1
00:00:09,059 --> 00:00:14,010
It is a memory of a very proud time.

2
00:00:14,010 --> 00:00:17,061
We were happy to see it succeed.

3
00:00:17,061 --> 00:00:24,250
It had been alive in our minds for many years
before that date and internally, we were prepared

4
00:00:24,250 --> 00:00:26,220
to see it come off.

5
00:00:26,220 --> 00:00:28,769
but we were not quite sure whether or not
it would.

6
00:00:28,769 --> 00:00:36,190
we were under tension of course, but it was
a tension full of optimism and full of faith

7
00:00:36,190 --> 00:00:42,000
in the success.

8
00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:47,140
My wife and i were invited to come down to
the Cape and be on the grandstand and we were

9
00:00:47,140 --> 00:00:54,110
also asked to take care of the famous visitor,
Professor Oberth and his wife.

10
00:00:54,110 --> 00:01:00,589
They came from Germany and of course it was
Professor Oberth who had predicted, in his

11
00:01:00,589 --> 00:01:04,049
vision, the lunar flight for many years.

12
00:01:04,049 --> 00:01:08,180
Actually, I would say for about forty or fifty
years.

13
00:01:08,180 --> 00:01:11,770
It was a particularly proud and happy moment.

14
00:01:11,770 --> 00:01:18,800
It was a gigantic program of course and the
management problems were extremely large and

15
00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:21,000
oftentimes, seemed overwhelming.

16
00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:27,439
Fortunately, there were some circumstances
which were very helpful.

17
00:01:27,439 --> 00:01:33,969
The fact that our President was very much
behind it, so was the Vice President and Congress

18
00:01:33,969 --> 00:01:41,299
was behind the project even the Bureau of
the Budget.

19
00:01:41,299 --> 00:01:46,079
It was a dream come true and everyone of us
was extremely happy of course.

20
00:01:46,079 --> 00:01:52,630
First, when the astronauts landed and even
more so when they landed back on Earth becuase

21
00:01:52,630 --> 00:01:59,950
that was the completed and fulfilled dream.

22
00:01:59,950 --> 00:02:06,420
Dr. von Braun was an extremely unusual person.

23
00:02:06,420 --> 00:02:11,780
In fact he was a genius in five or six different
fields at the same time.

24
00:02:11,780 --> 00:02:21,439
First, I would name his visionary foresight
and his creative mind that he had in everything

25
00:02:21,439 --> 00:02:24,670
he did and wanted to do.

26
00:02:24,670 --> 00:02:29,500
He began to dream about the moon and about
travel into space when he was about thirteen

27
00:02:29,500 --> 00:02:33,209
or fourteen years old and that dream never
left him.

28
00:02:33,209 --> 00:02:37,900
He lived up his very end.

29
00:02:37,900 --> 00:02:46,030
Second, he was a superb engineer not for the
smaller things like fixing water faucets around

30
00:02:46,030 --> 00:02:51,549
the house and things of that kind but he was
a brilliant engineer when it came to building

31
00:02:51,549 --> 00:02:58,910
rockets and spacecraft and the manyfold systems
needed to make them successful.

32
00:02:58,910 --> 00:03:07,430
He was furthermore very good at presenting
and promoting his ideas to the powerful people

33
00:03:07,430 --> 00:03:12,219
in our government and that went up to the
President himself, to the Vice President,

34
00:03:12,219 --> 00:03:19,489
to the people in Congress, the people in the
Bureau of the budget, to the Defense Department.

35
00:03:19,489 --> 00:03:28,049
He understood to approach them inside their
interests in space and to realize that work

36
00:03:28,049 --> 00:03:33,040
for the space program is something of great
importance not only for the technicians but

37
00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:39,209
also for the politicians and for those who
are responsible for the well-being of our

38
00:03:39,209 --> 00:03:40,209
nation.

39
00:03:40,209 --> 00:03:46,980
Second, he was equally good at promoting his
ideas of spaceflight with the public.

40
00:03:46,980 --> 00:03:54,079
He wrote and published about five hundred
articles during his lifetime about technical

41
00:03:54,079 --> 00:04:00,579
and scientific aspects and about the great
importance and meaning of spaceflight and

42
00:04:00,579 --> 00:04:04,010
space exploration for our civilization in
general.

43
00:04:04,010 --> 00:04:09,790
He was very good at that. he could charm any
audience and he did so.

