8 Days: To the Moon and Back

We choose to go to the moon!

CHEERING

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.

Liftoff, we have a liftoff. Liftoff on Apollo 11.

What a moment.

Man on the way to the moon.

SPEAKING IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES

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

Jesus Christ, look at that horizon.

It has a stark beauty all its own.

You're go to continue powered descent.

ALARM BLARES

Programme alarm.

Give us a reading on the 1202 programme alarm.

Houston.

The Eagle has landed.

Just for me, clean on tape, say, "I'm Neil Armstrong,

"spacecraft commander, Apollo 11."

I'm Neil Armstrong, Commander, Apollo 11.

Would you prefer Buzz or Edwin?

I'm Edwin E Aldrin Jr, lunar module pilot on the mission

Apollo 11.

Just look right at me and say, "I'm Michael Collins,

"command module pilot."

I'm Michael Collins, command module pilot,

Apollo 11.

The accomplishment that you expect to achieve is often compared

to that of Columbus.

How do you feel about such comparisons?

Columbus wasn't sure where he was going,

I very much hope that we won't terminate at someplace

that we didn't expect to, some planet that we hadn't

planned to visit.

The crew of Apollo 11 is unique.

Thanks very much, Buzz Aldrin.

I wasn't finished. Oh, oh, OK, OK.

Let's back up, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Additionally, they are unusual.

Do you want to start over?

No, I don't want to start over - do you?

LAUGHTER

And they also have another minor distinction,

they perhaps have been asked more questions than almost anybody

in the world.

Why are you going? Why are we sending men and not machines?

Do you expect to be able to sleep?

Do you feel that the public is putting too much hope

on this landing?

And it's not an easy chore for them to perform.

They are not naturally talkative men.

I don't know about you, but I'm staggered about going

to the moon, aren't you, fellas?

Do you think Nasa made a mistake not planning for the capability

of rescuing you, in case...

Your mission has been given an 80% chance of success.

What four events in the flight, in order if you can,

do you consider the most dangerous?

..do you think we are to use "if" a little more instead of saying

"when" you land on the moon...?

There's been speculation about what the first man on the moon

will say when he gets there.

Will you prepare something ahead of time?

This is CBS News, colour coverage of Man On The Moon.

Sponsored by Kellogg's. Kellogg's puts more in your morning.

Here, from CBS News, correspondent Walter Cronkite.

Good morning.

The astronauts are on board now.

Next stop for them, the moon.

The three astronauts are now in their tiny spacecraft on top

of this enormous rocket.

They have about 160 cubic feet in there,

which is about the size of the interior of a small automobile.

There is time, if only briefly in this busy morning,

to think of those three men, and the burdens and the hopes

that they carry on behalf of all mankind.

We are go for Apollo 11.

LOUD, INDISTINCT CHATTER

Our status board indicates the third stage completely pressurised.

All the second stage tanks now pressurised.

Power transfer is complete.

Apollo 11, the launch team wishes you good luck and Godspeed.

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

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Liftoff, we have a liftoff. Liftoff on Apollo 11.

Tower cleared.

ENGINE ROARS, METALLIC RATTLING

What a moment. I am on the way to the moon.

You get a feeling that people think of these men as

not just superior men, but as different creatures.

We really don't have a language to...to describe this thing.

What are the words you use?

How do you say "high as the sky" any more,

Or "the sky's the limit"? And what does it mean?

All right, how are you? Looking good, flight. GNC?

Looks good, flight. Looking good, flight. Roger.

Flight, how are you? We're go, flight.

Mark. Mark. Mode One Charlie. Go.

Light up. Go. Guidance. Go.

Houston, thrusters go, all engines are looking good.

Roger, Tower.

Neil Armstrong confirming both the engine skirt separation

and the launch escape tower separation.

Next critical moment will be when that second stage jettisons.

Apollo 11 go on all sources.

Apollo 11, this is Houston, predicted cut off at

11 plus 42. Over.

ENGINES ROAR

ROARING STOPS

Apollo 11, this is Houston. You are confirmed go for orbit.

Roger.

So this first, always dramatic and dangerous launch phase

has passed, and Apollo 11 is on the way.

This is the flight from which Man will first set foot on the moon.

We should almost glibly toss that line away now,

Man on the moon.

But, by golly, just think it over.

CBS News colour coverage of the launch day of Apollo 11

will continue in a moment.

HE CLEARS HIS THROAT

SHUTTER CLICKS

When the spacecraft has been thoroughly checked out

by the crew, the third stage fires again,

its speed now tearing it free from the grip of Earth's gravity.

This is Apollo Control, we expect the translunar injection

burn at two hours 44 minutes.

We confirm ignition, and the thrust is go.

We are waiting for word of the separation from the command

module going off on its own.

While coasting outward, the command service module separates

and docks for access to the lunar module.

And the empty third stage is left behind.

Apollo 11, this is Houston.

You're go for separation.

This next major function now is the command module coasting out

50 feet away.

The command module will turn around 180 degrees.

The command module will touch around and come back,

and with the nose end, come in and dock with the lunar module.

It's a very, very delicate and controlled task.

With the lunar module attached to their nose,

they'll be on the way on their three-day voyage

to the moon, and into the pages of history.

Apollo 11, Houston, all your systems look real good to us.

We will keep you posted.

We have seen something spectacular today.

Something we'll be telling our grandchildren about.

Something our great-grandchildren will undoubtably be undertaking

themselves on an excursion basis.

This is Walter Cronkite at CBS News at the Kennedy Space Center

in Florida.

11, this is Houston, if you are interested in the morning

news, I've got a summary here. Over.

Washington UPI - "Vice President Spiro T Agnew has called for

"putting a man on Mars by the year 2000,

"but Democratic leaders replied that priority must go

"to needs on Earth.

"Laredo, Texas, immigration officials in Nuevo Laredo announce

"that hippies will be refused tourists cards to enter Mexico

"unless they take a bath and get haircuts.

"London.

"The House of Lords was assured that a major American submarine

"would not, quote, 'damage or assault', unquote,

"the Loch Ness Monster."

Apollo 11's distance from the Earth is now 112,386 nautical miles.

Velocity 4,906 feet per second.

Roger, Apollo 11. Thank you much for the show, appreciate it,

thank you very much, out.

Apollo 11, this is Houston. Over.

Roger, I've got the morning news here. Over.

"In Corby, England, an Irishman named John Coyle has won the world's

"porridge eating championship by consuming 23 bowls

"of instant oatmeal."

Is he pretty good at that?

Roger.

It almost seems that Neil Armstrong's life was intended

to work out this way.

Before the moon, there was flying.

Armstrong was, needless to say, a hot pilot in the Navy.

He survived the only forced landing in the history

of the space programme.

And when a lunar training vehicle went out of control,

forcing him to bail out for the second time in his life,

a friend concluded he was either the best,

or the luckiest pilot around.

Anyone else paying attention would've concluded nothing

could stop him from flying to the moon.

Even more serious than Armstrong is Buzz Aldrin.

He is, by general agreement, the most brilliant of

the astronauts, though some of his colleagues have been known

to comment, they wished he didn't feel it necessary

to demonstrate his scholarship so often.

Typically, Aldrin trained for weeks underwater for his Gemini 12

spacewalk, determined that it would be the best ever attempted.

It was.

But Aldrin can be as cool in appraising himself

as he is in his relations with others.

Mike Collins has done everything Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin