The Moon Page #4

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national budget on space.

But most Americans

were 100% in favour of,

let's push on and whatever

it costs, let's get to the moon.

Ten... nine... eight...

By 1968,

NASA was ready for a test run.

..four... three... two... one...

Zero!

We have commenced!

We have lift-off!

Lift-off at 7.51am

Eastern Standard Time.

Apollo 8 wouldn't actually

land on the moon,

but it would go into lunar orbit.

Although they weren't

going to touch down,

this would be the first time

that humans

had ever visited another world.

This transmission is coming to you personally

halfway between the moon and the Earth.

Back on Earth, people watched

and waited and listened.

And the astronauts

didn't disappoint.

Hovering just above

the moon's surface,

their broadcast

was from the book of Genesis.

"In the beginning, God created

the Heaven and the Earth.

"And the Earth

was without form and void.

"And darkness

was upon the face of the deep.

"And the spirit of God

moved upon the face of the waters."

"And God said, 'Let there

be light.' And there was light."

I don't know. It just caught

the country by surprise.

It was so moving

and... comforting.

And I think, at that point,

we realised the importance

of a space mission

for bringing self-confidence

to people.

On their fourth orbit

around the moon,

the astronauts saw something

no human eyes had ever seen before.

It was the Earth, rising out

of the blackness of space.

The pictures they took changed the

way we viewed our planet forever.

We have commenced! We have lift-off!

And then came the big one.

On July 16th 1969,

Apollo 11 was launched.

Oh, I remember watching it.

It was like, "Wow!" Like watching

science fiction come true.

On its final descent

to the moon's surface,

unknown to the watching audience,

a series of alarms went off

inside the lunar module.

NASA decided to over-ride them.

The gamble paid off.

Houston, er...

..Tranquillity Base here.

The eagle has landed.

I'll now step off the ladder.

It's one small step for man...

..one giant leap for mankind.

More than 600 million people

watched the broadcast worldwide.

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

The experience bonded the human race in a way

which had never happened before. Or since.

It was one of those rare occasions

that brought the whole nation...

and, in a sense, the whole world,

together in a shared experience.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin only walked

on the moon for less than three hours.

But on that night,

people all over the Earth

looked up at the night sky

and knew that there were two men

up there, looking back at them.

I remember the night

of the landing.

And I looked up from the

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