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VOA – Eagle on the Moon – 1969

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2019 MP3 Recording of Original VOA Audio, Video with NASA Photographs, Transcript and Images of VOA’s 1969 LP Record by Cold War Radio Museum

MP3 Audio of 1969 VOA Radio Broadcast on LP Record

2019 Cold War Radio Museum Video with NASA Images and MP3 Audio of 1969 VOA Broadcast

EAGLE ON THE MOON

MUSIC:


McGEE:


“I am sitting on top of an automobile located on a sandy beach about 2-1/2 or 3 miles away from the Navy’s Vanguard missile . . .”

NARRATOR:

The date was December 6, 1957 . . . the man speaking a reporter for NBC News . . . and this is how and where it all began: with a rocket attempting to orbit the first American artificial earth satellite . . .


McGHEE:


“. . . There she goes! Flame is shooting out from under the bottom of it and a huge, huge ball of fire is rising up, perhaps a hundred feet. And as yet, the missile has not cleared the ground, I do not see it taking off, and apparently we’ve had some kind of difficulty on the pad. We have no explanation for what the difficulty may be; the only assumption we can make at this time is that some sort of last-minute trouble has occurred and has spelled a failure for this effort that has been anticipated for so long.”


NARRATOR:

America had entered the space age . . . not with a bang but with a whimper!


MUSIC:

NARRATOR:

. . . It was much more than just a rocket blowing up on a launch pad: it was a crushing blow to American pride, a slap in the face of American technology, a moment of doubt in this nation’s capability to venture into space . . .

MUSIC:


ARMSTRONG:


“Houston, Tranquility Base here . . . The Eagle has landed!”


NARRATOR:


. . . And this is Astronaut Neil Armstrong
— speaking from the Moon on the 20th of July, 1969 . . .

MUSIC:


NARRATOR:


. . . Twelve years of national effort, the fuel of many men’s imagination, and the skills of four hundred thousand technicians served as a bridge between these two days . . . the day when American space technology stood at its lowest point and the day when it reached its peak . . . as the Eagle landed on the Moon . . .

MUSIC:

ANNOUNCER:


. . . EAGLE ON THE MOON . . . a special broadcast recounting the highlights of Apollo XI—man’s first venture to another celestial body . . .

Reporting is VOA Correspondent Harry Monroe.

MUSIC:

NARRATOR:

The goal was set by one President . . .

KENNEDY :

“. . . this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon . . .

NARRATOR:

. . . re-asserted by another . . .

JOHNSON:


“. . . we must assure our pre-eminence in the peaceful exploration of outer space, focusiog on an expedition to the Moon in this decade . . .”

NARRATOR:


. . . and broadened by a third:


NIXON:


” . . . as we explore the reaches of space, let us go to the new worlds together—not as new worlds to be conquered, but as a new adventure to be shared.”

NARRATOR:


The challenge was set forth by John Fitzgerald Kennedy, re-asserted by Lyndon Baines Johnson and broadened by Richard Nixon. And it was met by three men:

ASTRONAUTS:


“Neil Armstrong, Commander, Apollo XI.”

“Michael Collins, Command Module Pilot, Apollo XI”


“Edwin E. Aldrin, Junior, Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo XI”

NARRATOR:

But the dream belongs to all mankind and was born when history was young . . .

MUSIC:

CLARKE:

“The very conception of interplanetary travel was, of course, impossible until it was realized that there were other planets . . . “

NARRATOR:

Arthur C. Clarke, twice Chairman of the British Interplanetary Society and a writer of science and fiction:

CLARKE:

“. . . To the ancients, therefore, the idea of interplanetary travel, in the literal sense, was not merely fantastic; it was meaningless. However, although the stars and planets were simply dimensionless points of light, the Sun and Moon were obviously in a different class. Anyone could see they had appreciable size, and the Moon had markings on its face which might well be interpreted as continents and seas. It was not surprising, therefore, that many of the Greek philosophers believed that the Moon really was a world. And it was natural that men should write stories about traveling to that mysterious and romantic world.”

