Funding was provided by the following individuals and institutions.

- Hi, I'm Ron Howard.

What you're about to see is unlike any telling of mankind's journey to the moon that I have ever experienced.

- ♪ When the moon is in the seventh house ♪ - I've told a piece of this story in my film "Apollo 13," but nothing prepared me for seeing it like this.

Filmed live at Carnegie Hall, a 45-piece orchestra, Broadway stars, thrilling storytelling, and extraordinary archival footage and photographs come together to create an emotional history.

It moved me deeply and illuminated just how far from inevitable this achievement truly was.

The story begins with Neil and Janet Armstrong.

Through their lives and their partnership, we come to understand the moon landing as a story of family and sacrifice, not simply a technological triumph.

From the astronauts, many of them Korean War veterans, to the ordinary Americans who built the rockets, the brilliant minds in Mission Control who guided them, and the diverse set of role models history nearly overlooked, the full human story of Apollo comes to life on stage until the telling of history becomes history.

- Tranquility Base here.

The "Eagle" has landed.

- So prepare yourself for an extraordinary journey.

This is "We Chose to go to the Moon."

[cheers and applause] - My name is John Monsky.

I'm a lawyer and historian.

I lecture here at Carnegie Hall and at the New York Historical.

And this is the Saturn V rocket.

It took Americans to the moon more than 50 years ago.

Tonight, I want to tell you the story of this rocket and the people that made it happen.

Let me start by sharing a memory with you.

December 1972.

I'm 14 years old, growing up in my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida.

My mother reads in the newspaper that the last Apollo mission to the moon will be a night liftoff.

And that night, my dad takes me to a railroad overpass, where we have a clear view of the southern sky.

Cape Canaveral is 150 miles away, 150 miles down those tracks.

And we stand there, side by side, peering into the darkness until we see the flames of this giant rocket as it rises into the night sky.

And she was a whale of a rocket-- 36 stories tall, 7.5 million pounds of thrust.

At liftoff, the earth shakes, plaster pours from the ceilings of mission control, the windows bow like rubber, and vibrations are reported as far north as New York City.

[rocket roaring] The story of that rocket is more than nuts and bolts.

It goes to the moon during the turmoil of the 1960s.

[playing "For What It's Worth"] - ♪ There's something happening here ♪ ♪ What it is ain't exactly clear ♪ ♪ There's a man with a gun over there ♪ ♪ Telling me I've got to beware ♪ ♪ I think it's time we stop ♪ ♪ Children, what's that sound?

♪ ♪ Everybody look what's going down ♪ ♪ ♪ - ♪ What a field day for the heat ♪ ♪ A thousand people in the street ♪ ♪ Singing songs and carrying signs ♪ ♪ Mostly saying hooray for our side ♪ [together] ♪ I think it's time we stop ♪ ♪ Hey, what's that sound?

♪ ♪ Everybody look what's going down ♪ ♪ ♪ [applause] - In 1977, I finished high school, and I head off to my big adventure, Yale College.

I thought I left the '60s and space behind, but not really.

Even at graduation, space exploration is bumping into me.

Our graduation speaker is a famous astronomer named Carl Sagan.

In the 1970s, he told us that there were billions and billions of stars out there and billions of planets, so there had to be intelligent life out there.

At graduation, I get to meet Mr.

Sagan because I'm his warm-up act.

I give the class oration, a short talk.

And then Mr.

Sagan, the main event, speaks right after me.

[delicate orchestral music] - The cosmos is within us.

We are made of star stuff.

We are a way for the universe to know itself.

Only one generation in the history of the human species is privileged to live during a time when those great discoveries are first made.

That generation is ours.

- I wanted to stay at Yale and be a history professor, but that didn't work out for me-- too much student debt.

So I go to law school.

And later, while I'm practicing law, I find a way to keep up with my love of history.

I collect historic American flags.

And somehow, space finds me yet again.

One summer morning, I read in the paper that three swatches from a famous flag-- red, white, and blue-- are coming up at auction that afternoon.

- In 1969, NASA engineers prepare an American flag to be planted on the moon.

- They sew it to a pole and telescoping arm.

- In the process of doing that, three pieces are cut off.

These scraps were recovered from the trash.

- It is all we have left on Earth of one of the most iconic flags in American history.

- The flag that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted on the moon.

- The rest of the flag is still on the moon.

- That afternoon, I phone into the auction.

I tell my wife, Jennifer, I just want to listen in.

[laughter] To my great surprise, the swatches don't sell.

Really?

No one wants to buy these things?

15 minutes after the auction is over, I make an offer.

It's accepted.

And so here they are with us tonight.

[applause] When I hold these swatches for the first time, I decide I want to know more.

What does it all mean?

How did we get there?

And who were the men and women that built these rockets?

I listened to a lot of voices-- the astronauts and their wives, the men and women in Mission Control, and the people, the ordinary Americans who built these things.

Naturally, the one I want to know the most about, if he can be known, is Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.

- I grew up in small towns in Ohio in the '30s and the 40s.

As a child, I had this recurring dream.

I could, by holding my breath, hover over the ground.

Nothing much happened.

I neither flew nor fell in those dreams.

I just hovered.

But the indecisiveness was a little frustrating.

There never was any end to the dream.

I tried it later when I was awake, and it didn't work.

- At 15, Neil begins taking flying lessons.

Making 40¢ an hour at the local drugstore, Neil works 22 hours to pay for one lesson.

[bright orchestral music] He rides his bike to the airfield.

One of the flight students is taking a flying lesson when a plane hits a telephone wire.

Neil jumps the fence, rushes to the crash site.

The local newspaper reports that the student dies... in Neil's arms.

Neil wants to go to college, and he finds a way.

He arrives at Purdue University on a naval scholarship.

There's a price for that scholarship.

The Korean War is coming, and it's not long before the Navy calls him up.

By the time he's 20 years old, Neil is flying jets off this aircraft carrier, the USS "Essex."

- Dear Dad, a short note to you with some pertinent details.

Things aren't quite as easy as I pointed out in my last letter to Mother, although they could be a lot worse.

I don't want to worry her too much.

The day after I wrote my last letter, I was hit by enemy fire, and I almost lost my aircraft in a dive about 100 miles behind enemy lines.

However, I managed to nurse the plane back to friendly territory, and I bailed it out safely.

But the next day, two of our boys in the squadron were shot down.

It was a pretty grim day.

Enclosed you will find a copy of my will, the original of which is in the navy files.

- During the time that Neil is on the "Essex," 28 airmen and sailors will be killed.

- All my life has been interrupted by loss of friends.

- The Korean War will be referred to as the forgotten war.

1.8 million Americans serve in it.

36,000 die in it.

And thanks in part to this effort, today, more than 50 million South Koreans live in freedom.

Upon returning from Korea, Neil finishes his engineering studies at Purdue University.

And this is when he meets and becomes friends with Janet Shearon.

She's a sorority girl at Purdue, and she's fun, and she's outgoing.

And she rounds out Neil's quiet personality perfectly.

- I first met Neil at a society party when I was 18 and he was 22.

It was kind of a slow start.

He did not ask me out on a date for three years.

I did not mind that.

I was busy and dated lots of guys.

[laughter] But really, what took him so long?

He told his roommate he was going to marry me the day we met.

- Shortly before graduation, Neil signs up to be an aircraft test pilot for the United States government.

- I picked Janet up at her home in Wilmette, Illinois, to drive her back to school.

It was about a three-hour ride.

And thinking about my new job and the ride ahead of us, I told her that the government would give me 4¢ a mile if I was single but 6¢ if I was married.

She said yes.

- The newlyweds moved to Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert.

- It was just the two of us in the cabin.

We fell in love with a record called "Music Out of the Moon."

Neil found it somewhere and brought it home.

Neil was fascinated by the fact that one of the instruments on the recording was a theremin.

It made electronic sounds when you waved your hands in the air.

