All language subtitles for Apollo Back to the Moon Series 1 2of2 Ultimate Mission 720p

Narrator: On July 21, 1969,

The eagle takes off from the
moon with neil armstrong

And buzz aldrin aboard to
meet michael collins in
the orbiting ship.

Two men had just
walked on the moon.

A triumphant moment
for america,

One that could almost
obliterate the
numerous incidents

That led up to this moment.

Gene: The most stressful
part occurred about, uh,

Halfway down to the
surface of the moon.

Jack: It was awful, just awful.

Homer: I was worried that we
were gonna have a surprise

That nobody had
really thought about.

Narrator: Very quickly,
the public would
turn away from apollo,

The most expensive space
program in history.

Only the dramatic flight of
apollo 13 could capture the
world's attention again.

Jeffrey: When it became a
life and death mission,

People paid unbreakable
attention at that point.

Fred: People have asked,
could you take a poison
pill or something?

Glynn: This was not
a fixable problem.

Narrator: More than 50
years later, we thought
we knew everything

There was to know
about apollo.

But this nasa program
still holds mysteries
waiting to be revealed.

Jay: Neil told me in
confidence and I'll never
break that confidence.

Matthew: What happens on the
moon often stays on the moon.

Narrator: Why did the apollo
program end so abruptly?

What are the final secrets
of an epic adventure that saw
four presidents come and go,

Caused the deaths of three
astronauts, and flirted with
several other disasters?

This phenomenal
story is not fiction.

It was a bet made by a
president and 400,000 people,
all focused on a single goal:

Bringing america to the moon.

(music)

(music)

Narrator: Before leaving
the moon, where they'd
spent more than 21 hours,

Neil armstrong and buzz
aldrin tossed a package out
the door of the lunar module,

Which was still open.

Inside was a patch with
the names of white,
grissom, and chaffee,

The three astronauts killed
in the apollo 1 mission.

But the package also
contained symbolic objects,
of a more personal nature,

That were authorized by nasa.

Fred: We were, were
allowed to carry this ppk,

Or personal preference kit.

Had to be very small,
limited in weight,

It was vacuum packed.

What I had done, and most
did, was you canvassed
family members, friends,

To what you might
carry for them.

Narrator: Neil armstrong's
kit, though, wasn't detailed
in any mission reports.

It may have included a
personal item in memory
of his daughter karen,

Passed away at 2
and a half years old.

Jay: Neil had lost
a little girl.

And he called her "muffy."

Well, one of the
craters on the moon on
that he walked over to,

He called it a baby
crater and he named it
"muffy's crater."

He also left something
of muffy's on the moon.

I know what it is, but I have
never shared that with anyone
because neil told me

In confidence and I'll never
break that confidence.

Narrator: Very few people know
what neil armstrong left on the
moon for his daughter muffy.

When he died on August 25,
2012, at 82 years old, the
astronaut took this secret,

Along with many
others, to the grave.

Right or wrong, these
secrets continue adding to
the legend that began almost

45 years earlier, in
the middle of July.

July 16, 1969.

At 9:32 in the morning in
florida, an immense crowd
gathered around the official

Stands at cape kennedy.

Some camped on site so
as not to miss the event.

Jay: You had over a
million people that had
surrounded the cape.

They couldn't cram
in any more.

Clogging the roads
and everything.

Narrator: 3,500 journalists
traveled from 55 countries
to witness one event:

The liftoff of the
saturn v rocket,

Destined to bring three
men to the moon.

At the top of the rocket, more
than 300 feet in the air,

Seated on the equivalent
of 540 tons of tnt,

Three astronauts
await the countdown.

Jean-françois: The crew was
in a tiny cabin all the way at
the very top; in other words,

Just 1 percent of all that
lifted off was actually used

For the mission to
the moon and back.

Philippe: Outside of the
atomic bomb, at the moment
when it lifted off,

The saturn v rocket made the
loudest sound ever recorded
by a manmade object.

At the time of the
apollo 4 launch in 1967,

The vibrations were so strong
that three miles away,

The ceiling tiles in the
press area fell down and
the windows vibrated.

Narrator: As they watched the
incredible rocket disappearing
in the blue florida sky,

No one was thinking any longer
about the challenge faced
by the saturn v designers.

Because when kennedy launched
america toward conquering the
moon in the early 1960s,

It didn't seem that
such a machine could
see the light of day.

Matthew: In 1961, neither the
united states nor the soviet
union had rockets powerful

Enough to send astronauts
to the moon and bring them
all the way back to earth.

No rocket like this had
ever been constructed,

And people weren't entirely
sure that it could work.

Narrator: To succeed
at such a feat, america
would stop at nothing.

Including enlisting the help
of the one who, surely,

Was alone in the ability
to design such a device,

And who would be named
director of nasa marshall
space flight center.

Wernher von braun, a
brilliant german engineer.

Who was also a supporter
of adolf hitler.

Jeffrey: Wernher von
braun is a complicated
historical figure.

He was a nazi.

The people who came
over with him all worked
for the nazi cause.

Roger: They knew a lot
about building rockets.

They had built the v2
in world war ii,

That's the first ballistic
missile that had any
capability.

Narrator: Wernher von
braun put his skills
at nasa's disposal,

Just as he had several
years earlier for the
nazi dictatorship.

But without him, america would
certainly never have been able
to develop the most powerful

Rocket in history
and beat the soviets.

The result was mind-boggling.

Saturn v was 363 feet tall
with the command and service
module, and 33 feet wide.

Matthew: The saturn 5 was
a monster of a rocket.

No launch vehicle since
the apollo moon landings
has equaled the power

And capability
of the saturn 5.

Narrator: When the final stage
of the rocket left terrestrial
orbit to go to the moon,

The crew had to manage a
very delicate procedure:

The command and service module
made a 180-degree rotation

While in space and
re-docked with the
eagle, the lunar module,

So it would be pointed ahead.

The rest of the rocket was
then abandoned in space.

Then, the most crucial
steps of apollo 11 began.

They all relied on a
theory that was untested
in real conditions:

Entering lunar orbit.

As early as 1959, even
before kennedy's
prophetic declaration,

Nasa had launched a series
of studies on the best way

To send men to the moon, but
no solution had been chosen.

Roger: There were three
options that were possible
that people were talking about

In terms of flying
to the moon.

Narrator: At the start, the
engineers had considered
sending a single rocket,

Which would then take
off again from the moon.

Or even to build a sort
of space station to
serve as a rear base.

The third option was
not very popular.

It consisted of using a single,
powerful rocket to send a
combination of three modules:

Only one module, the
lunar module, would
descend to the moon,

While the command and
service module, or csm, would
wait for it in lunar orbit.

But few believed
it was possible.

And at this historic
moment, one man was
particularly nervous.

His name was john houbolt.

The option of a single rocket
propelling three modules

To the destination was far
from a unanimous choice.

It would take one man's
perseverance to bring
this vision to life.

Roger: John houbolt, who was
only one of many engineers

Who was thinking about
these possibilities,

Decided to take it upon
himself to carry that word

Forward to the nasa
leadership and washington dc,

Which he did in 1961.

Jeffrey: Lunar orbit
rendezvous was more complex
in terms of moving parts,

But it was the kind
of complexity that
could be worked out

With just smart rendezvous and
smart trajectory techniques.

Narrator: Nasa leadership
was eventually convinced:

In 1962, lunar orbit
rendezvous was chosen
as the method

To go to the moon
and return home.

On July 20, after 13 orbits
of the moon to prepare
for landing, the eagle,

With neil armstrong and buzz
aldrin inside, prepared to
disengage from the command

Module, piloted by
michael collins.

For the first time in history,
two astronauts approached the
moon, to stand there.

In houston, in the control
room, the engineers hold
their breath.

Gene: Once the lunar module had
separated from the command
module

You could see the energy.

They were ready to go down
to the surface of the moon.

Narrator: When the lunar
module began its propelled
descent to the moon,

Armstrong and aldrin again
felt gravity on their bodies.

They knew then that the moon
was close enough to exert
its power of attraction.

Neil armstrong spotted the
landing site, and everything
was going according to plan.

But six thousand feet
above the lunar surface,

The eagle's computers
began flashing.

Alarms sounded, and
errors 1202 and 1201
appeared on the screen.

Gene: The most stressful
part occurred about, uh,

Halfway down to the
surface of the moon.

When we started having a
series of program alarms.

Where the computer indicated
that it was too busy
to get all the jobs done,

And it basically would
work only the priority:

The guidance, navigation
and control things.

