<i>♪ Music </i>
(Jim Lovell) Spaceflight is so interesting. The rewards
far overshadow the risks.
That was my feeling.
<i>(Launch Countdown)</i> <i>5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 … ignition.</i>
The reason for the mission was that
the maximum time to go to
the Moon and back –
and we were only planning for Apollo –
was two weeks.
<i>(Astronauts in rocket during launch)</i> <i>We’re on our way Frank!</i>
<i>Yep!</i>
(Jim Lovell) So they said,
‘Well if we can put people up
into zero gravity for two weeks
it will prove out one aspect
of the Moon flights.’
<i>♪ Music </i>
(Jim Lovell) When twelve rolled around they said,
‘Let’s devote a lot of time on twelve
to find out how we can really work
outside the spacecraft
to make sure that everything will work.’
And of course, on twelve
Buzz completed three spacewalks –
about five-and-a-half hours, I guess.
<i>♪ Music </i>
<i>(Rocket Engine) </i> <i>We have liftoff.</i>
<i>Liftoff at 7:51 a.m. Eastern.</i>
(Jim Lovell) We were so curious, so excited
about being at the Moon
that we were like three school kids
looking into a candy store window –
watching those ancient old craters go by.
When we determined that we would get
and burn into the lunar orbit
on Christmas Eve, we thought –
boy, we ought to say something.
What can we say?
<i>(Astronauts Read from The Bible)</i> <i>And God called the light ‘day,’</i>
<i>and the darkness he called ‘night.’</i>
<i>And the evening and the morning</i>
<i>were the first day.</i>
You know with riots and assassinations
and a war going on,
I was part of a thing that
finally gave an uplift
to the American people.
That’s why I say Apollo 8
was really the high point
of my space career.
<i>♪ Music </i>
<i>(Apollo 13 call to Mission Control)</i> <i>Uh, Houston we’ve had a problem.</i>
We sent down everything we could
when we had the explosion.
They said, ‘Yeah, we’ve got
a lot of guys working on it down here –
we’ll help you out.
<i>(Mission Control call to Astronauts)</i> <i>Stand by 13, we’re looking at it.</i>
That’s when they started getting that
teamwork together.
That was the whole idea of NASA –
new ideas. What can we do differently?
Perseverance was predominate in the
program at that time –
let’s keep on trying.
<i>♪ Music </i>
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