♪ ♪♪ . a million mornings forgotten by the mind of man. dawn remembers again the magic

circle. stonehenge. ♪♪ magic circle, observatory, temple aligned with the rising

of the sun and the turning of the heavens. stones from afar brought by man to this place where no stones were before. more than 3,000 year ago. ♪ ♪♪

♪ apollo 11, 15 july, 1969, cape kennedy, florida, tonight the night before the great day.

♪ we're going to the moon together ♪ ♪ pack your bags and jump into the car ♪ ♪ going to take a trip to tell you where you are ♪ ♪♪ ♪ good-bye mother ♪ ♪ so long mother ♪ ♪ so long mother ♪ ♪ good-bye good-bye mother so long mother ♪ ♪ so long father ♪ ♪ so long mother earth ♪ ♪ good-bye mother ♪ ♪ good-bye mother earth ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ six million pounds of

♪♪ ♪♪ six million pounds of machine, 36 stories tall, nearly 10 years' work of half a million people. through tonight it was checklisted, double-checked, electronically monitored, computerized, televised, dehumanized of human error.

while the night of celebration was ending, the day began for the astronauts. breakfast, medical examination, suiting up. neil armstrong. commander, apollo 11. edwin buzz aldrin, lunar module pilot. michael collins, command module pilot.

[ speaking foreign language ] [ overlapping speakers ] >> to take them to pad 39-a and everything is said to be going along smoothly -- ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪ >> far across the indian river, 12 miles away, the rocket. at 6:32 a.m. at launch, three hours before launch on pad 39-a, armstrong and aldrin walked the surface of the earth and their next steps would be on the moon. spectators rolled in by the thousands.

campers, trailers, cars,nd pick-ups filled the campsites, the beaches, lined the highways, lined the the parkways and nose to tailgate from cape canaveral to titusville. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> everything is satisfactory for launch this morning.

thin cloud cover at 15,000 feet, temperature at launch time expected to be about 85 degrees. t-minus 8 hours and 39 and counting. >> the load pressure and temperature digital worldwide tracking, stabilization and guidance. radio frequency telemetry and voice communications, signal integration. space craft electrical power. flight control. s 4b. propulsion stage monitoring. s 2 propulsion stage. every important valve and gauge and circuit was continually monitored at launch control center throughout the 28-hour countdown. >> countdown still going well t-minus 55 minutes --

♪♪ >> among the 6,000 special guests were a vice president, an ex-president, two loads of diplomatic core, 19 governors, 205 u.s. congressman, 30 senators, 50 mayors from cities across the country, movie celebrities and television personalities and another two plane loads of dignitaries from europe. ♪♪

>> around the world, another morning. not so very different from the morning before or tomorrow morning. ♪ this day on which man will leave earth to walk on the moon, three billion people went about their daily lives. some in the way their ancestors did centuries before. others in a world shaped by modern technology.

it seemed that most people were unaware that this event might change the history of the human race. that this morning would be marked in history books and learned by their children's children. what age of man will the meaning of this morning be understood. ♪ this is apollo launch

control, we passed the six-minute mark for countdown in apollo 11 the flight to land the first man on to moon. we're on time at the present time for our planned lift off of 32 minutes past the hour. coming up shortly, the swing arm up at the space craft level will come back to it's fully retracted position. this should occur at the five minute mark in the count. the swing arm coming back as we our countdown continues. informing the astronauts that the swing arm is now coming back. four minutes and counting we're go for apollo 11. we're coming up on the automatic sequence 10 or 15 seconds. all is still go as we monitor our status. the firing command coming in now we're at an automatic sequence. as the master computer supervises hundreds of events occurring over these last few minutes. two minutes, ten seconds, and counting.

