All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Machines.with.Dolph.Lundgren.S01E07.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[pensive music]

[machinery clicks]

- We've all probably
heard the phrase,

"It's not rocket science,"

but sometimes it's exactly that,

especially if you try
to engineer a machine

that can take man to the Moon

or launch one to take
out your enemies.

Tonight:

How lethal was one of the
world's first rockets

launched 500 years ago?

- For the 15th century, this
is as high as tech gets.

- How about a German
weapon so advanced,

it threatens to change the
course of World War II?

- There's no sirens,
no evacuation.

it just gets there and boom.

[explosion booms]

- [Dolph] What about
something so precise,

it could do the impossible?

- It looks like
SpaceX bet someone

that they could land a pencil
from orbit on its eraser.

- I'm Dolph Lundgren.

On screen, I'm all
about the action,

but offscreen, I have
degrees in engineering.

I even studied at MIT.

I learned that machines
and the people behind them

can transform the world.

Join me as I explore
the gears, grit,

and genius behind History's
Greatest Machines.

[intense music]
[machinery whirs]

Before the 16th century,

rockets were mostly
used as fireworks,

but then, Korean engineers
invent another use for them:

powering a machine so explosive

it all but guarantees
victory on the battlefield.

- Picture this: you're a
Korean soldier under siege

at the Battle of
Haengju in 1593.

The Japanese are
advancing upon the fort

and you are pinned
in pretty tight.

And not only that, you're
outnumbered 10 to 1.

It's not looking very good.

- Well, it turns out
that your engineers

have developed a new machine.

They wheel it out and
all hell breaks loose.

[rockets rumbling]

- [Dolph] It's not
magic; it's engineering,

and it starts with a really
explosive idea: gunpowder.

- China invents gunpowder
around the ninth century

and a couple centuries later,

there occurs the
Gunpowder Revolution.

- All across Eurasia,

armies start to recognize
the raw power of gunpowder.

I mean, before this, warfare
is all swords and spears

and basic ranged weapons
like bows and catapults.

- [Dolph] The Koreans reimagined
gunpowder in a new way.

[intense music]

Say hello to the hwacha.

- When you look at it,
it has two wheels,

and above that, there's
this metal-and-wood frame,

and encased within it,

there are 200 holes big
enough to hold an arrow.

- [Austin] The wheels make
this a mobile weapon.

It means that the
wielders of the hwacha

can react in real time
to the battlefield.

It's an incredibly
flexible weapon system.

- [Dolph] Engineers talk
about key components.

In this, it's the fuse, one
fuse attached to each rocket,

linking them together.

- This is synchronized firing
of 200 arrows at one time.

For the 15th century, this
is as high as tech gets.

Imagine the alternative.

You would have to coordinate
200 individual archers

to all fire their
arrows simultaneously.

- [Dolph] The arrows are
loaded into the tubes,

then a soldier lights the fuse,

[rockets whooshing]

and the hwacha ignites,

blasting rocket-propelled arrows
toward the terrified enemy.

- It has been
described as a cross

between a medieval machine
gun and a flame thrower.

You're basically just firing

and seeing how many of the
enemy you can cut down.

- [Dolph] The design is
way ahead of its time.

When the tube is fired,
exploding gas blasts backwards,

propelling the arrows
through the air.

Now hundreds of
arrows can be launched

twice as far as a bow
and arrow can reach.

- What the Koreans
have come up with

is essentially the
first rocket launcher.

- [Dolph] On May 23rd, 1592,

Japan invades Korea
with a massive army,

and the hwacha makes
its battlefield debut.

- [Don] Japan's forces are
led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

He has a massive battle-hardened
army of 150,000 troops.

This is one of the largest
invasions in pre-modern history.

There isn't gonna be
anything like this

until Napoleon invades Russia
a couple of centuries later.

- [Dolph] The Koreans
retreat to a remote fortress

with 3,400 troops,
facing 30,000 Japanese.

It's not looking good.

- [Austin] This should be
an absolute slaughter.

The Korean defenders are
outnumbered almost 10 to 1.

- [Don] As wave after
wave of Japanese soldiers

advance in tight formations,

the Korean defenders roll
out their secret weapon:

40 hwacha units.

- [Hakeem] Flying
through the sky now

are hundreds of
rocket-propelled arrows

going straight for the
advancing Japanese army.

- [Don] These
rocket-propelled arrows

slam into the Japanese ranks.

Arrows pierce the armor and
find all the vulnerable places,

faces, hands, necks, legs.

Suddenly, whole lines of
these soldiers collapse.

- [Austin] It's carnage.

These are the smoldering
remains of what,

at the beginning of the day,

looked to be an
unstoppable force.

- By dusk, the Japanese retreat

and it's all thanks
to the hwacha.

[arrows whoosh]

- Now, cut to 500 years later,

it's June 1941, and more
than 3 million German

and Axis soldiers cross
into the Soviet Union

in the largest military
invasion in history.

It's called
Operation Barbarossa.

And to survive, the
Soviets will need

to create a new weapon.

[tense music]

- The Soviets need something
that can turn the tide.

They need something
highly destructive,

but it also has to be cheap,
simple, and quick to build.

- [Hakeem] Traditional
artillery just won't do.

It's too slow to deploy,
too difficult to maneuver,

and it just doesn't have
the rate of fire necessary

to deliver the goods.

Soviet generals want
volume, speed, and terror.

- Around this time, you have
an engineer, Georgy Langemak.

He has been working on a
device for the past few years.

It's a rocket launcher

that can shoot off multiple
rockets simultaneously.

The code name for
this rocket launcher

is based on a popular song
of the era, "Katyusha."

[intense music]

- [Dolph] The Katyusha
is deceptively simple.

A framework of metal rails
mounted on a truck bed

designed to fire a bunch
of rockets all at once.

- [Hakeem] Mounting this
multi-launch rocket system

on the back of a truck is
actually pretty brilliant

because it's highly mobile so
you can fire off your rockets

and then before counter
battery artillery

comes to destroy you,

you're already gone, on to
your next firing location.

- [Dolph] The Katyusha
carries 16 launchers,

each loaded with a huge rocket.

- [Sami] It packs a
pretty serious punch.

I mean, just one
of these rockets

can wipe out an
entire enemy location.

- [Hakeem] It fires its rockets

using an electric
ignition system

that fires all the
rockets at once.

That's how it launches a
deadly volley of explosives

in just seconds.

- [Sami] Basically,
imagine watching

the finale of a fireworks show,

but all the fireworks
are pointed at you.

- To consider how devastating
of a weapon this is,

let's do the math.

A battery of four
Katyusha systems,

each able to fire
off 16 rockets,

means that these four
can deliver 64 rockets,

which means four
tons of explosives

all landing in enemy
territory in seven seconds.

- [Dolph] It's
enough to vaporize

an area the size
of a city block,

exactly what the Soviets
need to beat back Germans.

Now they just have to build them

and get them onto
the battlefield.

- They move fast, mass
producing these Katyushas

in factories all
across the country.

Within months, they are
rolling these things

off the assembly lines
straight onto the front lines.

[intense music]

- [Dolph] On July 14th, 1941,

the Katyusha makes
its combat debut

in a battle in the
small town of Rudnya.

- [John] German
forces are advancing.

You've got tanks, you've
got armored vehicles,

you've got infantry.

Suddenly these rockets start
screaming out of the sky

and raining all kinds of
death upon the forces there.

- [Hakeem] To the Germans
on the receiving end,

these things sound so eerie

and they're so devastating

that they're given the
nickname "Stalin's Organ".

[missiles whirring harmonically]

- The sound is like a
pipe organ from hell.

- [Reporter] Towns and villages
are recaptured by the hundreds

as the tremendous Russian drives

have hurled the Nazi enemy
from so much of Russian soil.

- [Don] The seven Katyushas just
annihilate the German infantry,

causing massive casualties

and a panicked retreat
from the battle.

- [Dolph] Stalin's Organ
becomes the soundtrack

of Soviet vengeance
on the Eastern Front.

- By the end of the war,
the Russians have built

at least 10,000 Katyusha
rocket launchers.

And they're putting
them everywhere.

They're mounting them on trucks,
they're mounting them on tanks.

They're even mounting
them on railroad cars.

- The Katyusha is so popular
in the Second World War

that it outlasts the
Second World War.

It's used during the Cold War,

and some of them are
still around today

in combat in various
parts of the world.

[rockets whoosh]

- One ironic footnote
deserves a mention here.

Georgy Langemak, the guy
who invented Stalin's Organ,

he doesn't even see his weapon
in action on the battlefield.

He's sentenced to death
in the Gulag by Stalin.

- By the 1940s,
rockets have proven

their terrifying destructive
power over and over again.

But a question remains:

Can you take all that
power and control it?

One man thinks he can turn
a rocket into a machine

that can strike surgically from
distances never seen before.

His name is Wernher von Braun.

- Von Braun grows up
obsessed with rocketry.

When he's a kid in
Berlin in the 1920s,

he reads Jules Verne's
science fiction classic,

"From the Earth to the Moon"

and from then on, he has this
dream to actually get there.

- At 12, he's arrested

for what he calls his
first ballistic experiment.

He straps a bunch of
fireworks to his wagon

and he sends it off, leaving
a trail of fire behind.

- [Dolph] Eventually, von
Braun becomes a leader

in Germany's secret
rocket program.

- In the late 1930s,
the Nazi regime

establishes a research and
testing facility for weapons

far enough from the front lines

that it's not going to
get interfered with.

- [Lance] This is
where von Braun

and his team turn
theory into reality.

They start building
labs and launch pads

that are designed to
push rockets farther

than anyone has gone before.

- [Natalia] By 1942, what
Germany needs is a low-cost way

to bombard England
from a distance

of 200 miles away.

He's being asked to
do more with rockets

than rockets can do.

- [Dolph] Von Braun delivers

the world's first
long-range ballistic rocket.

Hitler calls it Vengeance
2, or V-2, for a reason:

it's lethal and it's
incredibly fast.

- So at a time where
most planes and rockets

only go a few hundred
miles per hour,

this thing goes 3,500.

- [Dolph] That's over four
times the speed of sound.

[tense music]

Test launches of the V-2
begin on June 13th, 1942.

Top Nazi officials like
Hitler's Minister of Armaments

and War Production,
Abbott Spear,

are eager to see what this
supersonic rocket can do.

[rocket booms]

- [Nehemiah] The
rocket lifts off

and immediately, it
starts spinning,

and once it hits supersonic
speed, the fuel system gives out

and the thing cartwheels over
a half a mile over the Baltic.

[explosion booms]

- You want a weapon to
explode, but not like this.

The Nazi brass aren't happy,
but von Braun is ecstatic

'cause for the first time,
they've launched a guided rocket

that broke the sound barrier
and that's a huge step.

- [Dolph] For the
next two years,

von Braun and his team make
improvements to the V-2,

including making it bigger
to increase its load.

- [John] It has 2,000
pounds of explosives

strapped into its nose cone,

so it's gonna deliver
a heck of a punch.

- [Dolph] They design
the V-2 to fly higher.

So high, it becomes the
first human-made object

to reach space.

Plus they refine the
navigation system.

- The V-2 is the
first of its kind

to be able to be
pre-programmed before launch

to be steered to
reach its destination.

- Coordinates get punched in,
longitude, latitude, distance,

and once it's in the air,

it steers itself to its
target up to 200 miles away.

The Nazis see its power
and they want more of them,

but it's not an easy
rocket to build.

And to build
thousands of rockets,

the Nazis turn to forced labor,

pulling prisoners from the
Mittelbau concentration camp.

- [Martin] Much of
the work of assembly

of the components of the V-2,

that's being carried out by
concentration camp inmates.

- Thousands of
malnourished workers

working in horrible
conditions are killed

trying to build this rocket.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] By 1944, the
V-2 is ready to go.

On September 8th, the first
one hits a suburb of Paris,

flattening buildings
and killing six people.

- It's faster than
the speed of sound,

so it's on top of you before
you even know that it's coming.

[rocket roars]

There's no sirens,
no evacuation,

it just gets there, and boom.

[tense music]

- [Natalia] After that first
blast, hundreds follow.

Paris, Antwerp, London,

targeting civilians
where they live and work.

It's absolute chaos.

- On December 16th, 1944,

a V-2 hits a crowded
cinema in Antwerp.