Jay: They had found in
simulations just a couple of
days before that if they ran

Both systems that they
had on board for landing,

That it would overload
the computer and they'd
get a 1201 alarm.

Narrator: Distracted by
the alarm,

Armstrong didn't realize
the onbod computer

Was taking them right toward
a rocky slope of a crater.

The eagle was on a crash
course with the lunar surface.

But something amazing
happened in the cockpit:
With tremendous calm,

Neil armstrong switches to
manual mode and gives the
mission everything he's got.

Jean-françois: We are trained
to be what they call

"problem solvers" in english,

And neil armstrong
had this mentality.

Narrator: The fuel
reserves were running out.

A site had to be found
immediately: There were
only 60 seconds left.

Jeffrey: They had about
three percent of their
fuel left when they landed.

Roger: If they had gone a few
more seconds, they probably
would have been forced to abort.

Jeffrey: Unlike your car, when
you're on empty, you know, "I
bet I can squeeze 10 more miles

Out of this baby, just enough
time to get off the road
and get to a gas station."

In the lunar module, when you
hit 0, whhh, your engine stops.

Narrator: With the lunar
module's rocket fuel
almost completely spent,

Armstrong manages to land
in the sea of tranquility.

It is Sunday, July 20,
1969, at 3:17 pm and 39
seconds houston time.

He touches down so gently
that buzz aldrin had to
look at the control display.

Time stands still.

It is then neil armstrong
broke the silence

With a sentence we
would ever forget:

Neil: "houston,
tranquility base here.

The eagle has landed."

Narrator: Capcom charlie duke
had to raise his voice to
reply amid the applause

And outing in the
houston control room.

Without neil armstrong's
calm under pressure,

Apollo 11 would have surely
met a different end.

And behind his surprising
personality, nasa knew early
on that in this discreet man

Was the stuff heroes
are made of.

Jean-françois: The thing that
was a little frustrating with
neil armstrong was,

When you asked him, "how
was it on the moon?"

His classic response was,
"I was just doing my job."

Jeffrey: He was extremely
self-contained,

And it was hard for people
to get close to him.

And like many astronauts,
his first marriage failed.

And I think one of the
reasons was he was a person
who was so hard to reach.

Narrator: Besides the crew,
there was another key element
of the mission's success:

The lunar module, or lem,
an unprecedented machine,

Incredibly complicated
to build.

So it reached out to the
grumman company, one of
the biggest manufacturers

Of commercial and
military aircraft.

Still, the lm would keep its
engineers up at night: It had
to be perfect, infallible,

And extremely light.

Philippe: In the beginning,
grumman designed a spherical
cabin with large glass windows,

With seats for the pilots.

The glass windows, if you
want them to be airtight,

They're very heavy.

So they began to get rid
of the glass windows.

Obviously, they also
removed the pilots' seats.

Narrator: When grumman
won the nasa bidding
process in 1962,

At the time the $350 million
budget was to enable it

To develop a comfortable
module designed to fly only
in the vacuum of space,

Unlike the command module.

Matthew: The skin of the
lunar module was only about

As thick as three layers
of aluminum foil.

If astronauts
weren't careful,

They could kick through the
walls of it with their boots.

Jim: They were able to sleep
inside it while they were
on the moon with hammocks,

It's not the ritz in terms
of hotels, but it was
roomy enough, so to speak.

Narrator: By the end
of 1964, the lunar module
plans were finally ready,

And grumman manufactured
many prototypes.

Then, a first version
of the final module
was delivered to nasa.

If the agency hadn't run
extra tests, apollo 11 would
never have reached the moon.

The proposed module was
shoddy and rushed, and the
trials were catastrophic.

Philippe: When the lunar
module was delivered to
nasa, it had enormous flaws.

In particular, there were
many leaks in the reservoirs

And the piping that
carried the fuel.

It was like a sieve.

Narrator: The missions
preceding apollo 11 allowed

For the lunar module
to be finalized.

Its cost would exceed all of
nasa's estimates: 13 million
dollars at that time,

Or more than 93
million dollars today.

Still, one essential
element could never be
testedn real conditions.

The ascent engine that
the upper stage would
use to leave the moon.

If it started, the mission
would be successful.

But there was no second
chance in case of failure.

Armstrong and aldrin try not
to think about their fateful
departure from the moon.

For the moment, all
that surrounds them
is total silence.

They are on a desolate, empty,
sterile celestial body.