44
00:04:09,790 --> 00:04:15,749
He talked not only to engineers and scientists,
he talked to lawyers, to real estate people,

45
00:04:15,749 --> 00:04:24,470
even the people interested in sports and to
a wide cross-section of the pubic and he did

46
00:04:24,470 --> 00:04:26,300
that very successfully.

47
00:04:26,300 --> 00:04:35,750
Then, furthermore he was an extremely successful
team builder and he managed to maintain his

48
00:04:35,750 --> 00:04:38,000
team from the very beginning.

49
00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:44,120
that was back in about 1932 when he started
out building up his team.

50
00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:50,840
This team grew enormously over the years of
course, particularly in this country.

51
00:04:50,840 --> 00:04:56,639
The team that he built around himself was
of unusual stability.

52
00:04:56,639 --> 00:05:04,110
In fact, by the time he had to leave the team
in Huntsville in 1970, the German group was

53
00:05:04,110 --> 00:05:09,669
still almost intact as it had been through
many many years.

54
00:05:09,669 --> 00:05:12,530
It was a privilege to work for him.

55
00:05:12,530 --> 00:05:17,710
Everybody who was in his team was happy and
proud to work with and for him.

56
00:05:17,710 --> 00:05:25,810
He was a tough task master, no doubt about
that and he demanded the utmost from his coworkers,

57
00:05:25,810 --> 00:05:34,110
but it was given happily even and everyone
who worked for him and with him had the feeling

58
00:05:34,110 --> 00:05:40,699
that he did and could do better work because
you worked for von Braun.

59
00:05:40,699 --> 00:05:48,940
Of course, it is easily understandable that
he did not have time for anything because

60
00:05:48,940 --> 00:05:52,889
it was so many things in which he was continuously
involved.

61
00:05:52,889 --> 00:05:59,550
But, he had a few rules for himself which
helped him very much in achieving what he

62
00:05:59,550 --> 00:06:05,699
did and in saving and having time for those
things which were important to him.

63
00:06:05,699 --> 00:06:12,669
For example, he said he would never spend
and waste time in grieving about things which

64
00:06:12,669 --> 00:06:14,419
he could not change.

65
00:06:14,419 --> 00:06:20,419
He said, "when i am confronted with something
which is really bad, I simply ask myself can

66
00:06:20,419 --> 00:06:26,220
i do something about it to better it?if I
can I do it, if i can't i push it out of my

67
00:06:26,220 --> 00:06:28,860
mind, because it would be lost time.

68
00:06:28,860 --> 00:06:36,270
Second, he worked fast, he worked quickly
and efficiently and third, he worked with

69
00:06:36,270 --> 00:06:38,360
his mind continuously.

70
00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:47,129
In the car, when he went up and down in the
elevator, his mind was continuously at work.

71
00:06:47,129 --> 00:06:51,400
On the other hand, he also understood to take
off once and a while.

72
00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:58,039
Weekends, when he was in town, he spent time
with his family. he had two or three boats

73
00:06:58,039 --> 00:07:00,470
on the river, the Tennessee.

74
00:07:00,470 --> 00:07:06,430
I remember very well, in the beginning when
we arrived in Huntsville, that was in the

75
00:07:06,430 --> 00:07:11,440
early 50s, he was the one who pioneered waterskiing
on the Tennessee which by that time began

76
00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:14,849
and all of the sudden people waterskied.

77
00:07:14,849 --> 00:07:18,520
Then he was a very avid scuba diver.

78
00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:25,759
I think he dove in all the warm oceans around
the globe at one time or another.

79
00:07:25,759 --> 00:07:30,930
But still he had a lot of for the work he
was supposed to do and he did so brilliantly,

80
00:07:30,930 --> 00:07:33,819
namely building rockets and spacecraft.

81
00:07:33,819 --> 00:07:39,199
I remember that very often when there was
a new project to be discussed, he came to

82
00:07:39,199 --> 00:07:45,669
the meeting with his technical people and
talked about it and it became evident immediately

83
00:07:45,669 --> 00:07:50,711
that in his own time perhaps at night, perhaps
early in the morning or late at night, he

84
00:07:50,711 --> 00:07:52,450
had done all his homework.

85
00:07:52,450 --> 00:07:58,430
he was completely familiar with the problems
involved. he could ask the right questions,

86
00:07:58,430 --> 00:08:05,159
could ask all of the questions that had to
be asked and so his work alone and with his

87
00:08:05,159 --> 00:08:09,509
team members was always extremely efficient
and successful.

88
00:08:09,509 --> 00:08:12,240
In fact, he was always full of jokes.