They had a tape player on Apollo 11 for notes, but it also carried some music.

Neil chose "Music Out of the Moon" for one of his selections.

I don't think Mission Control liked it very much.

When he played part of it during the flight home, Mission Control thanked him for turning it off.

[laughter] - In 1932, the Theremin Orchestra, led by Leon Theremin, performs right here, on this stage, in this spot at Carnegie Hall.

And now, 94 years later, I present to you "Music Out of the Moon."

[playing "Music Out of the Moon"] [serene music] ♪ ♪ [all vocalizing] ♪ ♪ [applause] - Testing high-speed jets at Edwards Air Force Base surrounded by the Mojave Desert is a daring business.

U.S.

pilots are breaking the speed of sound-- Mach 1, Mach 2, Mach 3, Mach 4, five times the speed of sound.

Engine failure, structural failure, control failure, it's all part of the game.

And during Neil's time at Edwards, lots of test pilots die testing these planes.

October 1957, the Russians put into orbit the world's first artificial satellite, called Sputnik.

[signal whirring] It causes a huge uproar.

- Amateur radio operators hear it beeping as it flies over the night sky.

- You can see its reflective light as it flies over the United States.

- Not since the Soviets got the hydrogen bomb in 1953 has there been such alarm and fear.

The space race is on, and President Eisenhower immediately orders the launch of an American satellite.

[rocket rumbling] [explosion booming] Uh, it doesn't go so well.

And in the first use of Yiddish in the national security dialogue, the press calls it "kaputnik."

[laughter] - To keep up with the Soviets, NASA launches its Mercury program.

- The "Mercury" capsule will hold a single astronaut.

- The very basic goal is to see if they can get a person into space and bring that person back alive.

- For this noble task, from the ranks of test pilots, NASA selects the first seven astronauts, called the Mercury Seven.

- They are all in their 30s, and each one is a veteran of the Korean War.

"Life" magazine now cuts an extraordinary deal with the astronauts.

In exchange for $500,000 to be split among them, "Life" is given exclusive access to the astronauts and their families.

This includes the right to be in an astronaut's home with his family during a mission.

In one fell swoop, "Life" magazine goes from outside the picture to inside the dressing room.

And a bonus for the pages of "Life" is the astronauts wives.

They turn out to be extraordinary people.

[energetic orchestral music] - Rene Carpenter will eventually have her own newspaper column focusing on women's issues.

- Louise Shepard will navigate being the wife of the first American in space.

- Trudy Cooper is a licensed pilot and flies when she wants to, not just when her husband wants to.

- Betty Grissom goes to work so that her husband can go to school and get an advanced degree.

- Marjorie Slayton had a previous marriage.

No one will talk about that.

She lives with the stigma.

She will be one of the leaders of the Astronauts Wives Club.

And she will tell the other women that they do have choices.

- Annie Glenn suffers from a severe stutter, but she will manage to overcome it.

She must if she wants to face the glare of the TV cameras.

- "Life" won't talk about the severe stutter, the divorce, or Rene's feminism, but they will let Rene Carpenter tell her story in her own words.

[gentle music] - As a Navy wife, I soon learned the meaning of orders.

Orders came first, women and children last.

I learned to give birth alone, care for sick babies alone, and wait at the end of 100 almost-forgotten runways for a plane to touch down again.

I say this with no trace of bitterness, only as fact.

I have watched with wonder and respect the faces of women while men didn't come back, as they made strong coffee in little kitchens, received chaplains and condolences, and cried somewhere else.

- As the space program moves forward, America falls in love with the astronauts' wives.

And wherever they go, any public event, any private event, any bar, any restaurant, they hear the same song.

[playing "Fly Me to the Moon"] - ♪ Fly me to the moon ♪ ♪ And let me play among the stars ♪ ♪ Let me see what spring ♪ ♪ Is like on Jupiter and Mars ♪ ♪ In other words ♪ ♪ Hold my hand ♪ ♪ In other words ♪ ♪ Darling, kiss me ♪ ♪ Fill my heart with song ♪ ♪ And let me sing forevermore ♪ ♪ You are all I long for ♪ ♪ All I worship and adore ♪ ♪ In other words ♪ ♪ Please be true ♪ ♪ In other words ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Fill my heart with song ♪ ♪ And let me sing forevermore ♪ ♪ You are all I long for ♪ ♪ All I worship and adore ♪ ♪ In other words ♪ ♪ Please be true ♪ ♪ In other words ♪ ♪ In other words ♪ ♪ I love ♪ ♪ You ♪ [applause] - [laughs] [bright jazzy music] ♪ ♪ - Amelia Earhart left a legacy of female pilots, including over 1,000 women who delivered bombers to military bases during World War II.

In the early '60s, two scientists pushed to put American women into American rockets.

These are the same scientists that stress tested the Mercury Seven.

They proceed to qualify 13 female pilots called the Mercury 13.

- When NASA drags its feet on putting women into the program, there is an intense hearing in the United States Congress.

It makes national headlines.

Female pilot Jerrie Cobb provides powerful testimony to Congress.

- We seek only a place in our nation's space future without discrimination.

We ask, as citizens of this nation, to be allowed to participate with seriousness and sincerity in making history now.

- But at the end of the day, it is a decision deferred for 20 years.

For the Soviets, it is a decision made.

Women cosmonauts now join their space program.

- In the 1950s and the early 1960s, the women you see in this picture, believe it or not, are called computers.

They do the all-important computational work for NASA at Langley Research Center in Virginia and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Many of these women have worked at Langley since World War II, in segregated buildings until 1959.

Katherine Johnson, an African American, emerges as one of the leading minds in orbital flight.

She and her colleagues will break down all kinds of barriers in and outside of NASA.

[playing "Up the Ladder to the Roof"] - ♪ Come with me ♪ - ♪ Come with me ♪ - ♪ Come with me ♪ [together] ♪ And we shall run ♪ ♪ Across the sky ♪ ♪ And illuminate the night ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, I will try to guide you ♪ ♪ To better times and brighter days ♪ ♪ Don't be afraid to come up the ladder to the roof ♪ ♪ So we can see heaven much better ♪ ♪ Go up the ladder to the roof ♪ - ♪ Where we can be ♪ - ♪ Where we can be ♪ - ♪ Where we can be ♪ [together] ♪ Where we can be ♪ ♪ Closer to heaven ♪ ♪ ♪ - ♪ Stay with me ♪ - ♪ Stay with me ♪ - ♪ Stay with me ♪ [together] ♪ And we shall let ♪ ♪ Expression sing ♪ - ♪ Hear freedom in our singing ♪ - ♪ Can't you hear it ringing?

♪ [together] ♪ Memories of yesterday ♪ - ♪ Yesterday's broken dreams ♪ ♪ Don't you know, they'll all fade away ♪ [together] ♪ I know it's time to go ♪ ♪ Up the ladder to the roof ♪ ♪ So we can see heaven much better ♪ ♪ Go up the ladder to the roof ♪ - ♪ Where we can be ♪ - ♪ Where we can be ♪ - ♪ Where we can be ♪ [together] ♪ Where we can be ♪ ♪ Closer to ♪ - ♪ We'll laugh and I'll tell you ♪ ♪ The story of love ♪ ♪ How it is and the happiness in it, baby ♪ - ♪ We'll combine our thoughts ♪ ♪ And together we will travel the roads ♪ ♪ To the fountain of loveliness ♪ - ♪ I will never, ever, never, ever ♪ ♪ Leave you alone to wonder ♪ [together] ♪ As we understand ♪ ♪ Our love, it will grow ♪ - ♪ Much stronger and stronger ♪ - ♪ Stronger and stronger ♪ [together] ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Go up the ladder to the roof ♪ ♪ Where we can see heaven much better ♪ ♪ Go up the ladder to the roof ♪ - ♪ Where we can be ♪ - ♪ We can be ♪ - ♪ We can be ♪ [together] ♪ Go up the ladder ♪ ♪ To the roof ♪ ♪ Where we can see heaven much better ♪ ♪ Go up the ladder to the roof ♪ - ♪ Where we can be ♪ - ♪ Where we can be ♪ - ♪ Where we can be ♪ - ♪ Where we can be ♪ - ♪ Closer to heaven ♪ [together] ♪ Go up the ladder ♪ ♪ To the roof ♪ [applause] - April 1961, the Soviets get the first man into space.

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbits the globe for 108 minutes.

It's a spectacular accomplishment, and Yuri is an international hero.

- Shortly after I returned from my first space flight, a reception is held in my honor, and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church asks me, Yuri, when you were in space, did you see God?

I said I had not.

He said, please, my son, don't tell anyone that.

A little later, Premier Khrushchev, who was at the same event, pulls me aside and asks me the same question.

Out of respect for the head of the church, this time I say yes.

Premier Khrushchev says, please don't say a word about that to anyone.

- In direct response to the Soviets, NASA puts Alan Shepard on top of a rocket.

There are fuel pressurization problems.

He sits bolted into the capsule for four hours.

Shepard radios back to the tower.

[warm orchestral music] - I have to pee.

- Mission Control doesn't like this.

It might ruin the electronics in his spacesuit.

He pees anyway.

It quickly evaporates.

- Why don't you guys fix your little problem and light this candle?

- He gets his wish.

The flight lasts just 15 minutes.

It goes up.

It goes down.

It doesn't orbit the Earth like the Soviet flight, but Shepard is a national hero.

[bell dings] And he and his wife are invited to the White House to meet President Kennedy.

Louise even has tea with Jackie Kennedy.

♪ ♪ And over the next 30 days, the president reaches out to his brain trust.

- Why are we just matching the Soviets tit for tat?

Why don't we have our own goal?

And why not make it the goal of landing an astronaut on the moon?

- It's an audacious proposal, but context is everything.

The Cold War is raging.

The Berlin Wall will be built in a few months.

The Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis come next.

- Everyone has problems, lots of them.

They keep telling me that we will lose $40 billion.

It will be a technological failure, and there will be dead astronauts all over the front page of the paper.

But I don't see it that way.

Look, we are being tested.

Our political system itself is being tested.

We are in a fight for world leadership.

- 43-year-old President Kennedy, a PT boat commander in World War II with a Boston elite sensibility and the blindness of youth is not about to stand by and lose to the Soviets.

On May 24th, 1961, in an address to Congress, this young American commits the United States of America to land an astronaut on the moon by the end of the decade.

President Kennedy follows it up with a speech at Rice University.

- But why, some say, the moon?

Why choose this as our goal?

And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain?

Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic?

Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon.

We choose to go to the moon-- [applause] 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, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others too.

[applause] - February 1962, NASA's ready to attempt to put an American into orbit as a second step on the path to the moon.

Alan Shepard proved we could get him up there, but what happens if we get an astronaut into orbit?

How do we get him back?

Computer Katherine Johnson goes to work on that problem.

- The initial suborbital flights go up, turn and head right back for a landing in the Atlantic Ocean.

A circular orbital path around the planet is far more complex.

My boss knows I understand more than practically anyone at Langley about how to figure out the path of an orbital flight.

Let me do it, I suggest.

Tell me where you want the man to land, and I'll tell you where to send him up.

I'm proud of the research that I put into this work.

So I signed my name, Katherine Johnson, on the research report, just like the men do.

It is a rather assertive move.

Women just did not do that, even though they often contribute substantially to the work.

When the work is published, it is the first time a woman of any race had been listed as a co-author of a NASA research report.

[applause] - Shepard went into space on a Redstone rocket.

To get an astronaut into orbit, NASA is going to need to use the more powerful Atlas rocket.

It's a dangerous and temperamental beast.

Over the previous four years, two out of three of the Atlas rockets launched from the cape have either blown up or failed in flight.

And for this orbital flight, NASA chooses the Marine John Glenn.

February 20th, 1962, the morning of John Glenn's liftoff, Annie Glenn and her children sit in front of the TV set.

John Glenn sits on top of an Atlas rocket.

A "Life" magazine reporter is in the Glenns' living room.

And as the smoke and flames explode from the Atlas rocket, Lyn, John Glenn's daughter, clutches her face, and tears roll down her cheeks.

The rocket seems to stand still, and then it rises into the sky, and the "Life" reporter is trying to catch his breath as he watches the TV screen and Annie and Lyn.

- Finally, as the television camera poked at the empty sky, Annie put her head against her knees and sobbed.

And I, choking with my own feelings, I didn't know where to look.

This was much more than I thought it would be.

Even protected by my job, I felt like a voyeur.

This was a terribly personal moment of deep privacy beyond all contracts.

A man's life was in the balance, in the violent, unpredictable journey, right in view of the people who loved him most.

I felt ashamed and unprofessional to think so, but there was something obscene about being there to record it.

- John Glenn orbits the Earth three times, and he returns safely.

Finally, the Soviets are matched.

[playing "Mr.

Spaceman"] ♪ ♪ - ♪ Woke up this morning with light in my eyes ♪ ♪ And then realized it was still dark outside ♪ ♪ It must be the light coming down from the sky ♪ ♪ I don't know who or why ♪ - ♪ Must be those strangers who come every night ♪ ♪ Whose saucer-shaped lights put people uptight ♪ ♪ Leave blue-green footprints that glow in the dark ♪ ♪ I hope they get home all right ♪ [together] ♪ Hey, Mr.

Spaceman ♪ ♪ Won't you please take me along?

♪ ♪ I won't do anything wrong ♪ ♪ Hey, Mr.

Spaceman ♪ ♪ Won't you please take me along for a ride?

♪ ♪ ♪ - This is a picture of President Kennedy with John Glenn after the flight.

You can see the president smiling from ear to ear.

And over the next two years, the program continues to move forward.

Carpenter, Schirra, Cooper, they all have successful flights.

Neil Armstrong joins the space program.

Then, in November of 1963, President Kennedy is assassinated.

When President Kennedy is killed, we feel something is taken from us.

Something is stolen from us.

And we want it back.

And one way to get it back is to complete his mission.

- ♪ Hey, Mr.

Spaceman ♪ ♪ Won't you please take me along for a ride?

♪ ♪ ♪ [applause] - Just five days after Kennedy's assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson, never to be deterred, stands before Congress and urges the nation to continue Kennedy's dream of conquering the vastness of space.

So the space race continues, and we are all caught up in it.

Space exploration opens the world for us to dream big.

Reflecting on all that will be a sensational hit TV show called "Star Trek."

[playing "Theme from Star Trek"] ♪ ♪ [applause] One of the stars on the show is Nichelle Nichols, who plays a communications officer named Lieutenant Uhura.

No one has ever seen a Black woman play a command role like this on television.

After the first season, Nichols wants to quit.

- I did not like how it was going.

The studio lot was not really ready for me.

There was one guard at the actors gate who made me go around to the visitors gate.

He seemed to believe that a Black person could not come in through the actors gate.

And more important to me, my lines kept being cut down.

I finally decide to leave the show at the end of the season and try my luck on Broadway.

I go to an event that weekend, and I meet a "Star Trek" fan that I never knew I had.

Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

sees me in the crowd and comes right up to me and says, I am your biggest fan.

Your show is the only show that my wife, Coretta, and I will allow our three children to watch.

And I tell him, thank you for watching, but I am leaving the show.

His entire demeanor changes.

You cannot do that, he says.

Don't you know that Uhura represents more than just a part for Nichelle Nichols?

And then he says, while we're out there marching and having hoses turned on us and dogs jumping on us, there is a TV show that says, we don't stop here.

We go on.

And there is a woman on that show who looks just like us.

We are there.

That's what you represent.

And this character tells us that this is worth it.

You cannot leave.

And I did not leave.

[applause] - By 1964, NASA moves ahead with the Gemini program.

