- [Narrator] Our history is no more than a series of
incredible events.
Each one of us can influence its course.
The tiniest of our decisions can influence the future
of mankind.
To know to the past is to anticipate the future.
On October the fourth, 1957,
lifting off from the Baikonur base,
the R-7 rocket launches the first satellite into space.
Houston, September 12th, 1962.
President Kennedy's speech.
The United States enters the race to the Moon.
July 21st, 1969, after a three-day journey in space,
Neil Armstrong is the first man to step onto the Moon.
These three events are key moments in the conquest of space
and take humanity into a new era.
(dramatic orchestral music)
From the dawn of time,
man has been fascinated by celestial phenomenon.
Why is it day, and why is it night?
Why do hot months follow cold months?
That star crossing the sky, is it a message from the gods,
like storms and lightning?
That sun that's disappearing, eaten by the Moon,
is it a sign of the end of the world?
For prehistoric man, a star-studded sky must have been both
magnificent and enigmatic.
However, by observing it for long hours, he must have noted
that certain stars were moving and others not.
A few rare monuments remain from that distant period,
such as the monoliths of Stonehenge.
Today we often attribute to them the role of astronomical
observatories.
In Mesopotamia, in the first millennium before our era,
observation of the sky becomes a real institution.
Everything is scrupulously noted and preserved.
Some astronomers are even given the nightly task of counting
the different stars that make up the heavenly vault.
To locate oneself in the immensity of the stars,
a map of the sky is gradually drawn up.
The stars are grouped in constellations.
For a long time the North Star is the main guide for ships
sailing at night.
During the time of Ancient Greece,
they begin to think that perhaps the Earth is not flat,
but round.
Astronomy no longer serves only to predict the seasons,
but also to understand our world.
In the 16th century, Copernicus puts forward the idea
that the Earth turns around the Sun.
In the next century, Galileo proved it.
We are no longer the center of the world.
In 1887, like the Mesopotamians of previous millennia,
we map the sky, but this time with the aid of thousands
of photographs.
And then the first large telescopes make their appearance
and push back the limits of the human eye.
Humanity delves ever-deeper into the Universe.
- [Computer] Welcome to the memory of humanity.
Here, we can control time, analyse and compare billions
of events and alter them to rewrite history endlessly.
For example, let's try to condense the 200,000 years
of the known-history of humanity into one day of 24 hours.
We know little about the first 23 hours,
other than at the end of this period,
humanity gathered together in villages and then in cities.
At 11:20PM, man discovered writing.
Christianity was born only a quarter of an hour ago.
One minute and 40 seconds ago, the steam engine is invented.
20 seconds later, it was the turn of electricity,
then the telephone and then the airplane.
Nuclear energy just 34 seconds ago, computers 24,
the internet, less than 10.
This very second we are creating the inventions of tomorrow.
When we look at the distance covered,
who knows how far we will go?
What will our next great breakthroughs be?
- [Narrator] The idea of travelling into space,
of reaching the Moon or any other planet, is a very old one.
But how do you get there?
Jules Verne imagined a huge cannon.
H.G. Wells, a material that canceled out
the effects of gravity.
The solution will be a different one.
1942, in the middle of the Second World War,
German scientists develop a new weapon, the V-2.
V-2s are independent missiles that carry their explosive
load for hundreds of miles.
They are weapons of war.
They are considered to be the precursors of modern rockets.
At the end of the war,
when Germany is invaded by the Allies,
the United States and the USSR intend to take full advantage
of German technology.
A desperate race begins to recover the maximum possible
of material, blueprints and engineers.
The United States emerge as major winners
and transfer their precious loot to American soil.
The Soviet Union therefor starts out with a serious delay,
but its motivation is strong.
The objective, build an improved version of the German V-2
and fit it with a nuclear warhead.
At this stage, the aims are largely military.
Very quickly, the two superpowers enter into
a technological race.
The first to possess an intercontinental missile
fitted with a nuclear payload will dominate the other.
The man mainly responsible for the Soviet rocket program
is Sergei Korolev.
His mission is to build the most powerful tactical missile
ever invented,
but his deep motivation is slightly different.
Korolev wants to send people into space.
1957.
The R-7 Semyorka rocket is operational.
It will become the USSR's spearhead
in the conquest of space.
October 4th, 1957, at the end of the evening,
it lifts off over Baikonur, the Soviet Cosmodrome.
Onboard is the very first satellite in history, Sputnik 1.
At first, leaders in Moscow failed to appreciate the extent
of their success.
After all, the purpose of the launch was really
to test the rocket.
Nobody had anticipated the international repercussions,
and yet they are massive.
The Americans are appalled.
In the world's eyes, they are no longer
the first technological power, they are only second.
