History 101 (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - The Space Race - full transcript

It's August of 1991,

and cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev is stranded
aboard the space station, Mir...

...because 250 miles below him,
the Soviet Union is collapsing.

He has nowhere to land,

so he stays in orbit, unsure how,
if ever, he will get home.

Just one of many victims in this story
of humanity's journey to space.

Since the dawn of space flight,

more than 550 humans
have made it off planet.

Most of them men.

Those astronauts came
from 40 different nations.

Thirty lives have been lost
in space flight or during space training.



Today, there are
15 international space agencies

with independent launch capability.

And the cost is astronomical.

Every year, the global price tag

is a whopping $62 billion.

So, if space is dangerous and expensive,
why bother sending people there at all?

The race to space is born out of fear

in the face of a new catastrophic threat.

An atomic one.

This is the gallant crew that rode
the big Superfort,

which carried the first atomic bomb
to Japan.

Out of the nuclear ashes of World War II,

rise two opposing superpowers
with two opposing systems:

capitalist America
and communist Soviet Union.



Each is sure that the other
is out to conquer the world,

and rising tensions soon draw
the two nations into a cold war.

Paranoia mounts as Russia shuts its doors
on its former allies.

From Stettin in the Baltic...

to Trieste in the Adriatic,

an iron curtain has descended
across the continent.

On both sides of that iron curtain,

the rivals start testing
and stockpiling nuclear weapons,

flexing their atomic muscles
for the world to see.

But to be an effective threat,

the superpowers need a way to deliver
their nukes quickly and without warning.

It's a long-distance rivalry.

Moscow and Washington are thousands
of miles apart.

And as of the late '40s,

rockets can only reach targets
up to a few hundred miles away.

The best way to cover the shortfall
is by launching rockets through space.

The Americans and the Soviets
both start developing ballistic missiles

that can carry their weapons
above the atmosphere

and then down onto their enemy,

which leads to a new idea:

What if rockets could spy on the enemy?

At White Sands Proving Grounds,
New Mexico,

a captured German V-2 rocket
was recently fitted up as a camera carrier

for a scientific experiment.

The idea was to see if rockets could be
used for photographic reconnaissance...

Soon, the ballistic missile race

turned into a race to get
the first satellite into orbit.

On October 4th, 1957,

the Soviets have beaten them to it.

Sputnik 1 is basically
the size of a beach ball

with four antennae sticking out.

It takes just one watt
to run its radio transmitter.

Your cell phone takes
six watts to power up.

Sputnik ends up orbiting the Earth
two months,

traveling further than the distance
between the Earth and Mars

before falling out of the sky.

Its ominous beeps send shock waves
around the world.

The reaction was one
of astonishment and concern,

for it was now known that a potential
enemy was at least temporarily ahead

in developing means for space travel.

Americans are terrified.

For the first time ever, an enemy object
is flying over their homeland.

What if Soviet nukes start raining down
on their heads?

We all know the atomic bomb
is very dangerous.

We must get ready for it,

just as we are ready for many other
dangers that are around us all the time.

The race for space is on,

and it's USSR one, USA zero.

America needs to up its game
to reassure its citizens.

President Eisenhower responded
by establishing a new agency,

the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration.

With the establishment of NASA,
America stood on the threshold of space.

And immediately, NASA raises the stakes,

announcing they're planning to hurl
a human into space before the Soviets.

It seems an impossible task.

Can the human body even survive the rigors
of space travel?

No one knows.

The g-forces required to accelerate
an object through the atmosphere

are far beyond
what humans normally can take.

Space is also about as cold as it gets.

But your blood will boil,
or at least start to vaporize,

because there's no pressure
keeping it a liquid.

Re-entry is another headache.

Temperatures generated by friction
can reach 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's half as hot as the sun.

Before catapulting humans
into the unknown,

the rival superpowers launch a medley
of bewildered animals into space.

And though they don't all survive
the round-trip ticket,

they do make it through the atmosphere
unharmed.

And what animals can do,
hopefully, humans can do too.

So, who to send?

In 1959, NASA finds seven military pilots
with the right stuff.

They're called the Mercury 7.

Smart, brave, and wholesome,
they're all-American heroes.

We had some pretty good tests,

and it's rather difficult
to pick one because,

if you figure how many openings
there are on the human body

and how far you can
go in any one of them...

Now, you answer which one
would be the toughest for you, and...

America instantly falls in love with them.

The Soviets have picked
their own star squad,

led by 26-year-old fighter pilot
Yuri Gagarin.

