July 24, 1969 / Red Planet or Bust!

where we are. This is the nature of the man who wants to go to the Moon. However, Cronkite reminded the Vice President that he had recently said, I think the United States should undertake a very ambitious new project in space. I think we should attempt interplanetary exploration in

a man's sense. At the time Agnew sat down with America's most beloved newsman, Apollo eleven had just reached dorbent, it would be four more days before it reached the Moon, and no one knew if the first lunar mission would even be successful. Despite that context, the Vice President of the United States felt that American needed to articulate a

broad objective for the future. It's very easy to forego the optimistic, long range approach to these things because you can always find a hundred reasons not to do it or why it may fail. But with the way science has advanced in the past fifty years, I don't think we'd be out of line and saying, for example, we're going to put a man on Mars by the end of this century. And when it came to Mars, Agnew's objective was clear, and I think we should do it

by the end of the century. In nineteen sixty nine, the year nine seemed a long way off. As of the time of this recording was already two decades ago, and we are still decades from landing on Mars. If ever, so, what happened, Why did everything just stop? Where did we go wrong? And is there any hope for humanity's space faring future. About five hours before their planned splashed down, the crew of Apollo eleven wake and prepare for landing.

Like excited kids waiting to open presents on Christmas morning. They are up even before Houston attempts to rouse them. Apollo eleven Good morning. To muse them all, Roger, we saw you're up to turn around, and we're you're probably leading your breakfast there about the maroon bugle, all of fanning by here to give you the morning news. To hear it. It's the last day of the news, okay.

Apollo eleven remains the prime story with the world awaiting your landing today at about the eleven am used in time President Nixon that surprised your wise with a phone call from San Francisco just before reboarded a plane to fly out to meet you. President Nixon is flying out to the aircraft carry you're assigned to retrieve the crew

once they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Eric Canada says it has accepted twenty three hundred reservations for flights to the Moon and the past five days, it might be noted that more than one has been made by men for their mothers in law. The fun stuff out of the way, now it's time to get down to business. Remember that last night before they went to sleep, mission control informed the crew that a sudden storm had moved into their landing zone. The night before the caps that

was forced to land in the Pacific Ocean. There n from Hawaii, there were thunder storms, and so Mass had decided to change to splashdown location just that night before, two hundred fifty miles closer to Samoa, so the ship had to steam all not loan to get down. That's John Wolfram. John was a Navy seal who had already done one tour in Vietnam and was about to embark on another. But first he was chosen to be part of A. Paulo Levin's recovery team. I was the youngest.

I am the team at the town. We'll have lots more from John, the first person to greet the crew of Apollo eleven upon their return. In just a minute. The weather forecast in the landing area right now is two thousands entered high added ten miles when about zero

eight zero at eighteen knots uh. You'll have about three to second foot ways and it looks like they'll be landing about ten minutes before sunrise over okay, Cluck shows where five and a half hours away from entry interface point at which Apollo living winner of the RK's atmosphere. It really gets bigger up there, follow eleven. There the hornet is on the station, just far enough off the target point to keep from getting hit a recovery one

are the coppers. They're they're on station. However, as John wolf From said, the Navy had to race full speed ahead to the new landing area in order to get on station on time. The ship assigned to recover the capsule and crew is the USS Hornet, an Essex class aircraft carrier that saw action up and down the Pacific during World War Two. And I guess we're expanding by for you to whip into the entry attitude. Okay, we just been thanking a couple of lass manufacturers. Roger might

hid that may never come in there. Jim Lovell told buzzing the crew to make sure they come in B E F. That means blunt and forward. That's the heat shield side astor not humor. I can see the moon flight and by the window, and it looked at what I considered to be a correct sign. I follow control at one fifty minutes Follow eleven systems now eleven thousand, four hundred sixty three nautical miles, approaching at the velocity

of seventeen thousand three hut per second. We were just under an our away from the scheduled command module of service Michul separation. If you had fallen into a coma just after the first Moon landing in nineteen sixty nine and awoke in two thousand and nineteen, you could be forgiven for assuming the mission sparked a long and robust era of interstellar exploration At DASA, The truth is, enthusiasm

for the Moon mission started to wane almost immediately. Though we returned to the Moon five more times, it would have been six if Apollo thirteen hadn't been forced to abort. Deploying ever more sophisticated experiments and gaining greater scientific insights, Apollo's budget was soon slashed, and the entire project was halted just three years after Neil and Buzz first set

foot on the Moon. While some assumed that the Moon was just the beginning of America's exploration of space, others, like those in control of the Federal Purse, felt that we'd beat the Soviets and won the space race. Why did we need to keep going back, Andy Aldren, It was kind of inevitable. We got into race, we won the race, and so after the race, you've kind of warmed down a little bit, and then you go look for the next race. And it wasn't one. What happened