NARRATOR:

The first known story about a voyage to the Moon was written by Lucian of Samos, who lived in the second century of the Christian era: its tide was TRUE HISTORY, and its hero was taken to the Moon in a waterspout which caught up his ship when he was sailing beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Over the centuries, there were other books dealing with journeys to the Moon—books whose heroes utilized imaginative, but highly improbable, means to reach the Moon. The hero of a book titled MAN IN THE MOON, published in 1656, traveled on a flimsy raft towed by trained swans. Cyrano de Bergerac utilized for his VOYAGE TO THE MOON AND SUN bottles filled with dew, which propelled him to the Moon as the dew evaporated under the strong rays of the Sun. But then, in 1865, came the book which would become the classic of the genre: FROM EARTH TO THE MOON by Jules Verne . . .

CLARKE:

“Verne did not take the easy way out and invent, as so many writers before and since have done, some mysterious method of pro- pulsion or a substance which would defy gravity. He knew that if a body could be projected away from the Earth at a sufficient speed it would reach the Moon: so, he simply built an enormous gun and fired his heroes from it in a specially equipped projectile.”

NARRATOR:

Through an amazing coincidence, Jules Verne chose as the locale from where the three space travelers left for the Moon a small town in Florida, where five million people came to witness man’s first attempt to journey to another celestial body . . .

TURNER:


“This is VOA Correspondent Rhett Turner at Cape Kennedy, Florida . . .”

NARRATOR:

. . . On the I6th of July, 1969, one man’s imagination blended with reality . . .

TURNER:


” . . . I am standing about 5 kilometers from the point where a Saturn V rocket stands bathed in a wreath of brilliant light. Atop the rocket—inside the Apollo spacecraft named Columbia after Jules Verne’s spacecraft—are the first men who will attempt to land on the Moon. The beaches, fields and highways surrounding the Kennedy Space Center bustle with people . . . an estimated crowd of several hundred thousand . . . seeking the best vantage points to witness the launch of the astronauts. Their mood is tense and expectant. Many have slept on the beach or in their cars, bundled up against the chilling dampness of the sub-tropical night . . . It looks as if Jules Verne’s imagination had come to life!”

LAUNCH CONTROL:

“This is Apollo Saturn Launch Control. We have just passed the 31-minute mark in our count—we’re T – 30 minutes, 52 seconds and counting, aiming toward our planned lift-off time of 32 minutes past the hour, the start of a launch window on this, the mission to land men on the Moon. The countdown still proceeding very satisfactorily at (his time, we’ve just got by an important test with the launch vehicle, checking out the various batteries in the three- stages and instrument unit of the Saturn V . . .”


HAMMERSMITH:

“The Saturn V is about 121 meters tall with the Apollo spacecraft in place . . .”

NARRATOR:


This is John Hammersmith—Senior Systems Engineer, Manned Spaceflight Program:


HAMMERSMITH:


“. . . It generates enough thrust to place a 125-ton payload into a 105-nautical-mile circular earth orbit, or it can boost a smaller payload to the viciniry of any planet in the solar system.”


LAUNCH CONTROL:


“This is Apollo Saturn Launch Control. We have just passed the 26-minute mark in the count, T -25 minutes, 53 seconds and counting, still proceeding very satisfactorily. At this time, spacecraft test conductor Skip Shelvin working with astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the middle seat, covering the final pressurization of the reaction control system for the spacecraft”


HEALEY:

“The Apollo spacecraft is a three-man spacecraft . . .

NARRATOR:


John Healey of North American Rockwell, builders of the Apollo spacecraft:

HEALEY:

“. . . The over-all dimensions are about 12 foot by 13 foot in physical size. The volume of space available inside the spacecraft itself allows the spacecraft to be so arranged that the astronauts can stand up in the spacecraft, we can maneuver our couches in such a way that we actually have the capability for more than one as- tronaut to be in a working position and/or sleep position.”


LAUNCH CONTROL:

“This is Apollo Saturn Launch Control. We passed the 11-minute mark, all still ‘go’ at this time. The astronauts in the spacecraft busy again, the commandsr—Neil Armstrong—has performed some final switch settings for the stabilization and control as planned in their countdown, and proceeded to have a physical examination, in which they were declared flight ready. They sat down for the normal astronaut fare on launch day as far as breakfast is concerned, orange juice, steak, scrambled eggs, toast and coffee. The astronauts departed” from their crew quarters, arter checking out their suits, they departed from the crew quarters at 6:27 a.m. and some 27 minutes later, 8 miles away from the crew quarters, at the Kennedy Space Center, atop the launch pad at Complex 39, 6:54 a.m., the commander, astronaut Neil Armstrong, was first to board the spacecraft . . .”