89
00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:19,550
There was hardly a meeting, particularly social
meetings when he did not tell stories.

90
00:08:19,550 --> 00:08:25,599
One thing is very interesting to note, his
secretary of twenty-five years, Bonnie Holmes,

91
00:08:25,599 --> 00:08:34,360
told us that story one day, she said, "Sometimes
von Braun has to hold a meeting with unpleasant

92
00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:42,169
problems and the people came in, I saw them
going into the room and their heads were low

93
00:08:42,169 --> 00:08:47,600
and they had sinister attitudes and didn't
talk much.

94
00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:53,990
Then they went in with von Braun and it didn't
take longer than five minutes when loud laughter

95
00:08:53,990 --> 00:08:56,180
was coming from that room.

96
00:08:56,180 --> 00:09:05,220
I knew von Braun had uttered a joke and had
brightened their minds up."

97
00:09:05,220 --> 00:09:13,860
At the time when the Apollo program came to
its final test, there were other events in

98
00:09:13,860 --> 00:09:20,000
our country and on earth that weighed heavily
on the minds of many people.

99
00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:24,070
Vietnam, racial unrest, and others.

100
00:09:24,070 --> 00:09:29,940
We hoped that with our project, with the Lunar
project, if it were successful, we could help

101
00:09:29,940 --> 00:09:38,779
to divert, to some extent the depressing thoughts
on many minds and we hoped that we could show

102
00:09:38,779 --> 00:09:45,800
that there really is a future for mankind
and in particular for our technology, for

103
00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:55,370
our work for the exploration of space.

104
00:09:55,370 --> 00:09:57,800
It was more than seeing eye to eye.

105
00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:05,910
Kennedy visited our center here and he received
of course the royal tour through our test

106
00:10:05,910 --> 00:10:06,910
stands.

107
00:10:06,910 --> 00:10:08,390
The two of them were happy as young boys.

108
00:10:08,390 --> 00:10:13,290
They were sitting in that car, i saw them
drive by and they were laughing at each other

109
00:10:13,290 --> 00:10:18,120
and talking , they were just like young boys
who were very happy together.

110
00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:25,430
And von Braun told us later that when they
drove through the Arsenal, through the Marshall

111
00:10:25,430 --> 00:10:31,570
Center, and von Braun could show him the facilities
we have here from the outside and some from

112
00:10:31,570 --> 00:10:37,339
the inside, Kennedy said " for heaven's sake,
I wish i could take my Congressional members

113
00:10:37,339 --> 00:10:46,120
through this and they would get a different
attitude towards the space program."

114
00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:53,610
The Disney story was proceeded by the publication
of in the Collier's magazine.

115
00:10:53,610 --> 00:11:03,300
And these were very successful in concentrating
the interest of the people on space and on

116
00:11:03,300 --> 00:11:04,300
spaceflight.

117
00:11:04,300 --> 00:11:11,600
The Disney people heard about it and, the
fact is that one of Disney's people, Ward

118
00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:18,079
Kimball, he remembered, he said to Disney,
"I just read these articles in the Collier's

119
00:11:18,079 --> 00:11:22,110
journal and they really got me interested.

120
00:11:22,110 --> 00:11:26,130
I think that something we should put into
our own program."

121
00:11:26,130 --> 00:11:32,029
And disney asked him to make a little plan
and outlay of what he had in mind.

122
00:11:32,029 --> 00:11:38,579
Kimball did and Disney was immediately very
much interested.

123
00:11:38,579 --> 00:11:45,930
From this point, the three programs were developed
that Disney did with von Braun.

124
00:11:45,930 --> 00:11:56,970
They went over very well as movies and then
Eisenhower, one of Eisenhower's men called

125
00:11:56,970 --> 00:12:02,180
Disney and said "please send me a copy of
your film."Disney did and Eisenhower showed

126
00:12:02,180 --> 00:12:08,209
it to his cabinet members and his staff and
i don't know to whom else.

127
00:12:08,209 --> 00:12:11,730
Anyway, it seems to have impressed people.

128
00:12:11,730 --> 00:12:19,399
And then, not long after that, Eisenhower
made the decision to establish NASA and to

129
00:12:19,399 --> 00:12:22,930
develop space as a national undertaking.

130
00:12:22,930 --> 00:12:31,170
One of the Disney people then said, 'Hey,
that shows that Eisenhower became interested

131
00:12:31,170 --> 00:12:32,680
because of our movie."

