In the Shadow of the Moon

[Music playing]

[Radio chatter]

[Electronic beeps]

[Radio chatter]

Man:
I kind of have two moons

in my head, I guess,

whereas most people

just have one moon.

I look at the Moon just like everybody else

who's never been there

and, you know, there it is and

I've always thought it was interesting...

Whether it's full or a sliver,

or what have you.

But every once in a while,

I do think of a second moon,

you know, the one that

I recall from up close

and, yeah, it is kind of hard to believe

that I was actually up there.

Man:

I want to promise you, I'm human.

I pinched myself to find out

whether it was really happening.

I called the Moon my home

for three days of my life

and I'm here to tell you about it.

That's science fiction.

Man:
My father was born shortly

after the Wright brothers.

He could barely believe

that I went to the Moon.

But my son, Tom, was five.

And he didn't think

it was any big deal.

[Music playing]

Capcom:

Lift-off, we have a lift-off.

Capcom:

The tower is clear.

# Woke up this morning #

# With light in my eyes... #

Man:

One day, under secret orders,

a group of us at the Test Pilot Center

were ordered to go to Washington

to get a briefing.

And they talked about the Atlas booster

and putting a capsule on top of that

with a man in it,

Uh, to... To try to put a man into space.

And of course, at that time,

the Atlas boosters were blowing up

every other day down at Cape Canaveral.

# Hey Mr. Spaceman #

# Won't you please take me along #

# I won't do anything wrong #

And it looked like a very, you know,

quick way to have a short career.

# ... Take me along for a ride #

# Woke up this morning #

# I was feeling quite weird #

# I had flies in my beard #

# My toothpaste was smeared #

# Over my window

they'd written my name #

# Said, "So long,

we'll see you again" #

# Hey Mr. Spaceman #

# Won't you please take me along #

# I won't do anything wrong #

# Hey Mr. Spaceman #

# Won't you please take #

me along for a ride

[Radio chatter]

[Applause]

Kennedy:
Now it is time

to take longer strides,

time for a great new

American enterprise,

time for this nation

to take a clearly leading role

in space achievement.

Politically, it was about

beating the Russians,

but those of us with a science bent

or a curious bent,

knew it was more than that.

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.

It was beautiful in its simplicity.

Do what? Moon!

When? End of decade!

He challenged us to do

what I think most people

thought was impossible, including me.

We go into space because whatever

Mankind must undertake,

free men must fully share.

Kennedy:

But in a very real sense,

it will not be one man

going to the Moon.

We make this judgment affirmatively;

It will be an entire nation.

For all of us must work to put him there.

[Music playing]

Collins:
I did the usual thing

of making model airplanes.

Most of them,

little balsawood contraptions.

Some of them actually flew

and I liked that.

So I'd been interested

in mechanical objects in the sky,

I guess, from as long

as I could remember.

Mitchell:

I was always awed by flight.

When I was a young lad,

a barnstormer flying

a World War I airplane

landed on our farm and Dad

helped him refuel and I got a ride,

and he took me for a circle of the field

and that was my first airplane ride,

at about four years of age.

Newsreader:

The Mustangs dropped their wing tanks

and plunged into the fight.

Cernan:
Maybe it was the movies,

maybe it was the real life news,

but I knew that someday, sometime,

that's what I wanted to do.

I knew I wanted to fly airplanes.

In '61, I had just graduated

from the Test Pilot School

and I had a job flying fighters

in fighter tests at Edwards.

Newsreader:

At the Flight Test Center

is the fastest school in the world:

The United States Air Force

Flight Test School,

from whose doors upon graduation

come the men destined to push back

the frontiers

of aeronautical knowledge.

[Music playing]

Mitchell:

Test pilot experience was critical.

It was a profession with

a lot of esprit de corps

and a lot of danger

and a pioneering spirit.

[Music playing]

[Radio chatter]

Mitchell:
And when you're at

supersonic speeds and high altitudes,

learning to survive that and bring your

machine back down,

it's the fundamental task

and the higher and faster you flew,

the more dangerous

and more exciting it became.

Man:
I thought I had the

best job in the world

from the day I entered flight training

until I looked on TV

one day and Al Shepherd

goes up in a rocket.

Newsreader:

The rocket performs perfectly!

He's gone higher than I've ever gone

and faster than I've ever gone

and most important,

he's made more noise doing it.

He's even on TV doing it!

How do l...

How do I get that job?

Announcer:

"I've Got A Secret!"

Brought to you tonight by...

Dream Whip!

The light, delicious topping

that won't wilt on your desserts.

Dream Whip!

Host:
Now, if you'll whisper

your secret to me, Mr. And Mrs. Armstrong,

We'll show it at the same time

to our audience at home.

If you'll both lean in and whisper.

[Applause]

Everybody put their application

in to every NASA request.

I mean, it was just,

sort of a peer kind of thing.

So NASA put out a request

for a third group of astronauts in early '63,

and of course everybody

in my test pilot class put their application in

because it was another opportunity

for a new challenge.

It certainly sounded very challenging

and something that if...

if other people wanted to be

a part of this

and this was a noble national effort,

why, I wanted to be a part of it.

Now how would you feel,

Mrs. Armstrong,

If it turned out...

Of course, nobody knows;

But if it turns out that your son

is first man to land on the Moon,

What... How would you feel?

Well, I guess I'd just say God bless him

and I wish him the best of all good luck.

[Applause]

I'll bet you.

[Music playing]

Collins:
That group of astronauts

was far and away the best group

I had ever been associated with.

There weren't any really weak sisters

in the bunch.

They were just an amazingly competent,

hardworking,

really good bunch of people.

One day... you're just Gene Cernan,

young naval aviator, whatever,

and the next day,

you're an American hero.

Literally.

And you have done nothing.

When Tom Wolfe

wrote "The Right Stuff",

I thought,

"Boy! That sounds good.

People are going to think

I have the right stuff!

I'm the same guy I always was,

but now, I've got the right stuff!"

It's sort of an unshakeable belief

in your own infallibility.

That's what the right stuff is.

That you're immortal,

that you can do anything

that is thrown at you.

Scott:
Nobody knew really

how to go to the Moon,

there was a lot on paper.

And we didn't know how to do things

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