ARMSTRONG:


“I am from the State of Ohio, from Wapakoneta, a small town of about 5,000 population. I have been flying for 20 years this year, flew as a civilian for 3 years, in the Navy for 4 years, then as a test pilot for NACA and NASA for the last 11 years.”

LAUNCH CONTROL:


“. . . He was followed, about 5 minutes later, by Mike Collins . . .”


COLLINS:

“I was born in Rome, Italy, my father was stationed there in the American Army. I went to the Test Pilot School at Edwards and I was a test pilot there for a couple of years, and went back again to what was then called the Aerospace Research Pilot Course and then, following that, came to work for NASA.”

LAUNCH CONTROL:

Then finally, Buzz Aldrin, the man who is sitting in the middle seat during the lift-off, was the third astronaut to come aboard . . .”

ALDRIN:


“I attended public schools in my hometown of Montclair, New Jersey, received an appointment to the United States Military Academy, at West Point. I was commissioned in the Air Force and, in 1959 applied for admission into Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study astronautics in greater depth, heading toward a Doctor of Science degree.”


LAUNCH CONTROL:


“Five minues, 52 seconds and counting . . . The Lunar Module, which has been rather inactive during these later phases of the count, also is going on internal power at this time, on the two batteries in the ascent stage and the four batteries of the descent stage . . .”

SMITH:


“The Lunar Module is unique, inasmuch
as it has been designed solely to land on a lunar terrain . . .”

NARRATOR:


Aerospace Engineer Ed Smith of NASA:

SMITH:

“. . . It initially weighs approximately 33,700 pounds at separation, it will weigh about 16,500 pounds at landing, and will weigh about 5,000 pounds at rendezvous and docking. There are two stations, with two engines aboard: the descent stage with its associate descent engine, which has a throttlable ten-thousand-pound thrust engine —the ascent stage, with its non-throttlable three-thousand-pound engine.”

LAUNCH CONTROL:


“The Lunar Module on Apollo XI, of course, when it separates from the Command Module in lunar orbit, will have the call sign, ‘Eagle.’ The Command Module call sign, once the two vehicles separate, will be ‘Columbia.’ Both Columbia and Eagle are ‘go’ at this time . . .”

NARRATOR:


Around the world, a communication network of unprecedented sophistication and speed was also in the final stages of its preparations: from the moment Apollo XI was underway, it would electronically shrink the enormous distance separating tracking stations on earth and the moon-bound ship to the scale and closeness of a telephone conversation between two people living in the same town . . .


COVINGTON:


“The Manned Flight Network and the communications system that tie the stations of this network together, is made up of 17 ground stations, 4 ships, and 8 aircraft . . .”

NARRATOR:

Ozro M. Covington, Assistant Director for Manned Flight Support, Goddard Spaceflight Center:

COVINGTON:

“. . .We’ll be monitoring everything from the astronauts’ aeromedical data to the temperature of various points in the spacecraft, the fuel reserves aboard the spacecraft, and, in addition, keeping up pretty continuously with the status of the on-board digital computer.”


LAUNCH SEQUENCE STARTING AT T-30 SECONDS—CROSSFADES TO

MUSIC:

NARRATOR:


For a last instant, the gleaming body of the rocket shone against the Florida sky . . . Then came the boiling clouds of smoke, thunder shook the earth, and Apollo XI began to move . . . a painfully slow and perfectly straight ascent toward the blue sky . . .

MUSIC:

NARRATOR:


. . . Inside the spacecraft, none of the majesty of the moment was visible . . . A myriad of small green lights flickered across the instrument panel like a flight of fireflies . . . pointers rose mutely under the glass dials, advising the three spacemen how the equipment was performing . . . Outside, ignition came with a roar so powerful that people standing thirty or forty kilometers away could feel it in the ground under their feet. To the space travelers, in their little craft, it was the thunder of a million drums. Only a minute later, they were thrust out of the roar abruptly . . . in the same way, and for the same reason, that lightning leaves its thunder behind: they were now traveling faster than sound . . .

