July 19, 1969 / “Happy, Proud, and Thrilled”

matches the weather outside gray. Their calms with the outside world are spotty and garbled every day. They've already been in the capsule for hours and very likely have many more to go. Their countdown clock is frozen while repair teams work the radio issue. As they wait for the training simulation to resume, something catches one of the astronaut's eyes. He glances down and suddenly recoils in terror. A freight electrical wire has sparked, igniting the combustible nylon material of

the seats in which the astronauts are strapped tight. Within seconds, the fire has surged up the walls of the capsule. Flames begin to lick the television camera recording the interior of the command module. The atmosphere inside the command module is pure oxygen. While oxygen itself is not flammable, high concentrations of it make the things it permeates ignite at far lower temperatures than the otherwise would They also burned Hotter and faster technicians fight to get the hatch open.

Just seventeen seconds after the astronauts first report the fire, the building pressure inside the vessel ruptures. The command module's baultants are. One thing is hauntingly clear to everyone. The astronauts inside the Command module have fallen silent. There are times when achieving greatness requires the highest possible sacrifice. Apollo ones, Ed White, Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee were the first

American astronauts to perish in the line of duty. They paid the ultimate price, but it was not in vain. During my flight training in the Navy, we were constantly told that our manuals and training procedures were written in blood. Some of those who came before us paid for the lessons we were learning with their lives, ensuring none of us would be lost in that way. Ever, again, the same was true after the Apollo one fire. Everything changed

after that. The success of NASA and Apollo eleven would be on the backs of every man and woman who sacrifice to push the boundaries of human exploration. In this episode, we're going to take a look at the sacrifices made not only by Neil, Michael and Buzz, but also by everyone who supported them professionally and personally. It's July nineteenth, nineteen sixty nine, day four of the Apollo eleven mission,

the day we reached the moon. Cliff Charles Worth and the Green team of flight controllers as just relieve, Glenn Lenny's Black Team capcom now is Bruce McCandless. Paulo eleven is twelve thousand, four eighty six nautical miles from the Moon, approaching at a velocity of four thousand eighty seven ft per second. Follow eleven, the follow eleven Morning again eleven, Good morning. When you feel like God being, I've got

a flight plan updates. Remember when I told you in the first episode that we were going to be following the events inside a Paulo eleven in real time, day by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute. Well that's not exactly true. At seventies three hours zero zero man stop CTC at approximately zero degrees role. But it is when you're coming up on zero degrees role angle around seventy three hours, you'd like you to stop what

you're hearing right now. That's most of what this podcast would sound like if we really did it minute by minute. Often nothing much happens until it does. Yeah, you read eleven. It's right to find the mount but a very excite uh, the very market of these dimensional aspects of happens come on. It's how behind the boon glazes the guys live all the way around the molony and grandmothers. Where there's no Earth time are Sun time. Apollo eleven is being treated

to their own personal solar eclipse. This isn't an eclipse that's visible from Earth, but rather one the astronauts inadvertently created for themselves. They are now close enough to the Moon that it appears larger than the Sun, and they have fallen into its shadow. You heard Buzz mentioned the Sun's corona. That's a diaphonous aura of plasma that surrounds

all stars, extending out for millions of miles. It's invisible except during an eclipse, right now the astronauts are watching ribbons of light shimmer and dance around a massive black hole that is the Moon in complete silhouette has been a real change for us. Now we're able to see stars again, unrecognized constellations for the first time. All the way here, we've only been able to see stars occasionally.

He goes, it's turned in the night up there, really isn't We imagine deep space would be a wash with stars, but with the Earth reflecting sunlight like a massive mirror, it has made that nearly impossible, except now with the Sun's light trapped behind the Moon. In mission control, everyone is living vicariously through the cruise off. We've been having raised somebody really spectacular and view worth the price of the drip all or a lot of us down there

that would be willing to come along. As a Pauloa Levin continues to enjoy the show. Houston kicks off their day with the news. McCandless decides to tag team it with backup lunar module pilot Fred hayes, it looks like it's going to be impossible, and get away from the fact that you guys are dominating all the news. Mccaron an prop and Russia's headlining the Manja and calls Neil bar of the ship. Pravda was the official newspaper of the Soviet Union. It still exists today, though it's no

