How One Man Won The Space Race For America (Apollo Program: Saturn V Documentary) | Spark 

Well made doc. One of the best I’ve watched on the tube

My dads boss at Northrop Grumman Ellington Field ( Across from Johnson Space Center) was Fred Haise. His name may not ring a bell but think Apollo 13 and Bill Paxton. I met a guy who flew around the moon. Saw his personal pics of the moon. Not many people can say they met a man who flew around the moon. Those men were some of the bravest to walk the face of the earth. Great documentary

I was born in June 1957, and grew up with the Gemini and Apollo program. My farther told me a lot about it. As i learned to read, I got the newspapers myself. I cried all day when I read about Grissom,White and Chaffee. What a price to pay. Rest in peace. You really were the right stuff. The first live pictures I saw, was the actual landing. My Dad woke me up, at 7 in the morning, and I got to see Niel taking the giant leap for Mankind. Had I lived in the U.S.A. and not Denmark, it would probably have been, a different story. What a great Era it was. I could go on, and on. “If I see you no more in this World, see you in the next one. And don’t be late”. I think Elon Musk has picked up, where Apollo left off. America is still the place, where everything is possible.🇩🇰🙋🏻‍♂️🪐👩🏻‍🚀🇺🇸

My brother Romo V Cortez the first Filipino born Engineer hired by NASA in 1964 to work for the Apollo Program during the US Spce Race with Russia. He graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo CA with major in Electricsl Engineering and Mathematics. Before NASA, he worked as Instrumentation Engineer for the Polaris Nuclear Submarine at Mare Island, Vallejo CA. At NASA he worked for both Apollo and Saturn Program. He retired as Program Manager for Computing at the NASA Headquarters in Wash. DC.. He passed away in 2009 at age 77.

I worked at Hamilton Standard 1976 to 1980 working on the new spacesuit for the space shuttle system. I was one of 6 picked from 300 designers to got to NASA JSC Houston for 6 months. So many great memories to be a part of history.

3:56 15 tons of paperwork. Amazing to think that all of that information could probably fit on a half ounce flash drive now. You really have to appreciate the effort past generations put in to the accumulation of knowledge that got us to where we are today.

Geez, some of the best audio files and comments I’ve ever heard. There’s nothing better than knowledgeable people telling it exactly as it is/was.

This is more a general video on the space race; not much information about the impact and contributions von Braun actually made and how much of a mastermind he really was.

Thank you, Wernher von Braun!!! 🇺🇸🇩🇪🇺🇸🇩🇪

Bravo! A spectacular tribute to the Saturn V and the Apollo space program.

The most impressive part was dealing with the combustion issue without CFD. this type of diligence is wild incredibly inspiring

Awesome... I saw Buzz Aldrin speak for an hour here in NZ in 2010 about his experience ON the Moon.. Thanks 👍🇳🇿

One of the best documentiaries about this marvelous wonder of engineering I have ever seen. Thanks for the upload!

I ❤️ Wernher von Braun

I wasn't born that time but my grandparents where there in that time and they remembered it. I think it is very awesome to remember and know what happened in that time and era for the space program.

Great documentary. Very well produced, professional in every way.

July, 1969. I remember when it happened. And the Revell Saturn V rocket model I had then.

Big Apollo fan here. This is one the really good docs out there.

This is like the movie Prestige. A lot of people think the moon landing happened from nowhere just like, like USA decided, today we will go to the moon and bam. That's why some people think it's fake. But in reality a lot of hard work, failures, suffering and sacrifices for more than 12 years were behind such a success.

Brilliant video. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Shepard didnt go into orbit and the commentator who stated that Gagarin "only" did one orbit clearly does not understand what an achievement that was compared to shepards later flight...

✨ The God of Space Exploration ✨

Back in the 1960s, digital computing and integrated electronics were quite primitive and still under development. Handheld scientific calculators were inexistent, as well. Advanced simulation programs were not to be found anywhere. Sophisticated instantaneous communication systems, such as the Internet or cellular telephony, could only be the subject of a dream. The sheer idea of all these scientists and engineers being able to achieve such a momentous feat with the tools available at that time can be quite a sobering thought.

I love watching space exploration documentaries. This is one of of the best.

