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     Interview with James "Jim" Lovell, astronaut, commander of Apollo
    13, and command module pilot of Apollo 8, part 1 of 2
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us the actually won a major objection of apollo twelve jointly to our wishes it was what we call the va are japanese nine ten eleven had problems of people going outside and working outside his basement because everybody forgot newton street law third law of motion to her reaction is an opposite and legal reaction and weight that's a spacecraft the spacecraft repel them so on twelve we had to learn how to work outside the spacecraft and we did that by renting a boys' school in a school in baltimore put a crew lock up out of the water on a bus in eight all space it was worst just as well underwater as in space and i was asked
about as the pool going to i'm down low and he worked out the foibles the tolls a way to move to work outside so i was actually going to get us well we're worried that what we had practiced in the our poll the boys pull the sort of wolf that that would really work outside and of course it did the main thing was that it took us time and knew how to use zero gravity for him instead of against him and he did meet up ie didn't go over german soldiers arrayed in your real life like the other people are eligible for it we can't live without it i don't think that we could have made a lunar landing by the amortization i went out the stars of the preparation in jeopardy because we did rendezvous we do some navigation we did though what should one outside a spacecraft worried how to
operate out there are we had that did that in the long term duration on june two seventh so all this was a prelude to actually working with the apollo spacecraft and you know we were an apollo spacecraft and eleven which was not too far down the line now some of the senators on the stafford and wally about seven six and after the rendezvous what's it like working in germany i think that they're well the greatest era trials is to acknowledge every council for two weeks now i see a lot of people enough present a shallow has been made you know sid was a mess and the mere ah but in a spacecraft that you could even stretch out to get you to stretch your waist and had to beg your torso or straight your torso but the new head of the new ways and so it was really a trial has just spent two weeks or without zero gravity we're never going to know
or there's a space for two weeks ah because that was the model of the time they would get to go to the moon and back again and it turned out that of course we know now that we can spell la times based but the other thing was the confinement and in germany which is sort of unusual even for space flight we don't have that today at the show all the mere are displaced it's going up but just to be confined there like a sardine a camp that was a real trial ally get a frosting of the votes why was the gemini spacecraft is on a capsule and of course is sitting right next to your companion effort to expand with frank borman it was a real challenge for us to have to go through but we did that occurs will apologize so you also calls from austin again he's the lice can become an imam rauf and so i'll
go where one where we can last two weeks or so what what's going on unless the mohicans i think and i think that the franken a book all roughly matt lauer which we're trying to read we also sang to each other i mean for some reason before the flight while we are training we put on old musical were it was a song yeah i was that key goal that's right and legal and that it's possible to set up which is we live a lot closer to the far less protected you are all of that for some reason that stuck in our heads and we sang about the forty two a's they just recently when i was a desolate isolated hall of famers i came up to the stairs to receive my own awards frank had the band lay pushes we live a little closer to the fourth so he's also indicated you that's bush as sweet lips a little
closer to the fall let's pretend that you alone are all low that's all we know we can't repeat an over over it i'm sure i'll win what really concerned all the major concern was this idea of what the senate hypertension words are lais had been used for two weeks the mussels haven't lost her tone and they would tend to let the blood flow down and delays because they were not on track to keep a book in our bodies the blood flowed out we would lose consciousness groups that are there was tremor muscles so for a week we first came up that we had the two weeks without lot of terrain see that go through college get yourself later on for flights are not so much in the policy went into the sky lebanon you know now the shelf that you must
exercise in space to prepare yourself are going back home again space itself is itself is a very lethargic average why quo zero gravity is coming home oh what worked with expectations of that you get pass out what will really expected well we're worried about that we were partially we floated wrestling positions so we had to put our heads down to get rid of fill out doesn't but i guess maybe the drama was running doesn't like that and we never got to that stage enough because we picked up by a helicopter by one of those which you called it wasn't of mastering my gosh is to build a one around and the work ethic we started walking across counties and your mother was white yeah i actually for the first couple hours actually had almost command my
legs to choose a left right left right and up and my mother was watching on tv violently saldana felt like i had my pencil because i was working very very beautiful very deliberately i want you objects allen i had some minor differences on horace the gemini flights many because we are not going to go outside the spacecraft and four to ignition we have for us with a what the older more culpable there was what we call it get me down sudan was really cut into a sitting position so that when it was inflated you'd be a sudden a sitting position we do we took off a chorus or to ignition and the first thing we thought about was that the susan rice but let's get out of at that time no management double o were overly overly cautious about getting out of space suits and they didn't want us to get out alive the zipper down the back and so soon after i was airborne i had visited the thing a pursuit if i had my butt sticking
