When We Left Earth_2of6_Friends and Rivals
Transcript
00:00In 1969, a group of astronauts changed the world.
00:13They ride the biggest rocket ever built to the moon.
00:20It's the culmination of more than 10 years of space pioneering and the foundation for
00:27more than four decades of exploring worlds beyond our own.
00:34This is the story of our greatest adventure.
00:47I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is
00:52out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.
00:58America has a new president and a seemingly impossible challenge.
01:10This president must be crazy.
01:12How can we possibly do that in nine years?
01:15We had had a total of 20 minutes manned space flight experience.
01:20I was just amazed at the courage of it and almost the arrogance that we could do something
01:28like that.
01:34The Mercury missions proved man can fly in space.
01:38In Project Gemini, they'll learn how to fly to the moon.
01:49The flights to the moon were going to take 10 days.
01:52We had to learn how to work during that whole period.
01:58We had to learn how to live in space.
02:00Could they operate all right in zero gravity?
02:04You know, how do we even get to the moon?
02:09Gemini missions will carry two men, something NASA has never attempted.
02:19September 17, 1962, NASA announces a second group of astronauts.
02:26They call themselves the New Nine.
02:28There are nine of us, four from the Air Force, three from the Navy and two civilians.
02:35And they were a really good group of people.
02:42Great bunch of guys.
02:43I liked all of them.
02:44We really had a great group.
02:48Many of America's most famous astronauts start out in Project Gemini.
02:54Jim Lovell, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.
03:01Ten Gemini missions are planned, each more challenging and more dangerous than the last.
03:07Throughout this entire process, the risk was constantly escalating on each one of these
03:12missions.
03:15So is the competition among the astronauts.
03:18At stake, the ultimate prize, to be the first man on the moon.
03:24We were all extremely competitive.
03:26And so from a competition standpoint, I mean, we were right in there all the time, you know.
03:33I was bulletproof, invincible.
03:35You know, there's nothing I couldn't do.
03:37Just give me a shot.
03:38Don't tell me I can't do it because I can do it.
03:41To do what we do, you have to be a little arrogant.
03:45NASA announces the crew for America's first two-man flight into space.
03:51Rookie astronaut John Young.
03:54My wife didn't want me to fly.
03:56She thought I'd get killed.
03:59I didn't think of it.
04:03Flying in space next to Young, Project Mercury veteran Gus Grissom.
04:12My friend, he's a great guy, very, very great guy.
04:17He and I first spent time together when we were doing survival training down in Panama.
04:28John Young and Gus Grissom, two of the most perfectly paired crew members that I've ever
04:34seen.
04:35They seemed to have a zest for space.
04:37They were kids at heart.
04:38It's almost like they were going off on a joyride there.
04:51To lift the new two-man capsule into space, NASA needs a more powerful rocket.
05:02The Air Force is developing a new Titan missile, but adapting it for Gemini missions won't
05:09be easy.
05:15One out of every five Titans fails.
05:19An 80% success rate isn't good enough if men are going to ride it into space.
05:42Well, it wasn't very, it wasn't perfect.
05:44A rocket is like a controlled explosion that is looking for any weakness that it can find
05:56to get out.
05:58I remember sitting, watching TV with my mother and father one day when they were going to
06:08show a live launch down at the Cape, and the thing just barely got off the pad when it
06:12blew up.
06:13Of course, that wasn't exactly a confidence builder for my mother and dad.
06:27Engineers check and recheck every part and install redundant systems throughout the rocket
06:33to make it more reliable.
06:37Training simulates every phase of a mission.
06:41You couldn't just go in there and get in a spacecraft and do it.
06:46Whatever you got assigned to do, you did your darnedest to do it right.
06:53Finally, NASA launches two rockets that don't explode.
06:58Gus Grissom and John Young ride the next Titan missile into space.
07:12Gemini 3's mission objectives, test drive the new rocket and capsule and return to Earth alive.
07:22Thousands of people across the country, various places, they're all going through this
07:26building of the excitement heading towards the launch and this examination of conscience
07:31as to whether all that should be done has been done and nothing has been forgotten.