oxidize the tanks in the second and third stages now have pressurized. t minus one minute and 35 seconds. the third stage completely pressurized. t-minus 60 seconds and counting. we pass t-minus 60. 55 seconds and counting. armstrong reported back when he received the good wishes, thank you very much, we know it will be a good flight. good luck and godspeed. 40 seconds away from the apollo 11 liftoff. all the second stage tanks are pressured. 35 seconds and counting. we are still go with apollo 11, 30 seconds and counting. the astronauts are reporting it feels good. t minus 25 seconds. 20 seconds and counting. t-minus 15 seconds. guidance is internal. 12, 11, 10, 9 ignition sequence

starts, 6,

[ sounds of the rocket blastoff ]

[ sirens ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

>> standby for mode one, charlie. >> mode one charlie. >> one charlie. >> this is houston. you are go for staging. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

>> ignition. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> houston, you're looking good. >> loud and clear, houston. ♪♪ >> roger, we confirm. >> the power is gone. >> roger, tower. >> when apollo was safely under

way, control of the mission was switched to houston. the months of tightly focused work at the cape were over. >> it could honestly be said that this was the culmination of the dreams and fantasies of the men and women over 25 centuries of recorded time. >> tom pane. james webinar. john hooubl. >> divas, le mercury, chafee, allen shepard. john f. kennedy. copernicus, tchaikovsky. [ overlapping speakers ]

>> and robert goddard, the american yankee rocket pioneer, the dreamershed and they called him the moon man and laughed, but on his own, he went on designing and inventing and testing. the first proving grounds were on his aunt effee's farm in auburn, massachusetts. the neighbors complained. with a grant from daniel guggenheim, he moved to new mexico with his wife ester who was also his camerawoman. he launched and prepared more than 200 patents from multi

staged rockets to fuel pumps to multi-engine rockets. ♪♪ by the year 1930s, his rockets achieved a speed of 500 miles an hour and altitude of 2000 feet. this is the year in which the apollo astronauts were born. goddard had a vision of the age of space, but the world was too slow to make it after before -- his death. make it happen before his death. thank you for your inventiveness and perseverance. robert goddard. for most people a trip to the planets was easy, all you needed was a ten cent movie ticket and

a nickel bag of pop corbin. -- popcorn. ♪♪ >> what was that? >> i don't know. >> the ship is coming up fast behind us. >> here they come. you better put it in reverse, doc. >> what is this? >> once science fiction in the childhood of the space age could have guessed the shape of reality. the saturn 5 rocket.

three stages, 28 stories tall, 11 engines as powerful as all of the water falls in north america combined. years in planning, months in the building and testing, the saturn first stage lived two minutes and 41 seconds. ♪♪ >> ignition. >> in houston, we're go all engines are looking good. >> you're loud and clear. >> two minutes, 41 seconds, time to throw apollo 40 miles up into the sky and then an empty shell to fall back into the sea. >> roger, we confirm.

>> tower's gone. >> roger tower. >> they are confirming all of the separation. >> that is a magnificent ride. >> roger, 11, we will pass that on and it looks like it is well on your way now. >> 11 houston, your guidance has converged and you're looking good. >> down range, 140 miles. altitude 62 miles. >> mission control in houston texas had taken over from cape kendrick for the duration of the eight-day mission. the complicated technology of apollo evolved from a simple concept. lunar orbit rendezvous. this requires a rocket made in many pieces that discards the useless weight of each piece when its function is completed. the flight began with a vertical lift through the lower atmosphere and tilt to the east

at 6,000 miles an hour the empty first stage is discarded to save weight so is adapter ring and with the second stage firing, it reaches 15,000 miles per hour when it, too, is jettisoned. the third stage places apollo in orbit at 17,400 miles an hour. when the space craft has been thoroughly checked by the crew the third stage fires again, the speed also tearing free from the grip of earth's gravity. while coasting outward, the command service module separates. and docs for access to the lunar module and the empty third stage is left behind apollo loses speed throughout nine-tenths of its journey until the moon's gravity overcomes the pull of earth. apollo slows down enough to catch the orbit of the moon.

s they enter the lunar module. eagle which separates, leaving collins and the command service module in lunar orbit. eagle slows still more and breaks to a touch down on the lunar surface. after the moon walk the upper stage of the eagle lifts off leaving behind the now useless landing stage and swings into orbit to dock with columbia once again. when the crew and moon samples is transferred to the command service module, the lunar module is discarded. the command service module fires itself out of lunar orbit and falls back to earth. as it approaches the reentry speed of nearly 25,000 miles per hour, the service module drops away.

