Original subtitles

Three, two, one.

Launch.

Soviet russia scores a dramatic victory.

The soviet union was winning the race to space,

And the united states was struggling to catch up.

I ask you, sir.

What are we going to do about it?

After so many setbacks, what lengths would the americans.

Go to to surpass their superpower rival?

Seeing if they can knock a russian satellite.

Out of orbit or completely destroying a russian satellite.

So it sounds crazy. It sounds like a movie plot.

Did the u.S. Military create.

An undercover astronaut program to spy on the soviets?

Liftoff.

The whole idea was to put one of the biggest cameras.

Ever created into an orbiting space station.

That was totally secret.

The public had no knowledge about that.

Wow.

And would the u.S. Go so far.

As to kidnap a soviet spacecraft to obtain new technologies?

If there was ever any hint that the soviets knew what happened,

You know the cia never caught wind of it.

So it seems like they got away with this epic, historic thing.

That is insane.

A former fbi agent,

A conspiracy theorist and former aerospace consultant,

And an american astronaut are investigating...

Captions by vitac... www.Vitac.Com.

The "truth behind the moon landing."

Captions paid for by discovery communications.

The conspiracy theory is alive and well,

And so is our investigation.

We've discovered some surprising secrets.

Lurking at the edges of the space race to the moon.

I believe that this nation should commit itself.

To achieving the goal.

Before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon.

And returning him safely to the earth.

President john f. Kennedy boldly challenged the united states.

And nasa to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

The space race was on.

Yeah, and we were behind.

It would take much more than president kennedy's dreams.

To get the u.S. To the moon before the soviet union.

The u.S. Was trailing far behind the soviets.

In the race to space.

Even before nasa had opened its doors in 1958,

The ussr had already launched sputnik into space,

The world's first artificial earth satellite.

Mr. President, russia has launched an earth satellite.

They also claim to have had a successful firing.

Of the intercontinental ballistic missile.

What are we going to do about it?

Nasa didn't seem to have the right stuff.

To develop the rocket technology.

To get to the moon and leap past the soviets.

The united states space effort takes a giant step.

As scientists and technicians prepare to orbit enos,

A five-year-old chimpanzee, around the earth.

That's why many conspiracy theorists think.

There was a cover-up,

And we didn't actually land on the moon in 1969.

How could we have caught up to the soviets.

And beat them to the moon?

I mean, the russians have already sent a man into space,

And we're still sending chimps.

The u.S. Had already brought over

1,600 former nazi scientists and engineers.

To work on military and space programs.

It was clear that the u.S. Wasn't playing games.

Would we use cold war espionage tactics.

To gain an advantage and catch up?

Mike and I are here at the kgb museum in new york city.

To sit down with astro journalist tariq malik.

He's editor-in-chief of space.Com.

What's the craziest story.

About this period of time we don't know?

The cia actually kidnapped a soviet spacecraft.

To see how it ticked.

Wait, wait, wait. Kidnapped?

Yes. Okay, listen.

Give us more detail, please.

Yeah, yeah. So it sounds crazy.

It sounds like a movie plot.

Well, in 1959, you know,

The soviet union was really riding high.

They had launched sputnik and wowed the world.

They built the first spacecraft to touch the moon...

Luna 1, also known as the lunik program.

Soviet russia scores a dramatic victory.

In the exploration of space.

With the launching of the first rocket to hit the moon.

Western observers monitored lunik's two radios.

To the very moment of impact.

They went on a global road show.

To show off their successes to other countries,

To show just kind of how far ahead that they were.

One of the exhibits that was in this road show.

Was a lunik spacecraft.

The lunik wasn't just some russian satellite.

It was the first man-made object to ever reach the moon.

The lunik made impact with the moon.

At a velocity of about 7,500 miles per hour.

At that point, the u.S. Thought its guidance systems.

Were superior to the russians'.

But when the lunik hit its target,

It proved that their guidance systems were better.

The closest that the united states.

Had ever gotten to the moon was 37,000 miles away.