But who would first set
foot on this virgin soil?

Behind the scenes,
nasa's decision allegedly
sparked controversy.

And disappointments that
were never acknowledged.

Philippe: Buzz aldrin had
believed for a long time

That he would be the first
to walk on the moon.

I think that this
incident was poorly
managed by deke slayton,

The head of the
astronauts at the time,

Who left a gigantic ambiguity
even though everyone wanted
to know.

Narrator: Nevertheless, the
decision would be logically
clear: As the lm pilot,

Armstrong would be on the side
nearest the door and could
more easily exit first.

Roger: Never mind the fact
that buzz aldrin would have
dearly loved to have been

The first man on the moon
and he wasn't the mission
commander,

He did not have the
decision-making power

For that particular decision.

Narrator: At 9:56 pm houston
time, after long minutes
attempting to pass through

The vessel's hatchway,
neil armstrong set foot
on the ladder

Between him and the
moon's surface.

The whole world
stopped breathing.

That moment would become
one the most significant
moments in modern history.

The image transmitted by the
lem camera was mediocre,

But it was enough to
unite the entire world.

Ed: The original
pictures are really hard
to tell what's going on.

If you could see neil's foot
coming down on that picture,

You're a better man than I am.

Narrator: Armstrong let
himself drop to the ground
and pronounced the words

That would become etched
in the stones of history.

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

Narrator: Were these
words premeditated
or simply improvised?

Until his death in 2012,
armstrong told the same story:

The words came to him once he
was on the moon, not before.

And yet, after the
astronaut's death, some
accounts emerged suggesting

He prepared his
statements in advance.

Jay: He told me, he says,
"I don't want to say.

'we beat the russians,
I don't want to say
america did it,'

'I want, mankind did it.'

"his brother says, "don't
tell mama, let her be
surprised."

Narrator: From that first step,
all the words and all the
actions were transmitted live.

Neil armstrong began
to methodically
photograph the moon.

After 19 minutes, buzz aldrin
final exited the spacecraft.

Jay: Buzz steps out onto the
porch on the lander to go
down, and so he says to neil,

"I'm getting ready
to close the door."

And neil says, "ok,
but don't lock it."

(laughs)

If they had locked themselves
outside, then you'd have had
a problem. (laughs)

Narrator: Before emerging
onto the moon, buzz did a
few tests with the ladder

And let himself jump
to the ground.

The two astronauts then had to
follow the checklist, sewn to
the sleeves of their suits.

The extravehicular activity,
or eva, goes perfectly.

On the ground, though,
tensions remain high.

The astronauts' survival
now depends on one element:
Their spacesuits.

Jean-françois: Many people
think it's just an airtight

Envelope, but it's much more
than that.

Inside, there is
a system controlling
pressure, temperature,

The composition of the interior
atmosphere, essentially, it's a
spacecraft in its own right.

Narrator: An unprecedented
technical feat, the apollo
spacesuit would require

Five years of development.

Each model would cost over
100,000 dollars, but the
manufacturer had free rein.

Homer: We had almost no limits.

And they spent a lot of money
getting those suits developed.

Narrator: Made of 25 layers, te
suit would have to protect the
astronauts from meteorites

And extreme temperature
changes.

But before apollo 11,
the suit had never been
tested in real conditions.

Homer: I was worried that we
were gonna have a surprise that
nobody had really thought about.

And, uh, no surprises;
everything was exactly
like we figured.

Narrator: The apollo 11 mission
included many symbolic steps.

Among them: The placement
of the american flag.

Contrary to lend, nasa
hesitated for a long
time before deciding

To send up such a symbol.

In fact, the stars and stripes
were only put on board the lm
a short time before takeoff.

So that it would fly even
though there was no atmosphere,
a supportive rod was added.

Philippe: At the moment
when armstrong and aldrin
placed the american flag,

It was ultimately the
symbol of success.

At that moment, although the
astronauts were describing
everything they were doing,

Everything they were going to
do, there's not another word.

There is total silence.

It lasts maybe 10 minutes,
which is extremely long.

Narrator: A moment of
silence, or of doubt?

No one can say.

The only certainty is that the
image of buzz aldrin posing
proudly before his flag

Was seen around the world.

Narrator: The mission was
interrupted by a telephone
call with richard nixon,

The president of
the united states.

