Another thing most people don't know is that all those cool films of the launch vehicle separating in flight shot from inside the stages were taken from Apollo 6, which was packed with instrumentation and movie cameras. The film cartridges were separated, dropped in the ocean and picked up by sailors for later analysis. There were no compact HD digital cameras back then like there are today on almost every launch. People get confused because whenever you see some video or documentary about Apollo 11 they always edit in footage from Apollo 6, because that's the only in-flight footage of a Saturn V staging that exists.

I remember Apollo 8 being front page news. The video of "Earthrise" as the capsule came around from the far side of the Moon was spectacular.

Those of us who lived in Cocoa Beach witnessed every launch. We have not forgotten.

I still think George Mallory's and Andrew Irvine's failed attempt to scale Mt. Everest in 1924 is terrific forgotten history that deserves to be remembered.

Apollo 8 was the first time human beings visited the moon. They didn't land on the moon but they were the first people to see the far side of the moon with their eyes. I remember all of the manned launches from Mercury to Apollo. I had scale models of the Mercury and Gemini capsules and launch vehicles. It was an exciting time for us.

Amazing! I was privileged to view every single Saturn V launch in history from the beach at Daytona Beach. My 12 year-old self used a 6" aperture telescope for Apollo 6 and could read the "UNITED STATES" on the side of the rocket 45 miles away. That's how huge these rockets were. Five minutes later the ground could be felt vibrating under my feet! Those were amazing times.

Some years back, I had as my computer desktop at work, a series of eclipse phases of the Moon with the largest central picture the full eclipse. Had several folks comment that the shots were really good and well done. Though in the past a photographer, they were not mine, and I'd just credit the fella who took the pictures, one David Morgan-Mar, creator of the "Irregular Webcomic". Only one co-worker ever got what was "wrong" with the pictures. "Why is the Moon upside down?" DMM is an Aussie, and lives in Sydney

When I was a kid and looked up at the night sky, there were no man made objects orbiting the Earth. Since that time, I have followed everything with varying degrees of interest. The Apollo One event was like losing family, but that is because the space program is one of the things that define our generation. In the late 1950s, at summer camp, we sent the nature camp counselor to the Moon on an overnight mission to bring back specimens. The older campers built a tall gantry out of timber and for special effects, dry ice was placed in tubs of water. When the campfire ceremony was concluded and the countdown commenced, a rocket was launched into the night sky. The next morning, the counselor made a presentation of his trip to the moon and showed us the Luna Moth that he had brought back that would be available for close inspection at the nature cabin. Only a dozen years later it became a reality, minus the green insects. Mova Globes are pretty nifty. I think my next one is going to be the Moon for sure.

Fixes 1) POGO - add helium damper 2) second stage motor failures - caused by crossed cables so they shortened them preventing a mistake in assembly (also see #3), and 3) re-ignition of motor failure - beefed up the igniter that was ruptured by the POGO event (same fix on second stage).

Excellent video, thank you. More space history please. It's depressing to have lived through arguably the greatest achievement of humankind, only to see it fade into obscurity and become the subject of conspiracy theories. But I'm so very grateful I was born at the beginning of the Space Age and got to experience these events firsthand.

I was 9 years old when the Apollo I tragedy occurred. Like many boys my age, I was fascinated and extremely interested in the space program and, of course, drank Tang. I was devastated to learn of Ed White’s passing. Since he was the first American to do an EVA, he was somewhat of a hero to me. In addition, I had an uncle who worked at NASA in Houston whose house was only a few doors down from White’s. He was a medical doctor and, interestingly, can be seen in the background of a shot for Don Knotts’ movie, The Reluctant Astronaut. Because of that connection, I had some great tours of NASA and wowed my classmates when I was able to bring some “astronaut food" to show-and-tell.