MUSIC:

NARRATOR:

Apollo XI was on its way to the Moon …

MUSIC:

NARRATOR:

. . . Three explorers from the planet Earth—who, like all explorers from the dawn of time, live by the subtle thrill of danger—were taking the banner of discovery to the celestial body nearest their own. They took along the dreams of Jules Verne of France and H. G. Welles of Britain . . . the courage of Galileo Galilei of Italy . . . the visions of Johannes Kepler of Germany, Herman Oberth of Romania and Konstantin Tsiolkovski of Russia . . . the imagination of Robert H. Goddard, the daring of John F. Kennedy, and the quiet dedication of four hundred thousand men and women . . . They also took the gold medals awarded to five men who gave their lives in the conquest of space . . . Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee of the United States . . . Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov of the Soviet Union. And following them were the thoughts of the president of the United States:

NIXON:

“As the astronauts go where man has never gone before, as they attempt what man has never tried, we on earth will want, as one people, to be with them in spirit, to share the glory, and the wonder, and to support them with prayers that all will go well.”

(END SIDE ONE)

NARRATOR:

Two-and-a-half seconds after it left Launch Complex 39 at Cape Kennedy, Apollo XI leapt from its earth orbit and into the journey that would take the three spacemen to the Moon . . .

NARRATOR:

. . . They reached it on the third day, following a plan devised months before—a plan which deviated little from the one used before by the crews of Apollo VII and X . . .

HAGE:


“Approximately 3 days after leaving the launch pad a[ the Kennedy Spacecraft Center . . .”

NARRATOR:

Mission Director George Hage:

HAGE:

“. . . the astronauts will burn their service propulsion rocket engine again, this time behind the Moon, and will inject the space- craft, the docked spacecraft, into a 60 by 170-nautical-mile orbit. After determining that systems are in a ‘go’ configuration, the Lunar Module will separate from the Command and Service Module . . .”

MISSION CONTROL:

“Hello, Eagle, Houston. We’re standing by. Over!”

EAGLE:

“Roger. Eagle is undocked.”

MISSION CONTROL:

“Roger. How does it look?”

EAGLE:
“The Eagle has wings!”


HAGE:

“, . . and will perform a small burn which will take (he Lunar Module down 10 an altitude of about 50,000 feet above the lunar surface . . .”


EAGLE:
“Our radar checks indicate 50,000 feet, our visual altitude checks are about 53,000.”

MISSION CONTROL: “Roger. Copy.”

KENNEDY :

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth . . .”

MISSION CONTROL:

“Coming up on 1 minute to ignition. Cut. Altitude about 46,000 feet, continuing to descend.”

KENNEDY :


“. . . Our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men.”


MISSION CONTROL:


“Two minutes, 20 seconds, everything look- ing good. We show altitude about 47,000 feet.”


KENNEDY:


“. . . We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people .. .”


MISSION CONTROL:

“We’re now in the approach phase, every- thing looking good. Altitude 5,200 feet.


EAGLE:

“Manual attitude control is good.”


MISSION CONTROL:

“Roger, copy. Altitude 4,200 feet. Houston, you’re ‘go’ for landing. Over.”


KENNEDY :

“. . . Space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes (hat man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours . . .”

MISSION CONTROL: “Sixty seconds.”

EAGLE:


“Lights on, down 2-1/2, forward, forward, 40 feet, down 2-1/2, picking up some dust, 30 feet, 2-1/2 down, straight shadow, 4 forward, 4 forward, drifting to the right a little.”


KENNEDY :


“. . . 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? . . . We choose to go to the Moon!” (APPLAUSE)


MISSION CONTROL: “Thirty seconds.”

EAGLE:

“Contact light. OK, engine stop. Engine arm off. 413 is in.

MISSION CONTROL:

“We copy you down, Eagle.”

KENNEDY:


“. . . 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 challenge is one that we’re willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone and one we intend to win!” (APPLAUSE)

EAGLE:

“Tranquility base, here. The Eagle has landed!”

MUSIC:

MISSION CONTROL:

“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!”

EAGLE: “Thank you!”

MISSION CONTROL: “You’re looking good, hear?”

EAGLE:


“A very smooth touchdown.”