after Apollo was kind of the normalization of space. There were a few significant last gasps. Rather than let its left over rockets go to waste, the US built a space station under the third stage of a Saturn five. Between nineteen seventy three and seventy four. Sky Lab was occupied for about twenty four weeks, demonstrating that humans can live and work in space for long periods of time,

what more leisure. It was not uncommon for the men of sky Lab who indulge themselves in the fluidity of movement in zero G. And in July of ninety exactly six years after Neil, Buzz and Michael went to the Moon, a command module docked in Earth orbit with a Russian Soyu spacecraft and three US astronauts and two Soviet cosmonauts visited each other's spacecraft. With the final goodbye. The astronauts of Apollo and the cosmonauts US ended their historic meeting

in space, and that was it. After decades of intense rivalry, the space race was officially over and Apollo was grounded. It wasn't just the Apollo spacecraft coming down, it was the curtain the last Apollo mission once he beat the Soviets, who care Space historian Amy Shearer title Nixon okayed a space shuttle program, but hecated as the Shuttle to nowhere. It was just a vehicle that could go up. It couldn't go very far. It couldn't land anywhere but on

a runway. So we ended up in like NASCAR and space. We ended up just kind of like running labs. While I was alive for the sky Lab and Apollo Soyus missions, I was too young to remember them. I grew up with a Space Shuttle. I remember seeing the prototype Enterprise during its international tour in nineteen three, which, as a colossal Star Trek fan even then, delighted me to no end. As an adult, I was lucky enough to witness three Space shut launches and a landing. I loved that ship.

But while the space shuttles did great things, including launching the Hubble Space Telescope, which gave us an unparalleled look at our galactic home, and lift off of the Space Shuttle Discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope our window on the universe, and building the International Space Station, ensuring we've had humans living and working in space continuously for more than two decades. Tonight, I am directing Nasha to develop a permanently manned space station, and to do it within

a decade. The Space Shuttle was an indisputable technological step backwards. We went from a spacecraft capable of deep space flight to one that couldn't even leave lower th orbit. It was a perfect landing as the Atlantis touched down after a thirteen day mission delivering supplies to the International Space Station, a final voyage that brings the Shuttle programming to an end. And when the last Space Shuttle touched down on July twenty one, two thousand and eleven, America no longer had

the technology to get to space. To get to and from the International Space Station, it had to begin buying seats on Russian spacecraft. Spacecraft distance eight thousand, ninety will bring autical miles a lot of the nineteen thousand, five twelve second back in ninety nine. Apollo eleven is nearly home. Rescue and the aircraft are reported on the station and

Horner helicopters containing with swimmers are reported. Airborne weather still holding real fun the recovery area, and I signed going down on Steal darkn as you heard earlier, the crew will splash down just before sunrise. As they draw nearer to the Earth, they find themselves shrouded in the darkness of the Earth's night side. They are now traveling down the barrel of a forty mile wide entry corridor. In the command module, Michael swears he can feel the gravity

of his planet pulling him home. The men swallow anti nausea pills. Assuming everything goes according to plan, they will soon be bobbing in seas with three to six foot waves. The men have gone over their entry checklists numerous times already. They have too much time on their hands, and it's beginning to create some anxiety. And we're about ten minutes away from the scheduled separations time. Now it's time to lose the service module, the largest portion of their spacecraft,

containing most of their power, fuel and rocket engine. They can't enter the atmosphere if it's still attached. We see you getting ready for sent Everything wants to find to find down here, we're awaiting confirmation of separation. When Apollo eleven launched, it weighs six million pounds. The only thing left of the once massive Saturn five is the eleven thousand pound triangular shaped station wagon sized command module. Once detached, thrusters on the service module fire to push it far

from the crew. They don't want it burning up anywhere near them. Away confirmed separation. Now from on my ground reading telemetry, we can confirm separation. And also was mindul taking good carabous? You want to take you to a camp in Houston. I used to look at mighty fine here your player for landing. I appreciate every d gears down a lock more astronaut humor. We got the modulet going by a little high coming across now right to left. Buzzes.

