All language subtitles for The.Armstrong.Tapes.2019.720p.WEB.x264-CAFFEiNE

Capcom (over radio): A real
good picture we're getting
here of commander armstrong.

Nixon: For every american,
this has to be the
proudest day of our lives.

Armstrong (over radio):
Ok, I'm going to
step off the lm now.

Cronkite (over tv):
Thirty-eight-year-old
neil alden armstrong,

the first human being
to touch the moon.

In these eight days of
the apollo 11 mission,

man's dream and a nation's
pledge have now been fulfilled.

Daly (over pa): We welcome
our american heroes
of space exploration!

Reporter (over tv):
Armstrong was an american
hero, albeit a reluctant one.

Scott: He had to do things
that he had not anticipated.

Reporter: Are
you leaving nasa with any
sense of dissatisfaction?

Solacoff: He was so
hounded, so many times.

Reporter (over tv): For
years armstrong has shunned
the media and the limelight.

Reporter 2 (over tv): Rarely
giving interviews, never
signing an autograph that

could be auctioned
to the highest bidder.

Bradley (over tv): Now he's
about to take a giant leap
back into the public view.

He's finally
authorized a biography.

Hansen: I ended up having
55 hours of tape-recorded
interviews with him.

Hansen: This is his life,
told in his own words.

♪ ♪

I first met neil in 1999.

I knew that he had not done
his memoir, and so I decided
I would give it a shot

and I wrote him a letter.

It took almost two years,

but eventually I got
a invitation to come to
his home in cincinnati.

I remember very well
knocking on his door and
neil answered and that's,

there he is!

It's neil armstrong.

He was not a person
that you could penetrate
very quickly in terms

of understanding the
inner workings of the man.

But I think that I
was able to develop a
certain trust level.

He knew that I was
treating him as more
than just a "moon man."

I always thought
this one story tells
you a lot about neil.

This was in may of 1968,
fourteen months before
the launch of apollo 11.

Neil was flying this lltv,
this training vehicle,

that was devised to simulate
what it would be like to fly
down to a lunar landing.

Hansen: Later that day,
al bean who's his
office mate comes in,

and then goes out
to get a cup of coffee.

Well, at the coffee
machine, they're talking
about how neil almost died.

So he goes into the
office and says, neil,

they're telling this crazy
story out here that you ejected
from the lltv this morning.

And neil said,
"yeah, I, I did."

(laughs).

Hansen: It's so
reflective of armstrong.

Here's this guy that
can nearly kill himself,

and he just goes back
to work on some papers.

He was such a focused mind,
and he was so in love and
passionate about flying.

And I think to
understand him as an adult,

you really need to
understand his childhood.

Man (over radio): Highlights
of speed at the national
air races cleveland!

Man (over radio):
And he wins again!

(cheers).

Solacoff: From the very first
time that I met him, he was
planning on being a pilot

and to design airplanes.

He got his flying
license before he had
his driver's license.

Hansen: The armstrongs were
not a well-to-do family.

Neil's mother was
a stay-at-home mom, his
dad worked for the state.

And the expectation was
that neil was gonna have to

pay for much of his
own college education
if he was going to go.

So he applied for
a naval scholarship.

The day that the letter
arrived awarding him a
scholarship his mom told

a story about how neil
sort of scared her yelling,

he was so excited to be able
to have a college education.

Hansen: What he didn't
know was that two years
into college a major war

was going to develop.

Beauchamp: In 1950
korea broke out.

I was ordered as commanding
officer of fighter
squadron 51 and neil,

with a brand new
set of wings, reported
to my squadron for duty.

Subsequently,
we went to korea.

Anybody that makes it
through navy flight training
is a skilled pilot.

But when he really came to our
attention was when he saved
his own life over north korea.

Beauchamp: This
was September 1951.

Neil was on a strafing run.

He was hit by aa
and put out of control.

He came very
close to the ground.

Hansen: The north koreans
would string these thick
cables kind of as booby-traps.

Neil flew into
one and it sliced off
about six feet of wing.

Just about anybody else
probably would've been killed.

Beauchamp: But neil was
able to fly this damaged
airplane so that he was not

in north korea any
longer and he ejected.

He landed by a
marine occupied base.

He seemed unshaken.

Just amazing.

We recognized from that day
forward that he was above
average by quite a bit.

Hansen: As a member of
fighter squadron 51, neil
flew 78 combat missions.

And that was his
first experience with
the danger of flying.

Hansen: This was a very
formative time in his life.

And when he came back
to purdue, he was
a more mature person.

He had a better idea
of what he wanted.

That's when he
met janet shearon.

Hoffman: She's a very
pleasant person, you know.

And very outgoing.

Where neil's quiet,
she loved to talk.

Hansen: She was very
attractive and she had
her choice of guys.

But neil just was
a lot different.

He had a military
career, he seemed to be a
more serious type of guy.

And I think that's
what intrigued her.

Hoffman: I remember him
bringing her home and
it was just so cute.

My grandpa looks
over at me, he said,

"she's got nice legs."

(laughs).

After that, she became
part of the family.

Hansen: So they marry in 1956.

The job that he
takes is working as
a test pilot out at

edwards air force base
in california.

Hansen: In retrospect
this decision was going
to lead him down the path

of becoming the
first man on the moon.

Scott: This is the roar of
a sleek black research plane
at edwards, california.

The x-15 is the only
pilot-controlled plane in the
world to fly in both air and

along the fringes of space.

Hansen: Test-piloting in the
1950s is extremely dangerous.

But I think there's a certain
sense of invincibility.

If you do your preparations,

you've got a good
shot at surviving it all.

And I think armstrong had
that sort of confidence.

Beauchamp: When
neil went to work at
edwards air force base,

he told me that he had great
hopes of flying the x-15.

And eventually he did.

Hansen: I think
neil's most enjoyable time
in his professional career

was out in california.

Actually, it all seems
pretty idyllic, for a while.

Hoffman: He and
janet moved to this little
cabin up in the mountains.

And ricky was born.

Then karen was born
almost two years later.

And she was just
the cutest little girl.

Hansen: Neil's nickname
for her is "muffie,"
which is a short for muffin.

Hoffman: My husband jack
and I would go see them.

Those were good times.

Hansen: But things get
challenging when the little
girl is diagnosed with

a very malignant
brain tumor at age two.

Hoffman: They gave her
radiation treatments,
and she improved.

But it didn't last too long.

So they decided that
they would try chemo.

But the doctor said that
she's such a tiny little girl
she could not afford chemo.

Hansen: Neil felt almost
personally responsible.

He scoured the medical
journals and talked to
as many experts as he could,

thinking that he could help.

And he really couldn't.

She died on the day of
their wedding anniversary.

For that reason neil and janet
never celebrated their wedding
anniversary afterwards.

Hoffman: It was extremely
hard for both of them.

But, she was able
to talk about it more.

He just didn't go there.

Hansen: These are tapes
with janet armstrong,
a series of tapes.

Hoffman: I think it
was just a hurt that you
can't explain to anybody.

He just dealt with
it the way he could.

Hansen: After muffie's death,
neil went right back to flying
as quickly as he could.

That was his way
of dealing with it.

During this time,
neil sees a call for a
new class of astronauts,

because president kennedy
had made the lunar
landing commitment.

So he decided to throw
his name into the selection.

Given everything
that had happened,

I think he saw
this new challenge as
something to focus on.

So in September of 1962,
when nasa was seriously
starting to consider

how to do the moon landing,
he entered the astronaut corps.

Hansen: Neil
becomes an astronaut
in September of 1962,

and the gemini
missions are just beginning.

In a nutshell, gemini
was about everything
that you needed to learn,

that nasa needed to learn,
before they could move
on to the apollo program.

Man (over tv): The gemini
program would develop
long duration flights,

re-entry flight path control,
extra-vehicular capability,

and rendezvous
and docking maneuvers.

Scott: The first time I really
got to know neil was when
we were assigned to gemini 8.

I went over and met neil
in his office, and he said,

"welcome aboard, let's
see what we're gonna do."

gemini 8 was to go up
and spend four days in
space, do the first docking,

with a target vehicle
called the agena, and
then I was to do an eva,

go outside for almost
two hours to sort of simulate
a lunar surface exploration.

So it was a very exciting
and very complex mission,

and our months of
training were pretty intense.

Hansen: Not long after
neil becomes an astronaut,
another child is born,

another son, mark.

And neil's occupied
with his job.

So janet's raising the
family pretty much on her own.

Hansen: It was a
very demanding job,

but you have a family
that's there waiting for him.

They want his love,
they want his attention.

And when he returns, it was
hard for him to give them what
they really want from him.

Reporter (over tv):
How do you feel about
the fact that one day,

in any test program
as you know neil,
something's going to go wrong.

Armstrong (over tv):
Well, uh, that certainly,
certainly is true.

But I think the secret
to success is continued work,

trying to make our
spacecraft just as safe

and reliable as they've
proved to be in the past.

Lodge (over radio):
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero.

We have ignition.

Control (over radio):
And we have a liftoff at...

Man (over radio):
There it goes.

Control (over radio):
Three seconds.

Man (over radio): Here across
the sand comes the roar
of those tremendous engines.

Lifting off into a
nearly cloudless sky.

Beautiful!

Control (over radio): This
is gemini control houston.

There's the word we've
been waiting for.

Neil armstrong came back
that we're about 150 feet
apart from the agena.

Control (over radio):
And now there the word
is they have docked,

they've achieved the dock.

Neil armstrong's only comment,
"it was a real smoothie."

scott: Neil did the
first docking in space.

All that worked quite well.

And then we ran into a
problem in that the spacecraft
started rolling to the left.

Haney (over radio): This
is gemini control houston.

Trouble has developed
in the flight of gemini 8.

We do not know whether the
problem developed in the
agena or in the spacecraft.

We will pass along additional
information as it develops.

Just send in command
400 to turn it off and take
control with the spacecraft.

Did you, uh, copy that?

Armstrong (over radio):
We understand.

Scott: Before the spacecraft
started rolling, mission
control had told us that if we

lose control somehow,
turn the agena off and
take over with gemini.

So we did that a
number of times,
but it didn't work.

Control (over radio):
We can't seem to get
any valid data here.

It seems to be in a
pretty violent tumble rate.

Scott: We finally
decided that we better
undock from the agena.

Hansen: But instead of
solving the problem, the
spinning just gets worse.

Capcom (over radio):
Gemini 8, how do you read?

Scott (over radio): Uh, we
got serious problems here.

We're rolling up and we
can't turn anything off.

Hansen: Unless dave
and neil can find a
way to get it to stop,

they're gonna black out
and they're gonna die.

Scott: We ended up about
almost one revolution per
second when neil turned on the

little re-entry
control system,

shut off the main thrusters.

Capcom (over radio): Okay,
relax, everything's okay.

Hansen: The problem
is, those thrusters and
that fuel is needed in order

to get back to earth safely.

Once you open up the
re-entry control system,
you've got to come down.

Haney (over radio): This
is gemini control houston.

The flight director
has determined to
terminate the flight.

We plan to bring the
flight down in the third zone,

which is approximately
500 miles east of okinawa.

A destroyer named the mason
is proceeding toward the point.

They have the
spacecraft in sight.

It's on the water.

Turner (over radio):
Astronauts armstrong and
scott are safe back on earth,

but as yet flight directors
don't know what caused

gemini 8 to go out
of control for a time

and necessitate bringing
it back ahead of schedule.

Armstrong (over tv): Well
it's a great pleasure
to be back in houston

among all our friends here.

We had a exciting ride.

We accomplished
a lot of things.

We wish we could have,
uh, done a few more.

We'll be spending this week
completing our debriefings.

Scott: There had been
conjecture that we
had made a mistake.

But it turned out that
the thruster on the gemini
spacecraft had been shorting.

It would fire when
we didn't want it to fire,

and it wouldn't fire when
neil commanded it to fire.

So neil's performance
was actually brilliant.

Man: I think it's
important to note that
neil played a key role,

not only in recovering
the spacecraft, but
in salvaging valuable data.

Hansen: In the end I think
it added to his reputation
within nasa leadership.

Man: Gemini 8
did include a flawless
rendezvous and docking,

this being so important to our
manned lunar landing program.

Hansen: They knew this
was a guy that had a cool
head that could take care of

an emergency and
do the right thing.

Ignition.

Commit liftoff.

We have liftoff.

Hansen: In 1968, nasa
launched the first
manned apollo mission.

Control (over radio):
We have cleared the tower.

Hansen: Two months later
was our first flight
out of earth orbit.

Cronkite (over tv):
Everything seems to be
going exceedingly well.

That of course is very
good news in houston, texas.

