DAWN OF THE SPACE AGE script July 2007 including all radio communications.

Transcription

1 DAWN OF THE SPACE AGE script July 2007 including all radio communications. 00:49 For centuries humans have dreamed of conquering space and soaring through the heavens and for centuries so it has remained, just a dream. 01:19 But in the twentieth century the phenomanal growth of science and technology created an unprecendented opportunity to make these dreams come true and they did come true, here in the steppes of Kazakhstan when a train from the industrial revolution pushed it successor to its launch pad, a new revolution began the torch had been passed on. 02:36 In the future people will look back on this day as the beginning of a new Era. 02:43 The day mankind learned how to leave the Earth, October the 4th 1957: The Dawn of the Space Age. 03:23 The Soviet Union launched an object named Sputnik, higher and faster then anything else before. It reached such a tremendous speed, that the Earth curved away before gravity could pull it back to the ground. 03:47 Freefalling around the Earth without any rocket power, made Sputnik into Earth's first artificial satellite. Radio amateurs around the world could pick up its signal. Besides beeping it didn't do much. The main thing Sputnik was saying to the World was: I'm here! 04:10 Many people remember seeing Sputnik pass through the night sky. Even though what they really saw was one of its much larger rocketstages trailing along behind. 04:22 Sputnik beeping at the World was a wake up call for the United States. The Soviet Union had taken a technological leap ahead. This blow to American national pride led to the creation of Nasa, a government organisation with a mission to get an American in space as soon as possible. The space race was born. 04:50 Just one month later, the Soviets struck again when they launched another Sputnik. Sputnik 2 was six times heavier, and had a passenger on board: a dog named Laika. Laika was the first living creature to orbit the Earth. Without an Earth re-entry system however she was doomed. Laika only survived several hours in space and died of heath exhaustion. 05:30 Following missions returned space dogs savely to Earth paving the way for the first manned spaceflight.

2 05:38 Little was known of the effects of weightlessness on the human brain, therefore a completely automatic capsule was designed: the Vostok, meaning East. Surprising the World on April the 12th 1961, Vostok 1 carried a man into space. It was the first time anyone had journeyed beyond the Earth's atmosphere and the first time anyone had gone into orbit. The Soviet Union had won the race to space! 06:13 "...the flight is continuing well. I can see the Earth. The visibility is good....i almost see everything. There's a certain amount of space under cumulus cloud cover. I continue the flight, everything is good". 06:44 The cosmonaut inside the Vostok, famous for its smile was: Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. 06:52 "All is working very well. All systems are working. Let's keep going!" "Zarya-1, Zarya-1, I can't hear you very well. I feel fine. I'm in good spirits. I'm continuing the flight..." "The craft is operating normally. I can see Earth in the view port of the Vzor. Everything is proceeding as planned". 07:36 "Zarya-3, Zarya-3 what is my flight path?" "My regards to Blondin" "I feel splendid, very very very well". 07:57 "I'm continuing the flight, and I'm over America. I transmitted the telegraph signal "ON" "I read you well. The flight is going as planned". 08:09 While flying faster then a bullet Yuri's thoughts were with his mother: what would she says when she heard that her son was part of the Soviet space program. 08:25 While still in space, Yuri got promoted from lieutenant to major. The Soviet press agency Tass triumphantly nounced the news of major Yuri Gagarin on the radio, and he became an instant worldwide celebrity. The flight's only mishap, happened right at the end: the Vostok's retro rocket system had trouble seperating from the capsule causing a violent tumble and nearly killing Gagarin. 09:46 His ejection from the capsule by a parachute was kept a secret. 09:50 "Hello! Hello!" "I am a friend! I am a Soviet!" 09:55 By keeping it a secret the flight could now qualify as an official space record. 10:05 After Gagarin's success many more spaceflight records were set with the Vostok and the slightly modified Voshod capsule.