I love studying the history of the USSR space missions and one of the aspects of both the Space Programs (manned, lunar and exploratory) is the history of the failure of launches, tests and lessons learned from people working hard and trying their best to engineer such feats. A lot of men (and animals too) died horribly in the name of Science during that time and even, sometimes, today. All work of mankind is a marathon and not a sprint, but we seem to love the more grandiose and easily successful missions when they go right. But Life is a series of lessons learned through failure and the more celebrated successes wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the tries and failures. I do love the term “Unplanned Accomplishment” and I think it should be used more often. I’m going to start using more often starting today!!

I love how recently the foreground and background decorations model the subject at hand.

I have two things to comment on: 1) The American public was not disinterested in the program or bored, it's the press that gets bored and buries the news. It's the press that decides what it's going to cover or not cover. Same thing happens today. 2) There is a very good book, good read on the entire program. It's the "Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles"

Excellent review. I wasn't aware of what Apollo 6 had achieved. Apollo 8 is my favourite.

Ah, the Apollo missions. I did a paper on them in 9th grade, the year following the landing of the first man on the moon. And I had a hard time finding anything on any mission between Apollo 1 and 7. I still get goosebumps whenever I hear, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Glued to the TV set we were, allowed to stay up way past bedtime to see it. What a day! Thank you, History Guy, for the trip down Memory Lane, and the info I lacked for my report!

When your budget is 26 billion dollars, things don't go wrong, things go right in unexpected ways!😁👍

Being born in 1956 I grew up with the Apollo program. I remember collecting the badges off the back of my morning breakfast cereal. Watching it step by step. How many of us recall looking up at the moon and knowing that two men were on the surface. Suddenly the moon seemed closer.

Engineering is often thought of as always focused on exacting detail, and need to arrive at a desired right answer. This episode brings up two of my favorite characteristics of Real engineering, especially in early development. 1) sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good and 2) many (most?) of the best learnings come from examining failures that you didn’t expect. This is why you test- you don’t know what you don’t know…and as good as simulation is today it only gets you so far.

The early Apollo program is a treasure trove of fun history.

Gee, I remember Apollo 7 very well. Although I was a pre-teen at the time, I had a healthy interest in all kinds of technology - including space missions. But yes, all 2-6 Apollos were not registered by the press here in Europe. I don't remember Apollo 1 either - being too young at the time. I learned about that one much later in life. However - Apollo 8 was great news, because it was the first lunar flight. I was glued to the TV the whole time.

YES!! More engineering stories like this, please!

Tang was actually pretty good. At least that's how I remember it.

Thank you again. I was consumed by the Mercury and Apollo program as a young boy in the 60's. I was transported back to that magical time by your episode.

Life magazine had a 2-page photo spread showing the liftoff, which was probably the least coverage it gave to an Apollo mission. Also on April 4, 1968, "The Party" opened in theatres.

I remember all of them. I was 5 years old and totally immersed in the Apollo program. I even had pajamas that looked like a space suit

50 years ago today, Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charlie Duke were on the Moon.

