Beyond the Moon Horizon

-PRESIDENT 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 achievements

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.

No single space project in this period

will be more impressive to mankind

or more important for the long-range exploration of space.

And none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

In July 1969, Apollo 11 lifted off here at Cape Canaveral

to take two Americans to the surface of the moon and back,

ahead of John Kennedy's already ambitious schedule.

15 years later, in the knowledge that the President's prime aim

was to find anything that would take the public's mind off

his recent political humiliation at the Bay of Pigs

and win some kind of propaganda victory over the Russians,

the idea of a manned mission to the moon

seems an outrageous leap of the political imagination.

But it paid off.

The landing in the Sea of Tranquillity was a crowning moment

in the history of mankind.

It united the world as never before or since.

And it was all-American.

The first part of this programme tells the story of that moment,

as recorded by the onboard cameras

and as we all saw it back here on Earth.

Today, though, that first moon landing

is more than just a great adventure story to be retold.

It has particular relevance because, in many ways,

it's about to be repeated.

After a decade of relative inactivity,

we are about to take another great leap for mankind.

So the second part of this film, then,

explores the missions that are planned as part of that leap.

They are wide-ranging and ambitious

and, perhaps, more clearly appreciated

in the light of what happened in that extraordinary week

that began here on the morning of July 16th, 1969.

Ten, nine, eight,

seven, six, five, four...

-Ignition.

-..three, two, one, zero.

Liftoff. We have a liftoff.

32 minutes past the hour.

Liftoff on Apollo 11.

That's a go. Roger.

-PRESIDENT KENNEDY:

-We set sail on this new sea

because there is new knowledge to be gained

and new rights to be won.

We choose to go to the moon...

APPLAUSE

We choose to go to the moon...

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things,

not because they are easy,

but because they are hard.

-Clear of the tower.

-Tower cleared.

-PATRICK MOORE:

-Well, another perfect launch

of the kind we've come to expect.

And I think it's really rather staggering, you know,

to remember the first men on the moon are really on their way.

Houston, you're good at one minute.

MUSIC: "Also sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Straus

JAMES BURKE: An estimated world television audience

of 600 million people this afternoon watched the Apollo 11 spacecraft

launched into a perfect blue sky above Cape Kennedy in Florida

on the first stage of its four-day journey to the moon,

724 milliseconds late.

At this moment, the three astronauts on board -

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins -

are nearly 11,000 miles out from Earth

going towards the moon at a speed of over 11,000 miles an hour

and slowing as they go,

because Earth's gravity is trying to pull them back all the time.

I've got the morning news here, if you're interested. Over.

Yeah, we sure are. We're ready to copy and comment.

OK.

First off, it looks like it's going to be impossible

to get away from the fact that

you guys are dominating all the news back here on Earth.

Even Pravda in Russia is headlining the mission

and calls Neil "the tsar of the ship".

I think, maybe, they got the wrong mission!

11, this is Houston.

We're getting a good picture of Buzz now.

We've come to the conclusion that this has been far more

than three men on a voyage to the moon.

We feel that this stands as a symbol

of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind

to explore the unknown.

The acceptance of this challenge was inevitable.

When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers...

..the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained...

..what is man if thou art mindful of him?

# Picture yourself in a boat on a river

# With tangerine trees and marmalade skies

# Somebody calls you You answer quite slowly

# A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

# Cellophane flowers of yellow and green

# Towering over your head

# Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes

# And she's gone... #

-NEWSREADER:

-There is a great deal of interest here

in the flight of Apollo 11.

The half-million American servicemen on duty in South Vietnam

have been reading about it for weeks in Stars And Stripes,

the daily military newspaper,

and in several of the English-language Saigon papers.

Well, it really didn't impress me too much until today,

when I was talking to a former Vietcong, who works for my company.

I was talking to him through an interpreter

and we were trying to explain to him

the United States is putting a man on the moon.

And as much as we explained to him,

he just refused to believe it was possible.

And it really hit home at this time

that the United States is accomplishing a fantastic feat.

PILOTS TALK INDISTINCTLY

-PRESIDENT KENNEDY:

-For space science has no conscience of its own.

Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man.

Whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace

or a new terrifying theatre of war.

-ASTRONAUT:

-7-6-4...

..0-3-0.

0-0-0.

2-9-3.

JAMES BURKE: And any second now, we should hear Eagle....

Eagle, Houston. Everything's looking good here. Over.

They have it. They have a signal. They've picked up the lunar module

with Armstrong and Aldrin on their way down to the moon.