The lunik also made history by, for the first time,

Photographing the far side of the moon,

Which is not viewable from earth.

So the cia think, "this is the real deal."

And it would be nice if we could actually.

"Get access to this thing, if we could see how it ticks."

The more you know about this spacecraft.

Or how much it weighs dry,

Then you can infer how much it weighs with fuel on-board.

But they have this guard that's there 24 hours a day,

Watching over this thing,

So how are you going to get access to it?

So what was their plan?

They watched, and they figured out.

That at the end of the exhibit,

When it's going to move to a new location,

They can arrange for it to get on.

The last truck out to the train.

And as it goes out, they have a car in the front.

And a car in the back to make sure the soviets.

Aren't following them or caught wind of their plan.

And when they're confident, then they pull the car over.

At the last turn-off to the train station.

Tariq tells us that many of the facts in this mission.

Have been redacted by the cia, but the best we can tell,

This took place sometime in mexico in 1959.

The driver was probably a non-russian,

And the cia convinced him to rest overnight.

At a hotel rather than drive on.

The cia had their own driver,

And they drove it to a scrapyard.

That they had rented out just for this,

And they have a whole team come in.

They had already been watching this crate...

You know, it's one big crate... On this truck.

They got to go in through the roof.

They take their shoes off, so they have just their socks on.

Because they don't want to leave any footprints or evidence.

Behind that they're there.

At 7:00 at night, when they think that the coast is clear,

They open up the top of this crate,

They go inside, they took it apart.

They kept a close record. They have people with cameras.

They took a bunch of pictures, and then they sent the film.

Back to the field office.

To make sure the camera was working,

So that they wouldn't find out they left the lens cap on later.

Or had a bad batch of film.

You don't take on a mission like this.

Unless you're fully committed.

The risk of getting exposed or caught would have been.

More significant in the cold war than the actual intel itself.

So the details they were looking for.

Must have been considered very important.

They do that until 4:00 in the morning.

They put it back together again,

And then they put the lid on the crate.

You know, woke up the driver.

That they had sequestered overnight.

And just drove the lunik back and left the truck there.

It seemed like no one was the wiser,

But at the end of the day, they had detailed information.

About what this spacecraft looked like,

How it was put together, what it weighed,

What the rocket they needed to launch it,

And they could use that information to infer.

So many other things about the rocket.

It sounds insane.

Still, any way we could get new and important information,

We had to do it.

And the americans did come away.

With the kind of specific details.

They needed to send a spacecraft to the moon,

Details like how much the lunik weighed, how big it was,

And how much fuel it had on board.

If there was ever any hint that the soviets knew what happened,

You know, the cia never caught wind of it,

So it seems like they got away.

With this kind of epic, historic thing,

And we only found out about it later.

When they declassified it in the early 2000s.

Straight-up spy movie stuff, right?

To conspiracy theorists, this feeds into the idea.

That the americans had no choice.

But to resort to a moon-landing hoax.

Because u.S. Space technology just wasn't good enough.

They would say, "that's why we had to go.

To desperate extremes."

We had to steal russian information.

So, were there other purposes to this.

Besides just the reconnaissance?

Yeah, it was very, very serious in terms of actual warfare.

So they actually fired a cannon in space.

They... they fired a cannon in space.

Here at the kgb museum in new york city,

It's been amazing to discover the details.

Of the secret american space espionage plot.

So far, what we've heard seems to be proof.

That the u.S. Was far behind the soviet union.

In developing the technology to land a man on the moon.

So the americans had to resort to desperate measures.

Conspiracy theorists think that one of those measures.

Was to cover up that we couldn't actually pull off.

A moon landing.

Mike and I are here to sit down.

With intelligence expert james bamford.

He is the author of three books.

About the united states national security agency.

We want to find out to what lengths the u.S. Would go.

To win the race to the moon.

And whether they had a secondary objective...

To militarize space.

The u.S. And, at the time, soviet space program...

There was this competition.

To see who would get to the moon,

But it was not just a space race.