07:38It's almost like the force is with you.
07:45Stage 2 pre-bell is coming open, five seconds.
07:51T-minus 20 seconds, mark.
07:56We were all kind of holding our breath to make sure they got up there
07:59and did all the things they were supposed to do.
08:02It was white-knuckle time in mission control.
08:08Anything goes wrong and Grissom and Young will be killed,
08:12with millions of people watching, live.
08:16Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four.
08:22You think about your procedures that you're going to run.
08:26Frightened? Never thought about it.
08:29Two, one.
08:33Ignition.
08:35Ignition.
08:44Liftoff.
08:48Liftoff.
09:00Liftoff.
09:05We got a roll program.
09:07Roger roll.
09:10Good liftoff.
09:13It was a pretty good launch. It was a Titan launch, so, you know,
09:16it had quite a few Gs going into orbit.
09:20Piece of cake.
09:24It was as close as we could get to perfection.
09:28The launch went perfectly, the spacecraft performed admirably.
09:33It went swimmingly.
09:37Grissom and Young ride a converted ballistic missile.
09:42For the first time, two Americans fly together in space.
09:48They practice changing altitude and orbit,
09:51critical maneuvers on a trip to the Moon.
09:59Waiting for the capsule in the Atlantic,
10:02a recovery task force.
10:0627 ships, 126 aircraft.
10:13And we screwed up on re-entry.
10:20When we fired the retrorockets,
10:23we forgot that the Earth rotated under us.
10:26We forgot to put the rotation of the Earth into the equation.
10:31As a result, Gemini 3 splashes down off target.
10:39We were short. We were 60 miles short.
10:42We were, when we started, we were 190 miles short
10:45and got us made out about 60 miles of it.
10:51After three orbits of the Earth,
10:53waiting to be rescued is the worst part of the mission for Gus Grissom.
10:58He was a little seasick, you know.
11:01I was an old Navy guy, so I meant nothing.
11:04I'd been on a destroyer for a year, so nothing made me seasick.
11:08Crowds filled Lower Manhattan,
11:35Crowds fill lower Manhattan to welcome their heroes home.
11:41It was raining and snowing and we're sitting there in an open car.
11:47I, as an old Texas boy, I don't think being in the snow is much fun, but that's what we did.
11:58NASA has less than five years to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
12:04Every Gemini mission will test a critical procedure in the flight plan to get there.
12:10The next big challenge is walking in space, an extravehicular activity, or EVA.
12:19EVA was a key element that had to be accomplished successfully before we could go onto the moon.
12:28We had to learn about what it's like to get out of a spacecraft,
12:31whether it's floating around the Earth or whether it's walking on a moon.
12:34We had to learn how to live in space.
12:38The biggest unknown, how effective the human body can be when weightless.
12:45NASA engineers devise a way to cheat gravity.
12:52It's called the vomit cop, a specially modified plane that flies in huge arcs.
13:03As it climbs steeply and drops, the astronauts experience up to 30 seconds of weightlessness.
13:12So far, astronauts have been strapped to the seat.
13:18Nobody knows what will happen when they try to move around.
13:25We could push off from the back end and actually swim all the way through the length of the airplane.
13:33We took things up to test and I enjoyed that particular area of training, the vomit comet.
13:42A lot of people got sick doing that.
13:44It's sort of like seasickness squared.
13:50I really didn't look forward to going into the vehicle again.
13:53I said, I don't need that vehicle.
13:58Zero gravity is only one problem.
14:01There are other dangers waiting outside the capsule.
14:13How would man react to being in orbit at 17,300 miles an hour?
14:30Would he get vertigo?
14:32Would he become extremely afraid?
14:35Would he be extremely uncomfortable out there?
14:38Would he be able to work out there?
14:42These were the unknowns.
14:45The spacesuit is the astronauts' last line of defense against the extreme conditions in space.
14:54You'd be 250 degrees plus on the sunny side and once the spacecraft rotated
15:00and you were in the shade that you're minus 250 degrees.
15:03Well, the suit had to be designed to work in that kind of environment.
15:10Space is a vacuum.
