"american history tv," on lectures in history, a discussion about abraham lincoln and native americans. the 1950 army film, the invasion of southern france, and monday, labor day, the commemoration of the 400 area of virginia's first ceremony. >> in 1979, a small network with an unusual name rolled out a big idea. let viewers make up their own minds. c-span opened the doors to washington policymaking for all to see, bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. a has changed in 40 years, but today that big idea is more relevant than ever. by television and online, c-span is your unfiltered view of government so you can make up

your own mind. brought to you as a public service by your cable or satellite provider. ♪ a million mornings, forgotten by the mind of man. dawn remembers again the magic circle, stonehenge. ♪ ♪

♪ >> magic circle, observatory, temple aligned with the rising of the sun and the turning of the heavens. ♪ >> stones from afar brought by man to this place where no stones were before more than 3,000 years ago. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ >> apollo 11, 15 july, 1969, cape kennedy, florida. the night before the great day. ♪ we're going to the moon together ♪ ♪ pack your bags and jump into the car ♪ ♪ going to take a trip to tell you where you are ♪ ♪ good-bye mother ♪ so long mother ♪ so long mother ♪ good-bye mother ♪ so long mother ♪ so long mother

♪ so long mother ♪ good-bye mother ♪ good-bye mother earth ♪ ♪ ♪

>> six million pounds of machine. 36 stories tall. nearly ten years' worth of half a million people. through the night it was checklisted, double-checked, electronically monitored, computerized, televised, dehumanized of human error. while the night of celebration was ending, the day began for the astronauts, breakfast, medical examination, suiting up. neil armstrong, commander, apollo 11.

edwin "buzz" aldrin, lunar module pilot. michael collins, command module pilot. ♪ [ speaking foreign language ]

♪

♪ ♪ >> far across the indian river

12 miles away, the rocket. at 6:32 a.m., three hours before launch, on pad 39a, armstrong and aldrin walked on the surface of the earth. their next steps would be on the moon. spectators rolled in by the thousands. campers, trailers, cars and pickups filled the campsites and the beaches, lined the highways, lined the parkways, nose to tailgate, cape canaveral to titusville.

♪ >> temperature at launch time, expected to be about 85 degrees. t-minus 1 hour, 29 minutes, 30 seconds and counting. propellent load pressure and temperature, digital transmission worldwide tracking, stabilization and guidance, radio frequency telemetry and voice communications, signal integration, spacecraft

electrical power, flight control, s-4b propulsion stage monitoring, s-1c, s-2 propulsion stage. every important valve, gauge and circuit was continually monitored at launch control center throughout the 28-hour count down. >> countdown still going well. t-minus 55 minutes, 10 seconds and counting. ♪ >> among the 6,000 special guests were a vice president, an ex-president, two planeloads of diplomatic corps from washington, 205 u.s. congressmen, 19 governors, 30 senators, 50 mayors from city across the country, movie celebrities and television personalities, and another two plane loads of dignitaries from europe. ♪

♪ ♪ >> around the world, another morning. not so very different from the morning before or tomorrow morning.

[ clock ticking ] ♪ >> this day on which man will leave earth to walk on the moon, 3 billion people went about their daily lives, some in the way their ancestors did centuries before, others in a world shaped by modern technology. it seemed that most people were unaware that this event might change the history of the human race, that this morning would be marked in history books and learned by their children's children. ♪ what age of man will the meaning of this morning be understood?

♪ [ clock ticking ] >> this is apollo control. we passed the 6-minute mark in our countdown for apollo 11, the flight to land the first men on the moon. we're on time at the present time for our planned liftoff of 32 minutes past the hour. coming up shortly that swing aurm arm at the spacecraft level will come back to fully retracted position at the 5-minute mark. the arm coming back as our countdown continues. skip informing the astronaut that is the swing arm is coming

back. we are go for apollo 11. we'll be coming up on the automatic sequence about 10 or 15 seconds from this time. the vehicle is starting to pressurize and all is still go as we monitor our status board. filing command coming in now. we're on an automatic sequence as the master computer supervises hundreds of events occurring over these last few minutes. 2 minutes 10 seconds and counting. oxidizer tanks have pressurized. the third stage completely pressurized. t-minus 60 seconds and counting. 55 seconds and counting. kne neil armstrong reported back hen he received the good wishes, thank you. good luck and good speed.