Words that you just heard were actually classified for years. The thrusters that were supposed to move the service module away didn't work properly. The crew is about to begin their re entry and the service module is diving into the atmosphere right beside them. Hello, I'm gonna lined up right down the mid a little bit. Entry corridors now thirty five thousand, five seventy eight ft per second. We're

a minute in forty five seconds from entry. Blackout will begin eighteens second after once the ship strikes the atmosphere and becomes wreathed in plasma calms with mission control will be impossible. They will be coming down in the blind over the hill. You're looking mind to find that we're

an entry time black guys. Very shortly, there's a black guy at am Houston time, four thousand feet above Australia, Columbia, hits the atmosphere and more than thirty six thousand ft per second, or ten times faster than a rifle bullet. We had to be able to use the atmosphere to slow us all the way down, uh until we got into a velocity that will allow us to put up the parish. That was Apollo eight and Apollo thirteen astronaut Jim Level. Tracy Caldwald Dyson is a current NASA astronaut.

She went to space twice, once on the Space Shuttle and the second time to live aboard the International Space Station. To get home from that trip, she had to take a ride in a Russian soy Use capsule and you see the the atmosphere that you're about to go through, and then you fire this one burn. It's a long burn, and it's directed precisely to put you at the right angle and at the right spot to pass through the atmosphere.

If Michael didn't calculate the precise right angle, the command module will be vaporized too shallow, and it will bounce off the atmosphere and be flung into space. The blackness the guys were talking about earlier is now gone. Out their tiny windows. The astronauts now begin to see ravenous flames as ionized gases created by the heat re entry begin enveloping the ship. Calms are gone for the next

four minutes. No one on Earth will know what's going on inside apollow eleven, or indeed whether they successfully made it through the atmosphere or disintegrated on re entry. Where three minutes since entry blackout shoot in about three minutes fifty three seconds after entry, or about eleven minutes lay back in mission control, Evans at Capcom optimistically attempts to raise the ship. There is no answer. Inside Columbia, the astronauts can no longer see the service module. They are

enveloped in incandescent protoplasm. If you could see them right now, they appear as a blazing comment. The astronauts are falling through a tunnel of colors orange, yellow, blue, even lavender, which finally gives way to pure white. Michael feels as if he's sitting inside of an enormous light bulb. Jim Level. We could, of course look out the windows and see the hate shield material. Flaky's all as the flames going

passed us. You never go through grade school thinking you're going to be in the middle of a fireball, but that's exactly what happens as you go through the atmosphere. Your spacecraft is a blating and designed to do that. Pieces of embers as your window, and you can smell the charring, so you can feel the g forces building. What they can't see is that the service module is being torn into fiery pieces. If any of the dying vessels fragments collide with the command module, it will almost

certainly kill everyone aboard. Right, we tried going to the Moon again. Inspired by all that that has come before, and guided by clear objectives, today we set a new course for America's space program. We will give NASA new

focus and vision for future exploration. We will build new ships to carry man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the Moon, and to prepare for new journeys to the worlds beyond our own on January two and four, President H. W. Bush said, we will undertake extended human missions to the Moon as early as with the goal of living and working there for increasingly

extended periods of time. We even tested one of the rockets that was going to get us there, the Cognition lift off of Harry's one X festing concepts for the future of new rocket design. On top of the arias was going to be a new command module named Oriyan, and blueprints were being drafted for a new lunar module dubbed Altaire. However, when the Obama administration took over, they found the program over budget and behind schedule, and they

shut it down. Yes, pursuing this new strategy will require that we revise the old strategy. In part. This is because the old strategy, including the constellation program, was not fulfilling its promise in many ways, and in the organization like NASA, where lead times for developing technology are so long, if you suddenly change the general objective of things every four years, it has a huge impact. We have to stop pushing the reset button every time there's a change

of power. In Washington, they've been pushing the reset button on NASA again. And again and again, and it's been really harmful to the progress of the program. To keep moving the goal post the entire football stadium. That's destructive. That was NASA chief historian Bill Berry and Apollo historian Andrew Chaken. Under Obama, NASA proposed a new mission landing humans on an asteroid, but that too soon withered on the vine, and all the while American astronauts kept getting

two and from space on Russian equipment. Then in two thousand and seventeen, nearly a decade after Constellation was shelved, NASA announced the Artemis program. Fifty years ago, we went to the Moon. We called it Apollo. Well many people don't know is that Apollo had a twin. She was a woman named Artemis, the goddess of the Moon. As Tracy calledwell Dyson. She represents our next era of exploration

in space. Artemis encompasses how we're going to get to the Moon and what we're gonna do when we get there. NASA's goal is landing the first woman in man on the Moon. By just four years from now, we are returning to the Moon as a new generation of explorers, this time to stay. Artemists is intended to be the first step in setting up a long term human presence on the Moon and perhaps even creating a lunar economy. And this is all to explore the surface of the