15:14If the flight suit fails or even tears a little,
15:18the difference in pressure would cause the astronaut's blood to boil, killing him instantly.
15:26The suit was designed to keep us alive.
15:29It was risky and we accepted the risk.
15:32We become astronauts to play it safe.
15:40NASA's plan, fly two more missions, building to an EVA on Gemini 6.
15:48But nobody at NASA knows a Soviet cosmonaut has already walked in space.
15:55It shocked a lot of people.
15:57It caught us totally unexpected and, you know, we were just barely flying in space in our own little capsules.
16:05They weren't even big enough to be called spaceships.
16:09The news changes everything.
16:12And then I was going to have to work my ass off to get it done on the next flight.
16:17I was called over to Chris Kraft and basically he told me
16:22that the NASA administration had decided we're going to try to conduct an EVA.
16:27But then he said, but I want you to do it in secret.
16:31Okay, stand by for final status check.
16:33The Soviets were still beating us every step of the way
16:37and they didn't want to advertise we were going to do something
16:40unless they were absolutely sure that we were capable of accomplishing it.
16:48Who gets the job is rookie astronaut Ed White.
16:56White will be the first American to leave the capsule and walk in space.
17:04Ed White was, you know, if we had a Boy Scout in the space program,
17:08I think Ed White epitomized what a Boy Scout really is.
17:12He was a good-looking young man.
17:14He was very athletic, very intelligent, smart, had a passion for what he was doing.
17:22Ed White was probably what everyone thought an astronaut should be.
17:30White's partner on Gemini 4 is Jim McDivitt.
17:34At NASA, they're known as the Gemini twins.
17:38I knew Ed White for a long time.
17:40We had gone to University of Michigan together.
17:42We lived on the same street.
17:44Our kids knew each other.
17:45We went to the test pilot school in the same class.
17:49Ed and I were very close.
17:51We were extremely close friends.
17:54Gemini 4 will also be America's longest spaceflight yet, four days, 62 orbits.
18:01Putting an EVA into any flight for the first time is a bold step,
18:06but, you know, that was part of the mission.
18:08In those days, we were taking big steps.
18:11You know, it was a risky business.
18:14If Ed White's EVA is successful, it will move the entire space program closer to the moon.
18:22But many think NASA is moving too fast.
18:26A problem on the EVA could keep the U.S. from getting to the moon on Kennedy's schedule.
18:35NASA scrambled around, and they kind of hurriedly, and in my estimation,
18:40without a great deal of safety factor, had Ed go EVA on Gemini 4.
18:46I was not in favor of it.
18:50Even at NASA, few people know Gemini 4 is accelerating America's first spacewalk.
18:57Our EVA was very confidential at the time.
19:01We had not announced we were going to do this,
19:03and we were doing all of our training at night,
19:06and only a group of maybe 30 or 40 people even knew we were going to try it.
19:12NASA announces the first American spacewalk just a few days before the launch of Gemini 4.
19:19The launch time is a very critical time.
19:21Everybody's keyed up.
19:23Everybody's got to do a good job.
19:24The hardware's got to work.
19:26Walking out was, my first thought was, my God, this is just like I saw on television.
19:31But, you know, you've got your mind on other things.
19:34I was probably going over the launch things I had to do,
19:38and, you know, you're not thinking about girls and comic strips.
19:43You know, it's the business.
20:00We have a roll program initiated.
20:05Eight and a half Gs, you're really being pushed into the sea.
20:08And all of a sudden, it stops.
20:11You're floating.
20:13It's a lot of fun.
20:24The crew went through the preparation process.
20:27They reported we were ready.
20:30I had a tracking station make sure that all of the safety criteria had been met.
20:37And this was now okay to open up the hatch.
20:42Okay, we're giving you a go for your EVA at this time.
20:45Okay.
20:48Roger, flight, let's go.
21:00After we got the hatch open, Ed stood up in the seat and got ready to go.
21:05And we cleared him to go, and then he took and pushed off from the seat.
21:12Okay, my feet are out.
21:14I think I'm dragging a little bit, so I don't want to fire the gun yet.
21:18Okay, I'm separating the spacecraft.