all the second stage tanks now pressurized. 35 seconds and counting. we are still go with apollo 11. 30 seconds and counting. astronauts report it feels good, t-minus 25 seconds. 20 seconds and counting. t-minus 15 seconds. guidance is internal. 12, 11, 10, 9, ignition sequence start. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 --

. ♪

♪ ♪ >> stand by for mode one, charlie. mark, mode one charlie. >> one charlie. ♪ >> houston, you are go for staging. ♪

♪ >> station and ignition. you're looking good. >> roger, hear you loud and clear. houston. ♪

♪ >> we got skirts up. >> roger. we confirm skirts up. >> star's gone. >> roger, star. >> when apollo was safely underway, control of the mission was switched to houston. the months of tightly-focused work at the cape were over. >> it could honestly be said that this was the culmination of the dreams and fantasies of men and women over 25 centuries of recorded time. [ applause ] >> plato, james blair.

>> galileo. >> marie curie. >> hd wells. >> john f. kennedy. >> carpenter. [ indiscernible ] >> copernicus. [ applause ] >> and robert goddard, the american rocket pioneer, inventor, dreamer. they called him the moon man and laughed. but on his own, he went ahead designing, inventing and testing. his first proving grounds were on his aunt effie's farm in massachusetts. the neighbors complained.

♪ >> with a grant from daniel g guggenheim he moved to new mexico withe esther who was als his camera woman. he accumulated 200 patents. ♪ ♪ >> by the year 1930, his rockets achieved a speed of 500 miles an hour and an altitude of 2,000 feet. this was the year in which the

three apollo astronauts were born. goddard had a vision of the age of space, but the world was too slow to make it happen before his death. >> thank you, robert goddard for your inventiveness and pe perseveran perseverance. for most people, a trip to the planets was easy. all you needed was a 10 cent movie ticket and a nickel bag of popcorn. ♪ >> what was that? >> i don't know. >> two ships coming up fast behind us.

>> uh-oh, here they come. you better put it in reverse. ♪ >> what science fiction in the childhood of the space age could have guessed the shape of reality? the saturn 5 rocket, three stages, 28 stories tall with 11 engines as powerful as all the waterfalls in north america combined. years in the planning, months in the building and testing, the saturn first stage lived but 2 minutes 41 seconds. >> and ignition. >> houston, thrust is go. all engines are looking good. >> roger, you're loud and clear. >> 2 minutes, 41 seconds, time

to throw apollo 40 miles up into the sky and then an empty shell to fall back into the sea. >> roger, we confirm skirts up. >> star is gone. >> roger, star. >> neil armstrong confirming both the engine skirt separation and the launch escape tower separation. >> houston, apollo 11 saturn gave us a magnificent ride. >> we'll pass that on. it looks like you're well on your way now. >> 11 houston, your guidance has conver converged. you're looking good. >> down range 140 miles, altitude 62 miles.

>> mission control in houston, texas, had taken over from launch control at cape kennedy for the duration of the 8-day mission. the complicated technology of apollo saturn evolved from an ingeniously simple concept, lunar orbit rendezvous. the flight began with a lift toward the lower atmosphere and a tilt to the east. at 6,000 miles an hour, the empty first stage is discarded to save weight. so as an adapter ring in the unused escape tower. with the second stage firing, it reaches 15,000 miles an hour when it too is jettisonejettiso. the third stage places apollo in earth orbit at 17,400 miles per hour. when the spacecraft has been thoroughly checked out by the crew, the third stage fires again, its speed now tearing it free from the grip of earth's

gravity. while coasting outward, the command service module separates and docks for access to the lunar module and the empty third stage is left behind. apollo loses speed throughout nine-tenths of its journey until the moon's gravity overcomes the pull of earth. apollo fires in reverse direction, slowing down enough to be captured in orbit about the moon. armstrong and aldrin enter the lunar module eagle which separates, leaving columns in the command service module in lieu nlunar orbit. it bre eagle slows some more and breaks to a touchdown on the lunar service. after the moon walk, the upper stage of the eagle lifts off, leaving behind the now useless landing stage and swings into orbit to dock with columbia once