It was kind of like a space war.

Yeah, there were two space races.

That went on largely in the '60s.

The space race that everybody saw on television...

Astronauts going up to space, building satellites,

Ticker tape parades, and then going to the moon.

That's one small step for man...

But besides that,

The u.S. Was basically at war with russia.

In terms of intelligence.

Were these space war programs known to the public.

And other government agencies?

Did nasa even know about them?

No, they were totally secret.

The public saw the astronauts, but what they didn't see.

Were these other astronauts that were being trained.

This is kind of shocking to me, I mean,

To have a whole separate secret kind of space program.

With separate astronauts is amazing.

They weren't even allowed to tell their family.

That they were training as astronauts.

And they spent a large part of the 1960s.

Training to be secret astronauts.

Now, what was that program?

That was the m.O.L. Program...

Manned orbiting laboratory program.

The manned orbiting laboratory would have been.

A space station orbiting the earth.

It would have been 72 feet long,

10 feet in diameter,

And weighed close to 32,000 pounds.

That's about a third of the size.

Of the modern day international space station.

Two astronauts would fly into the station.

In a modified version of the gemini space capsule.

They would dock with the laboratory.

And stay there for 40 days.

It had two sides.

You can't really do this totally in secret,

So you had to have sort of a cover for it.

I am today instructing the department of defense.

To immediately proceed with the development.

Of a manned orbiting laboratory.

The cover was this laboratory that they would put in space.

To see how military people actually survive in space.

This program will bring us new knowledge.

About what man is able to do in space.

That was all nonsense.

The manned orbiting laboratory...

The whole idea was to put one of the biggest cameras.

Ever created into an orbiting space station.

And take pictures of russia very close up.

That was totally secret.

The public had no knowledge about that.

Wow.

So were there other purposes to this.

Besides just the reconnaissance?

I mean, was that m.O.L. Program...

Was that involved in anything, like, nefarious?

Yeah. The u.S., in addition to.

Just putting the m.O.L. Up there to spy on russia...

It also looked into experiments,

Seeing if we could actually kidnap a russian satellite.

Wrap their satellite in a heat shield.

And put a pack on it that could be remotely operated.

That would send it out of orbit and back down to earth.

The other things were seeing if they could knock.

A russian satellite out of orbit.

Or completely destroying a russian satellite.

Wow.

Those were some of the options that they were looking for.

It's just like... it's crazy.

Seems bunk. Yeah.

He's telling us of space combat plans.

It wasn't about only landing on the moon.

The u.S. Needed to establish dominance over russia.

By militarizing space, too.

Was this actually done?

It wasn't done, but it was actually contemplated.

The russians found out about the plans,

So they tried to make countermeasures.

They were building a very similar space station to m.O.L.

It was called almaz,

And they armed their space station with an actual cannon.

So they actually fired a cannon in space?

They fired a cannon in space.

They fired a bullet.

If it hadn't hit an asteroid or a planet,

It's still going someplace...

Wow... Out there.

The soviets were shooting cannons in space.

The u.S. Wanted to have astronauts grab satellites.

The space war was filled with truly insane ideas.

What did this program ultimately lead to?

I mean, what was the legacy of m.O.L.?

The major legacy, I think, was training.

Some of these people to go up as astronauts in the m.O.L.

They spent a lot of time training to be astronauts.

Certain technologies that were developed...

The camera.

The camera was very, very useful because some of the same optics.

That they used for the m.O.L. Went into the optics.

That they put into later reconnaissance spacecraft,

Plus signals intelligence, what nsa does, eavesdropping.

So we had satellites to spy on russia.

The americans couldn't beat the soviets in technology,

So they had to resort to covert measures.

The cold war pretty much handcuffed the u.S.

Americans were splitting their focus into,

A... going to the moon, and b... militarizing space.

If we were going to fight the russians,

The next war front was likely to be in zero gravity.

Because of this rivalry that's taking place.

Between the united states and the soviet union,

The future belongs to one nation or the other.