So let me shut up and let's just listen to this drop

towards the lunar surface by Eagle, the lunar module.

Eagle, Houston. We read you now. You're go for PDI. Over.

Roger, Eagle. Undock.

Roger. How does it look?

-Unbelievable.

-Rog.

Tail flap and collars and going around the horn.

Make your go-now-goes based on the data you have.

1202.

We've got a reading on the 1202 program alarm.

We're going that line.

Roger. We got you. We are going that line.

-We are currently go.

-OK. Have you still got landing radar guidance?

-Confirmed.

-OK. Is it converged?

-Has it converged?

-Yes.

-OK, all flight controllers, go, now go for landing. Retro?

-Go.

-Guidance?

-Go.

-Control?

-Go.

-Countdown?

-Go.

-Surgeon?

-Go.

Cap Com, we're go for landing.

Eagle, Houston. You're go for landing. Over.

-Bravo one, bracket 1201 alarm.

-1201 alarm.

Set time for go flight. We are go. Same time. We are go.

OK, all flight controllers, hang tight.

Four forward. Drifting to the right a little.

30 seconds. 30 seconds.

Forward drift.

20 feet down. Two and a half.

Picking up some dust.

Faint shadow.

Contact right. OK, engine stop.

APA at a descent.

-We've got shutdown.

-We copy you're down, Eagle.

Tranquillity Base here.

The Eagle has landed.

Roger, Tranquillity.

We copy you on the ground.

You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue.

We're breathing again. Thanks a lot.

OK, keep the chatter down in this room.

E1, stay?

-Retro?

-Stay.

-Guidance.

-Stay.

-Control?

-Stay.

-Countdown?

-Stay.

-ENC?

-Stay.

-Recom?

-Stay.

-Surgeon?

-Stay.

Cap Com, we're stay for T1.

Roger, Eagle. And you're stay. Over.

Eagle, you are OK for T1.

JAMES BURKE: Well, this is a moment, if there ever was a moment,

for Patrick Moore...

Well, I really feel absolutely overcome.

I've lived with this idea all my life.

Now that it's really happened, I can hardly believe it.

No admiration can be too great for those magnificent men,

who have brought this strange, spidery module down on the moon.

And this, obviously, is a moment

that humanity is never going to forget.

Check and verify TV circuit breaker in.

Roger. TV circuit breaker is in.

JAMES BURKE: And here's the picture...

And we're getting the picture on the TV!

You've got a good picture, huh?

There's a great deal of contrast

and it's currently upside down on our monitor,

but we can make out a fair amount of detail.

JAMES BURKE: There is Armstrong.

You can see him moving.

I'm at the foot of the ladder.

The LM foot pads are only, er...

..er, depressed in the surface about one or two inches.

I'm going to step off the LM now.

That's one small step for man...

..one giant leap for mankind.

It has a stark beauty all of its own.

It's like much of the high desert of the United States.

It's different, but it's very pretty out here.

James Burke: And there's Aldrin.

Armstrong is going to try and guide Aldrin out as he comes backwards.

How far are my feet from the...?

OK, you're right at the edge of the porch.

Making sure not to lock it on my way out!

ARMSTRONG LAUGHS

There you go.

-Beautiful view.

-Isn't that something?

Magnificent sight out here.

Magnificent desolation.

OK, Houston. I'm going to change lenses on you.

Roger, Neil.

JAMES BURKE: And here, a moment while Neil Armstrong

changes the lens on the television camera.

When he takes it out to its distant position,

we'll get a wider view of everything that's going on.

40, 50 feet. Why don't you turn around and let...

..let them get a view from there

and see what the field of view looks like?

You're backing into the cable.

JAMES BURKE: And there it is. The lunar module.

I'll get a couple of panoramas with this view.

You're going too fast on the panorama sweeps.

You're going to have to stop for...

I haven't stopped. I haven't put it down yet.

That's the first picture in the panorama, right there.

Roger.

JAMES BURKE: The Sea of Tranquillity.

OK, I'm going to move it.

OK, here's another good one.

JAMES BURKE: Fantastic.

The blackness in the sky...

OK, we've got that one.

Roger. We see both...

How's that for a final...?

OK, that looks good there, Neil.

Yeah, it looks good.

JAMES BURKE: And we've just heard that all over the world

there are 33 countries who have stayed up

to take these pictures live.

This is CBS News.

Coloured coverage of man on the moon.

This evening, a walk on the moon.

Now, here again, is Walter Cronkite.

Well, for thousands of years now,

it's been man's dream to walk on the moon.

Right now, after seeing it happen,

knowing that it happened,

it still seems like a dream.

So let's go now to Mike Wallace

at our CBS News space headquarters in London

for a report on the world reaction to this event today. Mike...?

The headline of the Daily Mirror here tells it all for London.

Let me read it...

"The date, July 21 AD, 1969.

"Man walks on the moon.

"Astronaut Neil Armstrong launched a new era for mankind today,

"when he stepped from the lunar module.

"America, a land of frontiersmen, has launched a new frontier."

All of the newspapers here, of course,

have given banner headlines to the story.

And on the television channels, all of them this morning,

they are replaying the tapes of the astronauts' walk on the moon.

But, of course, there is no sense of holiday here.

It is a working Monday morning.

But it seems that everybody you talk to in London,

watched television all night through.

And, of course, there is nothing but admiration for Armstrong and Aldrin.

I suppose it's an achievement which

incorporates all the work,

all the discoveries of the mathematicians and the scientists

and the space experts

almost from the earliest days of mathematics and science.

And it incorporates the technologies and the experience of many nations.

And now I think our greatest feeling of all

is our prayers for the safe return of these three very great men.

JAMES BURKE: And for those of you who have just tuned in,

one of the astronauts walking on the surface of the moon.

And here comes Mike Collins, 70 miles up in the command module.

Roger. The EVA is progressing beautifully.

I guess you're about the only person around

that doesn't have TV coverage of the scene.

That's all right. I don't mind a bit.

Is the lighting for you there decent?

Yes, indeed. They've got the flag up now.

You can see the Stars and Stripes on the lunar surface.

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

Arthur, you've been dreaming of this moment long before many of us did.

Beginning back in the mid-1930s,

you were writing about going up to the moon.

What was your feeling when we saw this thing happen today?

Well, I don't think I did feel anything. I think we all sort of...

Time just stopped for me.

And I think it stopped for everybody. It was just a...

A hole in history, you know? And the whole world's...

Everything. My heart stopped. Breathing stopped.

I can't imagine a moment... to equal this.

The only thing I could imagine is if some fellow came forward

and could say positively we're not going to have any more war.

I think this is a step in that direction because...

..this sort of thing is making our stupidities here on Earth

seem more and more intolerable.

And I think this may be the greatest result of the space programme.

Come in, Mr Heinlein...

I agree with what Arthur said a while ago

about the possible effect

on war on this planet.

But I think this whole business today, this week,

has been thought of, in many cases, in too small terms.

This is the greatest event in all the history of the human race

up to this time. This is...

Today is New Year's Day of the year one.

If we don't change the calendar...

historians will do so.

The human race will not die, even if we spoil this planet,

the human race will not die.

It's going to go on and on and on.

For those who haven't read the plaque, it says...

"Here men from the planet Earth first stepped foot upon the moon.

"We came in peace for all mankind.

"July 1969 AD."

Roger. Our guidance recommendation is you're cleared for takeoff.

Roger. Understand. We're number one on the runway!

Work stage on our assent proceed.

Status beautiful.

26, 36 feet per second up.

Very true.

Very quiet ride. There's that moon crater down there.

1,000 feet high, 80 feet per second.

Vertical rise.

Eagle, Houston. Request manual start override.

If we can do all of that in such a short time...

..I wonder why it is that, er...

..we can't put that same effort to bring good

and peace to all the world.

There's blackout.

Range to go to splash 1,510 nautical miles.

Drogues.

Aircraft reports a visual with three full chutes.

Condition of crew? Over.

There it is! There it is!

Apollo 11. The men who walked on the moon.

Just for an instant. Just for a brief instant.

BAND PLAYS "HAIL THE CHIEF"

Gee, you look great. Do feel as good as you look?

Oh, we feel just perfect, Mr President.

I was thinking, as you know, as you came down

and we knew it was a success

and it had only been eight days, just a week, a long week.

And this is the greatest week

in the history of the world since the creation.

As a result of what you have done,

the world has never been closer together before.

And we just thank you for that.

And I only hope that all of us in government,

all of us in America

that, as a result of what you've done,

we can do our job a little better.

We can reach for the stars just as you have reached the stars.

BAND PLAYS AMERICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM

Back on Earth, all that remained of the vision was this...

The image of Buzz Aldrin standing in the lunar dust.

Unfortunately, the photograph also showed the American taxpayer

where his dollars had gone and he didn't like the view.