again. when the grew and moon samples are transferred to the command service mod jewel, the lunar module is discarded. the command service mod jewel fires itself out of lunar orbit and falls back to earth. as it approaches the reentry speed of nearly 25,000 miles per hour, the service module drops away. the command module plunges into the atmosphere protected by its heat shield. slowed still more by the atmosphere, it parachutes into the sea. the command module columbia is all that remains of the original 3,000 tons of rocket fuel and cargo. >> apollo 11, this is houston. over. >> while in earth orbit, the apollo crew had less than two

hours to check out all their spacecraft systems, the chance chance to discover and correct any malfunction before the third stage engine is restarted to break them free of earth, the translunar injection. >> apollo 11, this is houston. you are go for tli. over. >> thank you. >> roger that. >> apollo 11, this is houston. slightly less than one minute to ignition and everything is go. >> roger. ignition. >> we confirm ignition and the thrust is go. >> apollo 11. >> guidance looking good. velocity 26,000 feet per second. telemet telemetry.

>> through the window of the command module, the earth gently slipped away. >> apollo 11, this is houston. thrust is good. everything is still looking good. >> roger. >> 29,000 feet per second, building up toward 30,000 feet per second. >> apollo 11, this is houston. 3 1/2 minutes. we are still looking good. your predicted cutoff is right on the nominal. >> deep space tracking antennas a third of a world apart listened to apollo and spoke to apollo. as the earth turned, at least one of them would have contact with apollo at all times except when it passed behind the moon. >> 35,000 feet per second. cut out.

velocity 35,570 feet per second. altitude 177 nautical miles. >> at 3 hours, 11 minutes into the mission, distance from earth 3,140 nautical miles. >> it is reported in a stable attitude for the separation. >> apollo 11, this is houston. you're go for separation. >> okay. my intent is to use bottle primary one as per the checklist. >> roger, we concur with the logic. >> we're awaiting confirmation of separation. >> roger. >> we confirm the separation here on the ground. >> apollo 11, this is houston, radio check.

over. >> the gold stone station reports a very weak signal. we believe that he is now maneuvering the spacecraft in the transposition and docking ma nu maneuver and the antenna patterns aren't too good at the moment, so we have a weak signal strength. >> the command service module turned around and separated to dock with the lunar eagle module. >> apollo 11, this is houston. how do you read? >> apollo 11, this is houston. radio check. over. >> roger that. >> roger. we're copying you about five by two, very weak. can you give us a status report, please?

[ indiscernible ] >> loud and clear. we understand that you are docked. >> we recommend you accept the 949, continue through your sequence of sightings and we'll analyze the data afterwards. over. >> okay. >> on board was a fourth brain, a small computer called disky which solved problems and helped with a long sequence of system checks and data sequence with earth. >> star just disappeared. turn your manual 47 -- >> stand by. >> apollo 11, houston, we'd like you to press on the star 44. over. >> roger. >> they found their way across the sea of space, navigating by the same stars that guided columbus to shores unknown. >> 11 houston, we copy two

goodmarkgoo good marks. over. >> okay. >> three days falling to the moon, free of the gravity of earth. no up or down, no day or night. a sense of stillness while traveling at the speed of a meteor. >> about how long it will be before you start closing -- back up? over. >> an invisible speck in the night, somewhere between here and there, constantly monitored from earth. within this tiny spacecraft, a temporary earth environment, warmth, air, food, water, everything necessary to sustain life. beyond these fragile walls, nothingness.

absolute cold, an end to life. the most important function of the spacecraft, life, was also monitored constantly through telemetry, the heartbeat and breathing of each astronaut. although each breath was 30,000 feet farther from earth than the breath before it. should one heart flutter, it would at once be of concern to millions worlds away. unlike any other place man had traveled before, space could provide him with nothing. it is a vacuum, devoid of every element needed for life. to send man into this nothingness, to protect him, it was first necessary to define him. what is the human machine? how does it function? what is the nature of its nervous system, its respiration,

its circulation, digestion, sight, hearing, balance, its enduran endurance? what gasses to breathe should he take with him from earth? what atmospheric pressure suits him best? is it possible to give him a more efficient atmosphere for space travel than nature provides on earth?

♪ >> the moon is 250 degrees hot in sunlight and 240 degrees below zero in the middle of its night. how long can a man bake or freeze? what protection will he need from this inhuman environment? what strains will the heart take when the pressure of gravity is removed from the limbs? what protection will the body

need from sudden deceleration or acceleration? man's sense of direction, speed and balance are easily fooled. can his mind be trained to ignore false signals from his senses?