Great video! Thank you.

No contest...hands down the best video on RU-vid I have ever watched and I have watched 20,000 +videos covering everything in life good and bad and again can say THE BEST!!!!

Spectacular and remarkable...why is tears in my eyes though?

Great to see thumbs up and thank you.

What a great documentary about a time I wish I could have witnessed! Thanks! It's truly amazing what these people who worked on the Appollo program had accomplished.

great documentary really fun to watch in midnight.

Earth rise! What a beautiful gift the astronauts gave us on that Christmas.

*Thanks for sharing!!!*

German engineers and physicists were also taken into the Soviet Union. They created Soviet space tech. Wernher and his team made a very good choice.

I really liked this. Still more stuff to have learned from the Apollo program.

What an excellent docu video of the rockets that USA launched in the 1950s and 1960s. A real video history.

Rocket🚀🚀 launch :: reminds me of dragon fire🔥🔥 I'm impressed👍 🔥🔥🔥🔥🐉🐲🐉🔥🔥🔥🔥

The best documentary ever

I was 11 years old watching at midnight ( in Germany) on TV ,Armstrong and Aldrin walking on the moon, breathtaking for me...why didn't NASA go back to the moon and build a station there, to get knowledge before they want to go to Mars ?

Long ago, but it seems like last Thursday, I recall seeing the last Saturn V on the pad. I didn't get to witness the launch, but just seeing it in the distance was spellbinding.

Stage 1 and the F-1 motor is just incredible. Well said, "it is an explosion, just on the edge of precise control." You can't just trial and error a piece of equipment that expensive. The Boys had to use big brains and imagination to make that work.

Let's clear this up once and for all....Von Braun's name and how to pronounce it. When he was in Germany, his name was pronounced (phonetically) 'Verner Fon Brawn.' When he relocated to North Alabama, he became (phonetically) Werner Von Brown.' (his attempt at Americanizing in the American south where the southern dialect could more easily adapt). It's not truly 'Brown' or 'Brahn,' sorta a mixing of the two. Eva Braun (Adolf Hitler's wife) had the same last name and it was never pronounced 'brown.' It's more 'brawn.'

Werner von Braun

One of the things that they never tell you is that we are no longer able to make the F-1 rocket engine. We have the designs, the blueprints, the calculations, the materials, everything. But the skills and techniques needed to machine and create the massive parts by hand were not passed on to the next generation. Newer computer aided design and CNC techniques took over the industry and those skills were lost to time. The devil is often in the details. Maybe we can make better, more advanced, engines now but recreating these Iconic bohemoths might forevermore remain out of our grasp.

always intrigued me what state the launch pad is left in and how much work is involved to repair it for another launch

Thank you

This was great! Absolutely gorgeous documentary, I was a chid in the early years of the space race. I remember how excited we all were as the Mercury,Gemini, and Apollo programs proceeded. And how happy and proud we were when Neil Armstrong made that first step onto the surface of the moon. It was thrilling to watch him actually taking the first step on another world! I still am awed at the Saturn V and all those flawless launches. And the hard work and dedication of a who worked on the effort to get our astronauts to the moon, everyone working to solve the problems and achieve Kennedy's dream of putting men on the moon by the end the 1960s. i'm nearly 70 now, but I hope to live to see astronauts back on the moon. It truly is time we went back.

Some day people will muse and say . . . The Model T Ford was truly a great automobile and an inspiration to all auto makers ! ! !

Those J2 engines/fuel choice on the 2nd and 3rd stages deserve some credit for making it possible to leave low earth orbit with any substantial mass.

The Jenias man in this world Mr. BROWN. 🙏

Does anyone know what the background music is at 36:00

Humans were on the moon before we had digital watches.

It's a German who made it possible, without him it would have failed.

People forgot without that captured German Scientist there is no Apollo program. The F-1 Saturn V imploded during testing they couldn’t get the fuel instability right. However they used the German Scientist idea on his original rocket to maintain fuel stability and boom Saturn 5 was born.

just Imagine how the SLS and the StarShip will look when lunched.

