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EXPLORATIONS - Spaceflight History: Excitement and Tragedy on Road to the MoonBy Marilyn Rice Christiano

Broadcast: Wednesday, August 16, 2006

EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.


Launch of Apollo 7

The nineteen sixties were exciting times in space exploration. Today, Kay Gallant1 and Harry2 Monroe look back at the first flights of the Apollo program designed to land humans on the moon.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The decision to go to the moon was made in May nineteen sixty-one. President John Kennedy set the goal in a speech to Congress and the American people. He said he believed the United States, before the end of the nineteen sixties, should land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth.

He said no other effort would be so important to the exploration of space. And he said no other effort would be so difficult or cost so much to do.

VOICE TWO:

At the time President Kennedy spoke3, the Soviet4 space program seemed far ahead. The Soviet Union put the first satellite into Earth orbit. A Soviet spacecraft was the first to land instruments on the moon. And a Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, was the first man in space.


Alan Shepard

The United States had just sent an astronaut of its own into space for the first time. Alan Shepard made only a fifteen-minute flight in the little one-man Mercury5 spacecraft. But his flight gave Americans the feeling that the United States could pull ahead of the Soviet Union in the space race.

There was great public support for President Kennedy's moon landing goal. And Congress was ready to spend the thousands of millions of dollars that a moon landing program would cost.

VOICE ONE:

Much happened in the months after America decided6 to go to the moon.

New space flight centers were built. Designs for launch rockets and spacecraft were agreed on. And a new spaceflight program -- Project Gemini -- was begun. Flights in the two-man Gemini spacecraft tested the men, equipment and methods to be used in the Apollo program to the moon.

Gemini let astronauts learn about the dangers of radiation and the effects of being weightless during long flights. Astronauts learned to move their spacecraft into different orbits and to join with other spacecraft.

VOICE TWO:

While the Gemini program prepared astronauts for Apollo flights, NASA engineers were designing and building the Apollo spacecraft.

It was really two spacecraft. One was a cone-shaped command module7. The astronauts would ride to the moon in the command module. And they would return home in it.

The second craft was a moon-landing vehicle. Two astronauts would ride in it from the orbiting command module to the moon's surface. Later, the landing vehicle would carry them back to the command module for the return trip to Earth.

VOICE ONE:

Engineers also were working on a huge new rocket for Apollo. It needed much more power than the rockets used to launch the one-man Mercury and the two-man Gemini flights. The Apollo rocket was called Saturn8.

Two Saturn rocket systems were built. One was the Saturn one-B. It did not have enough power to reach the moon. But it could launch Apollo spacecraft on test flights around the Earth. The other was the Saturn five. It would be the one to launch astronauts to the moon.

Saturn one-B rockets launched six unmanned Apollo spacecraft. The test flights showed that all the rocket engines worked successfully. They also showed that the Apollo spacecraft could survive the launch and could re-enter Earth's atmosphere safely.

VOICE TWO:

By the end of nineteen sixty-six, NASA officials considered the Apollo spacecraft ready for test flights by astronauts. Three astronauts were named for the first manned Apollo test flight: Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee.

Four weeks before the flight, the three men were in the command module at Cape9 Kennedy, Florida. They were testing equipment for the flight.

Suddenly, fire broke out in the spacecraft. When rescuers got the door open, they found the flames had killed the three astronauts. Grissom, White and Chaffee were the first Americans to die in the space program.

VOICE ONE:

Engineers redesigned and rebuilt the Apollo command module. They designed a new door that could be opened more quickly. They improved the electrical wiring. And they used only materials that would not burn easily.

By November nineteen sixty-seven, the moon launch rocket, Saturn Five, was ready for a test flight. It thundered into space perfectly10, pushing an unmanned Apollo spacecraft more than eighteen thousand kilometers up into the atmosphere.

VOICE TWO:

The huge Saturn rocket, as tall as a thirty-six-floor building, was the heaviest thing ever to leave Earth. It weighed more than two million seven hundred thousand kilograms. The noise of its rockets was one of the loudest sounds ever made by humans.

At the end of the test flight, the speed of the Apollo spacecraft was increased to forty thousand kilometers an hour. That was the speed of a spacecraft returning from the moon. The spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere without damage.

Apollo flights five and six tested the moon-landing module and the Saturn Five rocket.