>> we were defining the physical man in absolute terms. once we newmknew man's limitati we could build him an artificial environment for space travel. columbia, the command module was a supreme achievement of the technology of its age. it was a mini planet, complete with its own environmental control system, telecommunications, electrical power, guidance, navigation, stabilization, propulsion, reaction control. it provided hot and cold water and removed carbon dioxide from the air.

three men could live here for more than a week, eat, work, sleep, shave, exercise and listen to music. it was micro media proof, burn proof and sea worthy and it could tilt itself in any direction. in short, it was the most intricate and sophisticated machine ever made by man. as for man, however, we're stuck with the original model. all we can do is add an outer layer of things he does not naturally have. space medicine showed us where man is vulnerable and we learned to compensate for most of the weaknesses with technology and careful workmanship. >> i made boxing gloves before i came here. the fact is, i was an experienced sewer but i had to learn all over again, because it

was completely different from what i had sewed before. this was getting right down to a 64th of an inch and where i'd say before you just sewed on a production line. and this here is quality more than quantity. >> like we always think our job is the hardest. whatever we're doing, we got the hardest job. but when they say maybe do so-and-so, you'll find out that job is harder than yours. a lot of times we're sewing or making things and maybe the girl next to you, she's doing the same thing, but we never see the suit put together. we don't know where this part goes or the other one don't know where the other part goes. like the gloves, if they would give you a glove to sew, you wouldn't know where to start. >> when they're up there in space, you know what parts you've worked on and you just say, i hope that part don't fail because i'd feel it was my fault if it did. >> just what hazel said. i just wondered if my pair of

gloves was what he had on. >> if you made a mistake, you have to think about the astronaut too. if you make like a needle hole or something like that, that would be on your conscience all the time it seems to me. >> armstrong and all of them used to come in. they would look around and see what we were doing. once in a while they'd talk to us and we'd get them to sign their autograph. some of them were real comical. we got a kick out of them. we all wanted to talk to them, i guess. one of them going down the aisle and everybody looks at him and frad afraid to talk. i said, hi, buddy. >> i'd love to go into space. i think it would be really thrilling just to get in there and just blast off. >> i'd love to go to space and just live there. >> every day you get up, you come to work, you go home, you clean house. up there, there's no house, no

kids, no problem. >> i'd like to ride an airplane and go into space and wear our own suit that we make. i think i could depend on it. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> after body electrodes have been attached to monitor heartbeat and breathing, the first items of clothing are the

water-cooled underwear and a urine collector. the space suit is basically a sealed back of atmosphere, a stiffened balloon, pumped up to counteract space. it might be called a one-man space shiship of the smallest possible dimensions. it has to guard against hard rays from the sun and tiny meteorites yet it must have the flexibility to allow man to function as he would in his natural environment. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> the backpack cleans and cools the suit's oxygen, cleans and circulated water through the water-cooled underwear and provides radio communication. ♪ >> over the pressure helmet is a clear visor, then a gold coated visor to protect against micro meteors and solar radiation. the final test was, how would the suit work in the silent, weightless world of space. ♪

♪ >> weightlessness on earth can be experienced only underwater or in an airplane following a par parabolic flight path. ♪ >> the only true test was in space itself.

♪ ♪ >> no up or down, no day or night, only the slow creeping of the harsh sunlight through the windows as the spacecraft rotates to keep from getting too hot on one side, too cold on the other.

they carried with them the biological day of the earthling, three meals, a snack or two, eight hours of sleep. time to work, time to relax, time to reflect. three days, falling upward to the moon. look down. look down. that fragile bubble of life, afloat on a sea of nothing. spaceship earth. ♪

♪ ♪ >> plus 00190.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ >> plus 00190. roll is your option. pitch 213357. down 44 is na. delta vp 00197. 00300152.

>> apollo 11 this is houston. i've got the morning news here if you're interested. over. >> yeah, we sure are. copy and come in. >> okay. first off, 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 press in rugs is headlined the mission and calling neil the czar of the ship. i think they have the wrong mission. among the large headlines concerning apollo this morning there's one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. >> hello there. >> an ancient legend says a

beautiful chinese girl has been living there for 4,000 years. it seems she was banished to the moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband. you might also look for her companion, a large chinese rabbit who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. the name of the rabbit is not reported. >> okay. we will keep a close eye out for the bunny girl. >> and in corby, england an irishman john coyle has won the world porridge eating championship from a field of 35 other competitors. over. >> i'd like to enter aldrin in an oatmeal eating contest next time. he is on his 19th bowl. >> roger.