the command module plunges into the atmosphere protected by its heat shield and slowed by the heavy atmosphere it parachutes into the sea. the command module columbia is all that remains of the original 3,000 tons of rocket fuel and cargo. >> apollo 11 this is houston, over. >> while in earth orbit the apollo crew had less than two hours to check out all of their space craft systems. the last chance to discover and correct any malfunction as they before the third stage engine restarted to break them free of earth. trans lunar injection. >> we're ten minutes away. trans lunar injection. >> apollo 11, this is houston, you are go for toi. over. >> apollo 11, thank you. >> roger that. >> apollo 11, this is houston, slightly

less than one minute to ignition and everything is a go. >> roger. >> ignition. >> we confirm ignition and the thrust is go. >> guidance looking good. velocity 26,000 feet per second. telemetry, hand radar tracking both solid. velocity 27,800 feet per second. >> through the window of the command module, the earth gently slipped away. >> apollo 11, this is houston, and the thrust is looking good. >> 29,000 feet per second building up to 30,000 feet per second. >> apollo 11, this is houston. three-and-a-half minutes, your cut off is right on.

>> deep space tracking antennas a third of a world apart listened and spoke to apollo. of them would have contact with as the earth turns at least one of them would have contact with apollo at all times except for when it passed behind the moon. >> 34,000 feet per second now. altitude 1 52. 35,000 feet per second. cut off. the velocity is 35,570 feet per second. altitude is 177 nautical miles. i have three hours 11 minutes into the mission, distance from earth 3,140 nautical miles. the nsb is reported in a stable launch. latitude for the separation. >> apollo 11 this is houston. you're good for separation.

>> okay. my intent is to use bottle primary one. for the checklist. >> roger. we concur with the logic. >> we're awaiting confirmation of separation. >> roger. >> we confirm the separation here on the ground. >> apollo 11, this is houston. radio check? over? >> gold stone station reports a very weak signal. we believe that there are now maneuvering a spacecraft and the trans position and docking maneuver and the antenna patterns are not too good at the moment, so we have a weak signal strength. >> the command service module separated and turned around to

dock with eagle lunar module. >> apollo 11 this is houston. how do you read. >> apollo 11 this is houston, radio check. over. >> roger, we're copying you about 5 by 2. can you give us a status report erksz please. >> how you reading now? >> loud and clear and we understand you are docked. >> that's affirmative. >> houston, we recommend you accept 949 continue through your sequence of sightings and we'll analyze the data afterwards, over. >> okay. >> on board was a fourth brain, a small computer called disky that solved problems and helping

with long sequence of systems checks and data exchange with earth. >> apollo 11 houston we'd like you to press on to star 44 over. >> roger. >> they found their way across the sea of space, navigating by the same stars that guided columbus to shores unknown. >> we copy, two good marks, over. >> okay. >> three days falling to the moon. free of the gravity of earth. no up or down, no day or night. a sense of stillness while traveling at the speed of a meteor. >> about how long will it be before you start closing back up?

over. >> an invisible speck in the night somewhere between here and there constantly monitored from earth. in this tiny spacecraft, a temporary earth environment, warmth, air, food, water, everything necessary to sustain life. beyond these fragile walls, nothingness. absolute cold. an end to life. the most important function of the spacecraft, life, was also monitored constantly. through telemetry. the heartbeat and breathing of each astronaut although each breath was 30,000 feet further from the one before it. should one heart flutter it

would have been concern to millions world's away. unlike any other place that man travelled before, space could provide him with nothing, it is a vacuum, devoid of every element needed for life. to send man into this nothingness, to protect him, it was first necessary to define him. what is the human machine? how does it function? what is the nature of it's nervous system? its respiration? its circulation, digestion, sight, hearing, balance? its endurance?