The Apollo project was curtailed in the face of public disinterest

and hurried, some said, to an early grave.

Today, 15 years later - a lifetime in politics -

comes the renaissance.

The idea of a space spectacular has been disinterred,

largely, thanks to this...

The shuttle has cleared the tower.

Good roll confirmed by Mission Control.

JAMES BURKE: This year, the shuttle will carry more astronauts into orbit

than flew during all the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab missions combined.

Over 40 shuttle flights are planned during the next three years.

Challenger, Houston. You're go at throttle-up.

Roger, Houston.

We have separation.

Roger. Separation. Looks good.

SHUTTLE PILOT SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY

Roger.

Right now, separation of the rocket motors.

And guidance has converged as planned.

Great view over South America.

Sorry, Africa!

JAMES BURKE: Aside from present problems with the latest orbiter, Discovery,

Nasa's shuttles are poised to provide regular access to space

and the means to develop a spectacular technology

to exploit the new frontier.

-Challenger, Houston. With you for eight minutes.

-Roger.

How are you reading?

Roger, Bruce. Loud and clear.

Well, that may have been one small step for Neil,

but it's a heck of a big leap for me!

Hey, great.

OK, Bruce, we see you airborne.

Moving away from the orbiter out to a distance of 300 feet.

Looks like another sunny day up here!

I can't listen as man manoeuvring you in,

it constitutes a separate spacecraft of their own now.

JAMES BURKE: 15 years after Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon,

there is now a new image of man in space.

And almost 25 years after Kennedy set the lunar goal,

President Reagan has echoed the initiative

in setting America a new major objective in space.

America has always been greatest

when we dared to be great.

We can reach for greatness again.

We can follow our dreams to distant stars,

living and working in space

for peaceful economic and scientific gain.

Tonight, I am directing Nasa to develop

a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade.

APPLAUSE

JAMES BURKE: The dream of a space station is hardly new.

100 years ago, science fiction writers had ambitious visions

of cities in the sky,

where armies of astronauts would assemble vast spinning structures,

creating a comfortable environment

for thousands of people miles above the Earth.

Such a station would be a stepping stone,

a place of departure for all points in the solar system.

But what President Reagan is proposing

is a long way from that grand vision.

At least for the foreseeable future,

Nasa's space station will be a more modest affair.

It will be assembled in several stages

from components delivered into orbit by the shuttle.

In the largest designs,

there will be room for a crew of six to eight astronauts.

There may also be unmanned sections of the station

flying separately alongside.

The man in charge of Nasa's space station task force is John Hodge,

British-born and a veteran from the earliest days of the space programme.

This particular piece you see here is the manned part of the programme.

We also have associated with it unmanned platforms,

which wouldn't have the manned elements on it.

But let me tell you about what we've got here as a result of that,

recognising that it may not look anything like this

by the time we build it.

Of course, we have the shuttle, which you've all seen many times.

And it has the robot arm here, which is able to pick things up

and will be able to place them on the space station.

This piece down the end here is the servicing platform,

where we will bring other satellites in and repair them.

Now, on the end here, what we have is just simply a number of...

A representation of a number of modules,

where various things would take place.

You'll notice that this one has Japan written on it

and this one has the European Space Agency

and there's a couple of US ones here.

And we do expect this to be very much an international programme.

But we could conceptually say that this is the habitat

where the men will live and we'll have from six to eight people

living there continuously.

JAMES BURKE: John Hodge and his team are far from decided

how the space station should finally look

or exactly how their 8 billion budget will be spent.

Every major aerospace company in America is churning out designs,

hoping for a piece of the action.

We expect to get going early next year on the detailed design

and then, following that, in 1987

or perhaps a little bit later than that,

we'll actually start cutting metal.

So we really won't have anything to launch until the early 1990s.

And we expect this facility, for example,

to go up with about five shuttle launches

over a period of about a year.

So it would be, say, 1992 or 1993 before we actually had

a fully functional space station.

JAMES BURKE: But once the space station is in orbit,

what will it be good for?

Well, according to Nasa and President Reagan,

practical rewards will rain down from the heavens.

-PRESIDENT REAGAN:

-The benefits to be reaped from our work in space

literally dazzle the imagination.

Together, we can produce rare, life-saving medicines,

saving thousands of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars.

We can manufacture super chips

that improve our competitive position

in the world computer market.

We can rapidly and efficiently repair defective satellites.

We can build space observatories,

enabling scientists to see out to the edge of the universe.

And we can produce special alloys and biological materials

that benefit greatly from a zero-gravity environment.