longer a mouthpiece of the state. Czar Of was the honorific title given to the leader of Russia before the revolution in nineteen seventeen. West Germany has declared Monday to be Apollo Day. School Children in Bavaria have been given the day off. Post office clerks have been encouraged to bring radios to work, and Frankfurt is installing TV sets in public places. BBC in London is considering a special radio loan system to call people or the TV sets in cases a change in the av a time on

the moon. Clearly, Apollo eleven has captured the imagination of the entire world. This will be the most significant where were you when moment at all of human history? And everyone wants to bear witness, even the kids at camp down in the news when Mike Junior was quoted as replying yeah when somebody asked him if the Steady was going to be in history, then after a sharp pause, he asked, what is history? You might be interested in

annoying that. A Houston astrologer, Ruby Rahm says that all the signs are right for your trip to the moon. She says that Mail is clever, Mike's good judgment as Buzz can work out into good problems. Thank you us there. We appreciate that Rogers and Soil Michael Jr. History or no dream better baby, So Roger will pass it along. Like Apollo eleven is nearly to the moon. But we have just long enough to talk about what life was like back on Earth for Neil, Buzz and Michael and

their long suffering families. That these families, especially the astronauts were living sort of double lives. They were their home lives in Houston, and then the guys who are flying their hot p thirty eight down to Cape Canavera where they were training, and so they were absentee fathers for the most part and sort of celebrities down in Florida.

And so the women had to deal with the very unique challenge of keeping a family grounded while also sort of promoting this space age dream that America was projecting out into the world. That was Lily Copel. I'm a writer and journalist and I wrote a book called The Astronaut Wives Club. While the astronauts lived in Houston, a large amount of their training took place in Florida, forcing them away from their families for most of the week.

In a very real sense, the astronaut's wives were single mothers. Barbara's Cernan, who was the wife of Jean Cernan, the last man to walk on the Moon, said quite poignantly, if you think going to the moon is hard, try staying at home. They ran the house, juggling the finances, mowing the lawn, fixing anything that broke, and helping the kids with their schoolwork. Andy Aldrin, buzz and Jones's youngest of three, was eleven the year his father left for

the Moon. It wasn't at home all that all. That's just what my dad's job was. My mother was incredibly strong, incredibly diplomatic, incredibly compassionate. You know, I'll be honest with that. She emerges out of this whole thing as my biggest hero, because it was incredibly difficult for her to manage all the things that she had to manage without alarming the kids. You know, the fact that I can say all of this seemed normal is an absolute tribute to my mother.

The wives soon realized that they were each other's greatest source of strength and supporting together's will was a name the journalists gave the community. So women were sort of living in this little tribal pack down in Houston, helping communally raise the kids back in Houston. Because the men

were so busy training for their space flights. The wives had a little motto for their own role, and that was happy, proud, and thrilled because they next felt that they could reveal the enormous anxiety, the fears of what they were experiencing. This sisterhood of joint experiences, common pressures, mutual fears, and shared sacrifices was, by their own admission, a bit like living in a neighborhood run by the Stepford wives. They've always dreamed of the happiest investment they

have ever made. There were five houses that were adjacent to the back of our house. Three of them were astronauts. You couldn't swing a dead cat at our elementary school without him an astronaut's kid, so it was normal. I thought my dad was cool because you get pole vauled, not because he was an astronaut. Having astronauts around was just normal for me. It was normal for everybody in our community. None of the astronaut wives knew what they

were in for. When they got married. They expected the quiet, ordered life of military spouses, but now they had to attend ribbon cuttings and high society festivities. They had to plaster smiles on their faces during ticker tape parades and make small talk with first ladies. Their neighborhoods were invaded by press and tour buses, and it wasn't unusual to find tourists climbing trees or even jumping backyard fences just to get a look at them. The astro families had

to be flawless. They had to project an image of the all American Christian family because the world was watching. The women of this family seemed to feel that they owe it to the men of the family to look relaxed, rested, and attractive at dinner time. And this was the height of the Cold War, and there was the feeling that America had to really sell and project to the world all the ideals of the country, of the American dreams. The choice lies between two opposing ideologies. On the one side,

socialist communism on the other side, democratic capitalism. The astronauts and their families were on the forefront of this propaganda mission. They were almost like America's first reality stars. You know. There was such pressure um from NASA, from the US government to maintained this perfect nineteen fifties going into the sixties image, sort of the leave it to Beaver family.