Pres. Nixon: Hello neil and
buzz, I am talking to you by
telephone from the oval room

At the white house,

And this certainly has to
be the most historic
telephone call ever made

From the white house.

Narrator: Facing the camera,
the two astronauts listened
to their president's words,

Marked with the intensity
of the occasion.

Only armstrong would speak.

Neil: Thank you,
mr. President.

It's a great honor and
privilege for us to be here.

Narrator: Petrified
by the moment, buzz aldrin
did not say a single word.

A short time later, neil
armstrong took the most
iconic photograph

Of the apollo program.

The astronaut appears
in the reflection on
buzz aldrin's helmet.

There is no other clear image
of armstrong on the moon.

Jean-françois: This
photograph is the
stuff of myths;

It's the first photo from
the apollo program I had
hanging in my bedroom

When I was a kid.

Narrator: The two astronauts
had been outside the lunar
module for two hours

And they already had
to go back in.

Glynn: When the science
people first learned that
we were only going to do

A two-hour eva they were
very upset with that.

They wanted to do
lots of stuff.

Philippe: Armstrong
and aldrin didn't walk
on the moon,

They had a quick
shuffle on the moon.

Only armstrong, at the end of
his outing, ventured further,
but he was seen to disappear.

He took a photo of the landing
site from far away, and no one
knew until seeing that photo

After he returned that
he had made it that far.

Narrator: Neil armstrong
and buzz aldrin would
also take with them

The first array of
lunar samples.

Nearly 50 pounds on this
first mission, and nearly
900 pounds in total

By the end of the
apollo program.

Jim: When neil armstrong
and buzz aldrin brought
back the containers

Of rocks that they collected

These were distributed to
hundreds of laboratories
around the earth,

Europe, asia, united states.

And so we were able to date
those rocks and see that

There were over 3 billion years
old, really, really ancient.

Narrator: Before leaving,
buzz aldrin took one last
photograph.

His footprints left on
the gray, dusty soil.

The one that all the magazines
captioned as the first steps
on the moon, up close.

The real neil armstrong's
first step, in truth,

Was obliterated by the
coming and going of the
two astronauts.

Instead, this photograph
shows one of the
astronauts' last steps.

The astronauts, in turn,
grabbed hold of the ladder

That separated them from the
upper stage of the lem.

The mission was filmed from
start to finish, and yet, some
moments still raise questions

Until very recently, such as
whether neil armstrong left
something on the moon

For his deceased daughter.

Matthew: What happens on
the moon often stays on
the moon

And to this day, we're
not exactly sure

What the astronauts did,
what they left,

And what they took with them.

Narrator: Michael collins,
orbiting alone for more than 24
hours in the command module,

Prepared to welcome
back his crewmates.

He never had the chance to see
the moon from close up, but
his role had been essential.

Jack: Mike collins had the
horrible responsibility
that either,

Do what he could to
rescue his crewmen or
come back without them.

He was trained to do that.

Narrator: Collins's
only fear was that the lm's
ascent engine wouldn't work,

Because it had never
been tested in
real-world conditions.

Roger: The ascent stage,
which is on top of

Sort of the boxy bottom part
of the lunar module

Has its own engine but, it's
a uh, a solid-fueled engine.

You light that thing and it
takes off like a roman candle.

That's, you can't throttle it,
you can't control it, it'll
take you back up to orbit

And that's it.

Narrator: The moment was
so stressful that buzz,
with his cumbersome suit,

Accidentally broke one of
the ignition buttons while
reentering the cabin.

It was impossible
to lift off.

A new unforeseen turn of
events, for a mission return
that already seemed perilous.

So much so that president
richard nixon had a
farewell speech prepared

In case of failure.

Matthew: A speech was prepared
for president richard nixon,
which celebrated

The achievements of the
astronauts,

And asked the nation to
commemorate their sacrifice.

Jeffrey: "fate has ordained
that two men who went to the
moon to explore in peace

Will remain on the moon
to rest in peace."

Narrator: If buzz aldrin
hadn't had the ingenious idea

Of using a basic pen to press
down on the broken button,

Nixon might have had to
give his prerepared
mournful speech.

And the eagle would never
have taken off from the moon.

But history was
written differently.

Immediately at ignition,
the astronauts felt the
explosion of the engine

That would detach the
first stage of the lm.

The american flag, installed
too close to the ship,

Was blown over by the
wind from the propulsion.

Collins adjusted his
trajectory to receive
his fellow astronauts.

But they weren't
yet home free:

Now they would have to
navigate entry into
earth's atmosphere.

Jack: The atmosphere pushing
back as hard as it does,

So you're coming in at
36,000 miles per hour

And it's trying to stop
you, that's where the
g-force kicks in,

And they had to control
stick by their leg.

It's sort of like a
rollercoaster ride it would
make through the atmosphere

As it came in, keeping it,
trying to slow it down.

Narrator: On July 24,
1969, almost 200 hours
after liftoff,

The apollo 11 capsule
plunged into the pacific.

Jim: The spacecraft was
swabbed with disinfectant
and the astronauts

Were placed into quarantine
as soon as they came back.

And the samples were
analyzed and of course

It soon became clear that
that there was no chance

Of contamination from life
brought back from the moon.

Narrator: The crew
went on a world tour.

Apollo became the symbol
of american superpower.

The story could have
ended with this victory.

Gene: We no sooner finished
apollo 11 then we're getting
ready for apollo 12.

So, we didn't have too
much time to, uh,

Reflect upon the past;

It's to prepare
for the future.

Narrator: To reaffirm
its smashing success,

Nasa launched apollo 12
in November of 1969.

The mission was a
success, bolstered by two
extravehicular activities,

And more than 31 hours
spent on the lunar surface.

And yet, the public
wasn't watching anymore.

Kennedy's challenge had been
met, the feat was immense,

But the agency still decided
to continue with apollo 13.

One mission too many.

Jeffrey: The country
had lost interest.

When it became a life and
death mission, people paid

Close, unbreakable attention
at that point.

Narrator: On April 11, 1970,
james lovell, jack swigert,

And fred haise lifted off
aboard the apollo 13 mission,

To general indifference.

After 55 hours in flight,
swigert performed a routine

Task on the hydrogen
and oxygen tanks.

A few minutes later, the
astronauts felt a shock,

And the whole craft
began to vibrate.

Fred: Both vehicles
were metal vehicles,

So I guess the thing I
would relate it to

Is if you were in a big
tin can

And somebody hit it on the
side with a sledgehammer.

It was that kind of
reverberation of sound.

Narrator: They didn't know it
yet, but the number 2 oxygen
tank had just exploded.

At the time, they
thought a meteorite
had collided with them.

Fred: Jim lovell had already
started his way floating
back up through the tunnel

To get back to
the mother ship.

And had made the
call, "houston, we've
had a problem."

Jim: Uh, houston,
we've had a problem.

Glynn: At first we said,
"well, whatever it is we'll
fix it and get on with it."

But, it soon occurred
to us, you know, in a
matter of a few minutes,

That this was not
a fixable problem.

Narrator: The alarms and
emergency lights went off.

Voltage in the electrical
systems was dropping.

In a few minutes, what
started as a small problem
became a desperate situation.

Without energy or oxygen,
the astronauts had
no chance of survival.

Matthew: The alternatives
were terrible: Being stuck
in space, never to return,

Slowly running out of
oxygen;

Crashing into the
lunar surface;

Or perhaps burning up as
their spacecraft entered

The earth's atmosphere
too fast to slow down,

Leaving the astronauts as
cinders floating in the air.

Fred: My instant feeling
was just a sick feeling
in the pit of my stomach,

Because I knew we
had lost the landing.

Narrator: On earth, some
200,000 miles away from
the crew: Panic ensues.

Houston has already canceled
the apollo 13 mission

And is now trying to
save its three men.

Jay: Flight director gene
kranz looked at everybody.

He says, "we're going
to get these guys back.

Failure is not an option."

Ed: Kranz had said everybody
to shut up basically.

He didn't say it that way,
but basically everybody
knew not to say anything.

The only communication
would be going on would
either be something wrong

Or a call-out on fuel, or
a call-out from the crew.

Narrator: Gene kranz then
decided to use an untried
method: To avoid exhausting

Reserves and save time,
he asked the crew to cut
all electrical systems.

It was a decision with
heavy consequences.

Gene: It's sort of like the
lights in your home, if you
want to conserve electricity,

You turn 'em all off but one.

And that's basically
what we did.

Fred: Lunar module likely went
down to about mid-30s fahrenheit
we did not have adequate

Clothing for that situation.
We, uh, ended up putting on

All our spare underwear,
ended up with three sets on.