Hundreds of Allied
soldiers are inside.

- It's a direct hit.

It causes the roof to cave in

and more than 550 people
inside are killed.

It is the most destructive
rocket hit of World War II.

- [Lance] The Allies
are scrambling,

thinking, "Where are
these things coming from?

How are they being launched?"

You can't intercept them.

You can't shoot them
down. They're ghosts.

- [John] The Germans, in
the last years of the war,

launch 3,000 V-2 rockets

and they end up killing roughly
9,000 civilians and soldiers

and wounding many more.

- [Dolph] By May 1945, the
war in Europe comes to an end.

Nazi Germany surrenders.

As innovative and deadly
as the V-2 rockets are,

they arrive too late to
change the course of the war.

- [Lance] But make no mistake,
this is an awesome machine.

So much so that at
the end of the war,

the Allies are scrambling to get

V-2 hardware and
blueprints and personnel.

- By the early 1960s,

the Cold War competition
between the US and the USSR

enters a whole new
frontier: space.

Now, the race is on,

and the first to land
men on the Moon wins.

[crowd cheering]
[tense music]

- September 12th, 1962,

President Kennedy is at
Rice University in Houston

and he sets this audacious goal.

He says, "We are going
to land a man on the Moon

and return him safely back."

- So the Moon is 240,000
miles away from Earth,

which is to say
nothing about the fact

that the Earth is
orbiting the sun,

and it's spinning on its axis.

And, of course, the Moon
is orbiting the Earth.

No technology exists
to do this yet.

Kennedy wants to pull
this off in eight years.

And the only way
he is gonna be able

to solve that
problem, if he can,

is by throwing a lot of money
and a lot of talent at it.

- The US is going to spend
$20 billion on this program.

That's equivalent to $190
billion in today's dollars.

- So the engineers have
huge demands on them.

This rocket has
to, first of all,

be powerful enough to break
Earth's gravitational pull.

From there, it's gotta
be precise enough

to reach the Moon,

and then it has to
be stable enough

to do all of this and
make it back to Earth

while keeping the
astronauts safe and sound.

- [Dolph] Leading The
team is a familiar name:

Nazi scientist and V-2
inventor Wernher von Braun.

- Wernher von Braun is one
of the most influential

and controversial figures in
the history of space flight.

He's a genius, but he comes
with a lot of baggage.

- [Paul] Wernher von
Braun is part of NASA

thanks to Operation Paperclip.

This is a covert US program

to bring 1,600 German
scientists to the US

after World War II.

- When Wernher von Braun
surrenders to the Americans

in May of 1945,
he brings with him

300 railway cars full
of rocket parts.

The Saturn V team includes

a number of these Nazi
rocket scientists,

and that's disturbing,
but the alternative

is that they would've
gone to the Soviets

and become part of
their space program.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] To reach all
the way to the Moon,

The German team comes up
with the Saturn V rocket.

- [Lance] The Saturn
V is the largest

and most powerful rocket
that's ever been built.

It's four times the size
of any other rocket.

It's taller than the
Statue of Liberty.

- [Dolph] Its size and
muscle solve for a problem:

Saturn V has to carry nearly
a million gallons of fuel

to get to the Moon.

So the engineers decide

to create the rocket
with three stages.

Stage 1 has five massive engines

that run on a mix of rocket
fuel and liquid oxygen.

That produces a
controlled explosion

large enough for blast off.

- [Paul] These monsters
burn for about 2.5 minutes

to lift the rocket
off the ground

and push it through
the lower atmosphere,

which is the densest
part of the atmosphere.

And at this stage, the
rocket is fully fueled,

meaning it's the heaviest.

This is by far the hardest
part of the launch.

- This first stage

burns through 20 tons
of fuel every second.

That's more than 20 times

what Lindbergh used
to cross the Atlantic.

Every second.

- [Dolph] After the first
stage burns out and drops away,

the second stage takes over,

pushing the rocket through
the upper atmosphere.

By the time it's done,

Saturn V has lost about
9/10 of its weight in fuel.

- [Greg] And finally,
the third stage ignites

and that gives us the propulsion

to take this craft
out of Earth's orbit

to the Moon.