As closely as I followed everything I didn’t know this at all. I turned 18 while Neil and Buzz were out of the LEM taking that first walk for humans on our Moon. I watched the final launch, Apollo 17 late at night, from outside the South Gate of KSC. I grew up 40 miles from the test center in Mississippi. I went with friends in high school to watch a couple of tests of the mighty Saturn V booster. I got an idea and pulled it off. We arrived laden with a lot of camera gear from 35 mm cameras to a 16 mm Bolex movie camera. I boldly went up to a NASA porters office and told him we were from a magazine (I made up a name on the spot) and got us all press passes. We loaded up on a school bus type bus and were driven to a gravel lot only one mile from the test stand. When it lit an angry looking orange flame multiple stories high and (I estimated) 700’ long shout out to the left. The sound was like nothing you will ever know, because even at a launch the VIPs are about 4 miles away I believe. It was so intense the bus rocked back and forth violently. I cupped my hands around the ear of a friend and shouted instructions. He could not hear a word I shouted from one inch away. My pants legs flapped from the sound pressure. There was no wind. Totally calm day. Atmospheric conditions had to be just right to have a test firing. It has to be a cloud free day. Tricks with listening equipment l had to go to surrounding towns while an extremely large horn was blown to test for clear air reflective layers. They didn’t know they needed to do this until after the first test. What happened? It broke windows out of houses in a town 25 miles away, well outside the giant forested easement zone. They learned. I heard a test firing from home one day. Pictures hanging on the wall started vibrating from low frequency shaking. I couldn’t imagine what the noise was at first, so I ran outside to see what direction it was coming from. It was from the west, exactly in the direction of the (now named) Stennis Space Center. There was a small cumulus cloud it was bouncing off of. The sky wasn’t 💯% free of clouds that day. The first ever test firing was at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville Alabama. They quickly saw the need for a remotely located facility tripartite to populations, as that was a cloudy day that repeatedly bounced the sound between land and sky. It was heard in downtown Atalanta. Southwest Mississippi was the obvious place for it as the booster was built at Michaud in New Orleans East. From there it was transport by barge, too big for land, along the Intercostal Waterway to the Pearl River and up a canal to the test stand. Then back out on a barge following the Gulf Coast all the way around Florida and up the Banana River to be offloaded to go to the giant VAB for the rocket stages to be stacked. It was a great rocket. I wish e were still built them or better yet, the proposed C8, a Saturn with 8 instead of 5 F1 engines on the first stage, 12 million pounds of thrust. That would have shook things up! I tried to see a shuttle launch but unfortunately I had bad timing in my attempts when there were lots of postponements. I intend to to an manned Artemis launch one day with a VIP pass. I haven’t figured out how, but I wrangled one in the Shuttle era so I’ll find s way to arrange something again, while I’m still here on Earth! I have, of course, just over seven decades behind me now, so there’s only a few more decades left I think, to get it done!

I love the comments on this channel, there’s always historical tidbits.

I was in elementary school at the time. The teachers rolled in TV'S so we could watch all of the lunches. It was a big deal for kids who lived in the country and didn't have TV'S. We got the first set in 1971 and could watch the one station that would come in.

Great video! I watched a lot of Apollo related videos in the last five years but I still learned a few new details.

I was in high school, back in the Apollo days. The manned flights were certainly covered on TV, but you didn't hear much about the unmanned flights. I also read a lot about the Apollo and earlier programs in later years.

I'd love to see a THG series that spends one episode per mission starting with Mercury.

I vividly remember the Apollo 1 disaster. It was the first time I was allowed to stay up later than usual the boom. I cried for several hours and never got to sleep that night.

Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Apollo Space Program. Its year to year mission, to explore strange, new worlds. To boldly go where no man has gone before.

thank you! i always enjoy your videos regarding space travel

I’ve done quality control, including designing and authoring build and test procedures. Getting failures based on the documentation is always welcomed as it assures the quality control is doing its’ job.

strongly suggest reading Breaking the Chains of gravity by Amy Shira Teital for the space era from the beginning through the founding of NASA and the Apollo program

Excellent retelling, and thank you for citing your sources (unlike many KZfaq productions).

Thank you Lance your Video about Apollo 6 will not be forgotten .

As an engineer who watched the Apollo launches as a child, it always amazes and inspires me how the rigorous mission testing ultimately led to the later successes of the Saturn V launch platform. Compare that with the failed Soviet N2 program, which was an all-or-nothing test that failed spectacularly.

I had the great honor to meet Jim Lovell many years ago before the movie Apollo 13 came out, he was also on Apollo 8 that took the famous earth rise photo

I remember riding in a 1965 Muscle Car in Yosemite National Park one Summer with an 8 Track Tape Deck with a Quad Speaker System installed. Every time we exited the vehicle Stan would take the Tape out and put it in the Trunk to foil Potential Thieves. Then, when we returned to his vehicle he would take the tape out of the trunk and immediately put it back in the 8 Track Tape Player. The Hall Effect was absolutely fabulous. The sound was like sitting in the middle of a Concert Hall at the point where all the vocals and instruments could be heard with great clarity. I decided that I would get one of these one day but ended up with 1/4 inch tape instead. The 8 Track Tape format may have been displaced by newer technology, but the Hall Effect Sound Quality of those 8 Track Tape Decks was amazing and has never been equaled.