>> back here in houston the mayor promises the lifting of lawn watering restrictions if the rains continue. the big news around houston today concerns the astros. in the sports world the houston astros rallied in the ninth inning at cincinnati to dump the reds 7-4. your three wives and children got together for lunch yesterday at buzz's house. according to pat, it turned out to be a gab fest. president nixon is planning to use his executive power to streamline the interstate commerce commission. >> he was later in the week enthusiastically welcomed at the jackie gleason golf watch in miami, florida. >> as air pollution reached critical levels the senate unanimously backed a national environmental policy act to make the safe guarding of the physical environment -- >> astronauts are not the only explorers in the news. san diego awaits the arrival of mrs. sharon adams on her solo crossing of the pacific, seen

here leaving -- >> the company says they plan to marry at the precise moment -- >> in vietnam things are relatively quiet with only a few fire fights. 814 men of the third battalion's -- >> gis north of saigon were evacuating villagers. a south vietnamese force -- >> new riots broke out in northern ireland during the celebration marking the 297th anniversary of the battle. >> more witnesses in its investigation of student disorders that took place at harvard and other universities last spring. 10,000 -- >> registration for the black panther party convention being held at party headquarters in oakland. >> the white house quakers will gathered to continue their -- >> the grand prix auto races at watkins glen, new york, and the 200 mile in trenton, new jersey, were won by world famous mario andretti, now takes the lead -- >> anti-poverty workers out of

charleston, west virginia, are taking information about birth control and family planning into the mountains of appalachia. >> a new line of space toys drew children of all ages in the tokyo department stores on the eve -- >> in the mid east young guerillas trained for battle -- >> in retaliation to israeli assaults a force of 32 egyptian commandos -- >> from the u.s. defense department -- >> 1.5 million have now -- >> carried out -- >> the chicago cubs -- >> over vietcong -- >> vietnam --

>> 00758 plus all balls plus 00098, plus -- correction, 00572, plus 00085, 00764, 030000293. down 86, minus 00759. >> apollo went into orbit around the moon. the journey that had taken the lifetime of mankind was nearing its crucial moment. >> apollo 11, houston, we were wondering if you started into the lemm yet. over. >> okay.

charlie, we are in the lemm. the tracking index mark is the same. >> roger. we copy. >> apollo 11, apollo 11 eagle. over. >> the lunar module eagle was again given a thorough checkout to ensure the functioning of all systems as armstrong and aldrin prepared to seal themselves off from collins in the command module and for the two craft to pull apart. >> 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. houston out. over. >> okay. it's go there. okay. flight controllers, going around the horn, going to go for undocking. okay. retro. >> go. >> guide. >> go. >> control. >> go. >> dell com. >> go. >> cap come, we are go for undocking.

>> hello, eagle. houston, we're standing by. over. >> eagle, houston, we see you. over. >> roger, eagle is undocked. >> roger. how does it look? >> the eagle has wings. >> the eagle has wings. on its own now, but with columbia near at hand, it coasted around to the backside of the moon and there while out of direct communication with the earth it fired its engine to slow its descent to a touchdown on the near side of the moon. collins and columbia continued in orbit, awaiting their return.

>> flight controllers, go for landing. retro. >> go. >> guidance. >> go. >> e con. >> go. >> cap com, we are go for landing. >> you are go for landing. over. >> go for landing. 3,000 feet. >> you are looking great. >> how are you doing, control? >> we look good here. >> tell come. >> go. >> fido. >> go. >> 2,000 feet. >> roger. >> 47 degrees. >> still looking very good. >> you're go. >> roger. 1201 alarm. >> we're go, flight. >> okay. we're go. >> we're go. sit tight. we're go. >> altitude 1600. >> eagle looking great. >> roger.

