And what if they hadn’t come back from the moon?When Neil Armstrong made his “one giant leap for mankind” in the summer of 1969, the world cheered — little knowing that it was less certain he would ever walk on Earth again. The most telling evidence of how dangerous that original moon landing was is found in a memo from then White House speechwriter William Safire. Titled “In Event of Moon Disaster,” the short speech was prepared so that President Nixon would be ready in case the mission went wrong and the men could not return. It says, in part, “In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.” They were when Safire wrote that. They still are. And, if Lovell is correct, they always will be. |
There are moments you never forget. One of mine was checking out of a campsite and finding a room in a nearby hotel so I could watch Neil Armstrong become the first man to walk on the moon. But his and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s July 20, 1969, landing — one of incredible courage, considering the risks involved — was simply the culmination of years of dangerous launches, hazardous maneuvers and technological brilliance that began in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy declared that America would land a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
NASA celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and, to commemorate the event, has partnered with Discovery Channel to create the soaring six-part series When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions. Airing with two back-to-back episodes Sundays beginning June 8, the series covers America’s conquest of space from the first Mercury mission to the repair of the lens of the Hubble Space Telescope in late 1993.
NASA carefully previewed more than 500 hours of archived video and audio tapes, and transferred over 100 hours of these to high definition. A careful synchronization of audio with film is another first for this series that gives viewers a chance to experience the wonders of those early manned ventures into space with a clarity never seen before. Among the most dramatic are scenes of the early space walks where unproven techniques and technology were tested, the first orbit of the moon on Christmas Eve 1968, the moon landing and the nail-biting near-catastrophe of Apollo 13.
The series also features interviews with the men who piloted those early craft, including astronaut James Lovell. The commander of the famed Apollo 13 mission –dramatized in the film of the same name — says of the early manned space explorations, “We didn’t know what it would take to get to the moon, but you give people the incentive and the money to do it and, by gosh, they can do all sorts of things.”
And which of his flights was the most memorable? “Apollo 13 was the most challenging with respect to what people can do. But from an exploration point of view, my crew and I were the first three to see the far side of the moon.” He cites how important this was for America in 1968, a year when the country was rocked by sharp divisions on the Vietnam War. “And we ended upbeat.” And few who watched and listened can forget the crew’s reading of the first 10 sections of Genesis while they were orbiting.
“[It was] the high point of my space career,” Lovell says of that moon orbit.
I ask why there is such fascination with that era of space exploration. For that, Lovell notes the beauty of the moon.
“You see it every night, and on a clear night you can almost see the craters and things like that. That has always fascinated people. I think also, things like the movie Apollo 13, which was seen by a lot of people who weren’t alive when we actually went to the moon. That generated a continuing interest in what may have been slowly dying in our memory. … Those were the days of exploration. Shuttle flights now are routine. Yes there have been some terrible accidents, [but] the shuttle has been a proven vehicle. It’s not research or development, or doing things for the first time.”
And where does Lovell think we’ll be when NASA celebrates 100 years?
“I think we will have accomplished a Mars manned flight by that time. It’s a conjecture on whether we’ll put a permanent base on Mars and supply it just like we do the International Space Station now. … But we may have some bad catastrophes and the feeling of the populace might be it’s not worth the lives to do this [if] we do well with unmanned things on Mars. And the public may think why put a man on Mars when we have robots which over another 50 years will become very sophisticated and can do everything a man can do and you aren’t risking lives.”
But space exploration will always be there, he asserts. “The cost per person is miniscule compared to everything else we spend money on and the technological return is fantastic, not even counting the scientific return. We have the technology that spills over to the private sector, which is one of the great advantages of our space program. Also there is the scientific return of unmanned lights like the Hubble telescope. Isn’t it incredible what we’ve learned?”
As Lovell mentioned, younger space enthusiasts got a lot of their information on the Apollo missions from the film Apollo 13, in which Lovell was played by Tom Hanks. Did Hanks manage an accurate portrayal?
“He did,” Lovell says. “He doesn’t look like me but I had him at my home in Texas for a long weekend, and unbeknownst to me when he was alone he was jotting down my mannerisms and some of the cliches I always use and how I sat. … And looking at the movie, I couldn’t believe it because it was like looking in a mirror.”
To see a clip from When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions, click here.