what gases to breathe should he take with him from earth? what atmospheric pressure suits him best? and possible to give him a more efficient atmosphere for space travel than nature provides on earth? ♪♪ >> the moon is 250 degrees hot in sunlight and 240 degrees below zero in the middle of its night. how long can a man bake or freeze? what protection will he need from this inhuman environment?

what strains will the heart take when the pressure of gravity is removed from the limbs? what protection will the body need from sudden deceleration or acceleration? man's sense of direction, speed, and balance are easily fooled. can his mind be trained to

ignore false signals from his senses?

we were defining the physical man in absolute terms. once we knew man's limitations, we could build him an artificial environment for space travel.

"columbia," the command module, was the supreme achievement of technology for its age. it was a mini environment, complete with its own control system, telecommunications, electrical power, navigation, stabilization, propulsion, reaction control. it provided hot and cold water and removed carbon dioxide from the air. three men could live here for more than a week. eat, work, sleep, shave, exercise, and listen to music. it was micromedia proof, burn proof, and seaworthy and it could tilt itself in any direction. in short, it was the most intricate and sophisticated machine ever made by man. as for man, however, we're stuck with the original model. all we can do is add an outer layer of things he does not

naturally have. space medicine showed us where man is vulnerable and we learned to compensate for most of the weaknesses with technology and careful workmanship. >> i made boxing gloves before i came here. and the fact is i was an experienced sewer. but i had to learn all over again, because it was completely different from what i had sewed before. this was get right down to a 64th of an inch. when i sewed before, you just sewed on a production line. and this here is quality more than quantity. >> like we always think our job is the hardest. whatever we're doing, we've got the hardest job. when they say, do so and so, you'll find out that job is harder than yourself. a lot of times, we're sewing or

making things, and maybe the girl next to you is doing the same thing, but we don't see the suit put together, this one doesn't know where this part goes and the other doesn't know where the other part goes. like gloves, if they give you a glove, you wouldn't know where it goes. >> you go, i hope that part don't fail because it will be my fault if it does. >> i wondered if my pair of gloves is what he had on. >> if you make a mistake, you have to think about the astronaut too. if you make like a needle hole in the bladder or something like that, that would be on your conscience all the time. i remember armstrong used to come in, they would look around and see what we were doing. once in a while they would talk to us, we would get them to sign

their autograph. some of them were real comical. we got a kick out of them. we all wanted to talk to them, i guess. as they went down the aisle, everybody was afraid to talk. i said, "hi, buddy." >> i would love to go into space, it would be really thrilling just to get in there and blast off. >> i would love to go to space and just live there. every day you go to work, go home, clean house. up there there's no house, no kids, no problem. >> i think i would like to go to space and wear our own suit that we make. i think i could depend on it.

♪♪ >> after body electrodes have been attached to monitor the body and breathing, the first items to be cooled are an collector. it might be called a one-man space suit of the smallest possible dimensions. it has to guard from the hottest temperatures from the sun and tiny meteorites yet has to allow a man to function as he would in

his natural earth environment. ♪♪ >> the backpack cleans and cools the suit's oxygen, cools and

circulates water through the water-cooled underwear and provides radio communication. over the pressure helmet is a clear visor, then a cold coated visor to protect against micrometeors and solar radiation. the final test was how would the suit work in the silent, weightless world of space? ♪♪ weightlessness on earth can be experienced only underwater or in an airplane following a parabolic flight path.

♪♪ the only true test was in space itself. ♪♪

♪♪ >> no up or down. no day or night. only the slow creeping of the harsh sunlight through the windows as the spacecraft rotates to keep from getting too hot on one side, too cold on the other. they carried with them the biological day of the earthling. three meals, a snack or two, eight hours of sleep. >> time to work. time to relax. time to reflect. three days, falling upward to the moon. look down.

look down. that fragile bubble of life floats on a sea of nothing. spaceship earth. ♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪

>> plus zero zero one niner zero. roll is your option. pitch, two one three three five seven. noun 44 is n.a. delta vt, zero zero one niner seven. zero zero three zero zero one five two. apollo 11, this is houston. i've got the morning news here if you're interested, over. >> yeah, we sure are, ready to copy and comment. >> okay. first off, looks like it's going

to be impossible to get away from the fact that you guys are dominating all the news back here on earth. even russia is headlining the mission, and calls neil the czar of the ship. i think maybe they got the wrong mission. among the large headlines concerning apollo this morning is one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. an ancient legend says a beautiful chinese girl called chang-oh has been living there for 4,000 years. it seems she was banished to the moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband. you might also look for her companion, a large chinese rabbit who is easy to response since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. the name of the rabbit is not reported.

>> okay, we'll keep a close eye for the bunny girl. >> and in corby, england, john coyle won a championship by consuming 23 bowls of instant oatmeal in a time limit from a field of 35 other competitors, over. >> i like to enter aldrin in the oatmeal eating contest next time. he's on his 19th bowl. >> roger. back here in houston, mayor louie wilkes promises the lifting of law and order restrictions if the rain continues. three wives and children got together for lunch. it turned out to be a gab fest.

president nixon is planning to use his executive power to streamline the interstate commerce commission. >> it was later in the week, enthusiastically welcomed at the jackie gleason golf match in miami, florida. >> as air pollution richard critical levels, the senate unanimously backed a national environmental policy act to make the safeguarding of the physical environment -- >> san diego awaits the arrival of mrs. sharon adams on her solo crossing of the pacific. >> in vietnam, things are relatively quiet with only a few fire fights. 814 men of the third battalion -- >> gis north of vietnam were evacuating villagers. >> a celebration marking the

anniversary of the battle of boyne. >> witnesses in its investigation of student disorders that took place at harvard and other universities last spring. 10,000 harvard students -- >> registration for the black panther party convention being held at party headquarters in oakland. >> the white house, quakers had gathered to continue their silent vigil. >> the grand prix in watkins, new york won by world famous mario andretti. >> antipoverty workers are taking information about birth control and family planning into the mountains of appalachia. >> a new line of space toys drew an impressive line of children of all ages in tokyo's department stores. >> in the middle east, new skirmishes broke out. >> in retaliation to israeli assaults. >> from the u.s. defense

department, have -- >> carrying out war with nigeria. >> young jordanian -- >> other viet cong's -- >> -- vietnam -- >> minus zero zero seven five eight plus all balls plus zero zero zero niner eight. plus -- correction, zero zero five seven two. perigee plus zero zero eight five zero zero seven six four

zero three zero zero zero zero two niner three nine eight six minus zero zero seven five niner. >> apollo went into orbit around the moon. the journey that had taken the lifetime of mankind was nearing its crucial moment. >> we wondered if you started yet, over. >> okay, charlie, we're in the lem. the docking index mark is the same. >> roger, we copy. >> houston, apollo 11, apollo 11 eagle, over. >> the lunar module eagle was again given a thorough checkout as armstrong and aldrin prepared to seal themselves off from collins in the command module and for the two craft to pull apart.

>> one, two, three, four, five, five, four, three, two one. houston out, over. >> okay, let go there, captain. flight controllers, going to go for undocking. >> go. >> vital. >> go. >> surgeon. >> go. >> capcom, we're go for undocking. >> hello, eagle, houston, we're standing by, over. >> eagle, houston, we see you, over. >> eagle undocked. >> roger. how does it look?

>> the eagle has wings. >> the eagle has wings. on its own now, but with "columbia" here at hand, it coasted around to the back side of the moon and there, while out of direct communication with the earth, it fired its engine to slow its descent to a touchdown on the near side of the moon. collins in "columbia" continued in orbit, awaiting their return. >> all flight controllers, going to go for landing. guidance. >> go. >> control. >> go. >> surgeon. >> go. >> capcom, we're go for landing. >> go for landing, over. >> 3,000 feet. >> looking good. >> how about you, telcom?

