Approaching the 50th anniversary of NASA’s most audacious achievement to be the first to land a man on the moon, HISTORY’s new one-hour documentary “Moon Landing: The Lost Tapes” tells the incredible true story of mankind’s greatest leap.
Comprised almost exclusively of previously unreleased historical footage, “Moon Landing: The Lost Tapes” presents a fine, albeit brief retrospective highlighting the drama associated with humanity’s first visit to its companion satellite. Fifty years later, those that may not remember or were not yet born can now revisit the events from an entirely fresh perspective. This new one-hour documentary tells the incredible true story of mankind’s greatest leap, unveiling the timeline of events and enormous challenges by the country’s recently formed space agency as it vies to reach the moon’s surface before the Russians.
With full knowledge that the reputation of the United States lay on their shoulders, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins undertake a seemingly impossible task. Rare tape recordings – many never heard on television before – were made by the astronauts themselves for Life Magazine before and after the mission.
The specter of possible death loomed not far from the minds of the Apollo 11 crew. Only two years earlier on July 27, 1967, Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee died during a training exercise because of fire in the command module. Photos taken before and after the disaster offer a chilling reminder of the perils of space travel – even during ground testing.
In retrospect, everyone knows how the story turned out. Nonetheless, the tension associated with this fresh footage is palpable. The astronauts viewed the importance of the mission as more critical than the issue of safety. Command module pilot Michael Collins describes the tenuous chain of events necessary for a successful mission and remained understandably skeptical about their prospects. Yet, in a pre-launch news conference on July 14th between astronauts and reporters, the three men appear calm and collected.
Departing on July 16, 1969, at Cape Kennedy in Florida, nearly one million people gathered around the launch site to witness the blastoff. Given the massive size of the Saturn V rocket – packing chemical energy equivalent to a small atomic bomb – NASA kept crowds three-and-a-half miles away in case of an explosion.
Bits of trivia mix into the voiceover as pre-launch activities segue into the nine-day mission – three days up to and then back from to the moon, with another three days orbiting and exploring the surface. On July 20th, 1969, the moon landing occurred only 25 seconds before depleting the lunar module’s fuel supplies.
Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar pilot Buzz Aldrin went down in history as the first two men to step foot on the moon. Even at that point, Michael Collins, who remained in the command module named Columbia, prepared for the possibility of returning to earth alone should disaster occur. Despite how far the team had come, the riskiest part of the mission constituted the launch of the lunar module into orbit to reconnect with the command module. Out of necessity, NASA abandoned planning for a rescue mission two years before Apollo 11 lifted off, so there was no backup strategy.
Finally, on Mission Day 9, the command module splashed down southwest of Hawaii on July 24th after fiery reentry into earth’s atmosphere. The space race between the U.S. and Russia was forever transformed because of Apollo 11’s mission. As an interesting side note, the Soviet Union made an attempt to send and retrieve an unmanned probe to the moon in the same timeframe as the Apollo 11 mission but failed due to a crash landing on the lunar surface.
Upon their return, officials quarantined the Apollo 11 crew for 21 days to ensure no harmful spread of alien viruses or microbes into the earth’s atmosphere. In addition to the drama of the event itself, conspiracy theories entered into the mix. For example, up to 20 percent of the U.S. population over the years has believed that NASA faked the moon landings.
Throughout the documentary, harrowing close calls and aborted warning indicators vividly recall the perilous nature of this epochal event. With barely more than slide rules and vacuum tubes, “Moon Landing: The Lost Tapes” reminds audiences of the incredible feats achieved long before the age of ubiquitous technology that surrounds us today in every aspect of life.
“Moon Landing: The Lost Tapes” premieres on the HISTORY Channel, Sunday, July 14th at 10 PM ET/PT