The Gemini capsule carries two astronauts.

The key objectives will be walk in space and dock in space, two more steps on the way to the moon.

March 18th, 1965, the Soviets beat the Americans again.

Alexei Leonov becomes the first person to walk in space.

NASA turns to astronaut Ed White to accomplish a spacewalk.

Here is Ed with his wife, Pat, in their house in Houston.

They're deeply in love.

Ed is aware of the risk he's about to take.

- Everyone's very worried about the spacewalk.

The concern is that the spacewalker will struggle as he tries to move about in space, become exhausted, and pass out.

If that happens, his co-pilot won't be able to get him back in the spacecraft, and the spacewalker will be lost.

The co-pilot will have to cut his buddy's air hose and come back alone.

- June 3rd, 1965, Gemini IV is on its third orbit 120 miles above the Earth, moving at a speed of 17,500 miles an hour.

Ed White opens the hatch and steps through it.

Now he is literally walking in the heavens.

[playing "Space Oddity"] ♪ ♪ - ♪ Ground control to Major Tom ♪ ♪ ♪ [together] ♪ Ground Control to Major Tom ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Take your protein pills and put your helmet on ♪ - Ten... - ♪ Ground Control ♪ - Nine... - ♪ To Major Tom ♪ - Eight, seven, six... - ♪ Commencing ♪ - Five... - ♪ Countdown, engines on ♪ - Four, three, two... - ♪ Check ignition ♪ - One.

-♪ And may God's love ♪ - Liftoff.

- ♪ Be with you ♪ ♪ ♪ [together] ♪ This is Ground Control ♪ ♪ To Major Tom ♪ ♪ You've really made the grade ♪ ♪ And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare ♪ ♪ ♪ - ♪ This is Major Tom to Ground Control ♪ ♪ I'm stepping through the door ♪ ♪ And I'm floating ♪ ♪ In a most peculiar way ♪ ♪ And the stars look ♪ ♪ Very different today ♪ ♪ For here am I ♪ ♪ Sitting in a tin can ♪ ♪ Far above the world ♪ ♪ Planet Earth is blue ♪ ♪ And there's nothing I can do ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Though I'm past 100,000 miles ♪ ♪ I'm feeling very still ♪ ♪ And I think my spaceship ♪ ♪ Knows which way to go ♪ ♪ Tell my wife I love her very much ♪ [together] ♪ She knows ♪ ♪ Ground control to Major Tom ♪ ♪ Your circuit's dead ♪ ♪ There's something wrong ♪ ♪ Can you hear me, Major Tom?

♪ ♪ Can you hear me, Major Tom?

♪ ♪ Can you hear me, Major Tom?

♪ ♪ Can you ♪ - ♪ Here am I ♪ ♪ Floating round my tin can ♪ ♪ Far above the moon ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Planet Earth is blue ♪ ♪ And there's nothing I can do ♪ ♪ ♪ [applause] - The next step of the Gemini program is to prove that you can dock in space.

First, an unmanned Agena rocket launches.

Then Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott, they go up in Gemini VIII.

Docking goes amazingly well.

But then things go wrong.

Now, a lot of people tell this story, but I think it's best told by Janet Armstrong and Neil's co-pilot, Dave Scott.

- Well, in our homes during flight, we have air-to-ground communication boxes, essentially speakers tied into Mission Control.

We call it the squawk box because it squawks all the time.

When they talk air to ground, you can update yourself.

They start out just great.

But after docking, I hear over the squawk box that they are spinning end over end, both ships locked together.

Then they undock from the Agena, but it doesn't help.

Neil and Dave are spinning in the capsule at a revolution per second, and there's a very strong concern that they will black out and that will be it.

It will be over.

And then NASA cuts off the squawk box.

I don't like that.

So I go over to NASA, and I am refused entry.

- We're spinning wildly, and we don't know what's wrong.

Neil figures out that one of the thrusters that guides us in space must be malfunctioning.

So Neil, he reaches up above his head.

He finds the right switches and shuts down the entire set of thrusters, all of them.

But we're still rolling over and over.

There's nothing to slow you down in space.

Then, Neil, he reaches up above his head again, and he uses some of our re-entry thrusters to stop the roll.

It was amazing that he was able to do all of that while we were in this high-speed roll.

I have to say it was my lucky day to be flying with Mr.

Neil Armstrong.

- He lands and comes home.

You know, he's telling me about the flight.

We knew they could have lost their lives.

It's the way it is, you know?

- After the Gemini program, NASA initiates a new program.

It's called Apollo.

The Apollo capsule holds three astronauts.

And this time, the goal is to land on the moon.

For Apollo 1, NASA selects, on the left, Gus Grissom, one of the most beloved and experienced astronauts in the program.

In the middle, the spacewalker, Ed White, and on the right, Roger Chaffee, a rookie who flew jets over Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

There's trouble on Apollo 1.

The capsule is a mess.

It needs hundreds of change orders.

- Gus is so frustrated with the Apollo 1 capsule that he takes a lemon from a tree in his backyard and places it on the Apollo 1 simulator.

- January 27, 1967, Grissom, White, and Chaffee go down to Pad 34 at Cape Kennedy to do a countdown test.

The support team goes to work.

They load the astronauts into the capsule.

They seal the hatch.

They flood the capsule with pure oxygen.

Countdown is not going well.

Communications with the tower are filled with static.

- How are we going to get to the moon if we can't talk between two or three buildings?

- At T minus ten minutes, things go wrong, terribly wrong.

Through the static, the tower hears cries for help.

Fire!

Fire!

We got a bad fire in the cockpit!

Get us out of here!

There's pounding and scuffling as the astronauts struggle vainly to get the hatch open.

Within 20 seconds, they're all dead.

NASA calls Janet Armstrong and tells her to go next door, to Pat White's home.

- I knew that things could not be good if they sent me over there.

Then Bill Anders came and told Pat the news.

A number of other astronauts and their wives also came over.

We stayed there until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.

We all sat there and talked about death and what it meant to each of us.

- NASA sends Adeline Hammock over to Betty Grissom's house.

- I was fixing dinner for the kids when the doorbell rings.

Adeline Hammock, the wife of a NASA engineer, tells me that she was sent over to have a drink with me.

And then one by one, Jo Schirra, Dr.

Berry, and Wally Schirra all show up.

Dr.

Berry and Wally deliver the news.

I walk to the back of the house to tell the kids.

The lemon.

The lemon that Gus put on that capsule.

Besides my grief, that's what ran through my head.

- At the same time, NASA sends a contingent of astronauts' wives over to see 29-year-old Martha Chaffee at her house.

- The children and I were at our home near Houston when it happened.

It was around 7:00 in the evening.

I had fed the children when some of the wives came to my house.

Then NASA sent Mike Collins to our house a little later.

I knew it was something terrible.

I had told him, Mike, I think I know, but I have to hear it.

It was a long night.

I slept on Roger's side of the bed.

I wanted desperately to be closer to him.

Roger was buried on January 31st.

After the funeral, I slept with the flag that had been draped over his coffin.

It was the last thing that was closest to him.

- When a veteran is buried, the coffin is often covered with a flag.

It's given to the family just prior to burial.

From time to time, the family may fly it to honor their loved one or simply display it in whatever form they choose.

Tonight, we have a sacred moment.

With the blessings of their families, to honor the crew of Apollo 1, we have their flags with us.

- Ed White.

[bright solemn music] - Gus Grissom.

♪ ♪ - Roger Chaffee.

♪ ♪ - God bless all three of these Americans who gave their lives to our country.