21:24Ed White is flying at 17,000 miles per hour, 200 miles above the Earth.
21:32Okay, I'm out.
21:37If the spacesuit fails, the difference in pressure will kill him instantly.
21:42If the lifeline fails, he'll literally be lost in space.
21:50The only thing to do would be to disconnect them and let them float around out there.
21:53I mean, you know, these are things that's in everybody's mind.
21:58We don't have a plan. We don't have a checklist on how you kill your best friend.
22:03As White floats in space, a glove drifts out of the capsule.
22:08Looks like a thermal blast, Jim.
22:11I don't even know whose glove it was. I don't know whether it was his or mine.
22:14I feel like a million dollars.
22:18Today, those pictures are classic.
22:23They're still overpowering today to realize, number one, it's been done, and that we did it.
22:29It blew me away.
22:33This is the greatest experience. It's just tremendous.
22:38Ed White floats in space for 36 minutes, but has to be inside the capsule before day turns to night.
22:46We told him to get back in the spacecraft, and he sort of didn't hear us.
22:50He didn't really want to recognize, okay, that the EVA's over, time to get back in the spacecraft.
22:57He was very reluctant to get back in. He was having a good time out there.
23:01I would have been reluctant to get back in, too.
23:05Jim, this is Jim. Do you have any memories for us?
23:11The flight director says get back in.
23:13Okay.
23:15I told him to get the hell back in the spacecraft because he was staying out too long.
23:18He was going to be out in the dark.
23:20That's the only time I've ever spoken without being spoken to into space.
23:27The EVA is NASA's riskiest mission yet, and a critical part of any flight to the moon.
23:35You don't have to burn me now, but that's where it looks great.
23:41Ed White's spacewalk will always be one of the genuine highlights of the space program.
23:48Gemini 4 propels the spacecraft forward.
23:53will always be one of the genuine highlights of the space program.
24:17After the first U.S. spacewalk, Project Gemini tackles one of the most difficult procedures
24:36in the flight plan to the moon.
24:38Probes show it's possible to land on the lunar surface, but the moonwalkers will need
24:43to fly the lunar lander back to their orbiting capsule for the voyage home.
24:50It's called rendezvous.
24:53It will demand the most precise flying of any mission yet.
24:59Astronauts for Gemini 7 are Commander Frank Borman and Pilot Jim Lovell.
25:05One of the things that we had to test out in Gemini was the ability to rendezvous with
25:10another vehicle.
25:12They would start talking about using Gemini 7 as a target for Gemini 6.
25:20Two spacecraft, Gemini 6 and 7, must find each other in orbit and fly just inches apart.
25:31And in order to do that, we would have to have two Titans launch, one right after the
25:38other, on time.
25:42And we said, OK, we'll give it a try.
25:45Rendezvous was absolutely critical.
25:47It involved a whole lot of work, and nobody had done it before.
25:51The main thing that I think everyone that was associated with any mission wanted to
25:55do was to do it well.
25:56Four, three, two, one, zero.
25:57Ignition.
25:58Engines start.
25:59We have a liftoff.
26:01The Gemini 7 blasts off first.
26:07We're on our way, Frank.
26:14Roger, stage in.
26:20We have a liftoff.
26:27Roger, stage in.
26:35Roger, stage in.
26:43Rocket engines blasting off cause massive destruction.
26:51NASA crews have to rebuild the launch pad for Gemini 6 in just three days, a job that
26:56usually takes weeks.
27:00You can tell him that the pad preparation schedule is going very well.
27:04The pad preparation schedule for Gemini 6 is going real well.
27:10Gemini 6 rolls out to the pad as Gemini 7 waits in space.
27:20Horman and Lovell will spend 14 days in orbit, America's longest mission, to study the effects
27:26of long-term weightlessness.
27:29The maximum time to go to the moon would be about two weeks.
27:32A lot of the medical community said that there might be some body functions that don't perform.
27:39Nobody had done that to that date.
27:41And so I launched with probes in my head.
27:45They even wanted to put a probe in an artery.
27:47I drew the line on that and told them, no, I didn't think we'd do that this time.