It was bad enough that the families had to meet NASA's impossible standards anytime they stepped out the front door, but thanks to an exclusive deal with Life magazine, they also had to maintain this illusion behind the closed doors of their own homes. Life reporters were literally embedded with the families before and during missions. Everything they did, said, or war was scrutinized. It was totally awesome. The Life guys were just great guys and they just wanted to

be my buddy. I enjoyed it. I think it's terrified my mom. Well. The stories about the astronauts that appeared in Life magazine were accurate. The pictures were anything, but they frequently showed Neil, Buzz and Michael hanging out, laughing and cooking together. But these men didn't do any of that, not in real life. It was all made up, staged

by the magazine to sell copy. Andrew Chacken is a space historian and science journalists and the author of A Man to the Moon, The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, the basis of the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. The thing about a space mission is that you don't have to be best friends to carry it out successfully. What you do have to do is be consummate professionals. And Neil, Buzz and Mike were above all

consummate professionals. They were superb astronauts. They completely respected each other on a professional level, whether or not they connected on a personal level at all. And I think Mike Collins said it best when he used the phrase amiable strangers. Uh. There was certainly no bad blood between them, but they weren't what you would call best buddies. They weren't the kind of guys who would all go out drinking together. But as a professional unit, they were superb and their

skills complemented each other. Eleven, Hearston, You're gold. Roll over at the right go for l o I. Apollo eleven is coming up on the moon fast. Now they are just a few minutes away from l o I or the Lunar orbit insertion burn. The spacecraft is about to loop around the far side of the Moon, where they will ignite the engine to slow them down and allow them to enter lunar orbit. Follow eleven Anderson, all your

systems are looking good. Going around the corner. We'll see on the other side over Radio signals can't penetrate the Moon, so each time that Apollo moves behind the Moon, they will be on their own. At seventy five hours, forty one minutes, and twenty three seconds, exactly as predicted, Earth loses radio contact with Apollo eleven. But just because Houston can't hear the astronauts, it doesn't mean weekend I have.

The Moon is there in all of the splendor my grain im okay here we come up and okay about kay. Clearly Neil wants everyone's full attention. Don't worry, guys, there's gonna be plenty of mood to see. Shortly. Name TIG is time of ignition. The Command Service Module's primary rocket and more than twenty pound thrust engine ignites. This is Apollo control as minutes follow eleven should have started this long burn duration six minutes to seconds. There's a reason

Armstrong needs his crew's complete attention. For every second of this three hundred and sixty two second burn, Apollo eleven is dropping more than eleven naut ago miles towards the Moon. If they are off by even ten seconds, they will slam into the Moon's surface, rinding off moment and connected daron I cam name and Pregner Nick. If something goes wrong, it will be nearly half an hour until anyone in

mission control even knows there's a problem. Okay, y or okay, one off and take bad any bad things I ever said about as a beautiful birds good I get. Luckily, there is no problem. Apollo elevin's engine has slowed the vehicle to a sufficient degree that it's been captured by lunar gravity. It is now only sixty nautical miles above

the surface. Michael makes a joke about m I. T, whose Draper Computer Laboratory built the spacecraft's computers, and on whose computations they were relying to get them into orbit safely. Today we take for granted the computers run so much of our lives, But the idea of trusting your life to a machine was still a foreign concept in nineteen sixty nine. Clearly Michael and the others had some occasional doubts. They don't anymore. With the engines off, they finally get

a chance to cock at the mood. Well, I have to vote with it. Can through that day brown and amazing, Yeah, yeah, yet a fogel about. I'll get all back. Then. Back in mission control, the public affairs officer makes an important announcement. Where past the no burn acquisition time now? And we have received no signal. If Apollo eleven had not slowed itself and settled into orbit, Houston would have expected to reacquire their signal right about now. The fact that they

haven't indicates that the burn was successful. It's very quiet here in the control room. Most of the controllers seated at their consoles, a few standing up, but very quiet. There's one other reason Apolo eleven may not have re established contact. It could have crashed on the dark side of the moon. Everyone in mission control waits silently. The guys in the capsule don't realize the apprehension building on Earth.

They are too spell dound by their view. Look the great None of those meteors come by right there, get the mountains going around? I guess clear, monsters, we think of the Moon as a flat thing. From our vantage point on Earth, we can't make out any definition. But there are mountains on the Moon more than twenty one thousand feet tall. That's a thousand feet taller than Denali, the tallest mountain in North America. The largest note impact crater on the Moon is roughly six hundred miles wide

and eight miles deep. To Apollo eleven, soaring just sixty miles above this astonishing topography, the view is like nothing they have ever seen. Oh well, I need to spend a lifetime just geologizing that one crater alone. You know, that not how I'd like to spend my life, turns, but that big over here coup. Come on, now, the big mounts. Very name a geologist that there? I go crazy. We talked before about what life was like for the astronauts families while they are away, But exactly where the

astronauts up to that whole time? What were they doing that was so important that they missed months and even years of time with their loving families. It has more to do with Michael's geology comment than you might think practice makes perfect. It's one of those things that's drilled into every American school child. But it works for more than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. It also works for

space exploration. Everyone working on Apollo eleven, from the crew and the spacecraft to the flight controllers and mission control undertook a rigorous training regiment to prepare them for the first mission to the mood, which makes you wonder, how do you train for something no one has ever done before, and what kind of toll does it take on the families left behind Apollo, their teens Jim love them, and any kind of an occupation that you're going to be

involved in, it's imperative that you have good training before you do the actual things. Tratty was the one thing that made everything successful. I mean, if we were sort elects of days ago and trading, I don't think we had ever done it. Amy share Title is a spacecraft historian, author, and YouTuber extraordinaire. Nothing was left up to chance. No one really knew it was going to happen for the

first time people walked on the Moon. So NASA's approaches basically take every question out of the equation and run through absolutely everything and make sure we know how everything's gonna work. Neil, Buzz and Michael trained intensely for six months for their nine day mission. It was, according to Michael,

the busiest six months of their entire lives. From January to July of nineteen sixty nine, the crew of APAUL eleven log more than three thousand, five hundred and twenty one training hours were roughly forty two hours a week per man. They also did an additional twenty hours a week studying. All astronauts received intensive academic training to assure that they have achieved a common level of spaceflight knowledge.

The least sexy, yet arguably the most important part of the astronauts training took place in flight simulators, which perfectly resembled the Command and un modules down to every last switch and blinking light. In the complex computer operated electronic mechanism called the Command Module simulator, the astronauts learned singly and as a team, systems and characteristics of their three

man ship. In these simulators, the men practiced rendezvousing and talking with other spacecraft, and of course, landing on the Moon. The outside was a large mosaic of the actual place we were going to land and and hanging over that was a TV camera that was controlled by the controls in the lunar module, and I could actually control the camera going down looking for places of land, and the actual simulation of the speech and things like that of

lunar module. It was actually a marvelous device. It was very accurate. Their instructors programmed system malfunctions, emergencies, and various disasters to see how quickly and proficiently the crew could react and how well they knew the spacecraft and its systems. Neil put in more than ten weeks of eight hour days in the LAMB trainer. Buzz put in even more. Michael did half of his Command module simulator training by himself.

Since he was never going to see the inside of the lemb during the mission or walk on the Moon, there was no need for him to learn any of that. In all, the men calculated that they spent around two thousand hours or eighty days in those simulators. According to Michael, there was only one angry moment throughout the men's training. During one of the simulated lunar descents, Neil was ordered

to abort the landing after the spacecraft began malfunctioning. Neil disagreed with the order, thinking he could still land safely. He was wrong. The lambs smashed into the lunar surface, breaking apart that night with several glasses of Scotch and him. Buzz angrily ripped into Neil. It got so heated that Michael slipped away to let them have at it. He never did learn how they resolve things, but the next morning they were back to their normal cells as if