1202. we copy it. >> 35 degrees. 750 coming down to 23. >> 540 feet at a 15. 250 feet down at 4. altitude, velocity light. 220 feet. forward, coming down nicely. 200 feet. 4 1/2 down, 5 1/2 down. 100 feet, 3 1/2 down, 9 forward. 75 feet, looking good, down a half. 6 forward. 60 seconds. lights on. forward. forward. 40 feet down 2 1/2. picking up some dust. shadow. 4 forward drifting to the right a little. >> 30 seconds. >> contact light. okay. engines stopped. >> we copy you down, eagle.

>> houston, tranquility base here. the eagle has landed. >> this is apollo control houston at 105 hours now into the flight, apollo 11. our current plan is to have crew members aboard the eagle to eat and relax for a little while prior to starting eva prep. so we won't know with certainty or having a reasonable time back until about an hour before the scheduled event. >> [ speaking foreign language ] [ speaking foreign language ]

>> and the world waited. july 20th, 1969. it is said that 500 million people gathered at tv sets around the world to wait for the first earthling to set foot on the moon. countless millions more listened on the radio to the voices from the moon. >> this is neil. radio check. >> neil, this is houston, loud and clear. >> never before had so many people been attuned to one event at one time. the world waited, curious, wondering, aware. like a sleeper awakened in the night by a far away sound.

a moment sensed more than understood. >> stand by. >> okay. neil, we can see you coming down the ladder now. >> okay. i just checked, getting back up to that first step, it's not even collapsed too far, but its adequate to get back up. >> roger, we copy. >> it's a pretty good little jump. i'm at the foot of the ladder. the lemm foot beds are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained as you get close to it, it's almost like a powder

down there, it's very fine. i'm going to step off the lemm now. that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. >> that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. [ speaking foreign language ] >> he is on the moon. astronaut neil armstrong -- >> neil armstrong -- [ speaking foreign language ]

[ speaking foreign language] >> that looks beautiful. >> it has a stark beauty all its own. it's like much of the high desert of the united states, it's different, but it's very pretty out here. >> are you getting a tv picture now, houston? >> neil, yes, we are getting a tv picture. you're in our field of view now. >> okay. ready for me to come out? >> all set. >> okay. i'm on the top step. it's a very simple matter to hop down from one step to the next. >> you have three more steps and then a long one. >> okay. i'm going to leave that one foot up there and both hands to about the fourth rung up. >> there you go.

>> okay. now i think i will do the same. >> a little more. about another inch. there. you got it? that's a good step. beautiful view. >> isn't that something? >> magnificent sight out here. >> magnificent desolation. >> very, very fine powder, isn't it? >> isn't it fine? >> neil, didn't i say we might see some purple rocks. >> find the purple rocks? >> yep. very small sparkly fragments. >> okay. houston, i'm going to change lenses on you. >> roger, neil. >> you're going too fast on the panorama sweep.

you're going to have to stop. >> i haven't stopped -- i haven't set it down yet. that's the first picture in the panorama. okay. i'm going to move it. panorama. okay. i'm going to move it. >> tell me if you've got a picture, houston. >> we've got a beautiful picture, neil. >> okay. we've got that one. >> okay. there's another good one. for a final orientation we'd like you to come left about 5 degrees. over. >> okay. >> okay. that looks good there, neil. >> buzz is erecting the solar wind experiment now.

>> every precious minute of their 2 1/2 hours on the surface was programmed. rock and soil samples were to be collected. photographs taken. experiments set up to catch unfiltered particles from the sun to record moon quakes, to measure precisely by laser beam reflection the exact distance between moon and earth. >> columbia, columbia, this is houston. aos. over. >> houston, columbia, over. >> roger, the e.v.a. is progressing beautifully. they're setting up the flag now. i guess you're about the only person around that doesn't have tv coverage of the scene. >> that's right. i don't mind a bit. >> they've got the flag up now and you can see the stars and stripes on the lunar surface. >> beautiful. just beautiful. how is the quality of the tv? >> oh, it's beautiful, mike. really is.

it really is. >> i'd like to evaluate the various paces that a person can travel on the lunar surface. you do have to be -- all right. you do have to be rather careful to keep track of where your center mass is. sometimes it takes about two or three paces to make sure that you've got your feet underneath you. >> in about two or three or maybe four easy paces can bring you to a fairly smooth stop. like a football player, you just have to put your foot out to the side and cut a little bit. so-called kangaroo hop does work but it seems that your forward ability is not quite as good. it could get rather tiring after several hundred feet, but this

may be a function of this suit as well as lack of gravity forces. >> i noticed in the soft spots where we had footprints nearly an inch deep that the soil is very cohesive and it will retain a slope of probably 70 degrees, one side of the footprint. >> buzz is making his way around the lemm, photographing it from various angles, looking at its condition on all sides. >> right in this area there are two craters, the one that's right in front of me now as i look off in about the 11:00 position from the spacecraft, about 30 to 35 feet.