out the back and then a little later by backhoes the standout track at all about security analysis and it would let poor for echoes of the fighting let me out for protests i guess that was expendable so for three days recklessly ensued funny that a lot of grisly flew the rest of the flight in our long john underwear which white rank as orsay that i spent two weeks in my underwear around the earth the apology i was back up on a i was on apollo leavened with those old woman that neil armstrong and a nayyar of the city was the white house might might cause was a red wattle partly that he had a home no accident that was starting to affect mobility and have an operation so they switched may but i was his backup might've issue on local nobody worries head the
woodstock be on earth orbital flight and of course the two reasons why we are one we had good information that the russians were going to try to put a man around the most are american and the second thing is that the model ah which was supposed to be ready for us to take up to put the test out in earth orbit aren't was back to be ready until nineteen sixty nine every bald mubarak nasa personnel on they decided to send the public to the moon which was so wise or isis yelling one of first books i read in many senators are space flight was jules verne support from the from the earth to the moon and it was a lot of similarity between apollo eight and and that book because i we both took off from florida he is a large can we had a rocket we don't talk about the same time in december are there three people in jewels were as booker there were three in a chorus the spacecraft that we went
around the world or whatever while it came back and landed in the pacific ocean just as jules verne had to say in his book about a hundred thirty years before so was a very interesting the comparison between the two up two flights of the rat reality and the of course the mets was a cruise well that the actor there are two books are the first book of the year the three people angels were stranded in their orbit are so many people complained after they read the book and then he was forced to write a sequel getting a lot of our own orbit and then give back to the earth back to the earth other cruse first knowledge that our mission was going to change for a formal to a year to honor flight all three was rotted out they were testing the spacecraft that we thought we're going to use
and when he came back again he told torres bill enters a white salt that the mission of the jewish i was a static i mean i this is really sort of i mean that you know i ordered around the earth had to gently flicks and dad to be your command module pilot for the third time and not to be a little macho the test it out you know that much as sort of change it to go to the moon and then trying to you know be the navigator that flight was some time where's the party as well you know you think about is their fear about an aunt to me the the curiosity the idea of going to explore a new planet far outweighed the fear of something going wrong and i guess a service the intimate features
some people that the way like a little bit now when you're out there or on the way out of the first kind of a deviant you were for translator injection that moment that something better all that's right yeah we were we were course early going around the earth had tested it out iran and also that the proper time we get paid everything was go to like our third stage for the second time and a weed weed did whether the procedures that we can watch the how the velocity buildup in the computer repair was the healthy perspective go faster faster faster and faster and son leo when it stopped we knew that we are on our way to the moment because we have all of that that's just behind us and we went back out we can actually see the earth start to shrink i mean somebody you wouldn't see a record of course but they're a starting a smaller it's more than just a short period of time the sensitive season or
injection here that workers will try for oh it was a lot a lot of fatigue on the way out there and sleeping in space is something that people don't realize and warnings were investigations well in the beginning it was bad because we were all friends although we're excited and denied tenure in some places are excited and in some strange environment you don't sleep that well and africa obama you know with the it's a cruel but so that we have but we were in good shape and we'll promise of sleepy and of course he wants a broader movement i was twenty hours until he got there or warming and so while we're all we lived well we're all trying to get as much as science as possible account
and solar and all things are doable were getting close two or we have to do the transfer the injection i know the threat was very worried that we do when it's true that up and that in his mind i think he's after it was the fact that there was more for the disc as a mortgage lender services we're got to have any word for salt for ziad as we get around you know build in one another slaby we will use the pictures and i was doing some navigation but i had it all i was tired and so our by accident after i think that i want to try to go to sleep and a friend were both asleep so and they're starting in order to honestly can say ok there was no we weren't well we
aren't and we did see at first only rows beige wraparound also double as there was the service the backside on a bus at two miles down and you know i was so we're like crisco to look into a candy store window our noses are pressing their supplies we forgot the playboy there's lots of digital critters was long but because we are the first three people to live to see alive lay back side of the boat that we had some pictures of it from a masters at so at that there was the high point of my of my space career was to see the far side of the house well we just got a drought in many ways were up there it says like plaster of paris i think joe friedberg also was like yeah the beach sand but it's also it's a great no color that's what most impressed me and again when you go outside look at a formal one is up in the sky that will rise and you'll say this isn't exactly the same color it's all shades of gray and there's
no color to it whatsoever and it's you know it brings want to mind how old the moon really as a music ancient road graders greater upon crater were one greater got you know wiped up by another player but other there was it's amazing sign something that says oh it was fine but sort of forbidden lawyers for this episode are dr abad is has the burnout of wondered are we at that while we can outsource and we're all comparison is weak dr famous genesis talk and girls were away with data that were so was innocent things come off we got around and said to get all that they say they're going to come and five years are working out there was