[playing "The Sound of Silence"] [applause] [together] ♪ Hello, darkness ♪ ♪ My old friend ♪ ♪ I've come to talk with you again ♪ ♪ Because a vision softly creeping ♪ ♪ Left its seat while I was sleeping ♪ ♪ And the vision that ♪ ♪ Was planted in my brain ♪ ♪ Still remains ♪ ♪ Within the sound of silence ♪ ♪ In restless dreams I walked alone ♪ ♪ Narrow streets of cobblestone ♪ ♪ 'Neath the halo of a street lamp ♪ ♪ I turned my collar to the cold and damp ♪ ♪ When my eyes were stabbed ♪ ♪ By the flash of a neon light ♪ ♪ That split the night ♪ ♪ And touched the sound of silence ♪ ♪ And in the naked light I saw ♪ ♪ 10,000 people, maybe more ♪ ♪ People talking without speaking ♪ ♪ People hearing without listening ♪ ♪ People writing songs ♪ ♪ That voices never share ♪ ♪ And no one dare ♪ ♪ Disturb the sound of silence ♪ ♪ Fools, said I, you do not know ♪ ♪ Silence like a cancer grows ♪ ♪ Hear my words that I might teach you ♪ ♪ Take my arms that I might reach you ♪ ♪ But my words like silent raindrops fell ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And echoed in the wells of silence ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And the people bowed and prayed ♪ ♪ To the neon god they made ♪ ♪ And the sign flashed out its warning ♪ ♪ In the words that it was forming ♪ ♪ And the sign said, the words of the prophets ♪ ♪ Are written on the subway walls ♪ ♪ And tenement halls ♪ ♪ And whispered ♪ ♪ In the sound ♪ ♪ Of silence ♪ ♪ ♪ [applause] [playing "Aquarius"] ♪ ♪ - ♪ When the moon is in the seventh house ♪ ♪ And Jupiter aligns with Mars ♪ ♪ Then peace will guide the planets ♪ ♪ And love will steer the stars ♪ [together] ♪ This is the dawning ♪ ♪ Of the Age of Aquarius ♪ ♪ The Age of Aquarius ♪ ♪ Aquarius ♪ ♪ Aquarius ♪ - ♪ Harmony and understanding ♪ - ♪ Sympathy and trust abounding ♪ - ♪ No more falsehoods or derision ♪ ♪ Golden living dreams of visions ♪ [together] ♪ Mystic crystal revelation ♪ ♪ And the mind's true liberation ♪ ♪ Aquarius ♪ ♪ Aquarius ♪ - ♪ When the moon ♪ ♪ Is in the seventh house ♪ ♪ And Jupiter aligns with Mars ♪ ♪ Then peace will guide the planets ♪ [together] ♪ And love ♪ ♪ Will steer the stars ♪ ♪ This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius ♪ ♪ The Age of Aquarius ♪ ♪ Aquarius ♪ ♪ Aquarius ♪ ♪ Aquarius ♪ ♪ Aquarius ♪ ♪ Aquarius ♪ [applause] ♪ ♪ - In the summer of 1967, the Cold War is still on, and the space race is part of it.

The threat of nuclear war is always there.

One nuclear warhead, they tell us, has all the power of all the TNT released in World War II.

A lot of people are building fallout shelters, but we don't have basements in Jacksonville, Florida, where I live.

The water table is too high.

So in school, we talk about the ditches we'll crawl into.

That's what it was like in 1967 when I was nine years old.

If we're going to get to the moon, we need a big rocket.

- A really big rocket.

- And that rocket is the Saturn V. The Gemini and Mercury rockets both pale in comparison.

- It is 36 stories tall.

- A football field plus 63 yards.

- No one knows if this thing will fly.

- And then it comes time for the first manned test launch of the Saturn V rocket.

- This mission is called Apollo 8.

- It will become one of the most famous missions in American history.

- This is Apollo 8 on the way to the launch pad.

Prior to launch, it's assembled in this enormous hangar.

And it's carried out to the launch pad on something called the Crawler.

My dad works for a company that makes lots of things, including the Crawler.

And if you listen to my dad, you would think it's the only thing they make.

He's so proud of it.

400,000 Americans are now working on the space program.

And trust me, every one of them is just as proud as my dad.

- People would walk up to Neil and say things like... - I welded bolts on your rocket.

I can promise you, I welded them tight.

Something else may fail, but not my bolts.

- Or... - I made your radio.

It will work.

I promise you that.

Nothing else may work, but that radio will work.

- In August of 1968, the Apollo mission for 8 evolves from a simple test mission to an attempt to orbit the moon.

Astronaut Frank Borman remembers this change in the schedule.

[plucky music] - Deke Slayton, our boss, called me into his office, and he told me to shut the door.

I sat down in a chair, facing him at his desk.

And then he puts it to me that according to the CIA, the Soviets have a new, more powerful rocket on the launch pad.

If the United States wants to be the first to have humans orbit the moon, we need to go, and we need to go now.

- Think about this for a minute.

And just-- just take a deep breath.

So far, NASA has only put astronauts into Earth orbit, a few hundred miles above the Earth.

The moon is 250,000 miles away.

The spacecraft must catch the orbit of the moon and use it as a slingshot to get home.

Miss that orbit, miss that slingshot, there is no way home.

The calculations have to be perfect.

- The entire mission is a bold move, but it is a time when we make bold moves.

- NASA needs all the help it can get, and that includes whiz kid Poppy Northcutt.

At 25 years old, Poppy becomes the first woman to actually work in Mission Control during a mission.

- They had a lot of cameras.

And each camera had a different channel that you listened to on your headphones.

I kept hearing chatter about a particular channel.

I had no clue what it was, but it was mine.

They had positioned one camera in the room just on me, and my first reaction was to feel very self-conscious and invaded.

But there are different ways you can take things.

I could have gotten mad and complained, but my reaction was to look around and say, I'm here, so get used to it.

If you're going to be the first, you have to expect that there will be some of that.

You have to rise to that occasion.

The most important thing you can do is get more qualified women working there.

That will end the situation, if you have more women.

- This is the crew of Apollo 8.

Jim Lovell, Bill Anders, Frank Borman.

If the calculations are not right, they die.

- We were making bug fixes up until the last week before launch, which was against all the rules.

- December 21st, 1968, Apollo 8 lifts off.

It will take four days to get to the moon.

They will arrive on Christmas Eve.

And Poppy Northcutt is at Mission Control, watching every burn of the engines, checking every calculation.

- Up until Apollo 8, we only had a two-body problem to solve for, the Earth and the spacecraft.

We knew how to do that.

It's not the same thing if you're talking about coming back to the Earth from the moon.

It's a whole different kind of thing.

It's a three-body problem-- the Earth, the moon, and the spacecraft.

How you solve the problem is you patch together conic sections.

You do part of it by looking at a conic section where the Earth is the center of gravity.

And then you do another part of it where the moon is the center of gravity.

And then you try to match those pieces together.

And you have to iterate to do it.

- On Christmas Eve, Apollo 8, by a miracle of calculations, is orbiting the moon.

The networks broadcast the event.

I remember it.

Borman, Lovell, and Anders are up there, a long way away.

The astronauts speak to us, to all of us, from the orbit of the moon.

They read from the Book of Genesis.

At about 10:00 p.m., the reporter tells us, in a few hours, Apollo 8 will go around the back side of the moon on its last orbit and fire its engines to go home.

But if those engines don't fire, they will never make it back to Earth.

- The major maneuvers are all done behind the moon when you have no signal, so for 30 minutes, absolutely no communication with Mission Control, and that was definitely a very scary thing because they're going to do this big maneuver that's never been done before.

And you don't know until they come out the other side if it worked.

Did the engines fire?

Did they overburn?

Did they underburn?

If they did, you won't have much time to fix it.

You may have a really desperate situation if the maneuver went badly.

- The TV commentators are still on the air when I'm sent to bed that night.

Really?

I'm ten years old!

But I stay awake, wondering, will those engines fire?

At 1:00 in the morning on Christmas Day, Mission Control waits 30 breathless minutes as Apollo 8 comes around the back side of the moon.

And at the end of those 30 minutes, Mission Control calls out in the dark.

But they hear nothing.

Where are they?

But then, finally, out of the static, they hear the voice of Jim Lovell.