Science and technology defines the future.

Our investigation heads back to washington, d.C.,

Where leland and I meet with former nasa chief historian

Roger launius.

Roger, how are you? Hi.

Chad jenkins. Good to see you.

Hi, roger. I'm leland melvin.

How you doing? Alright.

Roger's going to fill us in.

On how the soviets' superior rocket technology.

Developed a massively powerful vehicle.

Designed to get them to the moon before the united states.

Prevailing wisdom at the time.

Was if we were going to beat the soviets to the moon,

We had to start doing what they were doing,

And that meant building big rockets.

The soviet union had a very aggressive program early on.

Notable for some of the really tremendous successes.

That sort of got the space age rolling.

And for americans, we looked at that,

And we thought, "my gosh."

They're so good at what they're doing."

Can you give us an idea of what the goals were of the soviets.

And how badly did they want to get to the moon?

Well, the fundamental goal was to best the americans.

Because of this larger geopolitical rivalry.

That's taking place between the united states.

And the soviet union over the political and economic systems.

That were going to dominate the world.

I do not regard the first man in space.

As a sign of the weakening of the free world.

The future belongs to one nation or the other.

Science and technology defines the future.

But I do regard the mobilization of the communist bloc.

Over the last years as a source of great danger to us.

Whoever leads the world in those things.

Is going to take a leading role in the world.

As americans, when we think about the cold war,

We think about things like the cuban missile crisis,

The proliferation of nuclear weapons.

People building bomb shelters in their backyards.

It would be a good idea to secure plans.

For the type of shelter you want.

But the space race was a major part of the cold war,

Especially with developments.

On the scientific and technological fronts.

Gemini 8 has brought us closer to lunar exploration.

By demonstrating the first successful dock in space.

Whichever country landed on the moon first.

Could claim worldwide superiority.

The u.S. Space program by nasa... civilian driven.

What was the soviet equivalent?

Was that by civilians or was it more.

Under a cloak of secrecy and the military?

Yeah, the soviet program was all military.

The program was under the control of the red army.

The russian orbits were in a thick fog of secrecy.

The united states stands or falls.

In the white-hot glare of worldwide publicity.

So what were the big differences.

Between the soviet program and the nasa program?

Well, there were conflicting priorities.

All the way through the soviet program.

If you talked to the generals, they want ballistic missiles,

And so, if you're going to put efforts into rocketry,

Let's make sure we build good ballistic missiles.

And have good warheads to put on top of them.

They don't care about putting a cosmonaut.

Into earth orbit necessarily.

Right.

That comes largely from the kremlin leadership.

Who view it not as something again about exploring space,

Because they didn't care much about that,

But they did care about the propaganda value.

Propaganda was already the backbone.

Of the soviet government and military.

Now the soviets wanted the world to think.

They were number one in the space race,

But propaganda only gets you so far.

You still need to deliver.

In the case of space,

That meant focusing on developing rockets to get there,

And not just adapting weaponized missile technology.

For space exploration.

Who was the soviets' point person to lead the charge?

Sergei korolev.

If there's one central character.

That's there all the way through, it's korolev.

In the 1940s and '50s, his team was able to build.

The first ballistic missiles for the soviet union.

That naturally turned into a process.

To build space exploration vehicles as well.

And he was able to sort of hold things.

Together through the early part of the 1960s.

The soviets and korolev put their efforts.

Into the development of a large,

Super-heavy lift vehicle they called the n1.

This was the rocket that the soviets planned to use.

To send a manned spacecraft to the moon.

The n1 was 32 stories tall.

It weighed 3,030 tons.

60 feet in diameter.

The n1's first stage.

Was the most powerful rocket stage ever built.

It delivered more than 14,000 kilonewtons of thrust.

That's more than any rocket in the world at that time.

The n1 was built by sergei korolev's company,

The s.P. Korolev rocket and space corporation,

Which was already manufacturing ballistic missiles at the time.

Nasa tried to follow their lead.