So that was the
best we could do.

Narrator: As the command
module continued to lose
its oxygen,

Houston made a choice
that was surely the only
option for survival.

The crew abandoned the
command module and entered
aquarius, the lunar module,

Which had not suffered damage.

Designed for only
two men, the lunar module
would have to save three.

The public, no longer
interested in apollo,

Suddenly had great concern
for this catastrophic
scenario.

Jeffrey: Suddenly we
cared about these men,

And we cared about
their children

And we cared about their wives,

And we loved them in the way
you can love a public figure
and want them to come home.

Narrator: But inside
aquarius, the crew was on
the verge of suffocating.

Matthew: The lunar
module in which the
three astronauts

Had to spend their time
was not designed to hold
three people.

And very quickly the
atmosphere became poisoned

With the carbon dioxide that
the astronauts would exhale.

Fred: People have asked, "did
you have, could you take a
poison pill or something?"

No, there was no plans
of any sort for that.

It'd be very easy, we'd
just open the hatch.

You're in space, and you'd
be gone in an instant.

You don't need to
carry anything.

Narrator: Within
minutes, houston found
a brilliant idea:

Adapt the more
efficient filters from
the command module

To aquarius in order
to purify the air.

Gene: We had to learn to
package up some square
filters that we had over

In the dead command module.

And put them in the round
hole for the lunar module.

Narrator: The technique worked
perfectly, allowing the crew
to gain a few extra hours

Of survival and to fight
to the bitter end.

In manual control,
swigert and haise
modified the two vessels'

Trajectory to
return to earth.

But with a command module that
was only partially functional,
maneuvering was perilous.

Lovell went so far as to
use his watch to time the
ignition of the engines.

Fred: We could not shoot stars,
because with the debris field
around the spacecraft

From the explosion, if you
looked out the windows,

You couldn't discern
what was stars from debris.

Narrator: For more
than five minutes, radio
communications were cut.

It was impossible for houston
to know if the crew had
taken the correct trajectory.

The tension was unbearable.

Jack: It was awful, just awful,
and so when they came back
online and after 5 minutes

And said, you know, "apollo
13 here, we, we read you,"

It's like, what in the
world happened?

It was like this miracle.

On April 17, 1970, apollo
13 landed successfully
in the pacific.

The incredible adventure
would be followed by the
entire world.

Jeffrey: What made apollo
13 wonderful is that it
was a great human tale.

If it hadn't happened in
real life, somebody would
have wanted to write

It as a great work of fiction;
a great human tale of
ingenuity and survival.

Narrator: The final
chapter in the apollo
story is much less joyful.

Nasa had planned to take the
program through apollo 20.

But the apollo 13 accident
and the vietnam war shifted
political priorities.

On September 20, 1970, nasa
announced the definitive
halt to the program,

Even though three saturn v
rockets had been manufactured.

Apollo 17 would be
the final mission.

Pres. Kennedy: We choose to
go the moon in this decade

Narrator: Kennedy had
galvanized an entire nation
with his prophecy and brought

A total of 12 astronauts to
the moon, but nixon was the
man to shatter the dream.

Gene: The president said,
"this may be the last
time in this century."

And we thought, "good lord.

We've worked so hard; we've
got to the moon; we've
done all these things here;

And now we're not going back.

We're giving up
the high ground."

Philippe: Nixon openly
predicted that before the
end of the 20th century,

We wouldn't return
to the moon.

He was right: Even now as
of the early 21st century,

No one has returned.

Narrator: Never has the
american space agency
experienced the level

Of frenetic energy it did
during the decade of apollo.

The scientific and political
consequences of the program
have been significant.

But after a feat of
this magnitude, what
might the future hold?

Roger: There's also
a lot of people who are
anxious about what's new,

What's on the horizon, what
are we going to do next?

Narrator: The moon
hasn't been visited in
the last half-century.

Funding has been
reduced substantially.

But scientists are still
dreaming of the next phase,

Millions of miles from the
cradle of humanity, earth.

Jeffrey: Nasa's budget is
currently $20 billion dollars,

Compared to that 60
billion back then.

And we want to go to mars.

Glynn: We can always do
better than we think.

Look at apollo.

I mean, that was virtually
impossible to do.

In the time frame
that we had.

Virtually impossible.

And yet, it got done.

That's a good way
to think about it.

(music)

Captioned by subtitlepro llc