LOW:

“The first thing that the guys will do when they get to the lunar surface is get ready to launch again . . .”


NARRATOR:


George Low, Manager, Apollo Spacecraft, Manned Spacecraft Center:

LOW:


“. . . They’ll put themselves in a position so that in the event of any kind of an emergency they could launch again as quickly as possible.”

NARRATOR:


That’s what the plan said . . . but that’s not what the first earth travelers to reach the Moon did . . . because they’re human! . . . The first thing they did was to look out the window of their spacecraft and tell all who were listening what the Moon looks like when you’re standing on its surface.

ARMSTRONG:


“It looks like a collection of just about every variety of shape, angularity, granu- larity . . . about every variety of rock you could find. The colors vary pretty much, depending on how you are looking. There doesn’t appear to be too much of a general color at all.”

NARRATOR:


And how did they find the low gravity on the Moon?


ARMSTRONG:


“I don’t think we’ve noticed any difficulty at all in adapting to one-sixth G. It seems immediately natural to live in this environment.

NARRATOR:

A few short hours after the Eagle landed on the Moon, the two men who made the journey on board were ready to take the longest step any man had ever taken. They took it—first one, Neil Armstrong, then the other, Edwin Aldrin—in full view of mil- lions and millions of people watching on television . . .


ARMSTRONG:

“That’s one small step for man . . . one giant leap for mankind.”

NARRATOR:

The first words uttered by a man as he set foot on the surface of the Moon . . . “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” It was taken at 56 minutes past the hour of 2, Greenwich Mean Time, on the 21st day of July, 1969 . . .

MUSIC:

ARMSTRONG:


“It’s quite dark in the shadow and a little hard for me to see, but I have good footing. I’ll work my way to the sunlight here without looking directly into the sun.”

NARRATOR:

Neil Armstrong was followed, twenty minutes later, by Edwin Aldrin . . . and for the next two hours, like curious boys at a frog pond, they strolled and jumped on the lunar surface, dug their feet into its gray granules . . . and, like tourists the world over, took pictures of themselves . . . In full view of millions of mesmerized people, they executed a fantastic ballet with movements that seemed to come from a science fiction movie of yesteryear . . . all the while explaining to the earthlings they had left behind and who were watching what they were doing . . .

ALDRIN:

“It’s the so-called ‘kangaroo hop.’ It does work. But your forward mobility is not quite as good as the conventional safe pace might be.”

NARRATOR:


. . . Then, they started to accomplish the mission for which they had come to the Moon . . . gathering samples for man’s first collection of Moon rocks . . . unpacking the scientific equipment they would leave behind . . . Then … a phone call— from the President of the United States:

NIXON:


“Hello, Neil and Buzz . . . I am talking to you from the Oval Room at the White House and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made. For every American this has to be the proudest day of our lives and for peoole all over the world, I am sure they, too, join with us in recognizing what an immense feat this is. For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people of 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.”

ARMSTRONG:

“Thank you, Mr. President . . . It’s a great honor and a privilege for us to be here, representing not only the United States but men of peace of all nations, men with interest and the curiosity and the vision for the future.”

MUSIC:

NARRATOR:

Two hours, thirteen minutes and thirty-two seconds after Neil Armstrong set foot on the surface of the Moon, the astronauts were back inside their craft and the hatch was closed. Around the Eagle, there were several mementoes of man’s first visit to the Moon: the shoulder patches of the three American astronauts and the gold medals of the two Soviet cosmonauts who died in the conquest of space . . . an American flag . . . and a small plaque:

ARMSTRONG:


“It shows two hemispheres . . . underneath it says, ‘Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.’ It has crew members’ signatures and the signature of the President of the United States.”

NARRATOR:

Twenty-one hours, thirty.six minutes and twenty seconds after the first spacecraft from the planet Earth had landed on its nearest satellite, the Eagle stood ready to take its crew aloft again . . .

MUSIC:

NARRATOR:

. . . As millions of people here on Earth held their breath, the Eagle’s engine roared to life and, moments later, it was on its way, with one terse comment from its commander:

ARMSTRONG: “Very quiet ride!”