Hansen: Neil was in mission
control when deke slayton,
head of the astronaut corps,

told him he was going
to command apollo 11 and
if everything went right,

then 11 would be
the landing mission.

Man: It's my considerable
pleasure to introduce our
apollo 11 crew, mr. Armstrong,

of course, the command
pilot, colonel collins
and colonel aldrin.

Hansen: Once it was
announced that 11 was going
to be the attempt at landing,

and that neil
and buzz were gonna be
onboard the lunar module,

the issue became well,

which one is gonna come
out onto the surface first.

Knowing that this person is
going to be an iconic world
hero, there was a discussion

inside of higher
nasa management.

We've got armstrong:
Modest, no ego.

And then we've got buzz aldrin,

who likes to be the
center of attention.

And there was total consensus
this has gotta be armstrong.

However, it wasn't like
they could go out in a press
conference and say, well,

we've decided that
armstrong's gonna go
out first on the moon

and the reason is we
don't trust buzz to do it.

You can't say that.

So what they did
say is that the egress
order was determined,

by how the astronauts
were positioned
inside the lunar module,

and how the hatch opened.

Cronkite (over tv):
Man embarks today on
history's greatest adventure.

Armstrong, aldrin, and collins

are to lift off on the voyage
man always has dreamed about.

Control (over radio): This is
apollo-saturn launch control.

We are a go for apollo 11.

Neil armstrong
reported back when he
received the good wishes,

"thank you very much,
we know it will be a
good flight."

t minus 15 seconds.
Guidance is internal.

12, 11, 10, 9,
ignition sequence starts.

♪ ♪

capcom (over radio):
Hello apollo 11.

Houston.

A real good picture
we're getting here of
commander armstrong.

Capcom (over radio):
Neil, how does it look?

Armstrong (over radio):
Looking good.
The eagle has wings.

Control (over radio):
Ok, all flight controllers,
gonna go for landing. Retro?

Retro (over radio): Go!

Control (over radio): Fido?
Fido (over radio): Go!

Control (over radio):
Guidance?
Guidance (over radio): Go!

Control (over radio): Control?
Flight control
(over radio): Go!

Control (over radio): Telcom?
Telcom (over radio): Go!

Control (over radio): Gnc?
Gnc (over radio): Go!

Control (over radio): Eecom?
Eecom (over radio): Go!

Control (over radio): Surgeon?
Surgeon (over radio): Go!

Control (over radio):
Capcom, we're go for landing.

Capcom (over radio):
Eagle, houston, you're
a go for landing. Over.

Aldrin (over radio):
Roger. Understand.
Go for landing. 3,000 feet.

Capcom (over radio):
Eagle, houston.

We'll monitor your delta-h.

Things look real close.

Aldrin (over radio):
Four forward.

Drifting to the
right a little.

Hansen: So he's in
there flying the machine
in ways that they really

didn't expect him to.

Capcom (over radio):
30 seconds.

Armstrong (over radio):
Forward.

Hansen: And they used more
fuel than they thought.

Capcom (over radio):
We got an alarm.

Hansen: And then there
were these computer
alarms that went off.

Capcom (over radio):
We got an alarm.

Hansen: Computers were
getting overloaded.

Capcom (over radio):
Roger. 1201 alarm.

Capcom (over radio): 1201.

Capcom (over radio):
1201. Roger. 1201 alarm.

Same type. We're go. Flight.

Ok we're go.
We're go. Same type.
We're go.

Hansen: They finally
get the word.

Capcom (over radio):
Right on. Real good.

Hansen: And somehow he
has to fly this thing down.

Aldrin (over radio): 30 feet.
2 and a half down.

Picking up some dust.

Armstrong (over radio):
Tranquility base here.

The eagle has landed.

Capcom (over radio):
Roger, tranquility.

Be advised there are lots of
smiling faces in this room.

Armstrong (over radio):
Are you getting a
tv picture now houston?

Capcom (over radio):
Neil, yes, we are
getting a tv picture.

Armstrong (over radio):
Ok, I'm going to step
off the lm now.

That's one small step
for a man, one giant
leap for mankind.

Armstrong (over radio): It has
a stark beauty all its own,

it's like much of the high
desert of the united states.

It's different, but
it's very pretty out here.

Capcom (over radio): Okay,
that looks good, neil.

Armstrong (over radio):
Isn't that something?