And started work on their own equivalent of the n1.

There was an american effort called nova,

Which was going to be a big rocket.

That would enable us to do a direct descent to the moon.

A liquid hydrogen/ liquid oxygen engine.

For initial use in the second.

And third stages of the nova program for nasa.

Will have a thrust of 1,200,000 pounds.

The u.S. Was already a couple of years behind.

We had to play catch up to the massive rocket.

The soviets had built.

The united states worked on the nova rocket from 1959 to 1962.

The rocket would have been powered by the f-1 engine.

With its 1.5 million pounds of thrust.

But we gave up.

It was too complicated and would take too long to accomplish.

In April 1961, when president kennedy announced.

That he wanted a man on the moon before 1970,

Nasa felt the nova could not be developed in time.

Because it would require.

Building new manufacturing facilities.

This is another reason conspiracy theorists.

Don't believe we could have landed a man on the moon.

How could we eventually build a proper rocket.

To get there if we abandon building.

A powerful, large rocket?

Let's see what testing we were doing out here.

We got to get to the remnants of that rocket engine.

There's got to be something underground.

Watch yourself.

Wow.

In the early 1960s,

The soviets was way ahead in the space race.

What we heard from our soviet space expert.

Was that the russians were all in.

First great success in space.

When the russians pushed a man across the threshold.

He was yuri gagarin,

The astronaut the russians lionized.

As the first to orbit the earth.

The u.S. Was still far behind the soviets,

And that's why conspiracy theorists think.

The u.S. Tried to cover up their lack of technology.

Now it is time for this nation.

To take a clearly leading role in space achievement.

If you want an example of how far behind.

The u.S. Was in the space race,

We should head down to an abandoned.

Rocket testing facility in the florida everglades.

It's proof we were trailing in the race to the moon.

Wait a minute. Are we going to the swamp?

Pack your bags.

Leland and I are heading to the former.

Aerojet dade rocket testing compound,

Outside homestead, florida.

Aerojet-general was a rocket-and-missile.

Propulsion manufacturer.

That employed over 33,000 people across the united states.

In 1963, the u.S. Air force awarded aerojet.

A $3 million contract.

To build a manufacturing and testing site.

Where they would test the effectiveness of,

In particular, solid fuel rockets.

From aerojet's beginning, chemical research.

Has been pressed without intermission.

Creation of propellent formulae.

Progressively increasing rocket power.

Is one primary objective of the chemical division,

The largest group of chemical-research people.

In the missile industry.

In order to conduct these tests,

They built a 150-foot-deep underground silo.

That housed the largest solid-fuel rocket motor.

Ever built.

We need to get an up-close look at that rocket silo.

And show how nasa was still toying with technologies.

The soviets had already moved past.

Man, there is nothing out here.

That's where you want a rocket test facility.

"Authorized personnel only."

This has got to be it. Yeah.

Let's try it.

"No admittance" signs.

It's desolate. It's remote.

It's got high power lines, so this could be our rocket place.

I see a building over to the left.

Early on in the race to the moon,

Nasa thought solid-fuel rockets were the way to get to the moon.

Solid fuel, while not as efficient as liquid fuel,

Was much more stable and easier to execute.

Nasa had been having more success.

With their early solid-fuel testing,

Even though the soviets already knew liquid fuel.

Was the way to go.

Now, there are basically two types of rocket fuel.

Solid-fuel rockets consist of a fuel.

And an oxidizer that are pre-mixed in a solid form.

Once ignited, though, you can't control the thrust.

Or turn it off.

On the other hand, liquid-fuel rockets.

Consist of fuel and oxygen in liquid state.

Both the original titan I engines using liquid oxygen.

And rp-1 fuel and the advanced titan ii.

Using storable liquid propellants.

They're combined in a combustion chamber.

And then ignited.

The advantage is you can control the fuel flow,

Regulate the amount of thrust, and turn the rocket off and on.

It's more complex, but much more efficient.

Alright, so we've got to get to the building.

Where there might be remnants of that rocket engine.