MUSIC:

NARRATOR:


“A very quiet ride . . ,” It stayed quiet, as the Eagle made its way back into the orbit of the Moon, searched and found the Command Module in which Mike Collins had been waiting patiently for the last twenty- four hours . . . docked with it . . . and began the long journey home . . .

MUSIC:


NARRATOR:


The journey came to an end at sixteen hundred hours, forty-nine minutes Greenwich Time, on Thursday, July 24, 1969, in the waters of the Pacific Ocean . . . just like the journey undertaken a century ago by the three imaginary travelers of Jules Verne’s novel . . . which today reads almost like the flight plan of Apollo XI . . .

MUSIC:

NARRATOR:

The three “men from the planet Earth” who had gone to the Moon “for all man- kind” came out of their spacecraft dressed in an unfamiliar uniform designed to avoid contamination of their fellow earthlings by germs they may have brought back from the Moon. In a matter of minutes they were on board the aircraft carrier “Hornet”—but the now familiar welcome ceremony on the flight deck reserved for all returning astronauts did not take place. Instead, the three space travelers entered a mobile home, where they would remain for eighteen days, in quarantine . . . But there was a short ceremony on the hangar deck . . . a ceremony during which they were welcomed back by the President of the United States . . .

NIXON:

“Neil, Buzz and Mike, I want you to know that I think I am the luckiest man in the world, and I say this not only because I have the honor to be President of the United States, but particularly because I have the privilege of speaking for so many in welcoming you back to Earth, I was thinking, as you came down and we knew it was a success, and it had only been eight days—just a week, a long week—that this is the greatest week in the history of the world since the creation, because as a result of what you have done, the world has never been closer together before.”

MUSIC:

NARRATOR:


The journey of the Eagle is over. The challenge set forth by John Fitzgerald Kennedy, re-asserted by Lyndon Baines Johnson, and broadened by Richard Nixon, has been met. The human spirit, as indefinable as faith or love but as real as the Moon, swept man to another victory in his never-ending quest for accomplishing the impossible, for learning what no one knows, for traveling where no one has ever been. For one soaring moment in history, man reached out into the universe to touch a future as fathomless as infinity . . . He began his newest quest with “one small step” which helped mankind take “a giant leap.” He began perhaps timidly, but certainly aware that this was a journey which had to be undertaken. For—in the words of one who foresaw it, H. G. Wells—”for man there is no rest and no ending. He must go on—conquest beyond conquest . . . And when he has conquered all the deeps of space and all the mysteries of time, still he will be but beginning.”

MUSIC:

MONAURAL 33-1/3 RPM

VOICE OF AMERICA

U.S. INFORMATION AGENCY

Eagle on the Moon

The Flight of APOLLO 11

with the voices of

Presidents

Richard Nixon,

John F. Kennedy

and

Lyndon B. Johnson


THE CREW OF APOLLO 11:

Neil A. Armstrong,

Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr.

and

Michael Collins

and

Ozro M. Covington, Assistant Director for
Manned Spaceflight Tracking, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

Arthur C. Clarke

George H. Hage, Apollo XI Mission Director, NASA

John Hammersmith, Senior Systems Engineer, Manned Spaceflight Program, NASA

John Healey, North American Rockwell Corp.

John W. King, Apollo Saturn Launch Control, NASA


Christopher C Kraft, Director of Flight of Operations, Manned Spacecraft Center, NASA

George M. Low, Manager, Apollo Spacecraft Program, NASA

Frank McGee, NBC News

William Schick, Apollo XI Test Coordinator, NASA

Ed Smith, Aerospace Engineer, NASA

Rhett Turner—VOA

A VOICE OF AMERICA DOCUMENT

Written and Produced by Michael A. Hanu

Narrated by Harry Monroe

Announcer: Frank Oliver

Directed by Jim Parisi

Studio Technicians: Charles Wood and Phil Danaher

Hosted by
Curator

Ted Lipien is the online Cold War Radio Museum's principal volunteer editor. He is an independent journalist, writer, and media freedom advocate. He was Voice of America’s Polish Service chief during Poland’s struggle for democracy and VOA’s acting associate director. He also served briefly in 2020-2021 as RFE/RL president in a non-political and non-partisan role. His book “Wojtyła’s Women” was published in 2008 by O-Books, UK. E-mail him at: tedlipien@gmail.com.

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