All of these stages have
to work together perfectly.

Failure is not an option.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] In November 1967,

NASA is ready to
launch Apollo 4,

the first un-crewed mission
using the Saturn V rocket.

It's a critical test,

and almost immediately,
there's a problem.

- During the pre-launch
and the countdown,

everything is going perfectly

until just a few
seconds before launch,

the computer starts
showing, "Error."

Saturn V's systems are saying
it's not safe to launch

and no one knows why.

- The launch leaders
call in the Red Team.

This is a group of expert
engineers whose job is

to solve critical,
last-minute problems.

- [Lance] Mission control
pauses the countdown with just

one minute to spare,
and they send

these guys in to figure
out what's wrong.

[tense music]

So imagine the situation,
this rocket is fully fueled

with some 3,000
tons of rocket fuel

and Red Team's
supposed to go in there

where one spark from
static electricity

or from a wrench
hitting a piece of metal

could cause the whole
thing to blow sky high.

- [Paul] The Red Team
suspects that the problem is

a relay module, essentially
an electrical switch,

and they replace it

and it seems to stabilize
the rocket systems.

- [Mission Control]
Five, four, three,

two, one, zero.

[Saturn V roars]

- [Lance] Saturn V
launches successfully,

the mission goes
off without a hitch,

and this seems to prove
the Saturn V systems

and that this might, just might,

be the rocket that could
take a man to the Moon.

- [Dolph] Fast forward to
July 16th, 1969. It's go time.

The Saturn V rocket, carrying
the Apollo 11 spacecraft,

is rolled out to the launchpad
at Kennedy Space Center.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz
Aldrin, and Michael Collins

must trust this machine
with their lives.

- [Mission Control]
Three, two, one, zero.

[Saturn V roars]

Lift off. We have a lift off.

- [Lance] The massive
rocket lifts off

pushing some 7.5 million
pounds of thrust,

piercing through the clouds.

- [Dolph] Each
stage of the rocket

performs exactly as planned.

After nearly 76
hours in transit,

Apollo 11 slips
into lunar orbit.

Armstrong and Aldrin climb
into the lunar module

and begin their descent to
the surface of the Moon.

- [Armstrong] Tranquility base
here. The Eagle has landed.

- [Lance] Armstrong climbs
off the lunar vehicle

and he says those iconic words.

- [Armstrong] That's
one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

- They plant the American flag
and talk about a statement.

In the middle of the Cold
War, the Stars and Stripes

are on the Moon.

- It all starts with that
giant Saturn V rocket,

the powerhouse that makes
this mission possible.

[pensive music]

- The Apollo missions of the
'60s and '70s are a success

with one hitch.

At $1.5 billion a piece,

those missions are
incredibly expensive.

So NASA comes up with
a brilliant idea.

What if the rockets we launch
into space could be recycled?

[pensive music]

- [Lance] By the early 1970s,
tensions are still high

between the US and
the Soviet Union,

but the Apollo era is over.

The Moon has been
reached several times

and public interest
is wearing out.

It feels like the Space
Race is losing momentum.

- [Paul] In 1972, President
Nixon green lights

the Space Shuttle Program.

The whole idea: to make space
flight much more frequent

and much more routine.

[engines roar]

- [Dolph] To launch
more missions,

NASA needs to fix a key
issue with the Saturn V.

- [Paul] The rocket that
gets us to the Moon,

the Saturn V, is a beast,

but after liftoff, most
of it's gone for good.

- You launch them,
they break apart,

and then the pieces just
fall into the ocean.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] Meet the solution:
The Space Shuttle Columbia.

Designed to fly again and again.

It's built as a
three-part system,

an orbiter with wings, a
huge external fuel tank,

and two solid rocket boosters.

- [Nehemiah] These
rocket boosters generate

a combined thrust of
5.3 million pounds.

That's like launching
20 fully loaded 747s

straight into the
sky all at once.

- [Dolph] The orbiter can
carry seven astronauts

and an astonishing
50,000 pounds of cargo.

- You're talking
about a spacecraft

that carries more astronauts

than any other spacecraft
in human history.

And on top of that, it's
hauling satellites, telescopes,

space station modules.

- It's NASA saying,

"We're not just visiting
space, we're moving in."