VOICE ONE:


Donn Eisele and Walter Schirra, holding a sign: Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks!

Astronauts first flew in the Apollo spacecraft in October nineteen sixty-eight. Apollo Seven astronauts Walter Schirra, Walter Cunningham and Donn Eisele spent eleven days orbiting the Earth. They tested the spacecraft systems. And they broadcast, for the first time, live television pictures of men in orbit.

Everything worked perfectly.

VOICE TWO:

The successful flight of Apollo Seven led NASA officials to send the next flight, Apollo Eight, to the moon. The launch was early on the morning of December twenty-first, nineteen sixty-eight. Millions of people were watching on television.

Astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders were in the spacecraft at the top of the Saturn Five rocket. NASA officials counted down the seconds: five, four, three, two, one. The mighty11 engines fired. Slowly the giant rocket lifted off the Earth.

VOICE ONE:

Three hours later, NASA officials told the crew that everything was OK for what they called TLI or trans-lunar injection. This meant the Apollo Eight astronauts could fire the rocket that would send them from Earth orbit toward the moon. Less than three days later, Apollo Eight was orbiting the moon.

The American spacecraft was just one hundred ten kilometers from its surface.

On December twenty-fourth, the astronauts made a television broadcast to Earth. They described the moon's surface as a strange, gray, lonely place. And, as they talked, people on Earth could see pictures of the moon on their television sets.

Apollo Eight returned to Earth without problems. It landed in the Pacific Ocean near a waiting ship.

VOICE TWO:

Apollo Eight showed that humans could travel to the moon and return safely. The next step was to test the lunar landing craft. That was the job of the astronauts of Apollo Nine: James McDivitt, David Scott and Russell Schweickart. They spent ten days in Earth orbit during March nineteen sixty-nine.

During the flight, they separated the lunar lander from the command module and flew it for eight hours. They tested all its systems. Then, they joined the two spacecraft together again, just as astronauts would do after a moon landing.

Engineers decided that after Apollo Nine, one more test flight was needed. They wanted to test the landing module near the moon. So astronauts Tom Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan did that during the flight of Apollo Ten.

VOICE ONE:

They reached the moon in May nineteen sixty-nine. Astronauts Stafford and Cernan entered the landing craft and separated it from the command ship.

Stafford and Cernan flew the lander down to only thirteen kilometers from the moon. They described the moon during a radio and television broadcast. It is like wet clay, they said. Like a dry river bed in New Mexico or Arizona. It is a beautiful sight.

On May twenty-third, the lander rejoined the command module one hundred kilometers above the moon. Apollo Ten started for home. The final testing was done. Apollo was ready to land on the moon.

That will be our story next week.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to EXPLORATIONS on the Voice of America as we continue the story of the Apollo moon landing program.


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1 gallant 66Myb     
adj.英勇的,豪侠的;(向女人)献殷勤的
参考例句:
  • Huang Jiguang's gallant deed is known by all men. 黄继光的英勇事迹尽人皆知。
  • These gallant soldiers will protect our country.这些勇敢的士兵会保卫我们的国家的。
2 harry heBxS     
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼
参考例句:
  • Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天,人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
  • Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。
3 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
4 Soviet Sw9wR     
adj.苏联的,苏维埃的;n.苏维埃
参考例句:
  • Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
  • Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。
5 mercury NouzIB     
n.汞,水银,水银柱
参考例句:
  • The liquid we can see in thermometers is mercury.我们看到的温度计里的液体是水银。
  • Mercury has a much greater density than water.水银的密度比水大得多。
6 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
7 module iEjxj     
n.组件,模块,模件;(航天器的)舱
参考例句:
  • The centre module displays traffic guidance information.中央模块显示交通引导信息。
  • Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen.服务舱的两个大气瓶中装有液态氧。
8 Saturn tsZy1     
n.农神,土星
参考例句:
  • Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings.天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪,为什么只有土星有光环。
  • These comparisons suggested that Saturn is made of lighter materials.这些比较告诉我们,土星由较轻的物质构成。
9 cape ITEy6     
n.海角,岬;披肩,短披风
参考例句:
  • I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
  • She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。
10 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
11 mighty YDWxl     
adj.强有力的;巨大的
参考例句:
  • A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
  • The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

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