ladder

is close enough
to get down to the moon and

even more important
close enough

to get back up.

TV Announcer:
This is CBS News

coverage of
Man on the Moon.

It was almost like
this enormous fly wheel

of momentum gathering speed

and a level of
public attention

on those three astronauts

and especially
on Neil Armstrong

because by that time,
we all knew that

Neil was going
to be the first one

to put his foot on the moon.

Reporter:
Aldrin will follow

just 20 minutes later.

And Armstrong will
take that first step

in more ways than one.

Here they are as they
left the man's space center.

That's about
6:30 this morning.

They're the van backs up

through this cage elevator

and takes them
up a couple of floors

to the second level.

Then, out of that cage

and across a few feet
through a barge hatch

and a permanent
launch structure.

The countdown going
well 28 minutes

and counting.

He's got a picture there of

former president
Johnson and Mrs. Johnson

as they arrived at
the VVVIP viewing area.

Jack King:
Apollo transfer is complete.

We're in an internal power

with the launch
vehicle at this time.

T-minus 15 seconds away

from the Apollo 11 lift off.

And it's guidance
is internal.

ten, nine,
ignition sequence starts,

six, five,
four, three, two, one, zero.

Houston:
Velocity 2,195 feet per second.

Houston, be advised
the visual is go today.

Yeah, they finally
gave me a window to look out.

Apollo 11, this is Houston,

you are confirmed
to go forward.

Back here at
CBS News

space headquarters,
we're watching the countdown

to the landing on the moon

and waiting for the
spacecraft to come around

on this side
of the moon again

so we can get confirmation

that all is
still going well.

Eleven, you got a
pretty big audience that's live

in the U.S.,
it's going to live to Japan,

Western Europe and
much of South America.

Appreciate the great show.

They weren't
just going on a

pleasure cruise here.

They had a lot
of work to do.

They needed to be
on the top of their game,

working together as a crew

and with the
control centers.

So they are probably
in the zone.

I would have been
in the zone big time.

Everything
had been tried

on the missions leading
up to that point,

except the landing itself,

and there was a
good reason for that.

The landing was
the most complex part

of the entire
Apollo mission.

It was essentially
a controlled fall.

Another thing go
for the landing, 3,000 feet.

Aldrin:
We're go, we're go.

Armstrong:
Down two and a half.

Neil Armstrong
took over manually

during the descend

because they were
coming down in an area

that was the
planned area to land

but there were boulders and
some other kind of stuff.

So he had to maneuver
the lunar lander

away from where
it was headed to land.

Armstrong:
Picking up some dust.

Which also
caused everybody

to start worrying
because they had

a finite amount of fuel.

And so for him
to do what he did,

cause everybody
on the ground

to get really nervous.

Aldrin:
Go forward,

drift into the right
a little.

Armstrong:
And back right.

Houston,
Tranquility base here,

the eagle has landed.

Houston:
Roger, Tranquility,

we copy on the ground.

You got a bunch of guys
about to turn blue.

Cronkite:
Armstrong is on the moon.

Neil Armstrong,
38 year old American,

standing on the
surface of the moon

on this July 20th, 1969.

Neil Armstrong:
It's one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

It was a moment

when it seemed like
the whole country

and even most of the world

kind of stopped
in their tracks

and just took all this in

with a sense of wondering,
almost disbelief.

My god, can this
really be happening?

Aldrin:
Oh that looks beautiful

from here, Neil.

Armstrong:
It's different

but it's very
pretty out here.

Okay ready for me to
come out ?

All set.

Aldrin: Okay,
I'm on the top step.

You got three
more steps and then a long one.

There you go.

Armstrong:
We'll read the plaque

that's on the front
landing gear of this land.

"Here men from
the planet Earth...

first set foot upon
the Moon July 1969, A.D.

We came in peace
for all mankind."

The real
moment of truth is next.

They still have to get
off the surface of the moon.

They push the button
on the computer

and then bang!

They see the moon
receding from them.

And then some minutes later

they're back in lunar orbit

and they're on their way to

rendezvous with
Mike Collins.

Although
the entire world

who watched the
Apollo 11 astronauts

take man's
first steps on the moon,

the predawn darkness
of the Mid-Pacific

obscured their return to
Earth.

So it was already daylight

when the carrier Hornet
approached

and found Colombia,
in the ocean's swells

President Nixon:
Neil, Buzz and Mike,

I want you to know that

I think I'm the luckiest
man in the world

because I have the
privilege of speaking

for so many in
welcoming you back, to Earth.

(cheering)

It was
such a huge event

in our country's history.

I grew up in New York,
this is bigger than

the Mets winning
the World Series in 69.

I remember as a little
boy looking up to them,

thinking that these guys
are even cooler than,

you know, the Beatles.

Now these guys were
the epitome of cool.

There was
another one of these

suckers scheduled
for November,

so the people who did it
were so busy

getting ready
for the next one.

They didn't have time
to celebrate the first one.

Houston:
Apollo 12, Houston.

Richard Gordon Jr.:
Hello, Houston.

Yankee Clipper with Intrepid in
tow has arrived on time.

We didn't actually
spend much time

asking ourselves about
the greater meaning of this.

We weren't aware of

what was going
on around the world

in terms of the
reaction of people.

We just pressed right on.

Charles Conrad Jr.:
I think see my crater.

Wait, there it is,
there it is.

Son of a gun, right down the
middle of the road.

Alan L. Bean:
Outstanding! 42 degrees, Pete.

It wasn't till afterwards

that we begin to realize

the depth of the
significance of it.

Until Apollo 11,

the moon was
unattainable mystery.

But after Apollo 11,

the moon is
mysterious no longer.

Hanks:
All of human experience

will be divided
into two eras.

Before man walked
on the moon

and after man
walked on the moon.

The whole world was together

at that particular moment.

It was an example that

in spite of all that's
going on down here

in spite at all that
we're going through,

there is hope.

My generation

is the generation
that changed the moon

from an object to a place.

And that will never
happen again,

there can only
be one first time.

The space program
in the 1960s,

it set the standard
of what we could do.

Even say today,

"We can land
a man on the moon

but we can't do this."

You know, when we think
within the space program,

we're like, "Go to Mars?"

Yeah, we can go to Mars.

We went to the moon in 1969,
we can do anything.

Armstrong:
To all those Americans

who built those spacecraft.
Who put their heart

and all their abilities
into those craft.

To those people,

tonight, we a give
a special thank you.

And to all the other
people that are listening

and watching tonight,
God bless you.

Good night from Apollo 11.

♪ (The Sixties theme,
Composer Blake Neely) ♪