With his boyish good looks,
modest farming roots,

and winning smile, Gagarin
is the perfect poster boy for communism.

The competitors are on their marks,

but how will they even
get passed the starting line?

In test after test, both space programs
suffer serious setbacks.

Until...

"The Earth looked a delicate blue,
floating in a black sky."

So said the first man in space
after his fabulous journey of 108 minutes,

Major Yuri Gagarin.

The world is astonished
by Gagarin's flight to,

and safe return from, Earth's orbit,

and the Soviet triumph deals
yet another blow to America's psyche.

For those keeping track,
it's USSR two, USA zero.

Trajectory looks good. Roger.

Not to be outdone,
three weeks later,

NASA launches their own man into space.

Alan Shepard.

His is a far shorter flight
than Gagarin's

and only just pierces the atmosphere.

Still, America gets
a much-needed morale boost,

and space fever grips the nation.

Commander Shepard and his wife

meet the president of the United States
and his wife, Jackie.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

I thought that last Friday
was a thrilling day.

As a matter of fact...

I got far less sleep last night
than I did the night before the flight.

Meanwhile,
away from the glamour of space,

tensions keep rising between
Soviet Russia and America.

The USSR builds a wall between
Eastern Europe and the capitalist West.

Here in Berlin, the West stands
on guard, facing the next move by the East

in the continuing Cold War.

With a stalemate on the ground,

the US makes a bold announcement
that shakes up the space race.

Now it is time for this nation
to take a clearly leading role

in space achievement,

which, in many ways, may hold the key
to our future on Earth.

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 will become
the largest commitment of resources

ever made by any nation in peacetime.

Project Apollo.

Its goal? To put a man on the moon.

NASA's budgets
are now doubling every year.

And President Kennedy is behind them
every step of the way.

On a whirlwind tour of Florida,
President Kennedy visits Cape Canaveral.

The president's visit is regarded
as an effort to focus attention

on the nation's space program
and speed appropriation bills in Congress.

Just six days later,
President Kennedy is assassinated.

NASA loses its strongest ally.

The public starts to lose interest
in this new moon race,

questioning the rising costs.

Do you resent paying taxes
in order to put a man on the moon?

Yes, I do.

What would you rather
have the money spent on?

Well, schools and, um, hospitals
and things like that.

'Cause money should be used for,

uh, jobs and so on that need
to be taken care of here on Earth.

America also has other problems.

The US dispatches 184,000 troops
to Vietnam...

in the name of halting the spread
of communism.

To make matters worse, the Soviets
are racking up a string of space firsts.

From the first object
to hit the moon...

to the first woman in space...

to the first space walk.

It's USSR five, USA zero.

America's moon mission
is now their only hope

for a big win in the space race.

But as they gear up for
their first test launch in January 1967,

a routine rocket test proves catastrophic.

Apollo astronauts Roger Chaffee,
Edward White, and Gus Grissom

lose their lives in a tragic flash fire
aboard their grounded space capsule.

In a few seconds, all three
were victims of the swift inferno,

which left the capsule a blackened shell.

The country is in shock.

Is space really worth dying for?

But America has invested far too much
to quit now.

With 400,000 people on the payroll,

NASA is more determined than ever
to leave their footprints on the moon.

And to get there,
they turn to a former Nazi.

Hitler's favorite rocket engineer,
Wernher von Braun,

invented the world's first
ballistic missile, the V-2.

It devastated London during World War II.

Now, von Braun
has come up with a much bigger rocket.

Five, four, three, two, one, zero.

Liftoff. We have liftoff.

Saturn V will be the muscle
behind NASA's moon shot.

It towers over 350 feet
and weighs 6.2 million pounds.

That's 1,240 pickup trucks.

It generates 34 million newtons of thrust,
the equivalent of 43 jumbo jets...

enough power to carry
over 95,000 pounds...

...or four school buses to the moon.

But rumors that the Soviets
have their own colossal moon rocket

on the launch pad send NASA into a panic.

And von Braun is concerned
the race is too close to call.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised
if they also landed in '69,

and who will there be first
is anybody's guess, really.

Meanwhile, 1968 is
a turbulent year for both superpowers.

Assassinations and riots threaten
to tear America apart.

Thousands of American soldiers
are returning from Vietnam in body bags.

In the Soviet Union, space hero
Yuri Gagarin is killed in a plane crash.

Czechoslovakia's revolt against
Soviet control is brutally suppressed.

Both sides need a victory in space
to boost morale at home

and distract from more earthly problems.