Moon and utilize the resources there. We found an ideal fuel in the soul when materials on the Moon for fusion power production. It's called helium three. Apollo seventeen moonwalker and geologist Harrison Schmidt Iste imp that fuse with itself produces absolutely no radio activity. It creates energetic particles that can be converted to electricity at much higher efficiencies than any other kind of power systems. Artemis is the most

ambitious thing NASA has done since Apollo. It is nearly done building the SLS, a new rocket even larger and more powerful than the Saturn five. NASA is building the Space Launch System, comprising of a cargo hold and exploration upper stage, a massive course stage, and two extended solid rocket boosters. Altogether, this is the world's most powerful rocket and it exceeds the legendary Saturn five of the Apollo era in numerous ways. The fl F is Space Launch System,

and it is the greatest rocket we've ever built. Yes, it will be more powerful than the Saturn five. The Ryan Capsule is the spacecraft that is going to return humans to the Moon and destinations beyond. Just as the Command Module is the only part of the Saturn five to survive the trip, so two is the Orion Capsule the only thing to survive Constellation. This is their deep

space human rated spacecraft called Orion. The crew module. We're up to four astronauts will live and work throughout the flight, and while the original Command Module could hold only three people, the Orion Capsule has seating for four. Other than the new lemb which will discuss in just a moment, NASA

has added something to the Apollo architecture, the Gateway. Building on the lessons learned from the International Space Station, the key to sustainable lunar missions is establishing an orbiting lunar outpost that we call Gateway, a small space station. The Gateway will be placed in orbit around the Moon and provide the astronauts living quarters and their research lab. The Apollo missions were inspired by a space race. Artemis is

also a global partnership. We're not a race, We're a partnership. We're going to explore the Moon for purposes that benefit mankind to learn more about it and use it as a platform to then go further. I'm profoundly grateful that we are setting our sights on the Moon again after so much time when the Moon seemed to be sideline. However, Chicken is skeptical, and I just am not convinced that we can, even with the most talented people that we have at NASA and elsewhere. It's asking a lot to

do it in just five years. But I'm glad we're talking about it. I want to see it happen. I just don't want to see us do it without the same care and the same diligence, because if we don't do those things, we're gonna pay the price that they paid an Apollo with accidents and perhaps even fatal accidents. And he's not the only one. Space historian Amy Sharer title feels the same way. Yeah, I feel like we're in that compleateding where we have to manage expectations with

the reality of how hard space it. That's fine, because space is hard, but you know, let's let's be realistic and say we're going to do this, and we're going to do it in the time that it needs to take. For her part, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who's in line to be the first woman on the moon, thinks NASA is doing just that. We know things take time, and they take time because human lives are at stake. Everything in

space takes longer. And then in this day and age where everything is so instant, we have to take time or else we're not gonna get there smartly, and then we could end up parting somebody in the process. One of the ways NASA is hoping to alleviate time and stress is by allowing commercial interests to take over human and cargo flights to the I s s. That way

they can focus on bigger things. There are a group of billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and some others who are leading sort of the growth of a commercial private space industry that has been over the last decade or so slowly eroding the government's long held but not lee on space. That's Chris Davenport. I'm a reporter at the Washington Post, where I write about space and um also the author of a book called The Space

barns Well. NASA and other global governments have dominated space exploration given its expense and risk. Private entrepreneurs Chris is aptly named space Barns are beginning to move in on their domain, bringing with them new technologies and innovative manufacturing processes that drive costs down and get the job done faster.

First and foremost elon Musk SpaceX. I mean, they are the ones who sort of broke down the barriers from the very beginning and said we are going to enter this market and try to disrupt the space launch market. And they've been successful in doing that, and they've gotten multiple contracts from NASA to the tune of billions of dollars to fly first cargo and supplies to the International Space Station, which they've been doing now for a number

of years. And SpaceX along with Boeing have contracts to fly people to the International Space Station. And then you have Blue Origin, which was founded by Jeff Bezos. Bezos, who owns Amazon, is the richest man in the world. A lot of people don't even realize that Jeff Bezos has a space company, but he does, and they're building a whole suite of vehicles. In fact, Blue Origin will be the lead company designing and building the new lunar module for the artist project. Let me show you something.