Great video and as usual, very educational. I'm going to check out those globes. The way you were holding it, I was almost expecting you let them go and they'd float in mid air.

Tx u again for a fantastic video.👍🏻👍🏻

I really enjoy your channel and am always looking forward to your next episode!

I can't wait for the story of Apollo 7. Great job on this video. You have details that I have not found in many of my Apollo books.

Another Awesome video, I love this channel!!

That was a good one! They're all good ones but Apollo is a favourite.. ❤️😎👍

I used to work for someone (who has since passed) who worked for one of the contractors on the Apollo program. He was a software engineer who wrote some of the onboard software for the modules. He told one story, never exactly identifying which mission it was, that failed due to being launched in a rush to beat the Soviets to some milestone. The government pushed for it to be launched knowing some of the necessary software was incomplete or missing.

Congratulations on 1 Million Subscribers. 🎊

Thank you , one of the finest programs.

I remember watching Apollo 17 as a boy. I was excited to talk to my friends about it and they couldn’t care less. To think watching a spaceship go to the moon had become boring.

A little more info on why the second and third stage engines failed, from someone who's been a fan of this stuff for years: The J2 engines on those stages were kept alight by somehing called an Augmented Spark Igniter (ASI); it's basically a tiny spark plug that constantly burns some fuel tapped off from the main flow to produce a flame that ignites the fuel coming into the main thrust chamber. Fuel is fed to the ASI through a set of bellowed pipes; during sea-level testing, a layer of liquid air condenses around them due to how cold the liquid hydrogen and oxygen in them is. The liquid air serves to dampen oscillations; however, in the vacuum of space, there is no air to condense, and the pogo effect that happened to the entire rocket happened on a much smaller scale to these bellows. Eventually, the one on Engine 2 ruptured, causing it to lose performance and eventually shut down. That would have been the end of it, but the wiring of Engines 2 and 3 is actually accidentally reversed; thus, when the computer tried to shut the problematic engine down, it shut down the adjacent, perfectly good engine. As for the third stage, its ASI was also damaged by these vibrations. However, the engine managed to last through the first burn to orbit. Then suffice it to say that this failure was enough to prevent the engine from restarting. It was hypothesized that this didn't happen on Apollo 4, since the pipes weren't weakened beforehand by the kind of oscillations 6 experienced. The fix applied here was to change the bellowed ASI pipes to straight ones, which behave the same regardless of air condensation. As for the "alternate mission", this involved using the Apollo spacecraft's Service Module (SM) engine to boost itself into an elliptical orbit, though it was still lower than what was planned. (Ironically the SM was underfuelled for this mission, when the Saturn 5 was perfectly capable of sending it to the Moon fully fuelled.) The resulting burn was the longest ever logged for an SM, lasting almost 500 seconds. With that, here's some additional infor on all that I summarised: www.drewexmachina.com/2018/04/04/apollo-6-the-saturn-v-that-almost-failed/ heroicrelics.org/info/j-2/augmented-spark-igniter.html www.enginehistory.org/Rockets/RPE08.22/RPE08.22.shtml

More of this please.. Reminds me of my childhood days... Those globes are the coolest 😎 !

Great videos! 👍 Always learn something new! 😃

13:30 Considering the sort of pilot Wally Schirra was, I doubt they would have launched if Wally wasn't happy. As it was, I think NASA regretted launching him once the mission got going. The sad part was, Wally wasn't wrong.