27:53As NASA prepares to launch Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford in Gemini 6, another test rocket
27:59is fired in the direction of Gemini 7.
28:09We did that because the Defense Department was interested in tracking Soviet missiles.
28:18Horman and Lovell test military technology to track a missile from space.
28:24Every rocket has a signature that you can tell one rocket from a different type of a vehicle.
28:30And we had a device on board that was able to take that signature.
28:36It's kind of a little bit of apprehension to see this thing come towards you.
28:51Back on the ground, Pad 19 is ready to launch Gemini 6.
28:57The word from the Cape is, we are go.
29:02The prime pilots for the Gemini 6 flight, Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford,
29:06are now on their way to Launch Complex 19 to board their spacecraft.
29:16T-minus 48 and all still going well with our Gemini 6 countdown here at Launch Complex 19.
29:29We will have ignition at zero and some three seconds after ignition,
29:33the launch vehicle will lift off on the start of the Gemini 6 flight.
29:40We've gone through a complete checklist once again and we are counting.
29:50We're cleared for takeoff.
29:53T-minus 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Ignition.
30:02Shutdown, Gemini 6.
30:05Fuel pressure is lowering slowly.
30:07Roger, Gemini 6, we're going to take pressures.
30:11Oxidizer pressure is down to about 32.
30:14The faulty valve causes the engine to shut down just seconds before the rocket would have exploded.
30:22Okay, we're just sitting here breathing.
30:26Here's two guys up there going through this trauma.
30:30We put the Titan on the pad and start the engine and the damn thing shut down.
30:38Stafford and Schirra are lucky to walk away.
30:44Gemini 7, Houston, we were wondering if you saw the ignition at the Cape.
30:50We were in perfect position but we never saw the ignition.
30:53We were waiting for the liftoff.
30:56With Gemini 7 waiting in space, Gemini 6 has the smallest launch window of any NASA flight.
31:11And within three days we fixed that issue and fixed that problem and launched again.
31:17Gemini 6, you are go.
31:21You hear the man, go.
31:23Go.
31:24Three, two, one.
31:28Ignition.
31:33We've got a real liftoff.
31:39The clock is running.
31:42Roll complete.
31:44Roger roll.
31:45Cabin pressure sealed at 5.5.
31:48Fifty seconds.
31:49Okay, their orbit is 87 by 140.
31:54From a lower orbit, Gemini 6 is catching up to Gemini 7.
32:00How are the 7 boys doing? Did they go over a while ago?
32:03They sure did. They're about five minutes ahead of you.
32:07Roger.
32:08But when Gemini 6 came up to rendezvous and we saw them coming up from below...
32:14Hey, I think I've got it.
32:18Is that Spacecraft 7?
32:22There's nothing more the ground crew can do.
32:26The pilots are now in complete control.
32:31Break at .48 nautical miles.
32:35Six hundred and sixty feet.
32:40We could have bumped each other.
32:42One of the things we wanted to make sure was could you slow down?
32:46We didn't want to have a device where we misjudged our velocities and then slammed into each other.
32:58Three hundred feet.
32:59It was still dark out, but we could see the jets firing from Gemini 6.
33:04One hundred and eighty feet.
33:06If you're going 17,000 miles an hour, you're 200 miles up.
33:12The two capsules are attempting to fly in formation just inches apart.
33:20No two spacecraft have ever been this close.
33:27Ask them what their range is now.
33:30About 20 feet.
33:36We're in formation with 7. Everything is go here.
33:40Roger. Congratulations. Excellent.
33:42Thank you. It was a lot of fun.
33:47We just came up and stopped and there we were together.
33:51You know, nose to nose, side to side.
33:53It was a really fine sight.
33:56We could see through the windows. We could see Tom and Wally quite well.
34:00This is 6. You can hold it in the yaw for just a little while.
34:04We'll try to get in real close and try to get all those close shots.
34:08The two pilots fly their capsules in tight formation for 270 minutes, three orbits of the Earth.
34:17The control system on Gemini was so good that you could fly within six inches of one another without bothering anything.
34:28The rendezvous demonstrates how far the space program has come in just four years.