This is Blue Moon. We've been working on this lander for three years. This is an incredible vehicle and it's going to the Moon. And you're seeing NASA initially being I think reluctant, are wary of that, and now more and more starting to embrace that, saying if we are going to go back to the Moon or on to Mars, we're gonna need these companies. One of the biggest things companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are doing is rebooting how we make rockets. Since they were first invented, rockets

have been a one and done piece of equipment. And Ellen looked at that, and Jeff Bezos looked at that and said, you know, we're never going to lower the cost of space. We keep throwing away the most expensive part of the hardware. Imagine if after flying from Los Angeles to New York, United Airlines threw away the seven thirty seven that brought you there. That's essentially what we're

doing in space right now. So they are working on building rockets that deliver their payloads to orbit and then fly back down to Earth and land on land or land on a ship at sea. During the Cold War, space exploration was driven by intense political and ideological rivalries. Today space has become ego driven. Davenport once asked Elon Musk about his rivalry with Bezos, and Musk told him if I had a button that I could press and make Jeff Bezos Blue Origin go away, I would not

press that button. And I think that's because he understands how important it is to have competition and to be driven by rivals. Competition is the best rocket fuel. But Elon Musk is not satisfied with merely shuttling cargo and people to the International Space Station. He and NASA have their eyes set much higher. The reason for creating SpaceX was to accelerate humanity becoming a space bearing civilization to a point where we could potentially become a multiplanet species.

All of Humanity's eggs are in one basket, and should something happen to the Earth, you know, like if an asteroid would hit the Earth, we're toast. We're going the way of the dinosaur. And his goal was to sort of have a backup um, the way you would back up your hard drive, but for humanity, and that's Mars, to make it a place where humanity could go and to extend the light of consciousness well into the future

and sort of as an insurance plan. Eleven th Back in mission control, Ron Evans is still trying to raise Neil, buzzing Michael in the command module. If Columbia survived re entry, they should have regained contact again by now, even through ray standing by. Be nice to get that confirmation and minutes gone by now since they scheduling opening to the mains. On the USS Hornet spotters scan the sky with binoculars. Give us the word. We're getting nothing from a mission

control or from the spaceship, reports Sonic Colon. One of the sailors cries out he thinks he sees something falling through the clouds aboard his helicopter. Rescue swimmer John Wolfer sees it too. We looked up from the helicopter. You

can see the capsule burning back to the atmosphere. A momentary eventual of high attack has now disappeared behind cloud and FLO elevens and standing by for your desty reading over FULO eleven east and your destry reading plays over at that was new They've made it dog they are, and they're obviously all right shoots have deployed eleven cos

right on. Well, you take that to Some of the more sensational moments are when the parachutes open up and it feels like it brings the whole copsle to a slam stop, and then it spins, and then it sways back and forth, and the whole time you're just hoping that you keep your cookies and should be on main shoots. It is like one of the craziest ride you've ever had in your life. Eight minutes after first hitting the atmosphere, the command modules slowed enough for three large red and

white parachutes to open. They had to deploy at just the right time. If they opened too late, the capsule would hit the water too violently too early, and they'd likely drift off course far from rescue. For the crew of Apollo eleven, the view outside their windows went from the inky blackness of space to the nucleus of a fireball and is now the dazzling azure blue of the earth sky. We're cast four minutes and with that, mission

control's work is done. With the shoots deployed, tactical operational command transfers from mission control to the U S s Hornet, I have an Eric, I have a three part flashed down.

They're back from the Moon. As for not time strong Aldrin and Collins landing in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hay, Apollo eleven splashes down eight hundred and twenty five nautical miles southwest of Honolulu, about thirteen nautical miles from the recovery show inside the capsule, Mike Collins is astonished at how blue the ocean looks Imagine after nine days of monochrome black and then gray and then black again, what dropping into a violet ocean must look like their eyes.

Jim Lovell splash down for me was very exhilarated. I could feel the bobby of the ocean and the spacecraft, and suddenly I realized that, my gosh a home. Everything worked out now if the Navy would be very careful and not to let the spacecraft sake on us, but we were safe. In Houston. Buzzes son Andy is watching the news on splash down day. We had a lot of people over at the house, and hind everyone that was associated with my dad or mom seemed to show up.

Andy wishes he was aboard the U. S. S. Hornet, not so much because he wants to be among the first to greet his dad, but rather because he's eleven years old and aircraft carriers are cool. There was sort of a collective sigh of relief when it was all done. His mother, Joan, can finally relax. Her husband and his two shipmates survived the greatest feat humans ever attempted, and would soon be on their way home as conquering heroes.

At this moment in time, Joan has no idea of the challenges and heartaches to come, but if she had, she would surely have taken some strength in the fact that she had just faced the most profoundly difficult nine days of her life and come out on the other side a hero to her children. My mother was incredibly effective at not letting us know what happened. I didn't sense her anxiety at all. It just reflects the incredible

strength that my mom showed throughout this whole process. After the splashdown, Janet Armstrong stood on her front yard and in front of the gathered press, thanked everyone in America for their thoughts and prayers. The entire experience, she said, was quite simply out of this world and when the capsule hit the ocean water. I think mars Alden was supposed to flip a lever the jets in those parachutes, but his hand got knocked up to lever because of