>> go. >> vital. >> go. >> 2,000 feet. 47 degrees, roger. 37 degrees. >> still looking very good. >> you're go. >> bravo one. >> bravo when you knew. >> 1201 alarm. >> we're go, flight. >> we're go. >> we're go. hang tight. we're go. eagle looking great. roger 1202, we copy it. 35 degrees. 750, coming down to 23. 540 feet out of 15. 10 and 50 feet down at 4. altitude, velocity light. 3 1/2 down, 220 feet. forward, 200 feet. 4 1/2 down. 5 1/2 down. 100 feet. 3 1/2 down.

9 forward. 75 feet. looking good. down a half. 6 forward. 60 seconds. lights on. forward. forward. 40 feet down. 2 1/2. picking up some dust. 4 forward, drifting to the right a little. >> 30 seconds. >> contact light. okay. engine stopped. >> we copy you down, eagle. >> houston, tranquility base here, the eagle has landed. >> this is apollo control houston at 105 hours now into the flight of apollo 11. our current plan is to have crew members aboard the eagle to eat and relax a little while prior to starting eva prep so we won't

know with certainty a reasonable time back until an hour before. [ speaking foreign language ] >> and the world waited. july 20, 1969. it is said that 500 million people gathered at tv sets around the world to wait for the first earthling to set foot on

the moon. countless millions more listened on the radio to the voices from the moon. >> radio check. >> this is houston, loud and clear. >> never before had so many people been attuned to one event at one time. the world waited. curious, wondering, aware. like a sleeper wakened in the night by a faraway sound. a moment sensed more than understood. >> okay, neil, we can see you coming down the ladder now. >> okay, i just checked, getting back up to that first step, it's

not collapsed too far, but it's adequate to get back up. >> roger, we copy. >> pretty good little jump. i'm at the foot of the ladder. the lem foot beds are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained, as you get close to it, it's almost like a powder. ground mass is very fine. i'm going to step off the lem. that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. >> that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

[ speaking foreign language ] >> on the moon at 4:17, astronaut neil armstrong -- [ speaking foreign language ] >> that looks beautiful from here. >> it has a stark beauty all its own, like much of the high desert of the united states. it's different, but it's very pretty out here.

are you getting a tv picture now, houston? >> neil, yes, we are getting a tv picture. you're in our field of view now. >> ready for me to come out? >> all set. >> okay. i'm on the top step. it's a very simple matter to hop down from one step to the next. >> you've got three more steps, then a long one. >> okay. i'm going to leave that one foot up there, both hands down to about the fourth rung up. >> there you go. >> i think i'll do the same. >> a little more, about another inch. there, you got it. that's a good step. >> beautiful view. >> ain't that something? magnificent sight out here.

>> very fine powder, isn't it? >> neil, didn't i say we might see some purple rocks? very small, sparkly fragments. >> okay, houston, i'm going to change lenses on you. >> roger, neil. >> when you finish the panorama. >> you're going too fast on the panorama sweep, you're going to have to stop. >> i haven't set it down yet. that's the first picture in the panorama. okay. i'm going to move it. tell me if you got a picture, houston. >> we've got a beautiful picture, neil.

>> okay. we got that one. okay, there's another good one. for a final orientation, we would like it to come left about 5 degrees, over. >> okay. >> okay, that looks good there, neil. >> buzz is erecting the solar wind experiment now. every precious minute of their 2 1/2 hours on the surface was programmed. rock and soil samples were to be collected. photographs taken. experiments set up to catch unfiltered particles from the sun to record moonquakes, to measure precisely by laser beam reflection the exact distance between moon and earth.

>> "columbia," "columbia," this is houston. the eva is progressing beautifully. they're setting up the flag now. i guess you're about the only person around that doesn't have tv coverage of the scene. >> that's all right, i don't mind a bit. >> they've got the flag up, you can see the stars and stripes. >> beautiful, just beautiful. how is the quality of the tv? >> oh, it's beautiful, mike, it really is. >> i would like to evaluate the various paces that a person traveling on the surface. you do have to be careful to keep track of where your center of mass is. sometimes it takes about two or three paces to make sure that you've got your feet underneath you.