On November 3rd, the Soviets send a dog named Laika
into orbit above Sputnik 2.
It's the first living animal sent into space.
The Americans are falling further behind.
In response to the Soviet program,
they create their own space agency, NASA.
The race for space is on.
(suspenseful electronic music)
- [Computer] Action.
Reaction.
In aeronautics, a rocket is a vehicle that moves in space
by using a special motor.
Its mission is to carry a useful load into space, which
means more than 60 miles from the surface of the Earth.
To break free from Earth's gravity,
it needs to reach the speed of five miles per second.
Faster than a bullet from a pistol.
So it needs extremely powerful engines.
Each engine on the American Saturn 5 rocket
produces the equivalent of 160-million horsepower.
The engines of a rocket work on the principle
of action, reaction.
For example, when a cannon fires a cannonball, the action,
it recoils slightly, the reaction.
The rocket relies on the same process.
The engines burn a huge quantity of fuel,
unleashing a massive vertical thrust,
but there's no air in space so nothing can burn.
So a rocket has to carry its own oxygen with it.
This is the combustion.
Consisting of several stages, it separates as it climbs.
The stages then drop back to Earth.
All these operations are risky.
There can be no failure, otherwise there's an explosion,
like the Challenger Shuttle in 1986.
Proton, the Russian launcher, is the rocket that beats
all records for the number of launches, but even that
has had 47 failures of the 410 liftoffs to date.
Setting out to conquer space is not easy.
- [Narrator] April 12th, 1961.
Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Atop the giant R-7 rocket,
Yuri Gagarin has just taken his place in the Vostok vessel.
A few days before, the authorities informed him that he
was selected to be the first man in space.
It's a huge honor and a great danger.
The R-7 launcher's reliability record is just 50%.
Yuri is the father of two daughters,
one only a few days old.
He wrote a letter to his family that will only be sent
if there's an accident.
In the control room, Korolev hasn't slept a wink.
He knows the risks.
At 6:07AM, the four propulsion units of the main engine
fire up at the same time, their power is formidable.
Gagarin's pulse leaps.
Over the radio he announces, "Here we go."
In the capsule, everything is shaking.
Yuri Gagarin is slammed into his seat by the acceleration.
Over the radio, Korolev asks him if he's okay.
He replies, "I'm okay, how about you?"
After 60 seconds, the first stage has used up its fuel
and separates.
At 6:12AM, the second stage is also ditched
and Vostok goes on its way.
10 minutes after liftoff, reaching the end of its fuel load,
the vessel enters terrestrial orbit.
For the first time in the history of humanity,
a man is in space.
For the United States, the blow is terrible.
So, President Kennedy takes a decision that will go down
in history.
On May 25th, 1961, speaking to Congress,
he promises to send a man to the Moon.
On October 12th, 1962, in Houston,
he delivers a speech that is now famous.
Speaking to 35,000 people, he recalls the progress made
since the dawn of humanity,
the dangers faced and the difficulties overcome.
For him, humanity can only progress if it sets itself
fresh challenges.
To tumultuous applause Kennedy announces--
- [John] We choose to go to the Moon in this decade
and do the other things not because they are easy,
but because they are hard.
- [Narrator] This speech, backed up
by a major financial input,
launches NASA towards the Moon.
- [Computer] We have just reached a turning point.
A turning point is a key event.
A crossroads in our history where the world swings one way
or the other.
What would have happened if President Kennedy
had not taken that decision?
Since 1959, the Soviets have been conducting their own
Moon program, the Luna Program.
In 1966, three years before the Americans' first step
on the Moon, the Soviet probe Luna 9 makes a soft landing
on the Moon's surface.
If the Americans hadn't gone to the Moon,
the Soviets certainly would have done so.
It was just a question of time.
The red flag would be flying on the moon.
Kennedy's choice was determining and audacious,
but not surprising.
Sooner or later, the United States will have to be present
in space, so they may as well be the first.
At its outset, aviation was also a story of pioneers.
Individual people making crazy experiments,
fly like the birds.
The first steps were not great ones,
no more than gliding a few yards.
Then gradually, the military and industry took an interest.
The First World War saw the arrival
of the first fighter planes.
Necessity drove countries into a race for innovation.
Today, there are some 80,000 commercial flights daily.
Taking a plane is no longer an extraordinary thing to do.
- [Narrator] Houston.
London.
Paris.
Beijing.
Moscow.
On the evening of July 31st, 1969,
the world is watching the TV.
Broadcast by 36 channels, followed by 600-million viewers,
man's first steps on the Moon are one of the major events
of the 20th century.
After three days travelling through the emptiness of space,
astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
accomplish the feat of landing on the surface of the Moon.
The race to the Moon is over and it was won
by the United States.
