Last night, part two of "American Experience: Chasing The Moon" was shown on PBS.
It picked up where part one left off. It began with the Gemini program what trained astronauts in spacewalks, rendezvous & docking and other necessary things needed for the upcoming Apollo program.
Part two, in my view, was better than part one in that it showed more rocket footage (Gemini-Titan II and Apollo-Saturn V).
The tragedy of the flash fire in Apollo 1 in January 1967 was thoroughly covered (including the chilling last radio transmissions of the Apollo 1 crew during the fire) and its effects on fellow astronauts and their families as well as the whole NASA space program. To this day, I remember that night. It was a Friday night and my parents went to the bank and I stayed home and watched the news coverage until they came home to pick me up to go to dinner.
The silver lining of the Apollo 1 fire is that it exposed the sloppy workmanship of the space vehicles and by the time the Apollo program resumed with all the corrections and modifications, it was a far better spacecraft.
It is interesting that nobody knew what to expect when the first test launch (unmanned) of the Saturn V was made in 1967, especially the shock wave, and the fact that the Apollo 8 mission to the moon was only the second-ever launch of the Saturn V.
The country was in deep turmoil in 1968 and the Apollo 8 mission at least ended the year on a bright note.
Part three will be shown tonight.