- Please be informed there is a Santa Claus.

[laughter] - When the crew of Apollo 8 orbited the moon, they viewed the surface like never before.

And when they came around the back side of the moon, they saw something no human had ever seen before, an earthrise.

[serene orchestral music] ♪ ♪ - We came all this way to explore the moon.

And the most important thing we discovered is the Earth.

♪ ♪ - Apollo 8 comes at the end of a tough year in America.

Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

is assassinated.

Robert Kennedy is assassinated.

Camelot is dead and gone.

And what has risen in its place is brutal.

[playing "For What It's Worth"] - ♪ There's battle lines being drawn ♪ ♪ Nobody's right if everybody's wrong ♪ ♪ Young people speaking their minds ♪ ♪ Are getting so much resistance from behind ♪ - Today, when we think about the Vietnam War and the Apollo program, we think about them as they took place in separate decades.

♪ ♪ But for most of the astronauts in the Apollo program, the weight of the war is right in the pilot's seat.

- ♪ I think it's time we stop ♪ [together] ♪ Hey, what's that sound?

♪ ♪ Everybody look what's going down ♪ - Mike Collins, Apollo 11, and Gene Cernan, Apollo 17, they feel it.

- I think we were all very aware of the situation in Vietnam.

A lot of our friends were flying airplanes in combat, and we would have been there had we not been in the space program.

♪ ♪ - ♪ There's something happening here ♪ ♪ What it is ain't exactly clear ♪ - I guess I can sort of admit it now.

I've admitted it a little bit to friends.

I've always had a guilt complex to some degree.

That was my war, good or bad.

Whether it was a good war or a bad war, we're not discussing it.

But that was my war, to fight for my country.

♪ ♪ - ♪ There's a man with a gun over there ♪ ♪ Telling me I got to beware ♪ - My buddies were getting shot at and shot down and, in some cases, captured.

And I was getting my picture on the front page of the paper.

I've always felt that they fought my war for me.

[together] ♪ I think it's time we stop ♪ ♪ Children, what's that sound?

♪ ♪ Everybody look what's going down ♪ - Not long ago, a friend invites me to a football game at West Point.

I decide to tag along, not so much for the football game, but for the opportunity to see the school's graveyard.

I'm a historian, after all.

Apollo 1 astronaut Ed White is buried in that graveyard, and I want to pay my respects.

I find Ed White's grave.

Next to his grave, I discover a marker for James Blair White, fighter pilot, lost in action during the Vietnam War.

He was Ed White's brother.

Ed and Jim, two programs, two brothers, one family.

- ♪ Everybody look ♪ ♪ What's going down ♪ [applause] - July of 1969, it comes time to attempt a landing on the moon, six months until President Kennedy's deadline.

The mission is called Apollo 11.

And it is more difficult and more dangerous than any mission that came before it.

"Life" magazine stages a picture of the Apollo 11 astronauts with their families, Neil Armstrong and his family on the right, Buzz Aldrin and his family on the left, and Mike Collins and his family on the top.

But there's more to this picture.

The astronauts are exhausted.

For months, they've been working 14-hour days.

Mike Collins knows the score.

- The CIA told us that the Russians were still pursuing both a manned lunar landing and an unmanned lunar landing program.

We'd been second so many times that we believed it could surely happen again.

- Janet Armstrong feels the pressure.

- Neil used to come home with his face drawn white, and I was worried about him.

I was worried about all of them.

Their morale was down.

They were worried about whether there was enough time to learn the things they had to learn, to do the things they had to do if this mission was to work.

- By the time we get to the moon, we will have two craft left, the command module on the right and the lunar module on the left.

Now, the lunar module is built for landing, and it only holds two of us.

So Buzz and I will undock and attempt to land on the surface of the moon in the lunar module.

Mike Collins will remain in the command module.

It is a lonely job but an important one.

Now, after we land on the moon and walk on the moon, the top half of the lunar module will take us back to the command module for the trip home.

The hardest part will be landing, and we don't have a lot of fuel.

- At one point before the Apollo 11 mission, Neil goes to visit his parents in Ohio.

He draws this picture of the lunar module for his father.

When the picture comes up at auction in 2019, no one has ever seen it before.

And it reveals something to me.

Neil is pointing out the fuel tanks, one fuel tank for landing, two small tanks for taking off again.

Fuel is what's on Neil's mind.

Fuel, fuel, fuel.

A reporter will later ask Neil if he will take anything personal with him to the surface of the moon.

- If I had a choice, I would take more fuel.

[laughter] - No one really follows up on Neil's remark.

No one really gets what he's saying or what it says about him.

Neil's not a philosopher.

He's an engineer.

He wants to make things work, just like the Wright brothers and Lindbergh and Earhart before him.

Astronaut Frank Borman tells the White House they need to prepare.

Prepare for what, they ask.

- How about landing on the moon?

Taking off from the moon?

Running out of fuel?

You guys have no idea.

- William Safire, presidential speechwriter, is ordered to prepare a contingency speech for President Nixon so that he can console the nation in case they die on the moon.

At home, Janet Armstrong tries to prepare her family.

- Neil did not talk to the boys about the flight.

He owed them a talk, but it was not happening.

So I did what I could.

I said to Neil, there is a possibility you might not come back.

It was right in front of the boys, Mark and Rick.

I said, I would like you to tell the boys.

I don't think that went very far.

- July 16th, 1969, 1 million people attend the launch of Apollo 11.

There's this mix of excitement and fear.

And there are protesters at the launch too.

Why should we be spending all this money to kill a bunch of guys trying to land on the moon when we're struggling with poverty and the Vietnam War?

NASA's response is to invite the protesters to the launch, and they accept.

- One respected scientist, a consultant to NASA, is predicting that the lunar module will sink into the surface of the moon as if it were landing on quicksand.

This worries a lot of people.

I did not focus on it.

There was too much else to focus on.

- Neil's 81-year-old grandmother and his mother and his father are interviewed on the day of the flight.

His mother says she believes God will be up there watching over them.

His father says he'll be watching it on TV, and Neil's grandmother has the final word.

- I think it's dangerous.

I told Neil to look around and not to step out if it didn't look good.

He said he wouldn't.

[laughter] - At 9:32 a.m.

Eastern Time, Apollo 11 lifts off, and there is no turning back.

[playing "Up, Up and Away"] ♪ ♪ [together] ♪ Would you like to ride ♪ ♪ In my beautiful balloon?

♪ ♪ Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?

♪ ♪ We could float among the stars together ♪ ♪ You and I ♪ ♪ ♪ For we can fly ♪ ♪ We can fly ♪ ♪ Up, up and away ♪ ♪ My beautiful ♪ ♪ My beautiful balloon ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The world's a nicer place in my beautiful balloon ♪ ♪ It wears a nicer face in my beautiful balloon ♪ ♪ We can sing a song and sail ♪ ♪ Along the silver sky ♪ ♪ For we can fly ♪ ♪ We can fly ♪ ♪ Love is waiting there in my beautiful balloon ♪ ♪ Way up in the air in my beautiful balloon ♪ - ♪ If you hold my hand ♪ ♪ We'll chase your dream across the sky ♪ - ♪ Across the sky ♪ - ♪ Across the sky ♪ [together] ♪ We can fly ♪ ♪ We can fly ♪ ♪ Up, up and away ♪ ♪ In my beautiful, my beautiful balloon ♪ ♪ Up, up and away ♪ ♪ Up, up and away ♪ ♪ Up, up and away ♪ ♪ Up, up and away ♪ ♪ Up, up and away ♪ ♪ Up, up and away ♪ [applause] - It takes four days to get to the moon.

July 20th, 1969, the command module and the lunar module are in orbit 60 miles above the moon.

At 4:00 p.m., Neil and Buzz separate from the command module.

They lower their orbit to just 9 miles above the moon.

And now they're focusing on three big problems.

First, landing in craters-- not good.

Second, landing in a field of boulders-- not good.