Supposedly, you could see the flames from 30 miles away.

I mean, in the blast, you know, coming out,

You would want it back far enough away.

From the road and other buildings,

So maybe this cluster of buildings right here?

And we'll check this building out first.

Teamwork.

Let's see what testing we were doing out here.

Nasa and aerojet conducted.

Three solid-fuel rocket tests.

Here between 1965 and 1967.

Now under study are solid propellant rockets.

Of equal or greater thrust.

The florida everglades was the site of the test firing.

Of a powerful solid-fuel rocket motor.

Their first test here generated an impressive.

Three million pounds of thrust,

More than enough to get the 100,000-pound

Apollo payload off the ground.

Their second test reportedly generated even more.

Watch yourself.

Yes, sir.

Look at this hardware, man. This is all dilapidated.

And these concrete pillars here...

It's almost like they held something here.

See those bolts right there on the corners?

Yeah. Like they may have had maybe.

A strap that came over and held down...

I mean, this could be an engine casing.

That's been held down right here.

Do you think anything could be underground right here?

I don't know. We have to keep looking.

Look. It gets deep.

Yeah, look at all these pipes.

So those conduits... You can actually see some wire.

Coming out of some of that conduit.

Right.

Maybe going to a test item or a piece of hardware.

Let's try to find another way into that area.

Okay.

Wow.

Another dead end.

I mean, if you're doing underground testing,

It's more contained than if you were above ground.

Right.

Whoa.

My goodness. Look at this.

These are rocket engine motors.

This is where they were burning those rockets.

Yeah.

These are some huge rocket engines they were burning.

Yeah.

In fact, this was the sl-3 test rocket,

The largest solid-fuel rocket engine ever built.

It was 10 stories high, 21 feet in diameter.

The walls of the silo are four feet thick to withstand.

The blast of this gargantuan rocket engine.

I mean, this was an attempt to develop a big rocket.

That could maybe get us to the moon.

By 1967 and after the third test at aerojet,

Nasa had finally figured out how to successfully use.

The more efficient liquid-fuel rocket,

And they stopped pursuing the solid-fuel option.

Two short years later,

After the government funding dried up,

Aerojet abandoned the facility.

And testing with solid-fuel rockets.

We can see for ourselves.

That the u.S. Tested solid-fuel rockets here.

And shut down the facility.

Because our scientists and engineers figured out.

That the solid-fuel approach wasn't going to work.

We just walked away and left the remains.

Some technology pans out. Some doesn't.

Right. This wasn't the path.

Our trip to the florida everglades.

Was pretty interesting.

Snakes and alligators?

No alligators, but it was a workout.

This guy had me climbing through these underground silos.

In that silo, we found remnants of a massive rocket engine.

That they tested,

But it was abandoned for a reason.

Nasa went with a different rocket technology,

So they closed down the site.

To me, this is just further evidence.

Of how far behind the americans were in the space race.

Soviets had already committed to liquid fuel,

And we were still wasting our time.

Comparing liquid to solid fuel.

It's no wonder conspiracy theorists think.

The u.S. Couldn't have really made it to the moon.

With apollo 11.

If americans were still trying to decide on what fuel to use,

Couldn't they have been behind on the rest of the technology.

Needed to actually land on the moon?

How could the americans surpass.

The technologically superior soviet union?

Alright. Everybody ready?

I'm ready.

So is a bigger rocket like the russians' n1 necessarily better?

3, 2, 1.

Holy cow.

- Wow. - Look at that smoke.

What we heard from our soviet space expert.

Was that the russians were completely around the idea.

Of building a massive rocket.

Yeah, they were the biggest rockets ever built.

I mean, you know, their guy sergei korolev.

Was a master rocket builder.

The 1960s... he was working on this massive new rocket, the n1.

This thing was a 300-foot-tall, 6-million-pound behemoth.

6 million? Yeah.

6-million-pound monster.

That had 30 individual rocket engines built into it.

The u.S. Gave up on their program.