JAMES BURKE: Nasa has a long list of industrial processes

it believes would work well on the station.

Furnaces, to make high-purity crystals

for superfast computer chips.

And improved fibre optics for the growing communications market.

But so far, only one process

shows any real evidence of a commercial future -

the manufacture of high-value drugs.

Charlie Walker is due to become the first non-astronaut in space,

when McDonnell Douglas send him up on the shuttle

to operate their new electrophoresis separation equipment.

It's designed to separate a mixture of substances

as they flow continuously through the machine,

thus producing highly pure drugs in far greater quantities than on Earth.

We're running six samples through the next couple of days.

And each sample is contained in a syringe.

The device is the latest in a series of prototypes

flown at Nasa's expense on earlier shuttle missions.

As it's flowing up,

we put an electric field on it across the fluid.

And that separates the materials in the sample.

But how real are the chances of making money on the space station?

John Logsdon is a leading analyst of American space policy.

He's recently advised the United States Senate

investigating commercial opportunities in space.

Of all the justifications being offered for the space station,

the one that I'm most sceptical about

is the immediate commercial return.

McDonnell Douglas has developed one process

that seems to work well in space.

But even that may be threatened by some ground-based alternatives.

The cost of operating in space,

even with the station and the shuttle, remains high.

And so you really need very high-value products

in order to justify operations in space.

And we just do not know what those products are.

Even if the McDonnell Douglas experiment succeeds

and becomes a commercial product,

what's the second and third and fourth

that one builds an industry on?

JAMES BURKE: Perhaps the real reason for the space station

is more sinister.

Certainly, the shuttle has a military role.

Top secret Department of Defense payloads will be carried

on up to half of all future shuttle missions.

And a special division of the Air Force, Space Command,

has been created to militarise the new high ground.

Space Command has its own mission control centre

and its own military shuttle crews.

And soon, Space Command will have its own shuttle launch centre,

a remarkable new space complex

recently dedicated at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

God, our heavenly father,

we thank you for the gift of life we enjoy today,

the privilege of living in America,

the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Guard and protect the astronauts

who will fly from this space port, Slick Six.

Amen.

BAND STRIKES UP A TUNE

Slick Six, when it opens for business next year,

will become the third manned space port on the planet.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The vast mobile launch structures of Slick Six

represent a major military investment in space.

From here, numerous early warning, communications

and spy satellites will be launched.

If President Reagan's Star Wars vision ever gets off the ground,

then it will be from here.

Yet, as far as this space station is concerned,

the Defense Department has gone out of its way to oppose its development.

They repeatedly claim that their military objectives

can be achieved perfectly well without it.

I do accept the notion that, at this point, it is a civilian enterprise.

It's not a Trojan horse for a military interest.

I think that that's an honest reality

that the Defense Department, at this point,

does not have any specific needs or justifications

for a permanent human presence in space.

From the military point of view, the space station has many disadvantages.

In wartime, it will be vulnerable to attack.

And in peacetime, it will be in the full glare of the world's media.

There could hardly be a worse place to conduct secret activities.

So, if the space station is neither a platform for the military

nor a profit-making factory in the sky,

then what other uses may it have?

Well, Nasa believes it will also be a science park in space,

a laboratory where scientists can continue and expand on the work

now being done on Spacelab.

-MAN:

-Spacelab, marshal ops for all...

Spacelab is a joint venture between Nasa and the European Space Agency.

It's a system of interchangeable manned and unmanned modules

that fit in the cargo bay of the shuttle.

On board Spacelab, in shirtsleeve conditions,

scientists can gain immediate access to the unique environment of space.

The only major restriction is the length of stay,

limited by the relatively brief orbital endurance of the shuttle.

-MAN:

-At the checkout, everything looks good to us.

Even so, the ease with which scientists can now work in space

is a dramatic improvement over the early days of rocketry.

-MAN:

-Copy. Start the experiment.

James Van Allen was a pioneer in the earliest days of space science

and he is still a leading figure in the field today.

How does he assess scientific possibilities on the space station?

There's no doubt that certain scientific uses

of the space station can be identified.

But on the whole, I expect the undertaking

of the space station development

to have a strongly adverse effect on the performance of space science

and the advancements in space science,

by virtue of competition for resources, funds

and launching facilities and matters of this sort.

So I expect it to have an adverse effect.

James Van Allen speaks for many scientists in America,

who fear that money spent on man in space is money lost to science.

They argue that humans make poor experimenters -

they're inefficient, disruptive and they pollute the environment.