34:36And then it's over.
34:41Gemini 6 fires its thrusters and heads home.
34:48Lovell and Borman are alone in space again.
34:52Their new task, complete the two-week mission, proving astronauts can survive a trip to the moon.
34:59Tom and Wally spent a total of 19 hours in space.
35:03I would have gladly traded rides with them at that point.
35:07By the time they left, the interior of Gemini 7 was beginning to be, you know, the odors were starting to float around.
35:14And nine days had gone by before Frank looked at me and said, Jim, I think this is it.
35:20I said, I've got to go.
35:22I said, can't you wait five more days?
35:26The last three days were bad.
35:30It's NASA's longest mission in space, more than enough time for a round-trip flight to the moon.
35:43Fortunately, Jim Lovell kept his wonderful sense of humor up and it was no problem, no problem at all.
35:55We were very happy when we got back down on the carrier.
35:59Gemini 7 flies nearly six million miles in 14 days.
36:04In those two weeks, the sun rises and sets on Lovell and Borman more than 400 times.
36:11It was very difficult to walk.
36:13My legs hadn't been used for two weeks.
36:16And I actually had to command my legs, left, right, left, right, to walk down the deck of the carrier.
36:27We learned one hell of a lot about how to do rendezvous.
36:40With each Gemini flight, NASA acquires another skill necessary to reach the moon.
36:49One last critical maneuver remains, docking, two craft linking together in space.
36:58The first crew to attempt it are Dave Scott and Commander Neil Armstrong.
37:07Rendezvous, docking and operating combined spacecraft was a key element of the Apollo strategy.
37:20What proved that ability on Gemini 8?
37:37Armstrong will rendezvous and dock their capsule with an unmanned Agena target vehicle 160 miles above the Earth.
37:47Houston, this is Gemini 8. We're station keeping on the Agena at about 150 feet.
37:56Okay, Gemini 8, everything looks good from the docking.
38:00There was a lot of opportunity for things to go wrong and make the approach or the docking a dicey situation.
38:10Flight, we are down.
38:12Roger, this is real good.
38:16After a successful docking, the combination began a slow roll.
38:23The roll rate became uncomfortably high.
38:26We were unable to determine the cause of the problem.
38:39We disconnected our spacecraft from the Agena.
38:43The roll rate continued to accelerate.
38:46A thruster is stuck, spinning the capsule out of control.
38:51Our orbit was primarily over ocean areas, out of range of flight controllers at tracking stations.
39:00We were on our own.
39:07When the roll rate increased to more than 400 degrees per second, our vision was beginning to degrade.
39:17To regain control, Armstrong counters with a different set of rockets.
39:22Neil Armstrong had to power up the reentry control system in the Gemini spacecraft.
39:36Unfortunately, that solved the problem.
39:39Armstrong steadies the spacecraft, but burns fuel he needs for reentry, triggering an immediate abort of the mission.
39:49They have to settle for a backup landing site, far from recovery efforts already deployed in the Atlantic.
39:57We were obliged to land at the next closest landing area, which was near the Pacific island of Okinawa.
40:05That remains as the record for the furthest distance from the original planned landing site.
40:12Gemini 8 accomplishes its primary mission objective.
40:16The secondary objective, an extended EVA, is handed off to Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan on Gemini 9.
40:26We were on a fast track to get to Apollo.
40:29We were flying a Gemini flight every six weeks.
40:34There are four Gemini missions left.
40:37The moon now seems within reach.
40:43Things changed when we got to Gemini 9.
41:02To get to the moon, astronauts have to learn to work in the vacuum of space.
41:07Engineers scramble to devise new training techniques, but nobody really knows what working in weightlessness will be like.
41:16Gemini 9 will attempt the longest spacewalk yet.
41:20We only had 20 minutes of spaceflight experience, and it was Ed White.
41:24Went out with a little gun, was able to propel himself around space and get back in without a great deal of difficulty.
41:31He gave us a sense of, well, it looked kind of easy, frankly.
41:34We had a fairly complicated set of things to do on Gemini 9.
41:40This is only our second walk in space, and we know very little about what we're going to encounter.