instructions for getting whole reason why they're so it came around and i was being an accurate was working the computer equipment all travelers to light the edge of the edge of the course aren't was always control that will save her control really by the computer we got down to the fire says it was a lawyer and there was a warning of low numbers that would come up and say you really ready for the summit you really want to make this maneuver was a last chance so you know you can abort the site and out and so there was a lot less at the scene if you want to do it and i hesitated for a little bit try to push the bar was developed as so we get the engine lead and of course we started to speed up now we have to keep going to me we have enough for us to get us out of the normal again cause of a subsequent short really go to some so while orbit around the moon a regional hit the boehner does something strange and so while this was the time that we really have a way to wash that compound hoping that the ingenuity by going from a full time and i
stopped right on time computer stopped and of course we had our colossally to head back to earth was there concern about in the science in geology in general give you want one day to be a credible movement signs they're engaged to do too much well i might really when you look at our basic notions were tuneful how one was does the command service model have all the ability the navigation the communication availability for only a lot of electronics don't want to go to a tree problem it's the delivery devices that is the transportation vehicle that was the first really objective of the second one was ok we want to make sure that now that the first people to land on the motive have the greatest chance of survival because in reality in that time period it was not a cite an expedition it was a technical challenge to do a high state of the world that we could lead a person to bring
back only get so we're looking for the best spots the flat martyrs the seas off and that's why we landed and see a track called eleven of those storms aren't well robin but god that was they started that in the navigation was the basic thing the scientific work aside from making sure that the navigation system work at the computer was fine which turned out to be more than anybody are really expected and looked at the craters all week a different side to do was to observe you know we're not we're not rocks right like their allies i think it was thought of without the windows so we we have to deal with that do you know he wasn't re getting back their table are it wasn't ready well have been the situation of what happened you were thirteen happened i
thought that what transpired on apollo thirteen which is an explosion of an oxygen tank all in the command module is that it happen on stage and it had had the ability to do that because the pollen that it caused the explosion the thermostat which was a wrongful arrest i was in all the spacecraft and all the auction takes up through apollo thirteen but it could happen abbate we would've been stuck in what have the same time he had a long oblong orbit around the earth going out to about four thousand miles and go back to forty thousand probably have and probably keep inadequate as a lesson the various pieces that is out there so tom was just a simple statement you know there's all there's a rescue him in the apollo days maybe even that we had an explosion and saw what notable to arrest was like to get perhaps in earth orbit and no
photographs all the while the photograph was surprise was became very famous because south shows the years in the background and the lunar module the lunar surface in the foreground i was taken with a telephoto lens because years
Series
NOVA
Episode
To the Moon
Raw Footage
Interview with James "Jim" Lovell, astronaut, commander of Apollo 13, and command module pilot of Apollo 8, part 1 of 2
Producing Organization
WGBH Educational Foundation
Contributing Organization
WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/15-hh6c24rw94
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/15-hh6c24rw94).
Description
Program Description
This remarkably crafted program covers the full range of participants in the Apollo project, from the scientists and engineers who promoted bold ideas about the nature of the Moon and how to get there, to the young geologists who chose the landing sites and helped train the crews, to the astronauts who actually went - not once or twice, but six times, each to a more demanding and interesting location on the Moon's surface. "To The Moon" includes unprecedented footage, rare interviews, and presents a magnificent overview of the history of man and the Moon. To the Moon aired as NOVA episode 2610 in 1999.
Raw Footage Description
Jim Lovell, former NASA astronaut, retired Navy Captain, is interviewed about his experience during the Gemini 12 EVA mission with Buzz Aldrin, as well as his time on Apollo 8 with Frank Borman and Bill Anders. Lovell describes the entertainment available during Apollo 8, mainly the team's singing of the song "Put Your Sweet Lips a Little Closer to the Phone". Lovell also describes the medical concerns about landing and having to exercise his muscles. The video ends with a discussion of the beginning of Apollo 8 and the decision to fly around the moon, as well as Lovell's description of their first glimpse of the moon.
Created Date
1998-00-00
Asset type
Raw Footage
Genres
Interview
Topics
History
Technology
Science
Subjects
American History; Gemini; apollo; moon; Space; astronaut
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:23:20
Embed Code
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Credits
Interviewee: Lovell, James, 1928-
Producing Organization: WGBH Educational Foundation
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WGBH
Identifier: 52260 (barcode)
Format: Digital Betacam
Generation: Original
Duration: 0:23:21
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
Citations
Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with James "Jim" Lovell, astronaut, commander of Apollo 13, and command module pilot of Apollo 8, part 1 of 2 ,” 1998-00-00, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed October 5, 2023, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-hh6c24rw94.
MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with James "Jim" Lovell, astronaut, commander of Apollo 13, and command module pilot of Apollo 8, part 1 of 2 .” 1998-00-00. WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. October 5, 2023. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-hh6c24rw94>.
APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with James "Jim" Lovell, astronaut, commander of Apollo 13, and command module pilot of Apollo 8, part 1 of 2 . Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-hh6c24rw94