>> roger. out. >> in the foreground buzz aldrin is collecting a core tube sample. >> i hope you're watching how hard i have to hit this into the ground to a tune of about 5 inches, houston. >> roger. >> it almost looks wet. >> buzz, this is houston. you've got about ten minutes left now prior to commencing your eva termination activities. over. >> roger, i understand.

>> it's marvelous. >> absolutely fantastic. >> first person on the moon. it's just too much. i can't get over it. >> i don't know how to put it, you know, but it's the most marvelous thing. it's a miracle. >> we are really thrilled. >> for every american this has to be the proudest day of our lives and for people all over the world. >> i think it's great. really great for the whole world. >> this means a lot to all the countries, not just for america. >> and being out of it and being closer to the moon makes us realize that we're all human beings together. >> i hope this brings unity amongst all countries. >> and i just hope it will help you from solving all internal problems you may have. >> well, i think it's a waste of a lot of money that can be used for something else. they holler about people being in starvation. >> this huge amount of money americans spent to see what the moon is like, what for? >> it's disgusting. it's a pity they haven't got something else to do.

it would have been better if they'd done something for the elders. >> what if columbus decided he couldn't get the money from isabella, where would he be? >> that's one of god's celestial planets, he put it up there for a reason. they didn't put it there for people to clutter up like the earth. >> myself, i'm interested to see what's up there. >> we must open all secrets that are opening to us throughout the ages. >> i think that the dream of the man from the beginning of the human race is coming now. >> alone, 45 miles above the moon's surface, michael collins completed an orbit every two hours. he listened to the progress of the moon walk and awaited the moment when his companions on the surface would lift off to rendezvous with him.

>> 30 times he saw the earth rise over the horizon of the moon, 12,000 miles of twilight, a line that divides night from day for 3 billion people on spaceship earth. it is good to see the whole earth, to see the earth whole. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> the eagle had left the moon and returned to columbia.

♪ within this strange ship, two astronauts and a treasure. triple sealed vacuum boxes of rocks and soil from the surface of the moon. ♪ locked within these rocks were secrets of the ages to be studied and deciphered by the scientists of earth.

the age of the moon, the age of the sun. how the moon was formed. how life began. was there ever life on the moon? was the moon once molten and volcanic or has it always been cold and dead? was it once part of the earth or was it a wandering planet captured by the earth eons ago? how hot was the sun 3 billion years ago?

♪ >> when armstrong and aldrin with their precious moon rocks had transferred to columbia, the faithful eagle, itself task completed, could be cut adrift. columbia fired out of lunar orbit to begin its three-day fall back to earth where the recovery fleet was waiting for its splashdown in the pacific.

♪ >> "apollo 11," houston with a little recovery force information. over. >> go ahead. >> roger. the hornet is on station just far enough off the target point to keep from getting hit. recovery -- >> july 24th the hornet was on station and the president of the united states was aboard. re-entry into the earth's invisible atmosphere carries with it one of the most critical moments. traveling nearly 25,000 miles per hour the command module can miss the point of re-entry and disintegrate into flames or bounce off into space never to return.

>> velocity 33,000 feet per second. 35,000 feet per second now. 36,000 feet per second. we are at entry time. there's blackout.

>> "apollo 11," houston, through arrive. "apollo 11," houston, through arrive. "apollo 11," houston, through arrive. >> hornet reports a sonic boom a short time ago. >> "apollo 11," houston, in the blind, air boss says visual contact. "apollo 11," houston, through

arrive. standing by. over. ♪ >> "apollo 11," "apollo 11," this is hornet. this is hornet. over. >> "apollo 11" reached -- position 13306915. >> 11 hornet copy 13301605. any further data. over. >> 13306915. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

[ applause ] ♪ ♪ >> what was it we were really celebrating? three men who had done what no man before had done?