nothing had ever happened. Well, we think of Apollo eleven as the Moon ending mission. The truth is that Neil and Buzz spent less than three of their more than one hundred and ninety five hour long mission gallivanting across the lunar surface. As such, training for their lunar v A represented only four of their overall preparations. Simulators are used to train astronauts to work in the one sixth

gravity on the surface of the Moon. They did some things that they supported astronauts on their sides from cables and had them run around a vertical track to see about mobility. These the vomit comment, which is you know flies and parable is to give you actual periods of reduced gravity like on the moons, they could figure out how to deploy instruments, how to walk. To become familiar with the sensations of zero gravity or weightlessness. The astronauts

ride an aircraft applying precise trajectories. They also practiced in a precursor of what is known today as the neutral buoyancy simulator. Scuba training has given since another method of simulating weightlessness is by working under water in special sally constructed tanks. The astronauts enter the water weighted to provide neutral buoyancy. The astronauts meticulously rehearsed the entire moonwalk. NASA created fake indoor moonscapes, complete with a full sized lunar

module mock up encased in their spacesuits. The men practiced exiting and entering the lamb and ran through every aspect of the mission, from the tools they would use, the experiments they would deploy, the rock samples they would collect, and even the flag they would plant. However, not all of their training took place indoors. Classroom work is supplemented with field trips. The astronauts collecting samples on the surface of the Moon will have the equivalent study of a

master's degree in geology. This is Harrison Schmidt. I'm astronaut TU on Apollo sevent team. Before Harrison Schmidt became an astronaut and later the only professional scientists to ever go to the Moon, he was a geologist with a U S Geological Survey at NASA. He pulled double duty training future moonwalkers and what kind of rocks they should look for once they were there. We tried to find earth analogs for some of the things that we thought they

might encounter at the particular site. While their families remained in Houston, the astronauts spent a lot of time trapesing around the world, from Iceland to Hawaii, Texas to Arizona. I tried to impart as much of the logic of field geology as possible, because that's basically what they would be trying to do on the Moon, is to observe and sample and document their observations. So how did Neil do?

I was already very impressed with Neil Armstrong. He was a great observer, and so I expected him to do a very good job, and he did. It was outstanding. John He collected one of the finest suites of samples that has ever been collected, including my mission on Paulo seventeen back in orbit around the Moon. A Paulo eleven has finally rounded the bend in its catching sight of the Earth. And if you can see the Earth, it means the Earth can see them. All right, I want

very good nominals. I'll get out and everything looking good. It was right perfect. The astronauts will now get their first view of the area in which they will set down tomorrow, the southwestern corner of a lava plane, dubbed the Sea of Tranquility. That's getting The landing approach was great, much like the pictures, but like the difference between watching a real football game and one on dud for actually

be in here as you just heard. The Apollo eight and ten missions snapped hundreds of images from the chosen landing zone. This allowed scientists to determine the safest path of approach and the flattest area in which to land. R send her and M. We certainly wish we could see it firsthand. Also or over Mount Maryland. President Point. Mount Maryland, which sits at the southeast corner of the Sea of Tranquility, was named by astronaut Jim Level during

Apollo Weight in honor of his wife. Its size and orientation make it an easily recognizable landmark for Tomorrow's descent. The astronauts were not the only ones who trained extensively for this mission. Unlike Neil Buzzin Michael, the flight controllers who worked in the cathedral may have been able to go home to their families every night, but they're hours where every bit is demanding and their jobs every bit

is stressful. They sacrificed a lot to ensure that the men in the spacecraft made it safely to the Moon and back again. While four separate mission control teams rotated through the different shifts to cover the entire mission, We're going to focus on the White team, the one Jean Krans led. Jean's team had been given the coveted lunar landing shift. Geene likes the people he's working with. He chose them personally. Mission controls Simulation Supervisor, or SIMSUP was