The Soviets, pioneers in space,
has seen their technological progress slow down,
notably after the death of their most committed engineer,
Sergei Korolev.
The Americans' success, skillfully exploited by the media,
turned public opinion.
Now the place of the USSR in the collective imagination
is a mere second in the conquest of space.
(cheering and applause)
Public relation is the compliment of knowhow.
So, the race to the Moon was also a publicity competition.
Once won, space gradually lost its interest
in the eyes of the nations and the public.
However, the conquest of space did not stop there.
In 1971, the Soviets build the space station Salyut 1.
For the first time, men live in space.
In 1977, NASA launches the Voyager probes
to explore the Solar System.
Today, after 18-billion kilometers, Voyager 1 has just
left it and is continuing on its way to infinity.
On April 12th 1981, Columbia, the first Space Shuttle,
lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center.
Designed to be reused, it returns to Earth less than
three days later ready for a new mission.
On March 6th, 1986,
the Russian Mir station becomes operational.
Its 12,000-cubic-feet of living space will be home
to 104 space travelers over 15 years.
Then the Europeans joined forces with the United States
to put the Hubble Telescope into service in 1990.
A real concentration of technologies, this space telescope
made it possible to confirm the existence of black holes.
Patiently assembled over several years,
the International Space Station is the starting point
for the greatest international scientific
and technological cooperation in history.
It's the advanced base for humanity in space.
- [Computer] Inventing the future.
The conquest of space is like a Formula 1 race.
In everyday life, nobody drives a Formula 1.
These high-tech cars are far too fragile and expensive.
So the temptation is to say that these races
serve no purpose.
However, to have any hope of winning, each team must
carry out research and develop new techniques.
Initially, these new techniques are jealously guarded,
and used in competition.
But after a certain time, we see them on the production
lines of standard cars.
Exactly the same thing happens in the exploration of space.
The conquest of space has been the driver
of an incredible number of new technologies.
GPS in our cars and telephones, survival blankets,
high-speed train brakes, Velcro, fire-proofed fabrics,
air bags, telephone satellites, Teflon, diapers,
and even video game joysticks.
Every day in our daily lives, we use a technology derived
from the conquest of space.
So inventions are born of technological challenges,
and end up in our supermarkets.
- [Narrator] The conquest of space has revolutionized
our daily lives.
Yet, since the fall of the USSR,
less and less money has been invested.
With manned flights a regular occurrence,
public interest has slowly waned.
Today, who can name the astronauts
of the various space missions?
Their problem, flights are extremely expensive.
When you have to pay the bills every day, the technological
interest of the conquest of space can seem remote.
So, to be profitable, a space mission must provide
something in exchange.
A new, more effective and marketable technology.
This new orientation has led the space agencies to look
for money where they find it.
In 1996, the Pepsi Cola company paid one million dollars
to have a giant inflatable can placed in space.
The Russian Space Agency found another solution.
For around 30-million dollars, a civilian can treat himself
to a round-trip to the International Space Station,
if, of course, there's a place left in the rocket.
More recently, Richard Branson created the Virgin Galactic
company which offers the general public
sub-orbital flights of two to three hours
of which five minutes is weightless.
These flights, carried out in a new type of shuttle,
would not be dependent on government agencies.
Price of ticket, $250,000.
In the long term, the idea, a visionary one,
is to apply the same method as for aviation,
computers or mobile phones.
Make the technology of space flight economically-viable
and available to all.
To date, the company has already taken 700 reservations.
After the conquest by the pioneers,
humanity is getting ready to invest in space.
But that is another story.
- [Computer] The pioneer's spirit.
By definition a pioneer is the one who is ahead of his time.
The first to undertake an enterprise.
At first a dream, the conquest of space has become reality.
After walking on the Moon, men now live permanently in space
and make return trips to the Earth.
Over our heads, hundreds of satellites are orbiting and
allowing our civilization to live the digital revolution.
At this very moment, robots designed and operated by man
are driving over the soil of Mars
and telescopes are scanning the depths of the Cosmos
to decode the secrets of the Universe.
What does the future hold for us?
The colonization of Mars?
Journeys into space in the same way we take our cars?
The discovery of evidence of alien life?
We went to the Moon using rockets originally planned
to be fitted with nuclear warheads.
The conquest of space was driven by the Cold War.
Space programs have already cost astronomical sums.
But the profound nature of human beings always seems
to drive us to push back limits, to grasp the unknown.
This curiosity has been with us since the dawn of humanity.
Understanding our origins.
Determining our place in the Universe.
Deciding what to make of tomorrow.
Of all the species living on Earth, the Human Being is
surely the only one that when it looks at the stars,
wants to go there.
(dramatic orchestral music)