In August of 1968,

NASA announced they will take
their first shot at the moon

by the end of the year.

Apollo 8's mission isn't to land.

It's to see if they can orbit the moon
and get home safely.

It's a gamble.
If they fail, it's unlikely Congress

and the American people
will give NASA another chance.

On December 21st, 1968,

astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell,
and Bill Anders

strap themselves in
atop the immense Saturn V rocket.

We have cleared the tower.

Apollo 8, this is Houston, roger.

After three days in space,
the men enter lunar orbit.

The moon is a different thing
to each one of us.

I know my own impression is that it's a...

a vast, lonely, forbidding type...

existence.

Or expanse of nothing.

It makes you realize
just what you have back there on Earth.

The Earth from here is a grand oasis
in the big vastness of space.

Apollo 8 is
an unprecedented success.

Finally, America has
a major victory in space:

the first humans to orbit the moon

and the first photo of Earth
from the moon.

Oh, God,
look at that picture over there.

There's the Earth coming up.
Wow, is that pretty.

You got a color film, Jim?

The photo will become known
as Earthrise.

The whole focus on the mission
turned to the Earth

after we saw the Earth coming up
over the lunar surface.

And the Earth was the only thing
in the universe that had any color.

It was very lonely,
and the universe is pitch black.

I think it gave us a sense of, uh,

"We better do our best to take care
of this little blue marble that we have."

For a brief moment,
a fractured world

is brought together in awe.

["The Blue Danube" playing]

And just seven months later,

Neil Armstrong takes that unforgettable
giant leap for mankind.

They've got the flag up now,

and you can see the stars and stripes
on the lunar surface.

...and you can see the stars
and stripes on the lunar surface.

Beautiful, just beautiful.

In the race for the moon,
America has finally come in first.

Hello, Neil and Buzz.

I just can't tell you how proud we all are
of what you've done.

For every American, this has to be
the proudest day of our lives.

Because of what you have done,
the heavens

have become a part of man's world.

The spectacular feat is watched
by more than 500 million people,

one-fifth of the global population.

And it inspires generations
of astronauts and engineers.

It's only the first stage of NASA's
moon domination.

In the three years that follow,
ten more Americans land on the moon.

As for the Soviets, they abandon
any ambitions of getting there,

instead focusing on
a different space dream,

launching an orbital space station
called Mir, or "Peace."

It's the Soviets' intention to have
a permanently manned complex

of research laboratories
and space factories,

making drugs and electronic components.

And they're well ahead of the Americans.

Fast forward to 1991
and our unlucky cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev

floating inside Mir
as the Soviet Union collapses beneath him.

He ends up staying in space
nearly a year

before getting permission to return
to the now Kazakhstani spaceport.

The last participant in a space race that
has run its course and left him behind.

With the Soviet Union's fall,
the Cold War is over,

and competition in space gives way
to a new era of cooperation

between the US
and a new, friendlier Russia.

In 1998, a new chapter
in space exploration begins

as construction starts
on the first International Space Station.

It's the largest man-made object in space,
bigger than an NFL football field.

It uses 90 kilowatts of power,
the equivalent of 90,000 Sputniks.

And eight miles of wire connect
the circuitry on board.

It's the third-biggest object
seen in space

and can be viewed from Earth
with the naked eye.

It is also the most expensive object
ever built.

Five different space agencies
collaborated on its assembly...

and astronauts from 18 different nations
have worked on board together.

When its first crew settles in in 2000,

on board is our old friend
Sergei Krikalev.

We are a small part
of the large international team,

which has in the year past established
this new outpost of the planet.

The exploration of space
is a powerful symbol

of the promise of a new year and
of the possibilities of a new millennium.

Let the real Space Odyssey 2001 proceed.

The ISS becomes
a feel-good symbol

of international collaboration.

Fifty years after the moon landing,

NASA announces plans to return as part
of their most ambitious mission yet.

The investments announced today

will empower the people of NASA

to improving our quality of life today

and preparing to send American astronauts
to Mars in the 2030s.

But Mars is
160 times further away than the moon.

It will take eight months to get there.

Why go to the expense
and risk of going all that way?

Well, the race to space
began through fear,

as a reaction to the threat of an enemy.

But while reaching for the moon,

we gained a new perspective
on our home planet.

Today, new threats are re-focusing
our gaze back on our little blue marble.

In order to preserve it,

the nations of the world will need
to work together.

The next space race may not be
nation against nation,

but humanity against the clock.