The comment at 13.44 is slightly inaccurate as the next time NASA "used a rocket" was for Apollo 7. Apollo 7 was the next and first manned mission using the redesigned Apollo capsule atop of a Saturn 1B launch vehicle and it didn't leave Earth orbit, it was manned by Walter M. Schirra, Donn F. Eisele, R. Walter Cunningham. It wasn't until Apollo 8 that another Saturn 5 launch vehicle was used to take a crewed mission into TLI and headed for the moon, that mission was crewed by Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders. The Apollo missions were labelled eg : Apollo Saturn, Apollo Saturn 1B or Apollo Saturn V (5). The proceeding 4 missions at the end of the manned moon space flight missions were for Skylab. Skylab (1) (unmanned) was the last of the Saturn V (5) launch vehicles to be used and the 3 crewed missions to Skylab were all flown with a Saturn 1B launch vehicle using the same launch tower as a Saturn V (5) only it sat on what was called a milk stool. The final mission of any Saturn launch vehicle was the Apollo- Soyuz mission in 1975 and was the last Saturn 1B used.

I’m definitely ordering one of those mova globes! Great episode!

A great video, thanks. I remember the days well.

As a kid who never missed a manned launch starting with Gemini 3, I totally missed Apollo 4 and 6. I never knew until much more recent times that either was televised. I suspect that neither was or would have been front page news given that they were unmanned flights. At the time, they were just not important without a crew. It was nothing like now where almost anything going to space can be seen live on demand.

As the kids like me say, "Task Failed Successfully"

I worked in south Florida back in the day. On my way home for lunch I looked looked north and saw the broken smoke trail from the Challenger. The company I worked for made underwater remote operated vehicles. We got one ready and sent it north to help in the search.

Nice job, and thank you for reminding us of the various steps of the American Moon program.

Great stuff as usual, love all of your videos. I learn something every time even though I don't want to know some of it! LOL

Good way to start the day

You are amazing my dude! Keep it up!

Lovely intro, lovely content, lovely video, lovely channel!

This week is the anniversary of Apollo 16 I think.

I never heard of Apollo 6, but I remember the Apollo missions from 7 onward. While I knew about the tragedy of Apollo 1, I always wondered why the first actual Apollo flight (that I knew of) was given the number 7.

I am English an as a young lad I like others was spell bound with that famous day that the Apollo missions eventually went to the moon! I have never forgotten it and I was 9 or ten at the time! I have become a member of you channel! I cannot wait for part two ;)

Fun fact - for the 168 seconds the 5 F-1 engines of S1-C fired (Saturn V's first stage) - lifting the massive machine to an altitude of 42 miles - more energy was produced by the Saturn V than all of Western Europe combined produced in those 2.5 minutes.

A co-worker and I were talking about this mission about 15 or 20 years ago and both laughed about how things went so wrong that it went into orbit backwards and NASA saying OK lets put men in the next one and send them to the moon.

I really want one of those globes. They are out of my price range but I don’t doubt they are quality

Always packed with factual information, love it 👍

Looking forward to that Apollo 7 video, hope you make it!

Your opening animation reminds me of Schoolhouse Rock, how appropriate. I remember watching that while watching astronauts being launched and gallivanting on the moon!🧑‍🚀🌜

We learn from mishaps, not from things that went as expected. (Okay - I'm a retired troubleshooter... but it is still true.)

Fun to hear you talking about things I remember.

Thank's for covering this mission. What's most astounding is that had it been a manned test, the astronauts would have made it to Earth orbit despite what happened. It would have been fascinating to listen to, even if the all the communications tapes would have been censored, there's no way a 'seven second gap' would have been able to filter out all the bad language... Definitely a wild ride, not for the faint of heart...

When the LM landed it was reported the Eagle has landed. It had a triple meaning -1) lunder module named Eagle 2) American national bird 3)Niel Armstrong Eagle Scout

I'd like to request you look at the History of floods in Lismore NSW Australia. We have just had a monster flood higher by multiple meters than any in recorded history. I'd love to see an explanation about the mostly forgotten history of major floods here that exceeded 12m.

Great work Sir thank you

Great video! Apollo 8 is my personal favorite.