3 10:14 On March the 18th 1965 the Soviet Union pulled off yet another first: an ingenious inflatable airlock allowed cosmonaut Alexei Leonov to leave his Voshod capsule and become the first person ever to walk in space. 10:32 " Diamond-2, we can see you very well, it is time to start your mission". "So the world is really round". "I can see the Kaukasus! I can see from the strait of Gibraltar to the Caspian Sea!!" 11:08 But after twelve minutes it all went horribly wrong. 11:12 "It is time to come back in!" 11:15 Alexei was exhausted and his spacesuit had ballooned in the vacuum of space, he couldn't reenter. Only by venting some air through a valve on the suit was he able to save his life. 11:27 "Where are you? can you hear me? What are you doing?" 11:33 "Gemini-8, you are go for docking" 11:36 From 1957 till 1965 the Soviets had almost always beaten their American counterparts in all space achievements. Sometimes by only a few months, but that was about to change with the brand new Gemini program. Earlier in 1961 U.S. President John F. Kennedy had announced a bold challenge to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Gemini was the convidence builder necessary to master all the skills that would be crucial for a successful lunar mission. 12:18 One of those skills was rendez-vous and docking with other spacecraft. Gemini-8 commander Neil Armstrong and astronaut Dave Scott set out for the first docking in space with an unmanned rocket stage: the Agena. 12:36 "We're docked no noticeable ocillations, very smooth" 12:41 Finally the Americans had a first in manned spaceflight. Immediately after docking some of the most hair-raising moments in space history would unfold. The combined spacecraft started to roll. Neil Armstrong tried to correct manually by using thrusters, but everytime he let go of the controls the roll would start again and keep accelerating. Unknown to Armstrong and Scott the problem was within the Gemini spacecraft, a jammed orbital thruster. Convinced the problem was within the Agena, they undocked.

4 13:26 We have serious problems!, We re tumbling and have seperated, we are rolling up, we can t turn anything off! 13:33 Now, as a much lighter spacecraft, the effect of the firing thruster virtually doubled. On the verve of loosing consciousness, Armstrong activated the re-entry jets, and shut off the orbital thrusters. The crew regained control but the mission had to be aborted. 14:14 In absolute secrecy the Soviets too were working on their own moonshot with the giant N1 launcher. A complex design with thirty engines on its first stage, that all had to work flawlessly and in synchronisation. 14:36 Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the prime candidate to fly around the Moon, or perhaps even become the first man to walk on the moon. Then unexpectatly the Soviet s chief designer: Sergei Korolov died. This marked a turning point in the already underfunded Soviet space program. Testing of the different stages of the N1 started in 1968, followed by four full scale unmanned launches. 15:38 The world would not find out about the N1 lunar program until the demise of the Soviet Union. 15:46 The American lunar program, had its hopes based on the mighty Saturn V rocket from the hand of Wernher von Braun. Fearing an imminent flight around the moon by the Soviets in 1968, the Americans took a bold decision. With no lunar module available yet to test in space, the first manned launch of the Saturn V would carry the Apollo 8 capsule to the moon, and achieve lunar orbit. 16:17 The Apollo 8 crew members were: Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders. They would soon become the first humans to leave Earth orbit and actually go to another destination in space. 16:53 It was a mission loaded with risks, as they only had a single engine to get in and out of lunar orbit. 17:01 Minus one minute Minus fifty seconds Minus fourty S-1-C prepass complete Frank Roger you re all good Minus thirty seconds... Minus twenty seconds T-minus fifteen fourteen thirteen twelve eleven

5 ten nine We have ignition sequence start The engines are on All engines running, launch commence 18:00 three two one zero 18:22 We have commence,... Lift off the clock is running Roger clock That s Okay Fido all engines Clock starts Fido, Roger Clock 18:50 Clear the tower!!! Copy tower, Houston copy 18:56 Stand by for 1 Charlie Apollo 8 Houston you look good for staging S-1-C cutoff Roger S-2 ignition Roger S-2 19:12 Capcom can you confirm tower jettison? That s affirmative we did! Copy Fido 19:19 First stage was very smooth.. and this one is smoother Apollo 8 you are go for T-L-I over Ignition Roger Ignition Apollo 8 Houston you are looking good here, right down the centerline Roger Apollo 8 Okay we ve got SECO right on the money 19:36 With the last engine burn, the Trans Lunar Insertion, Apollo 8 coasted to the moon The United States had made a major advance in the race to the moon. 19:50 Welcome to the moon Houston 20:09 Apollo 8 Houston, one minute to L-O-S all systems go Save journey guys See you on the other side

6 20:26 Once Apollo 8 had arrived behind the moon, it had to fire its single engine to be inserted into lunar orbit. The astronauts were now completely isolated from the Earth. 20:44 On Christmas Eve hundreds of millions of people watched the live broadcast from the moon. Then the crew of Apollo 8 did the unthinkable, they read from the book of Genesis. 20:56 We re now approaching lunar Earthrise and for all the people back on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth and the Earh was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said, let there be light, and there was light and God saw the light and that is was good and God divided the light from the darkness and God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters called he seas and God saw that it was good and from the crew of Apollo 8 we close with goodnight, good luck, a merry Christmas and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth 22:22 It was during this flight, in a back room at the mission control center in Houston, that Neil Armstrong got word that he would command the first mission to land a man on the moon, seven months later: Apollo 11 22:36 Apollo 11 Houston you are go for undocking over The Eagle has wings 22:44 On July the twentieth 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin commenced their descend to the lunar surface, while Michael Collins remained in the Command module. 22:56 The astronauts gave themselves only a fifty percent chance of mission success. This was to be the most nail-biting descend of all lunar missions. 23:07 Program alarm 1202 We re go on that Flight We re go on that alarm? Give us a reading on the 1202 program alarm Roger, we re go on that alarm Okay all flight controllers: Go No-Go for landing, RETRO, GO, FIDO, GO, GUIDANCE, GO, CONTROL, GO, TELCOM, GO, GNC, GO, EECOM, GO, SURGEON, GO, CAPCOM we are go for landing 23:34 Pretty rocky area 23:36 Computer overload alarms cause the eagle to overshoot it s original landing site in the sea of tranquility.

7 23:44 sixty seconds 23:46 Flying above boulders as big as houses, and running low on fuel, Neal took manual control, and searched for a spot to land. 23:56 Down two and a half 23:59 Flying with only seconds of landing fuel left, was beyond anything they had trained for. 24:05 three feet down two and a half, picking up some dust three feet two and a half down faint shadow four forward, four forward drifring to the right a little Down a half thirty seconds Contact light Okay engine stop We copy you down Eagle Houston Tranquility base here, the Eagle has landed Roger Tranquility we copy you on the ground, you ve got a bunch of guys about to turn blue we re breathing again, thanks a lot Okay we re gonna be busy for a minute 24:44 Okay Houston I am on the porch Did you get the MESA out? I m gonna pull it now Houston the MESA came down allright Houston, Roger we copy and we re standing by for your CCTV Roger TV circuit breakers in and we re getting a picture on the TV! you had a good picture heh? Okay Neil we can see you coming down the ladder now Okay I just checked getting back up to that first step, but it is adequate to get back up Roger, we copy... It s a pretty good little jump I m at the foot of the ladder, the LM footbeds are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches I m gonna step of the LM now That s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind 25:55 Neil this is Houston, do you copy about the contingency sample over? Okay are you gonna get the contingency sample there Neil? Right, I m trying to get a rock in there 26:05 Beautiful view, isn t that somthing?, magnificent site out here 26:12 Buzz joined Neal on the surface about 20 minutes later.

8 26:15 Magnificent Desolation 26:21 Could we get both of you on that camera for a minute please? Neil and Buzz, the president of the United States is in his office now, and would like to say of few words to you over That would be an honour Hello Neil and Buzz, I m talking to you by telephone from the oval room at the white house and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of Man s World For one priceless moment in the whole history of Man all the people on this Earth are truly one one in their pride in what you have done, and one in our prayers that you will return safely to Earth 27:09 While Neil and Buzz were on the moon there was a Soviet visitor nearby. The unmanned Luna 15 was the Soviets Union s last minute attempt to return lunar samples to the Earth before the Americans did. If successful the samples would arrive on Earth hours before the return of Apollo :33 ha ha ha, dum the dum dum dum 27:38 Five more successful lunar missions succeeded Apollo 11, Just four months later Apollo 12 made a precision landing on the moon. 27:50 Do you know what I feel like Al? What? Did you ever see those pictures of Giraffes running in slow motion? That s exactly what I feel like ha ha ha 28:01 Say, would you Giraffes give us some information about your boot penetration as you move across there, what you re doing now, and what you had there back there at sharp crater? 28:11 The astronauts visited Surveyor 3 a robotic lander that had landed several years earlier. 28:16 Okay we re moving forward Joe Roger 28:22 From Apollo 15 onwards, walking turned into driving. These extended missions carried a foldable rover 28:31 A thirty eight million dollar dream machine. Commander Dave Scott was the first to drive it on the moon.

