Small Steps - Giant Strides (1973)

at Cape Kennedy The Familiar shape on the Launchpad a symbol of the Space Age The Familiar Countdown the signal for a beginning but the real beginnings of this Mission any mission go back in time a time when only the dreamers The Visionaries could guess at what lay ahead by official Reckoning the beginning was in 1958 the first small steps legislation a new agency a table of organization and a determination to make it all work in a way never dreamed of before the program did work it is working in less than two decades an orbiting laboratory circled the Earth its crew conducting scientific research and Performing experiments testing the limits of human endurance for long periods in space duplicating scenes science fiction writers described years [Music] earlier in less than two decades the space program has reached a level of precision of aess routine performance but such routines rarely generate the excit ment the glamour of previous years previous years when a small single satellite could command giant double headlines holding out the promise of dazzling [Music] achievements the early dreamers and Visionaries started the momentum two brothers from Dayton soaring above a lonely beach in powered flight a professor from Massachusetts firing off a rocket they started the excitement and it was a long time subsiding yeah [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] behind the headlines the accomplishments there was something else consider the thoughts of a modern-day Visionary Isaac azimal scientist writer eclectic Watcher of space progress in any consideration of the Space Program it's best not to look upon it as a succession of spectaculars I think or to think of it as a kind of baseball game in which that side wins who hits the most home runs we're doing something in space that's more important than the personalities involved or the individual Feats it's also to be remembered that the astronauts themselves represent the visible peak of a large pyramid most of which as far as the general public was concerned was quite invisible there are many things that had to happen had to be in existence in order for those astronauts to move out into space to safely reach the moon and safely come back and there are faithful human beings tending those instruments making those plans designing the vessels taking care of a 100,000 small details that all the rest of us completely Miss if we concentrate on the astronauts themselves El it would seem that here we have a group of the very finest kind of Americans in a rather old-fashioned tradition uh great family men cleancut adventurers almost as though it were mcguffy's readers come to life uh and yet behind the lines there are people I am sure from every kind of background from the big cities indeed from the big city slums perhaps uh to Farms from mless regions from the plains it is it is the product of a cross-section of America with a large representation naturally of what we might call the educated groups the engineers and the scientists and in addition I rather suppose a great many foreign born people too and the last analysis and so they came the people and the Machines marshaled and scheduled by a unique Partnership of government industry and education it was done because there was focus a goal land a man on the Moon by 1970 the goal was reached with 6 months to spare now the accomplishments of Apollo blend into a composite picture of success and still our attention is riveted to the symbol the launch in December 1972 when Apollo 17 took off the last of the launches that were then planned I watched the launching at night it was just past midnight as a matter of fact and I have never seen anything that was so all inspiring really it was at night and suddenly the Flames shot up and the whole earth lit up in a kind of pseudo semi daylight the sky became a kind of tan it was an orange light not real daylight but the whole world lit up in this weird light and I had to wait a few moments before it took off and actually that was a frightening thing because simply because I was watching it would anything go wrong but it didn't it took off and began to climb higher and higher and higher and the light continued all over we could see in every direction until finally it diminished and diminished and diminished and the night gradually came back and the Stars gradually R returned to the sky and the Sea gradually grew black nothing sudden little by little until finally Apollo 17 was just a bright star in the sky moving moving growing dimmer growing dimmer dimmer dimmer until one couldn't be sure which star it was and all the rest was black [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] back [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] a [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] the [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and you know it's a funny thing no science fiction writer as far as I knew ever dreamed that the first step on the moon would be visible on television back on Earth we always had the notion that they would reach the moon and that man would know about it only when they came back and told them about it so you know there are limits to the our ability to predict and in general where we're not being completely fantastic we are hopelessly conservative with all the success and acclamation there still are doubts and questions you frequently hear people ask but what do we get out of it all what's the good of going to the moon so what if they get some rocks back from the Moon and again this is a case of trying to judge the whole by the little tip of the iceberg there are great many things going on behind that which is most clearly visible there are all kinds of te technological advances in computer technology in in in Communications uh in engineering of all kinds all of which can then be applied in other directions as well there is nothing that will bear the label made through space technology in some of the in some of the less tangible advances the fact that we can learn how to predict weather better is largely due to our weather satellites but people forget that they can watch Olympics in Japan without constantly thinking this is made possible to me for a by a communication satellite in fact what is in a sense most wonderful at the same time most frustrating is that no one can tell what the most important aspect of an increase of knowledge may be for decades perhaps centuries and how many the people trapped in an approaching storm don't have to wait for decades and centuries they receive the benefits of space technology immediately weather satellites provide an example of down-to-earth applications of space technology providing data on Storms temperatures winds the final result the forecast shows up on the Evening News because the data is widely available to people around the world people who use it to prepare long range forecasts of Greater detail greater [Music] accuracy other satellites provide other answers answers only only dimly perceived by scientists a few years ago men who knew only that they had to know the great enemy of the human race is ignorance it's what we don't know that limits our progress and everything that we learn everything that we come to know no matter how esoteric it seems no matter how Ivory tow will fit into the general picture a block in its proper place that in the end will make it possible for mankind to increase and grow become more Cosmic if you wish become more than a species on Earth but become a species in the universe with capacities and abilities we can't imagine now nor do I mean greater and greater consumption of energy