And third, running out of fuel-- not good.

Fuel, fuel, fuel.

- And as they descend, Neil is trying to fly this thing, to manage the pitch, the yaw, the roll.

At 12:02, program alarm goes off.

Then at 12:01, it means the computers are overloaded.

The alarms trigger five separate times.

And now they realize they're way off course.

They're headed into a large crater and a boulder field.

Neil takes the stick.

He's moving forward, trying to find a safe landing area.

Mission Control is in disbelief.

He will have to stop the forward motion to make a safe landing.

And in the meantime, he's burning up all the fuel.

Everyone is fighting to make this landing.

- In the lunar module, Buzz Aldrin is calling out data.

- In Mission Control, Gene Kranz is calling out the go/no-go orders.

- Astronaut Charlie Duke is at the CAPCOM, the communications desk.

- And everyone at the support desks is at work.

FIDO, Guidance, Retro, Surgeon, and more.

Back at the White House, William Safire is reviewing his moon disaster speech for President Nixon.

The speech starts with these words.

"Fate has ordained that the men who went "to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace."

- 4,300 feet.

- OK, controllers, go/no-go for landing.

Retro.

- Go.

- FIDO.

- Go.

- Guidance.

- Go.

- Control.

- Go.

- Telecom.

- Go.

- GNC.

- Go.

- EECOM.

- Go.

- "Eagle," you're go for landing.

Over.

- These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, know there is no hope for their recovery.

- Altitude, 3,000 feet.

Go for landing.

- Manual control is good.

- Copy.

- Program alarm, 12:01.

- 12:01.

- Roger 12:01 alarm.

- Same type.

We're go, flight.

- OK, we're go.

- We're go.

Same type as before.

Over.

- These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal, the search for truth and understanding.

- 2,000 feet.

2,000 feet, 47 degrees.

- Roger.

- How is our margin, Rob?

- It looks OK.

We got 4 and 1/2.

- Altitude, 1,600.

- 12:02 alarm.

- Roger, 12:02 alarm.

We copy it.

- How are you doing, Control?

- We're a go.

- How about you, Telecom?

- Go.

- Guidance, you happy?

- Go.

- FIDO.

- Go.

Over.

- "They will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared to send two of her sons into the unknown."

- 700 feet.

600 feet.

540 feet.

- I think we better be quiet, flight.

- OK, the only call-outs from now on will be fuel.

- 400 feet.

350 feet.

330 feet.

Slow it up.

- "In their exploration, they stirred the people "of the world to feel as one.

"In their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man."

- 300 feet, 58 feet forward.

OK, we're pegged on horizontal velocity.

250 feet, 19 forward.

- OK, Bob, I'll be standing by for your call-out shortly.

- 200 feet, 13 forward.

11 forward.

- Fuel low level.

Fuel low level.

- "In ancient days, man looked at the stars "and saw heroes in the constellations.

"In modern times, we do much the same.

But our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood."

- 120 feet, 9 forward.

Quantity light.

- Fuel, 60 seconds.

- 60 seconds of fuel.

- "Others will follow and surely find their way home.

"Man's search will not be denied.

"But these men were the first, and they will remain foremost in our hearts."

- 40 feet down, picking up some dust.

30 feet, faint shadow.

- Fuel, 30 seconds.

- Fuel, 30 seconds.

- 20 feet, drifting forward.

- Note to President Nixon.

After NASA turns off communications with the lunar module, they will read the Lord's Prayer.

- Contact light OK.

Engine stop.

Descent engine command override off.

Engine arm off.

- We've had shut down.

We copy you down, "Eagle."

[dramatic orchestral music] - Houston, Tranquility Base here.

The "Eagle" has landed.

[applause] - As Mission Control sees it, they had 17 seconds of fuel left in the landing tank.

They land at 4:17 p.m.

Eastern Time.

They spend the next seven hours shutting down the lunar module and suiting up.

Around the world, people are cheering across the globe.

People are getting to their TV sets.

Mankind is about to set foot on the moon.

In New York's Central Park, just a few blocks from right here, large screens are set up, and 10,000 people gather.

There's a natural impulse to be together.

And then, at just about 11:00 p.m., Neil Armstrong starts down the ladder of the lunar module.

- Mrs.

Armstrong, do you have any inkling what he's going to say--he wouldn't tell us-- when he steps out on the moon?

- No, I have no idea what he's going to say.

But whatever he says, I'm sure it will be worthwhile.

- Dave Scott is in Mission Control.

- Nobody knew he would say anything.

I mean, there was no big plan for him to do anything.

And then he came up with the right words, as usual.

- I'm going to step off the LM now.

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

[applause] - Armstrong and Aldrin spend about two and a half hours on the moon.

They plant the American flag.

Next to it is a stainless steel plaque attached to the lunar module that says, "We came in peace for all mankind."

And they set up experiments.

They collect rocks.

What did it feel like?

What did it look like to pick up the first rock from the moon for the first time?

Well, no flag collection is complete without a rock from the moon.

[laughter] So here we have one.

[applause] Then Neil and Buzz head back to the lunar module.

- I really wasn't too concerned about the landing.

I felt Neil could do that, if at all possible.

But, God, you didn't know if that ascent engine was going to fire the next day.

If you listened to the TV, as I did later that evening, the drama was on the landing.

Well, forget the landing.

Are they going to be able to get off of there?

- Now, back inside the lunar module, covered head to toe with lunar dust, Neil and Buzz realize they have a serious problem.

The ignition switch that lights the engines for the return trip home has broken off completely.

- No one ever thought of this.

Good luck taking that control panel apart.

Hours and hours go by.

By the next morning, they have been on the surface for almost 21 hours.

They told me the lunar module is designed for about 48 hours of oxygen.

- There is still no solution from Mission Control.

So Aldrin, always the more impulsive of the two, takes matters into his own hands.

He jams a pen, a felt tip pen made by the Douro Pen Company of Brooklyn, New York, into the opening where the switch once sat.

And that is how a little pen company from Brooklyn gets Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin off the surface of the moon.

Never count out Brooklyn!

[applause] And this... [chuckles] This is one of those pens.

It was carried and used by Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean when he walked on the surface of the moon four months later.

The crew of Apollo 11 makes it home safely.

There's a ticker tape parade to end all ticker tape parades.

- We did New York, Chicago, and L.A.

all in one day.

There were thousands and thousands of people and people from windows above and apartments and so on.

It was like nothing I'd ever seen before in my life or had ever done before in my life.

This was the beginning.

This was the beginning of it all.

It would grow to bother him to no end.

He wanted to just move on.

Move on.

That could not happen.

There was nothing you could do.

- Neil's only escape is flying again, especially in gliders-- no engines, no rockets, just wind.

Neil's son Mark writes a song about it, and his granddaughter Kali performs it.

And both of them are here with us tonight.

[applause] [playing "Flight of Fancy"] - ♪ I float among the clouds ♪ ♪ This old Earth can't hold me down ♪ ♪ And my troubles, they are far, far below ♪ ♪ Up here there are no bounds ♪ ♪ And up here there are no crowds ♪ ♪ And I'm going to soar ♪ ♪ As long as I can go ♪ ♪ Gliding on the air ♪ ♪ Riding where the eagles dare ♪ ♪ ♪ [together] ♪ It's a flight of fancy ♪ ♪ I'm exactly where ♪ ♪ I want to be ♪ ♪ It's a flight of fancy ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ - After Apollo 11, Neil talks less about the moon and more about the Earth, about saving the planet.