Hansen: He understood the
magnitude of the achievement.

But on a personal level, I
think what pleased him most
was the fact that he was the

first one to fly a machine
down onto the lunar surface.

I mean, it was kind of like
the wright brothers for him.

Hansen: It wasn't that he
didn't have deep thoughts.

Armstrong (over radio): The
responsibility for this flight
lies first with, with history.

And with the giants of science
who have preceded this effort.

Hansen: But he felt
like it was his job
to fly the lunar module

and he was just
doing his duty.

Armstrong (over radio):
God bless ya.
Good night from apollo 11.

Cronkite (over tv):
Thirty-eight-year-old
neil alden armstrong,

the first human
being to touch the moon.

Many things will
never be the same again.

Scott: After apollo 11, there
was a great media attention,
great public attention.

They had a world tour.

(cheers).

It was very hard work.

Place after place after place.

Very intense.

Probably more challenging
than flying the mission.

Hansen: Given the kind of
person that he was, he did
not enjoy the celebrity.

Not that you can say, I'm
sorry I went to the moon.

But it problematized
his life in ways that were
especially disdainful to him.

Solacoff: He told
me he would like to
go ahead and fly more,

but he knew
that he, he couldn't.

Because of who he was,
they wouldn't take a chance
of something happening to him.

Hansen: So nasa moved
him over into a position as

an associate administrator
for aeronautics.

Armstrong: I will
well and faithfully
discharge the duties.

Man: Of the office on
which I am about to enter.

Armstrong: Of the office on
which I am about to enter.

Man: So help me god.
Armstrong: So help me god.

(applause).

Hansen: But instead of letting
him run the aeronautical
programs like they should have,

they kept calling him to
show up for photographs
and autographs.

And they wouldn't
leave him alone.

Hope: And now to give us a
hand, the man whose skill and
courage won the admiration of

the world, the best
salesman america ever
had, neil armstrong.

Armstrong: I'll never forget
that first step on the moon.

And speaking of steps, the
first one you should take

in planning your
family's future is to save.

I recommend united
states savings bonds.

Money set aside...

Hansen: Eventually he said
heck with that and he just
decided I'm moving back to

ohio and he got
a teaching job at the
university of cincinnati

teaching aerospace engineering.

Solacoff: He always said,

"I'm just a pilot,
I don't deserve
all these accolades."

I remember someone offered
him a million dollars if he
would autograph 100 pictures,

and he turned it down.

That's the kind of
person that he was.

Hansen: It just got to a level
of frustration for her that
after 38 years of marriage,

she wrote him a note, said she
wanted a divorce, and she left
the note on the kitchen table

for him to read when
he got back from work.

Solacoff: He was
disappointed, and especially
I think he was hurt.

But his personality
is such that you really
couldn't really get into

what his heart is like.

Hansen: In 1992, neil
was at a local golf club
in suburban cincinnati.

And there he met carol.

Carol: He said to me once,

"you're the only person I've
met that talks less than I do."

so, I think we were
comfortable with each other.

We were married
in a little ceremony.

Just the family,
just the kids.

Hansen: I think she
brought him out of his
shell a little bit.

She was probably the
love of his life.

Carol: You know, with
the grandchildren, it was
a quieter time of life.

I have pictures of jack,
the youngest, playing
beauty parlor with neil.

(laughs).

Which isn't a picture that
most people would conjure up

when they're
thinking about neil.

He was happy.

Hoffman: Over here
is a picture of just
neil by himself.

Just two weeks
before he, he died.

It was...

Something you think
you don't have to go through,

but you have
to go through it sometimes.

Holt: There was great
sadness today when we learned
neil armstrong was dead

at the age of 82 from
complications related to
a recent heart operation.

Hansen: When I
started all of this,

I didn't really comprehend
how much he could mean to me.

There's a lot
to admire about him.

Scott: He was
always a good friend.

Just an exceptional person.

Beauchamp: I feel privileged
to have had the ah,

experiences
that I had with him.

Hoffman: I wrote
something about him
that I'll read to you:

"he had a
pleasant childhood.

He told funny jokes
and would laugh.

He fought for us.

He was an astronaut.

He had two interesting boys.

He had a small
daughter he loved.

He smiled at me and he
listened to the rain."

and that's kind of him.

Captioned by
cotter captioning services.