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the controllers in Africa that I had

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were trace rescued by the nigerian army

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Zanzibar we'd work under the protection

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of the Queen's royal rifles or the

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gordon highlanders who would surround

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the tracking station during contact

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periods bring the controllers back to

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the quarters station to gunner at the

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top of the stairs became so violent at

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that site that we shut it down after

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only three years but these young folks

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at the sites where I as our ears and

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voice as the spacecraft passed overhead

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and for their age they were given

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incredible responsibilities and many of

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them grew to be the leaders of project

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Apollo he first ventured into space in

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Project Mercury and each one of our

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launches was a chapter in the history

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book a space flight our mistakes were

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violent they're brutal there are visible

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two of our first three Atlas rockets

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blew up shortly after they left the

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launchpad then we launched our first

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redstone rocket we sent the firing

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command the engine ignited lifted

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florence's off the launch pad then the

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engine shut down to some miracle

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remained upright in the launch day of

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the escape tower fire going up to about

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4,000 feet and then came plummeting down

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to viewing stand senators and

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congressmen ran for cover our rocket

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engineers were speaking in German we

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didn't understand what they're saying we

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literally did not know what to do but we

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were fortunate those days because our

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nation understood there is no

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achievement without risk and there

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certainly weren't any guarantees in this

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new business that we called space light

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but six Americans and space and our

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first two years and there were close

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calls and every one of those missions

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especially in John Glenn's and Scotty

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carpenters but we got every one of our

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crewmen back and by the time that we had

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finished with Project Mercury we had

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learned that man could live in could

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perform in space but we learned much

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more we learned of leaders in leadership

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leaders must have integrity their

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teachers their team builders they're

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great listeners and when there's trouble

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they're out front we also learned a lot

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about ourselves because many of us came

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in from aircraft flight testing our egos

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were bigger than this room it was tough

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at times to get people to work together

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but we knew that success would only come

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as a team so we became one and we

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learned to check our ego at the door

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every day when we came to work so he

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moved into the Gemini program and joomla

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was designed to develop and test and

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prove the technologies that we needed in

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order to go to the moon one of these

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technologies related to the tools and

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the techniques we used in designing our

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mission trajectories during Project

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Mercury for trajectory design we had a

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very large group of women about a

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hundred of them they were all

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mathematicians and we called these women

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computers computers were people to us in

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the early days not machines and we armed

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these women with computers and they

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traveled with us from a headquarters at

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Langley field and Virginia down to the

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Cape for the launches they get down

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there they punch away a keyboard and the

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machines they write the answers down

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they would plot it in graph paper and

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these women would do this endlessly day

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after day just to design a single

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mercury trajectory this approach wasn't

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going to get us to the moon it wouldn't

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even get to space class around the mood

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and Gemini so he finally did it

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computers and each one of these machines

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was a big as a house five of them filled

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the entire first floor no new Mission

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Control Center in Houston they even put

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a small 4,000 word computer on board the

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Gemini spacecraft but the problem was we

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had no computer experience so he went to

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the college's the universities

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throughout our nation brought in the

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young people who are working with

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computers and laboratories we went to

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the army missile command at Fort Bliss

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and Texas and broaden the Corporal

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corporals and sergeants of their

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discharge because the army had been

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working with computers in the ground air

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missile program and we took these new

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recruits and merged him with the mercury

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veterans and we started working in the

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very edge of all knowledge all

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technology and all experience now he

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first started off in space Soviet Union

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had about a two-and-a-half-year lead on

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us but what had white stepped outside of

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a spacecraft and the Gemini 4 mission we

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had now narrowed that lead down to mere

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months and then on the next two missions

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for the first time we set american

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manned space flight records first for

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mission duration and then we were on

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dilute two spacecrafts when we had

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accomplished that round of a we had

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developed the technologies we needed to

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reach further into space

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and we had the confidence to use these

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new technologies but we continued to

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learn of ourselves and of our work we

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learned of discipline of focus so

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intense upon the objective that we would

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never do it I think personally that

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would compromise achieving that

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objective we also found the value of

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high morale because we now knew were

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succeeding because our beliefs and our

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mission our team and in ourselves so I