>> two to three, maybe four easy paces can bring you to a really smooth stop, like in football, you just have to put out to the side and cut a little bit. kangaroo hop. it seems your forward ability isn't quite as good, it gets rather tiring after several hundred feet. this may be a function of the suit rather than lack of gravity force here. >> i notice in the soft spots where we have footprints nearly an inch deep, that the soil is very cohesive and it will retain a slope of probably 70 degrees on the side of the foot prunt.

footprint. >> buzz is making his way around the lem, photographing it from various angles.footprint. >> buzz is making his way around the lem, photographing it from various angles. looking at its condition on all sides. >> there are two craters. the one that's right in front of me now as i look off at the 11:00 position, about 30 to 35 feet. >> roger up. >> in the foreground, buzz aldrin is collecting a core tube

sample. >> i hope you're watching how hard i have to hit this into the ground to the tune of about five inches, houston. >> roger. >> it almost looks wet. >> buzz, this is houston. you've got about ten minutes left now prior to commencing your eva termination activities, over. >> got you, i understand. >> it's fantastic. >> first person on the moon. it's just too much. i can't get over it. >> i don't know how to put it, you know? it's the most marvelous thing. it's a miracle. >> we are really thrilled. >> for every american this has to be the proudest day of our lives and for people all over the world. >> it's really great for the whole world. >> it means a lot to all the

countries, not just america. >> you realize we're all human beings together. >> i hope this brings unity amongst all countries. >> i hope it will help you to solve all internal problems you may have. >> i think it's a waste of a lot of money to be used for something else. they holler that people are on starvation. >> this huge amount of money americans spent to see what the moon is like. >> it's disgusting. it's a pity they haven't got something else to do. it would be better if they had done something better. >> what if columbus decided he couldn't get the money from isabella, where would we be? >> god didn't put people to clutter it up like the earth. >> myself, i'm interested to see what's up there. >> we must open all secrets that are opening to us throughout the ages. >> i think that the dream of the man from the beginning of the human race is coming now.

>> alone, 45 miles above the moon's surface, michael collins completed an orbit every two hours. he listened to the progress of the moon walk and awaited the moment when his companions on the surface would lift off to rendezvous with him. ♪♪ 30 times he saw the earth rise over the horizon of the moon. 12,000 miles of twilight. a line that divides light from day for 3 billion people on spaceship earth. it is good to see the whole earth, to see the earth whole.

♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ >> the eagle had left the moon and returned to "columbia." ♪♪ within this strange ship, two

astronauts and a treasure. triple sealed vacuum boxes of rocks and soil from the surface of the moon. locked within these rocks were secrets of the ages to be studied and deciphered by the scientists of earth. the age of the moon. the age of the sun. how the moon was formed. how life began. was there ever life on the moon? was the moon once molten and

volcanic, or has it always been cold and dead? was it once part of the earth? or was it a wandering planet captured by the earth eons ago? how hot was the sun 3 billion years ago? ♪♪

when armstrong and aldrin with their precious load of moon rocks had transferred to "columbia," the faithful eagle, its task completed, could be cut adrift. "columbia" fired out of lunar orbit to begin its three-day fall back to earth where the recovery fleet was waiting for its splashdown in the pacific. ♪♪ >> apollo 11, houston. with a little recovery force information. over. >> go ahead. >> roger.

the hornet is on the station, just far enough off the target point, to keep from getting hit. recovery one -- >> july 24, the hornet was on station and the president of the united states was aboard. reentry into the earth's invisible atmosphere carries with it one of the most critical moments. traveling nearly 25,000 miles per hour, the command module can miss the angle of reentry by only several degrees and disintegrate into flames or bounce off into space, never to return. >> velocity 33,000 feet per second. 35,000 feet per second now. 36,000 feet per second. we're at entry time. there's blackout.

>> apollo 11, houston. >> reports a sonic boom a short time ago. >> apollo 11, visual contact. apollo 11, houston, standing by, over. ♪♪ >> apollo 11, apollo 11, this is hornet, hornet, over. >> read you loud and clear. our position, 13306915. >> 11 hornet, copy, 13306915.