41:45This is a dangerous mission.
41:51Gene Cernan has a lot of work to do on NASA's most ambitious spacewalk.
41:57Gemini 9 was my first flight.
41:59I would have done anything I was asked to do.
42:04I knew I was good enough to do it.
42:13We opened a hatch.
42:15Tom Stanford held my feet down so I wouldn't just float out.
42:21And I just got the top half of my body out.
42:24I stuck my head out into truly a different world, if you will.
42:35And then my job was to crawl hand over hand to get back to the back of the spacecraft.
42:42Cernan has to flight test a new jetpack mounted in the rear of the capsule.
42:47But just getting there is hard work.
42:51I had nothing really to hold on to except a couple handlebars.
42:57The vacuum of space offers no resistance.
43:00Even simple tasks are a massive struggle.
43:04You're the most helpless creature in the world.
43:07On the end of a string floating in zero gravity in space.
43:14Suddenly realizing my visor was getting fogged up.
43:18My visor fogged up. Here he was in effect blind.
43:26It was obvious that he was in trouble.
43:28And he was struggling like the devil to hold his location.
43:33My heart rate was running 140, 50, 60 at times.
43:37170.
43:42It was scary to us because you could hear this labored breathing.
43:4620 percent past your max heart rate.
43:53Doctors at Mission Control are seriously concerned he'll lose consciousness and not make it back to the capsule.
44:00I couldn't determine the degree of the difficulties that he was in up there.
44:09Cernan finally gets to the jetpack and straps it on.
44:13But he's too exhausted to fly.
44:17It was time to basically call the EVA off.
44:24It was a nightmare getting back in the spacecraft.
44:32The EVA is a failure.
44:35A physically fit astronaut can't work in space.
44:38Nobody's going to the moon.
44:42I was disappointed.
44:44I didn't get the job done. I let my colleagues down.
44:49I was disappointed.
44:51I don't think I'd like to do this again, would you?
44:56Two more Gemini missions attempt spacewalks.
45:01Both fail for the same reason.
45:04NASA modifies the spacesuit and training methods.
45:08A rookie astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, will try again on Gemini 12.
45:14Buzz Aldrin was the perfect guy for that EVA because he approached it in almost a textbook fashion.
45:21An avid deep-sea diver, Aldrin practices for the next EVA underwater to simulate a weightless environment.
45:31It was just a very natural thing to maneuver slowly from one position to another.
45:41The tools, the techniques, the training, he made sure they got all put together
45:46in this new environment of neutral buoyancy training.
45:50He trained in there. He'd come back up.
45:52He'd say what he had learned, what needed to be done differently.
45:55You had the divers. You had the instructors watching this thing.
45:58And all of a sudden, these things made sense to us.
46:04I had sufficiently rehearsed the different parts of it so that I felt quite confident
46:12that everything I had to do would leave me in a very positive control condition.
46:19NASA has one more chance to get it right.
46:25Aldrin's first mission will be Gemini's last.
46:42Aldrin conducts three EVAs. He spends more than five hours walking in space.
46:55Buzz learned not to fight zero gravity, but to use zero gravity to his advantage.
47:05I actually felt a little guilty about doing such simple tasks in the back of the spacecraft.
47:18He never got overheated. His heart rate never went up.
47:24Because he learned to take it easy. He had the proper tools. He had the proper footholds.
47:30And we learned a lot about how we could proceed in the future.
47:41From that day on through to the current day,
47:44we have never had a major problem associated with the conduct of an EVA.
47:50Project Gemini ends in triumph. The stage is set for our greatest adventure.
47:57Gemini was an unsung hero in terms of the readiness of the American space program
48:05to go do Apollo in many, many ways.
48:10We had learned the new technologies of space.
48:14We had learned to work with computers. We had learned to navigate. We had learned to dock.
48:20Perhaps the most important way was to create the team of people,
48:25the band of brothers, that were ready to go to Apollo when the time came.
48:45By the time we finished Gemini program, and we had a solid foundation in technology,
48:51we had the solid foundation in the team,
48:54and we had the confidence to use the team and the technology now to take the step, go to the Moon.