[tense music]

- [Dolph] After nine
years in development,

the Space Shuttle's moment
of truth finally arrives.

- On April 12th, 1981 at
Kennedy Space Center in Florida,

a brand-new spacecraft
rolls onto the launchpad.

- It's the very first flight
and so much can go wrong.

That's why they have John Young,

legendary astronaut
leading the mission.

- [Lance] This guy is
one of NASA's best.

He's been to the Moon twice.
He's calm under pressure.

He's handled some of the most
difficult missions out there.

He is the perfect choice

for captaining the
Space Shuttle mission.

- [Paul] Many test
pilots and NASA staff

consider this the
boldest and riskiest

test of a spacecraft
ever performed.

- For this first mission,

the shuttle doesn't
even carry any cargo,

just the two astronauts.

NASA just wants it to
get up there and back.

No cargo, just
proof that it works.

- [Dolph] 600,000 people
gather around the area.

Cameras are ready to broadcast
the launch to the world.

- The countdown starts.

- [Mission Control] Five, four,

we've gone for
main engine start.

We have main engine start.

[engines roar]

- [Paul] And at T-minus zero,

the two solid rocket
boosters ignite,

slowly lifting Columbia
off the launch pad

with Young and Crippen aboard.

- [Dolph] The two boosters
propel the shuttle off the pad

rattling windows up
to 40 miles away.

It breaks the sound
barrier in seconds.

- About two minutes into flight,

the solid rocket boosters
burn out and detach.

They then deploy parachutes

to smooth their
descent into the ocean

where they'll be
recovered and refurbished

to make them ready
for another flight,

saving hundreds of
millions of dollars.

- [Dolph] The orbiter and
external tank continue climbing.

Then, it's time for
the next separation.

- As the shuttle reaches orbit
about 100 miles above the Earth,

the external tank is jettisoned,

and it burns up
harmlessly in atmosphere.

- [Mission Control] It's
exactly 24 hours ago.

You've been there
for one day now.

- [Dolph] Young and
Crippen orbit Earth

37 times over two days,

successfully putting the shuttle
through its paces in space.

But the hardest
part is still ahead:

the journey home.

- [Paul] Commander Young lines
up the shuttle for reentry

and Columbia begins her
descent back to Earth.

- [Natalia] The shuttle
faces extreme heat,

temperatures soaring beyond
3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

It is like flying
through a wall of fire.

- [Dolph] 24,000
heat-resistant tiles

protect the shuttle on reentry.

They're so well insulated,

you could hit one
side with a blowtorch

while the other side stays cool.

- Without this heat shield,

the heat would melt the
shuttle's aluminum frame

in a matter of seconds.

It would essentially
burn it up like a meteor.

- The Space Shuttle's tiles
are designed to be reused

and not burn up like the old
Apollo mission's heat shields.

So once again, they're
saving serious money.

- [Dolph] Once it
reenters the atmosphere,

Columbia transforms from
a rocket-powered spaceship

to a controlled graceful
flyer gliding back to earth.

- Now remember, this has
never been done before

and the world is watching.

- [Mission Control] Columbia,
you're really looking good.

Right on the money.
Right on the money.

- [Lance] With no
engines firing,

it glides gracefully with
Young at the controls

to its landing strip

at Edwards Air Force
base in California.

- [Young] Three,
two, one. Touchdown.

- [Paul] It actually works.

It looks like this
giant airplane

performing a landing
maneuver from space.

It's unbelievable.

- [Mission Control]
Welcome home, Columbia.

Beautiful, beautiful.

- [Dolph] After
landing, the shuttle

doesn't head to a museum.

Most of its parts
are refurbished

and it goes back to work

as more shuttles
join the program.

- This marks a new
era in space flight

and NASA builds a
space shuttle fleet:

Challenger, Discovery,
Atlantis, and Endeavor.

- [Paul] For almost
three decades,

NASAs launches
mission after mission,

deploying satellites, repairing
the Hubble Space Telescope,

and building the
International Space Station.

[pensive music]

- [Nehemiah] We all know
about the setbacks,

the Challenger
explosion in 1986,

the Columbia disaster in 2003.

The fact of the matter is

that Space Shuttle technology
changes everything.