I wouldn’t say he was the only one but he was the centre of the project

Rating of countries by the first launches of artificial Earth satellites: 1. USSR - 1957 2. USA - 1958 3. UK - 1962 4. Canada - 1962 5. Italy - 1964 Rating of countries by the first launches of space satellites with their own launch vehicles: 1. USSR - October 4, 1957 2. USA - February 1, 1958 3. France - November 26, 1965 4. Italy - April 26, 1967 5. Japan - February 11, 1970 Rating of countries by the first flights of astronauts: 1. USSR - April 12, 1961 2. USA - May 5, 1961 3. Czechoslovakia - March 2, 1978 4. Poland - June 27, 1978 5. GDR - 26 August 1978 Ranking of countries by the number of first-of-its-kind spacecraft (remarkable, of historical significance, with achievements that were made for the first time by one of the countries) until 1992: 1. USSR - 21 2. USA - 15 3. EU - 1 Ranking of countries by the number of spacecraft launched to explore the solar system, as well as first-of-its-kind or noteworthy vehicles launched into low Earth orbit before 1992: 1. USSR - 115 2. USA - 84 3. EU - 4 4. Japan - 4 5. Germany - 2 Ranking of countries by the number of successful orbital launches (not including emergency and partially emergency) until 1992: 1. USSR - 2278 2. USA - 903 3. Japan - 42 4. France - 39 5. China - 27 Ranking of countries by the lowest proportion of emergency orbital launches for countries with more than 10 launches before 1992: 1. USSR - 5.54% 2. EU - 7.14% 3. USA - 11.25% 4. Japan - 12.24% 5. France - 14.89% As you can see, in all the above ratings, the USSR took first place. The United States achieved the landing of a man on the moon, so I will dwell on this in more detail. A manned flight to the moon was not practical. In view of the fact that the USA lost to the USSR all the events of the race in space and had hopeless chances of winning when competing with the USSR in those places that had practical expediency, the Americans decided to deliver a man to the moon, due to the fact that the USSR was not going to send a man to the moon ( Of the given hopeless chances of winning in rivalry with the USSR and a great chance to beat the Soviets in the implementation of the first landing of the crew on the moon, Wernher von Braun wrote in a note to Vice President L. Johnson, in which he tried to answer the questions posed by President Kennedy in a memorandum dated April 20, 1961). For a man to fly to the moon, a tenfold jump in carrier power was needed compared to the rockets existing at that time, and for the reason that the USSR did not plan to fly to the moon, the USSR did not have such a rocket, and he did not try to develop it. But due to large financial expenses and due to the lack of practical expediency, the US leadership refused to finance the delivery of a man to the moon. For example, this is what the head of the task force, Donald Horniga, wrote about this in his conclusion when analyzing NASA's plan for the Apollo program: “Emotional arguments and national ambition are put in the rationale for manned programs. This is not a subject that can be discussed from an engineering standpoint.” US President Eisenhower found the requested spending to be beyond reasonable. On December 20, 1960, the issue was considered at a meeting of the US National Security Council. Eisenhower's reaction was indifferent: "I don't care if man of the moon. Someone compared the situation to the one when the Spanish monarchy decided to finance the expensive expedition of Christopher Columbus, who discovered America as a result. Eisenhower, recalling the method used by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, replied that he "is not going to pawn his jewels to send a man to the moon." But with the change of the President of the United States, the situation has changed. On May 25, 1961, American President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech to Congress in which he proclaimed the goal for the United States to carry out space flight with an astronaut landing on the surface of the Moon before the end of the decade. To this, former President Dwight Eisenhower wrote in the widely read Sunday Evening Post that "the race to the moon, the inevitable spending of huge sums and the increase in public debt is the wrong way." But despite this, the Apollo program was adopted in 1961. Kennedy was able to convince Kennedy to accept this program by a consultant from his campaign headquarters, Richard Neustadt, writing in a note that the Apollo program, or rather, its key and most expensive part of it - the projected Saturn rocket, is a project of prestige, and that the United States is lagging behind the USSR and, most likely, will be left behind in rivalry with the USSR, therefore, it is necessary to withdraw from the race and