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To the Moon
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Program Overview
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For two hours in July of 1969, the world
stood still as man landed and walked on the moon. Tens of millions watched it
happen, on blurry black and white television, beamed back a quarter million
miles across the heavens. For the first time in human history, all mankind
could observe a profound discovery as it happened. A generation later, in July
of 1999, a two-hour NOVA special television event will mark the 30th
anniversary of the greatest science and engineering adventure of all
time—going behind the scenes to tell the stories the astronauts and the unsung
heroes of lunar exploration—the scientists and engineers who made it happen.
When President John F. Kennedy pledged to put a man on the moon by the end of
the 60s, not a single person in the nascent US space agency had a clue as to
how this would be accomplished. After all, it was April, 1961, just two weeks
after an American flew into space for the first time.
Everything was unknown and in debate—how would they get there? And how to
return? The technologies—for propulsion, navigation, and life support—had yet
to be invented and tested. At the time, no computers, batteries,
communication, let alone rockets or spacecraft capable of the mission were on
the drawing boards. The task seemed endless, even impossible. Then, before
the plans were barely outlined, the President was dead, leaving the mission to
continue. The task was daunting.
NOVA's TO THE MOON is a celebration of that remarkable achievement and an
exploration of the future of space technology.
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