132
00:12:32,680 --> 00:12:38,240
Von Braun heard about that and he immediately
wrote a letter to Disney saying "for heaven's

133
00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:40,330
sake, don't say that!

134
00:12:40,330 --> 00:12:47,040
It would be wrong, it would be counterproductive
and please do not say that!"

135
00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:54,490
The decision by Eisenhower to develop space
further is Eisenhower's decision and he is

136
00:12:54,490 --> 00:12:59,130
not influenced and need not be influenced
by people like us.

137
00:12:59,130 --> 00:13:00,760
Please do not say that.

138
00:13:00,760 --> 00:13:08,820
Disney understood fully and left it out.

139
00:13:08,820 --> 00:13:15,230
The main reason why the management of this
huge program which involved about four hundred

140
00:13:15,230 --> 00:13:21,220
thousand people at the peak of the program,
the reason why this could be managed and did

141
00:13:21,220 --> 00:13:27,029
function so well was the existence of one
person, that person was Jim Webb.

142
00:13:27,029 --> 00:13:36,329
Webb was nominated by President Kennedy and
asked by President Kennedy to become the Administrator

143
00:13:36,329 --> 00:13:38,389
for NASA.

144
00:13:38,389 --> 00:13:39,390
He did.

145
00:13:39,390 --> 00:13:45,180
It is interesting to note that Webb said,
"Mr. President, if you want me to I'll be

146
00:13:45,180 --> 00:13:50,670
glad to but under one condition, I work for
you, I don't work for the Bureau of the Budget

147
00:13:50,670 --> 00:13:53,940
or for Congress or for the Vice President,
I work for you.

148
00:13:53,940 --> 00:13:57,880
If we can agree on that, i will do it."

149
00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:02,720
Well both people agreed and Webb did an excellent
job, a brilliant job.

150
00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:08,970
Without him and without his superior management
capabilities, the thing would not have happened,

151
00:14:08,970 --> 00:14:12,150
would not have succeeded.

152
00:14:12,150 --> 00:14:17,949
There were a number of plans.

153
00:14:17,949 --> 00:14:26,940
Von Braun had his plans which were more or
less set out years before.

154
00:14:26,940 --> 00:14:30,959
And they were modified slightly in the course
of time, but not too much.

155
00:14:30,959 --> 00:14:37,920
What von Braun wanted to do after the Apollo
flight was to go on with the space station

156
00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:40,269
and with the Mars flight.

157
00:14:40,269 --> 00:14:42,360
The expedition to Mars.

158
00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:48,610
And at the same time with more exploration
of the Moon and in between, unmanned flights

159
00:14:48,610 --> 00:14:52,300
to further out in the solar system, to the
planets.

160
00:14:52,300 --> 00:14:55,190
That was roughly what he wanted to do.

161
00:14:55,190 --> 00:15:01,449
He still began to some extent with that program
with Skylab.

162
00:15:01,449 --> 00:15:05,100
Skylab became our first station in space.

163
00:15:05,100 --> 00:15:11,259
You may remember that there were three crews
of three people, three astronauts each and

164
00:15:11,259 --> 00:15:13,570
they together spent seven months in orbit.

165
00:15:13,570 --> 00:15:16,990
A very very successful project.

166
00:15:16,990 --> 00:15:23,079
Unfortunately it was terminated after the
first flight, which was very unfortunate.

167
00:15:23,079 --> 00:15:29,149
On the other hand, von Braun, he was always
looking far into the future, but at the same

168
00:15:29,149 --> 00:15:31,389
time there was a lot of realism.

169
00:15:31,389 --> 00:15:38,730
He had a hand on the pulse of the people and
on the government and he realized that the

170
00:15:38,730 --> 00:15:39,730
problems.

171
00:15:39,730 --> 00:15:48,440
I remember him saying several times that one
of the problems is that we ran out of moons.

172
00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:55,899
That means simply we don't have a relatively
easy target close by which can fire up everybody

173
00:15:55,899 --> 00:15:58,990
in the government and among the people.

174
00:15:58,990 --> 00:16:05,700
Mars is still a couple years away and particularly
a few hundred thousand miles away.

175
00:16:05,700 --> 00:16:15,699
So it will not be too easy to get the same
support for an early Mars project as we could

176
00:16:15,699 --> 00:16:17,779
get it for the Moon.

177
00:16:17,779 --> 00:16:22,630
But in general he said, "what we have to do
is to keep up our good work to make sure that

178
00:16:22,630 --> 00:16:28,480
we don't have any technical mishaps and we
have to make sure that we keep the public