- [Lance] In 2011,
after 135 launches

and more than 500
million miles flown,

NASA launches the Space
Shuttle for the last time.

- The space shuttle is a
truly remarkable machine,

a highly complex system designed
to carry humans into space.

Even though its orbiter
and rocket boosters

could be recovered and rebuilt,

it still costs a pretty penny

and needs government
funding to launch.

In 2002, a California
tech company called SpaceX

decides to change all that

by creating a cheaper,
truly reusable rocket.

[intense music]
[engines rumbling]

- [Lance] In the early 2000s,

the space industry is dominated
by government giants,

NASA, Russia's Roscosmos,
the European Space Agency.

Missions are rare,
costs are sky high,

and innovation slows to a crawl.

- [Dolph] Enter a young
innovator named Elon Musk.

He brings a Silicon Valley
mindset to space engineering.

Build it, test it, blow
it up, learn from it.

As a private company,

SpaceX can take risks
NASA never could

because every failed test
isn't a political disaster.

- They're aiming to
slash launch costs

to just $70 million per launch.

That sounds like a lot,

but that's 20 times cheaper
than the Space Shuttle.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] The plan is to
completely redesign the machine

that gets us to space and
make it fully reusable.

In 2002, SpaceX unveils
its game-changing rocket:

the Falcon 9.

- [Nehemiah] The Falcon 9 rocket
stands about 230 feet tall,

but it's only 12 feet wide.

Compared to prior rockets to
outer space, it's a toothpick.

- [Dolph] But what makes
it so cheap to launch

is an innovative engine
called the Merlin.

- Unlike traditional engines,
which were used once

and discarded or refurbished
at an exorbitant cost,

like with the Space
Shuttle, the Merlin engine

is designed to withstand
multiple launches and landing

with much less extensive
mechanical work needed.

- [Dolph] The jettisoned launch
rocket uses new technology

that's supposed to let it
land safely back on Earth.

- The Falcon 9's first
stage has onboard computers

that constantly adjust
its position mid-fall

using movable fins and a
series of engine thrusts

to steer itself towards
its landing pad.

- [Dolph] As the first-stage
rocket is making its descent,

the second stage is supposed

to deliver the
payload into orbit.

At least, that's the plan.

- SpaceX hits wall after wall.

Rockets explode, landings fail,

hundreds of millions of
dollars go up in smoke.

[tense music]

- [Greg] On April 14th, 2015,
SpaceX gives it another try.

And this time, the Falcon 9
launches without a hitch.

- [Mission Control]
Stage one deployed.

- [Crew] Stage one gone.

- [Mission Control] The
vehicle is super sonic.

- [Dolph] The payload
reaches orbit,

but that's only
half the mission.

[engine roars]

Footage of the rocket's
attempt to land goes viral.

- [Paul] The rocket descends
and lands on its target,

which is a barge
sitting in the ocean.

At the last minute,
it tips over.

Another explosion,
another failure.

But SpaceX doesn't give up.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] Attempt number 20
comes on December 21st, 2015,

in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

All eyes are on Falcon 9.

- [Mission Control]
Three, two, one, zero.

Ignition. Lift-off.

Go NASA, Go SpaceX. Godspeed.

[engine roaring]

- [Dolph] The launch
may be flawless,

but what really matters
is what comes next:

the rocket's return.

- [Greg] After
lifting the Falcon 9

through the lower and thicker
parts of the atmosphere,

the first stage separates.

It then ignites its engines
for its controlled descent.

[intense music]
[engine roars]

- Tension builds.

But against all odds,

it touches down upright
on the landing ship.

They've done it.

- I mean, it looks
like science fiction,

or like SpaceX bet someone

that they could land a pencil
from orbit on its eraser,

and they actually win that bet.

- It's delivered GPS satellites,
climate monitoring tech,

crews to the International
Space Station,

and thousands of
Starlink satellites.

- Rockets have taken us to space
and powered devastating weapons,

but there's another kind
of game-changing rocket

with a different mission:
protecting pilots.

[tense music]

- [Hakeem] In 1934, British
engineer James Martin

connects with his friend
Valentine Baker, who's a pilot.

They start a company
called Martin-Baker

that is focused on designing
and building aircraft.