4:53 That massive writing on the oxygen tank makes the whole thing look like a model shot from Thunderbirds.

It’s crazy hearing about all of the research, building, test trials, stress tests and everything that goes into the designing, the engineering, the building, the test trials (especially the ones that end in disaster), and the overall general maintenance of a rocket with falling apart pieces and to know we’ve had the tech for a long time and been using this for comet for almost 60 years while in the land of communist China they are barely getting to that level of rocket tech

Good story. I recently listened to "A Man on the Moon" written by Andrew Chaikin. He covers every Apollo mission in detail. Each mission is an engaging story in it's own right. If you have any interest in space exploration, pick up this book. I highly recommend the audio version.

Dear Mr History Guy , Thank You. Wonderful addition to my life . I love history too. Gotta have it ! Have you ever heard of A chap, James Burke ? Maybe . I grew up on him in the 1980"S with his historical series Connections & The Day The Universe Change. Too little space to detail here but is sug... ok Burke however does a specific narration alongside the Saturn 5 on it 's side walking explaining mechanisms, as one rocket takes off in the background ,with liftoff at perfect timing ,ending his explanation in grand fashion. Well , your tidbits of 15 min. of history, I think pick up where his left off!!! You Rock History Guy....... and sometimes , gal! CHEERS \m/

Would love to hear more about the Ranger missions and lunar impact equipment on an episode

The apollo missions are fascinating. Bit before my time.

Moonport is a great read. Nicely done.

that new intro is lit. THG looking handsome. nice video

While growing up if the launches were during the school day we would watch it during a school assembly.

Where Apollo 6 proved that humans rated flight could proceed what occurred on Apollo 7 first manned mission would be more fractious. The under current between those at Mission Control-Astronauts was nothing new and still is comes down to who's in charge since every minute has a task planned. Indeed the friction became so heated that it would change how those that flew afterwards were treated but a message was sent by punishing Apollo 7 crew that lasted decades. Giving medals went with space flight and unlike others who received ones for accomplishment finishing a mission Apollo 7 were denied theirs well into the new millennium. Indeed only one of the three crew member was still alive when finally rewarded showed how its culture was often at odds with what the public saw.

The timing of the moon movaglobe stopping and reversing was impeccable.

I love all the Apollo missions. I went to FIT in 1970 hoping to work for NASA, but little did we know the flow of money was going to be cut off regarding the Apollo missions. We heard of a thing called the "Space Shuttle" back in 1971-72 but I had no idea what it was. I was fortunate enough to see Apollo 13 standing at the gantry from the VAB with my dad while we were checking out my soon to be new college. In 1972 my buddies and I flew a C-172 around the very small restricted area at 2,000 ft. at night either during Apollo 16 or 17, I can't recall which mission now. It was a clear night and all the flood lights where shining on the Saturn V which was about to blast off in a few days. Those were the days, 19 year old kids having their way in Florida with airplanes and motorcycles and a fraternity houses at A1-A Melbourne Beach. That old Frat house was funky, and I'm sure it's no longer their probably replaced by a million dollar home. I remember the large turtles leaving their eggs on the beach and nobody bothered them, despite the lack of strict laws. Those were the days, my Apollo years.

Thanks for this, Lance! Anything about Apollo, and especially about the mighty Saturn V, l justu7) can’t get enough of it. That monster stands alone. Here almost 60 years later, it still dominates everything we have that takes payloads into space. Think what it takes to earn the designation “ The most powerful man made object, machine, device, in all of human history. Imagine a ‘69 model ANYTHING rolling up next to a 2022 model similar thing where the observers are all keenly aware that the antique can smoke the wannabe in every way.

I knew that it was going to be Spacey unlike Kevin. 🤔

I'm only 13 seconds in, but those MOVA globes are amazing. I love mine!

My Father worked in the aerospace industry, so everything NASA related was a family affair. My first memory of a mission was everyone glued to the TV watching Apollo 13 re-entry and splashdown.