redirect resources to getting a man to the moon. On October 26, 1963, N. S. Khrushchev, answering journalists' questions, said that the Soviet Union did not plan to send a man to the moon. At that time, Korolev had a multi-launch scheme that involved assembling a lunar spacecraft in near-Earth orbit from separately launched modules. But it was not approved at the government level and therefore was not funded. Also, even before the launch of the lunar flight and lunar landing programs in the USSR, technical proposals were developed for the creation of a manned lunar orbital station L4. The main initiator of the idea of manned flight to the Moon and even to Mars was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. But Korolev's views on the need for manned space exploration were opposed by the view of G. N. Babakin that only the exploration of outer space by robots would give real and quick benefits to mankind. And the decisive word in this rivalry was for V. Chelomey, who, being one of the key creators of the USSR nuclear missile shield and the head of the second of the main organizations for the creation of space technology (including manned), considered Babakin's view as more promising. Chelomey was the direct superior of Sergei Khrushchev, who was his deputy and was the son of N. S. Khrushchev. But after the removal of N. S. Khrushchev from power, Chelomey fell into disgrace, which gave Korolev the opportunity to implement his ideas. Therefore, only a few years later, with a great delay in relation to the United States, on August 3, 1964, the lunar manned program of the USSR was approved by a government decree. Korolev originally planned a flight to Mars as more valuable than a flight to the Moon, but due to the launch of the US lunar program and the complex technical implementation "Martian" version, the project was revised towards the Moon. But even further, Korolev ran into problems due to the fact that many did not share his idea of flying to the moon. The most experienced space propulsion design bureau Glushko refused to make powerful engines for spacecraft necessary for flight to the moon. Glushko was a principled opponent of flights to the Moon and advocated the creation of orbital near-Earth stations for defense purposes. Also, experienced Gosplan economists, with whom Korolev usually consulted, warned that the real figures for the necessary costs through the Ministry of Finance and the State Planning Commission will not be approved. Pashkov, highly knowledgeable in the politics of the State Planning Commission, advised to underestimate real costs, and in the future we will issue more than one decree, hardly anyone dares close the work of such a scale and then the money will be found! Therefore, the calculations that were submitted to the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers were underestimated. And when it came to allocating the necessary funds for it, the leaders of the country demanded that the designers observe the regime savings, and this only led to "raw" design solutions and a sharp decrease reliability of new space technology. On January 14, 1966, Sergei Korolev dies during a medical operation. Further, in view of the fact that there were no more such supporters of the flight to the moon as Korolev, after the appointment of Glushko as the head and chief designer of NPO Energia, he closed the lunar program. As you can see, landing a man on the moon had no practical significance, so the governments of the countries refused to allocate money for this. But when the leadership changed, this problem was resolved. The lack of practical significance led to the fact that the lunar manned program of the USSR was adopted much later than the United States. Even despite the fact that the lunar manned program was approved in the USSR, there were still frictions inside the USSR between Korolev (a supporter of flights to the moon) and those who believed that sending a man to the moon was economically unreasonable and pointless, which hindered this goal . Before the Americans reached the moon, Korolyov died, and later his opponents of a manned flight to the moon closed the lunar manned program of the USSR. The US put a man on the moon. Unlike the USSR, the US had a motive to reach the moon. They were served by the fact that the Americans had previously lost to the USSR all phases of the space race and thus wanted to rehabilitate themselves. But it was much more economically feasible to send interplanetary spacecraft to the Moon, which the USSR did. The USSR was already on the moon 10 years before the US landed a man on it. In general, looking at the above facts, we can say that the space race was won by the USSR, and the USA won the lunar race. The USSR achieved more than the US at a lower cost.