- [Greg] While testing
a prototype aircraft,

Valentine Baker unfortunately
crashes and dies.

And this just shifts James's
perspective entirely.

He'd go from making aircraft
to wanting to make something

that's gonna save those who
are flying the aircraft.

He's going to produce
ejection seats.

- [Dolph] When it comes
time to test them,

Martin-Baker turns to their
mechanic, Benny Lynch,

who ends up ejecting
over 30 times.

[old-timey upbeat music]

- [Reporter] And the human
guinea pig is ejected clear,

and his chute opens.

He floats safely to Earth.

- [Dolph] Martin-Baker's designs
work well in prop planes,

but when jets are introduced
toward the under World War II,

there is a new challenge.

- [Hakeem] Ejection seats
just don't cut it anymore.

By 1947, jet fighters
are going so fast,

they're moving nearly
at the speed of sound.

And that means that for
a pilot that's ejected,

the force they're gonna feel
from the wind is incredible.

So a spring-loaded seat just
doesn't have enough power

to clear them from
the plane safely.

- [Dolph] Plus,
by the mid 1950s,

the U.S. Navy is seeing
some very grim statistics:

a 94% fatality rate

in ejections that happen
below 1,000 feet.

- [David] Below 1,000 feet,

getting out of the plane is
only half of the problem.

The other problem is once you
eject at that low altitude,

you are racing
against the clock.

You need that
parachute to fully open

and slow you down before
you hit the ground.

And there is not a lot of time.

- [Hakeem] The pilots need
something with a lot more punch,

something that can blast
'em outta the airplane fast.

And for that, you need more
power, a lot more power.

- [Dolph] The team
turns to rockets.

In 1966, Martin-Baker
develops the first seat

that uses rocket propulsion

to launch a pilot
clear of the cockpit:

the MK6.

- The Martin-Baker ejection
seat is basically a pilot seat

with a rocket directly
underneath it,

perfectly aligned
with the spine.

If it's not aligned,
with that power,

that spine can break
due to all that thrust.

- But you gotta
remember, at this time,

rockets mean warfare
and explosions,

or space exploration,

not safety gear.

So the things we've been
using to blow stuff up

is now gonna save people?

- [Dolph] To eject, the
pilot pulls the lever

between their legs and
a small explosive charge

launches the seat
clear of the cockpit.

- After the seat
clears the aircraft,

that's when the
rockets come into play.

A lanyard attached to the floor
of the aircraft pulls tight,

and that's what ignites the
rocket under the pilot's seat.

- [Dolph] This way, the
pilot isn't firing a rocket

while still in the aircraft.

The second boost is
what saves lives.

It punches the pilot
up and out quick,

getting them out of danger.

- [Hakeem] The rocket pack
propels the pilot 60 feet up

in less than half a second.

The pilot typically ends up
about 120 feet above the jet.

- [Dolph] As that
happens, it also generates

a whopping 14Gs,

something fighter pilots
have to train for.

- Astronauts train for 3 to 4Gs.

14Gs is 14 times
your body weight.

If you are 200 pounds,

14Gs feels like almost
3,000 pounds on you.

- [Hakeem] It's a brutal jolt,

but it's exactly what's
needed for their survival.

They need to get
outta there fast.

- There isn't a
pilot in the world

that wouldn't trade
the pain of 14Gs

for a second chance at life.

- [Dolph] Once the
rocket launches the pilot

way clear of the aircraft,

parachutes open and
the seat drops away.

- [Hakeem] It's not
exactly a smooth landing,

but it's way better than
dying in a plane crash.

- [Greg] The Martin MK6 quickly
becomes the go-to ejection seat

for both U.S. Navy and
the U.S. Air Force.

I mean, when we're talking
hundredths of a second.

The MK6 is the difference
between life and death.

- [Hakeem] As of today,

more than 7,000 pilots
have been saved

by Martin-Baker
rocket-powered ejection seats.

[pensive music]

- From the fiery blasts of
history's first missiles

to the sleek high-flying
machines reaching for the stars,

rockets have
launched us forward,

each one a testament to
human grit and genius.

Who knew a little rocket
fuel could take us so far?

[intense music]
[machinery whirs]