the jolt, and the wind carried the capsule upset. Now, the last thing you want to be attached to in the water is a parachute. One of two things is going to happen. I the parachute will fill with water and drag you wonder, or it will catch the wind

like a sail and begin dragging you away. As soon as Columbia hit the water, Buzz was supposed to trip a circuit breaker, jettisoning the shoots and allowing Michael to deploy inflatable balloons to keep the capsule upright, but the impact was so violent that his hand was knocked off the switch, and by the time he was able to find it again, the gum drop was already inverted, with each of the men hanging upside down in their seats. Earlier, Michael Bett Neil a beer that they'd stay upright. He

just lost that bed. They flipped some splitches I think Mark Collins did that would inflate these blooms. And they took the whole a minister that capsule the upright. As they hang upside down with the balloons inflating, Michael thinks, how wrongly oriented everything looks back in a world with gravity for the first time in nine days, tops and bottoms are real things again. Got in position and I'm standing.

Then they go, and as I'm looking down at that capsule, I realized the world was watching, so I didn't want to make any mistakes. John Wolfram jumps from the hovering helicopter and swims over to Columbia. It's lower half charred and blackened from re entering. The capsule is still warnder to touch. John attaches a sea anchor, basically a large cloth bucket designed to fill with water and keep the vessel more or less where it is that I was supposed to get a thumbs up in the astronauts. I

saw them grinning back at me. I relayed that to the National helicopter that was circund above and let him mold the Okay, right, we're going. There's two more frogmen. They jumped in and together we put this floatation bladder around the capsule, and then after that was completed, they dropped down a wrapped if we implanted in and then we got trashed right in front of the hatch store where the ash nuts would come out. Next come the

bigs biological isolation garments. Do you swimmer with? The biological isolation garments is in the next to the space crap. That's Lieutenant Clancy Handelberg of Chippewa falls within a const NASA is concerned that the astronauts may have brought something harmful back with them from the Moon. Because of this, the rescue divers are all wearing protective gear, and they brought biggs for the Apollo eleven crew to put on as well. The fear of alien pathogens is in the

forefront of everyone's minds. Nine is the same year that Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain came out about the deadly outbreak of an extraterrestrial micro organism. Neil opens the command module hatch so twenty five year old Lieutenant Haddleberg can hand them their suits. If there are moonbugs, they were just released into our atmosphere and ocean, so much for that plan is now transferring to the crew. Haddleberg reseals the hatch inside Columbia Neil, Buzz and Michael stand unsteadily.

After a week and a half in space, Earth normal gravity feels well aliens. The men swallow several more anti nausea meds. The last thing they want to do is throw up inside their biohazard suits. A big sama now spraying the hatch area and the top deck and around the hatch. Command modger with it, even in stamina. While the crew changes, Lieutenant Haddleberg uses a large brush to scrub the exterior of Columbia with a sudsy decontaminant, just

in case it's covered in spacebugs. First, after they downed them, they came out into the raft, Haddelberg washed them all down. Once all the astronauts are decontaminated, they climb aboard the raft. They are splashed by waves, and even though they're covered head to toe, they can feel the fresh and cold. Michael wants nothing more than to rip off his suit, splash cold water all over his face, and inhale the fresh sea air. They are burning up inside those suits.

Hold on recovery is one by one. Neil, Buzz and Michael are lifted into a hovering helicopter. As the helicopter with the Apollo eleven crew begins making its way back to the Hornet. John Wolfrem and the rest of the Navy seals decided to grab a little memento of the occasion. When no one was looking. We stripped off huns with that gold coil that was burned off from coming back through the atmosphere and put it down our website for souvenirs.

We knew that once the castle got out board the usas Hornet Marine super Garden, so we got our souvenirs first. Aboard the helicopter, Michael and Buzz stand precariously on unsteady legs. Now that gravity is once again a factor, their body fluids are moving in very different ways than they have for the past week and a half. When the helicopter touches down on the Hornet, the flight elevator descends to the hangar deck, where the men are escorted to a

mobile quarantine chamber, a modified airstream trailer. Their face plates are so fogg up they can hardly see anything, but they can hear a band playing. They will remain in this trailer until they reach the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston three days from now at which point they will be transferred to a larger quarantine facility for the next three weeks. Back in Houston, flight controllers begin lighting cigars

and waving small American flags above them. All glowing on the main display screen are the words John F. Kennedy uttered the Congress nearly ten years earlier. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. And so this nation has locked inside the trailer with Neil, Buzz and Michael are two NASA representatives, including a flight surgeon,

who gives each of the men a quick physical. Next, they enjoy a quick but much needed shower while they wait for the celebration outside to begin. The men are shown several videos covering their landing and moonwalk. Buzz said that they were sitting there watching these tapes and it suddenly dawned on him that he and Neil and Mike were removed from that. He turned to Neil and he said, Neil, we missed the whole thing. The mood on the USS