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moved into Apollo we're in the consul's

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Friday afternoon january 27th 1967 one

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month from launch testing the Apollo

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command and service module crew members

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were Gus Grissom ed white and Roger

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Chaffee we had worked with gussa dead

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and the mercury in the Gemini program

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and Roger was a navy rookie preparing

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for as a first spaceflight but he was

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already pretty well known within the

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ranks because he is one of the pilots

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who took the pictures over Cuba during

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the missile crisis that's that Friday

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had been gone very well we had problems

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with communications with problem with

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life support crew reported noxious odor

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inside the spacecraft test procedures

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just didn't fit we struggled through

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that afternoon frequently calling a halt

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mcountdown sorted out write out the new

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sequence continue on to at 627 that

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evening we had to call another halt

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before we transferred from external

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power in the launchpad until internal

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power in the spacecraft and four minutes

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after entering that countdown hold we're

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startled by screams coming from our crew

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and we listen to our crews screams as

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they died and with their death came

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anger anger at ourselves because we knew

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we were responsible for America's first

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space disaster we wrote two more words

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into our vocabulary as mission

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controllers tough and competent tough

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meaning we will never get shook for my

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responsibilities because we are forever

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accountable for what we do or in the

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case of Apollo on and our crew what we

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fail to do competent will never again

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take anything for granted will never

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stop learning from now on the teams and

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Mission Control will be perfect we

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designed the badge the emblem of the

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Mission Control team and the price for

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admission to our ranks ins where this

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lapel pin discipline morale toughness

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competence commitment team work as a

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team we may never fail on our line of

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business the boss is the flight director

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he has a very simple job description it

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is only one sentence long it says the

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flight director it may take any actions

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necessary for crew safety and mission

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success during the course of the mission

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there is no higher authority and the

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flight director supported by a team of

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between 15 and 21 controllers people

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specialize in trajectories and

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spacecraft systems we have facility

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operators we have planners they have

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procedures writers who have a medical

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doctor who looks after the team on the

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ground as well as the crew in space we

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have an astronaut provides

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communications during the course of the

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mission mission controllers a young

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they're generally in the early to the

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mid 20s flight directors in their early

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to mid thirties and in July twentieth

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nineteen sixty-nine a team of young

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Americans average age 26 took Neil

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Armstrong Buzz Aldrin and and the crew

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at the world to the surface of the Moon

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and we literally fought every step of

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the way to get there when we finally

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shut the engine down the lunar surface

211
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that day we had less than 17 seconds of

212
00:08:02,419 --> 00:07:59,969
fuel remaining and we're in the process

213
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of counting down to a very difficult and

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very risky land abort decision but when

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they shot that engine down and when the

216
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crew walked on the surface and then they

217
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lifted off and we got those guys back

218
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home we had fulfilled the pledge that we

219
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had made to are now dead president john

220
00:08:23,569 --> 00:08:21,179
f kennedy in the crew of apollo 1 we

221
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launched again in november apollo 12 as

222
00:08:27,829 --> 00:08:25,199
we left the launchpad we hit twice by

223
00:08:29,899 --> 00:08:27,839
lightning we had three crewmen inside a

224
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dead spacecraft thundering up towards

225
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orbit the other thing working was

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booster propulsion booster guidance

227
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Mission Control had two minutes to save

228
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that mission if the reacted bells to the

229
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fuel cells had closed we voice

230
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instructions up to the crew to throw a

231
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very obscure switch SCE docs who didn't

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understand what we wanted repeated over

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and over and over and finally all being

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caught on through the proper switch

235
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telemetry came back online

236
00:08:57,620 --> 00:08:55,770
team could get to work the verified

237
00:08:59,420 --> 00:08:57,630
reactants were flown in the fuel cells

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we brought the fuel cells back online in

239
00:09:03,350 --> 00:09:00,810
the power system we secured the

240
00:09:06,110 --> 00:09:03,360
navigation system everything kept

241
00:09:08,510 --> 00:09:06,120
working got the corrupt in orbit did he

242
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laid injection to the moon by one Rev

243
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that day so we could check the

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spacecraft out as thoroughly as possible