Dick Kuss, rail thin former Army sergeant. From a back room full of computers, sending realistic mission redoubts to each of the consoles. Coups could simulate just about any conceivable scenario. Eight weeks before the launch of Apaul eleven Jean's White team was confident and self assured. Coups put an end to that. The coup must us looked at us and said, that team's too cocky, that team needs to get a few lessons, and he called his team up, and let's

put the screws to these guys. Seconds into their very first session, they started showing problems with the lens as centenie. If the lamb put down on the lunar surface, it might never get back off again. Geane and his team aborted the landing, and cous agreed with their decision. On one of the next simulations, so many things began going wrong that the White team began drowning in data. They

couldn't sort through it fast enough. By the time they recognized that the lamb was descending too quickly, it was too late. The lamb was splattered across the creators. The second month of training, we had a particularly bad day where we couldn't seem to do anything right. We went

through a bad, bad, bad day. We had crashed, and we had crashed, and then to avoid crashing, we'd become unnecessarily conservative and we'd aboard when we could have landed, and by the end of the day we sound pretty bad. And this is the way it went again and again. Cous was relentless. Gine and his men were simply not fast enough to keep up with all the problems Couse was sending their weight. Jeane felt unsure of his every call, second,

guessing his every instinct. Worse, his indecisiveness was wearing off on his team. It was there only a couple of weeks, but it seemed a lifetime where we could not do anything right. It wasn't long before the Powers that Be asked Jane if they needed to push Upaul Levin's launch date. The White Team didn't appear ready. Jean insisted they would be, and training was now and Apollo was about as real. I mean, you would get the sweaty palms and the

pressure was on in a training episode. It no longer was training, It was real, and the same emotions, the same feelings, the same energies, the same adrenaline would flow and was was causing all this time. But he decided my team wasn't ready, so I kept beating us up and beating us up and beating us up. The White Team hunkered down. They practically lived at their consoles like the astronants. They were training so hard to keep safe. They spent more time at work than with their families.

But the tide was finally beginning to turn. They were making real progress, responding faster now morning control. The simulations weren't getting any easier, but they were getting better. They had successfully landed the lamb a half dozen times now, and finally they felt ready. On July five, just a week and a half before the launch of Apollo, Levin Geane and his White team sat down for their final simulation. The final training runs, invariably are supposed to be confidence builders.

It's to the point now, this is the last time we're gonna have an opportunity. Generally, things are going to go right during the course of the mission. So let's stay within the box. Let's build the conf done so this, Dame, etcetera. Who's didn't see it that way? The test started with a lunar module beginning its descent, and midway through the descent training we saw a series of computer program alarms, and we had never seen these before in training. We

had never studied these before in training. Down in front of the guidance position was twenty six year old Steve Bales. According to Jean, Steve was the quintessential nerd with thick glasses unlike most people. Jean actually meant that as a compliment. I was on the guns console and a program alarm came up, and I've never seen it before. My backgroom expert jer Garment had never seen it before. The alarm

read twelve oh one. Since Neil and Buzz were already in Florida in quarantine, astronauts Dave Scott and Jim Irwin, we're filling in for them. In the simulated LAMB, Steve heard them demanding an explanation for the alarm over the radio, but he didn't have one to give them. Steve began rushing through the pages of a soft to wear handbook on his desk looking for an answer. He knew that at any moment, Jean was going to be breathing down his neck. His mind flashed back to that lamb splattered

on the moon. Every second counts. Finally he found it, twelve o one executive overflow. The computer was overloaded with tasks and threatening to crash. But why everything seemed to be working just fine? Suddenly another series of alarms rang out. It was the same alarm again. What the hell was going on? Steve couldn't wait any longer. He had to make a decision. He decided to air on the side of caution. My guide, this officer, Steve Bales, decided we

had to abort. I was really seething. I mean, this really frustrated a sick There's no I mean, he's the Boston in training. He's going to call the shots, and I was really ready to kill CU's at this time. I said, pay him that we thought we had done everything right. And cous comes into us and he says no, he says he didn't do everything right. You should not have aborted for those computer pro m alarms, but you should have done has ignored those alarms. More bewildered than ever,

Jeane cornered Steve Bales. So after the debriefing, GANE want to talk to you, I said, Okay, said, I want you to go find out every one of these lams. I don't care what they are, and I want you to at least make a cheat sheet so that you'll know what to do if they come up. I said, Jane, you've gotta be kidding. I got ten other things to do. We got one to go to the take off of the Saturn. I've got this and doing us on this and this and this. Said, I don't care. I want

you get done. I got a call about ten o'clock that evening that said the training people were right. We had made the wrong decision. Sure the computer was overloaded, but it wouldn't have affected safety of flight or any of the critical systems. They could have landed on the Moon. If Geane and his people had been better prepared, they would have known that. Why did I tell you this story?

When a Paula Levin begins It's lunar de scent for real, the reason will be them glaringly obvious, because while everyone in mission control may have gone home angry, only Dick cous is punishing training will literally save the mission. On July, standing by for acquisition, television is now on. Apollo eleven has come out from behind the mood. The schedule has our trio starting a TV transmission as soon as they catch sight of Earth. It's time to describe the new

view out their windows. Fertility doesn't look very fertile to me. I don't know the name. It may have been named otographers King I'm sane and made one of the one of the early agreemably accurate maps of the class clown Michael making a joke and brainiac Neil showing off, and we're getting a good view of the track leading into the landing right now, Okay, this is very point. Neil is walking the audience through Tomorrow's descent, checking it against

the lunar roadmap. They get a real good, uh look at that Tomorrow afternoon. As a paul lepant passes out of communication range again, the astronauts realize that the exterior skin of the spacecraft is covered in a discolored sheen they can't quite identify. Michael suddenly realizes exactly what they're looking at. Well, lamb and condamnate urine particles all over, No more and not turn away the bone. Michael decides to run another of his experiments, moat things rolling over,

I'm thank you. Having finished peeing into a condom like hose, Michael discards the waist liquid through a urine dump nozzle on the outside of the spacecraft, inspiring them to discuss the unique properties of fluid dynamics in space but they're like, no, one's got a little little curve in it. Yeah, a little paper in it that came to the surface and went there's an epispheric grap I think what really happened is we're rolling, but now it's time for a quick

dinner and then bed were betting. I'm going over to wait at a dude, we're all eight, didn't be twenty nine? This is a pottle control Houston at eighty three hours forty three minutes. So now to the flight of Pollo eleven. We expect the next time we acquire a Pollo eleven, Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and buzz Aldan will have a gun. Their rest period that the last me a week or a d center. Wh okay, I want to get there. My parther amazing quickly at Jack, but I didn't seem

weird at all of me. Look out here to the man going by, well, aren't to day? Went three? Well, Maria, next day? Erect carry on booted day. How the men think they're going to be able to get any sleep tonight is beyond me. And they're not the only ones back on Earth, as the astronaut's families and Gean trans and his White team prepare for bed. Everyone is surely asking the same question, are we ready? Did our training cover everything we're bound to encounter? Did we train for

everything we could? Did we forget something crucial? And the fact is no one can answer that. Tomorrow, Neil, Buzz and Michael will do something no one in all of human history has ever done before. If they're successful, they'll go down in history, their names will be known the world over throughout all time. Or they'll fail and I hundreds of thousands of miles from everyone they love. Day four is over. Tomorrow is Day five July, the day human beings first attempt to step foot on another world.

And as we'll hear on our next episode, it very nearly didn't happen. This podcast is a production of I Heart Radio and trade Craft Studios, Executive producers Ashe Seroia and Scott Bernstein, in association with High five Content and executive producer Andrew Jacobs. Amazing research and production assistance by associate producers Brian Schosau and Natalie Robomed. Our incredible editor

is Bill Lance. Original music by Henry ben Wah Special thanks to Andy Aldrin Lily Copel, the author of the Astronaut Wives Club, historian Amy Shira Title, the author of the upcoming Fighting for Space Apollo thirteens, Jim Level Apollo seventeens,

Harrison Schmidt, and Mission Controls Steve Bales. Special thanks to everyone at NASA who made this podcast possible, especially the incredible technological wizardry of consulting producer Ben Feist, who's responsible for organizing and cleaning the eleven thousand hours of mission audio you're hearing selections from in this podcast. Special thanks also to consultant Gina Delback. Licensing rights and clearances by Deborah Carea. This is a brand new podcast and we're

so excited to be sharing it with you. Help us spread it far and wide, tell your friends, leave ratings and reviews, and chat about it on social media. Our hashtag is nine D I J. We would love to hear what you think. New episodes come out each week, so be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Brandon Phipps. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next episode.