To build a really big rocket,

So this is where the conspiracy theorists get all up in arms.

They focus on a quote from rocket technology pioneer.

Wernher von braun.

In his book "conquest of the moon,".

He claimed it would have been impossible to get to the moon.

Unless we used three rockets,

Each taller than the empire state building.

And weighed ten times more than the> queen mary,

Or 800,000 tons each.

So what happens in the conspiracy community.

Is that they see this,

And they assume bigger means better,

And they're questioning whether or not.

The u.S. Could compete.

Well, nasa was learning.

They received secret information stolen from the russians.

They had conducted tests to determine.

What was the best fuel to get to the moon,

And they decided they didn't need a massive rocket.

Like the russians were using.

Instead, the americans designed the saturn v rocket,

Which was more aerodynamic and better designed.

Than the soviets' n1 rocket.

The saturn v is the rocket.

That took the apollo 11 mission to orbit around the moon.

Where the soviets used 30 engines to launch their n1,

The americans had only five engines.

To lift their saturn v from the earth.

But those were very powerful f-1 engines.

The five engines combined.

Blasted 7,500,000 pounds of thrust,

Taking the craft to a speed of 6,000 miles per hour.

So is a bigger rocket like the russians' n1.

Necessarily better, as the conspiracy theorists believe?

We travelled to the mojave desert for an answer.

We are meeting up with rocketeer william walby,

Who's going to show us how sometimes better engineering.

Can take a rocket higher than a rocket that is just big.

William and his team...

They've built two types of rockets.

For us to go ahead and test and to compare.

So the first one is bigger.

And then we have a two-stage, smaller, lighter rocket as well.

This would be an example of smarter design.

Versus sheer size.

The americans may have been behind the soviets.

In developing nasa rockets, but nasa refocused its efforts.

On what it considered to be more intelligent engineering.

Like creating streamlined rockets like the saturn.

That they considered more efficient than the massive

Soviet rockets.

Saturn uses the building-block principle.

It is made up of various stages,

Each of which will drop behind in space.

As its fuel becomes exhausted.

Saturn can be a two-, three-, or four-stage rocket.

Saturn is a type of rocket that we developed to go to the moon.

What we want to prove here in the desert is simple.

The conspiracy theorists say that a rocket has to be massive.

Like the size of what the soviets.

Were building to get to the moon.

Nasa said no.

Being big doesn't matter as much as being intelligently designed.

Now, the big thing on this.

Is both have the same amount of thrust or power.

And this is a solid rocket?

It's a solid rocket. Okay.

And the two-stage has the same total amount of power or thrust,

Just in a different configuration.

Verne here has a product that will give us.

Real-time values during the entire launch.

Yeah, so during the flight,

I'll be tracking it the whole way.

Hello. My name is kate.

I will be reporting gps down-link information.

In real time during the flight.

We're 300 feet away from the pads,

And we're going to do a countdown,

And our motto is "look, listen, and point."

- Alright. - Y'all ready for this?

- Yeah. - Right.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Go.

Launch detected, 1,000 feet.

5,000 feet.

Max altitude... 7,000 feet.

Distance... 1.3 miles.

Holy cow.

- Wow. - Look at that smoke.

Thank you, guys.

That was so much better than those little model rockets

I used to put up as a kid.

That was amazing.

The bigger rocket flew pretty high... 7,000 feet.

That is impressive.

I can't believe the lighter, more streamlined rocket.

That's modeled after the american saturn rocket.

Is going to do any better.

So, william, tell us about this rocket.

And how it's different than the first rocket we had.

Well, it's got two motors.

Once the first motor has burned out,

It will separate.

And then approximately two seconds after separation,

It will fire the second-stage motor,

And away it goes. Alright.

Well, let's get this one fired up and ready to go as well.

Absolutely. Yeah, let's do it.

If this lighter rocket goes further than the solid rocket,

It could debunk the conspiracy theorists' claims.

That bigger is better.

And prove that the u.S.'s version of a lighter rocket.