Scientific experiments are much better carried out by robots.

The performance of scientific experiments in the space station

is extremely limited in scope.

And it's difficult to think of anything

that can be well done in the space station,

which could not be better done by an unmanned commandable spacecraft.

In 1986, the shuttle will place in orbit

an unmanned commandable spacecraft

that promises to be the most significant scientific instrument

ever sent into space.

The Hubble Space Telescope will see much further into the universe

than has ever been possible before.

Freed from the obscuring effects of the atmosphere,

the optical system at the heart of the spacecraft

will enable the telescope's mirror to resolve details ten times better

than any instrument on the ground.

When it's installed in the space telescope,

this mirror is set to revolutionise our vision of the universe.

It will allow us to search the stars for other solar systems

that may harbour life.

And, closer to home, we will be able to study the planets

with a resolution equivalent to the Voyager probe

only a few days away from its closest encounter.

But the space telescope itself will have no astronomers on board.

It's revolutionary images will be relayed back to Earth

to the Space Telescope Science Institute,

destined to become the greatest observatory on Earth.

In purely numerical terms,

it is as big or bigger a leap

than occurred when Galileo

first used a telescope

rather than the naked eye to look at the universe and look at stars.

Now, it's not obvious how much of a leap that will bring in knowledge,

because the important advances are made

where you not only see some objects

better and better than you did before, but when, in some way,

this new capability you have

brings about the discovery of new objects,

whose existence we could not previously suspect.

We hope that that will happen with Space Telescope, as well.

We know for sure that every area of astronomy

will be very profoundly affected.

The Space Telescope is a perfect example of what can be achieved

with an unmanned spacecraft.

Yet it will also benefit from the presence of man in space,

both to maintain its instruments

and to carry out repairs if it breaks down.

The facility to retrieve and service satellites in orbit

is another advantage that Nasa claims for the space station.

They backed their claim earlier this year with a spectacular test

using the shuttle.

Challenger, Houston.

We've got a good picture of pinky flying in the bay.

The objective was to rescue and repair Solar Max,

an ailing scientific satellite.

Roger. Copy that and the ground's giving you a go for MMU flyover.

OK. Thank you.

We have a go.

Man, I did get to chattering.

Nelson on his way in one hour and two minutes.

ASTRONAUT SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY

OK. Looking good.

You're going to have to hold on to it with both hands, I imagine.

JAMES BURKE: Unable to dock properly with Solar Max,

Nelson tried instead to stop the satellite spinning with his hands.

If you could go in and hold somewhere like that, that'd be fine.

I don't know I'm going to have enough gas to do that.

OK. Come on back in. Thanks.

INDISTINCT CONVERSATION

It's fairly hard to come back to it.

Challenger, Houston.

Standby, Jerry.

Just wondering if you'd like to station keep for another rev,

try the other MMU or...

We'll have do get settled down. We'll talk to you about that in a minute.

JAMES BURKE: Nelson's efforts had only made Solar Max tumble faster

and, for a while, the mission seemed a failure.

Happily, though, controllers on the ground

managed to slow the spinning satellite enough

for the shuttle to manoeuvre alongside

and attempt to grab Solar Max with a robot manipulator arm.

Challenger, Houston. Standing by.

OK. We've got it.

Roger. Copy that.

Outstanding!

Challenger, Houston. We see the rotation on TV

and we also see a smile on Don Murry's face.

Challenger, the President of the United States.

Hello, Bob?

Well, once again, I'm calling to congratulate you

and the rest of the crew aboard the Challenger.

They're on an historic mission.

But, Bob, I understand that satellite you have onboard

would cost us about 200 million to build at today's prices.

So, if you can't fix it up there, would you mind bringing it back?

Roger. It's all downhill from here.

Well, the repair of the Solar Max mission

was a very impressive achievement

and I share in that pleasure of having seen that done.

Now, on the economic side, though, it's not nearly as favourable.

We could have made another SMM satellite and launched it

for much less cost to the rescue mission required.

So, economically, it was probably not sensible to do.

But perhaps the more important thing is,

of all the satellites in orbit around Earth

or prospectively in orbit around the Earth,

very few will be accessible to rescue

by either the shuttle or a space station.

JAMES BURKE: The successful repair of Solar Max

was a convincing demonstration of what man can do in space.

But as an advertisement for the space station, it's misleading.

The station may well become an orbiting garage and workshop,

but at least for the foreseeable future,

it will not have many customers.