♪ ♪ - ♪ Down there, I feel the stress ♪ ♪ The work, the bills, the relentless press ♪ [together] ♪ The weight of things ♪ ♪ It just loads up on me ♪ ♪ But up here above the birds ♪ ♪ There's a rare absence of words ♪ ♪ It's a peacefulness that's perfectly unique ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ There's a job to do, I know ♪ ♪ Responsibilities down below ♪ ♪ But right here, right now, all there is is flight ♪ ♪ Soon the sun will be sinking down ♪ ♪ And I hope to turn around ♪ ♪ And head back in ♪ ♪ Before I lose the light ♪ [together] ♪ Listen up ♪ ♪ Hear the hush of the rushing wind ♪ ♪ Feel it lift you up again ♪ ♪ Choose your path ♪ - Neil dies in 2012 at the age of 82.

And in accord with his instructions, his ashes are buried at sea.

There's no monument, no grand procession, no TV coverage.

From his perspective, it was never about him.

This is my favorite record of Neil Armstrong.

This is an EKG recording taken of Neil's heartbeat when he stepped on the moon, the first human heartbeat on another planetary body.

It's a willingness of the heart.

♪ ♪ [together] ♪ It's a flight of fancy ♪ ♪ I'm exactly where I want to be ♪ ♪ It's a flight of fancy ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ It's a flight of fancy ♪ ♪ I'm exactly where I want to be ♪ ♪ Oh, it's a flight of fancy ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ ♪ [applause] - Tonight, to honor his father, Mark has brought Neil's burial flag.

And as Kali holds her grandfather's flag, I can only say thank you both for the sacrifices that your family made for our country.

[applause] Between 1969 and 1972, there are six landings on the moon, seven attempts.

The astronauts bring small flags with them.

They carry them to the moon and back.

Buzz carries this flag on Apollo 11.

Alan Bean carries this flag on Apollo 12.

This flag is on the ill-fated Apollo 13.

Poppy Northcutt is in Mission Control, helping them get home, and she is now part of history.

- Why do you like your work?

- Well, I like it partly because I feel like I'm participating in something that's going to be part of history.

And I have a great deal of interest in history.

And I think that the space program will be marked as one of the most significant things that occurred in the 20th century.

- And you want to be a part of that?

- Very much.

- And tonight, as a representative of all those heroes in Mission Control, Poppy Northcutt is here with us.

Poppy, would you please stand?

[cheers and applause] This flag is on Apollo 14.

On this flight, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, finally makes it to the moon.

Al Worden carries this flag on Apollo 15.

Worden and Dave Scott leave a memorial on the moon to the astronauts, Soviet and American, that died in the effort to get there, including Grissom, White, and Chaffee.

Charlie Duke carries this flag on Apollo 16.

And Gene Cernan carries this flag... [gentle orchestral music] This flag on Apollo 17.

This flag is in the capsule on top of that rocket that I watched lifting off as a 14-year-old kid.

But we do not stop with the moon in 1972.

[playing "Life on Mars"] - ♪ It's a god-awful small affair ♪ ♪ To the girl with the mousy hair ♪ ♪ But her mommy is yelling no ♪ ♪ And her daddy has told her to go ♪ ♪ But her friend is nowhere to be seen ♪ ♪ Now she walks through a sunken dream ♪ ♪ To the seats with the clearest view ♪ ♪ And she's hooked to the silver screen ♪ - In 1976, we land a craft on Mars that sends home pictures.

- In the 80s, the 90s, and the early 2000s, the Space Shuttle rolls out mission after mission.

Along with it will come the Hubble Telescope and the International Space Station.

Competition turns to cooperation as Russia and the United States and other countries work together in space.

♪ ♪ - ♪ But the film is a saddening bore ♪ ♪ For she's lived it 10 times or more ♪ ♪ She could spit in the eyes of fools ♪ ♪ As they ask her to focus on sailors ♪ ♪ Fighting in the dance hall ♪ ♪ Oh, man, look at those cavemen go ♪ ♪ It's the freakiest show ♪ - In 1986, perhaps no shuttle astronaut captures the imagination of Americans better than Christa McAuliffe.

She's a school teacher from Concord, New Hampshire.

When she is selected to be in a Space Shuttle flight, kids across the country fall in love with her.

And they are all watching in 1986 when the Space Shuttle "Challenger" leaves the Earth, never to come back again.

It breaks apart at 1 minute and 13 seconds.

- Our hearts break again when the "Columbia" shuttle returns from its 28th mission in 2003.

The heat shield fails upon re-entry.

♪ ♪ - ♪ Take a look at the lawman ♪ ♪ Beating up the wrong guy ♪ ♪ Oh, man, wonder if he'll ever know ♪ ♪ He's in the best-selling show ♪ ♪ Is there life on ♪ ♪ Mars?

♪ - In 2012, a satellite, Voyager 1, actually leaves the solar system with a gold record on board called "The Sounds of Earth."

Carl Sagan creates the record, curates the sounds.

As far as we know, John's speech from his graduation is not included.

[laughter] - In the years that follow, most of the hard work in space is done on space stations, the Soviet Salyut, Skylab, Mir, the International Space Station, and China's Tiangong.

- But this year, that changed.

As I stand here tonight, the crew of the Artemis II mission has looped around the moon and is on its way home.

[applause] And in 2028, the Artemis program will attempt to put astronauts on the moon again as a stepping stone to Mars.

♪ ♪ - ♪ But the film is a saddening bore ♪ ♪ 'Cause I wrote it ten times or more ♪ ♪ It's about to be writ again ♪ ♪ As I ask you to focus on sailors ♪ ♪ Fighting in the dance hall ♪ ♪ Oh, man, look at those cavemen go ♪ ♪ It's the freakiest show ♪ ♪ Take a look at the lawman beating up the wrong guy ♪ ♪ Oh, man, wonder if he'll ever know ♪ ♪ He's in the best-selling show ♪ ♪ Is there life on ♪ Mars?

♪ ♪ ♪ [applause] - The United States now marks 250 years.

[gentle orchestral music] We are a young country.

250 years from now, which events will be on a school kid's history timeline?

I cannot tell you which milestones will stand the test of time.

But I'll bet you good money that July 20th, 1969, will be there.

And I do know this.

The United States will never be content to sit on the launch pad.

I believe we will go to other planetary bodies on our own and jointly with others.

And when we get there, should I live to see any of it, I will not forget my father, with his hand on my shoulder, as we stood there on that railroad overpass in 1972, watching our country, watching the United States reach for the stars.

[playing "Rocket Man"] - ♪ She packed my bags last night ♪ ♪ Preflight ♪ ♪ Zero hour, 9:00 a.m.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And I'm going to be high ♪ ♪ As a kite by then ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I miss the Earth so much ♪ ♪ I miss my wife ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ It's lonely out in space ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ On such a timeless flight ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Mmm ♪ ♪ And I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ Till touchdown down brings me round again to find ♪ ♪ I'm not the man they think I am at home ♪ ♪ Oh, no, no, no ♪ ♪ I'm a rocket man ♪ ♪ Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ And I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ Till touchdown down brings me round again to find ♪ ♪ I'm not the man they think I am at home ♪ ♪ Oh, no, no, no ♪ ♪ I'm a rocket man ♪ ♪ Rocket man ♪ ♪ Burning out his fuse up here alone ♪ ♪ ♪ - ♪ Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids ♪ ♪ ♪ - ♪ In fact, it's cold as hell ♪ ♪ ♪ - ♪ And there's no one there to raise them if you did ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And all the science I don't understand ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ It's just my job five days a week ♪ ♪ ♪ [together] ♪ Rocket man ♪ - ♪ Rocket man ♪ ♪ ♪ - ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ And I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ Till touchdown down brings me round again to find ♪ ♪ I'm not the man they think I am at home ♪ ♪ Oh, no, no, no ♪ ♪ I'm a rocket man ♪ ♪ Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ Till touchdown down brings me round again to find ♪ ♪ I'm not the man they think I am at home ♪ ♪ Oh, no, no, no ♪ ♪ I'm a rocket man ♪ ♪ Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ ♪ [together] ♪ And I think it's gonna be ♪ ♪ A long, long time ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ And I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ And I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ And I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ And I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ - [echoing] ♪ A long, long time ♪ ♪ I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ I think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ [cheers and applause]