hornet is jubilant. The mobile quarantine trailer is surrounded by euphoric sailors and NASA personnel from the midst of the melee. President Richard Nixon appears and greets the astronauts through a large window. This is the greatest week and the history of the world since the creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger infinitely, as a result of what you've done, the world has

never been closer together before. And we just thank you for that, and I own I hope that all of us in government, all of us in America, that as a result of what you've done, we could do our job a little better. We can reach for the stars, just as you have raised so far from the stars. The astronauts will later be treated to a state dinner and Michael will finally get that Martini he's been craving. In our first episode, I mentioned that humankind has always

been driven by an innate desire to explore. There are times in human history when people have struck out beyond the known universe, has gone over the next hill into the next valley, got on a boat and cross the ocean. And the Apollo program was one of those times when people really and truly were exploring and pushing the boundaries of human understanding and investigating new places that no one had ever seen before. Once client, the unexplored hill on

the horizon now becomes familiar territory. But that's the thing about exploration, isn't it. There's always another mountain, there's always another horizon calling to us. Going to the Moon is super important, but the ultimate goal is to go to Mars. I think Mars is the next logical destination. I think the Moon is absolutely in the critical path to get to Mars. The next real advance of space flight is to go back to the Moon. And then used the architecture of going to the Moon and expanded to go

to Mars. And I'm positive that man, one day we'll go to Bars. Why because it's there. Robert Zubran was five years old when spot Nick flew, and while to the adults it may have been terrifying, to me as a small kid, it was exhilarating. It meant that these stories that I was already reading about this space faring future science fiction, we're going to be true, and I wanted to be part of it. Robert is an aerospace engineer, the president of the Mars Society and the author of

the The case for Mars. I was seventeen when we landed on the Moon. And if anybody had told me then that I'd be sixty seven and we wouldn't be on the Moon, and in fact on Mars, I would have thought they were crazy. Apollo was the last to rob the people that won World War Two and a political class that could work together to accomplish great ends, whether it was World War Two, the Interstate Highway system,

the development in nuclear energy, or Apollo. What great accomplishments has the US government achieved since three Without a goal, you don't achieve anything, and the human spaceflight program has been drifting for almost fifty years. Apollo inspired Americans, showing them that they were capable of doing great things. It motivated tens of thousands of people to go into engineering, and was the bedrock on which our modern computerized and

technological world is based. But for Zubrin, we are living off of Apollo's favors. Just days after Apollo eleven returned to Earth, Verni von Braun, the architect of the Saturn five, began drawing up plans for a Mars mission for Robert and many in the space industry. We should have listened to von Braun. We never should have abandoned the Moon, but rather used it as an outward bound school where we could learn to live off planet, honing our skills

for our next trek into the unknown Mars. For Zubrin, there are three reasons to go to Mars. For the science, for the challenge, and for the future the science. There's profound science to be discovered by going to Mars. Mars was once a warm and wet planet. The early Mars was very similar to the early Earth. I mean, I'm convinced that there was once life on Mars and there probably still is. Second is the challenge. I believe that

civilizations are like individuals. We grow when we challenge ourselves, we stagnate when we do not. And then finally, there's the future. If we do what we can do in our time, which has established that first human foothold on Mars, then you know, five years from now there will be

new branches of human civilization. And we're talking about new nations, new cultures, new languages, new literatures, new traditions, new contributions to technology and invention and social thought, new heroes, new tales of great deeds that will be used to inspire people that will go further. And if you have it in your power to create something brand and wonderful, then you should. Robert believes this so strongly that he thinks NASA should skip the Moon and divert all of its

energies to Mars. We're not going to fully inspire the next generation of youth by replicating a feat done by their grandparents generation. We're going to inspire them by going to a new world to do what has been done before, to see what hasn't been seen before, to discover what was never known before. That's why we're gonna to Mars, and that's why this fool inspire of the next generation. And yet I hear some of you asking what about

our problems back here on Earth. As we discussed on the outside of this podcast, the America of nineteen sixty nine bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the America of two thousand and nineteen. For every York Pennsylvania, there's a Ferguson Missouri. For every Vietnam, there's Afghanistan. For every Cold War, there's Russian meddling in our elections. For every looming impeachment of