I was in School in 1969 . Great success of mankind. It was declared a holiday and we played a football match

Story should say, ”How the Nazi’s got America too the Moon.” That would be more accurate, and truthful..

Von Braun wasn’t the only German rocket designer. He wasn’t even the only rocket designer working on the Saturn V.

Von Braun's modest grave marker refers to one of his favorite biblical passages: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmaments showeth His handiwork."

Just to put the V-2 in perspective -- it helped us win the war sooner, saving millions. Here's why: “But as fearsome as the V-2 was, it had little strategic impact…” Freeman Dyson and other historians have written persuasively that the net effect of the V-2 program was Germany collapsing six months or more sooner due to the crushing demand for high-tech equipment and rare hi-energy fuels, that if applied to more conventional weapons could have lengthened the war leading to millions more fatalities in Europe and tens of millions in the Pacific -- including inter alia my father and uncles. So be GRATEFUL the von Braun team diverted Hitler from far more effective weapons [Speer in his memoirs confirms this ‘mistake’]. I’ll take any such happy result, inadvertent or not - and we don’t have to forget the V-2’s victims in London and the slave cave factories. The non-existence of the V-2 wouldn’t have saved such losses, it would have multiplied them. Every V-2 built was a dozen fighter jets not built, a hundred anti-aircraft rockets not built, a squad of Tiger tanks not built. The cold-blooded calculus of casualties is morally complex.

29:30 yeah, look into "Dr David Baker" there. See what you find.

Werner Von Braun made it possible for American astronauts to get to the moon, but it was John Houbolt that made sure no one got stuck there.

Some have harsh words for this man of renown, But some think our attitude Should be one of gratitude, Like the widows and cripples in old London town Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.

It depends how you define space race. The Russians were first to put up Telstar, a dog and a man and many other feats. Just because the US landed a man on the moon first does not mean they won the 'race to space'.

Can we please put Bezos safely on Pluto?

It's Braun..not Brown..js..lol..it's kind of like time team (great show btw) hearing Tony Robinson say GLACIERS

So glad the WWII element was not glossed over

31:40 ST124 Platform

i was watching the launch from across a little water, 9 miles away and I could hear crankle fire like in my ear. But I was standing there was not as shread of doubt where the man would walk on the moon.

🤯

One Man...

Werner Von Braun - He aimed for the stars, but he kept hitting London.

NASA must stop Pogo. I want that t-shirt.

Boeing didnt make the f1 engines Rocketdyne did they were bought by Boeing in 2013.

Artemis to the moon and beyond.

I rember someone saying "they put the wrong flag onthe moioin"

July 20 1969- nobody will ever believe this November 03 2020- hold my beer

Outstanding doc !!! Fortunately not going into this useless debate about Von Braun's nazi past... (especially as those who addressed this, did not put in the required nuances, and the complete historical context...) It's just insane what skills and leadership he must have had to overlook such a program... 370K+ people working on the same project, that's just beyond imagination !!!!

(to surrect planets is how to live in a universe - mars belongs to life)

The real America of love, peace, progress and the best in the world, how i wish we can go back to those days of engineering for peace and human progress not the mess of casino economy. Then there was the SHUTTLE spacecraft, that was a cherry on top.

This was uploaded earlier.

I ❤️ NASA

Starship is now the most powerful rocket ever. Also it’s much larger than the nova lander.

It's really an awesome thing that we are on the verge of Starship with its 16,000,000 lbs of lift more than double Saturn 5 but it's been half a century. edit:" thrust " not lift.

That honour should go to Stanley Kubrick

Its difficult to explain a scientific project to the general public . Many people were bewildered by its complexity and pushed for affirmative action but the project was the beginning of Americas decline . All the best .

Correction; Verner Von Braun put a man on the moon.

pointed one well how do too moon or sun . becoos love moon menbers 3th. moer stafe is it today.

Sunday 20 November 2022

"How One Man Won The Space Race For America"? The answer is that the man never had to run.

I ❤️ Wernher

The designer of the Saturn V was deported.

Mỹ tiếp tục triển khai tầu vụ trụ bay lên quý đạo mới

Torch tip end ceramics

I wonder why they dient mention Apollo 13.

Buy QBLAQ, its at .13 cents and we could boom it up big!! invested on SoFi

Great German engineering 🤔🤔

I'm The grandson of Of General Leslie Groves, the man who built the Pentagon and The head of the Manhattan project and he always told me that He was inraged by I think he was a general Marshall he built the areo space medical facilities in Texas He tried to get a few of the really bad natzi scientists not to be brought over here He was really annoyed with the treatment of these real murderous natzi scientists I'm going to be writing my family book about my grandfather was my hero when I was born he raised me when I was a baby until he died he was practically with me All the time because He retired and when my father was a boy he was doing this stuff but He is a great piece of an American patriot and American hero

52min 52years