or more and more massive cities it's so difficult to predict because the most important advances are exactly in the directions that we now can't conceive but everything we now do every advance in knowledge we now make contributes to that and just because I can't see it and I'm an expert at this and just because I can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there and if we refuse to take those steps because we don't see what the future holds all we're making certain of is that the future won't exist and that we will stagnate forever and this is a dreadful thought and I am very tired when people ask me what's the good of it because the proper answer is you may never know but your grandchildren will crystals from the Moon provide Focus for the Dilemma they yield immediate instant information yet they hold out the tantalizing suggestion of Greater knowledge for the future [Music] in man's pursuit of knowledge he asks how not why and as the velocity of invention increases his questions tumble upon one another the same year the wri brothers flew their plane Albert Einstein asked [Music] why the pursuit the questions lead us to our nearest star the the Sun the basic source of all life all energy on Earth without it there would be no light no warmth no food no life the poet watches the sunrise and writes a sonnet but the scientist looks at those huge outpourings of energy and begins to ask questions and sends spacecraft far into space to do the asking for him in the process he receives data which can help provide a better understanding of the Sun and its relationship to the life processes on Earth by looking up there we begin to understand our life down here if we look for a broader approach to what we have been calling the Space Program then what we must do is to call it a planetary program in other words one of the important functions of exploring space is to understand our own planet and ourselves better I mean that's the name of the game we've got to understand ourselves in the place we live on and aside from just pure knowledge for its own sake uh we want to increase increase the benefits for ourselves not just material benefits and also for our posterity well then if we talk about about a planetary program that is tackling the entire complex of complex of problems which involves Earth as a whole and not just one small section of it the greater problem is how to conduct and improve Human Society how to improve and increase the balance uh the ecosystem balance of which human society is a part in other words we want want to take a large look on Earth and deal precisely with those problems that concern everyone and are not specialized and of which all other problems are special subdivisions so to speak well if we do that it will turn out that some of them can't be tackled properly except from the Viewpoint of space or with knowledge that can only be gained through space exploration but then space exploration the search extends to the oceans how does Man live live in an isolated hostile environment for long periods of time the answer from space technology will help man to live Beneath the Sea to study its vast reserves of food of energy energy the oceans and the Sun May provide new sources of vital energy work is underway in both areas of research and in others work which may lead to new techniques new methods for powering the machines and equipment and urban Society demands and needs to keep it functioning and for the demands of future Generations the machines and the demands made upon them present other problems pollution congestion energy consumption as the problems developed new ways are being found to deal with them research in Communications and Aeronautics is leading to more effective navigation Air Traffic Control noise abatement and pollution reduction the space aent agency's predecessor was concerned only with Aeronautics and that work continues today assuming more importance than ever and not only on the big commercial Jets but also on general aviation the system embracing the small private plane growing in numbers demanding Solutions research extends to the edges where Earth and space meet but now the distinctions are blurred we begin to see it as an entity space shuttle contributes to the blurring Rising like a rocket flying like a spacecraft Landing like an airplane and Skylab viewing Earth and space as one unified complex system for study the most dramatic way of of examining Earth as a whole is from space because that is direct one needs those pictures from space that dramatizes what otherwise we could only deduce and makes apparent to to all even those who don't think about it that after all there is that cloud shrouded body and that's all we've got so far and we must save it the search extends Beyond ourselves to other planets in our solar system to Mars the Mariner spacecraft traveling for 6 months in the void of space using the Sun for energy the star kopus for guidance the information it sent back gave us new insights into this planet which has fascinated man for centuries it also gave us our first close look pictures of startling Clarity pictures derived from the same technology with which we now look at ourselves and as valuable as they are they don't provide all the answers soon another spacecraft Viking will land on Mars and begin a new search perhaps ending the speculation of years and perhaps beginning new speculation Mars is a living world we now know thanks to our probes it's geologically active it has volcanoes it has Ravines it may conceivably have life I don't mean Martian princesses on eight-legged horses what I mean is very simple forms of life in the soil uh the equivalent of our bacteria or viruses even this would be of infinite importance to a biologists even the simplest form of life would represent for the first time a kind of Life different from that on Earth all the life on Earth however various it seems whether it's a human being or a cfish or a giant sequoia or a virus we're all variations on a theme one theme if there is any life on Mars however simple it will be a second theme and observing what's taking place on Mars be able to deduce much more accurately what took place on Earth with a perhaps a greater understanding of the details of life on Earth and another Pioneer reaching out to other planets once thought to be inaccessible now Within Reach it flies to Jupiter takes pictures then Soares off through and Beyond the solar system beyond our comprehension of space and time [Applause] [Music] [Applause] a pond Pioneer 10 is a plaque which carries uh drawings of man and woman of the spaceship itself and various other symbols which an extremely intelligent finder can interpret uh to give him some knowledge of what we are like where we are what we have done and so on it seems to me that when it is found the chances are great will no longer exist and it would be nice sort of soothing I think to think that somewhere in space someday people will know people beings will know that we have existed and that in our short lifetime we've managed to accomplish some things we've managed to send an object beyond our solar system so that from that they can judge what we were I rather think that it's a proud thing to [Music] do [Music] the homecoming parade along with the countdown and the launch visible symbols of a program an inquiry a quest after knowledge and understanding we give ourselves a HomeTown party and the symbols are embedded in our Consciousness but the results of the journey can only be hinted at and they'll only be known by those who hear Only The Echoes of the celebration [Music] oh la [Music] [Applause] [Music] la [Music] the