>> 33016915. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ [ sirens ] [ applause ]

[ cheering ] >> what was it we were really celebrating? three men who had done what no man before had done. a technological feat that was believed beyond the realm of possibility. the fulfillment of an age-old dream. where we celebrating simply because it had been a long time since we had had anything to celebrate? or was this something that touched an irrational, unthinking instinct in us all? ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ ♪ we're going to the moon together ♪ ♪ pack your bags and jump into the car ♪ ♪ gonna take a trip to tell you where you are ♪ ♪ goodbye mother, so long

mother ♪ ♪ goodbye mother, so long, mother, so long, mother earth ♪ goodbye mother, goodbye mother earth ♪ ♪♪

>> the treasure of the ages. stones from across the night. unrubbed by wind. unwashed by rain. scattered on tranquility. ♪♪

♪♪ bombarded by solar particles for billions of years but unchanged in any other way, a moon rock is like a diary of the sun. an eye unblinking since time began. that stared across the sea of space. that watched the blue planet when life began. ♪♪

remembered in these rocks are ancient sun spots, solar flares, solar storms whose fiery arms reached out a million miles.

by making ourselves very small, like alice, perhaps we will see what these rocks have seen and remember back those billions of years to decipher the life of the sun. ♪♪

♪♪ locked within our sun are answers to mysteries that have confounded man since time began. we have reached out with our telescopes. we have reached in with our microscopes. seeking.

what is the source of life? what combination of energies and elements brought it into existence? what is the relationship between the nonliving and living things? how delicate is the balance? man slowly begins to realize how fragile is his bubble of life. ♪♪

ours is one sun in a sea of suns more plentiful than all the grains of sand on all the shores of all the seas of planet earth. ♪♪ now that we are free to wander from earth, perhaps we will find the answers to our questions.

some day, we may know where we've come from, where we're going. we may know where is the end, where is the beginning.come fro. we may know where is the end, where is the beginning. ♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ we have walked on the moon. we open our minds to the universe. ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ we have liftoff. >> at the age of 82, wally funk went into space for the first

time with amazon founder jeff bezos. she is the oldest person to ever travel into space. she was originally a part of the mercury 13 lady astronauts from the early 1960s, a group of women who underwent rigorous training but were never selected to go into surveys. recently on american history tv's oral history series, wally funk recalled the earliest days of the space program. here is a portion of that interview. >> as you came down from the first phase of testing, what were some of those tests, and at any point did you stop and think, what am i doing or anything along those lines? >> to answer your last question first, no, i had not a shadow of a doubt. i was their subject. they could do anything with me that they wanted to do. i didn't know you could get x-rayed from head to toe and it would take a whole day and every single tooth and every single bone. but they wanted perfect specimens at that time. now, let's go back to the men,

the mercury. there were 159 men selected from the armed services to go through these tests at loveless. how many were selected? 25 women were selected. and how many passed? 13. so do we have a little bit of information here on how well do women do things, how well did they come across on the mayflower? terrific. how well did they go across the prairies and settle the west in their covered wagons? great. big families, didn't think anything about it. why can't we fly and go into space? for the men today to think we can't as women do things, sorry, folks, we can do it. a woman -- and i'm sure eileen has tried extra hard to do her

best, because nobody wants to fail. and failure is not a part of my makeup. i do the best i can do and i kick as many doors in as i possibly can no matter where i go. >> you can watch the rest of this program and our entire library of oral histories online at our website, c-span.org/history. this week, we're looking back to this date in history. >> a short time ago, an american airplane dropped one bomb on hiroshima and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy. that bomb has more power than 20,000 tons of tnt. the japanese began the war from the air at pearl harbor. they have been repaid manyfold. and the end is not yet. with this bomb, we have now added a new and revolutionary

increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our armed forces. in their present form, these bombs are now in production and even more powerful forms are in development. it is an atomic bomb. it is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. the force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war it treatment of scientific brain for making it work. >> follow us on social media at c-span history for more this state in history posts. >>