Richard Nixon, there's a looming impeachment of Donald Trump. For every protest in favor of civil liberties, voting rights, and equal pay, there's well, you know, and now we're setting our sights on the moon and beyond. Are we fools to try this again? The criticisms leveled by civil rights leaders who protested all of the money spent on Apollo at the expense of the nation's most vulnerable remain both valid and omnipresent. Today, fifty years on, not much appears

to have changed. And yet I'm reminded of the words of NASA's Bill Dunford, who said, why should we worry about what's going on outside the cave? We have so many problems here inside the cave. Why should we waste time trying to figure out agriculture. We have so much work to do hunting and gathering. Why should we spend so much effort messing about in boats? We have so many issues right here on land. Why should we fiddle with those computers. There's so much calculating that still needs

to be done with these pencils. Why should we explore space? We have so many problems right here on Earth? It's all about how we prioritize our future. After all, NASA's entire fifty year budget is roughly equal to what this

country spends on its military in just one year. Historically, NASA's grandest steps have stimulated our economy, supercharged our innovation, created astonishing spinoff technologies, broadened our science, inspired new generations with new opportunities, and remind at us to look up from our domestic squabbles and take in the cosmic perspective. Asking if space exploration is a sensible use of our money is a reasonable and rational question, but it cannot

be the only question. We must also ask what everything we've learned and everything we've derived been possible without it? Would our revolutions in computing and communications, in medicine and transportation, in astrophysics and planetary sciences come about without Apollo? Would we understand our own planet, including the peril it's in right now because of our thoughtlessness, if we had not

dared to step off world. Beyond the political victories and the scientific insights, the Space program gave a mangled America hope, hope that a better future is within reach. Throughout our history, from the Mayflower to the modern refugee crisis. Humans have left the safe or the familiar to undertake a bold mission to a new world old, and we can do it again. Before Explorer George Mallory departed to scale matt Everest, he was asked why he was undertaking such a difficult

and perilous quest, because it is there. He answered, well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planet Sada and new hopes for knowledge and peace of THEA. And therefore, as we set sail, we asked God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever invoked. During the cruise voyage back to the United States, aboard the U S. S. Hornet, Michael excused himself and left his colleagues.

The Columbia had been connected to the mobile quarantine facility by an air tight tunnel, and Michael claimed aboard alone, taking it all in one last time. The Apollo eleven mission lasted one and nine hours, eighteen minutes and thirty five and in that time the ship traveled nearly one

million miles. Michael pulled a pen from his pocket and, in an act understood by anyone who has ever wanted to ensure that they are remembered for something they did or saw, scribbled the following graffiti on one of the command modules Equipment Bay Panels Apollo eleven alias Columbia, the best ship to come down the line. God bless her

Michael Collins, Command Module Pilot. That note and the vessel it adorns now rest in the lobby of the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, d C. A tangible testament to nine extraordinary days in July. This podcast is a production of I Heart Radio and Trade Traft Studios, executive producers Astroea and Scott Bernstein, in association with High

Five Content and executive brucer Andrew Jacobs. This spectacular series was his brilliant idea, amazing research and prorection assistance by associate producers Brian Schasso and Natalie Robomed. Our incredible editor is Bill Lance. Original music by Henry ben Wa, Licensing

rights and clearances by Deborah Correa. Special thanks also to consultant Gina Delvac Studio space generously provided by Gabby and Helen Phibbs, the experts who contributed to this final episode where Andy Aldred Navy seal John Wolfram, journalist Chris Davenport, author of the Space Barons, NASA Chief historian Bill Berry, Andrew Chaikin, the author of A Man on the Moon, Robert Zubrin, the author of The Case for Space and

The Case for Mars. Space historian Amy Shearer title the author of Fighting for Space out later this month, Apollo thirteens, Jim Lovell, Apollo seventeens, Harris and Schmidt, and current NASA astronaut Tracy Calledwell Dyson. In addition to the works just mentioned,

the following books were essential in shaping this series. Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins, Magnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldren, Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Krantz, First Man by James Hansen, and Two Sides of the Move by Alexei Leonov and David Scott. This podcast would have been impossible without the profound assistance of so many people at NASA, people like Bert Ulrich, Sandra Johnson, Brandy Dean, Gregory Wiseman,

and Stephanie Sherrolds. NASA's Apollo eleven Flight Journal, compiled by David Woods, Ken mctaggard and Frank O'Brien was absolutely indispensable, and of course, the incredible technological wizardry of consulting producer Ben Feist, who is responsible for organizing and cleaning the eleven thousand hours of mission audio you heard selections from in this podcast. Lastly, I want to acknowledge I Heart's own Noel Brown, Tristan McNeil, Crystal Waters, and David Wasserman

for their unbroken and tireless assistance. We hope you enjoyed this podcast. If you did, please help us spread it far and wide, tell your friends, leave ratings and reviews, and chat about it on social media. You can subscribe to nine Days in July wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Brandon Phibbs. Thank you so much for listening