Blasting off from Florida,

the shuttle will assemble the space station

in the most economic orbit there is -

a low equatorial orbit that takes full advantage

of the extra boost provided by the Earth's spin.

But most satellites are found elsewhere.

Many in polar orbit - ideal for surveying the ground.

As the Earth turns on its axis, every part of the globe will,

in due course, pass beneath the satellite's gaze.

But polar orbit will be inaccessible to the space station.

As will geo-stationary orbit -

prime space real estate lying much further out than the low orbit

where the space station will be.

Out in geo-stationary orbit, a satellite circles the Earth

exactly once a day, so maintaining a fixed position overhead.

Geo-stationary orbit is the ideal location

for the majority of the world's communication, navigation

and weather observation satellites.

But the space station, without a means to go up and get them,

will be unable to rescue or repair a single one.

Nasa does have plans for a space ferry to fill this gap

but, as yet, no funds have been approved to build it.

Launching satellites into this high orbit

poses problems for the space station, too.

As with the shuttle, an extra booster fixed beneath the satellite

is needed for the final part of the ride.

Apart from the extra expense,

these boosters have recently proved unreliable,

encouraging potential customers to look elsewhere.

As a means of launching satellites,

space station will be facing some stiff competition.

Unmanned expendable rockets, like Europe's Ariane,

offer a less expensive means of launching satellites

directly into geo-stationary orbit.

LAUNCH COUNTDOWN IN JAPANESE

And soon there will be another major competitor

in the satellite launching business.

Japan is investing heavily in space technology

and is only waiting for America and Europe

to tire of subsidising launches with taxpayers' money

before competing on a real commercial basis.

So the space station, America's next major goal in space,

is being sold publicly on the basis of arguments

that just don't stand up.

The commercial prospects for industry in space are uncertain.

The military appear uninterested.

Many scientists are unconvinced.

And as a means of launching and repairing satellites,

there are some severe limitations.

Perhaps the real reasons for building space station

echo those that took America to the moon.

The actors may be different,

but the play's still the same.

-PRESIDENT KENNEDY:

-If we are to win the battle

between freedom and tyranny,

the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks

should have made clear to us all

the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere,

who are attempting to make a determination

of which road they should take.

Both President Kennedy and President Reagan

aren't overwhelmingly concerned with economic or scientific benefits.

If they come, fine.

But they're making their decisions

on the basis of the national interest,

of what's good for the United States,

what will present an image to the world of a nation moving forward

at the forefront of technological accomplishment.

That was true for Kennedy in May of '61

and I think it's equally true for Reagan in 1984.

JAMES BURKE: Both Nasa and the President

are keen to make the space station an international venture,

at least with their closer allies.

One of its great assets is that, in microgravity,

I understand, you can produce all sorts of medical things

that you can't produce any other way.

JAMES BURKE: Cooperation in space is a political tool

to strengthen alliances back on Earth.

-MAN:

-Six months.

Six months?!

LAUNCH COUNTDOWN IN RUSSIAN

And America also has bitter memories of being left behind.

The Soviet Union has had a space station,

albeit a less ambitious one than Nasa is now planning,

in orbit for almost a decade.

Their Salyut spacecraft have been occupied

for up to six months at a time

and the Russians have played host to a variety of guests.

I would like to ask a question to Comrade Leonid about Rakesh Sharma.

Does Sharma snore while sleeping in Salyut 7

and how does it affect the Salyut 7 flightpath, I would like to know.

COSMONAUT REPLIES IN RUSSIAN

So you don't know whether he is snoring or not,

because both of you will be sleeping together and simultaneously, maybe.

I suggest you ask this question of my wife.

She'll be able to give you the answer.

JAMES BURKE: Soviet space station technology is already well advanced.

At one point earlier this year,

there were six cosmonauts living onboard Salyut 7,

include Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian in space.

And, at the same time, but in a slightly different orbit,

there were five American astronauts onboard,

or at least floating somewhere near, the shuttle.

11 people together in space,

the greatest number there has ever been at one time.

No doubt this record will soon be broken.

But it symbolises the progress, uncertain at times,

that we are making as we move out into space.

Perhaps, after all, this vision is the true justification

for the space station.

Even if it's not the one that Nasa is promoting.

Nasa is a pretty conservative bureaucracy

and if you listen to everything Nasa says,

then things can get pretty dull.

But, really, the business that we're involved with

has to do with the human renaissance in space.

We're talking about mining the moon and the asteroids,

creating huge space colonies,

creating solar power satellites to provide energy to the Earth,

we're talking about people moving to the planets.