Was the way to get to the moon.

So this is hot. Okay.

Press "a" and hold "a" till the rocket leaves.

Alright. Everybody ready?

- Is everyone ready? - I'm ready.

The sky is clear.

Clear skies.

Range is clear.

Light that candle, buddy.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Launch.

Launch detected.

1,000 feet.

Yeah, boy.

- Wow. - Second stage, baby.

- There it goes. - Nice.

My goodness. Look at that.

10,000 feet.

Feel like I'm going back to space.

That is sweet.

11,000.

12,000.

Come on, kate.

Max altitude... 12,871 feet.

Wow.

Man, it's coming down pretty quick.

That was unbelievable.

The smaller, more smartly designed rocket.

Still got higher altitude than the bigger rocket.

Based on the simulations that we ran,

It worked the way it was supposed to.

Well, seeing the second stage come off of the first stage...

That was awesome to see that transition take place as well.

Yeah, that's the tricky part, even for nasa,

To get the second stage to light reliably.

Well, then, houston, thrust is go.

All engines are looking good.

You don't need the big, giant, mega-rocket.

Like the russians were trying to perfect.

I have to say that I... I think that puts a real.

Big crimp into the argument.

That you have to have this massive rocket.

To go to the moon.

Seems pretty clear to me that this claim.

From the conspiracy theorists is just wrong.

Von braun may have once said that bigger rockets are better,

But that's not necessarily true.

It took lots of careful testing, planning,

And even some covert espionage for the americans.

To design a rocket that possibly could perform better.

Than a rocket from the russians.

This video footage shows some of their horrible rocket failures.

It's like a one-way ticket to an extremely big.

Fireworks display on a launch pad.

Look at that.

Wow.

So, our rocket test in the desert.

Went right to the heart of the conspiracy theory.

The conspiracy theorists assume that bigger means badder,

And they're questioning whether the united states.

Could actually compete with that.

Both the soviets and the americans knew.

That it would take a powerful rocket to get to the moon,

But the united states was able to move.

Ahead of the soviet union.

Because we came up with better- designed engine technology.

We know the soviets' n1 rocket.

Never made it to the moon.

Since that's the case,

Then the question is, why did it fail?

This video footage,

Which the soviets actually tried to keep a secret,

Shows some of their horrible rocket failures.

Just after liftoff, a major malfunction occurred.

And the rocket exploded on the launch pad.

With the force of a small nuclear weapon.

The rocket's engine had not been perfected,

And the result was a disastrous one.

The wreckage on the floor of the kazakh desert was telling.

The race to the moon was over, and the soviets had failed.

The n1 was the soviet moon rocket,

But they never got it to work.

The rocket had 30 engines.

The problem for the soviets was.

They were never able to get those engines to work together.

That was a fundamental problem.

They kept shutting off and unbalancing the rocket.

As it launched.

They had four test launches.

All of them failed.

Wow.

Trying to get to the moon that way is a one-way ticket.

To an extremely big fireworks display on a launch pad.

We had a smarter design than the soviets.

Where the soviets had 30 engines on their n1 rocket,

We had only five engines on our moon rocket,

The saturn v, but those engines were really powerful.

The engines that powered the saturn v...

They were called the f-1 engine.

They were the most powerful engines in the world.

These engines delivered

7.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

And in the two and a half minutes.

Before the first stage burned out,

The rocket reached 6,000 miles an hour.

They've convinced me.

The u.S. May have been behind in the space race,

But when it came to developing a rocket.

That would send a crew to the moon,

The soviets failed miserably, and we surpassed them.

Seems pretty clear that we had the technology.

Yeah, I think that we've conclusively proven.

That the soviets' fascination with big,

Heavy rockets is the very thing that doomed them.

Case closed on that one, but we're talking about the fact.

That nasa did get to the moon eventually.

That doesn't mean that apollo 11.

Was a legitimate landing way back in 1969.

Because we simply weren't ready to go to the moon yet.

Here we go.

Alright. Our investigations continue.