a technological feat that was believed beyond the realm of possibility? the fulfillment of an age-old dream? were we celebrating simply because it had been a long time since we'd had anything to celebrate, or was this something that touched an irrational, unthinking, instinct in us all? ♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ we're going to the moon together ♪ ♪ pack your bags and jump into the car ♪ ♪ gonna take a trip to tell you where you are ♪ ♪ good-bye, mother ♪ so long, mother ♪ so long, mother ♪ good-bye ♪ good-bye, mother ♪ so long, mother ♪ so long, mother ♪ so long, mother earth ♪ good-bye, mother ♪ good-bye, moth er earth ♪

>> a treasure of the ages. stones from across the night.

unrubbed by wind, unwashed by rain. scattered on tranquility. bombarded by solar particles for billions of years but unchanged

in any other way, a moon rock is like the diary of the sun, an eye unblinking since time began. that stared across the sea of space, that watched the blue planet when life began. ♪

remembered in these rocks are ancient sun spots, solar flares, solar storms whose fiery arms reached out a million miles. by making ourselves very small, like alice, perhaps we will see what these rocks have seen and remember back those billions of

years to decipher the life of the sun. ♪ ♪

>> locked within our sun are answers to mysteries that you have confounded man since time began. we have reached out with our telescopes, we have reached in with our microscopes, seeking. what is the source of life? what combination of energies and elements brought it into existence? what is the relationship between the nonliving and living things? how delicate is the balance?

man slowly begins to realize how fragile is his bubble of life. ♪ ours is one sun in a sea of suns more plentiful than all the grains of sand on all the shores of all the seas of planet earth. ♪

now that we are free to wander from earth, perhaps we will find the answers to our questions. someday we may know where we come from, where we're going. we may know where is the end, where is the beginning. ♪

♪ ♪ we have walked on the moon. we open our minds to the universe.

♪ ♪

♪ all week, we're featuring american history tv programs as a preview of what's available every weekend on c-span3. "lectures in history." "american artifacts." "reel america." "the civil war." "oral histories." "the presidency." and special event coverage about our nation's history.

enjoy american history tv now and every weekend on c-span3. weeknights this month, we feature american history tv programs as a preview of what's available every weekend on c-span3. this week, we showcase weekly "lectures in history" series taking you into college classrooms around the country. tonight, a look at world war ii and how american cartoons influence the war effort. watch american history tv tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern and every week on c-span3. >> labor day weekend on american history tv, saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on "lectures in history," a discussion about abraham lincoln and native americans. sunday at 4:00 p.m. on "reel america," the 1950 army film,

"invasion of southern france." and monday, labor day, at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of virginia's first general assembly held at jamestown. explore our nation's past on american history tv every weekend on c-span 3. in the late 1850s, americans generally trusted congressmen, but did not trust congress as an institution, nor did congressmen trust each other. by 1860, many congressmen were routinely armed not because they were eager to kill their opponents, but out of fear their opponents might kill them. >> yale history professor, author, joanne freeman, will be our guest on "in-depth" sunday from noon to 2:00 p.m. eastern. ms. freeman's latest book is called "the field of blood." "hamilton: writings."

and "affairs of honor." join the live conversation with your phone calls, tweets, and facebook questions. then at 9:00 p.m. eastern on "after words," the immoral majority. how evangelicals choose political power over christian values. >> i think the lesser evil argument is tempting the dangerous. it contributes to keeping a system in place that takes accountability out of the system and i think it also is an easy way to bring in something like evangelicalism or any other faith and use that as a way to get votes which seems like about the worst possible way to use faith. >> watch booktv every weekend on c-sp c-span2. in the wake of recent shootings in el paso, texas, and dayton, ohio, the house judiciary committee will return early there a recess to mark up

three gun violence prevention bills which includes banning high-capacity ammunition magazines, restricting firearms by those deemed bay court to be a risk to themselves and stopping those convicted of misdemeanor hate crimes from purchasing a gun. live coverage starts september 4th at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span and c-span.org. if you're on the go, listen to our live coverage using the free c-span radio app. vice president mike pence delivered remarks at the unveiling ceremony for neil armstro armstrong's "apollo 11" spacesuit at the national air and space museum in washington, d.c. the suit went on display for first time in 13 years to mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of the "apollo 11" mission to the moon. [ applause ] >> good morning. thank you for joining us as we kick off a week of amazing