These are all things that sound rather astounding but, actually,

will probably happen around the turn of the century.

And the space station provides a means by which

we can start doing those things.

And that's the real reason for a space station.

JAMES BURKE: Brian O'Leary sees the space station

as the key to a rich future in space.

A manned lunar base that, unlike Apollo,

would establish a permanent foothold on the moon.

Mining expeditions to extract precious metals from asteroids

in orbit near Earth.

And even one day soon, men and women on Mars.

Setting foot on its surface to see with their own eyes

a landscape first glimpsed by the Viking probes.

Perhaps the space station should be justified

not principally as a place to reap practical benefits,

but as a challenge to our collective imagination.

I think the prospective space station

does serve our cultural yearning.

It's very closely related to our interest in science fiction.

It's a real thing.

It's much less exciting than science fiction, but it is real.

And that gives it a kind of a cultural appeal which is undeniable.

Now, I share in that.

I think that, in fact, that may be the principal reason

why we are engaged in the development of a space station

with men onboard, men and women onboard.

If it were just being done as an automated spacecraft,

it would not have that appeal at all,

even though it might be a much better way to do things.

But I think we should be honest about this

and, if that is the reason,

we should put it up front and say that is the principal reason

and then let us consider whether that's worthy

of this kind of undertaking or not.

JAMES BURKE: Mankind is already reaching deep into space.

Voyager spacecraft have carried our presence to Saturn.

Soon, Voyager 2 will reach Uranus,

returning the first detailed pictures of that unknown world.

And following Voyager,

a remarkable new spacecraft will depart Earth in 1986.

Galileo, the last great planetary mission of the century.

A mission to visit the moons and to sample the atmosphere of Jupiter.

200 days before Galileo reaches the planet,

the probe detaches itself from the main spacecraft.

And flying briefly through the newly-discovered rings,

plunges into the atmosphere of Jupiter.

It's saved from destruction by a heat shield,

which slows the probe down to the point

where a parachute carries it gently down into the planet,

radioing back data for an hour before it's crushed by the pressure.

But as the probe's life ends, the orbiter's mission is just beginning.

It first encounters the volcanic moon Io,

returning images 1,000 times clearer than those of Voyager.

By using the gravity of Io to change its trajectory,

Galileo places itself in orbit around the Jovian system.

Over a two-year period, it will visit, in turn,

each of Jupiter's principal moons.

Using hardly any fuel, Galileo relies on

precise calculations of orbital mechanics

to achieve its exquisitely-planned tour.

There is probably a child now alive who will, one day,

follow Galileo to Jupiter.

That will be an adventure to equal the landing on the moon.

15 years ago, Buzz Aldrin was inside that spacesuit on the lunar surface.

Well, looking back those 15 years,

I see that as a great fulfilment of a commitment that our nation made

to an expanding, progressive, outreaching movement.

And I think we all felt

the rejuvenation of our pride and spirit.

And, unfortunately, that faulted a bit.

And I think that what we're seeing now

is a rejuvenation of that

and I'd like to think that that spirit will be picked up again.

Right, you do have to be rather careful

to keep track of where your centre of mass is.

It gets rather tiring after several hundred steps.

But this may be a function of this suit as well as lack of gravity.

Well, what comes to my mind now is...

..a thought that I had quietly on the lunar surface that, erm...

..the two of us were further away than mankind had ever been before,

in terms of the steps necessary to return back to home.

And yet, at the same time, we had the sense and the feeling

of more people being with the two of us than had ever happened before.

And I think that the spirit of the people

can carry with future ventures

and I guess that spirit of having the world with us

and with the explorers,

it's a great treat to be able to be a part of carrying those experiences

back to all parts of the world.

JAMES BURKE: Like Apollo, the decision to develop the space station

will determine the course of the American space programme

for a least a decade.

But the space station is not being sold like Apollo,

as a visionary adventure.

Instead, it's supposed to provide profit and practical benefit.

Nasa is afraid that, without down-to-earth justifications,

the whole manned space programme,

like this unused Saturn V moon rocket,

could end up just a museum piece.

If the space station is not to be like Apollo -

a giant leap to nowhere -

then surely it must be unashamedly presented for what it is,

a stepping stone to a viable future in space.

And, yes, a reason for Nasa to go on existing.

Expensive? Maybe.

But the only project likely to capture the public imagination enough

to keep the funds for space exploration coming in.

No grand and ultimately fruitless adventure.

But the first real step on our journey outward...beyond the moon.

Roger. It's all downhill from here.