9 28:40 I m glad they ve got this great suspension system on this thing, Boy! 28:50 Oh, look at the mountains today Jim when they are all sunlit isn t that beautiful? It really is My golly, that s just super, you know unreal Wow hang on 29:10 This is really a rock and roller ride isn t it? 29:17 The Earth controlled TV camera on the rover allowed television viewers to feel like the third astronaut on the moon. 29:26 Dave Scott performed a popular scientific experiment 29:30 Well in my left hand I have a feather in my right hand a hammer and I guess one of the reasons we ve got here today was because of a gentleman named Galileo long time ago, who made a rather significant discovery about falling objects in gravity fields and we thought that where would be a better place to confirm his findings then on the moon and so we thought we d try it for you and I ll drop the two of them here and hopefully they hit the ground at the same time 29:59 How about that? Mr. Galileo was correct 30:05 Three- Two- One ignition We re on our way Houston 30:13 In December 1972 Apollo 17 ended the greatest exploration in human history. 30:26 The space race and race to the moon were over. In the remaining 1970 s the manned space program no longer had a clear destination. It became the decade of the unmanned robotic explorers. 30:42 Many destinations in space are ideally suited for the use of unmanned spacecraft due to their lower costs and lower risk factors. The Soviet Union succeeded in landing Venera 9 on Venus in In the meantime the Americans had turned their attention to Mars, and landed Viking I & II there in The Vikings beamed back stunning images of the surface of the planet. 31:17 Then a robotic arm dug up samples of the Martian soil. Inside the Vikings biological experiments were carried out designed to detect life in the soil samples. The results were initially positive but on further analysis most scientist became convinced that these results were probably caused by a non biological chemical reaction.

10 31:45 However the existance of life on Mars is still under debate and is a driving force for getting funding for new missions. 32:02 The further our interplanetary spacecraft travel from Earth the harder it gets to listen to their wispering signals. What use would they be to us if we couldn t communicate with them anymore? Therefore extrordinary demands are being placed on ground based radio antenae. Due to the rotation of the earth, each radio antenna can only keep in touch with a spacecraft for a portion of the day. 32:30 To solve this problem deep space networks are used. Radio antenae placed strategically around the World, are connected with eachother. Together they can talk and listen to our interplanetary spacecraft all day long. 33:11 Probably the most famous of all interplanetary spacecraft are the Voyagers. Voyager 1 and 2 took us to new heights and explored all the outer gas giants of our solar system and their moons. 33:30 Never before were so many new horizons discovered and revealed to us as by these Voyagers They showed us our home, our solar system and our place in the Universe for the first time. 33:46 Having missed out on being the first on the moon, the Soviet Union focussed on building stations in space. They were first again with the Salyut space station, but the most successful of all was their MIR space station, allowing nearly ten years of continuous human presence in space. 34:09 T-minus twenty seconds and counting 34:11 After Apollo NASA s manned space program focussed on the re-usable Space Shuttle, the most complex machine ever build. The Space Shuttle looks like a large flying pick up truck that lands as a glider at the end of its mission. It has deployed and fixed satellites, operated as a self launching space station and delivered entire modules to permanent space stations. 34:38 We have booster ignition and lift off 34:51 Roll program 34:57 Houston is now controlling 34:51 The Dawn of the Space Age started with two nations who watched eachothers achievements with a combination of envy and admiration. The admiration led to cooperation.

11 36:05 At the dawn of the twentyfirst century we re marking the permanent human presence in space with the International Space Station. 36:15 At least sixteen countries are involved in the biggest ever project of international cooperation. The international space station serves as a research facility orbiting the Earth every 92 minutes. 36:32 It s main use is research under micro gravity, commonly known as weightlessness. This can lead to new discoveries in Medicine, Materials and science which people all over the World could benefit from. The Space Station also provides us with more inside on the effects of long duration stays in space on the human body. This experience will be invaluable for future human exploration of the solar system. 37:06 Yet changing politics and the space shuttle Columbia tragedy delayed the construction of the international space station. It might require a little more patience before we can steer back to a destination oriented space program. Which allows humans to leave low Earth orbit once again. 37:36 But there is a new star on the horizon, not funded by any government but by the biggest industry in the World: Tourism! 37:52 In 2004 space ship one captured the Ansari X-prize. A prize aimed at spurring development of low cost space flight for us all. Now the common man can become a space tourist. 38:28 The score is space ship one government zero. 38:34 At some point in time just watching the planets on our computer screens will not be enough. Instead of gazing in awe at what our ancestors achieved, we could become the first life form that lives on more then one planet. It can be done right now, we just need to be willing to invest in these new Worlds, dare to take risks again and most of all, we just need to make the bold decision to live the dream and go!